Renato had expected the drow's bloodthirsty nature. After all, they were cultists who worshipped Lolth, so their rituals were hardly going to be pleasant.
But the hall, which resembled a display of torture and rang with the slaves' screams and suffering, still left him deeply disturbed.
The Nightwind Family's worship hall was grander than he had imagined. Eight massive stone pillars stood in two rows, spider sculptures coiling around them. An enormous mural covered the soaring dome, depicting the Spider Queen rising anew from the Abyss and trampling the elven gods beneath her feet.
Corellon lay in a pool of blood while the other elven deities fled in all directions. Lolth stood atop their bones, her eight spider legs piercing earth and sky.
A group of female drow warriors from the Nightwind Family surrounded the altar, their eyes filled with adoration and fanaticism.
They wore no armor, only flimsy garments cut from translucent gauze.
On the altar, several commoner priestesses were performing the first stage of the ritual. First, they chanted lengthy scriptures aloud, expressing their reverence for Lolth.
Then they raised their Serpent-Head Whips and began lashing the eight half-drow slaves kneeling on the ground.
The sounds of whip tips tearing flesh rose one after another, poison seeping into the wounds with every lash.
Blood oozed from the slaves' backs and flowed down the grooves of their spines, collecting in dark red puddles on the stone slabs.
At first, the slaves screamed and begged for mercy. But as the whipping continued, their wails gradually dwindled to faint gasps.
Once the slaves seemed to have "adjusted" to the pain of the whipping, the priestesses put away their whips and switched to spider-shaped daggers made up of eight blades.
The ring of blades radiated outward from the handle like a spider's