Drizzt Do'Urden: The Underdark Quiz

Answer: Red

Drow are the race of dark elves that live in the Underdark, the subterranean world of the Forgetten Realms. Most drow have red eyes. Vierna mused that Drizzt's eyes were lavender in both infrared and visible spectrums. Drow can see in both spectrums, but they hate even dim candlelight, and are terrified of the sun. On Drizzt's only surface raid, the cleric told the raiders that their final duty was to witness the horror of the sun. Drizzt, who could no longer believe the drow lies, refused to look away from the sun until the cleric dragged him into the cave.

She thought he had lost his senses.

Answer: Devir

Drizzt, the third living son of the Do'Urden house, was to be sacrificed to the demon queen Loth to ensure the favor of the demon and thus the victory of their house. However, the secondboy of the house Do'Urden murdered the firstboy to take his position, a practice acceptable by the drow if accomplished discreetly. Drizzt was then the second living son, and Matron Malice decided to let him live.

This should tell you a little about his family life.

Answer: Vierna

Vierna, the least fierce of Malice's daughters, was chosen to raise Drizzt for his first ten years. As cruel as females are to male children, Vierna was still the most "kind" of his sisters. Briza is the cruelest and most aggressive woman in the household, and Maya the least ambitious daughter. As Matron of a House, Malice had more important things to do than raise a male child.

Answer: Wizard

A priest would be an abomination to the drow. Loth only wants priestesses. Malice wanted Drizzt to be a wizard and take the place of the brother, Nalfain, who died the night of his birth. Zaknafien, the weapons master (and secretly Drizzt's father), disliked wizards and hoped to make the youth a warrior.

Answer: Two Hands

Zak sometimes thought of him as "Two Hands" because of the remarkable feat young Drizzt pulled off. When convincing Malice to let Drizzt be a warrior, Zaknafein asked Drizzt to flip some coins. Drizzt had never tried it before. He first flipped a coin with his thumb and caught it.

When asked, he flipped a coin with each hand at the same time, then two coins with each hand, and a stack of three coins with each hand. Finally, Zaknafein emptied his wallet and stacked six coins on each of Drizzt's hands. Drizzt flipped all twelve into the air, whirled around, and caught all twelve with each hand moving independently of the other. "Two hands!" Zaknafein protested, and Malice finally agreed, wondering aloud if they had enough coins to stop the boy.

Answer: Ninth

The night he was born, House Do'Urden became the Ninth House of Menzobarranzan by destroying the previous Ninth House, the House Devir. They received no penalty for it, because no witnesses came forward of the House Devir. Only Anton Devir survived by killing his treacherous master and taking the master's place in disguise. Ninth House is only one house away from a seat on the ruling council of the city. Years later, House Do'Urden would be the eighth house for a very short time.

Answer: Drider

A drider is a drow half-transformed into a spider, and this one was armed with poisoned arrows. Drizzt was appalled by the graduation ceremony and walked out. Only Vierna noticed his disgraceful behavior, and she thought it best to kill him quickly before anyone else noticed. Drizzt would have died under the drider's attacks except Matron Malice found out and thought it too much a waste. None of the other graduates had noticed, so the family got away with it anyway.

Answer: Masoj

Guenhwyvar is a magic panther from the astral plane, connected to the prime material plane by an enchanted onyx figurine. Drizzt became friends with the panther while Masoj owned it, but the panther always liked Drizzt better. Although bound to obey the master of the figurine, Guenhwyvar is sentient and capable of making choices.

When Masoj ordered the panther to kill Drizzt, Guenhwyvar instead rescued Drizzt, and then tore free of Masoj's will. In many "Dark Elf Trilogy" references, the panther is "it" but in "Icewind Dale," Guenhwyvar is a she. Drizzt killed Masoj in a fight for his life, and swore never to kill another of his own kind.

After learning his father had been murdered in his absence, Drizzt left Menzobarranzan that night to get away from the drow.

Answer: Basilisk

A basilisk is capable of turning a creature to stone by looking into its eyes. I've heard mirrors work well on these creatures, but Drizzt had Guenhwyvar distract the monster, blindfolded himself, and attacked from behind with his scimitars. Guenhwyvar jumped into the fight as soon as the petrifying stare was no longer a problem.

Answer: None of them

Briza and Dinin came with a small party of House Do'Urden soldiers. Briza was using a location spell to track a family token Drizzt still carried. Guenhwyvar figured out what she was doing, and Drizzt sent the panther off with the token. Briza sent the guards after the token, and Drizzt was able to confront her and Dinin. Dinin backed off without much of a fight, but Briza lied to Drizzt about their intent, and then attacked him.

