[IC] Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

[EliteCommander]

Meesei laughed at Ariel's failed attempt at a kiss. Since they were moving on to a drinking contest, she guessed that the game was over for the moment, though she took a drink anyway. "I am glad you have nothing that can affect me. It wouldn't be wise for me to get dragged into this. Knowing our luck, Janius would somehow end up pregnant." She joked.

Lorag let out a rather heavy laugh and downed the rest of his mug before quickly refilling it. "Heh, alright city-boy. Don't worry, you won't remember in the morning how badly I beat you once this is over." He said confidently. "You joinin' in the fun, Ariel? Or do you want to go ahead and concede victory to me?"

[Muttonhawk]

Laughing at Meesei's comment, Ariel downed what was left of her mug and passed it forward to be refilled. "I'll see how this goes," Ariel grinned, not exactly being a veteran of drinking games.

At some point during the game, everyone's effort to record memory had lapsed as their bodies tried to handle the sujamma they were imbibing so enthusiastically. That was, except for Meesei of course, who stayed on the sidelines. Within a few rounds, Ariel was the first to fall. She ran to the side of the cavern and emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor, retching for a little while longer. She had to take a moment to clean her hands and mouth by the pool before joining them again, but she didn't drink any more sujamma after that. Instead she elected to nurse her sore stomach by sipping warm water. Janius and Lorag stared each other down like rutting bucks while they downed mug after mug, their determination didn't falter before their bodies did. They had almost reached the bottom of the last keg before Janius outright fell backward and fainted where he sat. Lorag managed to let out a tired laugh, but had to suppress it in order to stay awake himself. He had won again.

Strands of Janius' consciousness seeped up to the surface as he was carried to his bedroll by his arms and legs by Ariel and Meesei. He reached for Ariel and tried to charm her further, but he was in no position to have much charisma. His last attempt, being ever so guileful and silver-tongued was, "Ariel, th's bed is awfully cold, and your hands are so warm, w'ldchou like to warm it with me?"

Ariel, still having just enough of her wits about her, giggled at Janius, but was not inclined to agree. "Oh Janius, no one told you that lycanthropy can be caught by bedding one, did they?" She said with her hands on her knees and leaning over him like he was a child.

"What!?" Janius almost sat up with astonishment as Ariel carefully walked off, but just groaned and drifted off to sleep, "That's horrible news..."

Lorag was still slightly awake, but could hardly walk by the end of the night, and needed help back to his bedroll as well.

---

The next morning, Fendros awoke to the smell of stale drink and Sabine brewing her hangover cure again. As he slowly got up, letting Ahnasha's arms slide from him, he looked around to find that he was the first to awaken behind Sabine. It was understandable, with how much merriment was had last night. After splashing his face with the water of the pool and walking over to start cooking his breakfast, he felt fresh and in a better mood this morning, despite his previous thoughts. "Morning, Runt," He said. Runt nodded as she stirred some kind of grass into a liquid in her mortar. Tonight, they would be assaulting the witches coven. It was something better to focus on than the tribulations that Fendros had in his mind last night.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei awoke soon after Sabine, who was proactive as always in preparing for the aftereffects of a night of drinking. Meesei took each cure as Sabine finished brewing them and placed the uncorked bottles near those who needed them. Janius and Lorag were both familiar enough with the scent of it to recognize it. Meesei's skeletal sentinel had stood guard all night, and was still perfectly stationary near the entrance of the chamber. She would likely be spending most of the day studying the construct, but for the moment, she needed breakfast. Deciding that she might as well make use of it, Meesei commanded the skeleton to take over for Fendros in preparing their breakfast. Of course, it did not have the intellectual ability to know how to cook, but if she gave it direct commands for every step, it could perform the task. Most of them would want to eat their breakfast raw, so most of the preparation simply involved dividing up the meat, but for the rest, Meesei gave mental commands to the sentinel to guide it through the process.

Ahnasha awoke shortly after Fendros an was quite surprised that the first thing she saw was a skeleton cooking a steak. She sat up, really not certain what she thought about that abomination. It wasn't attacking them, at least, so that was good, she supposed. After taking a few moments to wake herself up, she joined the others by the fire and looked to Meesei with a bit of apprehension. "So, um, that thing is still here."

