EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi shook her head and laughed. "Darahil smiling? Now she knows you are lying to her."

When Gallus moved on to his next question, Ri'vashi was unsurprised. In fact, she had been expecting that question for a while, so she was able to look straight ahead at him confidently, without giving away her actual emotions. "Oh, Ri'vashi had looked at a lot of people since she arrived here. Her eyes work very well, even without as much light." She answered coyly. Regardless, it was only a few seconds before she decided to actually answer honestly.

"The Argonian representative Ri'vashi mentioned is a strong and capable man. Very respectable. Though there is also this...strikingly handsome Khajiit she has seen around the city, though she hasn't spoken much to him. She thinks he farms mushrooms. But anyways, Ri'vashi has not had time for such things. She cannot really afford the extra stress, to tell the truth." She said before leaning in towards Gallus. "But what have you? Have you managed to avoid any more black eyes or bruises from your own trysts?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Morale is invaluable, but against that gas? It just means our warriors will die in a better mood." Ri'vashi sighed. "Still, we do have at least a few small advantages. Using the automatons on the surface would be like sending a signed letter to Do'rhajul himself telling him to search every Dwarven ruin in Skyrim, but we can use them defensively, at least. They can keep troublemakers away from the entrances, without arousing suspicion. Otherwise, we have made the decision to call on Hircine's...other worshipers for assistance. A lot of the warriors won't like it, your father didn't like it, even Ri'vashi doesn't like it, but we all agree it is necessary. Lycans don't tend to like working with lycan hunters that may have once killed their friends and family, but the gas does nothing to them, so they can make attacks more safely."

As much as Ri'vashi liked to vent her troubles, she had to agree that the prospect of discussing something else entirely was even more appealing. So, she certainly did not dwell on it when Gallus changed the subject. "Ri'vashi spent quite a lot of time getting to know her peers, yes. At least as much as they would let her. Saras and Darahil are both similar in that they do not let people get close to them. Though in Darahil's case, there may not be a such thing as 'close' to him. This one is not entirely convinced that he actually feels emotions. It makes him quite reliable, though. Your father, well, meeting him answered many questions about you." Ri'vashi smirked. "But there are a lot more people in the clan than its leadership, and Ri'vashi would call a few of them friends, thank you very much. She can't get too close to her soldiers to avoid any claims of favoritism, but there that Bosmer couple that helps Peralain raise the chaurus, there's that representative from Black Marsh, and she even tried to speak with Ariel's husband for a while to try to help him get more comfortable in this place, but he might still be afraid of Ri'vashi."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi huffed incredulously as they were entering the dining chamber. "How drunk would they have to be to annoy Ri'vashi, of all people?" If not her reputation, she reasoned her size alone would be enough of a deterrent for most drunks. Then again, inebriation and rationality were concepts that rarely mixed. Regardless, she followed Gallus inside, not expecting any issues. Indeed, they were hardly acknowledged apart from passing greetings.

Ri'vashi was not normally a particularly heavy drinker, but her size alone allowed her to easily tolerate what most would consider strong drinks. Indeed, she had to select something strong if she wanted to feel anything of note from her drinks. Given the question that Gallus had opened with, she expected that she was going to go through quite a few drinks before the end of the night. She leaned forward with her head in her hands and let out a sigh. "That is an understatement. Honestly, Ri'vashi wishes she only had the Falmer and Dwemer machines to deal with. She'd rather have a Falmer attack on the city every day than have to deal with Vile. Losing the Arenthia clan really put things into perspective for everyone, this one thinks. They were lucky to have so many survivors, but that was only because of how many of them were werevultures. Almost everyone who was confined to the ground was slaughtered. It is getting difficult for Ri'vashi to bring herself to assign anyone to make any sort of attack against the enemy's forces. We have to slow them down, but she cannot help but to feel that she is sending good men and women to their deaths. Saras' spies have been providing wonderful information, but it has been so hard to do anything with it. Even just a simple ambush on a supply caravan requires absolute perfection from our soldiers. If they make just one mistake, then the gas takes them."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi let out a long sigh as she leaned back in her chair. She looked up at the ceiling in silence for a few seconds before allowing her head to lazily fall to the side in Gallus' direction. "Fine, Ri'vashi will come with you. But she swears, if you are wrong and this does end up causing more work for her." She began, lifting up her hand and poking her finger into his chest. "She is assigning you to do it."