She lost all the heads of her snake whip and some of her fingers. Drizzt might have killed her if Guenhwyvar had not returned and intervened.

The siblings wanted to kill Drizzt to reclaim favor with Loth, but they turned back after Drizzt scared them half to death.

Answer: Belwar's

At first, Belwar was unhappy to be called for a drow's hearing. The dark elves had killed his mining party and cut off his hands. Even after that ordeal, he remembered Drizzt's protests and knew there was something different about that drow. When Belwar saw Drizzt's lavender eyes, he immediately recognized him and exclaimed the elf had been with the attackers.

When the other gnomes heard that, they immediately decided to go ahead with the execution. Belwar quickly clarified that Drizzt had actually saved his life, and the honored gnome went to the king to get Drizzt's release.

Answer: They asked him to demonstrate a fight.

Belwar encouraged Drizzt to play with the kids who were pretending to fight a mock-up of a basilisk. When some of the kids argued that the monsters did not even exist, Drizzt told them that he had fought a real basilisk. To explain why he wasn't turned to stone, Drizzt began to demonstrate the fight because he couldn't use their language very well. Once he began fighting the mock-up, he lost it for several minutes, tearing the stone and wood statue apart with only the toy swords they had given him.

The kids came looking for him the next day anyway, and Drizzt overcame his fear of himself.

Answer: Jarlaxle

Zaknafein (as spirit wraith) was the killer, but he did not reveal himself. (A spirit wraith is a zombie body loosely connected with the dead one's consciousness in an unholy ceremony called zinkarla.) Jarlaxle is a drow mercenary who does not mind double crossing anyone for enough profit, and the deep gnomes paid him well with precious gems.

He gave a few non-answers to get some extra gems, then hinted that House Do'Urden was looking for Drizzt. Jarlaxle is a strange drow; he even decided not to sell out the sverfnebli because he liked the emissary.

Answer: Corbies

When Drizzt and Belwar had walked halfway across the narrow stone bridges, corbies charged from all the doorways around the lake. The monsters mindlessly swarmed the two companions and committed suicide to drop stalactites on them. One stalactite riding corbie knocked Guenhwyvar into the acid lake, sending the panther back to the astral plain. Furious, Drizzt reverted to "the hunter" (the emotionless killer he had nearly become in the lonely wilds) and cut an escape for himself and Belwar. Once they were safe, he summoned Guenhwyvar to see if she had survived the fall into the acid.

He regretted it, because she badly needed to stay home and heal.

Answer: Giant worms

Barunchies are very toxic to most denizens of the Underdark. When Drizzt and Belwar came upon a tunnel lined with red-glowing barunchies, Belwar warned Drizzt not to touch them because they spew toxic spores. Drizzt began to walk the clear path through the growth, but then suspected Belwar knew something more and asked him. Belwar admitted there was always a clear path through the barunchies because the worms love to eat them so.

He assured Drizzt the worms were harmless, then hustled through the pathway. Drizzt followed more slowly, hoping to see a worm.

As a practical joke, Belwar didn't tell him that the usually harmless worms aggressively protected their food and grew to enormous size. The agile drow easily escaped, but not without a good scare.

Answer: Transformed

Clacker was the name they gave to the hook horror that had once been a rock peche. Hook horrors are giant crablike creatures with the best hearing in the Underdark. Rock peches usually live in small groups in close harmony with the stone they work. They are a very quiet and passive race, but somehow ran afoul of a human wizard in the Underdark.

The wizard murdered Clacker's friends and polymorphed him into a hook horror. When Drizzt and Belwar find Clacker, he is sadly tapping the tunnel wall to feel the stone he once lived so close to.

At first, Drizzt attacks what he sees as a dangerous killer, but stops when Clacker begs to be killed. Drizzt and Belwar never discover Clacker's true name.

Answer: Ilithids

Ilithids are mind-reading, mind-controlling fiends, and are also the most hated race of the Underdark. Their mental attacks make the audible sound "FWOOP" and usually stun their prey on the first or second try. Clacker resists the attacks briefly because he has a double personality, and Drizzt and Belwar observe that fury negates most of the blow. Fortunately, Guenhwyvar and the spirit wraith attack the ilithids and release the control on the slaves.