"Indeed it is. I am trying to get used to commanding it, so I can better understand its mind. Plus, this means Fendros doesn't have to cook." Meesei said in a lighthearted tone. She already had her meal, so she commanded her thrall to deliver Ahnasha's to her. It dropped what it was doing immediately, grabbed one of the uncooked pieces of meat, then presented it to Ahnasha.

Ahnasha hesitantly took the meat while staring into the thrall's unsettling, lifeless eyes. "Uhh...I still don't like you." She said to the construct. Predictably, it did nothing but return to the fire to complete its previous task.

[Muttonhawk]

When the sentinel virtually grabbed Fendros' spit from his hands at the behest of Meesei, he raised his hands, unsure of what to make of it. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of a skeleton cooking his breakfast.

Ahnasha stirred behind them and Fendros managed a smile as she joined them, it seemed that she had a similarly apprehensive reaction to the skeleton. Nevertheless, Fendros tried to get used to Meesei's new toy, as it were, while he watched his meat get unevenly cooked and chokingly overspiced. Being handed back his spit, he craned his head to inspect the meat, before slowly taking it from the sentinel's bony hands. The first bite was not something to melt over, but Fendros conceded that it could be worse. "So what ended up happening last night?" Fendros asked Meesei, failing to keep his eyes from flitting between her and the sentinel as it stood nearby.

A shuffle and a groan from Janius' bedroll, and from the spare bedroll away from him that contained Ariel, evidenced that the drinking did indeed continue. Whether they would be stirring immediately was not apparent, but Janius eventually discovered his hangover cure and downed it quickly. Still lying down with his eyes closed while he waited for the potion to kick in, Janius spoke to whoever would listen in a gravelly voice, "Don't believe what she says, I won, and I know it..."

[EliteCommander]

Meesei glanced over to Janius as he stirred, then back to Fendros. "Janius lost a drinking contest again. Not too much more than that. I made a few plans for how to approach the coven before going to sleep. I am going to examine this skeleton for most of today and attempt to create an enchantment to disrupt it. My goal is to finish it by tonight, but I am not certain if I will be able to, as that goal is an ambitious one. If not, I will push our raid back no later than tomorrow night. Once everyone wakes up, we can begin to discuss our plans for the attack in greater detail."

Lorag awoke in response to the conversation around the campfire. Thankfully, the fact that they were underground prevented him from being overwhelmed by light as soon as his eyes opened. The moment he caught the scent of Runt's hangover cure, he grabbed the bottle and downed its contents. He had drank this potion so many times that the terrible, terrible taste was associated in his mind with relief.

[Muttonhawk]

Slowly, Janius rose and walked over to the campfire, one hand pressing the side of his head. As he sat down, he was handed another piece of meat a la sentinel, to which he took and bit into before he realised how it was prepared. "Ugh, this thing isn't exactly a royal chef," Janius said after swallowing.

"Good morning Janius, how is your head?" Fendros asked.

"Hah, 'good' morning, if you want to describe it that way." Janius replied, his voice intoning his foul mood, "My head is punishing me, what did you expect?"

Another groan from Ariel heralded herself sitting up. She immediately noticed the bottle of green liquid next to her and tried to inspect it through sleepy eyes. After smelling it, she had a sudden realisation of what it was. "Sabine, did you make this?" Ariel asked across the fire.

Sabine raised her head to her sister and nodded.

Ariel looked at the bottle again. This was something that was a popular product in her own store, but she never recalled Sabine being taught the recipe. She must have worked it out on her own. Clever girl. "Thank you, sister," Ariel said, her lips lifting into a smile that made her realise how puffy her eyes had become this morning. Downing the potion was as difficult as she expected, but its relief was welcome. Ariel served her own meal this morning, and Fendros was glad that it didn't leave the sentinel to make a mess of the supplies. When she joined them, she began to eat. "I can hardly remember anything from last night, I've not had that much to drink in years." She looked up at the pack with a small anxiety in her face, "I didn't... make a fool out of myself, didn't I?"

"I think I remember someone throwing up in the corner... I can't remember who, it might have been me." Janius said, his face contracting from every noise.

"So that's what that smell is," Fendros said, looking around the room from where he sat for any piles that he might want to avoid stepping into.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei gave the others a sly grin. "I happen to remember everything all of you did, but...perhaps it would be best for all of you if I did not share. Suffice to say you enjoyed yourselves, and I enjoyed watching you."

