Courtyard of Lolth

The Courtyard of Lolth was a temple dedicated to Lolth in Maerimydra and was destroyed during the Silence of Lolth.

Location
Located on the noble plateau above the rest of Maerimydra, the Courtyard of Lolth was reached from the city proper by ascending a great sweeping staircase at the end of the Grand Boulevard.

Exterior
The Courtyard of Lolth was constructed in the semblance of an enormous spider with an elegantly sculpted archway forming the stony fangs of the building. Each wall was adorned with designs of alien and distorted spiders.

Interior
Inside the Courtyard of Lolth, the temple was formed of numerous rooms and its entrance was flanked by orbs of glowing, pale, blue-green magical light.

After the temple's destruction in 1372 DR, the interior of the Courtyard of Lolth was nothing more than a blasted ruin, with a blackened crater at its center.

Defenses
Merely passing through the archway of the Courtyard of Lolth rendered all invisible creatures visible. This was an invisbility purge effect that emanated from the glowing orbs in the archway.

History
In, the drow of Maerimydra stole the Warblade from Lord Orym Hawksong and ferried it from the Twisted Tower in Shadowdale to a secret vault beneath the Courtyard of Lolth.

In 1372 DR, during the Silence of Lolth, the Courtyard of Lolth was stormed by Kurgoth Hellspawn and his army. Kurgoth's forces looted the majority of the temple's vaults. The clerics of Lolth that guarded the temple quickly fell without access to their spells. Shortly after this, Irae T'sarran managed to completely destroy the interior building of the temple with incredibly powerful magic that lingered for a full six days afterwards.

The lingering negative energy that suffused the temple drew a powerful nightshade, known as a nightwalker, to the temple. The creature laired in the shadows near the central crater.

At some point in 1373 DR, after the Silence of Lolth had ended, members of House Dhuurniv tried to resettle Maerimydra, but after a few failed attempts they returned to the Skull Subterranes beneath Azmaer's Folly. Despite their failure, they still managed to recover the Ary'Velahar'Kerym from the secret vault beneath the Courtyard of Lolth.