Forgotten Realms Fan Fiction ❯ The Cat and the Spider ❯ The Underdark ( Chapter 2 )

THE CAT AND THE SPIDER

 

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

 

Notes: I didn't want to use Menzoberranzan because this city has been used and reused both in the fan-fictions and the originals books. The other drow cities didn't seemed better in my eyes, so I used Sheoloth with some modifications to allow it in the world of Forgotten Realms. Another source of inspiration was Drow Tales but I could not steal from such a great work.

 

 

Chap 2: The Underdark.

 

 

The party of Neshad Luzkar was slowly advancing in the rock tunnel. The wizard of the group was sure of him: a powerful magical surge has come from this direction. Without it, they would have never uncovered this passage.

 

Neshad was a Drow, a Dark Elf. This particular race was the bane of the Underdark. Refined, cruel and magically powerful, the Drow strived in the darkness. Their darkvision enabled them to see in the complete obscurity as an inversed black and white picture.

 

The Underdark was very dangerous, even for the top predator of the food chain. Wicked scimitars with a magical edge and hand-crossbows with poisoned bolts were standard weapons for the Drow. Chain-mails of black adamantine enchanted to make no noise protected their bodies. But the most dangerous feature of this race was their magical potential.

 

Armed with innate magical powers, the Drow were also the most redoubtable of the spell-casters. Coupled with their cruelty and cunning and you have a race that only the fools or the most powerful would challenge.

 

Neshad of the Luzkar family was a noble and the leader of the group. That only meant that he had to watch his back when giving orders. He was an opportunist and a survivalist with a particular interest in the flesh market. He positively loved the thrill of the hunt and capture of sentient life.

 

There was seemingly little gain for this exploration but he had learnt to take such chances because he had discovered that there was a silver lining in everything, even death. After all, if you died, you were liberated from the suffering of life.

 

The scout stopped ahead of them and signalled to the main group in the sign language. The Drow had developed a silent language almost as efficient as the spoken one. “Obstacles ahead, mechanic and magical.”

 

Neshad looked to their wizard. “Open way.”

 

The mage advanced and begin to cast. Most of the party prepared themselves to dodge an ill-aimed spell. Such `accidents' were current. The vision of the magic-user was rendered sensible to the blue-white energy of the magic. Yes, there was a dweomer here and here. He cast another spell which haloed the traps.

 

The wizard made short work of the various traps and spells around the entrance of a stone chamber. Neshad was excited, those were old enchantments. There should be something nice in the protected room. One of the warriors opened the door.

 

What a deception, almost nothing. There was a portal but it was visibly out of commission. There were a few chests but all were smashed, their contents long gone. There was…huh? The body of a small humanoid was on the floor near the inoperative portal.

 

Prudence is a key word for the Drow. Prevention was also used many times. A bolt with the sleep-poison of the dark elves was launched. The body trembled a little at the impact but remained into slumber. The party quickly and efficiently secured and searched the stone chamber: Nothing.

 

Well nothing except the body. Neshad rolled it on its back after checking for nasty hidden spell-traps. Surprise, it was a girl, a human girl with the most peculiar colours seen on a human. Her skin was a pale white and her hair silver. She was dressed in a tattered strange grey outfit. She had no possessions.

 

He shrugged. She was probably a victim of the malfunctioning portal. Nothing interesting in her, he just had to make it quick. He drew a dagger and stopped suddenly. On the throat he was about to slit was a spider.

 

It was a black widow with elven smiling lips: the symbol of the possession of a spider by the sacred presence of Lolth. Their divinity was stopping him to kill the girl. He quickly knelt imitated by his party enduring without stress the sudden flux of thousands of arachnids in the room.

 

The spider slowly crawled on the white skin of the neck and bite in it. It was the sign of the favour of the chaotic goddess. Apposed on a living being, it marked her to be a gift from the deity. This young human girl was a gift of their goddess for the Drow. The mark was magical and would never fade as long as the favour of Lolth remained.

 

Satisfied that her intention was understood the representation of the Spider-Queen skittered away. Neshad signalled to his warriors to take the human. Well, he was a slave merchant and it was not the first time that others races received the `Kiss of the Spider'. He smiled. She should fetch a very good price on the market.

 

His men quietly bound her with spider-silk ropes and he affixed a travelling slave-collar on her slender neck. Those collars were enchanted to silence the slave and shrunk slowly if they were taken away a distance limit of a slaver ring attuned to it: Simple, efficient, deadly, cruel, Drow.

 

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The dreams were vivid. They were also the same for all concerned. Lolth manifested her will in nightmarish symbols. Since she couldn't give direct orders to her followers because of the Edict of Ao, she used obscure symbols that would confuse them on the subject of the albino girl. Mixed with it was a very specific order impossible to misinterpret.

 

When the high priestess of the church of the Spider-Queen reunited for the rituals of the `day' they found that all have made the same dream. It was the sure sign of the will of Lolth.

 

The Dark Eight were the most powerful and influential of the priestesses. The position was not hereditary but acquired and paid by blood, power and treason. Wearing magical masks known as Facewebs they were the power of the goddess Lolth in Sheoloth.

