Anthony shakes his head "what do we do?"
"I'm not sure. I'm trying to get people to look into it."
"ah, very interesting.ill do my best to help.""What do you charge for leather Anna? I imagine i'll need quite a bit"
"For you? you can just take some."
Anna smiles a bit more."If you really need a lot, I'll just sell it to,you at cost."
Anthony nods, thinking "best thing I can think of would be to try to fortify the area as a general contingency,"
"Always a good plan. I'm going to look into more covert operations, myself."
"I shouldn't need too much it is just a vest harness. Would you help me with my measurements?" Ruby pulls a long striped ribbon from her sleeve.
anna nods.
"Of course. What design do you have in mind? Plenty of ways to do armor."
Anthony looks surprised. the thought of covert operations had not occurred to him.
"The ideal situation is using them agaisnt each other."
"I'm wanting some more sturdy armor, but the main focus of this design"-ruby shows her sketch to Anna-"is to allow quicker access to my weaponry." Ruby continues sketching and explaining her design.
"I'm sure we can do that."
Anthony nods. "for big picture stuff the best shot would be to try to bargain with the devils, if we need impulsive stuff, baiting the forces of chaos should be easy enough either option has it's dangers though"
"Best thing we can do is find a way to turn them on each other instead of us."
a few weeks pass. Ruby is at Anna's, finishing up her new armor, and the others have already been rounded up to the barracks.
"You're really good at this, you know. Truly a pity you don't have spinners of your own."
Anna smiles wide.
"I could always give you some, you k-"
and somone knocks on the door.
Adya barges in without offering much time to actually respond to the knocking.
"Ruby, I've got an important task for you. Come along, as soon as you can. The room with my bunk, at the barracks."
and she turns around and leaves.
"Well... I guess talking about that will have to wait."
In the barracks, Ellen is sat down against a wall feeding Luna.
La'Vassa flirts shamelessly with one of the more normal guards in the hall. She leaves to enter the meeting as soon as everyone shows up.
"Luna, I believe she is a primal beast, I found information on a forest that has had primal beasts associated with it a decent amount. found it in a book, the book turned into butterflies. I took one with me it seemed to follow me well enough, though it might be a good pet. Named it Luna. when I went to the forest, was covered in sticky nectar. Luna ate some of the nectar, then turned into this. I have been going there to train Luna. giving her some simple tasks we used to do for dogs."
as she is talking Luna finishes eating and climbs up onto Ellen's shoulder.
Adya wanders in, not having looked behind her to even check if ruby is following.
"Everyone here?"
La'Vassa pulls up the rear after the Others follow inside. She practically bounces with each step.
"I don't believe she will"
Ellen stands up attention shifting to Adya.
"So, I've gathered you all here because there is something of grave importance going on. We've confirmed that proteans have settled in a cave nearby. This could be useful, but we have to act now, if we want to get information. Proteans aren't known to stay in one place long."
"Is the plan Recon then, or should we be trying to flush them out?"
"You're all capable people. If they pose an immidate threat, then they need to be eleimated. If not, information about what's going on is vital."
"The scouts I used are not terribly well trained for combat."
"...sorry to say, I don't know much about the proteans other than they are at war with the devils, so any other info you can give me?"
Ellen says shrugging, disturbing Luna, causing the bug to settle on her head instead.
"Oh! La'Vassa knows this, she does, Protians are outsiders from the realm of chaos, they have many shapes, effectively infinite numbers of them. The smallest of them is called a Voidworm because it's usually worm-y but all of them can change their form! Some people take those sorts as familiars, they do!"
"... and any thing else to be wary of. and what is the best way to fight them? Because they sound very difficult to beat just from the fact they can take any form. I know how to fight larger beings, had lost of practice with those, but anything smaller I make up plans on the spot. I would like to avoid that."
Ellen questions.
"Hit them Vrry hard!"
"very well"
Ellen pulls out one of her arrows and shows it to the others.
"this is designed to destroy support beams and structures. If it is needed I might be able to bring down down the cave. I can't say for sure with out seeing the cave myself. I have not commissioned more, I will have to talk to Roland if he or someone he knows can make it."
"Please avoid collapsing anything unless it's abosultly needed."
with a nod of understanding Ellen puts away the arrow. Ellen stands against the wall behind her, her gaze not focused on anything.
"... Trying to sneak around them might be for the best. Or maybe listening to conversations and gleaning information that way. Or kill them all and take the notes. It's all up to your discretion. Everyone has thier own way of getting the job done."