It was the usual mid-evening crowd. Drunks, soldiers, entertainers, herders, farmers, ranchers, fishermen, traders, and the like all gathered here to drink. How little they knew about the world beyond their own lives. They were pitiful, really - and yet Aradia did not pity them, for she was not one to pity anything. She would be far more likely to snuff out its life after something had lost its usefulness than to take pity on it. Pity was for the weak, pathetic humans that infested this tavern. Yet the Drital had acquired a recipe for a certain strong type of drow beer - a very dark beer, as dark as guinnes; it was as strong as dwarven stout but sweet and spicy as well. It was a drink usually reserved for drow females. Only the richest customers could buy it, as it usually took up a noble's entire vault to pay for. Drow got a discount, of course, and the bartender looked the other way when enough gold was placed in his purse.

Aradia's pint flagon sat half-empty as she awaited the drow male who'd made contact with her just a few days before. He was supposedly another survivor of the tragedy that had been House Val'truus'De'ez. Now she would know for certain if a warrior had survived that fight or not - or if this was just some trick to get her alone and drunk. But drow did not become inebriated easily. Drow beer was a good start, of course, but even then they could generally hold their liquor pretty well. Anyway, she'd heard that no one had survived the assault, but since Houses were forcibly forgotten once they'd been eliminated, she wasn't at all surprised that someone had, in fact, survived and escaped. What surprised her was that the 'someone' had found her. That they had chosen to contact her was even more surprising.

The crow messenger was now dead, of course. After responding and receiving a confirmation once more, she'd destroyed the thing; such was the manner in which surface-bound messengers were handled when their usefulness had expired. It was one of the reasons drow were so dangerous, after all; they left no witnesses and nothing that could be tied back to them.

Dryan made his way into the human-sicken establishment. He avoided them as best he could, but you had to learn to bear the pittiful beings when you remained on the surface for a while. He crept into the pub, scowling as a drunken man bumped into him. His red eyes took in the pub slowly, checking every detail. He locked onto the only other drow here, not once looking her in the face though.

Dryan had been raised within the House of Val'truus'De'ez to obey his superiors. It was a sort of breeding system, make Drow who did not make grabs for power within their own house. The system was rather effective. Dryan was just one of the resulting loyalists, saddly the rest were snuffed out along with the house.

The Drow found it hard to believe that he had found another drow of the same house, but he dared not let his guard down, no drow should. He stood silently at the side of the table, still not looking the drow in the face the entire time. He was raised for obediance, and if this Drow was truely of the former house he would obey her as well.

The creaking of the door's rusted hinges was not missed by the drow ears of Aradia, and she turned casually to see whom it was. Her mask in place and her hood up, few could tell what she was - which was good, because the last time she'd shown her skin in public she'd been attacked for its color. Yet the now-repaired piwafwi was more than a tell for those who knew what to look for - such as other drow for example. The next to enter, however, was exactly that: a drow male.

His walk marked him as such. He moved like a drow male. He took in everything - she could see that right off. And he kept his guard up - excellent. He would prove useful both to her and to the Sinners if that was the case at all times. This truly was a drow male, and a warrior at that or he would not have been so prudent. Mages tended to be idiots when it came to common sense notions such as keeping one's head down or remaining invisible to the naked eye, but such was the effects of using magic to accomplish everything in life. Magic had its purposes, of course - especially the divine powers granted by the gods - but combat was often more useful. Most useful of all, of course, was a dagger to the back from a shadow amongst the shadows that you never noticed until the blood was gushing from your quickly-failing body.

But this man was more than just another male, though: he was the contact for whom Aradia had been waiting. She was sure of this. She signed to him in the silent hand code of the drow, knowing that he had already noticed her. She took a drink as her hand went under the table, motioning for him to join her, in order to divert suspicion should someone notice what she was doing and wonder about it. She was covert about it nonetheless, doing it so that it would only be noticed by the drow male.

Dryan shifted into place at the table, his gaze still cast low. He would only look at her if he was told to. He found it rather difficult to become comfortable in a place filled with people who would love to jam thier sword into a Drow skull. Dryan tensed ever so slightly, though unoticeable to anyone that wasn't utterly familiar with Drow body language. The female drow sitting before him was a good example. He had tensed because he felt the eyes of a few paitrons gazing in his general vicinity. Though they soon looked away.

He waited for her to give permision to speak before he did anything else. He was also waiting to see if she would give him permission to speak to her like anyone else in the pub would talk. His general behavior could be concidered a tad suspicious, if anyone had really bothered to notice. This played to their advantage though, because most people could care less about two random people.

Her fingers worked themselves into the language so familiar to them as she signed her unspoken words to the other drow. Her eyes did not look upon the inferior drow male as they were scanning the bar's contents, her ears intent upon the conversations that were spawned throughout the place of drunkenness and idiocy that so plagued such places as this.

"Join me and we will speak, but quietly. I have no intention of making my plans known or exposing those with whom I now work."

