The History of the Tarantula Faction

The history of the faction that came to be known as Tarantulas goes back further than simply the founding of that faction, as it's 'founding' was merely diplomatic recognition of what was already a reality. Inexorably linked to this history is the history of my former House, House Gereshen. I therefore will attempt to tell the tale as best a warrior can, but would point out that it will be incomplete and reflect to a large extent upon that which I and Gereshen were directly involved in, as that is what I remember. In places, particularly areas where I was not present, I will use the testimony of those I trust to tell the story as truthfully as any Drow can; they will no doubt introduce themselves in their own time. This then is how it all happened, by those that were there.

1091	1092	1093

Norhault 1091: The Horde

In the year 1091, as the humans call it, a large force of Drow and allies came together in the lands called Norhault, held by the many tribes of Celts. Led, initially at least, by a Drow commander named Gever, this army named itself The Horde, and opposed The Volunteers led by a Duke Swan on behalf of The Celtic Queen. General Gever led an entirely male group, made up mostly of Half-Drow troops led by his second, Jackal. There were several Drow Houses within the Horde, but the only one of note was The Black Kites, a group of Albino Drow. It was to this group that I, Canaris Gereshen, Weaponsmaster of House Gereshen, and Prince Varquin Gereshen reported, having come across this large mustering of people quite by accident. Before long we were taken by Mistress Cortella of The Black Kite Clan to meet Gever, who attempted to test our loyalty; we remained true to Our Matron and to Llolth, and so we were accepted into Gever's retinue as his bodyguards. This caused resentment amongst The Half Drow, but we did not care.

The Horde came under sustained attack throughout that day, mainly from small groups of skirmishers and Ankh Elf archers which we charged down and slaughtered. Later in the day, a contingent arrived and put together guard towers that had been pre-constructed. It was as well they did, for no sooner had they been completed and moved into their positions than the plain in front of The Horde encampment filled with entire regiments of Volunteers, and a storm of arrows arched into the camp from them as they charged across the plain. The Horde swiftly formed defensive lines, and Gever ordered myself and many other Drow to take bows and quivers full of arrows from the well stocked armoury and shoot from the guard towers, which had shields already in place. This we did, and rained death and misery down upon the Volunteers, until we became their archer's main targets, so great were their losses. As more and more of their leaders fell to our arrows, their line faltered and buckled, front line troops pulling back and leaving holes that their reserves could not reach. The time was right; Gever personally led the counter attack which swept the Volunteers off the plain and back to their own fortress. It was a stunning victory, and much praise was poured upon The Drow for their archery skills under heavy fire. It was a good day for us. The Half-Drow looked even less happy.

That night, The Volunteers licked their wounds, and we mounted several raids upon their fort, filling their throne room with noxious odours and eliminating their guards with utter impunity. Gever became convinced that the Drow troops he had were up to any task he set, and indeed we did not fail in one. We collected banners and battle trophies from many Volunteer units as they failed to notice us in the darkness, and the Volunteer camp crept toward the edge of hysteria at our actions. Night grew deeper, and at last the Volunteers sent out a group to attack our encampment; they were destroyed attempting to steal one of our guard towers. Little more occurred that night, but all the Drow began to realise that all was not well within The Horde's leadership, and we expected trouble from Jackal and his Half-Drow the following day.

At day-break, the Drow mustered and took on their duties. Many chose to guard the camp, and took up positions in the most shaded spots to protect their eyes. Little occurred that morning, apart from the usual diplomatic posturing and emissaries from The Volunteers, and our occasional torturing of any prisoners we took. That afternoon, General Gever decided to peruse the market area, which was some way from The Horde encampment. We mustered quite an impressive honour guard of Drow and Half Drow, and surrounded the fully armoured General as a wall of Blackness, until only his skull helmet's plume could be seen. The journey to the market was uneventful, with Volunteers only too eager to get out of the way of such a group, but once in the market place a trader became abusive toward us. With a gesture of his arm and hand, Gever traced an arcane symbol in the air toward the trader, and his trade stand exploded ! At this, a beserker of The Volunteers went wild and ran at Gever, screaming his hate as he brandished his weapons; one arcane symbol later his chest exploded and his white shirt became instantly red with blood. Gever's wizard powers were truly awesome, and we marched back to camp un-hindered. However, clearly The Volunteers were even more stupid than they looked as they attacked the camp repeatedly that afternoon, raking the guard towers with arrows, but still we repelled them and cut them down as they ran. The Half Drow began to mutter as to why The Drow gained all the glory with their bows, when they were the ones that held the shield wall, and this time we took note, although we paid them scant regard. It should be noted, though, that not all the Half Drow were Jackal's troops, and one female was indeed a priestess of The Spider Queen. Gever sent Varquin and myself to watch over her that late afternoon, and we spent quite some time guarding her as she sparred verbally with the witless Celts at the tavern bar. She proved herself worthy on several occasions that year, so I do not put all Half-breeds into the same category as Jackal's troops by any means, and they themselves were effective.

