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 Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:10 pm
introduction
 certed versionThis is the journal of Shrisin Baen'duis. Please, do not post here unless you are staff. introduction|navigation|information|interactions and acquaintances|growth progress|miscellaneous
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:14 pm
navigation
introduction
navigation
information
interactions and acquaintances
growth progress
miscellaneous
introduction|navigation|information|interactions and acquaintances|growth progress|miscellaneous
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:27 pm
social information
common name: Shrisin
religious affiliation: worshipper of Lolth
house: Baen'duis (Twentieth House)
origin: Llurth Dreir
gender: female
age: approximately 60
stage: dalharil
class: yathrin
general
skin tone: dark slate
eye color: dark red
hair color: pale silver
height: 5' 5"
weight: 120lbs
markings: a thin scar on her left wrist where someone was careless with a whip
nicknames: Shri
personality: sensual and seductive, spoiled, occasionally childish and tempermental, visionary, independent
introduction|navigation|information|interactions and acquaintances|growth progress|miscellaneous
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:28 pm
interactions
Free Time (complete)
Killing time in a cafe Shri meets a student of magecraft and makes an unexpected alliance.
The meeting of the Shris (in progress)
Shri makes a trip to Llurth Dreir to surprise Val and meets the other Shri.
acquaintances
Taliesin - a most unique mind and outlook
Shrilyn -
introduction|navigation|information|interactions and acquaintances|growth progress|miscellaneous
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:28 pm
growth progress
journal entries: 9
in-progress roleplays: 1
completed rolepleays: 1
introduction|navigation|information|interactions and acquaintances|growth progress|miscellaneous
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:29 pm
miscellaneous
name origins
Baen'duis: "Blessed by the Whip" Trielnolu: "Silent Silk" family/house informationBaen'duis is a family in which domination and mastery have been taken to new levels. All females learn to wield a whip with deadly precision if need be, but they can also use their whips more gently. Some are evan capable of making the lash less like a beating and more like an erotic caress, they are so skilled, and such women are given positions of power and authority regardless of age or how close the ties of blood are. Their way of paying homage to Lloth is centered on penance for wrong-doings, which comes in the form of a lashing, naturally. Self- or assisted-flagellation is a common practice. In a religious ferver members of Baen'duis have been known to whip themselves into a semi-delirious euphoric state which is said to produce visions of Lloth. On the whole, they are not particularly ambitious socially, being content to practice their version of Lloth's religion in a peace which would not be afforded to them were they in the upper echelons of Southdark society. Historically, Baen'duis was once a great house, but when their Matron found an alternative means of worshipping Lloth she fell away from societal intrigues and in a fit of religious zeal pared down her house only to those she considered true believers. At that point, her house lost its standing completely, and so they live on the fringes of society, producing fairly remarkable individuals on a surprisingly regular basis and sending them out to be trained, but Baen'duis cleaves more closely to its secrecy and solitude - and solidarity - than most. family tree post colorShri posts in indigo.
drow sprite
theme for Shri and Val
"Dangerous Game"
introduction|navigation|information|interactions and acquaintances|growth progress|miscellaneous
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:35 pm
This journal was a gift to myself, purchased years ago but then ignored and forgotten. I brought it with me to Gallidurth upon my exile, thinking I might keep a written record of all that befell me during my enforced servitude, but as it turns out I never took the time to do so. My reasons for this are twofold. First, working as a servant for a temple of Lloth affords a person very little personal time for diary-keeping. The time spent writing in a diary could be better put to use sleeping. Second, there is no privacy for a servant. Anyone of higher rank can walk into your quarters at any time of the day or night and make demands of you, to which you must acquiesce or submit to a beating. Sometimes they beat you whether you obey or no. Similarly, anyone of higher rank can go through your possessions and take what they choose.
