The rain seemed to pour down a lot more since that little negotiation with clan Stormcaller had soured. Fools. Eliz had gone in there very aware of her own weakness and her own temper. She was self aware, contrarily to what a lot of people claimed, which was why she spent so much time away from the clan, because she simply couldn't care enough to put her foot in her mouth. Ultimately, she had tried to make the negotiations as short as possible. These giant loving sons of whores though... they kept pushing and prodding, worst of all daring to use this... passive aggressive attitude Eliz had learned from Maire to hate so much.

'I have no interests in having men who will only talk and question what must be done following me in this expedition.'

That was when things went bad. The council room erupted with protests about how she, a mere child by the standard of the grey beards there, lacked wisdom and insight, and how it was preposterous for her to insinuate she should see them not as possible associates, but as people who should accept her leadership in this expedition. Eliz had been quick after that to turn on her heels and leave without any goodbye or apologies.

"So... what do we do now?" Asked Bedwyr. Eliz turned around, her head sinking in her shoulder to keep warm under the rain.

"What now? It doesn't change anything. We go to Stormpeak and explore, to bring back whatever bounty the gods have for us there."

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Eliz's boot smashed in the face of one of the 2 survivors of the Nightfell patrol, sending him on his ass on the ground and causing some laughter among her own men. So much for the impressive reputation of the monster hunter clan at fighting, they were perhaps better with beasts than men but it didn't matter right now.

Eliz had gotten what she wanted and the 4 horsemen were dead or dismounted, at the mercy of the scarred archer and her crew. "Give us everything and you may live."

The duo didn't need to look at each other before removing their armor and any weapons they had left to throw it in front of Eliz's horse who only looked down on them with a self satisfied arrogant smile, shared by the rest of the mounted men around her. When they finished removing their gear, Eliz just leaned on her horse, taking out one of the javelin on her back, still bloodied from having been thrown at the back of one of these men's comrade, and pointed it at the two men. "Everything." Their expression sunk further away from anger to shame as they undressed completely under the grins and laughter of their enemies.

"You pathetic worms, I can't believe they'd let you take care of horses when all you do is grovel naked in the mud. Go! Go before I change my mind!" The duo left running toward the village. A more careful commander would have ran now, the weapons and armor of 4 men, along with the glory and above all, 4 horses, seemed quite the prize for such little effort. But Eliz wanted more, and she knew she had precious little time. As one of the gallocman dismounted to get the loot, Eliz turned her eyes toward the small farm houses outside the forest.

"Cadoc, Fflur! You are with me, Bedwyr, you take the rest to another house! We continue as planned, we have few precious moments before the Nightfell reinforcements arrive! Take anything of value that can be carried, things or people! Work for your pay damn it!" Without much concern for her horse, Eliz pulled on the rein, making the horse stand on two legs for a moment before shifting direction and begin to run toward the defenseless homes of the kerns they targeted.

Bedwyr went for the first house and did as his men, unsaddling to walk toward the house and kick in the door, walking in with his two handed war axe, causing the in occupants to scream in terror. Going to her own target, Eliz slowed down but still kept going before once again pulling in the reins and making the horse stand. A second later, the door was forced open by a powerful kick from its forward hooves.

The scene of violence went on for two minutes before the first of the reinforcements arrived. Not gallocmen, but nearby kerns, hearing their brethren in need of help had regrouped and decided to move on the raiders with old weapons and farm equipment they had at hands. Considering the dust cloud at the distance, even Eliz's terrible sight could see cavalrymen were not far either. She took her horn and blew into it, signaling a fighting retreat.

The gallocmen's training and discipline along with the ranged help from the hunters allowed everyone to make out of there alive, with 4 sheeps and two child along with some goods. Eliz's prefered target since they could be re-educated more easily than normal thralls, even if it meant they'd be less productive at first. But they were not out of the woods yet.

Behind them a group of 8 horsemen followed them. That seemed a little light in term of what was needed to take them down, did Nightfell lack in terms of horses? But even if they could beat them, fact was some people would probably get hurt or killed in the process, and that would slow everyone down. The small group of raider simply ran away.

