I'm not sure how many people here have read these books, but I've finished War of the Spider Queen and starting Dark Elf Trilogy. I may still be a noob to the rest of Faerun, so bear with me here....

I'll start this in Menzoberranzan with the drow, and I'll post my character once I see some people joining....

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I`ll join... just post your char and I can make few decisions about my char...

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Name: Cyznul Vren'arach (made up the House name)
Gender: male
Age: appears around 30
Race: Drow
Occupation: Master at Sorcere

Family: House Vren'arach is 23rd House of Menzoberranzan
mother - Ynvanah Vren'arach
three sisters - Vushaz, Belwore, Qushamen (eldest Vushaz high priestess of Lolth)

Appearance: slender but strong; white hair halfway down his back; healthy black complexion with angular features; slitted blood-red eyes; cloaked in black piwafwi and robes of Sorcere

Personality: ruthlessly determined but cautious; prefers sublety to raw strength; not much of a sense of humor but can be sarcastic

History: Born into a minor House, Cyznul was ambitious from birth. He murdered his older brother at a young age and therefore attained title of first son of Vren'arach. His eldest sister disdains him, but the two younger ones are wary of him and are constantly plotting against him. He rarely returns from Sorcere to his home, but when he does it is to conspire against all of his sisters. Recently both his mother and Vushaz have fallen in ill favor with Lolth, and are desperate to win back her approval.

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Name: Xarw
Gender: Male
Age: appears around 20
Race: Drow
Occupation: A spy & assasin in the Bregan D'aerthe

Family: An orphan
Mother & The Rest - ???

Appearance: Has a slim and thin appreance, but is very agile and handles his rapier well. Wears black clothing with a hood on his normal clothes and a dark studded leather armour covering his clothes.

Equipment: An adamantite rapier, few daggers as a last chance weapon, but usually favours a crossbow that commonly drows use.

Personality: Cunning, quiet and very observing before taking an act. Xarw usually laughs at the troubles of others and only cares for his own troubes unless he has been ordered to do otherwise...

History: He was born into a slum area so to speak in Menzoberran, but he was never looked after by his mother or father, oddly he survived his childhood and stole a weapon to practise his skills because he knew that like many orphans that might have get killed by someone`s stupid idea he had to defend himself. Later as he was becoming a man he began hanging out with criminals and soon joining their leagues he was lead to Bregan D`aerthe to be a spy, but more importantly an assasin...

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

It had been long since Cyznul Vren'arach had known true pain. As a drow he prepared for the pain daily - a dagger in the back, a treacherous spell from an aspiring apprentice, the deadly disapproval of the Archmage.

But still, he thought ruefully, it had been long since he'd actually experienced it.

The spell of his adversary slammed him to the wall, encased him in iron webs, and began peeling the flesh off his face inch by inch. He grunted, trying to lift his blackened hand to grab a pinch of his spell components. His fellow master of Sorcere laughed and hit him with another spell that sent white-hot pain shooting through his mind.

Cyznul's eyes drifted to the barred door. Summons from the Archmage had whisked the usual occupants of Sorcere to the conference room. No witnesses. No intruders. His opponent had done a fine job of choosing the right moment.

"To what ends are you playing at, Lrekial?" he snarled, stalling for time.

Lrekial's gleeful chuckle bubbled from his throat. Vaguely Cyznul wondered if he was mad.

"To what ends?" Lrekial said in a sibilant hiss. "Vengeance, my dear Cyznul. You have stripped me of my house's station, my own rank.... And our dear superior Gromph has so kindly offered us this chance to... settle a few scores."

Cyznul's flesh was being stretched taut, snapping sickeningly, and drifting in pieces to the stone floor. He sucked in his breath and glared hatred at his torturer.

Lrekial's throaty laugh sounded again, and his spell pressed harder. Not long now....

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Xarw leaned onto a wall waiting for either to come out of the room, he was to keep an eye on the other for some reason perhaps because the winner might be a threat for the archmage. He wasn`t sure had the archmage contacted Bregan D`aerthe to spy after the other.

All tough he knew he had no business there he was yet there since Gromph had given him permission to be at the sorcere or insisted would be the better word. They were both master and both very powerful at some rate, but Gromph might want him to kill the other if the other became a threat. Perhaps this was a way to test their powers so that the archmage could see, if they had become a threat or the other at least.

