EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

La'tahne's face sculpting took about four hours of constant work to finally reach completion, for which Meesei had to be present, both to serve as La'tahne's model, and to keep the prisoner safely unconscious. Her work had only been on the details of Dar-tzesa's features, but that did not stop her from looking like an entirely different person. Unfortunately, it was difficult to say at this point exactly how closely her features now matched Meesei's. That would not be determined until her scars were able to heal completely. Until then, Meesei called on a few guards to help empty out the room of anything nonessential, and to help bind her more properly. With their work done for now, Meesei dismissed La'tahne and left the prisoner in the care of the Orcrest clan's healers.

Meanwhile, Ri'vashi decided to personally fulfill Gallus' request to inform him of the operation's outcome. Enough time had passed that his training session with Tzirret would be over, so she had to ask around in order to locate him. Although she did not like keeping secrets from her clan, Ri'vashi understood the importance of discretion in this case and approached Gallus casually until they could speak privately. She nodded to him briefly and subtly as she spoke. "We were able to complete the task we were working on before." She said simply.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

La'tahne made her first cut, then carefully started the second in order to peel back the scales. "It should go pretty quickly for an Argonian lycan, but just to be safe, La'tahne would give her at least one night's rest. If you want to fool someone with her appearance, it needs to be perfect."

"That will be fine." Meesei commented. "The prisoner does not likely expect you to commit the murder immediately. Taking some time to carry out your plan would seem natural."

La'tahne paused until Meesei kept her head still once more, then started her work. For as much as La'tahne considered face sculpting to be an art form, it was very gruesome work. She had to peel back the scales across one entire side of her face, exposing the muscle and bone underneath. She was able to use her own restoration abilities to limit bloodflow to the area, and reduce bleeding overall, so it was a cleaner procedure than it could have been. However, seeing such large openings in a still-living person's body was an unsettling thought for most.

The actual face sculpting itself was far from a quick process. Once the scales were pulled aside, she started chiseling away bit by bit. With the bone exposed, it became quickly apparent the kind of skill required to actually reshape one's face intentionally. It was easy to conceptualize how carving the bone would change one's features, but it was another matter entirely to be able to be able to understand how her actions would affect the final appearance. It was also readily apparent how long the procedure would take, as the progress each time the bone was chiseled was hardly noticeable.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Oh..." La'tahne started, lowering her head to look down at the prisoner. Meesei had already drained enough of her energy that she was struggling to keep her eyes open, and was likely delirious. "Well, she will need to be alive for this, and for her recovery. Her face will not look right if she does not have time to regenerate. Healing magic can accelerate it, of course, but..."

As La'tahne's voice trailed off, Dar-tzesa's eyes finally closed completely, and she became entirely unresponsive. She took up her small, sharp knife, turned the prisoner's head to the side, and pressed it against her cheek. Before making any incisions, however, she raised up her head and looked closely at Meesei's face. "Okay...this one will have to narrow her cheeks a bit first. Just have a seat across from this one, if you could, Champion. Stay close, and try to stay still."

La'tahne pierced through the scales with the knife, but hesitated before completing the cut. She did not make eye contact with any of the others, but instead spoke up nervously. "This will help the clan, right?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Dar-tzesa gave no sort of reaction to Gallus' assurances. She showed neither relief nor dread, just absolute despondence.

Ri'vashi and Meesei had made sure to gather all of the tools that La'tahne requested. As soon as they laid the Argonian prisoner on the table, they shackled her down to it as a precaution. Whether she was actively resisting or not, she was still a werewolf. These shackles would not be enough to contain her on their own, but they would buy them time if it came to a transformation.

La'tahne looked down at her subject sympathetically. "This one has all of the supplies she needs, but...her subject should be unconscious for this. Movement can be very disruptive." She answered.

Meesei nodded, then placed her hands on Dar-tzesa to charge a spell through her, rapidly draining her energy. After about a minute or so, it would render her too exhausted to remain conscious.

