Once the larges drow settlement in the north-central portion of Faerûn, Maerimydra was long past its glory days even before the current crisis. The castle that was the home to the city's ruling house had been no more than half full for centuries.
After having broken through the combined Kiaransalee drow, goblinoid and giant army, your group meets several Maerimydra refugees and remants from Lolth's loyalists who crawl out of their hiding places to pledge their support to you. They're in pathetic condition, starving and sick, not really any good for combat, however each offers you information of recent key events that happened in Maerimydra, allowing you to piece together a story.
The city fell to a combined army of goblinoids, giants and demons, taking advantage of the unrest and riots arising from Lolth's silence. The mighty temple to the spider queen, that was the city's greatest pride lies in rubble, no stone standing on another. The Shattered Tower, home to the city's renowned arcane college, now matches its name, lying in a heap of rubble. An ironic end since its ruling archmage, the ambitious Duneth Wharreil, betrayed the city to support the invaders, hoping to take down the ruling clergy and create a magocracy. He was in turn betrayed by Irae T'sarran, who killed him. The large cavern that once sported abundant fungus farms and rothé pastures now burns with the campfires of its conquerors.
Kurgoth Hellspawn, the half-fiend fire giant who led the assault on the city, has clearly won his greatest battle. Most of the drow on the city were slain. Between the perfidy's of the city's archmage and the powerlessness of its cleric-leaders, the populace fell like cattle before the marauding army, almost 11 000 dead.
The war is not over however. Irae T'sarran and Kurgoth Hellspawn had an uneasy alliance from the start, and they broke it again recently. The drow priestess controls the central castle of the city, and the fiendish giant controls pretty much the rest of Maerimydra. However the city is littered with bodies and ghosts, granting Irae and her fellow cultists a constantly growing army. Kurgoth tried to storm the castle with his forces some nights ago, but was a bit too late as Irae had fortified it well with a series of unholy wards and repelled the assault. Kurgoth has changed to a siege, looking for a weak point to break through, however small groups of undead and cultists still manage to slip out and prowl the city to gather more dead for their mistress, whetever the already dead, or isolated living beings. Kurgoth's has set patrols to hunt them down, and it's not rare seeing the goblinoids, giant and demons facing against the undead in the ruins of the city. Both sides are on the lookout for any mercenaries for hire to help tip the scales to their favor. Some neutral agents skulk the city, seeking any way to survive-and profit. The combined drow-giant-goblinoids forces you met so far seem to have not been informed their master and mistress were now fighting against each other.
Maerimydra occupies a great cavern about 4 miles below the sufrace. From north to south the cave is almost ¾ mile wide, and it is about ½ mile from east to west. The floor of the cavern is highest in the northwest corner, where several noble drow houses built their palaces on forbidding plateaus overlooking the city. The cavern celing is 600 feet high at its highest point, over the boulevard between the courtyard of Lolth and Castle Maerimydra. Smoke from the burning campfires and the smouldering rubble fills most of the cavern's upper reaches. Anyone who goes 100 feet above the ground will have severly limited visibility. The only reason the air is breathable is the existence of several tiny portals to the plane of air that keep recycling the subterranean atmosphere.
All the city blocks are now a mix of standing buildings, piles of rubble, and burnt-out shells. Smoke and dust hang in the air, and destruction is everywhere. Dozens or hundreds of bodies, both drow and goblinoid, lie unburied in each block. The terrible stench is alleviated only slightly by the fact that many of the corpses were burned in the fires that swept over the city.
An heavily wounded drow spy approaches Koroguma in particular:
Your... disciple... Sent me to deliver you this...He hands a scroll to the ogre mage before falling dead on the ground. The parchment is nonmagic, but still of high value for you, as it is a highly detailed map of the city!
M1-Main city gates
M2-Fungus Farms
M3-Shattered tower
M4-Spider Inn
M5-Noble Plateau
M6-Courtyard of Lolth
M7-Grand Boulevard
M8-Castle Maerimydra
M9-Slave District
M10-East Gate
M11-Lake of Blood
M12-The Coliseum
Two massive iron gates, twisted off their hinges and crumpled on the ground, mark the end of this long tunnel and the entrance to Maerimydra. Four hulking figures lock the path to the city, their features lost in shadows cast by burning fires behind them.