The archmage himself walked to the room where Xarw was waiting and he gave a somewhat disgusted look at Xwar who had short white hair, Xwar inspected the mage with his redish eyes as he sat down and looked at him.

"Are they still in there?"

"What would you expect?"

"That they have both lasted this long exhanging spells and the finale is at hand..."

"True... any mage would probably be tir..."

Xarw was interrupted with a look from the archmage and he coughed leaving his words aside, Xarw grinned slightly as he looked at the door waiting for the other to arrive.

"Were they both from great families?"

"Not really, but they weren`t pitiful at all.."

"Which would explain why I am here..."

They both left the conversatio there and began to listen to the final sounds of battle, luckily there was a small stairway between the room and two doors so there was no fear of them hearing anything.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Lrekial, chuckling merrily to himself, watched in grim amusement as the skin beneath Cyznul's eyes fell apart, exposing the red flesh underneath. Blood and pus oozed from every pore of his body. He grunted, struggled as if trying to get more comfortable...

"Don't move, Cyznul. Moving will only make the pain harder to bear you know...."

... and Cyznul's fingers closed over a pinch of dust.

The pent up rage, the burning enmity, all went pouring into his spell. The blast knocked Lrekial senseless. With a feral growl Cyznul wrenched free of the iron web and followed his blast with another. The entire front of Lrekial's body ripped off, exposing the pulsing innards beneath. His entrails spilled out onto his robes. Lrekial uttered a last heartrending scream. Cyznul watched his fellow master's last death throes with a cruel grin playing across his bloody features. He watched his adversary die, not leaving the chamber until the body moved no more.

Finally he brushed the remnants of web and blood off his piwafwi, arranged the room to make it look as though Lrekial had spilt acid on himself, and left without a backward glance. He descended a stairway, rounded a bend, and came face to face with Gromph Baenre.

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Xwar looked at the man who entered the room it was Cyznul Vren'arach, the result had been in the shadows for him, but he guessed that Gromph always knew, which one was able to prove more talented and rescourseful. Xwar passed Cyznul without caring, if he wondered whom he was and rose the stairs up.

Xwar opened the door looking around, quite briliant he had to admit, but he had to then admit that it looked very messy, but in the end served it`s purpose. He returned to the room where the mages were and they must have already began talking as he returned, Xwar closed the door and Gromph looked at him quickly getting a nodd as a comfirmation that nothing looked suspicious.

Xwar leaned on the wall again following the situation.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"Congratulations, Cyznul," Gromph said as a matter of greeting. He stroked his rat familiar and looked down at Cyznul with blood-red eyes.

Cyznul bowed, wondering what game Gromph was up to. "Thank you, Archmage."

"Quite resourceful, in fact."

Perhaps not a game. But Cyznul didn't lower his guard.

"Thank you, Archmage."

Only silence, long and forbidding, answered him. He frowned, dared to raise his eyes.

Gromph's spell smote him to the floor. White, excruciating pain seared through his head, striking him blind. His spells of protection came too late. He fell to his knees, his eyes shut against the pain. He heard the rustle of robes above him, the Archmage's curt voice beckoning the other male in the room. He didn't take note of any of this. All he felt was the pain, lancing through his mind relentlessly.

He maintained his undignified position long after the pain had subsided. He knew well the Archmage's lesson. He knew well what should happen if he overstepped his bounds and let his ambition get the better of him.

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Xwar could help smiling as the mage fell to the floor and he stepped forwards looking at the mage, then he looked at the archmage with his eyebrown raised.

"Can he hear us?"

"No, not with this spell on and the pain on his mind.... but what I want you to do is to join the great halls of the Vren'arach family...."'

"But they`ll never allow it! No noble family will take me into their court just like that..."

"You are there on behalf of the Bregan D`aerthe as an advisor since I made few arrangements with Jarlaxle whom has offered their services to this house..."

"How long might this assingment and who am I to response to at that time?"

"To orders of Jarlaxle and of course to the orders of their mathriach whom of course has no idea of your true intentions, which is simply to spy on the hole family and the assignment might take years to come..."

"What? Few years isn`t a problem, but why is it now the hole family?"

"Because it is all the same and you would get these informations anyway... besides.. the house of Vren`arach has been by another house before them who pay considerably to your leader Xarw..."

