Menzoberranzan

Menzoberranzan fills a large vault that was formerly a lair of giant spiders and beholders. The vault is known by its dwarven name, Araurilcaurak (“Great Pillar Cavern”), because of Narbondel, the giant rock pillar at the vault’s center that joins floor and ceiling. The cavern is roughly shaped like an arrowhead, with the pool of Donigarten at its tip, and stretching two miles across at its widest point. The ceiling rises a thousand feet high, and the floor is studded with stalagmites.
Two areas rise above the rest of the city: Tier Breche, the side cavern occupied by the Academy where most drow citizens are trained for adulthood; and the larger Qu’ellarz’orl (or House-Loft), a plateau that is home to many of the city’s mightiest noble houses, separated from the lower city by a forest of giant mushrooms. From either of these heights, a surveyor can view the city. The view shows rows of spired stone castles, their sculpted highlights lit by the soft, tinted flows of permanent faerie fire lights.
lthough the life of a slave can be brutally short in the City of Spiders, the drow aren’t so extravagant that they do away with every captive they take. At the same time, they are masters of punishment — it is fear of pain, not fear of death, that motivates the slaves of drow. If you’re lucky, you’ll only feel normal shackles and the occasional whip or light spell-blast. A bit less luck or more malice, and the serpent-headed whips of the priestesses come out.
If you aren’t a drow in the City of Spiders, you aren’t worth a name. All manner of surface-dwellers — orcs and elves, humans and halflings — are brought here to serve as slaves to the drow in their refuge. The constant fear of punishment, from one’s mistress or another, more powerful drow, keeps most slaves obedient, even when they aren’t directly supervised.
The great cavern of the city is filled with tall spires, and homes both great and small are carved into the stalagmites and stalactites that pierce the darkness. Gentle illumination from magic or glowing fungus decorates some homes and businesses, as well as the mansions of the high houses of the city, eight of which have positioned themselves above all others. While the lesser houses dance and fight and scheme for advantages over each other, they all live under the heel of House Baenre and the Matron Mother, who rules the city in Lolth’s name.
On a large plateau high above the cavern floor is Tier Breche, also called the Academy, where the city trains its priestesses, mages, and noble warriors. The city’s market is centrally located, and rothé are raised on an isle toward the eastern edge of the city.
If you are ever so unfortunate as to be enslaved by the drow of Menzoberranzan, my advice to you is simple and stern: do as you are commanded, avoid insulting their goddess (which means don’t even brush off a spider crawling on you), and attempt escape only if you are desperate or sure of your survival. If you are given the proper opportunity, as I was, you might discover that the neck of a drow snaps with surprising ease.