Valen stands at the bottom of the chasm, tail swaying restlessly, for a moment. He inhales and tastes the air cautiously. It's seems dead and flat to him. He prowls forward a few steps and he can feel it. "No magic," he thinks, "Dead areas are rare. Wonder what's causing this one?"

Valen retreats to the entrance and climbs back up. He looks at Nessa, "If you're carrying anything that isn't absolutely necessary, leave it here. There's no magic down there, which means none of your magic bags will work. You may as well leave any of magic items here too, since they won't work either. If we can find what's causing it and if we can take it with us, we'll have a powerful artifact we can use against the Valsharess."

Deekin nods and stows his harp before retrieving a small shield and his short sword from his pack. He frowns for a moment and pulls out his crossbow, slinging it over his back and tucking some bolts into his belt. Valen catches his eye and nods approvingly. Deekin grins at him before padding off to cache their gear and help Nessa. Nathrrya frowns but goes to fetch her pack and re-order her equipment and gives Burg a dark look on her way past.

Burg rolls his eyes and snickers once she's out of sight. Burg is all too aware that if he has under contract, no other infernal will deal with her. He's agreed to the contract, not out of any real desire to aid Nathrrya but to prevent her from summoning up some other infernal who might actually be inclined to act on her behalf. "Now, if she had only read the rest of the contract…," he chortles to himself.

Burg eyes Valen warily, "M…My lord, would you mind if I accompany you? It would be quite an honor." Valen considers this for a moment, and shakes his head, "I don't know what we'll encounter, and it's hard enough, for me anyway, without already being in combat. If I'm already fighting…I don't know what I might do. It's not personal. I just think it's….unwise."

Burg looks so utterly disappointed that Valen walks over and throws an arm around Burg's shoulders, resisting his urge to pull out his flail and bury the head of it in Burg's skull. "Look, she likes you and I don't want to be responsible if anything happens to you. She's….she's not really seen that side of me yet. I'm not sure that I ever want her to, either."

Burg considers this and shrugs, "Yet you take the drow with you. You know she's your enemy." Now it's Valen's turn to shrug, "She's loyal to the Seer and the Seer said that she needed to come on this quest to find herself. Although, if I find out she's done anything else to endanger Nessa, the Seer might be minus one follower."

Burg digests this silently and decides that discretion is the better part of valor. He mentally tables the discussion of his contract with Nathrrya for another time. "No sense in upsetting him," he thinks, "just when things seem to be going so well." Burg looks around to see if the any of the others are within earshot and they don't appear to be. He looks at Valen timidly, "How is it, my lord, that you travel with not one, but two bards and neither of them knows who you are?"

Valen laughs heartily, "It's because neither of them have ever left Toril and here, only you and Seer know my past in any detail." Burg nods, "I…see. I fear I might have said a bit much to Nessa. I know that you asked me not to discuss it but she asked me some rather pointed questions. I…I like her and I didn't want to lie to her." Valen nods, "You did fine. She got enough from you to…to sate her curiosity…for now."

Burg looks greatly relieved, "Well, since you don't want my company, I'll be off." Valen strains to be polite, "It's…not you. You do know that? You should probably wait until they get back so that you can say good-bye before you go popping off." Valen looks terribly distressed for a moment and Burg finds himself feeling sorry for Valen. "It's just…I can hear the drums," Valen finishes softly.

Burg grimaces and backs cautiously away from the weapon master, "I've heard others talk about it. I've even observed it, but it's never been that much of a problem for me personally. It's something I can…push aside, if you will. I know that it's not like that…for everyone, tanar'ri or bateezu." Valen nods, "Even though my blood is mixed, or perhaps because of it, it seems to affect me differently. In the beginning….when I was young, it didn't call to me at all. Then I learned to heed it and finally, even to summon it. Now…now it is almost impossible for me to shut it out." His face contorts as he struggles for the words, "It's…euphoric to…to let go and just revel in it. Its…its an addiction and I'm the worst sort of junkie."

