The Underdark

[Chath Tiu]

*To a surface deweler she might of passed undected only a foot away. The padded footfalls of her lizard mount were to light to be heard, and the pliable and perfectly crafted mesh armor that both rider and mount wore bent and creased with their movements as well as if the suits had grown over their skin.

Storm's ridding lizard trotted along in an easy but wift gait, floating over the broken floor, up the walls and even across the long tunnel’s ceiling. Subterranean lizards, with their sticky and soft three-toed feet, were preferred mounts for just this ability to scale stone as easily as a spider. Crossing hard ground left no damning tracks in the lighted surface world, but nearly all of the creatures of the Underdark possessed infravision, the ability to see in the infrared spectrum. Footfalls left heat residue that could easily be tracked if they followed a predictable course along a corridor’s floor.

Storm clamped tight to her saddle as the lizard plodded along a stretch of the ceiling, then sprang out in a twisting descent to a point farther along the wall. Storm did not want to be tracked.
She had no light to guide her, but she needed none. She was a dark elf, a drow, an ebon-skinned cousin of those sylvan folk who danced under the stars on the world’s surface. To Storm’s superior eyes, which translated subtle variations of heat into vivid and colorful images, the Underdark was far from a lightless place. Colors all across the spectrum swirled before her in the stone of the walls and the floor, heated by some distant fissure or hot stream. The heat of living things was the most distinctive, letting the dark elf view her enemies in details as intricate as any surface-dweller would find in brilliant daylight.

Normally Storm would not have left the city alone; the world of the Underdark was too dangerous for solo treks, even for a drow elf. This day was different, though. Storm had to be certain that no unfriendly drow eyes marked her passage.
A soft blue magical glow beyond a sculpted archway told the drow that she neared the city’s entrance, and she slowed the lizard’s pace accordingly. Few used this narrow tunnel, which opened into Tier Breche, the northern section of Menzoberranzan devoted to the Academy, and none but the mistresses and masters, the instructors of the Academy, could pass through here without attracting suspicion.

Storm was always nervous when she came to this point. Of the hundred tunnels that opened off the main cavern of Menzoberranzan, this one was the best guarded. Beyond the archway, twin statues of gigantic spiders sat in quiet defense. If an enemy crossed through, the spiders would animate and attack, and alarms would be sounded throughout the Academy.

Storm rode on, without being hampered by the commoners who scrambled to get out of her way, recoinzing the cut of her hair proclaiming she was a noble of the third house. She rode up to a 7 stilagmite and half as many stilagtight structure. The guards on the wall ran to open the rune engraved Admiantine gates anchored in Nara.*  

[Chath Tiu]

Storm dismounted, leaving her lizard clinging comfortably to a wall at her chest level. She reached under the collar of her piwafwi, her magical, shielding cloak, and took out her neck-purse. From this Storm produced the insignia of House Te'hetchet, a Female drow with eight arms wielding various weapons in each of its eight legs and emblazoned with the letters “TH,” for Tae Hentmenata , the ancient and formal name of House Te'hetchet.

She strode over to the balcony, furthering the distinction between commoner and noble as commoners cannot levitate. Storm floated up without breaking stride and walked camly down the darkened hallway to the Antichamber. A second Drow joined her, Belgos, the First boy. She barely glanced at him.*

"What news of the city, Belgos? I have been gone for quiet awhile now, haven't I? And does Matron Kalson need to see me right away or might I be able to rest a while first?"

"She would like to see you now on Family buiesness. House Youleany has fallen out of Lloths favor and Matron Kalson is readying the battle plans now. You of course will finalize them. Ironic isn't it? We no longer worship Lloth, and yet we still do her bidding."  

[Chath Tiu]

Storm noded then walked on. She paused for a moment infront of a closed double door engraved with images of stars and elves danceing and fighting under the moonlight. She sighed then turned to the doors again. They opened up silently on magical hinges revaling a star light room with a medium built female drow siting on a throne directly accros from the doors. Storm strode in then bowed before the seated figure.*

"Vandui Matron Kalson. Belgos has informed me of the battle sitautation or at least part of it. He also told me you wished to see me?"