Why do I begin to keep a journal now? Well, I have a slim hope that my brother may live. I actually have two brothers, but when I speak of my brother, know that I mean Valyrr, the younger of them. He is the only one who matters. But why should this hope encourage me to take up journalling? Because I am now a priestess-in-training, and as such I am granted a greater degree of privacy, and I now find that I wish to keep a record of my thoughts and deeds during this time of training. Someday I may allow another to read it, or I may keep it for myself, to read over and remember. Or I may destroy it. That would probably be wisest, but I do not always do what is wise, as most who know me can attest.
I have lived the last ten years as a servant of the temple of Lloth in Gallidurth, where my aunt trained when she was young and the world was new. I suspect I was sent away from home so that I would have no opportunity to contact Val, or even to learn whether he lives. I still do not know if he lives, but I think he must. It would be unwise for my aunt, the matron of House Baen'duis, to allow me to train as a priestess after killing my brother or ordering him killed. Surely she knows I would seek revenge for his death, taking charge of Baen'duis sooner than either of us anticipated. But I digress. I was writing that I have been a servant for the last ten years, and I have hated it every moment of every hour of every day.
Despite this, I do not hate my aunt, though she gives me much reason to. I try to believe that she has meant this entire, hellish experience to be a lesson to me, though I am unsure what she wanted me to learn from it. Perhaps her motives will become more clear to me in time. And perhaps I will walk in the sun and dance under the moonlight. In other words, I doubt it. But I survived, and I suspect that Val, if he lives, has endured worse these last years. For that, more than for what I have suffered, I might hate my aunt, but, again, I do not. Not yet. Hatred is a very powerful emotion, like love, and it makes a person stupid. I cannot afford to hate anyone just now. Besides, the time for hatred was ten years ago, or any time since then until now, when I was living as a drudge, not now that my status has been elevated.
My thoughts are not on the future, however, in spite of the return of my power and position. My mind dwells in the past, thinking about Val, and - I admit it - longing for him as I have for ten years. Not just his body, though I sometimes ache for that still, but something else I did not realize mattered to me until I was deprived of him. He loves me. I know it. He's protected me my entire life, practically from the moment I was born, when he stood up to Faertana, who wanted me killed, and every moment since then, always taking the blame for any crime I committed. Most of the time I let him. Without prompting he assumed all the guilt for our transgressions, claiming that he raped me, even, rather than admit the truth, which is that I am the one who began everything. I'm both proud and ashamed to say that I didn't let him shoulder the blame then.
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:36 pm
I don't have to write what we did that was so horrible he may have been killed for it and I was temporarily exiled, but perhaps I had best explain it, so that it will not be forgotten, should aught go awry. Val and I were lovers. When I began to mature sexually, I wanted desperately to explore and plumb the depths of the new sensations and desires I felt every day, and especially every night. I was precocious, though, and so it would have been unseemly for me to take one of the house guards as an experimental lover. Not when they were loyal first to my aunt, and likely to report everything potentially embarrassing detail to her.
So I turned to my devoted older brother, who had long since appointed himself my second shadow and guardian. I suspected, and desperately hoped, that his devotion to me was greater than his loyalty to our mother and aunt, and that I might swear him to secrecy. Indeed, secrecy was our only option when my explorations - ours, really, since he was as inexperienced as I - progressed beyond chaste practice kisses, into the realm of hot osculations and heavy petting, and finally into sweeter, stickier situations. Because our house demands that its matron be virginal when she ascends, and I knew even then that I was my aunt's chosen successor, we were forced to be creative to avoid breaking my maidenhead, which led to further blasphemies, since a female should never be in a position of submission to a male. There were other crimes committed. I turned my lash on him when I was skilled enough, using it to enflame his passions, rather than to punish him, and I occasionally had him wield a lash against me, which is one of the highest crimes a male can commit in my house.
