Shunned

Shunned were female drow who severely displeased Lolth and were transformed as a punishment.^[1]

Description[]

A shunned was an aberration that was 6 ft (1.83 m) long and 200 lb (90.72 kg) heavy. Its body consisted of a pale sac. This sac was covered in black veins and was topped with a female drow's head. Under this head's transparent skin were small spiders whose thorny legs pierced through the skin.^[1]

Personality[]

Shunned were formerly drow and they retained their personality in the initial stage of their transformation. Over time their personality changed to that of a chaotic evil person, no matter what it was in its initial stage.^[2]

Shunned were transformed by Lolth into their new form as a punishment. However, they remained loyal to the Spider Queen. The reason for this was that they suffered from their new form and they held the hope that Lolth could rewind the transformation and would do that when they regained her favor.^[3]

As mentioned above, shunned suffered from their form. They had the desire to hurt other creatures to make them suffer as they did or even more.^[3]

Combat[]

As a transformed female drow, a shunned had a number of abilities common to the drow. They could innately cast dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire like drow. They could innately cast dispel magic and suggestion too. All of these innate abilities could be used only once per day.^[4]

They were not only faster than drow but could also climb walls. They had a weakness against sunlight, but it was not as serious as that of the drow. Their darkvision reached only 60 ft (18.29 m), about half of the drow's range, and the accuracy of their senses was the same as that of the drow.^[4]

The shunned's physical attacks hit as though they were magical. Their bite was not just dangerous for the physical damage but also for its poison, which not only wrecked the body, but could lead to unconsciousness.^[2]

The shunned had, apart from their innate spellcasting power, two magical attacks. First, once per day, they could wail in a way that could repulse people in such way that it physically afflicted them. Second, as mentioned above, shunned had spiders in their face and they could spit these spiders out once every six to twenty-four seconds and the resulting swarm was under the control of the shunned that created it.^[2]

The usual tactic of a shunned was to lure enemies with dancing lights, prepare the battlefield to their advantage with darkness, spit out a swarm of spiders, dispel any magic, suggest strong enemies to leave the field, and then bite creatures by themselves while busying their enemies with the swarm.^[3]

Society[]

As the name suggested, shunned were shunned by the drow. They were driven out of their cities and forbidden to enter them. However, drow would not actively try to kill a shunned, though they would defend themselves if a shunned attacked them. The logic behind this was that a shunned was transformed by Lolth into its new form as a punishment and it suffered just by existing, and destroying it would also end Lolth's punishment. The matter was different with duergars and svirfneblins, who killed any shunned on sight. A group of creatures the shunned did not need to fear were animals and vermin. A shunned's meat tasted wrong to these creatures and therefore they were left alone by them. The shunned themselves, however, attacked basically everything they came across, leading to brutal ends to their lives. They ate goblins, quaggoths, and other drow.^[3]

The shunned were interested in drow goods and collected all sorts of garbage in out-of-the-way caverns where they made their homes. They used this garbage only for decoration's sake. They never made use of magic items.^[1]

Only female drow were turned into shunned. They had no capacity for reproduction of their kind.^[2]

History[]

During the Silence of Lolth, shunned joined forces with Kiaransalee's followers in the church of Kiaransalee because they were promised re-transformation into their original forms. They were held up by the church as a good example of how bad Lolth's influence was. However, most of these shunned were destroyed in the campaign.^[2]