AT A GLANCE: The ruins of Myth Drannor
are among the most celebrated of
the Realms. Once a great city, it is now a
sprawling ruin overgrown with trees
and greenery, located in the heart of
the Elven Woods.

ELMINSTER'S NOTES:

Of old, men were
few in these lands; the vast forests
of what is now the Dalelands were
home to elves. These elves kept large
communities at Lake Sember, the
Tangletrees, and the Elven Court. When
men came first to what is now Sembia,
seeking the mineral riches of the north
shores of the Moonsea, the elves met
and traded freely in the splendid city of
Myth Drannor, and lived together in
harmony, amidst created beauty. Myth
Drannor was ancient then, and, sages
say, outshone the most splendid of the
cities of today, even vast and imperial
Waterdeep.

Now a lost, fabled ruin, Myth Drannor
was the city of bards, storytellers,
artificers and inventors, arcane knowledge,
magic users, researchers, and
historians. Its jewelers were matchless,
and its musical instruments (of elven
make) unsurpassed. It earned the name
of "City of Love" among the elves, and
"The Towers of Beauty" among bards. It
was destroyed when the Army of Darkness
captained by the dreaded nycadaemons
was raised in the northern
mountains and swept down upon it,
over a millennium ago.

Fflar, captain of Myth Drannor, slew a
nycadaemon with his bare hands, or so
the legends say Others tell of a magical
blade, Demonbane, wielded by him that
day. Yet despite such heroics, in the end
the city was lost, cast down, sacked and
burned. Much of the noble genius and
influence found graveless deaths that
day, and men were driven almost to
extinction on the Sembian coast.

For hundreds of winters men have
remembered Myth Drannor as a legendary
treasure house of lost gems and
magic, guarded by the elves, who let
none near and hold the place sacred.
And then, early this year, the last of the
elves of the Elven Court passed over the
sea to Evermeet, leaving the woods
open to men for the first time. Since
then, several bands of adventures are
known to have entered the city. Not all
have come out.

Many of the powers surrounding
Cormanthor (Hillsfar, Zhentil Keep,
Sembia, and the Dales), as well as
adventuring companies, have sent
exploring/plundering parties into the
ruins, which the elves held sacred and
kept undisturbed since its fall. Few
have found anything of value, and news
has begun to spread of devils in the
ruins. The Knights of Myth Drannor
(see SHADOWDALE) have reported
finding a newly-constructed altar to
some dark power in the center of the
ruins.

The altar is reported as being undam-
aged and undisturbed, and was apparently
brought into being by renegade
priests of Bane. If this is so, it represents
a growing threat to the entire Inner Sea
area.

GAME INFORMATION: Myth Drannor
represents a great and dangerous
opportunity for the adventuring party
in the Moonsea area; a large ruin that is
only now being plundered. Such travelers
are warned that in addition to
creatures such as lesser devils found in
the ruins, the area will also hold forces
and expeditions from various nations
and adventuring groups, who have set
up their own areas within the ruins,
and may take unkindly to such intrusions.
For a brief time, the Knights of
Myth Drannor held the others in check,
but that group has disappeared and
there is no knowledge of their fate.