All was discovered by my sneaking, skulking, b***h of a cousin, Trielnolu, whom I swear I will kill someday, though I've still no idea how, exactly. She brought her discovery, every sodding detail of it, to our aunt, and demanded a public trial, hoping to force my aunt into killing Val and banishing me. She got her way, after a fashion. I am temporarily banished while I dwell in Gallidurth, and I do not know what has become of Val, but I suspect it was awful enough to make him wish he had been killed. I know the beating I received for my indiscretion and perversity, as it was deemed, was the worst I have ever taken, and I am a daughter of House Baen'duis through and through, able to take pleasure in all but the most brutal infliction of pain as well as in the administering of a beating.
I know why she did it. She was spurned by our mutual cousin, Alakyrd, who is the matron's son and only child, and also her best chance to become the next matron of Baen'duis. He turned her away because he is saving himself for me, knowing, as all do, that we will someday marry to cement my inheritance. I don't want him, and she knows that, too, and I think it was too much for her. She wanted to take everything from me, and might have done, had Matron Umraevyll been a different sort of person. I thank the Goddess that my aunt is as she is, but I do not forgive Trielnolu. I never will. I would damn her to the Abyss and back, so that I might have the pleasure of her death. I am, after all, a daughter of House Baen'duis. It will be pleasurable for me, and more so because it will be her.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 6:40 am
The worst part of being a servant is being subject to the whims of anyone whose status is greater than yours, which is practically everybody in the Underdark. Even males are higher than most servants.
I remember being made on one occasion by an ilharn assassin visiting the temple to clean every inch of his quarters with this foul, caustic concoction so that it would meet his exacting, germophobic standards of cleanliness. My hands cracked and bled, and so I had to scrub those places again, because he stood over me the entire time, watching and admonishing. He wouldn't touch me or any other living thing with his bare skin, but he was quick enough to kick me if he found anything not to his liking. When he thought I was not being thorough enough at one point, he kicked me hard enough to roll me onto my back, and then he nearly crushed my throat with his booted foot as he detailed exactly what I had done to earn this treatment, and what he would do to me if I tried to do less.
I also remember being a whipping post for any frustrated priestess or priestess-in-training. Only one of these beatings marked me permanently, for which I am grateful. However, I now sport a scar on my left wrist which looks almost like a bracelet. I am a daughter of House Baen'duis, and I can take pleasure in pain, be it mine or another's, and that is a blessing from Lloth without which I might not have survived. None of the beatings were lethal, even the one which left me scarred, but the sheer volume and frequency of them was enough to leave me in a constant state of pain. Most of my abusers were not skilled enough with any sort of instrument to make their beatings effective, but some were more skilled, and those were the ones who figured out I have a higher tolerance for their attentions than most, and they frequently requested me specifically to be the lucky recipient of their ministrations.
The most degrading thing, by far, however, was the sexual abuse. My family is unusual in that we require our matrons to ascend as technical virgins. I have my own theories on why this is the case, but the practical result is that we - or at least I - have skills more frequently attributed to courtesauns and whores, not usually possessed by noble drow of a house. We learn to be appealing and alluring, and we become perpetually charged with sexual energy which is practically tangible. I do not know if this is the case with others of my house, but I have always attracted the attentions of both males and females, though males are usually intelligent enough not to act on their attraction. As a servant of the temple, I was low enough that neither male nor female needed to contain their lust. Through luck, or perhaps some rule of the temple's, my virginity remains intact, but I have endured more from ranking strangers visiting the temple, other servants, and even priestesses than I thought possible. Some of it was pleasurable, but most of it was demeaning and humiliating. Apparently degradation is becoming on me.
A lesser being would have broken under the things I have been through, particularly one coming from my background and upbringing, but I am not broken. At first I tried to remember the names of my abusers and tormenters, so that I could pay them back when I was released from my servitude, as I never doubted I would be, but after two years I realized it didn't matter. If we ever meet again, as I'm certain we shall, we will both know what took place between us, and when I am matron, I may even be able to use these tentative, albeit unusually acquired contacts to my benefit. I will turn this experience into an advantage, I'm certain, and so I shall try not to think on it anymore.
