Druuth

Druuth were small groups of doppelgangers in the employ of mind flayers. A druuth shared the name, or nickname, of the illithid in command.

Organization
A druuth comprised four to six doppelgangers with a single illithid leader.

Activities
They operated essentially as monstrous adventuring companies. Some druuth were known to conduct covert raids, with the doppelgangers adopting human form to avoid notice when they could and the forms of beasts when in the wilderness.

Relationships
Specialist 'druuth slayers' arose to thwart and destroy druuth wherever they found them. Such folk studied the lore of these creatures, learned how to recognize doppelgangers even in disguise, and trained to resist an illithid's mental powers and shake off the effects of its mind blast.

History
In the, in a bazaar in Murghyr in Murghôm, a merchant double-crossed another merchant in a deal, but this was in fact a doppelganger member of a druuth. This doppelganger killed the merchant and the mind flayer took his recently purchased treasure—the holy Mielikkian spellbook Yornar's Trail Companion. The mind flayer tried to exchange the tome for a more useful magical item, but, by sheer chance, the man it tried to trade with was Rhighaermon O'Antlers, a veteran ranger and former bearer of the Companion. Rhighaermon killed the mind flayer and stole back the Companion, and carried it to the temple of Mielikki in Maerlar. However, he was hunted all the way by the mind flayer's druuth. Mortally wounded and with the doppelgangers close behind, Rhighaermon collapsed on arrival, and an avatar of Mielikki appeared and caused vines to ensnare, choke, and tear apart the doppelganger druuth with no more than her finger.

By 1368 DR, druuth were being encountered more and more often in the southern realms of Faerûn, that is, south of the Shaar and in the Shining Lands.

In the late 14 century DR, at least four druuth were based in the Jundarwood and launched raids all over the Border Kingdoms. The names of two were known: Sshreea and Oinuth, likely illithid nicknames.