Burg looks at him and shakes his head, "My lord, if I may say a few words at the risk of over stepping my bounds. I know that we do not know each other well, but I have observed in you the most remarkable self restraint. The mere fact that we are having this discussion at all is proof of it. You may well consider it an addiction, but you seem to gained control of it."

Valen starts to speak but Burg makes a shushing gesture before finishing his thoughts. "I know that it is a constant struggle for you to maintain that control, but if anyone can do it, I think it will be you. You know, telling her might be helpful to you."

Valen looks puzzled so Burg shakes his head. "She is a bard," Burg points out, "and her songs are literally quite magical. She can use them to help you with your emotions, if you will tell her. My lord, I would offer you some advice. She is…quite attached to you and I think it would please her if she could be of some service to you."

Burg takes in the look on Valen's face and swallows something. Instead, he says, "You know, my lord, you need not tell her everything until you are ready. You might just tell her that you find certain things to be soothing." Valen sighs, "Have you heard her sing? Her voice is…." Burg looks at him curiously, "Yes, my lord…" "It's really lovely," Valen finishes lamely.

Burg nods his understanding as Nessa, Deekin and Nathrrya all return, considerably lighter. Deekin, heeding Valen's warning, has cached nearly all of his equipment. Nathrrya is armed with her rapier and her dagger. Nessa appears with her harp and her staff. Valen looks at Nessa speculatively, "Nessa, dear, do you have any weapons?" Nessa pats a dagger tucked into her belt and waggles her staff at him, "Don't you think these are weapons?" Valen shakes his head, "You might want to leave that harp here…" He gives her a mischievous look, "unless you plan on clubbing something over the head with it."

Nessa starts to look offended, but Deekin laughs heartily. Deekin elbows Nessa, "Deekin tells you that harp be useless where we going, Boss. No magic, no songs, Boss." Nessa looks down at the harp uncertainly, "I…I don't know if I can leave it." She looks up at Valen, obviously horrified, "I've never been without it. Not since I started training, at any rate." Valen shrugs, deciding that any woman who finds him attractive is bound to have a few quirks, and grabs the harp from her. Before she can protest, he rummages through his pack, yanks open a magic bag and shoves the harp into it.

Flipping his pack shut, he stops suddenly and looks at Nessa sheepishly. Gesturing at his pack, he says, "You don't mind, do you? It's just that I don't want you to be weighted down." Nessa flashes him a brilliant smile and without really paying attention to what he's doing, he steps closer to her. Reaching up to cup her face, he says, "I just want to you to be careful. If my lugging your harp around keeps you from worrying about it and keeps your mind on what we're doing, then so be it. I'd do a lot of things to see you safely through this."

Nathrrya, growing more impatient by the minute stomps her foot, "Gah! Do you two think you might possibly be able to stop making goo-goo eyes at each other for the space of five whole seconds? At this rate, the Valsharess will have defeated the Seer before we ever make it back to camp." Valen and Nessa exchange a quick look and both blush lightly before Valen steps away, quickly becoming almost brusquely business-like. He starts barking orders and instructions, but this time, he's not quite so harsh about it.

He's still aware that their survival depends on them doing what he knows is necessary, but this time he tries to balance that with the need not to alienate them. He sets their marching order with Nessa in the rear. When Nathrrya complains, he glares at her, "Nessa is the least well armed of any of us. She should be in the rear. Since you seem to be concerned about the order, why don't you take point?" Nathrrya huffs while Valen's glare only intensifies. He chuckles menacingly, "Are you afraid, drow?" Nathrrya's jaw sets in anger but assumes the lead position and drops lightly down to the top of the boulder below the opening.

Burg, watching the exchange, merely shakes his head. He bows to Nessa, "Do be careful down there. I dislike places of no magic. They always seem to have some nasty surprise in them." Burg turns quickly to Deekin, "And you, my little friend, keep a close eye on her." Deekin grins and nods, "That be why Deekin's here." Burg looks at Valen and inclines his head respectfully, "My lord." Before he pops out of sight.