Answer: Guenhwyvar

The ilithids found the panther figuirine and visited the astral plane to view Guenhwyvar and plot how they would exploit the panther. Because they are hated on every plane, they kept a good distance from the panther, but she noticed them and connected them to Drizzt's absence. That is not a good thing to be connected to! When they were called back to deal with the spirit wraith, Guenhwyvar pounced on the first and broke its tether, stranding it in the astral plane.

She then rode the second ilithid into the material plane and killed it. Leaving Belwar behind, she leapt into the central room and tore into the Ilithid's mother brain, the hive mind. By attacking the mother brain, she attacked all of the ilithids and gave them a splitting headache.

Answer: Clacker

("Mindflayer is a second name for ilithids.) Malice thought she could use a spirit wraith of Zak to kill Drizzt because the old weapon master had taught Drizzt nearly everything he knew, and was also closest the to young drow. When Drizzt spared an elven child's life, Loth demanded a death, and Zak offered himself for the sacrifice to save Drizzt's life. Because Drizzt did not cooperate, the sacrifice had not solved Malice's problem, so she brought Zak back in a twisted plot to kill Drizzt.

The wraith finally caught up to him in the ilithid city, and stunned Drizzt.

A battle between them could have ended very badly because of the surrounding conflict, but Clacker abruptly summoned a stone wall between the wraith and his friend. Usually, only a group of rock peche elders can summon a wall, but Clacker did it even though he was alone and polymorphed.

His love for his friends gave him one last touch with his peche side.

Answer: Magic flames

Drow warriors can limn their targets with purple or blue magic flames that do not burn but still make the enemy extremely conspicuous. Drizzt recognized the attackers from his warrior training and quickly limned two of them with flames to remove some of their advantage. Drizzt himself ended up fighting two others in a globe of darkness, but he wouldn't do this to Belwar and Clacker, who couldn't fight if they couldn't see.

After the fight, Clacker mercilessly destroyed the ones who surrendered. This ruthless act convinced Drizzt that they had to help poor Clacker return to himself before he completely disappeared.

Answer: No one

After they escape from the ilithids, Clacker goes wildly into the hook horror side. Drizzt refuses to kill him or let him wander alone because he keeps his friendships well. They first seek the human wizard, but the wizard makes a last fatal error in whispering he should have killed Clacker like the rest. Hook horrors do have the best hearing in the Underdark. Drizzt still refused to give up and even decided to go back to Menzobarranzan to find a wizard that could help. Belwar said they had nothing to demand or barter that service with; Drizzt replied that the wizard's life would do.

The spirit wraith found them while they were were recrossing the acid lake on the way to the drow city. Clacker was the first to meet the lifeless killer, and returned to his original state as a rock peche in death. Drizzt and Belwar commited the peche's body to the acid lake rather than leave it for the scavengers.

Answer: Zaknafein

In the end, Zaknafein once again overrules Malice's will in his life and dies again as himself. Drizzt had told Belwar NOT to get in the way, but to find and help Clacker, who had screamed just before the wraith came out. The drow and the wraith fought furiously, but Drizzt decided that his father's spirit was present and refused to fight him. Malice, mentally connected, would have killed him, but Zak overcame her and spoke for a few moments with his son before throwing himself and Malice's last hope into the acid lake. Malice and the house Do'Urden fell immediately thereafter.

Answer: They all do

Vierna, being a high priestess, was not killed in the fight and was taken into another family. Malice was murdered by her own power-hungry daughter, Briza; and Briza was killed by the invaders. Maya was killed quietly without dramatics (fitting, as there never is much to say about her). Jarlaxle, who was involved in the attack on the house, offered Dinin a life with the houseless renegades, and Dinin accepted.

When Jarlaxle suggested going after Drizzt as a profitable scheme, Dinin refused to have anything to do with it even if it cost him his life. Jarlaxle decided to rethink the idea, if Dinin could be so certain. Dinin and Vierna appear in a later book.

Answer: Leave the Underdark

Drizzt decided to leave the Underdark in order to escape the drow and keep the deep gnomes out of the fight. He had no idea what was happening in Menzobarranzan and even introduced himself to many strangers as Drizzt Do'Urden of the Ninth House of Menzobarranzan because he does not know that they died and that they were the eighth house.

The second book finishes with him arriving in the surface world.

Answer: Magic Brooch

Belwar had a magic brooch that emitted steady light, and they used it occasionally in their travels together. When Drizzt decided to leave the Underdark, Belwar wanted to go too, but Drizzt refused to let him come; he did not want to take Belwar away from his home and those who loved him. Belwar gave Drizzt the brooch, but it is not mentioned in the next book or the "Icewind Dale Trilogy."