As it so happened, the very next day (as mortals reckoned time) was the Festival of the Founding. The faithful drow of that city celebrated the Festival in honor of Menzoberra, the priestess who had the strength of will to form the city so many centuries before. As her own special way of seeing what level of fear her subjects and worshippers held for her, Lolth visited Menzoberranzan in physical form for the Festival. Rarely did she appear as a drow, for it amused her to see the too-proud nobles of the many houses humbling themselves before ordinary kobolds, goblins, and duergar.
Menzoberranzan was a larger city than Ched Nasad, so it was hardly surprising that there were more male children of suitable age. First and foremost was Berg'inyon Baenre, youngest child of the First House of that city. A mere eleven years old, Berg'inyon was still a page prince to his large family. Chaos however, was what Lolth and her worshippers thrived on, so she sought a child of a lesser house to upset the balance of power. Third House, Oblodra, had a male of sixteen, but the talents of the Oblodrans ran to psionics, and their loyalty to their goddess was less than zealous. The adopted daughter of the Fourth House, Fini'they Faen Tlabbar, was expecting a male child any day now, but Lolth could hardly wait for the child's birth, nor would she give the spellfire to any child without first determining if he had any spellcasting ability.
Next, Lolth scrutinized the Fifth House, Hun'ett. Matron SiNafay's youngest son, Masoj, was into his second decade at the wizard's school of Sorcere and was quite an intriguing possibility. No other ruling house had any sons of appropriate age, so the Spider Queen's gaze fell to houses even further down the line of succession. The Matron Mother of the Ninth House, Do'Urden, had an eleven year-old son who showed great magical promise, having mastered the innate gift of levitation at the age of five. A twenty-eight year-old prodigy of magic was the current prize of the Thirteenth House, Nez-Varniss, which had just survived the succession of the eldest daughter following the former matron's death. Finally--for Lolth would look no lower than fifteenth--she noted a twelve year-old male named Kelnozz, nephew of the matron of the Fifteenth House and therefore a commoner, but showing considerable signs of intelligence and cunning nevertheless.
All this observation and consideration took the deity no more than a second by a mortal's reckoning. Berg'inyon Baenre was still her first choice, with Masoj Hun'ett, Drizzt Do'Urden, Hezeth Nez-Varniss, and Kelnozz of House Kenafin following closely. Rarely did Lolth do anything with any sense of order, but she understood that she had more to gain--and less to lose--by choosing the recipient of the stolen spellfire as meticulously as possible.
Her observation of House Baenre took barely over an hour. Already the most powerful house of Menzoberranzan, Baenre had little to gain by adding another wizard to their ranks. Gromph Baenre, the elderboy, was the city's Archmage and the master of Sorcere. Berg'inyon himself showed only nominal aptitude for the arcane arts, and would likely be relegated to study under his elder brother, Weapon Master Dantrag. The spellfire would not go to Berg'inyon, she decided. What better way to stir up chaos in the city than to grant great powers to a lesser family?
Masoj Hun'ett took several hours to watch. His talent with spells was obvious and his ambition was great: already this one had murdered his older brother, the Faceless One, and placed an imposter in his stead! The imposter was Alton DeVir of No-House-Worth-Mentioning, the only surviving member of an otherwise perfect coup by House Do'Urden. Masoj, now in his fifteenth year, was halfway through his tenure at Sorcere and would join the ranks of wizards of the city after his graduation and term of service in the city patrols.
After such a positive outlook for the Hun'ett son, the page prince of House Do'Urden was almost a let-down. His sire was the often-blasphemous weapon master, Zaknafein, and the boy showed some of the same spirit as his parent. Zaknafein's daughter Vierna, however, would soon become a high priestess and was as properly devout and fearful as Lolth could want. Perhaps the blood of the father didn't run true? Young Drizzt did exhibit signs of a keen intelligence and would likely be trained to replace his slain brother Nalfein as the family wizard.
Hezeth Nez-Varniss was excluded almost immediately. Lolth discerned that the elderboy of the Thirteenth House held in his thoughts a preference for the worship of Ghaundahaur over herself. Smiling wickedly, the Queen of Spiders emblazoned the purple, violet, and black eye of Ghaundahaur on one of the rebel wizard's belongings and moved on to her final candidate, confident that the disruption to her authority would soon be eradicated.
Kelnozz of House Kenafin was clever and ambitious, possessing a reasonable amount of magical aptitude of his own. A mere cousin of the noble family, he had little chance of being accorded a position of any power within either his house or the city, though. When compared to the likes of Masoj Hun'ett or even Drizzt Do'Urden, his intelligence and worth were of a caliber hardly worth considering.
Her choice now a clear decision between the sons of the Fifth House and the Ninth House, Lolth prepared herself to pay a visit to Masoj Hun'ett and Sorcere in the morning before making her customary appearance in the city as a bowlegged goblin, an unkempt duergar, or some other disguise. She disliked the wait, aware that the doom the gods feared was fast approaching (as the gods reckoned time), but the narrowing of her will to encompass a simple mortal form was tiring and left her entire realm without the means to contact their goddess. Her Handmaidens, the demonic yochlols, were capable of handling the day-to-day needs of the drow race, but manipulative Lolth preferred to handle many things herself.
If only the surface gods would allow her to handle things personally more often.
The dark goddess seethed. Oh, how the Seldarine, the gods of the elven pantheon, would rage when their precious elves were consumed by the flames of spellfire! Such a thought was so immensely pleasing, she considered dispatching a yochlol to the wizards of Sshamath and demanding they make an immediate magical strike on the surface elves. Before the thought became action, though, another aspect of herself reminded her that her own people were not likely to survive such an assault. Lolth had long discovered that the magic wielded by her drow children didn't function as it should on the surface of Toril. Perhaps later, when her plans were complete, she would send the Hun'ett child to the surface. Spellfire was raw magical energy, and would work magnificently above-ground.
Her ire quieted in a rare moment of doubt. But would spellfire survive faerzress untainted? It was essential that she believe it would.