high castle elves

Standing at the gate of Nesad City, after being interrogated, the guards at the gate did not collect the poll tax for entering the city, but looked at them with arrogance and disdain.

In the Underdark, the city-state drow has forty cities, large and small, mainly seven big cities. Among the seven big cities, Menzoberranzan is the largest and most prosperous, and Skendalion is the smallest and has strong folk customs. The city of Shamas is dominated by a group of male mages, with Karsos Lothili being the deepest.

Nesad City is the closest to the surface.

The proximity mentioned here does not refer to the geographical location, but to the operation of the city of Nesad.

This can be seen from the gray dwarves and human caravans coming in and out of the city gate. Even though this drow city is underground in the deep forest valley, Nessad City is obviously the first place for caravans to enter the Underdark for trade and rest. Station, it is said that it is more lively than any human city.

Although Alamir has never been to a human city, the words of the dragon priests and Suss and others in the team are obviously good.

Because, Nesad City is still a city without city gate tax and poll tax!

Even smart humans can't do this, and Nesad's drow also cleaned up the monsters around the city's roads.

The actual situation is that after the seemingly high city gate tax is cancelled, even if the prices in the city are slightly higher and the transaction tax is slightly higher, you can still enjoy a safe environment and do not have to endure the exploitation of drow patrols. For merchants, For us, it couldn't be better.

Anyway, the trading items on the surface and underground are all huge profits, and the merchants generously paid for some "service fees".

Cancel the city gate tax, collect only commercial tax, clean up the trade routes, and attract investment. Could it be that some time-traveling senior has come... Alamir was walking on the road of Nesad City, looking at There was a hot scene in the trading area. After asking several hotels, they all said they were full. Looking at the lust demon, red dragon and dragonborn dressed as drow priests, they all said that "we are temporarily unable to provide accommodation for the distinguished priest."

Especially when he heard that housing prices in Nesad City had been rising day by day in recent years, and that the city's mistresses had set up special, large-scale trading areas and secretly rented out the houses in the trading areas at high prices, Alamil felt an inexplicable feeling. Familiarity.

Facing the greedy drow, even though they may rarely live there, the merchants are happy to "pay" the rent, because in the eyes of the drow and them, this is regarded as a "bribe" to the owners of the city in exchange for some A negligible right of first refusal.

Moreover, this city has also proposed something called Spider Points. As long as you pay a certain amount of taxes or make other contributions, you can enjoy the city's citizen treatment. Your "status" will be greatly improved, and you will also be allowed to work in Zall. Buy a house near the outer suburbs and trading district.

The high profits from underground rentals drive businessmen to increase their "points" as much as possible and strive to buy their own houses in Nesad City and open shops for rent.

After all, caravans coming for trade prefer shops run by surface creatures compared to hotels and businesses opened by underground creatures.

What the hell... Looking at the streets with people coming and going, the leader of the Dark Moon Circus, the bald drow Aramiel, who saw such a "lively" scene for the first time, just felt The scene before me was somewhat unreal.

The person who came up with this is not a genius, he is probably a time-traveling senior.

It is said that all of this comes from the Spider Feast.

The Spider Feast is a favorite entertainment event among the drow nobles in Nesad City, second only to the Spider Carnival.Specifically, it's similar to a gladiatorial fight in the Colosseum.

Slaves fought desperately in the Colosseum to get a chance to get rid of their status as slaves. The drow warriors representing the family would hone their skills there, kill drows from rival families, and use bloody fights and plots to please the city. Masters - drow women.

The winner will receive the "reward" from the drow, sometimes a painless death, sometimes as the most ferocious sacrifice to the great Rose, or as the family's "law enforcement team" and continue to be beaten. Send to the front lines to fight the most terrifying monsters.

Being spotted by some female drow and treated as a family servant or male favorite is already the best outcome for the winner, although the latter may also be killed due to the drow's conspiracy.

Although there are similar arenas in every drow city, everything is so different in the event called the Spider Feast in the Nesad City Arena.

Because "outsiders" can actively sign up to participate, and the top three winners of the spider feast every three years can automatically obtain the title of "honorary citizen", enjoying a status slightly higher than that of civilian drow but lower than that of nobles. , similar to male mages in drow cities, but must be employed by the drow nobles in the city.

Is this not an imperial examination? ?Is this a martial arts exercise?After arriving as a mercenary group and staying at the Bloody Fever, the largest hotel in the outer city, Alamir was stunned when he heard Barbara describe the situation in Nesad City.