She finished her signing to the male with a motion to join her, a summoning motion that the male would no doubt catch. She would not approach him, though. Such meetings as this one were altogether commonplace, yet she was not about to make herself known openly. She would most likely be noticed by those who wished to notice her if she was in fact being watched, but to make herself an open target was foolhardy at best.

And Aradia Val'truus'De'ez was no fool in any sense of the word.

Dryan shifted into a position more like the rest of the paitrons, while still retaining the dignity of his race. Even though it looked like he was speaking directly to the other drow, his eyes were still downcast. He kept things to the point, not reapeating information the female would already know. "Those who have perished rest below in the tombs, those who still live walk through the parallel caves." The message was a code, a code that only those who could understand it be given more information. He paused, listening intently to the surrounding voices. He was checking that nobody was listening in. He waited silently for her reaction. One of the reasons why Dryan was given this duty was because he knew when to feed information and when to give lies.

Aradia, of course, knew the code at once. Long ago, though not long at all by drow standards, tunnels had been dug out by the most powerful wizards of House Val'truus'De'ez. They resigned their positions as Masters at Sorcere to do so at the behest of their Matron Mother, Matron Va'kien'De'tan, a drow High Priestess seven generations back. The tunnels had been forged along with the pass words that had were changed every few years pass words that helped keep those of House Val'truus'De'ez safe and able to escape if need be. That need had finally come just two years earlier, when House Val'truus'De'ez had fallen under attack. Up until a few days earlier, Aradia had thought herself the only survivor. Then she received a greatful wake-up call.

Now those same pass words had been uttered again. Aradia followed the words carefully in her mind as they were spoken and deciphered them quickly. Almost immediately, she had the proper phrase at hand.

"Lolth's children are parted, but the failed souls now aid us."

This, too, was a code. Only certain words meant anything at all, of course. 'Lolth' and 'parted', for example, indicated that the House had fallen out of Lolth's favor. The second half of the sentence referred to the survivors. How they had survived this long was beyond Aradia, though; a lone drow noble was one, but a group of drow warriors? If not killed, they would have been captured and forced to join another House. Nonetheless, things being what they were, Aradia quickly made use of the other drow's presence and the information she had just gleaned from her newfound counterpart's encoded words. Clearly, there was a library of information in that simple phrase.

"Lolth no longer favors us," she said quietly. "This is known. Yet I have found a new master and a way to bind his powers to me so that I do not lose them should I fall out of his favor."

Her words were spoken as swiftly as they were silent, yet the drow before her could hear and understand the words perfectly well, of course.

"I care not if you choose not to follow Raku, but as the only remaining noble of House Val'truus'De'ez, I still require the respect owed me by those of a lesser station. I have few contacts in this wretched surface world, but there are two drow that I have formed alliances with - one of them an uneasy one, but an alliance nonetheless. His name is Sargtlin Olath and he is not to be harmed. The other drow is a woman named Iraevyrae."

There was no need to state that Aradia called her Irae. That would not have been acceptable coming from a male.

It was indeed clear that the house had fallen out of favor of Lolth. Yet, how she could have revoked her and live baffled Dryan. However, this was hardly his area to ponder. He lowered his head a bit more to signify his obediance and respect, while still keeping up the guise of just another paitron. "Those dead-no-longer await your words." The dead-no-longer implied those that still lived through the death of most house members, and they waited for her to take command.

There was a faint ruffle, the two drow were not the only drow present. There was one other who was sent along side him as a sort of back up. Though this drow's duty could also include killing Dryan if it became necessary. The drow made herself noticeable only to the two already conversing, before leaving the pub.

"I need to resurrect my House," Aradia continued. "To do this, I need soldiers - and those of Menzoberranzan are held within their respective Houses. I must acquire them. Such a raid, however, would have to be done carefully and I have no doubt that it will take more than a few soldiers. My thought is to invite my newfound allies into this plot. In doing so, I would be able to offer them high-ranking positions within the new House Val'truus'De'ez and gain their aid in return. How many soldiers do you have with you? We will need as many as possible for the first raid alone."

A few soldiers wouldn't be enough to overthrow an entire House, after all. They'd need Aradia to overthrow the Matron Mother - she had overthrown one on her own, once - and possibly the High Priestesses as well. With Iravyrae and Sargtlin helping her, of course, it would be even easier. Once they were out of the way, the rest would be far easier - though probably still difficult. But a large force was far better than a small one.

In truth, of course, she had no intention of merely stopping at the rebuilding of her House. She fully intended to get her revenge against Lolth for abandoning her. And the best way to do that? Why, to make her favorite city tear itself apart, of course. And when it was at its weakest, they would strike - and strike hard. But that was some time away. First, he had to get her foot in the door...

Dryan remained motionless as he listened to her voice. His ears perked as she began to explain a vauge plan, he wouldn't dare miss a single word she said. He grew uneasy though as she began to ask of him. "Only a handful of the house's warriors survived. We number at about twenty." He looked straight down, not entirely sure of how she would react to this unfortunate news.