 

“Everybody had received the same dream? Interesting. Praise to Lolth!” Velduuna the Vile was the current leader of the Dark Eight. She obtained her position by the use of insidious plague-spells that bestowed incurable diseases. Her most striking feature was the left dead eye that cast an unsettling blind gaze on her interlocutors.

 

“Yes, it was very interesting, especially her will to allow the recreation of the eighth clan.” Jezdivyn Urklaar was the most physical of the council. She preferred to use her hands to kill instead of weapons or spells.

 

“What about the human girl? What of her?” Hylviar Lusakras frowned as she thought of the filthy white wench. Most adept of the art of torture among her sisters, she was also known for her prowess in…the art of the bedroom…when her partners escaped alive.

 

This question triggered a polemic which threatened to boil into a fight. None were in accord with the significance of the human girl. Finally a consensus emerged. The council will approve of the recreation of the eighth noble family. Edicts will be published for the chosen by the goddess to come to the temple of the Web of the Dark Mother to prove that they have been chosen.

 

Once that the new clan will be installed in the cavern of the Noble Labyrinth and declared protected by the Will of the Spider-Queen, a hunt for the mysterious girl will begin. She will be the property of the winner. The only restriction will be the interdiction to kill her as long as the favour of Lolth remained.

 

“You know that by making her a status symbol, the others clans will try to take her for themselves or more simply kill her.”

 

“Yes.”

 

The entire council laughed at that. The will of the goddess will be enforced and the struggle of the clans will weakened them. The resurgence of the Orishal family bolstered by new blood and the favour of Lolth will create a long strife among the Nobles who will no longer endanger the strangle-hold of the Dark Eight on the city.

 

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When Shan Mao regained consciousness, she thought she was in the train to Beijing. She was aware of a regular movement and the sensation of moving. She felt also…restrained

 

She opened her eyes on nothing. The darkness was so deep that it was almost tangible. With a growing horror, she felt that her limbs were bound by ropes and that she was on her stomach on a moving and silent animal.

 

She opened her mouth to scream but no sound was heard. She blinked. She had felt the passing of the air on her vocal chords and nothing. Panicked, she turned her head around, hoping to perceive something, anything. Only darkness greeted her.

 

She couldn't see them but around her, the party of Drow on the back of their rock-lizards were silently laughing of her distress: The handicap of having only a normal vision in the Underdark was one of the best tools to restrain slaves. Incapable to perceive the environment, the foolish who tried to escape died very quickly.

 

Neshad Luzkar smiled. The girl was ready for the next phase. He pointed his finger on her and haloed her with faerie fire. The silent scream and the widening of her eyes were honey for his jaded senses. The shock, the fear and the very nectar of her raw emotions were so delicious to him.

 

`What in the name of the Yama Kings are they?!' She was irradiated a pale white light but that was secondary to what the illumination revealed. She was bound on the saddle of a…giant Komodo Dragon? The rider was a black-skinned…elf? She couldn't believe her eyes: Her mount was surrounded by half a dozen of other identical creatures mounted by elves with pointed ears, white hair and red eyes.

 

The lizards were almost silently running along the walls of a fantastic tunnel in the rock. With stupefaction, she even saw them running along a vertical wall like they were flies. She gulped as she considered the equipment of her kidnappers. They were all armed with nasty and very realistic looking medieval weapons.

 

During a movement, she felt the metallic collar around her neck. `What the…Am I being kidnap by white slavers?' The thought was not very reassuring. The chaffing of the ropes was also proof that she was not dreaming. But where was she?

 

Without any warning, the pale light disappeared and she found herself in complete darkness once again. As the hours passed, silent tears fell from her eyes as the situation looked more and more grim.

 

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She perceived at long last a few lights ahead. It was the wavering red-orange light of torches. The illogical hope that surged in her heart crashed as she took in the scene in front of her. It was a nightmare.

 

The small puddle of light was not for the benefice of the dark-skinned elves, it was to maintain the bundle of despair in its centre: Slaves. It could only be slaves that she was seeing, some dozens of…creatures?

 

She blinked again at the spectacle. It could not be that. Among the people captured, she was seeing creatures of Myth. Testing the rope passed on his collar, a minotaur was looking desperately for an escape.

 

He was not the only creature that she recognized from her lecture of western books and her exploration of the Net. There were dwarves fiercely staring with hatred to their captors. A group of humans from the two sexes were attempting to calm two children among them. Greyish and bald dwarves were showing teeth to a clump of little green creatures. Two or three giant creatures were roaring…in silence? ...to another group of…fish-men?

 

Everyone were fitted with a dark-grey metallic collar and bound to another captive by a rope. The worst was the silhouettes of others dark-skinned elves guarding, mocking and tormenting the prisoners.

 

Shan Mao vision was exacerbated by the long period of darkness and by her genetic flaw. She could see many things. The slaves were more numerous than the slavers. The elves were all armed to the teeth. They were almost all male as she could only see one female among them.

