Orson has his head balanced on a fist, leaning to the side slightly as he listened to the Admiral and the various comments being made around them. He wasn't concerned with any of it. His other hand eventually came to rest on the hilt of his sword, and it began tracing the edge. He wasn't much one for large crowds. They made him uncomfortable. He would rather be out doing something than sitting around listening to speeches. When the Admiral asked if there were any more comments, he had to say something, just to satisfy his own curiosity.

"What precisely is the plan, Admiral? Will we gather together, like lambs to the slaughter, and wait for a bloody dawn? Or do you have an ace up your sleeve? I want none of this flowery talk and political banter. I want the point. I want a mission. Give me a reason to be here, or let me leave."

He looked through half-lidded eyes at the Admiral. He didn't like him, but then, he didn't like anyone. He merely tolerated them all, and since the Admiral was his immediate superior, he had to tolerate him. That didn't mean he had to be polite about it though.

"Tell me, Admiral. What is going to happen? Are we going to be sent into the thick of it? Because in this case, that's where I'd be comfortable. Wherever the casualties will be highest. Or is this a suicide mission?" he said, his voice ever dropping in volume until, at the end, one had to strain to hear him.

So much talking was rather unlike him. He brushed the bit of hair out of his eyes and readjusted his position in his chair so that he was sitting up straight. He was silent after that, but he continued to watch the Admiral, waiting for a reaction.

OOC: I've pretty much done the same as darkom by reusing Laniel. Hurrah for lazyness!




Laniel entered the fort the night before the meeting, and loitered in the meeting room. He was fully awake, but that was usual for him. It would have been impossible for him to sleep anyways, with all that was going on. He hadn't felt the same since the turn of the era, when he had to live during the Oblivion crisis. The feeling brought him back to that fateful day...

A young Laniel and his mother were in a state of mourning and fear. Peric, a member of the legion and Laniel's father, was on patrol when he was killed by deadra coming out of an Oblivion gate. From then on Laniel lived in fear. He considered his father to be the strongest man in the world, if he could be killed by these deadra, anyone could. Shortly after the death of his father, cries echoed throughout the Imperial City. A new heir was coming that day, the dragonfires would be lit, and the crisis would end! Everyone in the Temple District got around to decorating, when gates to Oblivion opened...

Laniel shook himself from the thought. The meeting was finally starting. He took little note of most of the meeting, but when the admiral stated he had no knowledge if Crux was either mortal or immortal, he felt unusually appalled to speak up. Another spoke before he could, and he agreed entirely with him, "He's completely right! Sorry if you consider this a snide comment sir, but you question whether or not we should consult this Carstein fellow when you don't even know if Crux is able to be killed? Mind you Crux is only an avatar so he probably can be killed, but who can say if another avatar shall replace him? Carstein might, and just that possibility is enough to consult him."

"I explained it once, but here it goes. Captain Vulkan will lead the main force into the front, where, yes, the fighting will be quite thick. That is just a distraction for me and roughly fifty men to come out the back of the fight through the sewers. From there we will locate and exterminate the monstrosity, and assault the weakened beasts from behind," said the Admiral, rubbing one of his eyes with the back of his gloved hand.

"We need people like you, though.. Those that will do anything to insure the safety of comrades, no matter of their superiors' orders. I would be glad to have you behind enemy lines," he said again, rubbing the back of his head, his graying black hair rough and dirty.

Edit:

"You speak wisely, soldier. I suppose it will be necessary, but whether or not Carstein will come is up to his assistant," said Faurus, and glancing around the room he didn't spot the Khajiit, "He is not here presently but will be attending soon."

The Admiral looked around, "Any more snide comments?"

It was fortunate for Hadsin that the admiral didn't notice it was him who had spoke, but several people near him were giving him looks of disgust. Hadsin didn't care. He was more concerned about his inevitable death in the upcoming suicide campaign. Even if successful it was certain that the greater majority of those engaged in the assault would not survive.

But what was the alternative? Run away and hide? If the plague didn't catch up to him, starvation, dehydration, exposure or despair would. Given the current state of the world a man would find it nigh impossible to survive on his own.

A man across the room brought up a point regarding Currux's mortality. The admiral responded but Hadsin was too lost in his own internal turmoil to hear him. Well that's just great! Let's just throw ourselves at an immortal god! Hadsin resigned himself to his fate. One way or another he was going to die within the next few days.

Hadsin mustered up the nerve to make one last snide comment, half laughing, half crying. "So, who gets to take on the endless horde of zombies and who gets to take on the immortal dragon?"

