Nearly a thousand priestesses of Lolth had gathered around the largest altar in the city, at the center of Sammoril.
It was a suffocating sight. The vast assembly of priestesses stood in order of rank, from the outside inward, forming concentric circles around the spider statue at their heart.
The low-ranking priestesses could only stand at the farthest edge of the altar, bowing in worship toward the enormous spider statue carved from gems and obsidian, prayers murmuring on their lips.
The mid-ranking priestesses could kneel near the eight braziers, savoring the visceral spectacle of living sacrifices at close quarters and bathing in the purple divine radiance cast by the immense ritual.
The fanatical Inquisitors personally presided over the ritual and performed the sacrifices. These High Priestesses, who had renounced worldly pleasures, were now covered in blood and scraps of flesh, slaughtering the slave offerings with crazed brutality.
Blood soaked their Priestly Robes. Sticky red coated their faces, hands, and hair. Every slash came with a slave's scream and the dull sound of flesh being severed from bone.
Even that was not enough for some Inquisitors who had utterly lost their reason in the delirious religious fervor. Amid ecstatic shrieks, they threw themselves into the flames, choosing self-immolation to offer both soul and body to their deity.
Purple witchfire swallowed their figures. After a brief blaze, their bodies became heaps of ash, mingling indistinguishably with the blood and filth on the ground.
Around the perimeter of the square, lines of slaves were led onto the altar in groups like cattle and sheep awaiting slaughter.
They came from different races: drow, half-drow, deep gnomes, duergar, orcs, goblins...
The slaves were butchered into fragments that no longer resembled people. Severed limbs, heads, and entrails were tossed below the altar, while blood flowed through