She paused for a few moments to eat some of her breakfast, then continued with a less jovial tone. "Now, unfortunately, I believe our fun is over for the moment. We need to move on to more serious matters. We will be assaulting the witches' coven either tonight or tomorrow night, depending on how quickly I can examine this thrall. We need to plan our attack in as much detail as is reasonable. Ariel, when you find the time, if you could draw up a sketch of the layout of the keep, that would be most helpful. Search around if you need writing supplies. I'm sure the hunters had them stored away somewhere in the cave. Ahnasha, you will be following Ariel's lead to the storage and production facilities of the gas, preferably without alerting the rest of the keep to your presence. You will also need to find the witch in charge of making the gas. Ariel has a plan for removing the knowledge from her mind, but if it fails...this witch cannot be allowed to continue producing this poison." Meesei said with a stern expression, her tone clearly conveying her meaning.

"The rest of us will provide a distraction to draw the witches away from our infiltration team. At first, we will start outside the walls, but we will not be able to stay there forever. They will have superior positions while on the walls, and we will be able to do little damage against them. If we try just to occupy them out of the walls, they may not divert enough of their people for the distraction to be effective, not to mention the risk to our own lives. We will need to get inside, and as I mentioned yesterday, the quickest way I saw to get in would be for us to scale the rubble at the broken tower. We will need to use our lycan forms for this task, and we may not be able to recover our equipment, so I would not bring anything you are not prepared to lose. Janius, Lorag, Fendros, I would advise taking temporary weapons and armor from the hunters' supplies. I'm sure not all of their weapons were made from silver. After all, silver is not a strong metal, so it is not very useful against anything but lycans and undead." Meesei explained.

[Muttonhawk]

Opting to be prompt about it, Ariel put down the uneaten part of her breakfast and fetched some writing equipment and a scroll of parchment from where she last retrieved them for the resisting potion recipe. While she ate her breakfast, she drew a rough top-down sketch of the coven and the immediate landscape, marking where sentinels would normally be watching from and their patrol routes, and labeling some landmarks. Fendros and Janius looked on while it was being drawn. For some reason, Fendros thought the coven would be bigger. Some system of caves or a large tower. He had to admit that he didn't really know much about witches in the first place, so it was no surprise that the actual coven would be different.

Janius didn't sit around for long, however. Before Ariel finished, he got up and walked to the areas he had previously searched for drink last night. "I think I may have spotted some things we could use over here..." He started to rummage through, before turning to Fendros, "Hey Fendros, have a look through the hunters' equipment I gathered the other day," He pointed to the piles of weapons and armour situated out of the way from when he picked the useful equipment off the hunters in the cave after they took it over. "There's probably a bow in there that doesn't have silver on it, maybe a shield that'll suit you too."

Fendros nodded, eating his last mouthful of breakfast and getting up to search the equipment. With the way Janius had sorted it, it wasn't difficult to find a round shield that wasn't too heavy, a bow and a quiver, but not a sword or single arrow. All of the ones that the hunters had been carrying were silver. Luckily, Janius pulled out a couple of blades, one of which would suffice.

To equip himself, Janius decided to use the second sword that he had found, a heavier steel shield and one of the hunters' helmets. Looking over the different two handed weapons of the hunters, Janius spoke back to the campfire, "Lorag, there's an old hammer and claymore here, did you want to have a look?"

Once Ariel had finished her breakfast and her sketch, they gathered around to observe the layout. "Here and here are the towers we will need to destroy, we know that they housed the poison there." Ariel explained, pointing to various areas as needed "The ruined tower is here, whether you want to approach from that direction is up to you, but as long as you leave this side clear-" Ariel gestured to the side of the fort with the culvert, "-we should have no problem sneaking in. There is a grate under the wall here that Meesei and I used last night. As long as the damage to it wasn't discovered, it should still be viable. As for patrols..." Ariel pointed to X's marked on the map denoting sentinel positions, "There will be groups of three to five sentinels walking outside and inside the walls, as well as solitary sentinels on top of the walls and the intact towers." Ariel sat back a little, explaining all she believed she needed to for now, "I'm unsure where the witch with the knowledge of the gas' recipe will be, but I think she is likely to show herself to protect the laboratory at a time of danger like the one you will represent." Ariel put her hands together, "I suppose what is first is to decide which way to approach from."