Valen, unwilling to leave Nessa alone with Nathrrya, climbs back down to the top of the boulder before calling for the last two to join them. He moves to catch Deekin and lowers him down to the floor of the cave. He reaches up and catches Nessa next, giving her a bit of an extra, affectionate squeeze before lowering her as well. Nathrrya, watching, rolls her eyes but stalks off down the narrow corridor. "At least for now," she thinks, "they have something to distract them. I can't wait two more days."

When she gets to the end, she looks back at Valen to see if he has any preference about direction. On impulse, he gestures to the right and Nathrrya carefully pokes her head around the corner. Seeing nothing she proceeds cautiously, creeping stealthily forward while pressed against the rock wall. Spotting an ettercap, she gestures for the others to approach behind her. Deekin, seeing the ettercap, un-slings his crossbow and takes aim. With deadly precision, he plants the bolt squarely in the ettercaps chest.

It crumples before it even has a chance to realize that it's under attack. It falls into a large mass of webbing that shrouds a stalactite or column. Covered as it is, Valen can't decide which. A giant spider reels itself down from the ceiling to see what has disturbed its web. Finding the dead ettercap, the spider quickly rolls it in webbing and retreats to the ceiling with its prize. Valen pats Deekin on the head as praise for a job well done. Deekin gives him a toothy grin in silent thanks.

Nathrrya, wary of what may be lurking on the ceiling, reaches into her pack and pulls out a small bundle. She opens the bundle and makes a selection from several vials, hurling it at the ceiling. The vial hits the ceiling and shatters, creating quite a bit of noise. The phosphors in the alchemist's fire catch quickly and spread through the heavy webbing on the ceiling, providing quite a bit of light. Everyone blinks in surprise, especially the giant spiders that had been lurking up there. Deekin begins firing as quickly as he can but the spiders are rapidly being driven from their perch. A thick smelly smoke rolls down and even Valen grimaces at the stench.

He leans forward and whispers to Nathrrya, "Gah! I've had latrine duty in the Abyss and even that smelled better…" Nathrrya shrugs, "I didn't want anything "dropping in" for a snack." Thanks to Deekin's marksmanship and Nathrrya's quick thinking, most of the spiders have been dispatched and those that haven't have been driven down from the ceiling. Fires rage through out the cavern burning up decades or more of webbing, leaping from strand to strand and lending a hellish aspect to their trek. Nathrrya creeps forward, looking for more spiders.

She quickly spots three of them, hiding in some shadows and gestures for Valen. Valen looks and sees the size of the spiders. He shakes his head and gestures for Deekin. Deekin looks but shakes his head as well. Valen holds up fingers questioningly. At one, Deekin nods emphatically signaling that this is quite possible. At two, Deekin shrugs uncertainly meaning that he might be able to but not with any degree of certainty. At three, Deekin shakes his head indicating that this is beyond his skill.

Valen nods and thinks for a moment and looks at Nathrrya, who holds up one finger and shrugs. Knowing that Nessa is too poorly armed to be of any real use in the coming combat, Valen weighs his odds against two of the spiders. With a bit of help from both Deekin and Nathrrya he thinks that he can take them both before they get too much webbing on him.

He tightens his grip on his flail, bracing himself mentally and nods at Deekin and Nathrrya. Deekin's bolt strikes home and one of the spiders collapses into a ball, dead. The other two chitter at each other for a second or two and then charge. Valen leaps out and brings his flail down squarely on the head of the first, felling it instantly. He turns and gets a swing at the second one, but only lands a glancing blow. It rears up and spews a huge mass of sticky silky strands at Valen's legs, effectively gluing him in place.

Nathrrya darts in and pokes at the beast with her rapier, momentarily diverting its attention. Deekin manages to knock and fire a second bolt from his crossbow. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief when the third spider also crumples into a mass of legs.

Nessa and Deekin cluster around Valen while he removes the spider silk from his armor. Nathrrya glides off to see if she can tell what's ahead. As Valen scrubs the last of the strands from his armor, he notices the tiniest speck of rust. Shaking his head, he thinks to himself, "Is that rust? I've really must to polish my armor next time we stop." Sighing, he straightens to find Nessa busily studying his tail. Recalling what Deekin said, he blushes mightily and heads off in the direction he last saw Nathrrya.