Despite her general frustration for work at the moment, Ri'vashi did take the time to organize and secure her documents in a locked Dwemer chest beside her desk. With how fervently Saras had been drilling his new security procedures into the clan's leadership, such measures were routine by this point.

"So, are we planning on staying in the city, or are you going to take her off outside it somewhere for some reason?" Ri'vashi asked. The Dwemer machinery in the city produced enough heat that the air in the city itself tended to be fairly warm, but while the rest of the cavern was not cold by any means, it was cool enough that Ri'vashi preferred to have a coat.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi was at first going to say that she was busy when she heard a knock at her door, but Gallus did not afford her that option. She pretty much knew who it was before she turned around. There were few in the clan who would be so bold with her as Gallus was. After all, she was technically in a position of leadership over all clans.

As Gallus might have expected, Ri'vashi put up some resistance to his suggestions. "Gallus, you know well why Ri'vashi is working. Every new bit of territory we capture comes with it a thousand security concerns. More soldiers to manage, more problems to solve. Saras has started tightening up restrictions on the kind of information we can send out and receive. Now, this one has to write orders to anyone outside the cavern in this code he came up with. And if she's writing to the leaders in different clans, she has to use a whole separate, even more complicated kind of code. It takes forever with how often she has to look at his instructions, and she can't delegate it. She would love to drink, but she has just a few more things to do..."

---

What Tzirret would have noticed upon opening Ma'tanza's letter was that it was not a letter at all. Or at least, it did not seem to be. Folded inside the package was a parchment with a few lines of Daedric writing, along with a small, torn piece of parchment with just a few lines written in Cyrodilic: Tzirret, find a quiet place, then say these words while holding the scroll. What followed was the same phrase as on the scroll, but written out in Cyrodilic lettering so that Tzirret could pronounce it correctly.

As soon as Tzirret spoke the words, he would hear a voice that, while somewhat distorted by the magic, was unmistakably Ma'tanza's: Hello Tzirret! Ma'tanza learned a new enchanting trick, as you can tell. It's not actually too hard, really, but her mentor says that mages don't use it that often since it isn't very useful. One downside of this scroll is that after you use it two or three times, it will stop working and can't be recharged. So...sorry about that, but Ma'tanza thought you might want to hear her voice, so she thought it would be worth it. Anyways, this one was very glad to get your last letter. Though you kind of really do need to be a bit more careful about some of the things you say. Just, um, try not to mention specific important things going on in your clan, or things that might identify it. Ma'tanza wishes we could talk more about those things, but she wants you to be safe. The people in charge of our letters have been giving us lectures about that every single time we send one. But, she is glad that you are having a better time in your new home. Ma'tanza wishes she could be there to swim with you; she isn't so picky about clean or dirty water. It's not like we can get sick. This one would just like to have any water at this point; we always have to be so careful with it here where we are. Luckily, that might change soon. There has been talk going around that it's finally time for our clan to have our own home. Ri'vashi's old clan has been very kind to us, but it is still crowded here, and we have recovered a lot since you left. We apparently have the means to move ourselves to a new place, like things used to be. Ma'tanza is not looking forward to the trip, but we will all be glad to have our own home again. Mi'basa will definitely be glad to have more places to run around and hunt. He has started transforming, and it's hard for him to keep himself calm without many real hunts. Ma'tanza's sister has been good at teaching him, though. She is very experienced. Ma'tanza can only talk for so long with the enchantment, but she hopes that maybe we can talk to each other face-to-face one day again. Did you decide to keep learning about healing? If you did, she is sure you will be good at it. Compassionate healers are always Ma'tanza's favorite. She can feel the soul gem's energy is about to drain, but Ma'tanza misses you too and is looking forward to hearing from you again. Make sure to mention if you want Ma'tanza to send more of these scrolls, or just regular letters. Goodbye!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

