Valenwood Coastline
24th of Midyear, 4E 205Temijen nodded. "Very well, I shall send word to you when the supplies for the cities are shipped in from Hammerfell. I will sail back personally to oversee the necessary arrangements, expect our fleet to return by the 15th of Sun's Height the god's willing. Once the wood arrives the building of the cities will be carried out post haste." Temijen pulled on the reins of his horse as he pulled it to the side as he prepared to leave. "I shall leave a garrison in Woodhearth should the Dominion return. Should they so be so bold to land, know that redguards will fight alongside bosmer to see them off once more."
As he finished he tilted his head to the keeper as a sign of respect and rode back to his group. They quickly rode out to rejoin with a larger force waiting at the agreed upon distance from the meeting, before all set off back to the redguard encampment.
Khasta was first to break the silence as he rode beside Temijen. "So how did it go? I could hardly hear a thing, and there seemed to be little shouting but much handshaking. It went well I assume?" There was a glimmer of hope mix with curiosity in his dark eyes.
Temijen regarded his old friend for a time with an unreadable expression, before a gleaming smile spread across his face. "Better than we had ever dared hope. The Keeper agreed, so as long as we stay out of their forest and do them no harm, the coast of Valenwood are ours."
Sir Varnklith riding on Temijen's left raised an eyebrow at that news. "Indeed? That is splendid news! Certainly splendid. I had to admit, I did not think you would pull it off."
"You give me too little credit, but the keeper saw the wisdom in my words. But now comes the hard part I fear, it may not take long for word of this to spread, especially if the altmer still have forces and agents here. I hardly trust the Imperials to keep a competent eye on the coast for all their skill and discipline. I will sail back to Hammerfell and organize a rather different fleet and purpose for our return. However, the ground force will remain in Valenwood to guard against Dominion incursions. As long as the heart of the forest is untouched, our deal with the bosmer will hold firm. We'll need the greater portion of our fleet here to guard the waters from the altmer. Thankfully our fleets have long since been mobilized, equipped, and prepared for this day. Word must be sent to the fleet still docked around Stros M'kai to be ready; its high time years of preparation finally come to fruition."
Khasta nodded his understanding. "Do you think they will rise to the bait?"
Temijen gave a grim smile. "We just ceded the entire coastline of Valenwood form the high elves, they would be mad not to make some kind of move. There's no telling how violent a reaction it will be however. I will leave the defense of the shores in your hands Varnklith, be sure to meet with the imperials as well. No need to mention what has happened here today of course, but learns what you can from them after marching to Woodhearth and winter there; you have enough supplies to last until we return in force."
Varnklith nodded his understanding. "I shall make ready then for a quick march to Woodhearth."
The Ra-gada forces soon moved camp and started their march to Woodhearth, a messenger was sent ahead to the legate currently stationed in Valenwood.
Sentinel
25th of Midyear, 4E 205Ali-baba, secret court wizard of Temijen, perused the scrolls that littered the table before him, among the table occupants were several dwarven pieces. Given the redguards distrust of wizards and their ilk, Ali-baba was hardly one to flaunt his gifts in the arcane arts. So he was forced to work on most of his projects in secret. At the moment he had finally uncovered how to best implement the dwemer rapid fire ballista into Yokudan warships. The recent skirmishes in Stros M'kai had long since been dealt with, which had given Ali-baba and his assistants plenty of dwemer artifacts and ruins to exploit and craft into the designs found in Volenfell. The expedition had a success though a costly one. Almost half of the band sent had been lost to traps or age old dwemer constructs.
Ali-baba was of the few leading experts on the constructs of the dwemer, in fact, Khasta had been a close student of his, and in fact the great dwemer crossbow he wielded was of Khasta's own making based on Ali-baba's designs. As he trailed his fingers over a scroll that had the various designs of a dwemer weapon sketched upon it, he contemplated the best method to test out the new designs. Surely he did not wish to fire any dwemer desgined weapon in his little work shop. Though perhaps little was not the right word. The room that was currently Ali-baba's main study was a large circular chamber that held a stair case that spiraled to each of the four floors located within the eastern tower of Sentinels magnificent Palace. All along the walls and in glass cases, dwemer artifacts could be found. Some half constructed, others mostly finished, all of them a wonder to the eye. At least to Ali-baba's.
The sound of mumbling from across the room drew his attention to one of his assistants, who was currently fumbling with a few pieces of a dwemer construct. It looked to be a kind of dwarven spider; a rather small one compared the larger variants. Ali-baba squinted as he said. "Careful with that, it's one of the few nearly fully intact specimens we have."
The young man, a Breton, looked up and nodded, wiping sweat from his brow as he went back to work. A short pause later he looked up scratching his head. "Bah, master, this would be much simpler if we could find a better source of power to work the siege engines..."
Ali-baba sighed, shaking his head, though he did agree on a level. "I'm afraid there is no other option available to us, thus we must make do with what we have, and even soul gems have been found to be inadequate for what we need." He nodded as if agreeing with himself. Indeed, the animunculi, as it was well known, worked with a combination of steam-powered energies and magic, all powered by the rare magical Dynamo Cores that were found now in working order only in the automaton's they resided within.
"Just be glad you’re not the one having to retrieve these in one piece." Ali-baba added with a grim smile before setting back to work. With the siege engines now complete Ali-baba new secret project would soon be underway, that is, after the necessary ingredients he had requested where delivered. In the meantime he at least had a chance to work out a safe location to test the new ballistae before work was started in installing them in the fleet still encamped around Stros M'kai.
-Forces landed in Valenwood march to Woodhearth to secure it
-the majority of the Yokudan fleet north of Valenwood sail back to Hammerfell leaving behind swift patrol ships to keep abreast of the situation in the region.