As Meesei was casting the spell, La'tahne was closely examining Meesei's facial features. She did not touch her, so as not to interrupt, but she did walk around her to get a better look at the details. "Well...at least this prisoner will have a more beautiful face after this is over. But...why are we doing this? Unless you've found a way to give her another arm?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For Dar-tzesa her pain had mostly died down at this point. It did flare up from time to time, but after a week of healing with lycan regeneration, any physical cause of her pain was gone. Now, most of her sobs came from the hopelessness of her situation. She had fallen into extreme depression, and did not even acknowledge Gallus and La'tahne when they entered.

La'tahne, meanwhile, was shocked upon seeing the state of the Argonian prisoner. Her eyes widened, and she brought her hand up to her chest with an exasperated expression. "Divines...this one thought that was just a rumor."

Standing uncomfortably to the side, La'tahne was silent until Gallus spoke to her. Hesitantly, she leaned in and carefully looked over the woman's face. "It...looks like it will. Her face already looks so close already. The right color on the scales, all the major features..." She began quietly, before looking up at Gallus with some confusion. "But...there is no way she will be fooling anyone with that kind of injury."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

La'tahne's ears perked up as she was brought out of her thoughts by Gallus' question. She seemed distracted by something, but rather than something that worried her, it appeared as if she was in a perfectly good mood. "Oh, face sculpting? It is...mostly physical. Most face sculptors do know some healing, but that's mostly just to keep our subjects comfortable and help them heal up quickly and properly afterwards. It wouldn't matter how much we reshaped their face if we gave them horrible scars afterwards. Though, we can also create scars if we need to. La'tahne thinks that is a silly thing to actually want, but she did have a warrior ask her to give him 'intimidating' scars once. We can also use a combination of magic and alchemy to change the tone of a person's skin, the color of their fur or eyes, the color of their hair. Remove or add blemishes. With enough skill, anything can be changed. The majority of our work, though, is sculpting bone. Our bones are what give our faces their shape, their features. Change that, and the skin above will follow suit."

Smiling, La'tahne thought back on her apprenticeship in Torval. "Really, face sculpting is an artform. Like painting or, well, sculpting. The name really does say it all. We model the face like fine marble into something of beauty. She could give you her services if you like." She offered, pausing as she turned her head to look at him. Without giving warning or asking permission, she reached out her hand held it under his chin as she examined his features. "You probably don't need it, though. Your face is already a work of art as it is."

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

For myself, I think I need something from Rtron on the shapeshifter, and whether or not the rather small form she chose is being knocked into the wall by the wing gusts. Although, I'm not sure if he's waiting on a response from Free to see if Grey protects the Naga from the bones.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's time for me to get to bed. Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Yes, we need her face to look enough like mine to fool someone who both has met me, and knew her." Meesei continued. "I know little of what is involved in face sculpting, but would that be possible?" She asked.

La'tahne shifted in place somewhat uncomfortably. She had her hands clasped together on the table in front of her with a fair amount of uncertainty in her expression. "That...may not be easy. It is definitely possible, for certain. This one's former mentor would have been able to do that without a second thought, but this one was only an apprentice, and she is out of practice on top of that, but...it is something La'tahne has done before. Never on an Argonian, granted, but the concepts are all the same. You will have to be present to serve as a model, and this one would be more comfortable if we also had a healer on hand. La'tahne did learn some restoration as a part of her training, but such detailed work will require her bring the impostor under this one's knife for much longer than usual. Even so...La'tahne cannot guarantee it will work, but she will do everything she can."

Meesei looked to La'tahne reassuringly. "That is all we ask. If you fail, we do have other options we can try. We should start preparing as soon as possible. Ri'vashi, we should prepare a room and get any supplies she may need. Gallus, could you go with La'tahne to let her see the impostor, and to retrieve her from her cell and bring her to us? I would like to hold her separately from the rest of the prisoners from this point on. Just be sure she is gagged before you move her."