Among the twists and turns of the tunnel mazes of the Underdark, slipping about their silent way, went the svirfnebli, the deep gnomes. Neither kind nor evil, and so out of place in this world of pervading wickedness, the deep gnomes survived and thrived. Haughty fighters, skilled in crafting weapons and armor, and more in tune to the songs of the stone than even the evil gray dwarves, the svirfnebli continued their business of plucking gems and precious metals in spite of the perils awaiting them at every turn.
When the news came back to Blingdenstone, the cluster of tunnels and caverns that composed the deep gnomes' city, that a rich vein of gemstones had been discovered twenty miles to the east-as the rockworm, the thoqqua, burrowed-Burrow-warden Belwar Dissengulp had to climb over a dozen others of his rank to be awarded the privilege of leading the mining expedition. Belwar and all of the others knew well that forty miles east-as the rock-worm burrowed-would put the expedition dangerously close to Menzoberranzan, and that even getting there would mean a week of hiking, probably through the territo-ries of a hundred other enemies. Fear was no measure against the love svirfnebli had for gems, though, and every day in the Underdark was a risk.
When Belwar and his forty miners arrived in the small ca-vern described by the advance scouts and inscribed with the gnomes' mark of treasure, they found that the claims had not been exaggerated. The burrow-warden took care not to get overly excited, though. He knew that twenty thousand drow elves, the svirfnebli's most hated and feared enemy, lived fewer than five miles away.
Escape tunnels became the first order of business, wind-ing constructions high enough for a three-foot gnome but not for a taller pursuer. All along the course of these the gnomes placed breaker walls, designed to deflect a light-ning bolt or offer some protection from the expanding flames of a fireball.
Then, when the true mining at last began, Belwar kept fully a third of his crew on guard at all times and walked the area of the work with one hand always clutching the magi-cal emerald, the summoning stone, he kept on a chain around his neck.
"Three full patrol groups" Drizzt remarked to Dinin when they arrived at the open "field" on the eastern side of Menzoberranzan. Few stalagmites lined this region of the city, but it did not seem so open now, with dozens of anxious drow milling about.
"Gnomes are not to be taken lightly" Dinin replied. "They are wicked and powerful-"
" As wicked as surface elves?" Drizzt had to interrupt, cov-ering his sarcasm with false exuberance.
" Almost" his brother warned grimly, missing the connotations of Drizzt's question. Dinin pointed off to the side, where a contingent of female drow was coming in to join the group. "Clerics" he said, "and one of them a high priestess. The rumors of activity must have been confirmed"
A shudder coursed through Drizzt, a tingle of prebattle excitement. That excitement was altered and lessened, though, by fear, not of physical harm, or even of the gnomes. Drizzt feared that this encounter might be a repeat of the surface tragedy.
He shook the black thoughts away and reminded himself that this time, unlike the surface expedition, his home was being invaded. The gnomes had crossed the boundaries of the draw realm. If they were as evil as Dinin and all the oth-ers claimed, Menzoberranzan had no choice but to respond with force. If.
Drizzt's patrol, the most celebrated group among the males, was selected to lead, and Drizzt, as always, took the point position. Still unsure, he wasn't thrilled with the as-signment, and as they started out, Drizzt even contem-plated leading the group astray. Or perhaps, Drizzt thought, he could contact the gnomes privately before the others ar. rived and warn them to flee.
Drizzt realized the absurdity of the notion. He couldn't stop the wheels of Menzoberranzan from turning along their designated course, and he couldn't do anything to hin-der the two score drow warriors, excited and impatient, at his back. Again he was trapped and on the edge of despair. Masoj Hun'ett appeared then and made everything better.
"Guenhwyvar!" the young wizard called, and the great panther came bounding. Masoj left the cat beside Drizzt and headed back toward his place in the line.