[EliteCommander]

"I'll kill 'em with a rock if I have to, but yeah, I could do with a hammer. Oh, and could you get me another one of those potions. My knee feels fine, but might as well be safe." Lorag responded to Janius. The hangover cure had taken effect, so he no longer had a terrible headache, and he was nearly finished with his breakfast.

Meesei looked over Ariel's sketch. She had seen the place with her own eyes, of course, but there were other points of interest she wanted to know about. After examining it for a moment, she pointed to a location on the map. "Here, it is close enough to the broken tower, but not too close as to make our intentions obvious. If they suspect from the beginning that we intend to strike at the tower, even if they are not aware of the weakness it presents, then they may shore up their defenses at the rubble. No matter where we approach from, though, we will be at a disadvantage. The walls give them superior positions over us, so we will need to move quickly. We will need to give Ariel and Ahnasha enough time to sneak in, then scale the wall."

Ahnasha too was studying the plans, though her eyes were more on the interior. She supposed Ariel would already know her way around the keep, but she did have other concerns. "So, Ariel, how do we intend to actually sabotage this gas? I remember you saying it is unstable while in production, but what about the storage tower? We're going to need something to quickly burn it or crush it or...something. We'll also need something to set of the gas at the other tower without getting caught up in the blast ourselves."

[Muttonhawk]

"Just leave the sabotage to me," Ariel said, "I can place explosive fire runes around the laboratory that I can set off with a small lightning spell. We should only need a few for the gas to do the rest of the work. As for the storage, however, we might need to break open a few of the crates so enough of them get caught to explode in turn. We may need more runes in that area as well, just to be safe. The biggest risk is if one set of runes are triggered before we can set up the other. At that point our intentions may be compromised."

Fendros inspected the equipment he had found as he listened to the discussion. The sword was an old steel sword that wasn't made as well as his own, but with a sharpen and an oil it would suffice. "Are those runes safe to be around?" He asked.

"Yes... mostly..." Ariel shifted in place, "if we take care, they will be. Just in case, though, Ahnasha, I will need you to keep watch while I place the runes. If anyone walks in and triggers them accidentally, we might be caught in the blast."

Janius was the next one to chime in. His headache had faded now, but he still didn't look too happy. "What should we expect from the opposition. These witches wield powerful magic, yes?"

"That is true. Like Meesei said, they will likely stay on the walls and fire spells down while the sentinels keep you occupied on the ground. The sentinels are not smart or especially skilled or fast, but they can be tough. Hitting them will put a strain on the magic keeping them together if it displaces the bones, so try hitting them in unarmoured spots. And don't try to cut, you won't get far, just hit them with force. In fact, a mace might be more appropriate than an axe or a sword if you can find them." Ariel held one hand in the other as she recalled the witches' skills, "As for the witches themselves, they may just try to scare you off at first with flashy spells, but failing that, they will throw down ice and fire at you. They are fond of spells that cover an area, so dodging them may be difficult. Your best chance is to obscure yourselves as best as you can while you approach." turning to Meesei, Ariel put up one hand, seeking clarification, "Meesei, how well can you sustain a large ward?"

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha nodded. "I should be able to hide well enough to incapacitate anyone who enters the room. I'll try to be non-lethal about it, but mages can be dangerous and unpredictable. If my first strike does not do it, I will need to use my dagger."

"I can sustain a ward large enough to encompass our entire group, but it is draining, and once we scale the wall, I will not have potions to fall back on, unless...Ariel, is it normal for the witches to carry magicka potions with them? If so, I may be able to scavenge supplies from them once we are on the walls. Speaking of which, we need to find a defensible position in the keep, but one we can escape from quickly. I know that is a rather specific request, but are there any locations you can think of that would fulfill that role?" Meesei asked.

[Muttonhawk]

Ariel closed her eyes for a moment and nodded to Ahnasha. For Meesei's request, she had to sit and think for a moment. "The witches would indeed carry around such potions, if a few between them. As for a position... well... the first consideration would be the ruined tower. There are still some walls to hide behind for cover and... no, they will be able to attack you from the walls either side." She tilted her head to one side and itched at her ear, most places in the fort were either too far away from the ruined tower itself to escape or weren't suitable for defending from. "Your best bet may be the hagraven nest in this tower. There is a door out to the wall from there where you can get back to the ruined tower to escape, and you would only have to defend the staircase of the upper level and the door to the other wall, but..." Ariel curled her brow in concern, "... if the hagravens had not been disturbed by that point, you would have to drive them out. That might be difficult."