But the enemies gave chase. Signaling with her hands to the others, Eliz took along Cadoc to the right to slow down and be at the level of the enemy riders. A small group turned to go and meet them, but Eliz already had a good position next to the main group and threw a javelin at them. A horse got it right in the neck and fumbled at high speed to the ground, his rider following him. Eliz went on to put distance between herself and the fringe group going after her and the chase went on, only ending when Bedwyr unsaddled a Nightfell gallocman by throwing a sheep backward, hitting him right in the chest! Deciding it wasn't worth it to pursuit with two of their comrades down, the Nightfell fell back.

"Piss off you cowards! HAHAHA!" The men cheered with Eliz at the success of their raid! It wasn't much, but for how little they were and at the cost of no casualties and not even slowing down their travel? This was a resounding victory!

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The escape was a resounding success. The group had gone to the river to walk inside it for a little bit as to erase their tracks and make sure no bad surprise came after them and had now reached Stormpeak. It was, by far, the highest mountain Eliz had ever seen or heard of, even back in the old kingdom. What was most peculiar was how it stood perfectly in the middle of grassland, like a tower of sort.

Eliz had found shelter for her followers in a cave, one of many in the mountain it seemed. Now, they were all around a piece of parchment on which Eliz had drawn a crude map.

"Wait, so we're here, and this is the village? And this must be Nightfell..."

It seemed people were not keen on her drawing skills. To be fair, it was actually voluntary since this was only a note to help herself navigate, not something meant for anyone else to try and understand. "I know, shut up. This is the village, the mountain, Nightfell, blablabla. Now, if we look upward, we found that old, crumbly stone stairway and we know we have gods know how many caves around here. After that of course, there's that field."

The battlefield. Not something you could see from a mountain normally if it wasn't so big... "Here's what we'll do. We'll see to the battlefield today and then the caves for the next few ones." 

The gallocmen looked at each other in confusion. "Why bother?" Finally one of them said. "The gods pointed at the mountain, so lets climb the mountain and be done with it!" Eliz frowned toward Cadoc. "You just earned yourself a stay at camp, idiot. And you should know why. Going to the battlefield will take only a day and will allow us to see some history of what this mountain is about and clearing out the nearby caves will maybe allow us to get up the mountain or at the very least, make sure we don't have some nasties living next to us, ready to kill us in our sleeps or eat these children." The hardy men turned around to look at the 2 frightened kids they had kidnapped.

"My decision is final."

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And her decision was one she wasn't sure was the right one. Her comportment had been exemplary, Serhiem would have been proud and she knew in her guts that the gods looked down favorably on her for that moment... but still. "Hey, fryfa... I mean, Eliz. What happened out th-"

She turned towards the warrior. It was easy to read her, when she was pissed and turned around like that, she showed her hideously burned half first. "Not... a word..." Saying only this, she looked back forward and continued for a moment before stopping again, her memories of her encounter vanishing as she leaned down and looked at a stone. "...This stone was carved."

The trio spread out, looking for more. "Hey, there's another one on the floor here... and one over there!" Eliz looked up from her finding and walked toward the next spot so she could see better in the darkness but as she did, she stepped on the stone she had seen. Something moved. Eliz ducked, expecting a trap of sort... but nothing... Going back up, she went back on the stone, hearing that 'click'... She looked at the two other stone and signaled her men. One went on the other and one on the last...

There was a rumble as a wall of the cave began to lift, revealing an archway. Inside seemed to be a corridor, but it had caved in unfortunately. Under the rubles was the dead body of a dwarf, of all things. The favored of the giants, here... and on him, a bow, of sort. Only it was different, with an handle and a mechanism holding the string and a shorter arrow, with a metal tip, eldritch dwarven engineering. Eliz took the thing from the skeletal hands of the long dead dwarf... It was big for a dwarf it seemed, but for most of her men it would be too small. Looking at the thing, she shouldered it, knowing the arrow had to be shot the other way. The ergonomy was weird but fitting somehow for a short and lanky girl such as her.