Guenhwyvar could no more hide its elation at seeing Drizzt than Drizzt could contain his own smile. With the in-terruption of the surface raid, and then his time back home, he hadn't seen Guenhwyvar in mere than a month.
Guenhwyvar thumped against Drizzt's side as it passed, nearly knocking the slender drow from his feet. Drizzt re-sponded with a heavy pat, vigorously rubbing a hand over the cat's ear.
They both turned back together, suddenly conscious of the unhappy glare boring into them. There stood Masoj, arms crossed over his chest and a visible scowl heating up his face.
"I shan't use the cat to kill Drizzt" the young wizard mut-tered to himself. "I want the pleasure for myself Drizzt wondered if jealousy prompted that scowl. Jeal-ousy of Drizzt and the cat, or of everything in general? Ma-soj had been left behind when Drizzt had gone to the surface. Masoj had been no more than a spectator when the victorious raiding party returned in glory. Drizzt backed away from Guenhwyvar, sensitive to the wizard's pain.
As soon as Masoj had moved away to take his position far-ther down the line, Drizzt dropped to one knee and threw a headlock on Guenhwyvar.
Drizzt found himself even gladder for Guenhwyvar's companionship when they passed beyond the familiar tun-nels of the normal patrol routes. It was a saying in Menzo-berranzan that "no one is as alone as the point of a draw patrol" and Drizzt had come to understand this keenly in the last few months. He stopped at the far end of a wide way and held perfectly still, focusing his ears and eyes to the trails behind him. He knew that more than forty drow were approaching his position, fully arrayed for battle and agi-tated. Still, not a sound could Drizzt detect, and not a mo. tion was discernable in the eerie shadows of cool stone. Drizzt looked down at Guenhwyvar, waiting patiently by his side, and started off again.
He could sense the hot presence of the war party at his back. That intangible sensation was the only thing that dis-proved Drizzt's feelings that he and Guenhwyvar were quite alone.
Near the end of that day, Drizzt heard the first signs of trouble. As he neared an intersection in the tunnel, cau-tiously pressed close to one wall, he felt a subtle vibration in the stone. It came again a second later, and then again, and Drizzt recognized it as the rhythmic tapping of a pick or hammer.
He took a magically heated sheet, a small square that fit into the palm of his hand, out of his pack. One side of the item was shielded in heavy leather, but the other shone brightly to eyes seeing in the infrared spectrum. Drizzt flaslted it down the tunnel behind him, and a few seconds later, Dinin came up to his side.
"Hammer" Drizzt signaled in the silent code, pointing to the wall. Dinin pressed against the stone and nodded in con-firmation.
"Fifty yards?" Dinin's hand motions asked. "Less than one hundred" Drizzt confirmed. With his own prepared sheet, Dinin flashed the get-ready signal into the gloom behind him, then moved with Drizzt and Guenhwyvar around the intersection toward the tap-ping.
Only a moment later, Drizzt looked upon svirfnebli gnomes for the very first time. guards stood barely twenty feet away, chest-high to a drow and hairless, with skin strangely akin to the stone in both texture and heat ra-diations. The gnomes' eyes glowed brightly in the telltale red of infravision. One glance at those eyes reminded Drizzt and Dinin that deep gnomes were as much at home in the darkness as were the drow, and they both prudently ducked behind a rocky outcropping in the tunnel.
Dinin promptly signaled to the next drow in line, and so on, until the entire party was alerted. Then he crouched low and peeked out around the bottom of the outcropping. The tunnel continued another thirty feet beyond the gnome guards and around a slight bend, ending in some larger chamber. Dinin couldn't clearly see this area, but the glow of it, from the heat of the work and a cluster of bodies, spilled out into the corridor.
Again Dinin signaled back to his hidden comrades, and then he turned to Drizzt. "Stay here with the cat" he in-structed, and he darted back down around the intersection to formulate plans with the other leaders.