"What exactly is a hagraven?" Janius asked slowly.

Ariel took a breath. "They are our spiritual leaders. Old witches. Old and powerful. They would likely not be so devoted to Clavicus Vile for they are wiser than that, but if we encroach upon them, they will react violently. You'll recognise them easily, they are hunched, and have some feathers growing from their arms. They are powerful mages as well, our most powerful."

"So how do we deal with them?" Janius followed up.

Pursing her lips again, Ariel became concerned that her old mentors might come to harm, but there may not be another way around it. "When we went scouting, I brought along this." Ariel got up, retrieved her spell reflection potion from her bag and showed it to everyone, "This is a valuable and powerful potion I made some time ago. It alters the magical state of your body for a time to reflect the effects of spells back to their caster for about twenty minutes. If you drink it, the hagravens wouldn't risk bringing their magic to bear on you. It would just be a matter of incapacitating them by some means. I think the distracting group can make more use out of it," She looked around to each of their faces, "Who should carry it around?"

[EliteCommander]

Meesei looked over the bottle. From what Sabine had told her in the past, the ingredients for spell reflection potions were indeed rare and expensive, so it was unlikely they would be able to obtain more than the single potion. "Would there be any negative effects on the user's ability to cast magic? If not, I can carry it. With an illusion spell, I may be able to trick the hagravens into believing it is safe to use their magic against me. However, whoever uses it will need to go up alone, while the others guard the lower floor."

Meesei took another look at the map to match its layout with her memory. "We will also need do designate a meeting point away from the keep in the event we get separated in our escape. I suspect we will be able to do that easily enough on our way there, but there is another thing that is concerning me. Ariel, Ahnasha, you two are going to need to go after three different targets, and for two of them, it does not seem there is a way to eliminate them without drawing the attention of the coven. As soon as the contents of one of those towers is ignited, at least some of the witches are going to try and find you. I wonder, is there a way you could set one tower to ignite without you being present? Fire runes are effective, but you have to directly contact them, or hit them with a spell, to detonate them." Meesei sighed and thought for a few moments before an idea popped into her head. "Sabine, I recall you once made an explosive alchemical concoction using fire salts and some other ingredients. I know we did not have any fire salts before coming here, but were there any in the hunters' supplies. Or is there somewhere else we can obtain them? I have an idea."

[Muttonhawk]

Realising Meesei's idea, Sabine looked up and stared into the fire for a moment. After considering, she looked at Meesei again. "I will look." Sabine wasted no time in standing up and looking around the storage areas she had not yet covered for supplies. There was every chance that the hunters could have had fire salts, and if they did, it would definitely add to the flexibility of their plan. Fire salt bombs were risky to carry around, but they would prove their worth if they could be used to set off the laboratory, or also the fire runes, from a distance.

"If you are thinking what I think you're thinking, that's a good idea," Ariel agreed, "if we have any fire salts, we will have more options as we go about this." She handed the spell reflection potion to Meesei, "As I understand it, your own spells will not be affected by the potion. I cannot guarantee that the hagravens will not see through your illusion, however. Like I said, they are very old and wise."

Sabine emerged back to the group in a surprisingly short amount of time. She carried in her hands a jar of orange powder retrieved from the crates of spices. Carefully, she removed the wide cork stopper from the jar and tossed a pinch of the powder into the fire. There was no reaction as far as anyone could tell. Replacing the cork, Sabine took the jar back and continued to search.

"How do we... incapacitate these hagravens?" Fendros asked, wondering what manner of creature they were exactly.

Ariel waved a hand dismissively, "They can be knocked out just the same as anyone. A sharp blow to the back of the head would suffice. Or if you have what you need, a way to put them to sleep by magical or alchemical means may be easier. I think."

"So they aren't so different to anyone else then?"

"You need to see them to understand." Ariel clarified, "Just don't try to best them without the potion and you should be fine."

This time, Sabine returned with a small clay pot. Removing the lid and tossing a pinch of the powder it contained into the fire caused a large flume of sparks. It seemed like they had found their fire salts.

