House Meeting

Over the last week, the mood in the House Platin has been tense. Every house member was called back to the house and rumors of all sorts are flying around nearly as quickly as one of the Matron Mother's wives can cool them off. Lady Amethyst and Magister Vern have been adding wards and protections. Diamond has ensured an extra crop is harvested. Ruby has been on the inner battlements keeping touch with the forces there and her son Corubon is outside with the forces watching the rest of the city.

You have waiting with everyone else in the common areas while simple tasks are handed out and perhaps you find yourself blocking off a tunnel or some other simple yet necessary task. Waiting is the hardest part and then the everyone is called to the center of the house. The Matron's Meeting Room where someone from the family will sit once a week and manage disputes or answer questions. The room is packed nearly 2,000 people are here and everyone who is capable of fighting.

Matron Mother sits delicately in the throne and looks out at the assembly. She's always been old, the secret of her true age unknown, but today she actually looks old. The weight of her position is heavy on her shoulders as she looks upon all those, she is responsible for protecting and keeping safe.

"Eilistraee confirms that Lolth has gone silent. The normal ways into the Demonweb Pits are closed to her and none who worship the Spider Queen are being answered. The last time this happened the avatars of the gods walked the world, yet none have been seen. We cannot be sure why Lolth is silent nor what her plans are but, be assured that every creature with a hatred for Drow will take advantage. We do not agree with the ruling houses or their ways but we can't allow our city to fall. There are innocents in our streets, those who worship the lady in secret and those who can be redeemed. We will not allow them to die if our city is attacked and we must ensure that our house will not fall.

Be assured that Eilistraee is with us, our family is with us. I need each and every one of you to be strong and be ready to protect our family."

She looks out to the room, "That is all for now, be safe and most of you know what to do those who do not ask one of the house leadership and they will find a job for you."

The room begins to empty and people leave to be posted on defense rotation or to tasks. Each of you feel a whisper of magical words in your head from Lady Amethyst, "Not you, wait a moment."

---

Once the room is empty The Matron Mother gestures you forward and you find yourself standing before the Matron Mother and all the house leadership. She smiles at you and speaks again, "I have chosen you for two tasks. They are both very dangerous. The first is a request, more a demand, from house Baenre that we send a group of scouts to the outpost of Szith Morcane. I have her letter here." She hands you the letter.

After that she holds up a holy symbol most of you have never seen it. "This is a holy symbol of Arushnee, from the time before she became Lolth. It is imbued with a small essence of her divinity. The pieces of herself she could not keep when she became the Queen of Spiders."

She puts the symbol down on the other arm of her chair, "Beyond Szith Morcane within the city of Maerimydra is a secret path into the Demon Web Abyss, one that even Lolth does not know of. You will take this amulet and bring it into the Demon Web Abyss, there you will find the realm of Eilistraee within the Demon Web Abyss and place this symbol upon it. She in turn will gain all the power within, the power withheld for the mother of Elves and Weaver of Fate."

She closes her hands and gives a knowing look, "I am sure you have questions."

---

The letter itself is written on exceedingly high quality paper. It smells of underdark lotus blooms and the envelope is a dark black with the Baenre Sigil on one side and the symbol of Lolth on the other. For anyone who can detect evil the thing radiates a powerful aura even now. It reads:

Dearest Tirielle,

It is my hope that this letter finds you well. As you may know we depend upon Sith Morcane for news from a certain area of the underdark. Most recently a unit of scouts from House Higure passed through the location on their way to some location or other that they planned to raid. Their house reports that the raiders have yet to return.

What is more important than that is the usual letters and trade from Sith Morcane have not arrived. Messages of sending from Arach Tinilith have not reached their sisters in the outpost and members of the ruling council cannot reach important persons there either.

The Ruling council has many tasks that must be done during this time of crisis and we believe your house can spare a scouting party to meet with myself and undertake a mission to Sith Morcane. I will expect them late morning tomorrow.

Yours dearly,

Quenthel Baenre
Matron Mother of House Baenre
First of the Menzoberanzan Council

Sith Morcane. Burny wasn't about to raise any questions to the house mother. Her mouth just got her in trouble anyway. But she was curious about Sith Morcane, having heard of it before but never having been there.

