The City of Amran

Hans allows the crowd to filter past him, following the Priest. When Gwen walks out, he smiles softly as they walk together.

"So why the tears?"

They've left tract marks on her face but he doesn't want to presumptuously wipe them off with his handkerchief.

Sassa sheathes her sword when she sees Hilde. "Got your latest note, seemed like something I should come help you with." She negotiates her way out of the room, standing the chair back up in place as she does so. As they follow the priest off down the corridor, she continues "Didn't like the sound of it. At all. Not here in Amran. I've been talking to the girl a little, found out a couple of interesting points. She wanted me to pray with her as well, and I've since been telling her stories." she shrugs "Now, tell me all the stuff you haven't put in your notes."

Hilde walks with them down the hall. "Actually, Hans knows the most about it." she says, indicating the gun carrying Seeker following behind them. "He's read the documents we retrieved last night. We intended to go over them together, once everyone had arrived."

On reaching the end of the hall, it opens out into a good sized room, with a large solid wooden table in the middle of the room, lined either side with benches. As promised, Rykan was just laying out the fare for the visitors, along with a female cleric whom they'd not yet met. She was fussing over some fresh bread rolls, and attempting to re-arrange the spread no sooner had it been brought to table. There was also a steaming pot of porridge, a bowl of fruit, small clay pots of honey or jam, and a jug of water, as well as enough simple clay beakers for everyone. As the group enter, she looks up, and steps back, with a warm gaze- which falters only slightly as she takes in each member. She then seems to remember something, and picks up some bowls from a nearby shelf. Rykan speaks up. "Please, take a seat. Now, I understand you have things to discuss, so the Sister and I will leave you in peace." The two then leave the room through a wooden door on the other side of the room.

Hilde sits herself at the end on the opposite side of the table, facing the door, and pours two cups of water. She takes one of the bread rolls, and breaks it in half, steam escaping as she does so. A small smile of satisfaction creeps across her lips, and she gestures for the others to join her.

Sassa heaps a bowl high with porridge and honey before sitting down opposite Hilde. She runs an absent- minded hand through her dark brown hair as she studies the others in the room. The elf causes no comment, but the zombie gets a raised eyebrow "You'd better be careful about wandering round the city too freely, undead are illegal here." She gives a half-hearted shrug "Not that you'd know it these days." She grabs the spare beaker from in front of Hilde and downs some water. When she puts the cup down again, dark marks remain where she had been holding it. "So, what have you got for us, seeker?" She shoots down the bench at Hans.

Hilde speads a little butter on the warm bread, and savours it. Looks over to Hans at the question, and nods. As she turns back she notices an untoward detail, and nudges a sly boot against the Sassa's ankle under the table, followed by a short directed glance.

Hans rubs his brow. He can feel a headache coming.

"They have three safe houses plotted throughout Amran. Each one contains, on average, 15 - 20 individuals, who only very rarely leave the safety of these houses to participate in rituals or collect supplies, though this is usually done incognito. They'd stick out a bit if they ran around in blood-crusted cultist robes all the time."

He starts shifting the positions of things on the table, trying to keep his concentration.

"They've been getting stronger for a while, and have taken a vested interest in the potential of the souls of the long dead. Namely potent Necromancers, like the one I exorcised from Gwen."

He bites into his honeyed bread, chewing and swallowing, allowing himself to savour the taste of the honey.

"They have but one ritual site. Or HAD, until Hilde and I dealt with it and the Clerics properly cleansed the place. I've passed a note around some urchins, so I'll hear if they try to access it again. Anyway. They have supporters, and the main leader isn't in the city at the moment, however each base holds an awful lot of information on necromantic practices and theory. Nothing we didn't already know though so I'm just going to burn it all.

Each base has undead guards, but nothing higher than Zombies and Bone Minions, other than one."

He tosses some parchment onto the table

"They have a Mummy, and a Death Knight. There's also whispers in these pages about a hibernating Vampire, though that's highly doubtful. This is where we were Hilde, and the base itself has an underground matrix of tunnels and chambers, for experimentation and other less stellar practices, most of it extending under the river."

He rolls up his parchment.

"It looks as if that breaking that particular safe house will break their backbone in Amran entirely. Though it'll take manpower. The other two can probably be handled by two people a piece. I'm not surprised they've been able to hide this long, Amran is a large, violent and busy place. It wouldn't be hard to just abduct people and make it look like a crime-lord's recompense for a fight in his bar. I've known it happen a few times before."

He places his parchment in his jacket.

"Any queries?"

Quickly picking up her beaker, Sassa listens to the briefing. "So what you're saying is that we need more people if we are to take down all three houses at once?" She glances across at Hilde, who nods slightly. "I have a few contacts, could probably swing it to get the other houses raided at the same time as we go for the main one? I'm loathe to let any of this lot catch wind and escape... And equally loathe to let anyone else get a shot at a death knight or worse."

"From what I know of the Valkur, it's unusual for them to have such numbers. I suspect they may be recruiting." The distaste is plain in her voice as she speaks the name. "In which case, the resistance should be fairly weak. Catching them now will dent their efforts significantly."

Sassa shakes her head "kids, drawn in because its illegal and exciting and then realising its too late to leave..." She puts down her cup and picks up a spoon "Reckon we might be able to save some of them."

Cecil looks up from the table, having eaten nothing yet.