I do wonder if it will be awkward between the priestesses and priestesses-in-training and I, now that I'm in training to become a priestess, too. We'll see.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:28 am
I did not write this earlier because I was unsure if my journal was really secure and private, but I feel confident that I have hidden it well enough that none of the other apostates will find it. If they do, I will know that they were looking for something hidden in my quarters, and I will be justified in seeking out the appropriate authority. Much as I dislike tale-tellers, considering my past, I am not going to allow my distaste for the practice cause me to be taken advantage of. Besides, I have, until now, written nothing which is not already common knowledge.
Now I take a risk in writing what I did not before, though the event of which I will write actually took place some time ago. I have discovered what has become of my brother. I mean, Valyrr, of course, not my other brother. My other brother is insignificant, which, I suppose, makes Val significant. It is strange to write that he is significant, but he must be. I have borne much for his sake, and that, if nothing else, makes him noteworthy, if not significant.
It might be better for Val if I allowed him to fade back into anonymity, because I am aware that it is my attentions which cause him to continually come to significance. My desires which eventually caused such a furor. My decision to refute his claims at trial. My action in seeking him out almost as soon as I was able. Yes. He must be significant. It pleases me to have a significant brother, and it pleases me more to know that I have made him significant, I think, though I wonder if he would thank me for it. Of course he would. He has always taken whatever I give him and been grateful for it. Would he do otherwise if he knew what I have done these last years?
It is not with thinking about. I remind myself that he is only a warrior, and a male one at that. I tell myself not to think about him, because he doesn't matter for the reasons I've mentioned above. Somehow it doesn't quite work. When I was a servant and things got bad, I would wish that Val was there. I knew he would have protected me with his life if need be. He would never have allowed many of the things which befell me to occur. I have never seen him take another's life, but I'm sure he would have killed those who tormented me. I tell myself that all I wanted was a guardian, and salvation, and that Val's face and figure only came into my mind because he has been the one to act in that role my entire life, but I suspect that I am lying to myself.
There is no reason I should love him. I will be a priestess of Lloth and matron of one of the thirty noble houses. He should be nothing. A plaything, perhaps, even a favorite, but he should not consume my thoughts. Knowing that he is alive has only made it worse, though I no longer need a protector. No one would dare harm a priestess of Lloth. At least, not under ordinary circumstances. I, of course, am a special case, but after generations of future Matrons Baen'duis training in this temple, they are used to our eccentricities. Lucky me. And ther is no reason for me to love Valyrr. None. He is nothing out of the ordinary, and even if he was, love is a fool's game.
And so go my thoughts. Around and around, always back to Val. I find myself wondering if he thinks of me like this. I'm almost certain he does, because I know he loves me, but it's the almost which causes me grief. I would hate to be the only one suffering like this. Because it is suffering. As I seem unable to rid myself of it, I must simply ignore it. But that won't stop me from writing to my brother. I will just stop me from re-reading the messages he sends me until the parchment is limp with frequent handling and the ink blurred with tears.
Oh, yes. That was what I originally meant to write. I have found a way to contact Val without anyone's knowledge but the mage I pay to send the message. Val, of course, must reply by conventional means, and so it takes longer, but that is as well, or else I might spend my days with the mage, waiting to reply to Val's letters, and that would be a sorry pasttime for a priestess of Lloth.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:33 pm
There is another matter, and one which pleases me greatly. I have made a great deal of progress all in a rush in my vendetta against Tri-no. I am still unsure whether I should call my Tal a conquest, an acquisition, or something else. I'm not entirely sure I'm entitled to call him "my" anything yet, but he will be, in time. I met him on the day I learned of my elevation in status while I was sitting in a streetside cafe, killing time and pretending to be shopping for clothing. In reality, I was sending the first of my messages to Val, but I took care of that matter too quickly for my story to be plausible. It's just as well I lingered, because that's how I met Tal.