We can probably move ahead to the things you wanted.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Of course, ma'am." Paralain responded with a nod. "The scouts have observed the hunters serving the Falmer as well, but it will certainly be years at minimum before it becomes an issue. Hopefully, our scouts will be able to make more detailed observations in all that time."

"If nothing else, I am glad we will have a reliable source of meat without the normal cost on resources." Meesei added. "Is there any other news, or should we bring this meeting to a close?"

There was a few seconds of a pause as the rest of the council waited to see if anyone else was going to speak. When they were met with silence, Ri'vashi shook her head and began to gather up the papers in front of us. "There doesn't seem to be anything else. We can all get back to our duties."

Meesei nodded. "Agreed, though if you would wait behind a moment, Ri'vashi, I would like to personally join the mission to clear Alftand. I would like to ask about a few details."

As the meeting was dismissed, Brenann stood up from his seat and patted his leg as he walked over to Sabine and Ariel. "Come on, sparks, follow me." He ordered, though he paused with some uncertainty to look at Sabine. "So, um, did you want an assistant, or..."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Given his experience with the insects, Paralain was able to speak confidently in their defense. "I won't deny that they are dangerous, but I can say that their poison won't be a specific issue as long as the Chaurus remains peaceful. Their poison is a valuable resource to them that takes energy for their body to produce, so they only use it when hunting, or when threatened. There will not be any accidental injuries from acid spray, or anything like that. The particular chaurus I have in mind is one of the older ones that I have personally spent a lot of time around. She is well-behaved; we just have to make sure that our chaurus can handle being around crowds of people. I plan on bringing her at first to some of the more sparsely populated areas of the city, then slowly introducing her to more and more crowded areas. I think that would reduce any surprise for both her and the clan."

Paralain, unfortunately, could not give a definitive answer to Darahil, but he could make a few strong educated guesses based on what he knew. "Well...we do know that they certainly grow large enough to be used in that capacity, or even as mounts. The Falmer do not seem to use them to carry anything, but that may be because the Falmer do not need them for that with their lifestyle, or a simple lack of intelligence on their part to train them in that way. As it stands now, the chaurus we have now are not yet large enough to be used as beasts of burden, though we can begin training for that. Right now, our oldest chaurus are just starting to reach the age where they are laying eggs of their own. We won't need to scavenge them from around the cavern for much longer. The greatest issue is that there are some things we don't know about their life cycle. The most common kind of chaurus that you see around the cavern, the kind that crawl around on the ground, are sort of like their larval stage. Though, not exactly. They are still adults at that stage and can lay their own eggs, but it is not their final form. From what we have observed, they eventually go into a cocoon and transform into a flying insect, which some of the literature refers to as a chaurus hunter. They would be useful for other things, but not for that kind of work. Unfortunately, we don't know how long it will be before our chaurus reach that stage. Based on how fast they've grown so far, we estimate it will be one and a half to two years before they reach the common size of the chaurus we see with the Falmer. Though, they will continue growing even after that. The thing is, we don't know how long they stay as an adult before transforming. If it happens too quickly, it might not be worth it to train them to replace our horses. Just based on the relative rarity of the hunters, though, it might be possible."