Her hands moved around the weapon, finding a protuberance... looking at it, it seemed to be the release mechanism for the string. "Fflod, why don't you throw your shield in the air." He muttered something about weird dwarven bows before executing himself. Eliz pulled on the trigger and at such short range, the arrow went directly where she was aiming and sent the shield flying, much more than if it had been hit by a normal arrow, and on it, the small arrow was jammed much further in than a big one.

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From that moment on, there had been no doubt in Eliz' mind, the gifts the gods wanted to give the clan, to give her, was dwarven weapons. She searched the caves of the mountain, forgetting about the stairs and trying to find more Dwarven ruins, but to no avail. Before she knew it, the supplies were running low, even with 2 hunters present, and they had to go home.

The travel was easy, as instead of going on the south bank of the river and through nightfell, they came back home north where no enemies were to be found.

When they arrived home, the first to come out were the families of everyone involved, going to their loved ones despite the rain still pouring in. By the gods this was muddy as hell. What Eliz didn't expect however was the glares of everyone around her. She sent hideous gazes in return of course, but what was this about?

Oh please, she knew exactly what this was about, her problem was one with an ego almost as large as herself, but she wondered what had been told again. 

Now that the group was home, they began to split the loot. It had already been talked for long hours on the way back home and Eliz didn't care since her share was already determined: The horses and the dwarven bows. It was, of course, immensely unfair toward everyone else, but Eliz had financed the entire expedition out of her pocket and if she hadn't been there, the Gallocmen involved would just have sat home and planted crops, so there wasn't much of a fuss. They were back home safe and sound and ready for the coming raiding season.

As she waited next to her men however, a small group had formed around her. It was something she knew, they wanted to ask something but didn't have the courage to speak. They knew Eliz wasn't one for taking insults, and kerns knew better than frustrate a gallocman. Finally, someone pushed and shoved his way up the crowd and spat at Eliz's horse. The ratty little...

"It's your fault! The rain, its all your bloody fault! You had to open your big, ugly, stupid mouth! We had trade with the Stormcallers! And look at all this mud! Now all we have is rain! You screwed everything up!" Eliz frowned. So that was what was up. The crowd erupted, throwing insults and questions as around Eliz, a small gathering of people standing beside her in the matter formed, protecting her and her horse, signaling that the crowd couldn't just lynch her.

Finally she spoke. Her voice however was drowned by the crowd. She tried to scream, to no avail. Rolling her eyes, Eliz slammed her heels in the side of the horse, causing him to rise and scream in pain. The heavy frame seemed to advance toward the crowd as people made way as not to be trampled by the black beast. Still, she retained control and didn't hurt anyone.

On her face was a look of rage as she pointed toward the crowd. "You good for nothing, cowardly slobs... Of course you'd plead and beg for peace, you're just like the Stormcallers! What is this that I hear, we find dragon bones, but only use them to sooth another clan who is frustrated I hurt their little feelings... Did I think this would happen? Of course not! Insulted as they were, the Stormcallers looked down at their feet every time I looked at them as I left, revengeful as they were, not one of them even tried to block my way, much less ask me for a duel to save their honor!"

The crowd had gone dead quiet, the only sound around being that of the falling rain. Eliz stayed her fingers, moving her horses to trot around the crowd. Going next to people and looking down on them, daring them to assault her. "Cowards, pompous weaklings that cannot defend their honors... GODLESS fools who would not help when the god talkers spoke, even more hilariously!" She brandished the dwarven bow triumphantly for everyone to see. "Here I am, home at last with a wondrous weapon forged by the dwarf, that the stormcallers had to pass the opportunity on having for themselves because their narrow minded ego could not stand with working with us, their so called 'inferior'..."

She lowered the bow and looked at it, her expression somewhat of amused disgust. "A weapon so complicated to understand... Yet so simple to use." She pointed it at the door of Jugo's brewry with one hand and pulled the trigger, the crowd flinching nervously at the sound unlike anything they had heard before and whispering after they heard a much louder 'TCHAK' than one would expect when the bolt collided with the wooden door. "The gods sent us a message to go east, and with that message we found this weapon..." She looked at the crowd with a smile for a moment before returning to an expression of disgust. "Its a sign that the gods find us weak. That we need a weapon so simple to use for the power it welds because our sons and daughters are too busy doing like their fathers, planting crops, making goods to trade or worst... give away so we might not suffer the wrath of easily crushable weaklings, to learn how to fight. How to defend ourselves and to show those who would dare PISS on us-!" Eliz pointed upward at the rain.