Nathrrya glides around a corner, returning shaken from her scouting trip, and nearly runs nose first into Valen's chest. Valen reaches out and catches her before she can impale herself on his armor. Valen hold her out at arm's length and looks her over, frowning. He's seen enough drow to know when one is pale and enough drow to know what it takes to make one pale. Concerned, he says, "Nathrrya, what's wrong?"

Nathrrya is startled by being grabbed. Her first, instinctive thought is to punish the jaluk that has put his hands on her. The she looks up. It's Valen and…and he looks concerned. She so shocked by this that once again her brain locks up like a rusty water pump on a 1968 Buick. His lips are moving and she realizes that he's speaking to her.

Valen repeats his question and, putting her feelings aside, she gestures for him to follow her. She whispers back to him, "I think it's best if you see it for yourself." She leads him to a place where the chasm they are in opens into a much larger cave. It's dimly lit thanks to the huge patches of phosphorescent fungus that cover the desiccated corpses that litter the chamber. He can see an opening on the other side of the cave. Valen gets one look at the creature that prowls the dark recesses of the cave and curses in Abyssal. Nathrrya looks at him askance, "Do you know what it is?" Valen nods curtly, "It is a bebelith. It hunts tanar'ri." Valen curses again as he stares at the bebelith. "That's that biggest one I've ever seen though," he says half out-loud, " I wonder what it's doing here?"

A small breeze blows past him and into the chamber, where the bebelith becomes instantly alert. It turns quickly to face the opening where Valen and Nathrrya are peering at it. It raises its forelegs and its mandibles quiver and clack in obvious anticipation. Valen swallows hard and backs away from the opening. It's always unsettling to know that you're the entrée on the menu.

&&&&&&

The bebelith has been here for a long time. The lizard men brought him here many molts of his skin ago. They fed him for a while, but they went away. In some dim fashion, he misses them and the bound prisoners they used to toss him. After they quit coming, he spent a quite a few molts mostly being hungry. His meals were infrequent at best. Things have picked up lately though. There have been little scaly things that try to run and bigger, juicer bug-eyed things. He likes the bug-eyed things – juicy and tasty and not too hard to catch.

Now, though, the shifting breeze in the cavern has brought him a new smell. One he had forgotten. The smell of a mate. He rummages through his den looking for suitable offerings and finds a few carcasses that aren't too dried up. Laboriously, he begins to arrange them in the proper fashion to propitiate a potential mate. He knows that he must feed her in order to prove his worth and to keep from being a meal himself.

&&&&&&

Valen retreats quickly to rejoin Nessa and Deekin. Nathrrya stays to watch the odd behavior of the bebelith. Valen looks at Nessa and sighs heavily as he considers the contents of the chamber beyond. He pulls her off to the side, "I want you to promise me something." Nessa starts to say something flippant but takes in his serious expression. She swallows her comment hastily and nods. "I want you to promise me that you'll stay here. If anything…goes wrong," he grimaces, "I want you to go back to camp and get help."

Nessa peers up at him, "What ever is the matter?" He shakes his head, "That's not important right now. Right now, I want you to give me your word. You have to promise me that you'll go back to Lith My'athar, tell the Seer and have Imloth gather everyone he can." Nessa frowns at him, disturbed but she nods thinking to pacify him. He looks at her for a long moment and then nods, satisfied with her answer. "Good, then you wait here until one of us comes back to get you. No matter what you hear, I want you to stay put." Nessa looks a bit worried but agrees.

Nathrrya watches as the bebelith begins arranging it's lair. She frowns, since something about this looks familiar to her. She watches as the bebelith arranges his lair. The old desiccated corpses are all carefully rolled into a distant corner, while some of the fresher ones are rolled toward the opening. She thinks, trying to remember where she's seen this type of behavior before. Valen prowls up behind her, "What's it doing?" Nathrrya shrugs, "I'm not really sure. It looks like it's cleaning up."

