No Spill Blood

[Bjorn]

"You as well, Master Durant," Bjorn says politely.  


Nodding his farewells, he steps back into the library.  To pass the time until Lindsey shows up, he browses the library, looking for anything on the subject of runics.

[Brian]

Not much time to pass; your breakfast nook has two people sitting it in when you enter.  Liandral, and Lindsey.

They both look up when you enter, but only Liandral rises.

[Bjorn]

Goddamn invisibility, Bjorn thinks to himself peevishly.

"Liandral, Lindsey," Bjorn says in greetings.  "How're you?"

[Brian]

"Better," Liandral says, rubbing his right wrist for some reason.  "I'm going for a little walk."

He strolls over to the librarian, while Linsdey gestures for you to make yourself comfortable.  "I'm doing better myself," she says quietly.  "Last night was brutally cold, but...."  She shrugs, as if to indicate that it doesn't matter.  "I'm still intact now."

[Bjorn]

"That's good to hear," Bjorn says, taking a seat.  "Were there any problems?"

[Brian]

"No," she says, while Liandral strikes up a conversation with the librarian, also conveniently scanning the one entrance to the room.  "The camp was reasonably orderly, all things considered.  They have a clear chain of command and supplies, with a pool of about one hundred 'commanders' directly beneath Elric.  Who, as it turns out, can see through invisibility."  She grimaces.  "Luckily, he didn't even realize I was invisible, and he just threw me into the slave pens.  They've got a number ... probably about two hundred human slaves towards the back of their army.  Their food stores are distributed, so it would take a lot of work to poison them.

"Their behavior and technique seems ... to me ... to be a bit more than we'd been led to believe.  It seems certain to me that the Seventh Cabal came through first and gave them help -- a lot of help."

[Bjorn]

"Did Elric seem to have any particular advisors?" Bjorn asks, quietly.

[Brian]

"He was muttering about them, before he saw me," Lindsey says, nodding.  "Apparently, the real reason for nailing someone to the rock was to buy his own army a little more time for his big guns to roll in.  Something happened in the ice that slowed down travel, or something.  They were talking about the reinforcements arriving as I was leaving, which is why I healed whoever that was before I came back in."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn grunts, and frowns.  "Wouldn't we have been better off if the general had died sooner, then?  At least one more battle without the Dreadmarch having reinforcements."

[Brian]

"Time is something I'd thought we could all use," she said, shrugging.  "Aside from which -- their reinforcements were already there.  Letting him die would mean that they'd have 12 hours for the moon to cross the sky and the next day of siege to begin.  That's enough time for them to set up camp, sleep, and be ready.  Why not give us some extra time, too?"

[Bjorn]

"Fair enough," Bjorn concedes.  "There was an image you tried to send me.  It didn't get through.  What was it?"

[Brian]

"A Storm-rider.  They nailed him to the rock as their general," she clarifies.

[Bjorn]

"Ah," Bjorn says, "that.  I did catch that."  He frowns.  "That was probably the former Lord Markham, from context."  Falling silent for a few seconds, he looks back up at Lindsey.  "So what are your thoughts, having seen the enemy first hand?"

[Brian]

"There's an awful lot of them," she says slowly.  "But something's holding them back.  I think they don't want to fall back on Elric.  If he were everything he says he is, why not use him on the very first day and just claim victory then?  Why rely on these other super-generals?  There's something here we don't know, and I'm guessing it's some plan that relies on traitors within the keep."

[Bjorn]

"A plan," Bjorn says, "or a weakness?"

He thinks for a few minutes, and then shakes his head.  "It all comes back to the same thing," he says regretfully.  "We have to find the traitors in the Keep.  We're getting closer, but not close enough."