Paralain paused for a few moments before remembering one of the other points he had intended to make, and was actually rather excited about. "Oh, but there is one other definite use for them. They should be able to be farmed. The Falmer do that effectively for meat, chitin, and probably poison. They are omnivorous, and in addition to meat, they can actually eat the glowing mushrooms that grows all around the cavern. The same mushrooms that are toxic to us. It means we can feed them something that is both abundant, and useless to us as food."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

As encouraging as their progress was with research and expansion, Ri'vashi could not help but to let out a sigh after Oswall's comment. "Unfortunately, everything we are doing for now is mostly delaying tactics. There is no way for us to feasibly face the enemy in the open. With automatons, non-lycan allies, and simple good strategy, we can still do considerable damage. We can strike from the shadows and slow down the enemy, but we will lose in the long run. There simply is no possibility for us to strike any real, decisive blows; we cannot attack their strongholds or move them out of territory. Ri'vashi is as hopeful as everyone else about these discoveries, but we need to be careful not to lose sight of the stakes. We cannot be too aggressive. We must keep our home hidden until this antidote is complete. There is another...potential issue you should know about, Champion. The Arenthia clan, in northern Valenwood, has missed its usual schedule for contact. There are no guarantees of trouble yet. It could be that something happened to their messenger, or some other delay, but our reports of enemy activity in the Dominion have Ri'vashi worried. Enough time has passed since our attack on their stronghold that they have likely recovered."

"I can have someone investigate the clan." Saras responded. "I have been personally training talented individuals within the clan to serve as more...specialized agents across Tamriel. The risk of detection will be minimal."

"Good, good." Meesei responded somewhat solemnly. "Is there anything else?"

Although hesitant, Paralain slightly raised up one hand to call attention to himself. "Um, well, we have had some progress with the chaurus. Breeding has obviously gone well; the chaurus lay multitudes of eggs perfectly fine on their own. It was more difficult than I had imagined to get started training them. I had hoped that there would be a scholar among us who could tranlsate the Falmer language, and there is, but it turns out that the Falmer don't actually...write anymore. So we couldn't read about their methods, but we were able to have scouts make observations on the Falmer, and mix that knowledge with our own expertise on beast taming. We have raised chaurus that are not only peaceful towards us, but can obey commands. I was actually going to request permission from this council to bring one of our chaurus into the city proper more long-term, as a trial. Under guard, of course."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"That is also difficult to describe, which I suppose is something of a theme with Dwemer machines." Brenann answered. "As I said before, they can understand context and can follow verbal instructions, but there are certainly limits to what they can do, which also varies based on the automaton. Spiders seem to have a sort of innate understanding of maintenance tasks that are common around the city; they have actually made improvements to the Silent City's pumps and steam systems. Or more likely, restored them to be closer to how they functioned when the Dwemer lived here. Dwemer spheres can perform more complicated tasks relating to combat, but generally speaking, the automatons have difficulty following instructions that require multiple steps that are not immediately obvious. They lack a capacity for critical thinking or problem-solving. They are best for performing simple tasks, or following specific, step-by-step instructions. Anyways, if you, or any of the Champion's pack, are in need of an automaton, we can make the time to produce one."

Unfortunately, Meesei had to reign in the conversation before it got too far out of hand. "While I am indeed interested in how these machines function, we should keep this meeting focused on the more practical advancements and issues regarding your research. Is there any other news relating to your work that I should be aware of, Brenann?"

Brenann nodded. "Oh, of course, ma'am. Well...I can say that we have begun construction on our first centurion. It is the most powerful and complex automaton that we know of, and there are certainly some unknowns. We do not know how long it will take, or if the Animonculory still retains the capacity to produce them at all. We do know that progress has been slow so far, and the process consumes a considerable portion of the Animonculory's production capabilities. Hopefully, we will be able to expand that capacity soon."

Ri'vashi continued where Brenann left off. "The addition of the automatons to our forces has reduced the burden on our forces to keep us protected. As such, we have more freedom to expand. This one has approved an operation to clear the Dwemer ruin to the northeast of the City. Alftand, if she remembers correctly. Brenann hopes it will have a working...Animonculory, and the additional territory may provide us with other benefits. Most notably, we will have another exit from Blackreach reasonably close to Skyrim's northern coast."