The Triad

The drow steps lightly along the dilapidated floorboards, a smirk on his dark face. "Fancy meeting you lot here!"

It takes all of Alalla's willpower not to bare her tusks and snarl at the drow.

"Nym," she states, expressionless. "You look much better than I saw you last." She turns to Aribeth and Fenthick. "He was in pieces at the feet of an archdevil." Al turns back to the drow. "After you threw me to him as a distraction." The look in her eyes says that it's only the advice to stay on her best behaviour that is keeping her sword away from his throat.

"Oh please, Alalla darling. Let's not fight here, of all places." He also turns to address Aribeth and Fenthick. "I saved her life. Zenithral's, too. Perhaps I shouldn't have, but I'm not bitter. I had a good run of life, half a millennium of chaos and schemes, before I eventually died." He winces. "But still, it turns out someone appreciated my actions. Lady Lolth herself," he puts an overly sanctimonious hand over his heart, "blessed be her name, saw fit to reward me handsomely in this afterlife."

Nym grins. "I am to represent Her Eight-Leggedness in your dealings today."

"Ohhh, myyy..." Zenithral says with a shuddering gasp at Nym's voice.

"You...represent the Spider Queen," he says frowning and nodding, then glances at Alalla. "Alright then. Let's get right to it. We'd like to obtain the Eye of Gruumsh."

Throwing out the names of Torm, Ilmater, Tyr, would not sway this drow. In hindsight, Zenithral realized they should have prepared some kind of deal. And offer. Instead, he simply had to state their intention and figure it out from there.

Nym claps his hands in excitement. For all his earlier dismemberment at Belhifet's claws, the drow seems to be in remarkably good health. "The Eye of Gruumsh, you say..." He stares off into space for a moment, then breaks out once more into a grin. "I believe we can help each other."

The dark elf traces a finger on the altar, leaving a smudged line in the blood. "The Spider Queen is much like a... well, a spider. She tried to have her ex-husband killed a handful of times, but to little avail. The first attempt was a manipulation of Gruumsh, as I'm sure you know. Corellon's blood mixed with Sehanine's tears, elves were born, etc." Nym taps his temple knowingly with the wet finger, leaving a blotch of blood there. The surrounding spiders hiss again at the mention of the First of the Seldarine. "But did you know that something else besides the elves was born that fateful day? For Corellon's blood also mixed with another's... that of Gruumsh himself."

Nym spreads his hands wide. "Imagine it! Something of Corellon's lifeblood, shed by Gruumsh, and Gruumsh's eye, smitten by Corellon. Born of hatred and war and destruction! When it first formed it looked for a place to call home. It found one here, in the Abyss." His leans forward and widens his eyes. "Presumably, the Eye of Gruumsh is still part of it, and therefore is retrievable - should you take the necessary precautions."

He leans nonchalantly against a wall of webbing. "So. I tell you where this creature is, and you go to recover the Eye. Is that something that would suit your desires?"

Zenithral narrows his eyes. The explanation seemed reasonable enough, but clearly Nym wasn't telling the whole story.

"Perhaps," he replies. "What are these...necessary precautions, and how does this help you? Do you mean for us to slay the creature in order to retrieve the eye, or something else?"

"Slay the..."Nym shakes his head to clear the stark white hair from his face. "No, no. I wouldn't recommend that." He shrugs. "Is it too much to hope that Lady Lolth might do something like this out of the kindness of her heart?" The smirk returns. "Why don't you share why you need the Eye? And then, perhaps, the Dark Mother will permit me to share some of her own motives."

Clearly not expecting the companions to answer that question, he holds up six fingers. "Necessary precautions. No elves." He puts down two fingers. "No half-elves. He puts down two more. "Only those not of elven blood should go." Only two fingers remain. "Of course, Zenithral is a special snowflake, and so might be able to make an argument that he doesn't count as elf-blooded." He half-raises one of his lowered fingers, this one splotched with blood from the altar. "It's up to you, really, whether you want to run that risk or not."