Varber smacked his lips, rubbing the sleep from his eye with one frail hand. He pushed his hair out of his face, half listening to the shouting and likewise comments that had awoken him to begin with. He sighed 'What's the point? These things can't be killed with sword like normal men, and their leader is an even more impossible task. The only weapon to win this war with is information. Oh well, I guess the age of civilized society had to come to an end sometime.'

The admiral Varber had unfortunately gotten to know quite well spoke up once more "Any more snide comments?"

A few people made boring statements about military strategy and the pointless wasting of men's lives, but one Breton said something that piqued Varber's interest mid-sentence "Mind you Crux is only an avatar so he probably can be killed, but who can say if another avatar shall replace him? Carstein might, and just that possibility is enough to consult him."

'Ah, yes, Carstein; that vampire-scholar who used to live near the city. I remember him, he was funny. If anyone knew anything about these worms, it's him.' The pale Breton vacated his small stool, standing several feet away from the group, hoping someone else would say something interesting.

Unfortunately, the only thing that was said was a mention of Carstein's unavailability and an unremarkable Imperial man's joke "So, who gets to take on the endless horde of zombies and who gets to take on the immortal dragon?"

Ignoring the man, Varber decided to, for the first time, address the assembly "Hey," He said, his flat, sleepy sounding voice barely loud enough for the group to hear amidst their own squabbles "You can't fight them until you know how to kill them right."

He let the comment hang for a moment, his face a slightly frowning mask, before deciding to make an addition "And no matter how much you soldiers like killing things, this is the work of a scholar. So I suggest you either get the vampire or find one of the surviving mages to do it."

As if the comment had depressed him, Varber then dropped his gaze to the floor, flattened a ruffle on his robe, and turned around, starting to walk back to his stool. 'I know I won't do it... They wouldn't want me to anyways.'

OOC: The name is Currux, not Crux.

"Well, as far as I know, you're a scholar yourself. Mind helping us out a bit with your divine know-how?" the Admiral retorted. He wasn't in the mood to be disagreed with, even if he knew that he would be during the meeting.

"I'll do my best to get Carstein, but in the end it's up to his apprentice."

"For now, we must wait for the Khajiit to arrive and we can really start talking eh," he said, sitting in the chair behind the podium.

Zared had dragged himself out of his sleeping daze, one cant imagine what its like to be half of an abomination and still enjoy the fruits of each side. Not that many would care to know or find out, considering that all normal people would consider someone like him as an abomination to nature and be burnt at the stake or slain. Vampires considered him either a threat or the same an outcast of their kind and generally..wasnt met with friendliness. The light tan khajiit pulled himself off the bunk and streatched his half nvde body out, thankful he was given his own quarters during his stay here. Would have been...uncomfortable to other males for him being there. As well he didnt want the temptation of sneaking a snack from live prey and creating allot of drama. Getting dressed and into his usual attire, Zared walked to the old table and picked up a bottle of 'blood wine' as he called it which was essentially blood from an animal mixed with wine to preserve it and give it a different taste. Opening the cork he drank half the bottle, feeling his body invigorate from the sudden infusion he corked it and picked up his blade, strapping it to his back as he usually did and headed to the meeting room.

taking it he was late, but that was a given. His internal body clock was more warped than the cane of a rich old woman who attempted at keeping to a style that passed on a century before hand. Keeping the hood over his head, his rather..interesting blue eyes seemed to reflect and glow alittle in the light as he took a seat quietly "Sorry for being late, been awhile since I have had... a full nights sleep.." he said coolly, leaning back on the chair abit, curling his tail slightly as he still fully woke up, not taking any real notice of anyone at the moment. Absent-mindedness or daydreaming as some called it was often a common thing for him in the morning.

Name: Aliister Giovanci
Race: Breton
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Class: Wizard

Physical description: Aliister is tall, slender and lanky. The recent events following the plague took it's toll on his apperance and personality. His body is thin like a skeleton's. The wizard's skin seems to lack flesh and walks with a limb on his left leg. His face is daunt and bruised in many places. His features reminds one of a ghost, with eyes of a madman, thin pale lips, high cheekbones and long greasy hair.

He wears a long thorned dark green robe, which he always keeps on. He carries no weapon of any kinda, and casts his magic without a staff.

Personality: Aliister used to be someone who kept to himself and rarely left the mage guild and his studies. During the invasion of the imperial city though, he witnessed horrors beyond those of his worst nightmares and saw his collegues transformed into mutants right infront of his eyes. This has drastically reversed his personality, bordering the insane. He still rarely talks, but his thoughts are filled with macabre obscenities and perverse ideas. He still has a sense of good and wrong, even if his ideas may be somewhat contreversial.

