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 a single illithid leader and four to six doppelgangers. They could also be greater doppelgangers. It was almost unheard of for a druuth to remain together without an illithid to exert control—only Hlaavin of the Unseen had successfully done so, and Hlaavin was secretly a half-illithid created as part of an experiment by the mind flayers of Ch'Chitl to establish a more effective druuth.

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. Others worked to infiltrate cities by replacing powerful persons, in order to gather information or as a prelude to conquest.

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. Training as a druuth slayer was a prerequisite for joining the Confluence, an organization dedicated to eliminating shapechanger infiltration of Waterdeep. One wizard who battled a powerful druuth created the eye of the druuthbane to strengthen the mind and reveal doppelgangers, and naturally these were common in Waterdeep.

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.

Druuth first appeared—or, perhaps, were first noticed—early in the 14 century DR and steadily grew to become a serious threat, though what that threat was, none could say Elminster described them as "the rising scourge of the Realms."

Circa 1340 DR, the mind flayer Nalynaul the Shriveled abandoned its community in Gauntlgrym to become an illithilich and left its druuth on their own. Though Nalynaul expected the druuth to still pass along information, the other mind flayers took their revenge on the doppelgangers instead. Only two survived, having wisely left early: Semmonemily and Gondyl Ilitheeum.

In the late 14 century 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. They remained quite rare in the rest of Faerûn, albeit with significant exceptions.

At least four druuth were based in the Jundarwood in the Border Kingdoms; they launched raids all over the land and came to dominate in High Mukshar. Known collectively as the Others to the Muksharrans, the names of two of the druuth were known: Sshreea and Oinuth, likely illithid nicknames. These druuth maintained an uneasy peace with one another, though only after three of them destroyed at least three other rival druuth, with the survivors forming the fourth druuth. The druuth did ally to defeat strong opponents such as adventuring companies.

One of the most notable druuth, however, was that serving Thalynsar the Ulithautarch of Ch'Chitl. It worked to infiltrate Waterdeep, but as Thalynsar grew distracted by events in Ch'Chitl from 1362 DR, the druuth achieved a great deal of independence. Its leader, Hlaavin, accepted non-doppelganger members and expanded the druuth into the Unseen criminal network.