Lord Pike's Estate

The Engineer elects to stand, preferring the state.

"Hmm, what should we start with? I suppose the appearance of the Vampires might be a start..."

Hans notes the man's action and slides his hand over to the note and takes it, flipping it open as he explains

"Pike had us disarm ourselves and then some dumbass servant let a Vampire Lord and her little entourage in. A new one, no less. The herald explained their presence, but they still spent the night scaring the crap out of us. Even if all they did was converse..."

He reads the the start of the note, then hands it to Hilde calmly.

"It's for you."

The ranger raises a curious eyebrow, and having glanced at the note, pockets it.
At this point, Lord Pike's servant returns with a tray of tankards, and a pewter jug.
Pleasantly, he is followed by one of his colleagues, who bears a basket of bread on one arm, and a cheese board on the other.
"An afternoon snack for the guests, courtesy of M'lord Pike." he says, placing the offering on the table.
"Our thanks then, to yourselves and your Lord." says Hilde, and grasps the jug handle.
The first tankard she pushes towards Teya. "My Lady."
She then proceeds to fill the rest, for all those who might want one.

Teya takes a rueful look at the mug of ale and raises an eyebrow at her friend. "Either testing my resolve or trying to get me to have fun? I am still not sure even now," she pulls out a waterskin and swigs from that instead "but I meant what i said. This was my last holiday for a while. And I probably shouldn't have even had this one." Teya settles herself on a tree branch with a hunk of bread and cheese and addresses the group in general. "And with a vampire lord less than a day's travel away, I'm even less willing to indulge." There is a small shake of her head "Can't stand the things - the way they treat people like cattle. There's a reason they're hunted in Amrania. Too many years of the reverse. There's at least two of the lords free now, what with the Aurukhai rumours and that Winter Queen from Prospero, you could be forgiven for thinking the old days were returning." The bread she picked up has disintegrated into crumbs in Teya's unheading fist "but they won't get Amrania. Not while I protect it." She blinks quickly and looks around with a disarming laugh "Listen to me, one night of darkness and tales and I'm fighting the battles of old again!"

Teya sits forward with a slight grin "You may all be able to help me with a matter of state." She pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts "You can all travel more widely, and interract with people more freely than I ever can. I warn you, this is a tough task indeed, but would help me immensely if any of you were willing?"

Hans lowers his tankard and smiles.

"I'm sure I could try, but my abilities would be dependent on the task. What would you ask of me?"

Hilde sips at her tankard, and listens.

Teya grabbed another hunk of bread and tore into it before answering. "People don't act around royalty the same way they act in everyday life. I'm sure you can imagine.
"Now that my father has named me Crown Princess, I stand to become our country's first Queen. My position is precarious enough as it is. If I should fail to consolidate my power, the consequences... would be harsh. If the line is to stay strong, I must produce an heir, and that" there is a rueful twist to her mouth "would mean I need a husband. Pity Amrania is not Gevell in that respect." there is distinct regret in her tone as she continues in a quieter voice "and of course a princess cannot marry just anyone." she pauses for a moment, lost in memory, before shaking herself and resuming her usual jocular manner


"So, what I ask is that you keep your eyes open, and should anyone strike you as a possibility, let me know. If someone presents themselves to me, I may ask you to do a little sleuthing on my behalf? Ideally, he needs to be from a 'good' family, and not senile, married or" she shares a wry glance with Hilde "recently convicted of mass murder. To be honest, with the selection that's come up recently, I'm starting to think the Jarl wasn't such a bad guy."

"If you can find me a decent man who won't try and run my country, so much the better."

She leans back against the tree, enjoying the feel of spring sunshine on her back and laughs "I told you it was tricky."

"Sleuthing sounds good to me. I do enjoy a good investigation, and in protecting Amrania as I do so sounds like a good way to spend my time. As for the finding a decent husband, to be quite honest mi'lady we don't meet many people, if any, that would make for a good king, frankly we end up having to kill them, they get away, or they get murdered on our travels. Nonetheless, I will keep my eyes peeled for someone strong, but not so much as to try and control the country."

He sips from his tankard again, making a mental note to mull over this further at a later time.

"So, tell me about this doppleganger. I've heard of them but never fought one myself" she pauses for a second "or maybe I have. How do you identify them, anyway?"

"Well she screamed a lot, that's one thing."

He takes a swig from his tankard

"Has a lizardy face, nearly mistook it for a basilisk, but the scale colouring was different, had pinks and blues and purples. There were... four total I think? Three of them kept referring to the last as mother, and she kept healing them every time we beat them down, so we figured she was a matriarch. We killed the kids first but she kept teleporting and entangling pursuers, and there was a werewolf to fight, so we took that down first. Then she sealed herself in the Ritual Circle. Made it impossible for us to fix the planes. Until I put a few rounds in her and forced her out of it. Good thing about guns, they can pierce sealed circles. She showed up after we fixed everything, started whining about how we'd wrecked her plans so the others just cut her down. The circle's probably still stained with her blood. Hard fight that one, made harder by the death knights and werewolves that kept showing up."

"Many things scream a lot." Hilde mutters darkly as he continues, and takes another sip.
"I've heard tales of ghostly spirits. Surprised you didn't come across them in the other realms." she adds, once he's finished.

Hans looks pensive.

