constant guard (the necromancers themselves were given to the families of those whose graves had been desecrated, and were tortured to death).
Those Pol’Tah without high standing in society and without the coin to pay for interment in the Lair of Bones, are buried in the deep loam of the fungus fields of Drez
Khelim, so that the body, in death, may contribute to the survival of the people.
Clothing
The clothing worn by the Pol’Tah is simple and unadorned, as the deep drow have no concept of, nor way to appreciate,
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the intricacy of colour and decoration so common to other drow. Rather, the Pol’Tah use clothing simply for protection. The only manner of fabric available to them is na’orsuin, which is repeatedly beaten and treated to soften it. The stifling heat of Drez Khelim makes hide too warm to wear as clothing, relegating it to use solely as armour.
With no way or reason to be concerned with appearance and little choice in the manner of cloth available, the deep drow have not concerned themselves with clothing.
That is beginning to change, however. The first appearance of cloth spun from spider silk met with great excitement from the Pol’Tah, as it was softer and more pleasing to the touch than any na’orsuin the deep drow could weave.
The rare trading caravan that ventures to the bottom of the Underdeep for commerce with the Pol’Tah is now laden exclusively with spider silk clothing and the demand among the deep drow is only growing. The importance they place on the feel and texture of things is at least as great as the importance sighted races place on appearance.
The priestesses of the Dark Mother see this as a golden opportunity to expand worship of their goddess, but have not yet moved on it.
Combat
The Pol’Tah are ferocious in combat, striking quickly and overwhelmingly against any foe foolish enough to venture into the mist-choked tunnels of their home. In this place, it is the outsiders who are truly blind, fumbling through
the choking darkness while the Pol’Tah, able to ‘see’ everything, cut through them like a scythe.
Despite their blindness, the Pol’Tah are skilled weaponsmiths, harvesting raw ore left from the tailings of their purple worms and forging it into an array of weapons. They prefer light, quick weapons in combat, with scimitars, light picks and spiked chains as their special favourites.
Generally speaking, the Pol’Tah are lightly armoured, which better serves their quick, dodging fighting style. In addition, the heat in the tunnels of the deep drow is such that heavy armour would be cripplingly hot. Breastplates are not uncommon as armour, but leather armour formed of the tanned hide of one of the strange beasts the Pol’Tah herd for food is the most prevalent. Less common but by no means rare is worm armour, formed of the hide of a purple worm. Light, incredibly strong and offering a substantial protection against poison, worm armour is the pride of any Pol’Tah who possesses it. The deep drow are loyal to their purple worms and the hide of one is only harvested after its death.
The hide for worm armour is hardly the most impressive contribution these domesticated monsters make to the Pol’Tah on the battlefield. The purple worms domesticated by the Pol’Tah are used in several capacities in combat.
Their simplest use is merely to fight alongside the drow, especially against larger forces. They are also used as mounts, with a hardened and covered ‘saddle’ attached which keeps the rider (mostly) safe from harm as the worm tunnels through rock. The position of wormrider is among the most revered ranks a soldier of the Pol’Tah can obtain.
The rarest use of purple worms by the Pol’Tah is also the most terrifying and disorienting for a foe, but because of the danger to the deep drow involved, it is only done when a lightning-quick strike against a very powerful foe is needed. Millennia of training, breeding and magical experimentation have altered these purple worms somewhat from the base creature, enlarging the throat and stomach in front of the gizzard to allow the worms to swallow more matter, be it garbage or ore that needs refining. Coating themselves in a special alchemical substance called simply burnshield oil that protects the deep drow from the acid
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of the worm’s stomach, they climb inside it, packing themselves in until as many as a dozen drow are cramped into the hot, foul throat of the massive worm. When this tactic is used, it is never done with just a single worm, but rather with five or even 10 worms. The worms are then ridden into battle by wormriders, bursting upon the enemy from all sides and laying into them with all the devastating attacks in a purple worm’s arsenal. Within a few rounds, as the enemy struggles to regroup and meet the new threat, one of the drow hidden in the worm’s gullet spills open a bag of alchemical powder, triggering the beast’s gag reflex, disgorging a spray of acid and spilling a dozen combat-ready deep drow into the midst of the confused – and now likely panicked – enemy.
This tactic, while startlingly effective, is not without its perils. The drow within the worm’s gullet are not subjected to the same punishment creatures swallowed by a normal purple worm must endure, but it is still a painful experience, dealing 1d3 points of crushing damage every round to the Pol’Tah inside the worm. Further, the burnshield oil, effective as it is against acid, has some debilitating side effects that set in an hour after its application. Burnshield oil is described in greater detail in the chapter on Drow Magic.
All Pol’Tah are well trained for war, a tradition which began when they were still under the imminent threat of danger from the shangu and continues today. Male or female, rich or poor, every deep drow has been taught to fight, and most have served some time as soldiers.