Valen moves from behind Nathrrya and the breeze wafts past him into cavern. The effect on the bebelith is immediate. Its head goes down, its abdomen is raised into the air, and it begins dancing from side to side across the cavern. Nathrrya's mouth hangs open in surprise. She's definitely seen this behavior before. It's pretty typical mating behavior among spiders. Her brain works, trying to determine what the cause is.

Valen, thinking that he's on the menu, backs up. As soon as he steps back out of the air stream, the effect on the bebelith is equally immediate. It stops its dance and chitters almost forlornly. It waits patiently for a few moments and when nothing else happens, it flops down, chittering quietly to itself and looking quite dejected. As Nathrrya turns around and looks at Valen a slight breeze stirs a strand of her hair. Pointing to a spot directly in line with the center of the opening, she says, "Stand right there."

Valen looks at her warily for a moment before moving a few steps to the side. As he moves, Nathrrya watches the bebelith. It only takes a few seconds before the bebelith's attention is suddenly riveted on the opening. After a few more seconds, it stands up quickly and resumes its dance.

Nathrrya, unable to stop herself, bursts into gales of laughter. Valen, who has a short fuse where Nathrrya is concerned, approaches her angrily. As he moves out of the air flowing through the cavern beyond, the bebelith stops it dances and wanders about for a few moments looking confused. Valen pokes her in the chest, "What is so funny?" Finally gaining control of herself, Nathrrya, mouth still twitching, says, "So, how would Nessa feel about you mating with a giant spider?"

Valen, still not understanding what she means frowns at her. Nathrrya gestures toward the bebelith, "That's a mating dance. It's trying to attract you as a mate. It only does it when it can smell you." Nathrrya leans in and sniffs at Valen experimentally. She rolls her eyes at him, "Nope. Not having any effect on me at all. Even though it seems to have worked on the elf – and on that thing. It certainly seems to like you. Its been cleaning up its lair, laying out food, and now its dancing for you. Yes, I'd say it likes you quite a bit." Valen, having had enough of the drow, turns to stalk off. As he does, he's back in the gentle air current and to his surprise; the bebelith resumes its dance.

Valen stares in shock for a few moments as Nathrrya glides up next to him. She taps his arm, "You know, I wasn't just some underling's daughter. My mother was the Matron Mother of our House. We were all priestesses of Lloth. As such, we were expected to know all about spiders since they are sacred to Lloth. I know quite a bit about all kinds of spiders." Valen turns to see her, mouth still twitching, and relents, "I suppose it might be funny, from a certain perspective."

Nathrrya gives him a wry smile and nods. He heaves a sigh, "Do you…do you think I might be able to distract it? At least long enough for the rest of you to get across to the other opening?" Nathrrya nods, "I think you might. Most of their mating rituals are…quite protracted. Neither party trusts the other not to turn them into a meal. All you have to do is keep it dancing until you can get through the other opening."

Valen considers this information for a long moment as gives a hard stare at the bebelith in the cavern beyond. He heaves a huge sigh before turning to find Nessa. As he moves away from the opening, the delicious smell disappears and the bebelith slumps in defeat again. With Valen out of ear shot, Nathrrya gives herself back over to laughter. There is one important thing that she's…neglected to tell Valen. It's the male of the species that goes through the mating dance.

For Nathrrya, this is the most wonderful turn of events. She can't wait to get back to camp and tell everyone. She dances around for a moment, while she laughs. She's quite excited about the prospects of what it will cost Valen to keep her from letting it slip. And how much she's going to enjoy it when she finally does tell everyone. She rubs her hands in glee.

&&&&&&

Valen finds Nessa sitting on a rock. She looks up at him hopefully, "Is it over? Have you come back to get me?" Valen shakes his head, "No, there's been a change in plan." He heaves a big sigh, "I'm…I'm going to distract this thing and you're going to run past it." Nessa looks at him cautiously, trying to decide what could be so bad as to frighten Valen. He's staring at a spot on the wall, just over her head. She tugs on his arm, "What thing?" He's still staring at the spot on the wall, so she tugs on his arm, "What thing are you talking about?" He turns toward her and pastes what he hopes is a reassuring smile on his face. "It's a bebelith," he says quietly.