"But even if they are saved, what skills might they walk away with. As you can see, Necromancy can have some horrifying outcomes."

"You make a valid point, Cecil. However the recruits are generally required to prove themselves before actually gaining access to any real power. They're most likely to be apprentice Mages...and Clerics." Hilde shifts her gaze to the Elf. "Speaking of which...Divah, I hear you may be able to help with that?"

"I guess I can send some magic into the Eternal Void... Might want to play it up as their faith being false for the clerics or something but once I set that up you have 2 minutes, or until something powerful blasts open my sapping aura."

Divah opened his jar and swirled the mixture around with a spoon gently, the thick consistency resisting the swirling motion until he took the spoon out and placed a decently sized glob of it in his mouth. His eyes started to glow a little from the decidedly "spiced" mixture and Divah sighed contentedly.

"Divah's power also has a limited range, if we want to use it to its maximum effectiveness he'll have to use it in the central chamber to cover as much of the place as possible. However, it'll also render my gun's secondary effects useless, along with other abilities that the Void will consume."

He pours himself a cup of water and then drinks from it.

"As for the saving of the recruits, we can try, but doing so in the midst of an assault will be difficult. While I'd like to carve a swathe through the place quickly and quietly, with so many of us stealth will be... difficult, and they'll get caught up in the fighting. I'll try, but if they start throwing spells or swinging blades after Divah's sapping effect wears off I'm not giving them a second chance."

He places the cup down gently and speaks broadly.

"Make no mistake, we WILL be outnumbered and outgunned. While I have no doubt that we've the skill for this, having studied tomes on Necromancy, some of their creatures will be insanely hard to deal with, especially given I can't cast a fireball without the other twinned gun. Unless someone here is a secret Paladin or a Cleric capable of Unbinding creatures, which I know Divah can't. No offense."

He nods slightly to the Elf and tears off another piece of honeyed bread, keeping an eye on Gwen to gauge her reaction to all this.

[OOC: Is she (Gwen) still here? Or did we leave her in her room? I know she didn't leave with Rykan so I'm figuring we brought her along for any additional information and for food and whatever...]

"I'm also concerned about these two undead. I know I can't kill them. This will be a problem."

Hans shrugs

"I have two answers to that, we somehow utilise a ritual circle to enhance our weapons magically or we blow them up and seal them in those tunnels and allow them to waste away without feeding on human flesh."

"Enchanted blades. Could work. We can't just collapse these tunnels, the potential damage to Amran...and it won't kill them."

Hans nods at her assessment.

"Looks like we need a ritual, or someone who can smith our blades with silver. And no, Arnulf isn't that good."

"Silver could be possible..." she says thoughtfully, and glances at Sassa.

"Get me enough silver and the blades you want it on and I can ritually silver them... I hope... I'm being paid to do it already so practice can't hurt"

Divah threw back another lump of food and his eyes started reflecting the things that he could see, the tiny features showing superimposed spirits and waves of energy in the otherwise normal scene around them.

"Honestly I think Silver would cost time and rescources we just don't have. I remember what we had to go through last time to get some Silver."

He grimaces and shivers rather nastily.

"Never again, never am I ever again following Johann into a mine to get bits for special swords which he'll just name after different weapons."

He drinks some water again, leaning backward.

"I say we enchant them with magical damaging properties, faster and easier ritual than Silvering and is nowhere near as expensive."

Sassa grinned lopsidedly "Whoever said we'd have to pay for the stuff?" She cocks her head "Besides, I think it might be a challenge..." She takes the silence as an invitation to continue "there's a royal safe-house out in the suburbs, it contains a vault with a couple of very nice things in it. We would have to put the weapons back, as they get checked a couple of times a month and would certainly be missed." She throws a sly glance at Hilde - "you'd have to be quick and quiet. No-one could know youd been there."

"Quick and quiet..." she looks around the table thoughtfully. "Hmm."

Gwen is sitting quietly, eating a small amount of food, and listening, not sure if she should be there or not...

Hans sends a reassuring smile Gwen's way.

"I can break in easily enough. Shouldn't be a problem. The Crown Princess herself has once offered me Silver weapons personally anyway, so technically it's not stealing..."

At the end of the table, Sassa nearly chokes on her mouthful of water. After a few moments of coughing and spluttering, she manages to get a few words out " put the weapons back without being caught and you won't have to try that defence on the guards!" She splutters, glancing at Hilde " Are all your new recruits this cocky?"
While she gets her breath back, she pulls out a piece of chalk and begins scribbling on the tabletop. "It's on the corner of Lower Threadneedle and Boot Streets. Gap from the nearest roof is about six-seven foot, and about three foot higher. Tough, but do-able. There's a trapdoor in the roof, bolted from inside. Metal is pretty old though, so could probably work it loose. It's pretty much a one room per floor deal - top floor is royal apartment - there's a vault on show there, but its mostly a fake. Stairs lead down past guardrooms and kitchen on first and ground floors, the cellar has a well in it - the vault is hidden behind a false wall near the well. And the guard changes in..." She checks the light outside "...about two hours, so theyre as sleepy as you'll get. Normally two guards on duty in the ground floor hallway, two asleep in the barracks." She catches Hilde's eye "what? So I was planning on paying a 'visit' anyway..."
She addresses the table in general "sound like something you can handle?"