Ariel smiled at Sabine's discovery. "Excellent. How much did you find?" Ariel asked, lifting her head to try and see into the jar. Sabine walked around the fire and showed her. "Good, good. Do you think there is enough to make about eight flasks and some fuses with that?" Ariel asked, looking to her sister's face. Sabine looked up and chewed on her lip for a moment, then shrugged unassuredly. Ariel was not too fazed, but her smile faded a small amount, "Well, there is probably enough to make what we'll need. If worse comes to worse, I have some fire salts at the shop that I can collect."

Janius wiped one eye and spoke up. "I'm sorry, I think you've lost me. How do the fire salts help us here?"

[EliteCommander]

"Fire salts are gathered from the remains of flame atronachs." Meesei explained. "They have several uses in alchemy, among them are concoctions that, when exposed to enough heat or energy, will explode like a fireball. Sabine and Ariel should be able to attach fuses to flasks of the substance. They can plant them in the storage tower, light them, then move on to the production tower. They will only have so much time to reach the other tower, but even if they detonate before they are ready, the delay should help. The rest of us will make our escape once you detonate the second tower, so I would advise you to attempt to find the witch responsible for producing the gas before destroying the production equipment. Hopefully, she will go to the tower as you suspect, Ariel."

Meesei's expression turned a bit more grim as she moved on to her next point. "As for the hagravens, though, there is something about this I hope you understand. With the rest of the witches, it is possible we may have to kill them, but more than likely, we should be able to incapacitate them by other means, especially if I can disrupt their sentinels. The hagravens, though, they are another matter. From what I have heard of those creatures, and what you describe, they are very dangerous beings. Even with the reflection potion, they are crafty. I will try to be non-lethal, but there is a very strong possibility that will not be an option. Out of any of the residents of the keep, they are the ones who will be most likely to force us to kill them. I just want to make sure you understand that." Meesei said with a serious expression, her eyes locked on Ariel.

[Muttonhawk]

Ariel looked down and wrung her hands in her lap. It was optimistic that they would be able to subdue the hagravens with how they would react to their home being invaded. It was painful to think that their fates would be on the line. "Very well," Ariel replied , her eyes avoiding Meesei's, "And, don't worry, I know Lilia. If she doesn't turn up to retrieve her equipment before even attempting to help defend, she will already be dead. She has always thought more about herself than the coven."

After a pause, Janius spoke up again. "Right then, so, to reiterate... we approach from here," Janius pointed to the map where he needed to, "Ariel and Ahnasha infiltrate under here... we distract them for a time outside, then scale the ruined tower here... Ariel finds this 'Lilia' and makes her forget... we move to this tower and fight the oldest and most powerful creatures in the keep... then we wait until these two other towers go up in flames, we escape along this wall to the ruined tower again, then we get out of there." Janius looked up at Meesei, "Then meet at a rally point of sorts that we decide upon at the start. Is that correct?"

[EliteCommander]

Meesei nodded to Janius. "That would be correct. Since I will be the one with the potion, I will deal with the hagravens. Once we are inside the walls, you all will need to remain in lycan form to ensure we can escape quickly, but I will shift back to provide you with magical support. Since I was declared Hircine's Champion, I no longer am bound by all of the same restrictions as I was before. The Ring of Hircine grants the wearer perfect control over their beast form, so I can now shift between forms at will. The Daedric magic imbued in the ring allows it to remain with me through transformations. I plan on taking full advantage of that in this raid."

With only a thought, Meesei commanded the sentinel to approach her, then lay down on its back beside her. She then sat down and started to examine the magicka binding it together. "In the meantime, I will be working on this sentinel. If we are fortunate, I will discover a way to easily dispatch them. Oh, and if anyone finds any soul gems in this cave, I will likely have need of them."

[Muttonhawk]

With a plan agreed upon, at least for now, the pack began their preparations. Sabine got up and took the fire salts over to her alchemy equipment to fashion them into explosives, and after pausing for more thought, Ariel did so as well. On the surface, it seemed like something was bothering Ariel, but in reality she was currently quite astonished. That ring, she had read about it before, but to think that Meesei herself was Hircine's champion was beyond all that she had suspected. It seemed to make sense, the more she thought about it. Meesei was wise and powerful. If anyone was capable of carrying out the wishes of Hircine himself, it would be her. Maybe she just expected Hircine's champion to be... more grounded in savagery and with less self control?

