Post by BadInfluence on Apr 21, 2019 13:46:07 GMT 9.5
A promise made was a promise kept, and if he was one thing, he was a man of his word. People had called him a monster, quick to judge, quicker to strike. As such he had grown so very tired, weary of the lands he had called home, his eye blind to the beauty that once used to captivate him. He had decided it was time to wander, to see if the world held anything of value anymore, if worth was to be found among the people or the places that lay beneath his feet but… After decades of travel, centuries lining up to cast the shadow behind him, nothing had changed… People were still shallow, judgmental things, he should stand in a puddle of them and not even get his boot heels wet. Hatred and fear drove their daily lives and he could find nothing in them of value, nothing had changed since he himself was once like them, petty wants and petty needs… Nary a thought about anything outside of their own instant and immediate gratification.
Because of that he had decided to see if there was something past this world, something magical and mysterious, after all if he could exist? Who was to say then that others could not? What if he was just one of a vast race of people, varied and different, each one special in a way he would savor understanding and coming to learn? Was it possible? It could be… And with that he had begun his quest to find any magician he could, pushing them to experiment at all costs, to try and find doorways to open or worlds outside of this one… Many a demon had been contacts, riddles spoken but no clear answers, and as it went on he had gotten more and more frustrated… Ready to give it all up until in the moment there was finally a breakthrough… A goddess, she had called herself, her body alluring and her voice like bathing in chocolate… It had captured his attention and in that moment the two of them began to talk, fascination in each other as a unique and unknown species, and when he requested to travel to her world? She had granted it… But she told him that he would likely die in her world, there were things far darker lingering in the corners than himself and just the idea of it? The actual chance of danger? Was thrilling. A pact was signed, the souls of his people in exchange for the ability to travel to these other places, these… Forgotten Realms… As they were called…
The first place he had visited was Arvandor and while beautiful, the people were so good and pure he found himself pinching at the shape of it all, like a shoe poorly fitted for him to wear… The next came the dwarves who were open and adventurous, non-judgmental and craftsmen unlike any he had ever seen, he found them crass beyond all understanding. Such fine skills but while they toiled and perfected their craft, their brains were far too soft. On and on it had gone, each place a new adventure, new things to learn as he allowed himself a century in each land but… He didn’t find a place that was… Just right… Feeling a touch like the baby bear in the Goldi Locks story it wasn’t until he wandered into the world of Menzoberranzan that he found that perfect fit, at long last he had discovered a people who were complex and beautiful, a land cast in perpetual darkness yet their people shone like stars… He was smitten the moment he arrived and he spent centuries among them, moving from one land to another, sometimes a guest of this or that noble family… Always learning, exploring, seeking… By the time he had spent his seventh century down there he was already a master Drow, he fit into their population like a glove, easily slipping in and out of different populations and castles like butter.
It struck him like a stake to the heart when he saw her…
She had just been a child at first, hair as white as snow, skin as black as ebony and eyes the hue of a pink rose…
He’d been fascinated at her bravery, facing down a Drider at the age of seven, unafraid as she wielded a poisoned blade and brought the male spider hybrid down with almost a practiced ease… Only to break down crying in fear at the end because it was so terrifically much for such a small child to take on… Brave in the face of danger but so soft when it had passed. He had helped her, taken her home but disappeared shortly after, always watching her from the shadows and in Menzoberranzan? There were so many shadows to spy from… He’d become her secret friend, to others she simply called him Shadow, and everyone simply saw it as perhaps a familiar for a Priestess… A Shadow Person that she could beckon and use as she willed… But he was anything but, wasn’t he? When she passed her first set of trails and had to bed down with the vile beast as a part of the ritual for the first time in his entirety of watching her he felt something… Stir… Something… Bothered him… It unsettled him, he who felt nothing and only sought things out for the sake of wisdom, knowledge and intelligence…
She’d gotten pregnant and bore the halfling beast, considered a terrific honor among the people, so few had the bodies to carry such a thing to term… Great favor was bestowed upon the priestess who did but for him? It was like a poison in his veins and he had stepped in afterwards, speaking with her mother and making his petition known, and alas… He was too late… For she had been betrothed to a male of a rival house which would bring peace between them… For a while, at least, for there was never any true or lasting peace among the drow. All the same though he had come forward to her with his vows and desires, he made sure there was no misunderstandings, that everything was laid out quite clearly on the table… Neat and orderly as it were… At first she laughed at him, after all they had only ever been friends, they’d never even held hands and he had been with her the entirety of her life…
While it was true he had known her nearly the entirety of her life?