Xarw nodded, this was a web of lies and betrayal he was getting into, but all he could hope that he wasn`t going to be the one eaten by the spider that had created the web.

"Only we and Jarlaxle know of this?"

"Yes and that is the way it will stay..."

"Good... and I presume I will have to take him to recover into his own room?"

"Not really I guess he can make it himself..."

Xarw dragged the mage out of the room into the stairway with a sigh, the mage was still slightly confused as they left Gromph into his room and Xarw looked at the mage waitin for him to clear his head of the pain.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

When Cyznul looked up again there was a drow male standing over him. He had heard nothing of the exchange between him and Gromph, but he was immediately suspicious. He allowed none of his suspicion to show on his face, however.

Naturally presuming that the Archmage had dismissed him, he climbed to his feet and eyed the male.

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"Harsh treatment?"

Xarw mocked him, but had a certain respect in his voice and tsked loudly after his comment.

"One hell of a fight you had there Cyznul.... anyway.. I am Xarw and I am going to be around in the future so get used to my presence, your mother has done some dealings with my leader and so I am to accompany you on your way back home... your mathriarch is calling on an important issue and seems quite important since you are called back from here..."

Xarw began walking down the hallway to the spiral stairs.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

He had heard Matron Mother Ynvanah speaking of hiring Bregan D'aerthe, but had heard no details on the matter. Not that he expected any. After all he was but a male.

"What business does Bregan D'aerthe have with House Vren'arach?" he asked, more out of curiousity than anything else. This young male intrigued him.

They exited Sorcere. Cyznul had received his orders from Matron Ynvanah that he was expected back at his house by midnight with their hired mercenary. One glance at Narbondel told him that midnight was not far in coming. They levitated down from the plateau of Tier-Breche. Cyznul looked expectantly at the mercenary.

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Xarw looked around the castle of the house of Vren`archad with a slightly admiration and a smile on his face.

"Your mathron mother is ambitious as any of the leaders of Menzoberran and she seems to have plans for her competitors so why do you think she needs us? To ensure victory of course... my concrat in your house of course is a long term one since she can be very perssuasive and that you have without a doubt discovered..."

Xarw said as they walked trough the castle halls towards some meeting room where Xarw hadn`t been in before, in fact he had never been to a castle like this.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

The huge stalagmites of House Vren'arach jutted out from the floor of the cavern. They were reinforced with walls of adamantine and encased in wards put up over generations of Vren'arachs. Drow warriors paced the stalagmite battlements. His gaze shifted over to the plateau of Qu'ellarz'orl. House Baenre and the other seven ruling houses extended their dark influences over the metropolis. They dominated the plateau, with Baenre at the center in an august display of Lolth's divine webs, adamantine walls, and faerie fire.

Cyznul smiled at Xarw for the compliment towards his house but seriously doubted the sincerity of it. Matron Mother Ynvanah was as ambitious as any other, but Vren'arach still had a long way to go. And perhaps an even longer way to fall.

They entered his mother's audience hall. Ynvanah, as attractive and seductive as ever, lounged on her throne, looking bored. Her irritated glance slid over Xarw and her firstson without much interest.

"Come in." She waved her hand. The servants made way for them. Cyznul knelt before his mother. The slitted glares from four snake whips, one from his mother and the other three from his sisters, scrutinized them.

"You will properly address the Matron Mother," Vushaz commanded imperiously. She basked in the glow of her new seat as high priestess of Lolth. Cyznul kept his lip from curling just in time. All in the household knew Vren'arach had fallen in Lolth's favor and was perilously on the verge of downfall.

That was, of course, why Bregan D'aerthe had stepped into the scene.

Cyznul lowered his upper body slowly, then straightened and met his mother's angry gaze.

"What have you to say for yourself, male?" Ynvanah demanded of Xarw.

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Xarw inspected these two females who were in the command of the house, undoutably someone else had managed to screw things up and anger Lolth, but currently Xarw had to concentrate slightly. The mathron mother and the high priestress both were trying to look into his mind, but any spy was well trained against that.

Xarw looked at the other members of the family quickly while protecting his mind and then turned to the mathron mother.

"I am here to serve and represent my leader Mathron mother, all tough I doubt my advice will be of any greater use, but I am still the only contact to my leader..."

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!