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Greta doesn't recoil from Ishbaad's affectionate hug, instead she nips at him playfully. Not for the first time, the oread is glad for his tougher than usual skin. Even still, Greta has yet again managed to draw blood. "What a display," she mutters while she eyes Jorvik tearing Nazhena Vasilliovna's heart out, "Perhaps I chose the wrong mate." In her wolfen form, Ishbaad cannot tell if she is looking at Jorvik with lust, admiration or indeed if she is smiling slyly at Ishbaad's expense.
"You got the Iron Guard on your side?" Greta looks genuinely impressed. So much so that she steps back to allow Ishbaad in and out of the cold. "What we wolves intend to do?" she looks over at Ishbaad, only slightly peeved, "You were the one who said you had a plan. If your plan is to have us tear the throats out of some fresh-from-the-First-World fey, then that will suit us just fine. After that, if the Iron Guard is on our side, keep the f&%@ing Jadwiga Elvanna either holed up in the Palace or out of Whitethrone - or both - until you get back with the Mother of All Witches." She says the last as though it were matter-of-fact and not at all the monumental task it actually was. "My kin have a pact with the Winter Witches - with all of them - that supersedes anything we may or may not have promised Queen Elvanna," Greta explains, "Whatever their individual feelings are, we are honor-bound to fulfil our oaths to Baba Yaga first... and they will follow. They will not commit suicide, but if Logrivich is dead you will have proven both that your quest is just, and that you have the strength needed to prevail. "I assume," she says easily, "You will have needed to provide similar assurances to the Iron Guard as well. So it will be with any allies you have. The populace fears Elvanna as much as any powerful White Witch - but they fear Logrivich more. Not that I think he is more powerful... but he does not need to rule. He can act more freely, and more capriciously. I never thought I'd imagine that were possible... more capricious than the Queen of Irrisen." Greta leads Ishbaad to the soft item of furniture at the far side of the room. "Now, weary diplomat," she begins, "What was that you said about a 'quickie'?"
"Back so soon?" Greta asks, leaning comfortably against the threshold - not yet inviting Ishbaad in, "I've made good progress getting the wolves on our side. I hadn't heard that Logrivich was dead, however." The wolf in woman's clothing smiles wickedly at Ishbaad, suspecting she knew exactly why Ishbaad was here. Well, she is partially correct, isn't she? A chill wind blows, causing Ishbaad to shiver involuntarily. A playful look crosses Greta's eyes as she continues to not invite her oread lover inside.
"That secret could kill you?!" Greta laughs, amused rather than impressed by what Ishbaad said, "Oh, Holy Being, there is so much more that you have said and done that you could be killed for. But don't worry, the same can be said for me." The naked wolf-turned-woman stalks her way over to the bead, her eyes twinkling with desire. "You say you have the keys, and I believe you. You say you can get into the Hut and take it away, and I believe you. You say you can slay a dragon... and I'm afraid I will need more proof. Show me you prowess, oh Holy Being who would be dubbed Dragonslayer. Show me and make me believe..."
Greta slumps into a chair near the bed, deep in thought and still naked. Ishbaad is struck by her complete and utter lack of self-consciousness. Of course, with a body like that, there is very little to be self-conscious about. "Wow. Your plan has all the elements of something that could work," she notes, "And you really do trust your Jadwiga pack mates? They will try to get a group of the nobles on their side?" She suddenly stands and resumes her pacing, "The Winter Guard are little more than monsters and fickle fey led by a handful of Jadwiga. Unlike most servants, they are motivated by greed rather than fear... well, fear of Logrivich helps also, but the dragon is motivated by pride and his own greed. If you killed him first, all that would be left for the Winter Guard is the promise of wealth. If we took over the city, they soon would change their mind about helping Elvanna. They may abandon their posts... or change sides.... especially if the hut were to be unshackled and taken elsewhere. "They live longer than humans and know better than most Jadwiga how truly powerful Baba Yaga is. With her hut gone, the promise of her eventual return will at the least create unrest within their ranks. "Yes... yes... this could work!" she declares, seeming to be surprised by her own declaration. "But the lynchpin of your whole plan is killing Logrivich," she says severely, "Do that, and the rest will fall into place - assuming you get the required agreements from your Jadwiga allies and the Iron Guard. I will handle the Winter Wolves. Then you just need to worry about getting to the Hut."
"Well, Holy Being," the way Greta says that, Ishbaad can tell he has a new nickname for the foreseeable future, "That still doesn't answer the only question that will matter to my brethren: What do we do when you've absconded with the Hut? I'm still doubtful you even can do that, but if the Black Rider says you can... I guess, I'll have to assume it's possible." Greta paces about like a caged tiger... no, not like a tiger, like a wolf... and adds, "The city could be ours, for a time. If the Iron Guard is with us... provided we get the support of enough of the Jadwiga to keep the fey and Irrisen's trolls in line. Think you could get, that, Holy Being?" She smirks, knowing that despite the impossibility of her request, her new mate would probably answer in the affirmative.