You may occasionally find him blabbering nonsense and talk to himself.


OOC: Im on vacation right now, mind if I join with the other soldiers from the enarby forts?

Seeing as there was little else to do, Laniel approached the Breton who spoke earlier and was called a scholar by the Admiral. The sickly looking breton was looking at the ground when Laniel approached, and continued to as Laniel started talking.

"Greetings sir, I am Laniel Graystone. You could consider me a scholar, though my knowledge expands only to a few interests," Varber looked up, gave him a strange look, and continued to look at the ground, "Well, um, as I was saying, I was wondering if you knew anything about Astronomy or the Alyeids. Y'see I've been thinking, perhaps this threat is of divine origin, and could be found in the heavens. The king of worms left a moon that sometimes eclipses Arkay's plane after he ascended, so that makes it assumed that others, such as Talos, are also in the sky somewhere. Perhaps Narsiym can be found there too, but I know little about the Alyieds. It would be useless to go about killing Currux if a new leader for the infected would pop up later, the root of the problem should be of more concern tha the nonsense they talk about. Though thinking about it now gives little sense to finding Narsiym in the heavens, as many have had their gods, and their is no planet for each of them. Or perhaps she is like Dagoth Ur and Morrowind's tribunal, and found divinity some other way. The blight was bad for a time, of course this is even worse, but they both could have been created in the same fashion. I don't know if this disease is in any way like the blight or corpus, but apparently Carstein could help us there, if he ever shows up," Laniel remembered he was asking someone questions and apologized, "Sorry I've gone off on a bit of a ramble there, do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

OOC: That's fine, Apax.

Edit:

The Vampire's assistant entered the room. Whether he was a bloodsvcker or not the Admiral was unsure about.

"Hello, Zared. Please, make yourself at home.. No doubt Carstein has filled you in on what this meeting is about?"

Zared looked up, eyeing the admiral off from under his hood "Yeah he has for the most part. But from what I see this meeting has yet to be started? I would think some things would have been discussed so far am I correct?" he stated to the man, his eyes moving to look at the other men and women in the room, rather strange collection and bunch it seemed.

"Yes, I suppose we have discussed a tad," said the nervous Admiral, the Khajiit's eyes made his stomach turn.

"Let us get down to business, then, eh? We request, no, need, Mannfred's immediate presence. Without his knowledge of this blasted disease, how are we supposed to battle it? Our source of information is close to none, besides a few scholars and mages, we don't have much."

"I must admit, Currux will be a terrible and difficult foe, but anything can be killed. If he can be brought down in any way, we must try it. Carstein will most likely know a lot more on the matter. We are almost to the point of begging him for assistance."

He smiled alittle he could sense the Admirals nervousness and leaned forward, proping his head on his hands as he leaned his elbows on the table "No need to be nervous. But a question I posr to you and this..lot. What makes you think he would help? I havent seen any reason so far or heard at the very least why this particular fort should be aided. All things considered, what would happen if you failed? What my master would know would be compromised and the Avatar would move to destroy him. Quite a risk there is it not?" he asked smiling alittle, curling his tail up and useing it to push the hood off his head where he flicked his ears to streatch the tiny little muscles in his ears.

"I had not been made known that Carstein was a coward. Everything in life has risks. This "particular fort" happens to have the highest ranking member of the Imperial Army still alive. You're looking at him."

"We have always been and always will be the spearhead of the surviving soldiers. We are the ideal place for Carstein to meet with us."

He frowned alittle "Throwing insults about wont get you far. But in times like this alittle caution is always the better option. Instead of throwing it to the wind and going in head first." he said looking at the admiral right in the eyes, showing he was not going to play games. "Now you tell me your plans for what he knows, details like that."

I calmly sat back in my seat and folded my arms.

"When the Admiral said this meeting was about 'Just the tedious braying of old men' he sure was right." I grimaced at the thought of this.

When the Admiral mentioned that we were moving out soon I got slightly worried. I was still in my tunic, sack pants and sandals, I didn't even have my armour or weapons with me. I cursed at my stupidity although I wasn't really to know. I was also partly scared, there was an undoubtedly high chance that I would die. There was a high chance that all of us would die and we would fail. I shook it off, I couldn't afford to think like that, not now, not ever, there was just too much at stake. The bickering between the men and the Admiral was beginning to get louder, I could hardly hear my own thoughts. I decided to be prepared for the battle and go get my armour ready. I stood up out of my chair and began to make my way to the door. I looked back at the Admiral, who was still quarreling away and shouted.