Her voice went more quiet, forcing people to stay silent to hear her. "Our enemies, because make no mistake, the Stormcallers are our enemies... have decided to use their magic against us, to ruin us... And now we'll just... send a rare and priceless artifact to them, so we may beg, please, stop! Well I wonder what message this sends to the other clans!"

That was it, what frustrated her the most. This passive, submissive attitude. That they might blame her? Fine... but that they would just roll over at the first little thing that went wrong... She had made her point, but as she moved onward to her house to finally get away from this hellish rain, someone else said something to attract her ire.

"A lousy dwarven bow! It wasn't worth it, it wasn't worth two lives!" Was this woman blind? Could she not see not a single of Eliz's men had even a scratch? She turned slowly toward the woman who had talked. "...I could guess the reason I'm on the council is because I'm half blind and so I'm half wise..." She said, taking a jab at Serhiem. "But I'm pretty sure I see all my men back with me, completely unharmed.

"The barrows. Maire told us-" Eliz started to laugh as she looked upward at the clouds. "-that you took away all the gallocmen on that foolish errant of yours! That's why... that's why a gallocman and a kern died when she went to gather her herbs!"

Silently, Eliz leaned out of her saddle toward the woman, a rather unsettling smile on her face. "Foolish... errant... A foolish errant that the god talkers had a vision about, to go to the highest mountain of these lands, to find a wondrous weapon the likes of which we've never seen was somehow more foolish... than a fat little alchemist wanting to go in unexplored land, on her own volition, to fetch some grass and insisted on leading this expedition, yet was not decent enough to put herself in harms way to protect her own men?"

She looked down on the woman who had brought up the point with a sneer of disgust she'd reserve normally only for Maire herself. "And me, I went with 5 other men, successfully raided and moved through the entire Nightfell clan, to unknown territories where I crawled in the ideal breeding grounds of monsters of all sorts for an entire season and for how many casualties?!"

She raised two fingers in the air, before pointing them at the two new thralls she had captured. "There were none! In fact, where Maire Virtanen led two men to their death, I brought back two to better our clan! Where Maire Virtanen brought grass, of all stupid things we have more than enough of near a bloody river, I brought back 4 strong horses!"

Eliz felt like she could go on and on about Maire, but she knew this was enough, that it would change nothing and that she just wanted some god damn peace and quiet. She moved both her hands to the reins of her horse. "So unless you can back your words with actions, shut up. I will not hear anything from ungrateful idiots that just stand in awe when a fat pig regurgitates all the honey she feast on in the form of words, those same idiots forgetting how grateful they were a year back when I saved them and their children from starving on the way to this valley, from starving during the first winter by doing exactly what I am and have always been doing and that, now that we have some prosperity, would rather sit on their laurels, and lead us in the same situation that exiled us in the first place. Weakness."

"...I'll keep doing that too. I'll wipe away Maire's mistake and all life in the Barrows, because I must. I'll keep raiding, again and again, because there hasn't been a single year where our cattle gave birth to more offspring than the number we brought back. Because when we prove their weakness to the other clans, their men concentrate on defending themselves and their homes before attacking us. And, if the thick headed fools that are against it would let me, I'll make the stormcallers undo what they have done, because I cannot stand that people would blame me for the enormous ego they have to have to punish an entire clan for one woman's actions, because they are unable to deal with her face to face, in their crippling weakness."

Eliz fell silent and slowly walked her horse toward her home. If the clansmen didn't make way, the Gallocmen on foot around Eliz sure as hell would make them. And that, that made Eliz smirk. As long as the Gallocmen were on her side, Maire and her clique of effiminated submissive weaklings could do nothing. Where Maire worked with subtle intrigue, Eliz would meet her with brute force at every turn.