This year’s Spider Feast is a team competition!

Their prize is a group of believers who believe in Eilistraee. If they are sacrificed to Rose, they will receive great favor. And the three winning teams will receive Rose's blessing, allowing them to They can greatly slow down the damage of the terrible fireball on the surface, and then be transported to the surface to personally capture a "traitor" who escaped the surface, and receive a great honor.

At that time, all team members will receive the title of Spider People!

Of course, Rose's blessing is also a kind of death charm in a sense. If a "traitor" who fled to the surface cannot be captured within three months, their soul will become the food of the eight-clawed spider.

Although this matter sounds very uneconomical, many mercenary teams in the city "voluntarily" participated.

The reason is that they have no choice...

When the mercenaries in Nesad City faced the private soldiers of the drow nobles and the terrifying and vicious priests, they "actively" asked the other party to "hire" them and become the tools of the other family to please Rose.

It has to be said that when the powerful-looking mercenary team of Alamir entered Nesad City, many eyes were fixed on them. The reason why no one dared to come up was because the two members of the team clearly exuded Because of the "Drow Priest" who has a powerful aura.

They were regarded as powerful foreign aid invited by a certain family! !

The lust demon, who was good at extracting the inner secrets of creatures, went out for a walk and soon "captured" a low-level drow priest. After learning the information, Alamir was surprised.

This city of Nessad is really full of strange vitality... Watching the priest being made into a corpse bomb by Link, the skeleton mage wrapped in black robes, and his soul became a plaything of the demon of desire, Alamir couldn't help but be a little amazed.

The "traitor" that all the matrons hated so much was undoubtedly Barbara.

The "seven months" limit that Eilistraee refers to probably refers to rescuing his followers before the Spider Feast.

Then, the secrets revealed by Barbara made Alamir even more shocked and untrue.

Because what made the Spider Feast and the city undergo such a huge transformation and "evolution" was not the time traveler, but the highest "prize" in a gladiatorial arena more than 80 years ago, which came from the drow's mortal enemy, a gray elf— —

Liarton! ! !

Liarden Greenleaf was a gray elf who "accidentally entered" the Underdark. As a gray elf who reappeared in the Underdark for thousands of years, because he was too precious, the divine favor obtained after sacrificing him was far better than that of spiders. After reveling in the divine favor obtained by the carnival, the drow decided to decide who would get him through a gladiatorial battle.

Then, the winner is the former fourth family, then the second family, and now the ninth family - the Zovel family!

After the victor got Riaden, for some reason, he not only did not kill him and sacrifice him to Rose, but also hid him secretly. Riaden also became the favorite of the eldest daughter of the Zovel family at that time. Magical Consultant.

Under Liarden's terrifying wisdom, the Zovel family was the first to make a "change" and quickly obtained a large amount of money. Their power expanded rapidly. In just a few years, through bribery, hiring, and conspiracy, Zovel became the The second family in Nesad City.

Drow was not a fool. Soon, under the leadership of the Zovel family, the entire city of Nesad began to look strange.

The Zovel family kept the news that Liarden was still alive and claimed that their family's strength was due to Rose's divine grace. The drow matrons in Nesad City regretted not sending out elites back then. .

The rise of the Zovir family was like a dream. As Riyaden brought the news through the caravan, the elves on the surface attacked Nesad City, and Riyaden also successfully "defected".

The news of the elf attack made Rose furious. After learning that there was a gray elf hiding in Nesad City who was not dedicated to him, the Zovel family was "punished" - the mistress was killed by the wax melt demon, and the family's Most of the women were transformed into spider elves.

Although for other families, such a "punishment" would probably not lead to annihilation by other families. However, although Liarden defected, his terrible wisdom and the backup skills he left behind allowed the Zovel family to successfully "survive". And the name of the Ninth Family is shaky!

It has to be said that in a sense, Riaden successfully played a trick on the city, so the escape of Riaden's daughter Barbara filled the whole city with anger.

Therefore, this time the Spider Feast was extremely large in scale, and the "prizes" were also extremely generous. In order to prevent the situation in Liarden from happening again, on the day it ended, the matron of the first family in the city would sacrifice the spider. A group of "Dathras" asked Rose to extinguish the anger against the city of Nesad for a century.

No, it means that I want to rescue those Eilistraee believers under the strict control of a city? ? ?

Alamir stroked his bare scalp and felt a bitter taste in his mouth.