In the evening, General Gever held a banquet for his officers. Varquin and I attended, standing behind him for much of the time and patrolling the area around the building for the rest of the time. It was indeed a lavish affair, with many cooked meats and exotic fruits, and the guests all wore their finery. We diligently tested Gever's food for poisons, and Gever admitted that he had never felt so safe. He should perhaps have thought about that the next day.

We awoke to the sounds of battle outside the compound, and armed ourselves immediately. Sure enough, as we emerged from our tent, Varquin and I found the compound to be alive with arrows shooting all around us. We ran to the nearest Guard Tower, and began shooting back. Although our stocks of arrows had been quite depleted by previous attacks, the sheer volume of arrows landing in the compound and being passed back up to us meant we could keep up a continuous barrage of our own, and so we did. One by one, we managed to shoot down the vaunted Ankh Archers, and slowly The Volunteers began to fall back as it dawned on them that they would not break our line. Finally, a lone Ankh Archer, the best of them all, shot an arrow into our encampment as an act of defiance, and then turned to be the last of his side to leave the field. Varquin, who had been shielding me as I shot, urged me to shoot an arrow back, but the distance was huge, the shot impossible. The Elf reached the safety of the trees that marked the end of the open battle-field, and walked onto the path there. Fearing it would do little good, I aimed over the top of those trees, and loosed the arrow. The Elf, who had not seen the arrow, was turning his back on us fully as the arrow disappeared between the rows of trees, but as he finished turning the arrow finished it's descent and struck him in the top of the head !! With not a sound he fell, and The Horde cheered me as if I had meant the shot to hit all along. I gave quiet thanks to The Spider Queen for her aid, and grinned to the jubilant Horde members; once again The Drow had succeeded above expectations. I remember little of the rest of the day, as I spent much of it guarding The half Drow priestess and watching competition duels with her and Varquin. I do however remember Gever sending The O'Leary clan a case of Whisky, which they had requested as payment for their services on the battle-field. This was to become most important later on.

That night, a crux was reached within The Horde command. Lord Shade, overall commander of The Horde, arrived. Shade appeared to be some form of Albino Drow, but with Dark blotches, and had the ability to change his shape. I heard tell, then and in later years, that he belonged to a tribe of Ancient Drow who had hibernated in the deep north, and had only recently re-awoken to take their place in the world. Shade had come to take command of The Horde, only to be treated with scorn by Jackal and his troops. Worse was to follow, as Gever failed to relinquish command to him. Jackal and his troops now grew bold against The Drow, and Jackal assaulted Prince Varquin and threw him from the camp; Gever was forced to order both myself and Varquin not to kill Jackal immediately. Sensing that the Drow were now highly belligerent, Shade called a meeting at a secret location of all the Drow and a few trusted others, and together we plotted our revenge. Our plan called for the armoury to be seized and looted, all money and potions to be removed and for us to utterly ignore all commands from Gever, Jackal and any of their officers. This of course meant that myself and Varquin must give up our bodyguard duties to Gever, but Shade immediately took Varquin on as his body-guard, and asked me to help lead troops. The Drow drifted back into the encampment, and quietly set about our tasks. Before long, we had removed all bows, arrows and anything else of military value that we could find, as well as many of the trophies we had brought Gever previously. Jackal's troops made half hearted efforts to stop us, but these were either ignored or swiftly ended. Shade sat out under the stars, right behind Gever's main tent, with The Drow and many others around him as we listened first to Jackal's rages and orders to find us and kill us all, and then Gever's disbelief at the situation. Then, much to our amusement, Jackal, Gever and their half Drow troops held a party, where there was much debauchery and drunkenness; we could probably have taken the tent from around them without their notice, so drunk did they become. Well pleased with the night's work was Shade, and well pleased indeed with us.

The morning of the battle arrived, and with it news that Gever had been cleverly assassinated by a female who had masqueraded as a courtesan in order to get Gever alone. Rumour had it that Jackal had hired the assassin, but then rumour also said The Drow had, or Shade had. I know that neither rumour is true, as had that been the case the job, or at least part of it, would have fallen to me. Anyway, the assassin escaped, and has never been identified since.

With Gever dead, and no-one other than the Half Drow prepared to follow Jackal, The Horde was now led by a giant Human whose name escapes me. He was determined to face The Volunteers in battle no matter the odds, and since every mercenary group had sided with The Volunteers, the odds were considerable. Shade estimated that The Horde numbered around two hundred, and The Drow and allies under Lord Shade numbered around one hundred. We mustered away from The Horde, and Shade asked me to lead the finest archers as The Elite, because of my shot the previous day. I was flattered, if a little daunted, and agreed. We waited until The Horde had already deployed on the field, at the top end, and then marched up behind them.

