It seemed his opinion had been noted - the old bearded man, who Nuva didn't believe he'd been introduced to quite yet, proposed silver and valdium to handle vampiric threats, and priestly or blessed items regardless of whether the foe was vampire or sorcerer. Of course, valdium was rare, silver was hardly useful in a weapon, and priests were hardly inclined to simply give items away or even sell them to mercenaries. But then, maybe that was just him and the oversized spike on his arm, not that he'd ever needed holy items to fight the undead before. Not that many had considered him for particularly significant positions, in the grand scheme of things.

[i]Now, where'd that train of thought come from?[/i] he asked himself, blinking behind his mask to refocus himself on the topic at hand. He wasn't usually in a grand mood, but sudden intrusive thoughts weren't exactly his style... though perhaps the constant prattling on of the gnome Hobnob and his retinue was getting to him, going on about how dangerous vampires were, and how a "canine counterweight" was needed to prevent their traps from malfunctioning- when, realistically, a counterweight as heavy as a dog would probably do just as well- and all the while spilling more and more blueprints on to the table, and was [i]that[/i] why they'd been chasing the dog around the other day? He was certain his previous charge, the gnome mage, hadn't been quite this ultra-eccentric. It annoyed him, he decided. Still, he'd admit the gnome was also unusually intelligent: if what he was hearing was accurate, they had access to knowledge generally reserved for dwarves, as well as the capacity to build some form of Steam Tank- pardon, Steam [i]Roller.[/i] That was an important distinction, apparently, and it didn't take long for the gnomes to vanish after that, followed shortly by the pile of paperwork they'd strewn across the table.

'Let's hope they don't flatten themselves,' Nuva offered dryly, smirking slightly under the mask but not showing that off in his voice. 'In any case, as... Allard, am I right? ...as Allard suggests, it'd be best to prepare for as many eventualities as possible. For all we know, Strater is a mage [i]and[/i] a vampire, and that's a downright lethal combination regardless of any other factors. We can hope that things don't play out that way, but we ought to assume they will, and prepare accordingly. I don't suppose anybody has any other ideas on how he might have attempted to persuade Pembrook to hand the book over?' he asked, meaning to offer what little advice he had that might serve to counteract such possibilities, if anything could be done to counter them in the first place.

[@POOHEAD189][@MiddleEarthRoze][@rush99999][@Jollan]