EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei continued to avoid acknowledging the Imperial until the soldiers had taken him away. It was only once he was out of sight that she spoke to Gallus. "He was simply taunting you, goading you to attack. Regardless of your opinion on me, he assumed you would take offense. Likely, he wanted you to kill him. We will need to keep a close eye on him to make sure he cannot finish himself off before I am ready for him to die."

Nearby, Ri'vashi produced a small cloth from her pouch and ran it down the flat of her blade to wipe away the blood. The sword had an intricate design on its hilt depicting what appeared to be dragons, if examined closely. The blade itself was clean, apart from the blood, and had been shined to near-perfection. In response to Gallus, she paused and stared at the blade for a few seconds before returning it to its scabbard. "Ri'vashi had a good teacher." She commented.

Ri'vashi remained on alert as she continued, though with all of the soldiers now surrounding them, another attack was unlikely. "With luck, the others will have been found by now. This day...has been nothing but an embarrassment for Ri'vashi and her clan."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei stared at the Imperial, speaking firmly with an uncompromising glare. "He will be locked up like the rest. Treat his wound...sufficiently enough that he will survive for the moment. Make no mistake, he will die. That part of his fate is sealed. But, there are worse things than death, and his cooperation will decide how many of them he experiences." She threatened.

Once again, the Imperial started to laugh. Just as Meesei had not acknowledged him directly, so too did he not acknowledge her. Instead, he looked at Gallus once more. He was gritting his teeth enough that he could not hide his pain, though that did not stop him from trying. Despite his situation, he seemed confident, with no shortage of defiance. "Childish? I guess so, but at least I'm not a...savage like you beasts. Uncivilized wretches...hiding out in some hole under a hill. Like rats, pests. You're mongrels, walking around in scraps of leather and hide, trying to act like people. And you...Imperial, or Nord, or whatever you are: you want to kill me. I can see it in your eyes. And I think you're afraid, not of me, but of that...lizard whore you submit to. You're a tool to be used at her whim; A puppet whose strings she is pulling. You jump in front of her at the first sign of danger, like a well-trained servant." The man taunted, before beginning to laugh even more loudly.

"Or maybe you admire her?" The Imperial continued with a particularly condescending voice. "Maybe you want to serve her like a good little dog to earn her attention, or affection? I guess I could see how you'd be attracted to her...if you like animals."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi held the bloodied blade out towards the Imperial in the event he intended to try anything else, though he seemed too preoccupied holding his hand over the deep gash in his arm to actually attempt another attack. Not to mention, Gallus was keeping him rather securely pinned. His arm was bleeding heavily, even with the pressure he was applying to the wound. "Yes, it looks like he caught wind of what happened. Ri'vashi recognizes this one. He was the most...curious of their group. He was always asking questions, about the clan and the stronghold. He painted himself out as being a scholar."

Meesei stood over the Imperial, keeping her expression calm, but intense. She looked him over carefully, paying close attention to his face, and the severity of his wound. Untreated, death by blood loss was a possibility, but simple bandages would probably be enough to staunch the bleeding sufficiently to allow him to heal on his own. A greater threat would be infection, if he was not a lycan like the Argonian. However, they could allow him to survive that as well. "Well, I hope you are satisfied with what you have learned about this ruin. You shall not be leaving it."

The Imperial leaned his head back and let out an exaggerated, almost delirious laugh. He did not seem outwardly angry, though he still paused a few moments to give her a threatening glare. He was obviously defiant, and wanted to make sure that was clear to his captors. Since Meesei was too far away from him, he turned his head to Gallus and spat in his face.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi nodded. "Yes, please. It is going to take a lot of effort to make the kinds of accommodations necessary for such a large number of people. One moment, let me grab a parchment." She answered. Stepping away for a moment, she walked over to a corner of the room with a table, and a series of bookshelves. Compared to the table at the center, it was rather disorderly, but she did not seem to have issue finding a blank parchment and writing implements. Once she returned, Meesei and Ra'kalsesh began answering any questions she had about the clan and what they would need.

---

Once the meeting was over, they all left out of the room to start on their tasks. Uthri and Ra'kalesh were going to head back to inform the clan to pack the camp, then head inside the stronghold. Ri'vashi, while she had quite a few responsibilities at the moment, was first going to find her council and make accommodations for the Senchal clan. Meesei was going to check on Irenya and the Argonian impostor, while everyone else would have the chance to simply familiarize themselves with the clan and the stronghold itself. They would all be separating in the main chamber, but they were all still walking together through the hallways at the moment.

It was close to being dinner time, so the hall was moderately crowded. Without her robe, Meesei was easy to identify, so there were a few that stared at her as they passed. Likely, most of the clan had heard of what happened when they arrived. However, it was not likely that they had received any official explanation, so Meesei could only imagine what notions they had in their minds. Their expressions were certainly varied.

Just as they were about to reach the main chamber, Ri'vashi started to look closely at an individual that was approaching them. He was acting no differently from any of the other clan members, but nevertheless, she seemed to be staring him down. He was a Human man, likely Imperial, in a simple brown hooded robe. He had his hands clasped together in front of him, and his head slightly lowered. As they drew nearer, however, Ri'vashi's eyes widened.

"Champion!" She shouted, drawing her blade just as the man pulled a dagger. He lunged for Meesei, but Ri'vashi's blade was quick. It was a long, curved blade: an Akaviri katana. It sliced through his forearm, stopping on the bone, but nearly cutting the muscle in half. He dropped his knife, then fell to his knees.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

There is just one more thing, though I'm in a game at the moment.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While Meesei did recognize the advantage of leaving sooner, there were too many unknowns for her to say for certain where their soldiers should go. "Since our plans could change rather drastically depending on what those scouts report, it would be best to wait until their return to commit our forces."