"I'll be back soon!" Although whether he heard or not, I wasn't sure.

I pushed and squeezed my way through the soldiers. There was many different races, which had gathered here, which surprised me because I thought the Imperials were going to spearhead this one. Then I remembered it was not only Imperials who made their home in Cyrodiil. I finally made it through the sea of soldiers and was standing outside on the walkway. I made my way down through another sea, but this time it was a sea of pain and devastation. I reached the barracks quite quickly, I guess I was in a rush because I wanted to be on time. As I entered the barracks I realised that it was empty. I guess everyone had got the memo before I did and they were all ready for battle. I let out a loud sigh and again cursed at my stupidity.

I jogged quickly over to the chest containing my armour. There it was, just as I had left it. I pulled it all out and placed it on the ground beside me. I took off my clothes and threw them in the chest. I was shaking but not because I was cold, I was still scared. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, then out. I picked up my iron greaves and put them on, I followed with my steel cuirass. My cuirass was my pride and joy, I had received close to my induction into the legion and it served me as a sort of memorabilia. Next was my steel boots, they were always a bit of a tight fit but thats how they needed to be. Finally I put on my iron gauntlets, they were a perfect fit. I didn't have a helmet, I believed that they affected my line of site, greatly and were just an annoyance. I walked over to the table and picked up my steel longsword. It was a good feeling to hold it again. I sheathed it and picked up my shield.

The armour and weapon had given me more confidence and I felt as if I was ready, well ready as I ever would be. I walked outside and looked around. Still the same old sad faces looked back.

"They mustn't have left yet." I thought to myself as I walked back up to the meeting room.

When I reached the room I could still hear them bickering away inside. Instead of trying to wade through everyone again, I decided to just lean up against the wall and wait for everyone to leave.

Terribly sorry, my Internet was down and I now have to read this via iPod. I'll edit something in later, probably a response to your questions. Although you controlled Varber a little, it isn't a problem, Distraction. Thanks.


IC: "Greetings sir, I am Laniel Graystone. You could consider me a scholar, though my knowledge expands only to a few interests," Varber looked up, gave him a strange look, and continued to look at the ground, "Well, um, as I was saying, I was wondering if you knew anything about astronomy or the Alyeids. Y'see I've been thinking, perhaps this threat is of divine origin, and could be found in the heavens. The king of worms left a moon that sometimes eclipses Arkay's plane after he ascended, so that makes it assumed that others, such as Talos, are also in the sky somewhere. Perhaps Narsiym can be found there too, but I know little about the Alyieds. It would be useless to go about killing Currux if a new leader for the infected would pop up later, the root of the problem should be of more concern tha the nonsense they talk about. Though thinking about it now gives little sense to finding Narsiym in the heavens, as many have had their gods, and their is no planet for each of them. Or perhaps she is like Dagoth Ur and Morrowind's tribunal, and found divinity some other way. The blight was bad for a time, of course this is even worse, but they both could have been created in the same fashion. I don't know if this disease is in any way like the blight or corpus, but apparently Carstein could help us there, if he ever shows up," Laniel remembered he was asking someone questions and apologized, "Sorry I've gone off on a bit of a ramble there, do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

'Who is this? Does he think I don't know that?' However, knowing this man wasn't the type to simply go away, Varber decided he would have to make a reply. It took him a few moments, but after a quick check of his mental warehouse he found the responses he needed.

"It's pronounced Aylied, Mannimarco also died and lost his powers at the same time during the warp, Talos the ascended is eighty percent Lorkhan, killing the avatar would work if Narsiym was aedric, it most likely isn't even divine, this disease is caused by worms, and no, I have no thoughts on the matter." He spoke without ever looking up at the man, his speech hasty and sometimes difficult to understand.

'This "disease" is probably the concoction of some distraught mage whose experiment went wrong, or some crazy mage who was prancing around pretending to be an ancient Ayleid god. The Ayleid pantheon was much the same as the Cyrodillic one, this thing sounds like an aldmer diety. But if-' Varber's thoughts were even quicker than his words, his inner thoughts continuing the debate that had plagued him since the appearance of the worms. He shuffled away from the man, not in the mood to continue correcting his errors.

Bagul sighed. He peered over his shoulder, surveying the people who would be following him into combat. Fear had infected most of them, others had doubt plastered on their faces. The Orc rose up from his seat slowly, standing. He turned and faced the crowd. "...Why is it you all ask the Admiral the same question, "How are we going to defeat this beast?", "What do we do when we get there?"? If you were to just sit and wait patiently for everyone to arrive, the Admiral would no have to repeat himself, would he? And I don't know why half of you are asking, you seem fairly reluctant to enter the fray." The Orc let out a sigh at the end, looking over the room slowly.