That did not change the facts of the way things had evolved…
Allowing her some time to adjust to the idea of it, he brought it towards her again and she still resisted, the first time a woman had ever actually had the strength or desire to resist him… It peaked his curiosity… She would bed down with a monster but with him she held out her hand with her palm up as a stop? It made him chuckle and he watched her a while longer, every month he would bring it up again, and each time he changed it a little more… Fine tuned it… And as they did this? They got to know each other in a way that was a far cry from the friendly playing they had done when she was younger. This went on for a handful of years as he watched her grow from a fetching young lady to a mature woman and at that point he threw in the towel and made things to her very… very plain… He had to have her, no matter the cost he had to be with her, and that was when she finally gave in… Their first mating was a furious frenzy of need and lust, hidden away from her husband in a deep cave system he had her in every way a man possibly could and then some more besides as he was far, far from a man… Other times it was softer than the promise of heaven, lighter than an angels wing feather, sweeter than the purest nectar… They were open and free in their affections and their lust, secretly making a house together before they eventually married, and together they were happy…
For the first time in longer than he could remember he found joy in life, something to look forward to, a reason to have faith in the living once more…
And then…
She got pregnant…
It should have been impossible, his kind often killed their mates long before a child can be conceived, let alone brought to term but it had happened… She was with his children in her belly, her elder child Chaka was appalled at it, but that was not all her fault…Chaka’s father was a coward of a man who couldn’t even keep his wife satisfied in bed, hence why there was but one child from their union, and in their mind? She had done the duty the marriage contract demanded. A heir had been produced and that husband of hers could go fuck toadstools… And that bitterness her husband felt was passed onto their child… He never could have expected what had happened next though, his sweet wife going into labor and having not one child, but twins… The priestess who had overlooked the delivery as a midwife to ensure the doctor didn’t screw anything up had made a prediction that the twins were to be the guardians of the Navere name… Together they would rebuild the house and restore the honor that had long since started to fall away from the house, and oh how good life was, and it looked like it might have stayed that way…
But it was not meant to be…
Thaylan, their son, grew sick suddenly… It was believed to be poison by her first husband, snuck into the crib by Chaka herself at his insistence, for no one else could have had access to his children if not immediate family… His darling wife in her desperation to save the life of their son went under the trials of Lolth once more, forced to breed with those hideous beasts against his repeated entreaties that there must be another way but as she explained to him that only favor comes from Llolth, and what Llolth decrees? MUST be followed…And this was one of the many tasks she had to undergo to save their son and while he had remained incredibly doubtful at the first? The farther along in her trials they went? The better their son became and he was able to spirit him away, taking him from the household that had tried to kill him, returning only a year late rand claiming that the child was a son that she had only just born… Thaylan, who had been Gia’s twin, was called her younger brother and the closest of eyes and care were then lavished on the two… Sadly though, for reasons he had not known his beloved had failed one of the tests and the cost? The cost she had not shared with him until it was too late…
He'd left the moment she changed, coming back once a year when Llolth allowed her to take on her true form and they’d spend those precious 24 hours together, and while they were apart? He was constantly trying to find a way to undo what had been done. Until then though he could no longer bear to be down there…. He knew Chaka was old enough to stand in as a mother figure and he returned to the surface world. Once there he continued his research and had been doing so for some time, only going down to visit on the sly, like when Gia got married and then the birth of his grandchild Anya… He had spoken to his son in passing but neither of them knew he was their father and it was simply safer that way… He had heard in letters from a friend of his about the fall of house Navere and he began to wonder about that Priestess’s foretelling… Causing him to head down into the Under Dark once more, prepared to go and see for himself and that was when he had the surprise visit of a certain associate of his, the two of them going into some very deep conversation as one shocking bit of news was chased into the other… It certainly caused him to take a turn in his travels and return to Arvandor for the first time in centuries, the place made him itch a bit, sort of like a heat rash but it was tolerable… Choosing to stay in one of the Inn’s in that thriving town called Silverthorne, waiting for the moment when it was all going to fall into place, knowing he would have been given a letter when all was prepared and ready…
It was full on dark when the runner got to him, the message from Nautilous stating that they were ready to head into the under dark to find the original seat of House Navere, they were ready to depart but given that he had lost his magic recently he was asking if perhaps they might travel with him instead of on foot as they had originally planned… The reason being? That Gia with in the family way, expecting triplets and that he did not feel it was remotely wise or beneficial to go in any other way, and he couldn’t agree more. Though… How would the group feel moving around in his home? It was… Uncommon… But they would all adjust he was sure… He’d prepare his personal carriage to go out and meet them at the Castle first before they’d then head out to pick up these… Doctors…
carriage
Carriage Interior