Culture
It might be expected that the Pol’Tah, alone in the deepest places of the world, would have regressed into savagery and barbarism. In fact they have done quite the opposite, instead growing more sophisticated during their long exile.
Living in almost complete isolation from other sentient races, save for hostile encounters with abominations like the shangu, has combined with the loss of their sight to make the Pol’Tah culture markedly different from that of other drow.
Without sight, the deep drow focus more on sound and touch in relating to the world around them. To them, personal beauty lies in form of movement, in texture and in sound, as they have no appreciation of, or even concept of, the fleeting details that determine beauty to the sighted races. This obviously extends to the art and architecture of the Pol’Tah as well. Their buildings tend to be intricately carved up to the height an average deep drow can reach, and plain unadorned stone above that. When centuries of
touching wear down the carvings, the entire thing is sanded smooth and redone.
The Pol’Tah are divided into four clans, the Ugtholn, the Vurprell, the Szekhtohn and the Pillafan, each with its own interests and ambitions. The clans, taken together, make up the entire population of the deep drow. Generally, the clans are peaceful towards one another. Each has laid claim to a quarter of the city of Drez Khelim, where they maintain their homes and most of their businesses. Except for very unusual circumstances, the various clans do not intermarry.
Of course, marriage itself is a rather different institution in Pol’Tah culture.
Each clan has its own strengths and interests. For example, the Ugtholn count the largest number of smiths among their clan, the Vurprell boast the most stoneworkers, the Szekhtohn the greatest number of wizards and the Pillafan outnumber the other clans in terms of artisans. These are hardly the only interests of these clans, nor are they exclusionary -- the Ugtholn may have the most smiths, but they certainly do not have all the smiths of the Pol’Tah and each of the other three clans counts smiths among its members. However, it does make a useful guideline for Games Masters to determine which clan a deep drow will most likely belong to.
Males and females are more or less equals in Pol’Tah society, though with the lion’s share of the clergy of Vermthizzl being priestesses, a slight advantage may go to the females of the deep drow.
The Pol’Tah value strength, as do all drow, but they also place a tremendous value on patience, a quality rarely seen among other drow races, and one that might come as a surprise to anyone who has even been on the receiving end of a ferocious attack by the deep drow and their purple worm allies.
Alone among the drow races, the Pol’Tah feel no antagonism towards the surface races, beings they have all but completely forgotten. They had left the drow many years before the Great Betrayal forced the drow back into exile beneath the earth. As far as the deep drow are concerned, the surface elves have done them no harm.
Nor do they hold any particular animosity towards other drow, whom some of the deep drow had begun to think were nothing but a myth until the chance meeting with the Explorers of House Devoren reminded them of the truths in even their oldest tales. The recent reunion with their cousins has revived some of the oldest oral traditions of the Pol’Tah, reminding them why they left the drow so many millennia before, but those reasons no longer hold any
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meaning. They consider themselves a completely different race from the drow above, even a different race from what they themselves once were.
The deep drow are highly individualistic, but with a strong sense of responsibility to the larger community. They are fanatically loyal to the clan and the race. However, they are rarely loyal to individuals, and treachery is common in Pol’Tah society. Those who would supplant their superiors through treachery usually justify it as being for the better good of the clan or the Pol’Tah as a whole, and if the betrayal is successfully executed, this is most often accepted as fact. Schemes of this kind are rarely simple;
indeed, the Pol’Tah are inordinately fond of complex and obtuse plans, sometimes taking years to unfold and as often as not collapsing under the weight of their own intricacy.
The Pol’Tah believe they live at the roots of the world, a living and breathing entity which they have mastered and come to dominate. They believe they have thrived where others could not, survived where others would not, and have been forged into a greater race as a result.
Economy
The economy of the Pol’Tah is almost completely self-contained. Until the recently restored contact with other drow, the deep drow had been completely cut off, for millennia, from any race that was not an enemy. The renewed contact with their cousins closer to the surface, as startling an event as it was for the Pol’Tah, has also served as the deep drow’s first introduction to the whole concept of trade.
This is not to say the economy of the Pol’Tah was primitive before the arrival of the other drow. Originally, the deep drow of Drez Khelim employed a simple barter system among themselves to obtain what they needed. As the population continued to grow and expand, that system became too burdensome and unwieldy to continue.
However, most metals which could be used for coinage were either in abundant supply or were altogether absent from the area of Drez Khelim. Fortunately, the deep drow soon discovered a vein of adamantine, giving the deep drow access to a precious metal that, while abundant, was not so common as to be worthless to them.
The internal economy of the Pol’Tah is split roughly in half between small businesses and shops, and large interests controlled directly by the clans. A man or woman running an independent business is expected to remit a tenth of his or her earnings to the clan itself just as all businesses, independent or clan-owned, are required to donate an additional tenth of all earnings to the cult of Vermthizzl.