 

The female elf was taller than the males. She was breathing pure arrogance and her chain-mail was richly decorated by web and spider designs. She blinked and looked around. The spider or web motif was present in one form or another on everyone but the slaves. Shan Mao was also feeling danger just by looking at her.

 

She was thrown in the mass by her captor and managed to roll with the impact although her muscles were sore from immobilization. The same captor approached her with an evil smile. Her eyes widened in fear at the curved dagger he drew but he only cut off her bounds before binding her to the human group by her collar.

 

Long hours of slow torture passed. The prisoners were not fed and received only a mouthful of water. Time and time again, a dark-skinned elf would choose a victim and torment her with hits and/or magic. It was a shock for the young Chinese girl to see real magic at work. At one time, a dwarf rebelled and was killed without mercy. The body was left slowly bleeding before his people and the others slaves.

 

She had attempted to communicate but the humans were wary of her because of her appearance. She couldn't think of why or how she was here. She remembered the feeling of immense power in the pagoda and the pain after that. She thought she had heard voices during that suffering and had felt wonderful warmth in her heart at two times. After that she had awaken on the back of giant lizard mount.

 

She observed that the elves communicate between them with a sign language. Silence seemed to be the rule here. After a long period, the signal was given to move. The slaves formed a column with the mounted elves around them. Whips were used to maintain the cohesion and the speed of the group.

 

Once again the endurance of many was tested during the long march. No stop, no water or food. With mounting dread she assisted to the execution of slaves too exhausted to carry on. It was then that she saw her first necromantic spell. The female elf had cast a spell and the cadaver was animated as a zombie. She had freaked but the bite of a whip had reminded her that such comportment was not tolerated.

 

She was not able to see it but she heard along the way many sounds that hinted of ferocious combat. Sometimes one of the riders came back wounded or didn't came back at all. In one case there had been a panic among the slaves as three living winged statues attacked them from the ceiling.

 

It was then that she discovered the nice little function of the collar. An ogre had managed to escape during the confusion. The column crossed his body strangulated by the collar some distance away.

 

The convoy arrived to a river system. Boats like drakkars were waiting for them here. The slaves were chained to the rows and the water travel begun. Shan Mao was sure that several days passed as they rowed by intervals, were fed hard drying black bread and a few mouthful of clean water. There was no hygiene or separation of sexes during this ordeal.

 

She smelt the arrival to their destination rather than seeing it. Very few sources of light were used because the elves didn't like them. A strong smell of mildew was perceptible. Pale glows that she knew now were the result of the magic of her captors appeared: It was a dock on the river.

 

Everything was made of stone and a curious material like dried sponge. However here was sound. The oppressing silence has been replaced by the brouhaha of a city: A city in the underground but a city nonetheless. Here also there were dark-skinned elves…and slaves of all races

 

With disbelief she also perceived fragments of the English language spoken among the throng of people. If she could have her collar gone she could communicate. Her physical condition has helped but she knew that everybody was on the verge of exhaustion.

 

The column was guided again by the whips and by shorts barks of the elves. They passed a massive gate in a heavily decorated cavern. Sculptures of many races were displayed, Shan Mao discerned that they were meant to belittle the race depicted and glorified the dark-skinned elf race. It was also when she met her first giant spider and almost panicked. Her collar and the sound of the whips reminded her in time that discipline was lethally enforced here.

 

They took a spiralling road along a gigantic shaft, probable result of an eruption as proved by the presence of a pool of magma at the bottom. Transports of all kinds were seen on the road. Lizards and spiders were predominant. Magical transportation was used also in the form of floating disks. Bewildered, Shan Mao also saw a few elves defying gravity by floating up or down the shaft.

 

The miserable group arrived in a massive carved cavern. Stone pillars soared up from the floor dwarfing tiny buildings huddled around the floor. At the top of three pillars, canopies made apparently of spider-silk glittered. It was also where the slaves saw the first corpselights.

 

Cadavers were suspended on posts and seemed to burn irradiating a sickly blue-green light. It was a horrific vision reinforced by the silent screams of the slaves at the spectacle. `I'm in hell!' was the preponderant thought of Shan Mao. The impression of a demoniac world was reinforced by the numerous entertainment businesses for the jaded that rivalled in depravity and horrors to catch the attention.

 

The slavers conducted their prizes to a warehouse building where they were `processed'. All the slaves were stripped of their clothes and hosed by a magical contraption. The temperature of the air was high enough for not risking a cold but the sheer humiliation…

 

They were manacled and the few rebels whipped to the blood or hit by spells from sticks that seemed to cause immense pain. It was also where their collars were replaced by a chain. Shan Mao could have tried to speak to a few of her companions of infortune but the punishment of an ogre who started to roar at his captors was almost enough to make her puke. Under their eyes, a female elf looking like the one of the slaver party pointed her staff and a giant spider materialized and proceeded to eat the ogre…alive.

 

Around her, the dark-skinned elves were reacting as if the spectacle was amusing at best. Shan Mao shook in terror. She was among monsters that considered any life other than their own useless and disposable.

 

The slaves were corralled in a pen near an auction stage. The albino realized they were about to be sold.