: biggrin erahel::
Champion's of the Gods
Seventh House of Ulorbbath
2nd post-
The Tale of Derahel
A very long time ago, before Ulvira became the Matron of Rylinndar, an extremely minor house called Derahel, lived under the rule of it's Matron, Eclavice. At this time, Ulvira's mother, Dhaunva Rylinndar, was the Ruler of Ulorbbath. House Derahel was not yet, at a status of noticeable stature. Matron Derahel, about half-way through her 300th century, began to grow distant from her patron goddess, Lolth. She left the city of Ulorbbath and dismissed her House. Being such a minor house, no one seemed to notice their disappearance.
The adventurer that she was, caused Eclavice to journey to surface where she wandered around learning about the cultures, rituals, lifestyles, languages, races, cities, and wildlife of the surface world. Almost a half century passed when she came upon a small group of Kiaransalee worshipers who taught her their ways and the belief of the Vengeful Banshee. She was apart of this group for almost another century, until a horde of Lolthites massacred them all, including the male vampire of the group who had transformed Eclavice into one of the undead. With the help of her current patron goddess, she had her vengeance on the Lolthite group and then traveled back to the UnderDark where she fount refuge in the City of Au'Shinduago to construct a house in the Death Goddess's name, which took about a quarter of a century.
She managed to hold a house in this city for almost a century before she turned on Kiaransalee. Eclavice had began to miss the ways of her previous goddess and craved the power that Lolth could offer that Kiaransalee could not. She could not; however, take up worship of the Spider Queen in a Kiaransalee dominated city, plus the King of Au'Shinduago was more of a nuisance than he was worth. So, Matron Derahel moved back to Ulorbbath, resurrected Derahel in the name of Lolth as the seventh house. The sudden re-location to a new city left little time to build a new house, so the people of Derahel took up residence in an abandoned house and re-innovated it to meet the standards of Eclavice. However, a meeting with the new Queen of the City had to be arranged to permit their stay in Ulorbbath.
3rd post-
Main Hall
A long and large hallway leads to the throne room doors. The hallway is extravagantly decorated and designed too catch the eye of those who enter and furnished for those waiting to council with the Matron. A line of medium-sized benches stretch across the length of the hall with the separation of about ten feet. The benches were carved from the finest stone with the legs fashioned in the likeliness of dragon feet. Each bench is cushioned with a navy blue pillow with silver and black tassels on the corners. In the spaces between the benches, high on the stone walls, hang house banners bearing the house insignia and colors (blue, black, and silver).
The obsidian floor is smooth and polished with a streak of silver running on either side of the hallway from the entrance to the throne doors. The silver faintly lights the walk-way. About a twenty-five yards before reaching the throne doors, there is a doorway to the left in the hall. The door way is outlined by a silver stream and blocked by a six foot, wooden door. Behind the door is the dining room.
At the end of the main hall is the massive, double-doors of the throne room. Giant, black marble, also outlined by the flowing silver. Veins of the silver run across the door, crossing into a spider-web design. In the center of the door, and the web, is a huge engraving of a spider, geometrically designed to split evenly through the middle whenever the doors are pushed open. Above the throne doors is a dragon-head mantle. The structure was carved from the stone of the wall and protrudes over the door way. The eye sockets shine with purple faerie fire from within, while a steady stream of the harmless flames flow from the open maw.
4th post-
Throne Room
The throne room is not like most. It is indeed a large chamber, but most of it is water. Only a strip of stone acts as a walk-way from the entrance the the layered platform holding the throne at the end. The bridge is surrounded by water that is as pitch as night(obviously because it's underground). However, the blue fungus that grows along the bottom, glows from the dark pits and slightly brings light to room. Floating in the water, is a large amount of skeletal bodies randomly distributed. To most who enter, the skeletons are an odd and sick decoration, but the house members know them to be more than that. With the skill of Necromancy, the Matron can call the corpses into animation to defend her.
Along the stone path that leads to the throne, are carvings of spiders. Simply another decoration or tribute to Lolth, or another mean of protection? Each of the carvings have been set with wards and alarming systems. I some how the person entering was able to avoid the other defenses, these glyphs will sense the danger. Each one has been set to detect a specific thing. The first one, right as you enter the door way, scans for concealed weapons, the second glyph, detects aggressive magical items. The third and final carving, is close to the platform and is the area where the guest who is speaking with the Matron stands. This glyph detects false statements when spoken and alerts the Matron that the person has thoughts of harming her. The symbols will shine a bright green when triggered.
The throne is made from dragon bones( from a dragon slain by Eclavice). Woven together tightly for the best support and strength, the bones are also crossed into designs of webs and spiders. Two humanoid skulls, spines still intact, act as the arm rests. Large, red rubies sit in the eye sockets of the skulls.