The renewed contact with other drow and the first tentative trade routes which have resulted, have been a difficult but profitable change for the deep drow. Other drow envy the Pol’Tah’s access to rich veins of adamantine and have been eager to trade for it. They underestimated their deep cousins, however, thinking to take advantage of this blind throwback of the drow race. Offering gems and gold in trade, the drow instead presented the Pol’Tah with glass and lead, never imagining the blind deep drow would be able to tell the difference at a single touch. Suitably chastened and bloodied by the Pol’Tah’s response to this attempt to cheat them, the drow have since been more forthright in their dealings with their deep cousins.
The deep drow currently export several things to the drow above, mostly adamantine, preserved foods and alchemical ingredients which can only be found in the bottom of the Underdeep.
Education
The Pol’Tah compensate for their blindness in a variety of ways, but tremorsense and blindsight are useless for reading the printed page. Despite this, the Pol’Tah do have access to the written language, some even maintaining small libraries in their homes and laboratories. The deep drow version of the written word, however, would not be recognisable as such to most outside observers. Engraved on thin sheets of hammered metal, Pol’Tah writing takes the form of a complicated code made up of line and gentle curves, and is read by gently running the fingertips over the engraving. Such things are expensive and time-consuming to create, and are almost entirely the sole province of the wealthy, the church of Vermthizzl and the wizards of the deep drow.
Those deep drow without access to the written word are not without learning. The Pol’Tah enjoy an extremely rich oral tradition centering on the history of the race. This tale, if told from beginning to ending, would take several days and children of the deep drow are expected to learn it all.
The recent reunion with their drow cousins, a race many deep drow had written off as myth, has sparked a renewed interest in history among the Pol’Tah.
Aside from learning the oral history of the Pol’Tah, deep drow children who demonstrate particular promise are educated in schools maintained by each clan, where they learn the skills to contribute to the clan’s interests. Sixteen children each year, four from every clan, are chosen by the cult of Vermthizzl to enter the temple. Eight of these become priests, the other eight are kept for sacrifice throughout the year.
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Engineering
The Pol’Tah are capable engineers, if not remarkable. Quite simply, there is less need of engineering and construction skills among the deep drow than there is among the other races of the drow. Indeed, there is less need than among most races of the Underdeep.
One reason for this is the centralised location of the Pol’Tah. Few of their number have ever left the vicinity of Drez Khelim, and few of those have ever returned. Thus, the deep drow have remained concentrated over the many millennia in the series of caverns they first colonised.
Drez Khelim has been built and rebuilt literally dozens of times over the years, and now there is little room left for expansion.
The second reason lies with the purple worms kept by the Pol’Tah. Natural tunnellers and diggers, the purple worms of the deep drow do most of the work for their drow masters. A great deal of the engineering work done by the Pol’Tah involves cleaning out and seeing to the stability of tunnels dug through the rock by their worms.
Entertainment
Music, dance and displays of skill summarise the entertainments popular with the Pol’Tah.
The music of the deep drow has a unique sound that seems alien to those of other races, characterised by a deep, pounding, insistent beat hammered out on enormous drums and complemented by an array of wind and string instruments. The music is terribly complex, sometimes even atonal to outside ears; but then, the Pol’Tah consider what little music they have heard performed by other drow to be simplistic and repetitive.
Dance seems at first like an odd passion for a blind race to have but the tremorsense of the deep drow enables them to enjoy it on two levels simultaneously, both in the movement of the dancers and in the rhythm of the dancers’
feet as they hit the ground. The combination of the thunder of the drums and the pounding of hundreds of feet in these warlike dances are enough to make the cavern walls shake and the air tremble.
It is in displays of skill, however, that the deep drow place their greatest enthusiasm. Athletics and combat are considered much the same thing by the deep drow, and make up the majority of skill demonstrations. Also extremely popular are competitions between smiths, judged on speed and craftsmanship. The Pol’Tah revere the profession of the smith, both because of the much-needed items he produces and for the glowing heat of the forge, whose white-hot
fires are one of the only things in Drez Khelim that will still register on the atrophied sight of the deep drow. The Pol’Tah consider the forge as symbolic and representative of the bright form of the Light in the Deep itself.
Most beloved of all the displays of skill are the exhibitions of the wormriders. Watching the riders direct these gargantuan and colossal beasts as they move with terrible speed and precision in and out of walls of solid rock, dancing around one another in the midst of a great cavern, is a thrill to the senses of the Pol’Tah and a sight that would likely terrify
Most beloved of all the displays of skill are the exhibitions of the wormriders. Watching the riders direct these gargantuan and colossal beasts as they move with terrible speed and precision in and out of walls of solid rock, dancing around one another in the midst of a great cavern, is a thrill to the senses of the Pol’Tah and a sight that would likely terrify