"Oh, so all you need to do is slay a dragon and convince the Iron Guard to betray the queen?" Greta laughs long and hard before she notices the stern and serious expression on Ishbaad's face, "Holy f&+@ing shit, that's actually your plan?" She strides over to the bed and stares at him long and hard. Finally, she sniffs around him. "Wow. You really believe you can do it, too. And you're not afraid. That's a dragon you're talking about! You are a fool, but a brave one." She shakes her head in disbelief and admiration. "So... what happens after you get to the hut? You take off in search of Baba Yaga, presumably. What happens to those who provided your distraction, the ones left behind in Irrisen under the rule of Queen Elvanna... or do you think to fit all the Winter Wolves and Iron Guardsmen in the hut?"
Greta feigns surprise, "You are planning on taking on Queen Elvanna? Who could have guessed it from your previous line of reasoning." The woman does not even bother to dress, though there is no heat source in her humble accommodations. Without his rimepelt to transform him into a winter wolf, Ishbaad is shivering. Even Greta's embrace offered little in the way of warmth. Her flesh was as cold as it was supple, even in human form. A box of frozen meat - meat of an origin that Ishbaad does his best not to consider - sits uninsulated in the storage room, and the nude Greta pulls out a haunch and begins munching. "Sorry," she mutters between gulps, "That always makes me hungry. I'm assuming you won't partake this time... and I've no other food to offer. Besides, I think better on a full stomach." When her meal is done - even in human form, she quickly devours what must be four pounds of flesh - Greta returns to the bed. "I will make this easy for you: we 'wolves are all about the natural order. Elvanna is disrupting the natural order. Our pact is with Baba Yaga, and so... it will not take much for one of our own to convince the others to strike. "However!" she adds, quickly cutting off any response Ishbaad may have been formulating, "We are wolfen, and wolves are not stupid enough to prey upon those obviously stronger than us. We will need a plan, and we will need assurances of success. You have got a plan, I take it?"
While the sun does not set until after midnight, the icy winds blow colder the later it gets. Ishbaad is glad for his yeti-fur cloak for both its utility at disguising his appearance in these twilit streets and its seamless warmth. Having already taken note of where the guard posts were, Ishbaad makes his way solo to the Howlings where, if possible, the air seems to grow even colder. None pay too much attention to Ishbaad. None think he is a yeti, but neither would a peasant be able to afford such a magnificent magical item. Greta greets Ishbaad at the threshold of her house in her human form, opening the door before he can knock. "Well, I wasn't expecting to see you so soon," she observes, her curvaceous body no longer hidden beneath layers of mail and furs, "You'd best come inside before someone smells you and kills you. You're lucky this isn't Redtooth." That last statement, most like, is completely lost on Ishbaad.
"Ha ha ha!" Greta's burst of laughter is genuine and all tension seems to flood from her, "I tell you you may keep seeing me, and that I know your true self now... and all you want is language lessons? Ha! I may never understand you southerners, but I will teach you or Northern tongues. You can then tell me in my own tongue why a southerner is so interested in how I feel about Elvanna and Baba Yaga." Greta draws a map on a piece of parchment, clearly indicating where her den is. "I guess we need not meet at the Last Howl. Let us see how your mountain flesh holds up against my claws." The woman is more of a pragmatist than she seemed at first. Shrugging, she completes her transformation into wolf form and trots off.
Greta halts her transformation, puffing and panting while eying Jorvik carefully. Her canines shrink and the beauty of her human form is revealed once more. "I saw you fight Agilur for my honor," she says simply, "You are not a winter wolf - you did not need to do that. He could have killed you." Her angry glare remains but her words, at least, are soft. "Tell me, Ishbaad - if that is truly your name - was anything you told me true?" the oread does not need his inquisitorial powers to know that she is hurt, and perhaps surprised about that. "You should know also," she says, standing up straight, "That the pact does not apply to non-wolves. You are not bound by it, and do not need to stop seeing me." The statement strikes Isbhaad like a splash of cold water. Why would she say that... why would she say that if she didn't want to keep seeing him? "Oh, that explains why you only speak to me in Taldane!" she admonishes herself.
GM Rolls:
No sooner has Ishbaad found a private place to turn into an oread once more than Greta leaps down from a rooftop in front of him. Her face is feral and furious. "You! You're not a winter wolf - not even human! And you... you must have been wearing a rimepelt! In The Howlings!" Her form starts to shift and her ears elongate as her whole body hunches over.
"Surely if the Queen of the Witches has such passionate allies, this uprising of Queen Elvanna will never last, will it?" he says, staring at the ceiling as they lay, catching their breath. He hopes the question comes off as aloof and flirtatious instead... "Do not speak of such things openly," Greta hisses, surprised that Ishbaad would. She lies there with him for a while without speaking. To describe the pair as 'bedraggled' would be an understatement of the highest order. The oread in disguise looks over and is perhaps shocked to see an equal amount of damage on Greta's body when compared to his own. Where his own savagery came from, he is not sure. "The uprising will last," Greta says in time, "For as long as Baba Yaga is gone. No longer. But how long will that be? I do not know how she has done it, but she has. The Winter Wolves made a pact with the Queen of Witches, as we have known since we were pups, but the details of that pact mean that we also agreed to serve the Queen of Irrisen. For now, that is Elvanna." Greta rolls over and looks intently into Ishbaad's eyes. "Let us meet tonight," she does not ask, but demand, "At the Last Howl. An hour before sundown."
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