Sabine and Kaleeth eventually came upon a chamber that didn't seem to have an obvious purpose except for holding non-combatants. Their group stopped here, and Sabine decided to find a place to sit and finally get to rocking Rhazii back to sleep. Upon further inspection, the room had four doorways. The one they entered through had one of the Ayleid's old but strong metal gates opened around it. More people were streaming in, but it looked like there weren't too many left to come in. The doorway directly opposite to the entryway was another Ayleid gate, but it was locked and chained shut, complete with extra boarding to fortify it. Only a small round window into blackness gave any clue as to where it went. The other two doorways seemed to be symmetrical to each other on either other side of the chamber. One led to a caved-in passage, while the other lead to another empty chamber that some other non-combatants were occupying. Most of all, however, the inspection yielded a sense of vulnerability in how few fighters were assigned here. Their hopes were well and truly with those at the gate. Sabine continued to try and hide her worry in an effort to keep both Rhazii and Kaleeth calm.

Ahnasha was given immediate attention despite the rush Vera and Darahil were in while mounting the defence. Her suggestion caused Vera to look to Darahil, who looked thoughtful for a moment. Darahil glanced to the gate, craning his neck to assess the viability of the gambit, then looked to Ahnasha. He didn't quite give a smile, "This may indeed help us. Caldris!" A familiar Bosmer in light armour leaned out from atop the walkway over the gate. Darahil looked up to her, "Have your men gather firewood from the forge and place it a short distance from the gate. We shall fill the caverns with smoke when they arrive."

"Won't that smoke us as-?" Caldris began to ask.

"-Leave that to my followers, just get the fire built!" Darahil turned to Ahnasha again, "Let us hope we can build it by the time they arrive. As for everything else, I have some students placing runes upon the walls, but they are proving slow. I will go out and expedite the process." Darahil then began to walk towards the open gates, leaving the rest of the points unnoticed.

Vera seemed to take some sort of cue to do address the rest of the points instead. "I can have some of my men try to find oil, but we do not have an awful lot of it. It would only be a small area outside the gate. As for the ram, I think it would be easier to kill the soldiers rather than the carved tree-trunk with handles they would likely bring. I cannot imagine them bringing anything heavier through the cave."

After barely half an hour of hurried preparation later, a sentry came sprinting through the cave, taking a particular route to avoid the runes that had been placed. He entered the chamber in front of the gate shouting to-arms and announced the hunters' arrival. Vera's men had just finished upending a large pot of oil in a slick layer in front of the gate before they got everyone inside and barred the gate. There was a tense silence then, as everyone listened and waited.

The first trace of footsteps through the cave, however distant, immediately made Darahil commit the first move. He launched a ball of magical fire onto the pile of gathered firewood and set it alight. Some foresight had granted the warriors carrying the wood to splash some oil upon it before they finished, so the fire caught quickly. "Now!" Darahil ordered, short and sharp. Just as quickly, a tangible charge of magical energy collected in the area as all the mages on the walkway pushed a spell out in front of them. The displacement of air made it feel like a light wind was coming in from the defender's backs as the magic created a draft to direct the rising smoke towards the mouth of the entrance cavern. The occasional explosion of runes being set off punctuated the noise coming from the cavern as clumsy and blinded footsteps set them off.

With the closer noise, Vera called out, "Draw!" Those who carried bows drew them back and trained them upon the cavern mouth.

A lone lycan hunter, heavily armed and armoured, and separated from his comrades, came forth with a stumble, coughing and spluttering from the cavern mouth. Vera held a crossbow in her hands, but she didn't order anyone to fire. Insead, she nudged Caldris on the shoulder beside her. The Bosmer loosed an arrow from her longbow and struck the invader in the neck. His attempt to raise his shield was too late as he fell. "Hold!" Vera urged.

Then came the rest.

The rest of the lycan hunters who came forward did so as a collective, fanning out with their shields raised properly. "Loose!" Vera shouted at once.