Imperial operation against the drow cities

The imperial operation against the drow cities is, in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign, a long secret undertaking of the Empire's intelligence service, revealed to Kemp Corvus, Sarah and Ephorus by the Owl-clasp spymaster who directed it. He called it a forty-one-year operation, and its final stage the last step of the late ruler's holy campaign.^{1 2}

The plan, as the spymaster told it

According to the spymaster, he and the late ruler's counsellors had long ago concluded that the war with the drow would never be won by fighting below, so they chose to draw the enemy up. The Spider Queen necklace served as the lure, and the dwarves were not told. He claimed that the growing strength of the witch hunters in the region and the falling numbers of the drow were also the Empire's doing. Drow children brought to the surface had been raised and sent back as agents, and teams of adventurers who had fought spirits and devils, ten or twelve of them, had been watched for years through trusted people and chosen for the last stage.^{1 2 3}

In that stage, attacks prepared by the agents within were to weaken the matrons, and the chosen teams would be sent down to them, so that the eight ruling houses of each of four great drow cities would be gone in one night. The company was to be sent, after a brief respite, against a wounded matron, who, the spymaster claimed, would be easier than a dragon, and brought back if the other teams also succeeded. He defended striking at the drow over the dwarves' heads as something the victory would redeem, and praised the companions for forcing the enemy into mistakes.^{4 5 6}

The company was told of a circle for the journey and of others who had gone below and come back; an old man with long hair tied behind him, whose death had been announced for safety, brought them tea. They asked to leave farewell letters for their families before setting out.^{7 8}

Spoiler: The night of the strikeRevealSpoils: Sürgün Günlükleri #44; Sürgün Günlükleri #45; Sürgün Günlükleri #46 · Say what you have read

Carried by wings of light, the company arrived in the temple of the matron of Ephorus's house and killed her. As drow soldiers closed in, a winged figure wrapped them and brought them out, and they opened their eyes in one of the circles drawn in a great white hall, where they were at once given help.^{9 10 11 12}

Other teams came back wounded and incomplete, and one team never returned at all; even so the operation was judged largely a success.^{13 14}

Afterwards

Priests examined the returning companions for poison and wounds and saw to their clothes and gear while they rested. They were told to speak of what they had seen to no one: there would be no proclamation, and they would remain secret heroes.^{15 16}