He was tired of the lack of ill-disciplined soldiers in the room. This was a rabble of peasants, not a group of warriors. Many had incomplete sets of armour, or a range of qualities, all of which contributed to weakness in their outer defences. What was under the armour was a bigger problem; The soldiers themselves, in Bagul's opinion at least. "Discipline. Discipline is what we need before we even consider destroying this avatar as without discipline, we won't make it beyond the first wave of his disease ridden creatures. Once we have order, then we can advance through their lines and onto the avatar." He broke off for a moment, looking over each and every person. "I'm sure the Admiral has a plan for once we get there." Bagul then walked back and sat on his chair. It gave off an audiable protest in the form of a creak, but it did not fall.

Zared looked to the orc whom had taken it upon himself to speak with the crowd of soldiers. "While you are correct in that we need order, breaking ones spirit with dicipline and you have lost the battle already. What good is a soldier who only follows orders? With little capability to perform anything else?" he question the orc "It is natural for them to fear, knowing what they are facing. Give them a break and concentrate on matters at hand." he looked back at the admiral "Well I'm the eyes and ears here of my Master. As such I will act upon what I hear and see. After this neeting I will give my master a report on this and give my recomendation"

Clementine didn't have much to add to the proceedings or discussions. She acknowledged each new arrival with a curt nod and stood still in her seat. She was a soldier, and the Admiral was her superior officer. She was required to follow her orders. And they were moving to retake her country. She really saw no alternatives but to follow him. Any enemy could be fought and killed, or at least driven off. After the invasion of the followers of Dagon, she was sure of this.

"I've heard stories of the Nerevarine, that hero in Morrowind. Gods have been killed before, it's just a matter of effort."

Orson sighed heavily as the banter continued to go back and forth. He wasn't here for this nonsense. They were going to be deployed behind enemy lines, that's all he needed to know. He neither cared about what was at stake or what they would be facing. On the Admiral's orders, he would kill whatever was in his way, as he always did. The only difference in this case was that he would be surrounded by greenhorns, idiots, and burned out soldiers. Of course, he could well fit into the last category, at least mentally.

He glanced briefly at Clementine, who was seated next to him. She was a good soldier, with a good record and a willingness to carry out orders, much like himself. She wasn't completely reliable, but no one here was, and she was the one with the most experience besides him. The Orc seemed confident enough, perhaps foolishly so, but the armor annoyed him more than anything. Then there was the Khajiit, a servant of Carstein. Another person of note, he made Orson slightly uncomfortable. He didn't like Carstein, or anything that had something to do with him, which of course made his immediate life very difficult.

The rest were nothing of note to Orson. All people who didn't deserve his attention at the time. Several minutes passed as he sat there, and he was tempted more than once to simply up and leave to get away from the crowd, but he was bound by orders to listen to the Admiral whether he wanted to or not. His hand continued to trace the edge of his sword's hilt, a thing he did out of habit without any real thought. The room was too stuffy, and there were too many voices. It was enough to give the veteran Breton a headache.

OOC: Ambrose, the Admiral and the Orc have the most experience, followed by Chriso's character I believe.. Unless I read the sheets wrong, I'll go back and check again if I did.

ooc: I believe he was merely useing that as conjecture. Not actually stating who was the most experianced. Logiclly the admiral would have more experiance. Unless he bribed his way to the top Btw walrus post somethin for us

The words of the Khajiit caused one of the Orc's eyebrows to raise. "Discipline crushes ones spirit?" He frowned for a moment, and turn his head slightly, looking back to the Khajiit. "No. It doesn't. Discipline has a variety of levels, you see. In my time, I have fought in many a battle, trained many a recruit and over years of loyal services, I know that discipline does not crush the spirit of a man." He walked up and down the front of the room for a moment before returning to the conversation. "Tell me. How is it that the legion managed to tame Tamriel? Was it through a lack of control over their troops? No. The Imperial Legionnaires were soldiers who not only followed orders, but they also executed them with skill, power and pride." He looked over the hall, watching everyone. "A soldier who can do nothing but follow orders is a poor soldier. It requires a balance of ability and orders. In my mind, I doubt any of you lack the ability to fight, but what it is unsure of, is your commitment and your ability to follow orders," He paused, standing still in the center of the room.

"Who is willing to give their lives to help destroy this beast?"