The effect was exactly what Shade had wanted; The Horde members cheered to see such a large group of re-enforcements and their leaders came and talked with us. We agreed to deploy on the left flank, in the small area of woodland, as that suited our fighting well. Swiftly we moved into the woodland, and took up our positions. As a result, we could not see what next occurred, but I was told later. Suddenly, the first of The Volunteer regiments marched onto the bottom of the field, followed by another, and another, and another. So confident were they that they did not even stop to form up, they just swung around to face us and marched straight up the hill. The Horde groaned as one, and the torrent of Volunteers continued unabated until the whole field seemed to be filled with them, and still more banners could be seen emerging at the back as more units came on to the field against us. Scouts returned, and estimated that we were outnumbered by eight to one. Then the carnage began, as the first volley of arrows hit our ranks, and then the guards that had been surrounding our healers turned and cut many of them down before being killed themselves.

Meanwhile, in the woods, we heard the groan, and so I and several others scouted forward to the edge of the tree-line. There we saw the tidal wave of Volunteers surging across the field, and knew that no battle plan would cope with such numbers. A large unit of Knights in plate armour, with huge shields, began to move in our direction, and so we moved back to our lines in the trees and awaited them. The waiting grew tense, as we could hear the fighting to our side, but no-one entered the wood from there. At last, a Knight cautiously advanced down one of the small paths into the wood, peering over his shield, and behind him came his unit. This then was their leader, and my orders were to hold this wood if possible. Bow strings were pulled back, but this was a shot I wanted, and so I indicated them to leave the first shot to me. In the gloom of the wood, it is possible that the knights did not even know we were there, in front of them, unhidden, but they soon learnt as my arrow leapt from the bow, impossibly fast, and struck the lead knight in the forehead. He had not even hit the floor before many of his companions were joining him, arrows slicing through their ranks and decimating their numbers. I saw knights hit two, and sometimes three times as they fell to the ground. Drunk with bloodlust, the non-archers fell upon the remainder and hacked them apart; very few of that unit escaped. However, now the enemy knew where we were, and our doom was assured. Within moments, several other units the same size as the first came crashing through the tree-line, and our supply of arrows began to run dry as we shot into the seething mass of enemy that marched towards us. With a shrug, I ordered The Elite to conduct a fighting retreat to the healer's circle, not knowing what had occurred there. Then, The Drow agreed to fight on as hit and run groups, and attempt to fight their way clear.
The Woods were lost, but we were not dead yet.

I hastened to the Circle to receive more orders, only to find the healers dead, and most of the leaders already engaged in battle themselves. One who was not told me that Lord Shade had gone behind the enemy lines with his bodyguards, but they had not been heard from since. Cold dread set in my bones, as Matron Saravay had made it quite clear what would occur if I returned without Prince Varquin. Seeing that the battle would be lost in moments rather than minutes, I called all The Elite and Drow around me and we grimly decided to attempt to break through the enemy's left flank and try to find signs of Lord Shade as we went. Seeing the fallen Healer's banner, I took it with us so as not to allow it to fall into the enemy's hands, as so may of our standards would soon do. Apparently, the plain white flag gave us some form of protection or struck fear into the Volunteers, as few came near us, and those that did we trained our bows on. But there was no sign of Shade and his retinue. We reached the far end of the field, and turned to see the Volunteers already celebrating their victory, with none alive to stop them. One of The Elite, an Albino Drow, loosed his final arrow high into the air toward The Volunteers, and shouted his defiance; we all echoed his vow of vengeance for Lord Shade, in particular as we watched The O'Learys celebrate along with The Volunteers. They would suffer our wrath first, we all agreed. Then we turned, and walked into the woodlands and the blessed darkness.

We had not moved very far beyond the tree line when Varquin appeared, and informed us that Shade had been captured and decapitated by Volunteer forces after they had been cut off. They had managed to put up a good fight, but were forced to the edge of the cliff that was the boundary of the battlefield. In the melee, Varquin became separated from the rest, but saw Shade taken and executed straight away. He had then climbed down from the cliff edge, to remain out of site, but when he re-emerged the Volunteers had taken Shade's body and head away with them. He did identify that the group responsible were mainly Celts, and he also recognised several O'Leary clansmen amongst them. With burning anger we re-affirmed our vows against the O'Leary clan, and the Celts, then headed for the Horde camp.

The camp was in disarray, which was no mean feat considering how few people were still alive. However, The Drow were still in good order and we immediately sat down to plan for the future. With a little trepidation, I put forward the idea that our Matron, Matron Saravay Gereshen, should lead the Drow the next year, and to my great surprise the others all agreed, including Matron Salix of The Black Kite clan, who stated that she looked forward to meeting Matron Saravay. We then agreed to stay in touch with one-another and send messages often; thus was the Drow Network born. These matters concluded, Varquin and I took our leave and began our travel back to V'elldrinnshar, with much to report and even more to think about. The surface was certainly full of possibilities, and I felt sure House Gereshen was up to it's challenges.