Masoj a few places back in the line, noted Dinin's move-ment and wondered if the opportunity to deal with Drizzt had suddenly come upon him. If the patrol was discovered with Drizzt all alone up in front, was there some way Masoj could secretly blast the young Do'Urden? The opportunity, if ever it was truly there, passed quickly, though, as other drow soldiers came up beside the plotting wizard. Dinin soon returned from the back of the line and headed back to join his brother.
"The chamber has many exits" Dinin signaled to Drizzt when they were together. "The other patrols are moving into Dosition around the !!nome!;"
"Might we parley with the gnomes?" Drizzt's hands asked in reply, almost subconsciously. He recognized the expres-sion spreading across Dinin's face, but knew that he had al-ready plung~d in. "Send them away without conflict?" Dinin grabbed Drizzt by the front of his piwafwi and pulled him close, too close, to that terrible scowl. "I will for-get that you asked that question" he whispered, and he dropped Drizzt back to the stone, considering the issue closed.
"You start the fight" Dinin signaled. "When you see the sign from behind, darken the corridor and rush past the guards. Get to the gnome leader; he is the key to their strength with the stone"
Drizzt didn't fully understand what gnomish power his brother hinted at, but the instructions seemed simple enough, if somewhat suicidal.
"Take the cat if the cat will go" Dinin continued. "The en-tire patrol will be by your side in moments. The remaining groups will corne in from the other passages" Guenhwyvar nuzzled up to Drizzt, more than ready to follow him into battle. Drizzt took comfort in that when Dinin departed, leaving him alone again at the front. Only a few seconds later carne the command to attack. Drizzt shook his head in disbelief when he saw the signal; how fast drow warriors found their positions!
He peeked around at the gnomish guards, still holding their silent vigil, completely unaware. Drizzt drew his blades and patted Guenhwyvar for luck, then called upon the innate magic of his race and dropped a globe of dark-ness in the corridor.
Squeals of alarm sounded throughout the tunnels, and Drizzt charged in, diving right into the darkness between the unseen guards and rolling back to his feet on the other side of his spell, only two running strides from the small chamber. He saw a dozen gnomes scrambling about, trying to prepare their defenses. Few of them paid Drizzt any at-tention, though, as the sounds of battle erupted from vari-ous side corridors.
One gnome chopped a heavy pick at Drizzt's shoulder.
Drizzt got a blade up to block the blow but was amazed at the strength in the diminutive gnome's arms. Still, Drizzt could then have killed his attacker with the other scimitar.
Too many doubts, and too many memories, though, haunted his actions. He brought a leg up into the gnome's belly, sending the little creature sprawling.
Belwar Dissengulp, next in line for Drizzt, noted how eas-ily the young drow had dispatched one of his finest fighters and knew that the time had already come to use his most powerful magic. He pulled the emerald summoning stone from his neck and threw it to the ground at Drizzt's feet.
Drizzt jumped back, sensing the emanations of magic. Be-hind him, Drizzt heard the approach of his companions, overpowering the shocked gnome guards and rushing to join him in the chamber. Then Drizzt's attentions went squarely to the heat patterns of the stone floor in front of him. The grayish lines wavered and swam, as if the stone was somehow coming alive.
The other drow fighters roared in past Drizzt, bearing down on the gnome leader and his charges. Drizzt didn't follow, guessing that the event unfolding at his feet was more critical than the general battle now echoing through-out the complex.
Fifteen feet tall and seven wide, an angry, towering hu-manoid monster of living stone rose before Drizzt.
"Elemental" came a scream to the side. Drizzt glanced over to see Masoj, Guenhwyvar at his side, fumbling through a spellbook, apparently in search of some dweomer to battle this unexpected monster. Th Drizzt's dis-may, the frightened wizard mumbled a couple of words and vanished.
Drizzt set his feet under him, and took a measure of the monster, ready to spring aside in an instant. He could sense the thing's power, the raw strength of the earth embodied in living arms and legs.