The Matron converses with Zieggrek; then Quertus, Durdyn, and Guldor report to the Matron.
The assembled party of drow cautiously advance towards the ambush they are expecting. The noble level seems somehow different from yesterday.
An unnatural chill is in the air. Not the intense cold of winter, but something evil.
There are unnerving sounds in the distance: moans, whispers, and the occasional disembodied scream.
There is no ambush.
The great double doors of Dorina’s quarters open wide, allowing entry to the drow of House Millithor and House Morcane and their allies and servants.
The ceiling of this octagonal room rises 30 feet off the ground, and a pillar in the center stands fully half that height. On the pillar rests a throne made of bones, with a gaunt drow woman draped casually across it. The walls of the room are covered with majestic dark tapestries and several long tables of gleaming black wood stand along the walls.
Dorina T’sarran sits upon her throne. She is a gaunt drow vampire with deep black skin and yellowish-white hair. She wears black elven chainmail. Her face is beautiful but angular, with something of a feral look about it.
Another drow woman, whom the Matron, Tierak, and Zieggrek recognize as Dessa Sik-Morcane, is chained to a rack. Dessa is a strongly-built drow woman with wild white hair and deep black skin. Her stretched body is naked, except for marks of severe torture and chains stretching her four limbs on the rack. Next to her is a table with gleaming instruments of torture, scalpels, pokers, flensers, and many other wicked devices intended for torture. A metal tube extends out of Dessa’s mouth to a table, where the tube is dripping a strange yellow liquid into a beaker. Quertus thinks the tube might be a supernatural device intended to extract pain in a liquid form known as Liquid Pain.
Kiernan Morcane, Leonon Morcane, and two of the skinless female drow undead known as Quth-Maren flank the throne, kneeling in Dorina’s presence, but also kneeling in the direction of the members of House Millithor and House Morcane..
Dorina’s commanding voice fills the chamber as she speaks to Matron Ki'Willis in the drow language.
“Matron Ki’Willis, the time of your conversion to the worship of Kiaransalee is finally upon you.
“Your transformation to become one of the ever-living in death was a necessary step in your conversion to the worship of the Lady of the Dead. Death comes to all.
“Revenants are favored in the eyes of the Revenancer. Most revenants fall to dust within months. Their hatred burns so hot that it literally burns their body apart. Not so those who worship the Revanancer. Revenants that worship the Revenancer have their hatred harnessed and they toil forever in her service.
“Once you perform the ceremony and become a high priestess of the Vengeful Banshee, the Goddess will grant you true power.
“I will give this place to you and serve you loyally upon your ascension.
“With my aid, your destruction of Irae T’sarran will be assured. Irae’s death is the will of the White Banshee, why else transform you into a Revenant?
“The Goddess offers divine power, immortality, and revenge. To accept her generous offer, all you have to do is perform the ceremony to become a High Priestess of Kiaransalee. Transform this pathetic spider-kisser into one of the Quth-Maren!
“You desire this. The Goddess desires this. Embrace your destiny!”