It's interesting that the important males in my life seem to have similar-sounding nick-names. Val. Tal. Well, there are only the two of them, but I still find it amusing, as is my prerogative. Anyway, about Tal. He is a student mage locally with a gift for elemental magic, which he seems to think is coarse and common compared with subtler forms of magic, like illusion and enchantment. However, over the course of our discussion I came to learn that he has an even more extraordinary gift than mere magic, which is common enough that my despised cousin possesses it. His mind promises to be an endless source of amusement and fascination for me. He can imagine ways to turn common, everyday castings into works of genius.
Perhaps you think my praise is too high, as he is but a male, but I assure you it is not. He is worthy of all the praises I have already showered upon him, and any further that I may utter or write, I am sure. He will help me in my quest to destroy Tri-no. In securing his aid, I agreed to give him monetary recompense and I promised to adopt him as the House Mage when I become Matron Baen'duis. I was prepared to do more for him, because his mind is unique, and I would not like to ever see it turned against me. In this way, his alliegence is assured. He is - or will be - mine.
I do not know if I am more pleased to learn that Val lives, or to have Tal at my side, but I do know that things are going to change, and I think for the better. With Tal acting as my advisor, and Val as my protector, I will be unstoppable as a Matriarch, and the rise of House Baen'duis through the ranks of Llurth Dreir will be swift. We are not a large house, but that is not so important. Smaller houses are often overlooked, and it has been the habit of our fellows to ignore us for so long, when we first strike, they will be too shocked to retaliate, by which time it will be too late for them. It is heady to think these thoughts, and I am finally coming to realize what it will mean to take my aunt's place. I think I will manage quite nicely.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:38 pm
My lessons in theology are fascinating because they are less about theology than politics. Of course, the two are inextricably tangled up. Our Houses come to power through the Goddess' will, as everyone learns at an early age, and all things, good or ill, are the direct or indirect results of Lloth's desires. Everyone knows that. What I am learning is how, exactly, Lloth's preferences have both helped and hindered Houses and individuals in her thrall. I find it fascinating, as what this course of study really teaches is how to manipulate the will of the Goddess to suit oneself.
She is not so different, I've observed, from anyone else in that cajolery and flattery are effective means to sway her. If that fails, some sort of sacrifice will usually help, be it a healthy male on Her altar or simply humiliation. It is, in part, particular teaching on which the religious views of my House are founded, that humbling oneself completely before the Goddess will please Her and make Her more inclined to look kindly on the request of the humble servant's. The fact that some of us are able to achieve an altered state of consciousness during our devotions gives credence to this theory, as I have been asked to discuss on a variety of occasion before the class.
We also learn alternative forms of worship, among which is the sado-masochistic form my family practices. I am usually asked to explain, since my understanding of the matter is greater than that of the priestess delivering the lectures. Some of my fellows did not believe at first that pleasure can be found in pain, but I have been changing their minds. In the process I am also acquiring some valuable allies who are coming to realize - much to their surprise and chagrin - that they crave the kind of submission my techniques demand of them. I suppose I ought to be careful in how I use these weaker ones, and not just physically.
There are two I have not been able to sway, though I have not devoted much effort to it. Those two are twins, Jiv'Unda and Alna. I was the one who brought Jiv'Unda to my aunt's attention, but Jiv' does not know that, and I will not tell her. I was living as a servant at the time, and I try not to remind the others of that fact. Most have not even noticed. A few have, and those were ones who took advantage of my position at the time. Interestingly, most of that group has fallen under my sway. I am not unkind to them, though they were not kind to me. The recognition of this fact makes them all the more beholden to me.
They should really teach seduction to those training here. It would make them less susceptible to people like me. This is almost too easy.
