So, this is Khyber

Nymm – Aryth, 993 YK

Finally, about six months in, we are transported deeper into their holdings. We enter Khyber proper and this gives all of us the chills to a degree. Being underground all the time is bad enough, but once you pass whatever serves as the border to Khyber things get oppressive. The screams of Daelkyr can be heard sometimes (at least that’s what they said it was) and there is a pervasive sense of dread that permeates everything. They take us all the way to the Sanctuary of the Qabalrin and here the sense of dread recedes some. Here is where we spend the rest of our time. Something to know about the Umbragen is that pretty much all of them can use magic. The fact that Gwen and I can’t makes us somewhat pathetic in their eyes and this is something they feel, in general, about other races across this world. For instance, they are less industrial than the Five Nations but are far more magical. Whether a sage or soldier, farmer or smith, each is likely to have the abilities of a warlock or soul knife (Prof. Ren’s terms, not mine) and half of their culture is in some way dedicated to mystical research (Baker, Dragonmarks: Drow, 2017). Still, they seem to be fascinated with my upbeat attitude and the fact that it hadn’t appeared to lessen in the many months we’d been here. Somehow this offset my pathetic-ness enough that they were open to interacting with me regularly. I do think I was seen as something closer to an adorable, semi-intelligent pet but I’m not going to complain because we’re pretty much the only non-Umbragen to get this close to them and have this kind of interaction where we can learn about them without being killed (spoiler – we live through this). They also find my skills in acts of dexterity, my natural claws (as weapons of course), and my ability to speak with them at almost 100% fluency after only a few months to be signs of me being more respectable than my non-existent magic skills would represent. Anyway, before we left there was a defining moment when our group gained respect in the eyes of the Umbragen enough that they did actually allow us to leave unscathed (by them at least).