"Agreed." Ri'vashi said with a nod. "There are some werevultures among this one's clan, but not a great many. They would likely only be able to scout either the fortress, or the point the impostor was sending us to, in that time."

Ra'kalesh chimed in. "Our clan has trained werevulture scouts as well. They may not be happy to take on such a mission after such a long journey, but he knows they will be willing to for the benefit of the clan."

"Well, then we have a plan for now, then. We should attempt to have them ready to leave by tomorrow." Meesei suggested.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Gallus' points about the complications that could arise during the attack were valid. Ideally, they would be able to perform a quick, surprise attack before their fortress could be reinforced, but they could not simply plan on the ideal. "Those are fair points. Additionally, I would not want to rely on any plan that requires the use of a large number of transformed lycans. We do not know how much of the suppression gas the enemy has, but we have to assume they would be able to use it in their defense. We can make use of our lycan forms, but only in a limited fashion." Meesei commented.

"Suppression gas?" Ri'vashi asked curiously.

"Oh yes, I suppose you do not yet know of it. The enemy posses a gas that can force a lycan out of their transformed state, or keep us in our normal forms." Meesei explained.

Ra'kalesh had been silent in thought as Gallus had been pointing out the dangers with the plan. He certainly did not debate the validity of his points, but he did have an idea for a way of giving them more information. "It would take us weeks for our entire force to cross the distance to reach this fortress, but there is a way we could scout them sooner. Werevultures can cover large expanses in a fraction of the time as any ground force. If we send teams of werevultures as scouts, they could be there and back in a week. This one knows that they are capable of flying high enough to remain out of sight."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei rested her chin on her hand, thinking about the speculation that was going around the table. They did not yet know for certain of their enemy's plans, but they had the potential to turn the situation to their advantage. It was possible they would be able to interrogate the prisoners and learn their plans, but it was not a guarantee. Even if they coaxed an answer out of them, there was no way to know if it was the correct one. Perhaps, she reasoned, the best way to handle it would be to find an option that would work regardless of the enemy's plans.

"Indeed, I would not expect the Argonian woman to be the leader of this group. Her only importance to them was her resemblance to me. Although it is possible she is a high ranking member of their group, it would be unlikely that she would just happened to be a leader with something close to my appearance. We will need to interrogate them all, but we cannot count on them sharing accurate information. It could be possible to feed the enemy false information, but any contact with them does increase the chances of them learning that their infiltrators were compromised. Perhaps our best option would be to simply take advantage of how they have distracted themselves? The location Ri'vashi describes, just northwest of Corinthe, it sounds reasonably close to the enemy's main stronghold. That is what leads me to believe that they plan on ambushing us with their own forces. They would be able to have troops from their stronghold there is just a few days, so they would be well-supplied, and well-rested for the fight. But, that also means that some of their forces will be away from their stronghold. If we attack then, we will have an easier time overcoming their defenses. As long as the battle does not become a siege spanning several days, they would not be able to reinforce their stronghold in time." Meesei proposed.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"This one can see why you would be worried, but the Thalmor will not find this place." Ri'vashi said reassuringly. "No patrol has ever come close. Even with an active search, you should be safe as long as you are within this stronghold's walls. Is that everything that brought you to this point? This one supposes you will want to know more about the impostor."

Meesei leaned forward onto the table and clasped her hands together. "Yes, that is everything of importance. The impostor, for how long as she been here? I am sure she would want to attempt some kind of sabotage in this infiltration."

"She has been here just over a week." Ri'vashi answered. "Ironically, she said she was here for much the same reason as you: to bring our forces to fight against Vile. We have spent most of the past week gathering supplies and preparing our warriors for a march to the south. We were going to be leaving within the next few days on a long journey of our own, but the place she described what not quite in the same place you mention. It was almost as far away, but to the northwest of Corinthe."

With Ri'vashi's explanation, there were a few possibilities on what the impostor's plan might have been, the most obvious of which seemed to be an ambush, which was Ra'kalesh's first thought. "That sounds like an ambush to this one. He would be willing to wager that the place she wanted to take you had terrain favorable to an ambushing force. Not to mention, your soldiers would be fatigued from a long journey upon arrival."

"I would still like to question the prisoners, but that does seem likely. The question is, what do we do about that possibility? There may be some way we could turn this to our advantage." Meesei suggested.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Very well. Ri'vashi does not expect that the search will take too much longer, but we can wait all the same. Once this meeting is concluded, this one will check on the search's progress." Ri'vashi answered. "And yes, she would appreciate any information you can give her. She is sure you will want to know more as well."

Following Gallus' offer, Meesei started out the explanation. "We set out from Bruma a few months ago, after I received a vision from Hircine that Elsweyr would need my direct assistance. As soon as we arrived in Senchal, we found a group of what we thought were lycans. All of them, apart from one, were agents of Vile masquerading as lycans. The last was a prisoner by the name of Sees-No-Colors, who they had been forcing to help lure messengers. He helped reveal their treachery, and after we killed them, we rescued his pride. In that rescue, we managed to learn the location of Vile's primary stronghold in Elsweyr. It is a fair distance northeast of Corinthe. We have not been able to scout its location, unfortunately, but it is the best lead we have."

"And you will need Ri'vashi's warriors to help in the assault." She commented with an understanding nod. "Well, this one certainly wants to eliminate Vile's presence from this nation. Fortunately, this one may be able to dedicate her forces freely. It is still possible that Vile's forces as a whole may not know our exact location. The impostor did not come directly to us. Rather, she met some of our scouts in Orcrest. They may not have known precisely where to find us, and since they have not left this stronghold since arriving, they have not been able to report in."