She looks puzzled, "What's a bebelith?" He grins at her, "You'll see soon enough." She looks at him warily, "I'm not sure I want to see it, if it makes you nervous." Valen chuckles softly as he leans down to kiss her. When he's done, he gives her a odd look. "Bebeliths eat tanar'ri," he says by way of explanation. Nessa thinks this for a moment, trying to decide how she's like to try to distract something that considers her edible. She grimaces, wondering how he's going to manage it.

They group up near the entrance and again as soon as Valen steps toward the entry way, the bebelith starts a wild leg waving, abdomen shaking dance. Valen rolls his eyes and takes a tighter grip on his flail before turning back to Nessa. "I'm going to get it to orient on me and turn it away from you. Don't start until you get my signal." Nessa nods in understanding and he runs into the cavern. At his approach, the bebelith begins waving his pedipalps wildly and even knocks a few stalactites from the ceiling of the cavern. Swallowing hard, Valen jogs to one side of the cavern. The bebelith follows him obediently, still dancing. When it's as far as he can get it from the opening, he signals Nessa and the others to start their dash. Valen stifles a chuckle as the spider puts on its mating display for him.

"Nessa you aren't," he thinks to himself as he watches his friends running to the other opening. As soon as they get to within a few steps, he begins edging toward the other opening himself. He creeps slowly toward it, not taking his eyes off the wild display put on by the bebelith. The bebelith is growing impatient, though and Valen strays too close to it. In long standing bebelith tradition, the bebelith smacks Valen, hoping to provoke either a fight or actual mating. Valen goes flying, careens off the cavern wall and comes to rest a few feet from Nessa. He hits so hard that straps on his armor give way, and pieces of it go flying in all directions.

Before Nathrrya can stop her, Nessa darts out and grabs what she can, including his pack, before darting back to the opening. The bebelith lumbers over and begins rubbing his abdomen on the now unconscious Valen. Nessa, who is watching concerned, turns to give Nathrrya an odd look. Nathrrya makes another stifled snorting noise before deciding that she really can't watch this any more. Nathrrya heads off around the corner and finds a huge obelisk along with some floor switches. Giggling to herself at the sight of the bebelith rubbing itself all over Valen, she begins toying with the switches. Before long, she's apparently activated an entire panel of them.

She tinkers with the rest of the switches and activates all of them. Reaching in to the obelisk, she pulls out a sphere which she shoves into her pack. Moving back to rejoin the others, she whistles a small tune and light spell contained in it activates. She grins to herself at finding the magic back and thinks quickly how she can best use this to her amusement. She returns to find Nessa distraught because the bebelith has been trying to figure out how to mate with Valen. Among the bebelith, limpness is a sign of compliance, of readiness and willingness to mate on the part of the female.

Nathrrya tosses her light ball out into the cavern to get a better look. Deekin sees it and realizes that what ever has been dampening the magic is now gone. "Deekin gots this one, Boss" Deekin quickly casts a spell on the opposite side of the cavern. It creates a mirror image of the bebelith. The bebelith, at seeing another male invading his territory, becomes enraged. He quickly drops Valen and charges off to deal with the intruder. While Deekin manipulates the mirror image, Nessa and Nathrrya are stuck trying to gather up his gear and drag Valen to safetly. Deekin shrugs, "Hey drow lady, you take spell and let Deekin take goat man."

Nathrrya considers this for a moment and shrugs. She assumes control of Deekin's bebelith mirror and Deekin hauls Valen to safety while Nessa gathers his things. Nessa hovers over him protectively, casting healing spells and wiping the goo excreted by the bebeltih off his face with her shirt tail. Throwing his cloak over him for the sake of his modesty, she rummages in her pack and pulls out another scroll. She reads it quickly and after a few moments Valen groans. His eyes blink open and he sees Nessa's concerned face a few inches from his. "What the hells happened?," he grows as he sits up. With a rising blush, he peers under his cloak and looks at Nessa, "I hate to have to ask you this again, but Nessa, dear, where are my clothes?"