Fendros, while knowing about the title, did not know the effects of the ring itself. He sat looking at it on Meesei's finger for a short while. It seemed a little cruel of the Lord of the Hunt to give full control over to only the most loyal servants, while other lycanthropes are forced to his curse. Cold and calculating. The strange thing was that perhaps a few weeks ago he would have sought to have the ring so he could escape and live without having to transform, now he wasn't so drawn to it. He had commitments here in the pack, as well as new friends, and he even found love in the mix. He wondered how it took this long to realise that he wasn't going to escape because he didn't want to anymore. With a sigh, he stood up. Perhaps he and Janius could find something more effective against these skeletons amongst the spare weapons that were found. Before that, though, he extended a hand and a smile to Ahnasha. "What are your plans today?" He asked quietly.

While Ariel had expected her and Sabine to begin their work in earnest, Sabine had taken some time to remove a few small soul gems from her bag, before looking to Ariel and tugging on her sleeve. "Let's find soul gems," Sabine said simply. Ariel was a little confused, but if Meesei needed the soul gems now, then they might as well look."Okay," Ariel replied, following her sister to the various supplies around the caves. The supplies relating to alchemy and magic, evidently the mage's side of the room, was comparatively well sorted and cataloged than the other supplies. It was no wonder that Sabine was able to find the fire salts jar so quickly.

[EliteCommander]

The skeleton, and the area around it, began to glow with magical energy as Meesei began her examination. She reached into the essence of both its body and its mind, trying to discern how the soul was bound to the bones. To an outside observer, it would seem like there was only one way to reanimate and permanently bind an undead creature, but the reality was more complicated. The soul had to be tethered to each individual bone, one after another. This meant the magicka bound the soul to the bones in a particular pattern, which could vary depending on who animated it. Fortunately, most necromancers developed their own habits and usually animated their thralls in the same way each time, and they usually passed those habits on to their students.. If she could discover the pattern of magicka that bound the soul to the bones, she could find a way to disrupt potentially every thrall the coven had.

When Fendros asked her what her plans were, Ahnasha smiled and stood up. She motioned towards the chamber exit, then walked with him out of the room. "I was thinking about that last night, actually. With all the fear that's been on our minds recently, I started worrying that we might be losing sight of what really matters. I mean, if we get so obsessed with extending our time on Tamriel together, we might lose out on actually living together. I wanted to do something special for you, something other than just mating with you." She said with a chuckle, nudging his arm with her elbow. "I started thinking, we've been in Morrowind for a while now, but it hasn't exactly been the most pleasant experience. Between crossing the dreadful ashlands and tracking the Orc, we haven't really had time to enjoy what it has to offer. I know you said you wanted to see your people's homeland, so I was thinking we could go out and enjoy the place under less...stressful circumstances. Maybe Vos wouldn't be so bad if we don't have to worry about tracking lycans. Honestly, I don't know much about this place, or what to expect from it, but we could do whatever you want. It just wouldn't be right if we left Morrowind without letting you experience your people's culture. If we go to Vos, we could probably also pick up some useful things for the raid, like soul gems. Just to give us a good excuse to go out."

[Muttonhawk]

With a rested mind, Fendros could see the sense in Ahnasha's words. They had been worrying an awful lot, it would be nice to remember to enjoy life a bit. The consideration that she gave was warm. "Now that you mention it, there hasn't really been time to just explore and take things in." Fendros said. He put his hand on her shoulder, "I'd love to go to Vos again, maybe it'll be better when seeing it under a different light." He grinned and almost laughed, "I hope this doesn't mean we'll have to pretend to not know each other again. Surely the populace can get over us locking arms or something." He took a breath and looked to one side, "In any case, getting changed would still be prudent." he looked at her again, "When do you feel like leaving?"

Sabine and Ariel continued their search for soul gems, even extending a small ways beyond their apparent allocated spot in the supplies. Unfortunately, the best that they were able to turn up were only a few intact lesser soul gems, all empty, and a filled common soul gem. The hunters were obviously not avid enchanters, they probably only had these gems to recharge what enchanted weapons they may have already bought. Sabine still handed Meesei what they had. "This was all we could find," Ariel mentioned, "Do you have enough?"

While she asked, Ariel looked on at Meesei's magics, trying to work out what exactly was going on. Ariel was never taught how the sentinels were built, she was never really interested in that area. Still, to see how Meesei approached the problem gave an interesting perspective.