ToF4-01-03: The Gathering - Daughter of the Dark Maiden: “Be at ease master dwarf. I mean no harm,” Faeryl said calmly, her empty hands out to show that she held no weapon. Although she bore a four and a half foot long bastard sword in a back scabbard, despite standing only a couple of inches taller then him. “Ha! A harmless drow!” the Tarl snarled, his great axe held at the ready, as he scanned the shadows. “Wait my friend!” Aeron interceded, placing his hand on the dwarf’s shoulder to stay him as he stepped forward, and looking closely at the silver amulet hung at her breast. He recognized the symbol it bore; the depiction of a nude drow maiden dancing before a full moon with a silver sword. “You serve Eilistraee?” he announced more then asked. “Yes” she replied warmly. “You know of the Dark Maiden?” “I visited your temple some years ago,” Aeron replied, enjoying her puzzlement and smiling slyly at the memory. He knew that even this close to her temple near the heart of the Moonwood, few had heard of Eilistraee, or the drow priestesses who served her. Faeryl looked at the young human with clear confusion; the Mouth of Song seldom welcomed visitors. In fact, she could not remember a single one in the nine decades she had lived there, and this human was only two decades olds by the look of him. “It’s alright my friend,” Aeron turned back to Tarl. “The priestesses of Eilistraee are enemies of evil and friend to those of good heart.” “What!?! Good hearted drow… what’s the world coming to?” Tarl laughed, lowering his axe, while he openly eyed the dark elf’s shapely figure. She was every bit as beautiful as the moon elf rogue that they had encountered earlier and there was a nearly palatable sensuality about her. “I left the Mouth of Song on my first Run three days ago and the Dark Maiden led me here with the vision of a crescent moon hung over a river,” Faeryl addressed them both, while smiling coyly at Tarl’s sudden change of attitude, “to test my faith… and fulfill my destiny.” “What destiny would that be?” questioned a voice from behind them, causing all three to turn toward the dark figure emerging from the shadows. The third of five principal characters from “the Table of Five”, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in the Silver Marches of the Forgotten Realms. Born in the drow city of Menzoberranzan, Faeryl watched her family be murdered by a rival house as a child, while she hid with her mother. Fleeing the underdark, they found shelter at the Mouth of Song, a temple to Eilistraee near the heart of the Moonwood, where her mother struggled to let go of her old life and embrace the path of the Dark Maiden. Raised with the teachings of Eilistraee, Faeryl took to that path much easier, but has found the world beyond her temple home less accepting of her then she is of it. Following a vision of a crescent silver moon above a river to Silverymoon on her first Run, a ritual journey to spread Eilistraee’s teachings, she fell into the Table of Five as it formed. Raised with the decidedly un-drow teachings of Eilistraee, Faeryl faces the prejudice against her race with tolerance. However, she has taken a rather liberal view of many of her faith’s rituals, including the other members of the Table of Five in both her High Hunts and Runs, and performing solo Circle Dances under the full moon.