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Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:47 am
I may have exaggerated in my last entry. In truth, I do hold a number of priestesses-in-training under my sway. But that number is fairly small, definitely not the majority of my classes. Most of them are weak-willed and ill-suited to being a priestess it seems to me, as their desire and willingness to allow me to dominate them in any way I can imagine does not bespeak a promising future in the temple hierarchy. It is a priestess's burden and privilege to ever be in a position of dominance and mastery, and if they wish it otherwise, then they ought not to be here.
Perhaps you find it hypocritical that I should write this when I, myself, have so often been in a submissive role, and that sometimes I choose to be so. I answer you thusly: you are mistaken, and committing a grave error therefore. You have misunderstood me completely, if you feel my above pronouncement hypocritical. Understand this: I am the True Daughter of House Baen'duis. This title is not bestowed upon any female who happens to be fortunate enough to be born of Baen'duis blood or adopted into the House, or even she who will eventually inherit the Matronship, though the daughter of House Baen'duis often becomes its leader. This title is only granted to she who is exemplary both areas House Baen'duis considers of great importance: sadism and masochism. One who is exemplary in only one area is known as a Son or Daughter of Baen'duis. The distinction is clear to those who care to consider it.
What this means is that I do not take pleasure in being dominant or submissive. It is not the balance of power which matters to me. It is the inflicting and receiving of pain. I am what is known as the True Daughter of Baen'duis, which is a distinction beyond simply being the Daughter of Baen'duis. A True Daughter is not only highly skilled at giving and taking pain, but she takes pleasure in both, as I do. How the pain is initiated is immaterial to me. It thrills me as much to accidentally slash someone with my fingernails as it does to wield a lash against a penitent in the House temple. By the same token, I derive as much pleasure from biting the inside of my cheek as I do from having flechettes applied skillfully to my skin. In fact, I frequently bit my lip to the point of pain because it is a somewhat exquisite torment of pain and pleasure. It also has the added effect of creating the image of a female biting her lip and looking enraptured, which most males seem to find alluring.
How I wander. It wasn't necessary, I suppose, for me to explain the distinctions between being a Son or Daughter of Baen'duis, being the Son or Daughter of Baen'duis, and being the True Son or Daughter of Baen'duis. After all, everything I write in here came from my mind, and I already know the distinctions, and am unlikely to forget them.
On a somewhat related note, if our aunt was being fair, she would name Val a Son of Baen'duis, because he bears pain more willingly and more easily than any other in the House, excluding myself. He may even be a True Son, but he may not. I know he takes pleasure in the lashings I deliver because I mean for him to, but he may not find pleasure in the pain others inflict. I never thought to ask him.
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:25 am
We received our first battery of tests this week. It was not as bad as I'd anticipated, but only by a little. It was still horrid. It hardly behooves me to mention that I started later than my classmates, having been thrust into the class and made to catch up on anything I may have missed. That was fun, since I couldnt' even find out what I had missed until I managed to put a few of the weaker-willed students under my control. I then had access to their notes and reflections, though I still did my own research in the temple library - which is as extensive as one would expect from the premier temple of Lloth in the Underdark - because I admit I don't trust the girls I managed to sway. They can't be too good at what they do if someone like me could so easily master them, though I will own that a few have some impressive talents.
Anyway. The examination process was fairly rigorous, though we were really only required to regurgitate everything that's been said to us from the moment we set foot in the temple. There was almost nothing physical about the tests at all, except when we were asked to demonstrate a few of the motions involved with certain kinds of supplication and blessing. Otherwise it was a written exam with a variety of forms of question. To begin with there were increasingly difficult multiple guess questions which were actually quite finicky as they got to the last pages. It amused me to find somewhere on the third or fourth page a question about my family. I was almost tempted to get it wrong just to amuse myself, but self-sabotage is just idiotic. I chose instead to think of it as a gift and wrote in the correct choice multiple times, so that the ink almost bled through to the back of the sheet.
