Impromptu Breakfast Meeting

Vedran suppressed a sigh, and flashed a smile instead. "Anyway, we'd love it if you could come - you and Hewalna at least, we're trying to keep the private ceremony relatively small."

selgrumel's eyes widened a little at that.

"Oh, wow, thank you. We'd be honored."

She gave an amused smile.

"Its probably smart not to invite all of us. Mel, at the very least, isn't exactly...well-mannered."

"Well, we're inviting Tzesira... at least, I assume we are," Aleyn said with a smirk. "'Well-mannered' isn't necessarily guaranteed."

"Well... she can at least do disciplined. Honestly I think we're more concerned about keeping it quiet for now. We have a lot of things to sort out between the three of us still. With everything else going on, we really don't need the extra attention."

"You really never have any simplicity in your life, huh?"

"No but," he smiled over at Aleyn, "in some cases it's worth it."

Aleyn smiled back. "I think... I hope, anyway... that it'll turn out to be simpler than most of the alternatives. And definitely worth it."

"Enough about us though," Vedran said with another smile before turning to Sel. "I'm looking forward to hearing what all you've found out. Also, coffee."

"Well, we had a successful raid against a cult outpost last night, taking out some of their leaders and capturing what little documents they had. Their findings bear out our assumptions about Katakaru's vaults: its an extensive labyrinth of trapped and guarded tunnels running through the eastern part of the island."

She sighed.

"That's good and bad, really. Its kept them busy, and they've been...well, they're not adventurers. They found the front entrance and seem to be powering through. We managed to find at least three other ways in, and we're confident they'll provide easier access to the inner portions of the complex."

"And Tasane is there?" Aleyn frowned. "Kallista's account was sort of short on details, but I gathered that much, at least."

Vedran nodded. "I'd like to know how long they've been on to this place, if there is any way of figuring it out from the documents you've found. I really want to know how they learned about this place...about the stones in general, really."

"They're not exactly keeping exhaustive notes, but it looks like they've been there about a month. Some of that time was apparently spent subduing the local draconic inhabitants, and then they set about blasting their way into the vaults. Each of the documents we found deal with the problem largely from their own group's perspective, so we had to piece it together a bit. That lack of real cooperation is also to our advantage, obviously."

"As far as how they found out about the stones, well, anyone with a decent knowledge of the founding of Nerath would be familiar with them. As to the specifics of their actual location, we've got no more than you. They were contacted by Tasane or, uh, Kobikan, who seemed to know where to look, if not any more specifically than this island."

"About Tasane herself, we're only guessing she's on the island, but it seems a fair assumption. There's at least mention of her servants being present. Its possible those we killed were attempting to send word to her elsewhere, but that seems less likely. We've mostly avoided getting too close to the main camp, so we can't verify she's there one way or the other, but I don't think its really worth taking the time to do so right now. Its not really important unless we end up being there for a while. We're hoping we can beat them to the more central portions of the complex and be gone before they're even sure we're there."

Vedran nodded, pensive. "I definitely hope you can avoid a big conflict - just get in and get out safely, with the stone. And then its gong to come down to an organizational race, I'm afraid. The longer it takes us to get ready to take the city, the longer they have to organize and get entrenched. And they definitely know we're coming, one way or another. At best, if they don't know we have both stones, they might spend some of their resources on it."

"On the plus side," Aleyn mused, "if you guys are back sooner than expected, we can put you all to work on the stuff we've been doing here - gathering supplies and training troops and things like that. So maybe we can be ready faster than we'd planned."

"How is all that going? What sort of force are we looking at taking into the field?"

"Well, I thought we were doing pretty good for what I thought we were up against. We've got probably around... 1500 or so? Between the people we've recruited, the Grobashka, my House and House Aethelin, the Palatine, Hanrak's crew... I'm probably forgetting some. Some of the recruits were pretty raw though - Beryl's been doing a good job with her militia, at least, but I'm actually more worried about our goblinoid contingent. It's a pretty random assortment, and Zanne has been working with them, but they're probably our weakest unit. I think we could have done better with our recruiting there, maybe. Monti's been doing great at getting supplies prepped, though - I think we're well on track there, at least."

"Cael and I have been working on making a ton of alchemical supplies for folks - hopefully things that should be specifically good against demons," Aleyn added.

"Sounds good. 1500 is a lot to organize, especially with such a...varied lot, but I'm confident we can manage. I'd be more worried about the supplies, especially if we're in for more of a protracted fight with the cults. 'An army marches on its stomach' and all that."

She sighed heavily.

"Don't worry about the goblins. If we get a chance when we get back, we'll try to raise a few more troops and whip what we've got into shape. I know how hard it can be to get them to cooperate with, ah, outsiders."

She looked pensive for a moment.

"Do you have a command staff set up yet?"

Vedran nodded along - the 'outsiders' issue had definitely been their problem, but hopefully with the Pak able to be more involved they could get some more support.

"We have Agy, and I trust her judgement for how she wants to set things up. I know you and some of the others on your team might have some useful insights there too, but that's why we have the books to help coordinate."

"We'll do everything we possibly can, but I don't have to tell you this is over our heads. Well, would have been, if I hadn't been thinking about it for the past several months," Selgrumel said with a weary smile.

"What about the nobles?" she asked, seeming to exclude Vedran and Agyness from that category.

"You mean the campaigning? That's going quite well too, though we're still not where I'd like us to be. But we can keep working on that after we take the city."

The trio arrived at Qaplah's, taking an empty table in the diner's far corner, and all three gratefully accepting coffee, ordering quickly before picking up the conversation.

"That sounds good," Selgrumel said after taking a large gulp of coffee, "but I meant the soldiers and captains you've recruited from the Houses. I know in Nerath one person's fight is supposed to be everyone's, but my experience has taught me that, for nobles, their fight is everyone's fight, and not the other way around. Are they going to be okay with doing this for, well, a bunch of goblins?"

"Ahh, right." He shrugged. "It might be a bit of a mixed bag on that front. I'm confident of the people we've got, but it's definitely an appeal to their self-interest, in some cases, and less about the goblins."

Selgrumel gave a calculating grin.

"I can work with self-interest. That's actually easier to count on, assuming we can keep them convinced they'll profit. And I'm sure whatever government we manage to put together will be very generous."

"Oh definitely." Vedran grinned in return. "I've been trying to think about how we are goibng to work the government issues thought, even provisionally. Nachtur is going to be a political entity long before it is anything like a habitable city. It's such a big, issue, though... I don't know if I've been able to give it the consideration it requires, or deserves."