May 08 04:41:12 106 PA
From Chronicles
May 08 04:41:12 106 PA
Golden Carafe - Vargus' Loft
A firm knock upon the door sounds, neither excessively loud nor meekly quiet.
Vargus is sitting off toward the right side from the entrance, stretched out on the couch reading a book with actual paper pages. Steelwind sits on a perch near the large plate windows off to one side. At the sound of the door, Vargus quirks an eyebrow and folds the book, sitting up. "Come in.." he calls out, as he extends a hand toward the door, and casts Escape rather quickly, which unlocks the entrance.
Leonard opens the door as it unlocks, slightly surprised that no one stands just inside to meet him. "Good day. I hope that I'm not disturbing you, but there have been some adjustment to our plans." He doesn't sound especially elated as he closes the door behind him.
Vargus shakes his head. "Nope, not at all.. c'mon in.. pull up a seat. Always good to get new information around when it comes in." He pauses a moment, "...is it something wildly significat that will change all of the odd plans with came up with?" He turns toward Leonard in overly-dramatic fashion, his right eyebrow quirking up.
Leonard chuckles at the drama as he enters and seeks a seat. "Somewhat. The pack, as it were, is being split. Apparently, Norwick did not expect so much interest so quickly. It would explain why the task seemed too simple, as he wants to keep the group to a quartet. He does have other tasks in mind for those willing, however."
Vargus's eyebrows quirk up, "Ohhh, good. I was expecting some reality-shattering revelation like they have a squad of glitter boys providing up-close cover for the thing." He lets out the rest of his breath in a sigh and moves to the small fridge, pulling out two bottle and offering one if you would like, then returns to his seat and pops the top, taking a drink. "So did he set the teams? Or is that up to us?"
"He left it to me to set the current team. Thank you." Leonard takes the offered bottle and a sip therefrom. "Bek is indispensable for this venture, but I think that the rest of us can be divided effectively into two teams. You and I have much in common as far as our talents, so it seems obvious that we'd be more diverse if seperated." Another, longer draught is taken before he continues. "I intend to take Bek, Emayn and Flare with me. From what we've discussed, you, Tirzah, and Cel would make an effective team with the addition of some heavy support. Tirzah's very large friend, maybe?"
Vargus squinches his face up some. "Hummm.. not sure about that one. She's more or less a large explosive charge. Point in a direction and pull the pin... but, she doesn't show a whole lot in the way of insight or intelligence. Are each of our teams going to hit a different convoy? Or one go, and the other way for another time?"
Leonard chuckles. "It's up to you three to decide what you wish to do, of course. She was just an off-hand thought. I don't know how the teams would interact, to be honest. Norwick may have something completely different in mind. He has names, and I'm certain he'll be in contact soon." He pauses, a frown forming before he adds, "He has also chosen a psi-hound named Sindri to potentially organize another pack. If you wish to speak with him, some or all of you can do that, but I don't recommend it."
Vargus chuckles and slowly shakes his head. "I've met him a few times. He's... huhh... well. He's very enthusiastic about his aggression for the Coalition. I think I'd rather stay over on this side of things, I don't entirly trust his entusiasm not to get his whole team killed off."
"Norwick urged defensive magic before speaking with him, also," Leonard smirks, "so I can only imagine how that meeting began. Again, all that is your choice. I will be informing everyone as quickly as I can, and then they can decide as they wish." His shoulders roll once more. "It would have been much easier had Norwick informed me of this limitation beforehand."
Vargus nods his head, "Or just given the briefings himself. Well... I guess we can just get together again with this in mind and come up with something else. Eh, it'd be nice if this Norwick could also give us definate goals, instead of just leading us around with hits and possibilities."
Leonard takes another brief swig from his bottle. "He's just acting cautiously, which is likely why he wants to keep the groups small and seperated. The overall goal is to hinder the Coalition forces at Tolkeen as much as possible, but as we cannot just meet them directly... we must take opportunities as they become available."
Vargus shrugs. "He doesn't need to act cautiously.. he's hiring us to take the risk. He's got denyability if anything starts to get back to him, whomever the hell he is. I'd guess a former Tolkeen councilmember or something." He shakes his head, musing outloud. "Ah well... I guess we've got do to what the guy supplying the cash wants us to."
"The Golden Rule, in effect." Leonard returns the shrug and lifts the bottle absently. "I would have preferred that he be the one rushing about to share this latest alteration. At least he assured me that there wouldn't be any more, and the next time that I see him will be on our departure. After all this, I'm simply anxious to leave and be done with it, for now."
Vargus grins and nods his head. "I can understand that... Did he say anything about when the departure would be?"
Leonard shakes his head as he rises. "No, but the next expected convoy is only a week away. The sooner you can form a second pack, if that's what you want to do, the better. For all I know, he already has plans for the rest of you." A roll of his shoulders and a vague gesture with the bottle follow. "I should continue my rushing, though, so that everyone knows of this before the time comes to leave."
Vargus's lips shift off as he ponders, "I'd really like to meet with this guy and find out what the heck his motivation exactly is." He shakes his head, "I'm interested because I'm looking for something to do. But, I'm still pretty leery about the whole thing.. eh, if things get too bad I can always rift us out, although it'll take a few days to get back since it isn't all that accurate."
"I'm sure that you'll have the chance to meet him," Leonard nods, "although he has always found myself, or the others he's spoken with, rather than the other way around. Norwick is rather adept at 'dropping in.' I don't trust his motives entirely, either, but what they are, exactly... I don't know that he'll be so open. He hasn't, yet." His bottle is lifted in Vargus' direction. "Thank you again for the drink, but I'd best be on my way."
Vargus smirks. "I wonder if that drop-in thing is a spell he could teach. Oh.. speaking of, we should sit down and compare books, as it were.. see if there's anything interesting we could learn from each other. Some of our later choices might be different, anyway."
Leonard chuckles as he moves for the door. "We should. After this is done, we should be able to find the time." He takes the bottle out with him, given that his own room is hardly out of the way to dispose of it. "Good luck, Vargus, though I hope none of us will need it."