Alalla looks at Halla, then at Zenithral. She turns back to Nym. "So you're just going to tell us where this thing is, and it will serve some mysterious benefit to Lolth?" She folds her arms. "Or is there something else you're wanting for that information?"

Nym stretches languidly. "Well, since you're offering... When you take the Eye, Lolth wants you to replace it with something else." He glances at Alalla, face as innocent as a newborn lamb's. "That doesn't sound like very much extra trouble, does it?"

"Not terribly," Al replies flatly, not even bothering to raise an eyebrow at Nym's display. "And what will that do?"

Nym stares straight ahead again, eyes unfocused for a moment...

Then he shrugs.

"I don't actually know. It's not as though the Lady of Chaos confides in me. I mean, I could guess that it wouldn't be anything awesome for the cosmos. But, you know, maybe she's just trying to one-up a demon lord down here. Or maybe even she really is happy to mess things up for Gruumsh. Who knows?"

"Who indeed." Al rolls her shoulders beneath her plate while she considers. Agreeing to do dubious errands for clearly evil entities is something she decided a long time ago, from experience, not to do. It doesn't work out without a great deal of pain. "An interesting proposal. We'll consider it. In the meantime, we'll be on our way. Good to see you, or something."

Nym's eyes widen again - this time out of... fear? "Um, no. You really should reconsider..." Behind him, several large spiders begin inching their way toward the drow. "How about I'll owe you a favor if you accept? I'm very well-connected, as you're aware. What might I do for you?"

He takes a careful step away from the spiders. "Oh! I'll tell you where Bilewing's treasure is. And Icasaracht's too. By my soul, I'll even tell you where Aeri's is! But... uh... you have to agree to deal with Lolth."

Alalla raises an eyebrow. How curious, that the spiders seem to be threatening him and not them. "I don't know, Nym. We don't need help with those things. It really seems like you and your lady are more invested in this than we are. Why don't you two tell us a little more about what's going on?" Not that she cares about him being eaten by spiders.

The spiders inch closer, chittering and hissing, and Nym loses his composure. "Look, I'm stuck here in drow hell! If I wanted to answer to spiders and priestesses and demons, I would have stayed in Menzoberranzan! When word reached everyone about your arrival, I told Lolth that since I knew you I could probably seal a deal. But you don't offer things like that to the Spider Goddess and then not pay up!"

He pants and looks around at the creepy place. "I wasn't going to betray you all, I was just going to use you to maybe find a way to get myself out of here!"

One spider leaps onto his leg and sinks its poisoned fangs into his calf. He screams and looks pleadingly up at the companions as more spiders close in. "Please... Please! Agree to make a deal with me, and I'll make sure it's a good one for you..."

The spider seems to grow larger as it drinks in Nym's blood. It begins pulling him toward the altar.

"Please!"

Halla watches with pursed lips and more than a hint of... curiosity? She's likely seen many an animal hunt and kill. "'Tis fascinating how it grows while feeding on elf blood..."

Aribeth, silent during the entire exchange, looks back and forth between Alalla and Zenithral, clearly expecting them to do something. "He is most assuredly an evil drow. But does anyone deserve to die like this? And on that altar..." She shivers.

Fenthick speaks up. "How can we stand by and watch this happen? We need to make a deal with Lolth anyway, at least this way he will be in our debt." He clutches his holy symbol tightly. "But even without a deal, I have no desire to watch him die like this..."

Erevain stands with one hand clutching the bridge of his nose, obviously deep in thought. "Corellon's blood, Gruumsh's blood... the Eye of Gruumsh... No elves or half-elves allowed..." He finally throws up his hands in exasperation. "I have heard nothing of this before. And if I have never heard of it, ever, I don't know what information we'll be able to find back on the Prime Material Plane.
All we know now that's it's somewhere in the Abyss - the infinite and ever-changing chaos-spawned Abyss!"

He turns to Alalla. "I care not for drow, and less for this one in particular. But I am certain we'll have to deal with someone here. If not Nym, then who will Lolth send next?"