If she couldn't remember, maybe Yao Pu did; he knew a lot when he felt like sharing. Or maybe Shishi will come to give her instructions on this. It had been too long since she had seen the divine furball and she missed him.

Borwald sits at his table, drinking whatever semblence of ale his benefactors provided. He pretends it’s suitable to stout dwarven taste!

Bor eventually gestures sign language to Mother, The realm…is that a specific location? Will we know where to lay the holy symbol, once we get there? How long a journey ahead?

Nursing a glass of wine, Narcaere exhales in relief as the room empties out. There was a time when crowds never bothered her, indeed she thrived in the spotlight. But that felt like a lifetime ago, when she still had control.

"Stop it", she mumbles, in great annoyance, as sparks of stray, willful magic swirl around her fingers. She tries to put it from her mind as she listens to the Matron Mother.

The whole task screamed betrayal. A trap. A suicide mission. But that was probably just her old instincts. They had served her well in her old house, kept her sharp and alive. But here, in house Platin? Where the head of the house openly offered praise to Eilistraee in front of a thousand members? Yes, if there was one house in all of Menzoberrenzan where the Matron Mother might lay out her whole plan candidly, and not send her charges into certain death, it would be house Platin. Strange. Very un-drowlike.

After Bor has relayed his question, she bows her head slightly in the Matron Mother's direction. "This twofold mission, I certainly understand the value of the second task. But the first, this investigation of Sith Morcane. Is it merely a cover for getting us close to the Demon Web Pits, or are we to resolve the situation there to the best of our ability before proceeding?"

The name of House Baenre clearly put Kalafein on edge. He listens intently on all that is said around him before asking questions of his own. "Why would the Ruling Council choose our House to scout and investigate with the Matron Mother of the first House?" He shakes his head solemly. "No, no, this is a trap. This may very well be a trap. Matron Quenthel surely will not be alone with us, which means we will need to work in secret around her." Kal sweeps his worried look across the room before sighing in resignation and a bit of relief at the look on his granmother's face. "But we will of course do everything in our power to make you and the Dark Maiden proud."

"Trust ain’t buy you naught but a knife in the back. Keep your own blade sharp and your eyes sharper."
—Sayings from the Street

"A sharp blade is nothing without a higher cause."
—Treatises on the Silent Blade

Ryo'fein helped usher the audience out of the room, whispering words of encouragements and firm clasps on the shoulder where needed. Growing up in the streets, a time of turmoil was when a gang easily cracked, and he would do all he could to help House Platin remain erect as ever.

As the room cleared out everyone who didn't receive a secret whisper, Ryo'fein did not glance at anyone else as he walked calmly straight towards the Matron Mother, bowing deeply and paying his respects before finally looking about the room.

A capable group, Ryo'fein thought. Whatever was brewing, it would be something dangerous for such august a company to be required.

Only the expendable are ever chosen. The rebuttal came unbidden in his mind, a shattered remnant of his past that helped him survive the streets, and still clung to life even as he's stayed relatively safe all these long years. The Matron's will is my honor to fulfill, he mentally forced himself to say as Matron Mother Platin detailed the mission.

"Matron Mother, it is an honor, as always." Ryo'fein couldn't hold back his smile entirely from being handed a mission directly from the Matron.

"I'd like to be sure I understand your command. You wish us to travel to Szith Morcane under the guise of doing Baenre's bidding, while secretly pursuing our own goals to go to Maerimydra and fulfill our true mission, is that correct?"

Shaojiao remembers that Szith Morcane is situated between Menzoberanzan, Merimydra, and Eryndyllan. It’s basically a trading hub between the three cities with House Morcane in charge though House Morcane is, and has been for centuries, under House Baenre’s control.

The Matron Mother looks at Bor, in any other Drow house his speaking out would loose him a hand. In House Platin he merely gets a small smile. "Eilistraee has a palace within the Demon Web Pits along with her main residence in Arvandor. Those who repent their deeds at the end of their life are said to go to her realm in the Demon Web where they work off any evil they have done in life. That is where you must journey."

She looks to the others and says, "House Baenre is imposing their will they want you to go before them, to prostrate yourselves. Likely they will send you with a Journey Book or the like and demand you report every day. It is all about looking strong because they feel weak. You will use their mission to disguise your real motivations. You will likely have to resolve their request in doing so."