The multiple guess part wasn't so bad, really. Except that the choices given were usually so similar that it was difficult at times to recall exactly what the correct answer should be. We're not supposed to discuss the questions amongst ourselves until the results are posted, but I don't see the harm in writing them down here. It's not as if we can change our marks at this point anyway. The reason the multiple guess wasn't so bad was that we were required to mark down our answers on a separate sheet and looking at the separate sheet I could almost see the pattern the answers fell in, even though they were supposed to be randomly distributed. I've always been good at seeing how things ought to fall into place. It's part of the reason my aunt wants me to lead House Baen'duis after her demise.
The harder part were the extended response questions, where we were asked to describe something, such as the proper ceremony for the dedication of a son to the Goddess, in as much detail as possible. Or to draw the appropriate symbols necessary in every temple or something. I knew almost everything I was supposed to know. I think. I'm not sure that doing my own research on the subjects I missed was really the best thing to do, now that I think about it, because hearing the others discuss what they answered (in blatant disregard for the rules), my answers were totally different, though I did find them in the books in the library. I'm a little confused and apprehensive.
What happens if I fail? I know what happens if I pass these exams: there's a reward of some sort involving travel. Well. That only goes the top eight highest scorers. I probably won't be one of them.
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:26 am
Of all the nasty tricks to play on a person, this is up there. Our reward for scoring highest on the exams is being sent to the most Abyss-cursed place in the Underdark to play pretend. I am not happy here.
I couldn't help feeling uncomfortable as I walked into the frozen wasteland that is Menzoberranzan. To begin with, it is far too cold for my internal thermostat, being that I'm a native of the Southdark, accustomed to volcanoes and geysers and hot springs. Also, there is the indisguisable fact that I'm a worshipper of Lloth, and not just any worshipper of the Spider Goddess, but one in training to become a priestess. It's no secret that Lloth is not a popular deity in this frigid place. It's indisguisable because I came with a small group of my classmates and one paladin-priestess, and we cut a rather conspicuous swath through the general populace where we pass.
I know I was expected to see how lucky I am to be one of Lloth's chosen people: I have not been reduced to dwelling in such a place, the quality of my possessions is exponentially superior, and I'm not a hunted outlaw. I did see and could appreciate these things, but I also couldn't help being fascinated by the variety of people, mostly male. I've never had the opportunity to associate with a heretic. I wondered if my goddess-given gift for seduction would extend to a blasphemer. It was tempting to try it, but I suspected our paladin-guide would not be very understanding. At least I didn't flinch away from the stares like many of my classmates. Instead I forced myself to pretend that the males were staring for the usual reason, instead of the fact that priestesses of Lloth were about as common in this city as ice was in Llurth Dreir: it happened, but it didn't last long.
And what were we really doing there? That's right. We would be spending a month there, practicing running a temple. Only those lucky enough to be good at what we du. How...wonderful.
By the Goddess it's cold! I haven't the faintest idea how I'm going to survive a month of this foul climate.
The temple we're supposed to be running is a run-down, much abused building which was constructed and spelled to withstand anything but a full-out assault by deity, which is a good thing, since it seems to receive attacks of a lesser sort on a regular basis. It's a place of sanctuary for followers of Lloth who come to the city for whatever business. We're not supposed to ask about what business a person ccomes on, but we're supposed to find out anyway and report back to the temple in Gallidurth. After all, no good worshipper of the Goddess would have anything to do with the godless wastrels of Menzoberranzan, so it's important to know what they were doing with the godless ones.
I'm looking forward to the actual running of the temple, even with the risks inherent, but I'm still a little uncomfortable in this city, where I'm a target for agression as I've never been in my life. I admit I'm a little afraid to go outside the temple, but I must, otherwise we will starve. The temple is not as self-sustaining as any of us would like, and so we will have to make purchases of the natives, and I'm the youngest, which means the task falls to me. Besides, I'm acknowledged as being the best with people. So, when I finish with this entry, I'm off to mingle with the barbarians. Oh, fun.
I hope no one kills me.
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