"I was one, for about an hour. We found the spirits of lord Pike's staff in the underworld, don't know what else they found in the other realms though, there wasn't much discussion after we fixed it. Didn't seem to be a point for it."

He fills his tankard again and begins to swig merrily

"Still, damn good Werewolf hunt."

It is at this point that the Princess and her 'Bodyguard' notice the severed werewolf claw stuffed through his belt, blood on the fur where it's been severed.

Teya takes note of the way Hans shifted to show off the claw. Probably wasn't even aware he had. Well, it's definitely something to be proud of.
"Make sure you clean that blood off it before too long. I've heard that the infection can be carried from blood to blood." she takes the claw in with an appraising eye "but that's a good-sized claw - must have been over six foot tall on it's back legs? Not used a firearm against one, always preferred sword and shield myself. I'll bet shots don't slow a werewolf mid-charge down by much though?"

"Ordinary shots don't do much to slow a charge, that's true. Fireballs send them scampering and whimpering for a few minutes, but that thrice damned regeneration of theirs means they just shrug it off if you give them the chance though. Good thing we didn't."

He nods at Lief here, and his eyes scan for the couple other seekers that helped on that one, but not finding them he returns his attention to the battle analysis.

"But yes, you're correct in your guess. A bit taller than six foot, might've been seven. We split the spoils three ways, since Lief held its attention and did most of the fighting he got the pelt. The claws were divided between myself and Furin. You're right about the cleaning though, I'll do that once we're in the air. I've no wounds for it to pass into at the minute so for now I think I'm alright."

Teya grins, enjoying the story "I've heard that silver stops them regenerating so quickly. There's a heap of silver-plated weapons in the castle armory" she produces a long, delicately thin knife from thin air. The surface of it glows brightly"they're a pain to keep sharp, but I always felt better with this alongside me." She studies one of the pistols critically "I wonder if you could get silver-plated shot for that?"

"I don't see why not, Silver Bullets would be effective. Problem is they're expensive and are only good for one shot, unless you feel like rumaging through the carcass for them. They're smaller than you'd think, hard to find in a bloodied corpse."

He rumages around in his pocket and counts off the Powder Charges he has left.

"Huh, didn't use as many as I'd thought. The problem with guns is counting your shots. They only have a limited capacity because I can only carry so much powder."

Teya sits up, the light of excitement in her eyes "It's something the crown could perhaps afford... And we do have all those silver weapons in the armory... Perhaps a core group of skilled hunters, equipped and maintained by the crown, existing to stamp out undead threats." She thinks about it for a moment "None of the local lords would like having armed men on their lands, but they havent exactly been efficient in combating the undead so far."

"If it did happen, would any of you be interested? There would be some sort of royal charter you could present, get free passage throughout Amrania...." She trails off into the possibilities. its clear the idea has firmly taken root.

Hans smiles gratefully.

"Your offer is substantial, and the benefits are useful, but parading around smiting undead isn't really within my skill set, especially since I tend to have problems with, ah, command chains. That said, the concept intrigues me. I'm interested, as long as I can be useful and I'm not ordered around like some meatbag. I've more than my fair share of experience in combating the undead. And the silver could prove useful in other endeavors. Plus it would be nice to visit home more often without having to deal with all the damned paperwork associated with traveling between countries. At the very least I'm sure I could work alongside them often"

He swigs from his tankard, then takes out one of his guns, checks it over and then begins light maintenance with his tools, which he'd pleasantly found worked just as well for gun maintenance as they did for opening things that others didn't want opened.

Hilde remains quiet, and appears to be in thought.
The ranger takes her pick of some of the food offered, and washes it down with a touch more from her tankard.
Her eyes scan across the courtyard, but find nothing of specific interest.

"Maybe occasional consultancy then." Teya turns to Hilde "Do you remember those brothers we met on that mountainside during the full moon - Dean and Samuel? Reckon theyd be interested in state endorsement? And I know you have ways of finding them again."
She cocks her head to one side as if listening, before sharing a glance with Hilde and motioning discretely towards a particularly dense clump of bushes a short way off. The birds from that section of woodland have stopped singing. She quickly turns to Hans and continues in a slightly louder voice. "I've never seen a gun's maintenance before, talk me through it." Under the cover of her shield, she has eased the sword next to her out of its sheath soundlessly.

"I remember the Johnsson brothers. I could look into it, should you wish, my Lady."
Teya catches her eye, and Hilde shares an almost imperceptable acknowledgement.
She sits back a little, and takes another bite of bread.

Hans notes the two's change in demeanor and talks at the same volume as the princess.

"Well, mi'lady, the first point of order is to make sure the chamber's clear by using the ramrod..."

He slips a powder pocket out of his sleeve and pours it into the gun, hiding his activity with his arm. He then rams the ramrod in.

"You then have to check that the ignition cap is clear as well..."

He slips some powder into the cap and secures it.

"Sadly, the constant fluctuation of heat can alter the size of the barrel, so you have to make sure the bullets still fit. This is why we previously ensured the gun was clear of powder, so that should something accidental happen to the trigger, no-one gets shot."

He slides a bullet into the chamber and then places his spare hand on his other gun.

"Ah, it fits, good."

The look in his eyes tells the princess that he's prepared, and he's careful not to slide his eyes to her sword.

"Does anything need further explanation, I'd be happy to go into further detail."