She adds one more thing, "I also want you to know that Magister Vern will give you a gate scroll. It will bring you to Silversheen in the event the mission becomes too dangerous. I understand the danger, I understand the odds are against you and this may be our only chance but I value your lives more than I value our success. Every one of your lives, every child raised in the way of Eilistraee is a strike against the society we live in."

Kalafein sighs in relief. "Let us hope a Journey Book is all they send with us." He starts muttering as his thoughts drift. "Though I suppose a quill that refuses to write the truth is not out of the realm of possibility. It would take a strong will to force such an item to go against itself. But are we even worth the trouble to enforce such directives?"

Success lives or dies on information. They had little, but it didn't matter. The Matron had spoken. The details could come later. For now, he had his orders.

"Your will, my hands." Ryo'fein bowed again to the Matron Mother, then stepped back when dismissed.

Perhaps Emerald would see him provisioned before he left. And he would need to tell Shinrae he was off on an important mission, one spoken directly from the Matron herself.

His gaze lingered on the others as they discussed the task. He knew some only by reputation, but he would not judge them on hearsay. They looked capable enough to stand against Drathir Baenre, should fate deal them that hand. All the same, he wished Zesstra was by his side.

Ryo’fein moved toward Emerald with care, not daring to move or speak while the Matron Mother held the room. When the moment allowed, he bowed his head respectfully to the Mistress of Shadows. He'd known her all his life and saw her as a motherly figure, but Ryo'fein was deeply rooted in rules and propriety, and would not speak to her casually in public. His hands flashed in the intricate grace of drow sign.

"Mistress, your wisdom has always kept me on solid ground. I could not leave without your guidance. Are there recent whispers of danger, or old lore that may guide my path? Any tool I should equip myself with to walk this road more surely?"

Waiting with the other priestesses after attending her duties, T'rissae hadn't moved at all when the Matron Mother's voice reached out. The tension in the city was uncomfortable, stifling. Terrifyingly familiar.

Though ordinarily dressed as a mirror to her mother, T'rissae wore her armor openly today. It had felt... appropriate.

"She wants to see how well we bow to them," she said aloud, echoing her grandmother. "They test us, take our measure. Baenre eyes are upon us, and we cannot falter."

Strangely, however, the barely controlled fear and suspicion that had been her constant companion since her days at Arach-Tinilith felt distant, blessedly silent. The artifact of Aurushnee, the Mother of her goddess Eilistraee, was before them.

"How is such a thing possible, Grandmother?" she asked, momentarily trading the decorum expected of her for the childlike wonder that she wore in her earliest years. "To find this, to hold this? To join it with our Lady?"

But I value your lives more than I value our success.

Such curious words. In any other house, the only way such a thing would be said would be in cruel jest. And yet the Matron Mother seemed sincere. Well, probably. Sincerity had been such a rarity growing up, Narcaere still had difficulty recognizing it.

Wondering if she will ever truly grow accustomed to the ways of house Platin, she sips her wine and listens. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Ryo'fein slip over towards the Lady Emerald. Her eyes drift over the room. The others are familiar enough faces, an eclectic blend of those born within the house, and others that had drifted into the family like so much detritus. Much like she herself.

Burny speaks out, despite promising herself she wouldn't.

"So, strong enough to get there, weak enough not to be detected. Should we use spells such as Mislead or are they useless in blocking this type of demon sensing or perhaps even attract their attention?"

Taking a sip of ale, if available, our fightery fellow leans back in his chair. His four and a half foot frame almost as wide as tall, Bor almost hangs off his chair on either side! Long years of experience having honed not only keen fighting prowess, but also the ability to sit awkwardly in otherwise-normal chairs!

Eventually, ol’ Bor signs simply, You friends, you all have my hammer and shield, however treacherous the journey.

After the vision Ryo’fein feels a dagger in his hands. Literally slipped into his grip without him even noticing. Lady Emerald’s fingers sign, "It only works on demons. Aim for the ear or eye."

Captivated by the imagery, Kalafein murmurs, "Fascinating."

"Burny, in seeking to be made untraceable, we may in fact increase our chances of being traced." He offers the yuan-ti a reassuring smile. "We may not know the methods in which we can best complete our tasks, but if the Matron Mother has selected us, we can rest assured we possess the skills necessary. Not least of which is her faith in us."

"Fine."