A rather large and complicated campaign outline... involving Moander
Centuries ago, one of Lolth’s own daughters rebelled against her and sought to usurp her dominion over the drow. The rebellion was short and sharp: Lolth’s daughter simply lacked the power to take her mother’s place and there she had no sponsor or ally to lend her aid. Her army of fiends, half-fiends and disaffected drow (principally males) were quickly routed and Lolth’s daughter was punished, transformed into a drider (perhaps the first?) and with all knowledge of her real name expunged from the memory of drow, fiend and power alike.
Exiled then to one of the countless reaches of the Abyss, Lolth’s daughter took a new name for herself, Vicymma, the Drider of the Abyss. Also known as the Darkweaver and the Bitterweaver, she then proceeded to carve out a small realm for herself known as the Bitterweave Pits, a mockery of the name of her mother’s realm. Here in the Bitterweave Pits she brooded and sulked, both consumed and sustained by an all pervasive bitterness until the day that Shar, the Lady of Loss, sent one of her emissaries to her.
This emissary, the night hag Grimalkin, approached Vicymma in Shar’s name and offered Shar’s sponsorship and guidance in the matter of enacting a suitable revenge against Lolth. Swayed by the dark honey of Grimalkin’s words, Vicymma became a devotee of Shar and learnt to harness the power of the Shadow Weave.
After many years rebuilding her powers, Vicymma was guided by Grimalkin to the next part of the strategy: the recovery of the ancient Tablets of Sseth which recorded a malefic and powerful magic, The Great Harrowing. The last user of this magic was the Abyssal prince, Sseth (also known as Sch’theraqpasstt), who used this ritual to merge himself with the layer of the Abyss that he ruled. However, Sseth’s use of the ritual has been viewed as a failure for it has meant that he is now barely conscious of his own existence except once every few decades when his identity reasserts itself for only a few hours or days at best.
Grimalkin, however, has probed the best and most evil minds of the planes and found a two-fold solution. Firstly, Vicymma will be using the Shadow Weave to empower the ritual and this will allow a greater degree of intervention by Shar to ensure that the ritual neither fails nor has other consequences as happened with Sseth. Secondly, and more importantly, Grimalkin has provided Vicymma with the knowledge of another ritual that will allow Vicymma to store most of her identity and power in several phylacteries and ensure that her conciousness is preserved.
The goal of the ritual is still the merger of Vicymma with a layer of the Abyss. Grimalkin, and her dark mistress, believe that this will drain Lolth’s power from her and invest most, if not all, within Vicymma.
As an added failsafe, Grimalkin is seeking to reawaken Moander, presently partially merged with Lolth, both to distract and to weaken Lolth at the time that The Great Harrowing ritual takes place.
Shar’s interest in Vicymma usurping of Lolth’s power is, of course, not a selfless act. She believes that the overthrow of Lolth and the installation of an easily manipulated pawn in Vicymma, joined to her by the Shadow Weave, will give her the opportunity to develop a much larger and wider following amongst the drow.
Even the unfolding of this plan will allow her to garner followers amongst the disaffected drow, particularly those male wizards of some power who are denied an appropriate station in their societies because of their gender. Emissaries have been sent forth amongst the drow wizards to lure the bitter and the disaffected to the Lady of Loss’s embrace and the temptation and power of the Shadow Weave.
The first stage of the plan has already been completed. Vicymma has transferred much of her power and identity to four phylacteries disguised as four different objects and secreted within well-guarded areas of the Bitterweave Pits. She dares not leave the ‘Pits at this time, knowing that this separation ritual has greatly weakened her.
The second stage is to reawaken Moander by freeing his essence trapped within elven High Magic binding spells in the place known as Darkwatch in Cormanthor. The method of freeing Moander has been uncovered by members of the Eldreth Veluuthara and the task delegated by the leadership of the Eldreth Veluuthara to two moon elves of House Starym. The Eldreth Veluuthara believe that an unleashed and resurgent Moander can be their tool to drive the humans from Cormanthor and to restore Cormanthor as an elven homeland and the capital of a new elven empire.
The Eldreth Veluuthara are also allied with some of the Cormanthor drow and the Starym elves have been promised drow support for this mission.
The third stage of the strategy is taking place concurrently with the second stage. This is the recovery and study of the Tablets of Sseth upon which The Great Harrowing ritual has been recorded. The Tablets are located beneath several Ssethsar temples, in the Serpent Hills, Black Jungles and Hlondeth. Unbeknownst to the Ssethsar (or to Shar’s minions), the Tablets in the possession of the Cult of Sseth are not complete. The final tablet was stolen some time ago by minions of the Mulhorandi power, Set, and is presently hidden within the confines of a demiplane ruled by one of Set’s most favoured servants, Maekheruset, the Mouth of Set.
The Tablets are presently being studied (and copied) by several minions of Shar who are posing as devotees of Sseth. As Sseth is a slumbering power, the ruse is proving easy to pull off. These minions of Shar are Shadow Adepts led by the alhoon, Grsk, also known as the Umbralhoon. They have convinced the leaders of the Ssethsar yuan-ti that their studies will allow them to perfect Sseth’s ritual so that his consciousness can be freed from the confines of his Abyssal plane. However, their studies are interrupted by raids by the Set-worshipping faction of the yuan-ti, led by Zstulkk Ssarmn of Skullport (and ultimately commanded by the Mouth of Set in Mulhorand).
Grsk and his minions are providing copies of all their notes and research to the shade prince, Malabayn, in Khazefryn, a monastery of the Order of the Dark Moon located in the northern Underdark. It is Malabayn’s task to “build” the ritual based on the Tablets of Sseth and also from his own studies of the planes and the Shadow Weave.
Further complicating matters is the treachery of Set’s son, Krotep. Shar’s manipulations have extended to Baator and, thanks to her manipulations, Krotep believes that the Tablets of Sseth provide the key to Sseth’s reawakening and thus the weakening of some of his father’s power as the yuan-ti return to worshipping Sseth. Krotep has, most unwisely, enlisted the aid of Gargauth in ensuring that the Tablets of Sseth are uncovered and their secrets decoded so that the Ssethsar yuan-ti can reawaken Sseth from the Great Slumber. However, Gargauth’s marilith consort was a member of Sseth’s Abyssal court and she has no desire to see her former master reawakened. Thus, the Knights of Shield are adding their weight to ensuring that Sseth is not reawakened and have conspired to steal one of the Tablets.
The fourth and final stage of the plan is for Vicymma to enact the ritual in Lolth’s own realm. For this to take place, Moander must have been reawakened, the Tablets of Sseth copied and their secrets decoded and, as a final distraction, the male drow of Menzoberranzan must rise up in revolt against Lolth. The latter is simply to distract Lolth as she sends a powerful avatar to ensure that her strongest base of support on Faerun is not turned against her.
Should The Great Harrowing ritual be successfully enacted, Lolth’s power will be drained and she will be reduced to the status of a quasi-power which Vicymma will be elevated to the status of lesser power, not intermediate power, due to Shar’s domination of her.
The consequences for the Realms will be frightful as this huge influx of power, thanks to the drow turning to Shar, will disrupt the Balance established by Ao. Who knows what the full consequences will be….
Then again, perhaps this whole strategy is the work of a party other than Shar. The Great Harrowing takes place but the ritual is flawed and, just at the moment of triumph, another takes Vicymma’s place. Perhaps she is struck down by a dark figure bearing a crystalline staff, the Sceptre of Savras, and her newfound power is stolen away by one who is hidden from the sight of mortals, outsiders and powers alike?
