Despite some odd dreams about his formative years, Alptraum wakes up feeling refreshed. Maybe it was the hanging upside-down posture, the steady metronome of Koldesh's heartbeat or just from sleeping off a meal, but it lasts right up until the High Priestess pinches him and tells him to prepare himself for training.
"Ow," Alptraum complains and rubs the pinched spot. "What, no breakfast offered on a platter first? A nice foot massage?" he mock-complains as he wakes and stretches wings and arms a bit. "After all, I am likely going to be laughed at by anyone here that watches..."
"Yodhrephath do not laugh at people," Koldesh claims. "Unless tickling is involved. But I don't think you'll need that training." She does a few stretches and wraps herself in a basic flyer toga. "You are in good enough shape to learn combat techniques."
Alptraum dismounts from the perch with a flourish, a double flip, and then lands on his feet. Probably inspired from those odd dreams, that. He dresses, well, back in the only clothing he has here; what he wore the night before.
Koldesh leads Alptraum out of her suite, giving instructions to the acolytes at the entrance that she will be busy with the Barsunala. "There's a training courtyard down this way," she explains as she heads down the indicated corridor.
"I assume that is used every day?" Alptraum inquires as they walk. "And can I borrow some clothes that are a bit more sturdy; I don't want to tear these up. I can use the shadow if not, of course."
Koldesh does not need to reserve a training court; she just tells the attendant not to let anyone else into it. As she leads the way to a rack of Skedat-based weapons, she tells Alptraum, "Go ahead and strip down. It is best to learn to defend yourself while naked first, so that you do not take your armor for granted later. See, you don't need to worry about your clothes at all!"
Alptraum eyes Koldesh. "Riiiiight," the bat says, the kind of tone being that of someone dealing with a street vendor. But, when they stop he does indeed strip down, leaving him as dark as midnight, save for the chest scar.
"We'll start with the whip-shield," Koldesh says, selecting one from the rack. The tail-whip on it is only about four feet long, but that makes it twice as long as a sword-tail. She holds it out to Alptraum. "I have an idea for it," she admits.
Alptraum takes the odd weapon. He has to examine it for a bit to figure out how it exactly straps onto his left hand. He could have strapped to his right, but that would have obscured the shadow, and he's ambidextrous anyway.
Koldesh straps one onto her right arm, and demonstrates the flexibility. It isn't quite a whip - the sharp segments can move side to side slightly, but can't seem to bend beyond that plane. "You need to think of the whip-tail as a segmented sword," she explains, and swings it around to show the limits of its movement. "The sides are sharp, and move enough that you can try to get around an opponent's defense."
Alptraum steps back a bit and experiments with the whip-sword a bit. "I'm glad it doesn't bend more than this; I'd probably hit myself otherwise," he admits.
"It is better for aerial melee than a sword," Koldesh notes. "For now, hold your shield up. I'm going to strike at it until you get used to it."
Alptraum turns sideways to minimize how much of him is exposed, then raises up the shield portion of it to protect himself. "Those of us who are about to die, salute you," he quips.
For the next ten minutes, Koldesh wails on Alptraum's shield until his forearm starts to go a bit numb from the impacts. Then she curves the whip, so that it catches the edge of the shield between two segments and uses that to try and jerk Alptraum forward to put him off balance.
Alptraum, having lived much of an early life being agile, a sneak, and a sky acrobat, is more than used to sudden shifts of weight and force. The sword hooks and pulls, but instead of him going off-balance, he flows with instead and glides in suddenly until he's nose to nose with Koldesh. It's a split second where he smiles, then uses the momentum he's carrying to roll past her and resume facing her on her other side now.
"Very good!" Koldesh says while grinning. "Have you had dance training?"
"No, how to deal with crowds, angry customers, and redirects of attention and avoidance," Alptraum admits. "That was pretty life or death back when. People with torches, pitchforks, and other unpleasant farming implements can be dangerous!"
"I have not had to face farmers," Koldesh admits. She brings her shield up next, and says, "Because you are not trained to use the whip and I do not want to have scars because of it, we are going to try something different. I want you to control the whip with your shadow instead of momentum. First for accuracy, but then I want you to try it for strength. Specifically, make it hit harder than it should due to just your arm swing."
"Wait, you want me to completely manipulate it with my shadow?" Alptraum clarifies. "Mainly to pad it so I don't cut you, as well as to test how hard I can hit with it?"
"Yes, to start," Koldesh says, her grin getting toothier. "Then we will see about making it move counter to how you swing. Whipmasters know where a strike will land by looking at the swing, after all. If your whip moves independent of the swing, then it cannot be predicted - and thus cannot be properly defended against. And for a final test, I want you to try and recreate it completely from shadow."
"You don't ask a lot at all," Alptraum remarks a bit dryly. The first part requires a bit of prep-concentration to flow out shadow across his back, then up his left arm to envelope the whip-sword in a tube of semi-solid darkness. Then it gets tricker, in that he holds his arm out as if mid-strike, then just keeps it there. From there he tries to contract and roll sides of the shadow to cause the weapon to strike into Koldesh's shield.
The shadow usually doesn't have a skeleton to work with, and having it pull and push on the whip-tail is awkward. Koldesh has to move her shield to intercept it, and frowns. "I can see it," she says. "The Skedat is an exoskeleton, meant to have the muscles on the inside. Can you control the shadow by putting it on the inside of the whip, or do you need to be able to see it to control it?"
"I don't need to be able to see it," Alptraum says as he steps back and takes a moment to fill the inside too; along with leaving the outside covered for safety. Then it's a repeat of before, only this time Alptraum works with the shadow bit on the inside, and hopes there are hooks in each segmented section he can pull on with the shadow.
It's a lot easier this time, since the shadow doesn't have to 'hold on' to anything, it just needs to not pass through the chitin. There is some awkward feedback, however, when the skeleton hits its arching limit and presses back against the shadow-tentacle inside. Koldesh seems to approve of this more, and nods. "Better. No need to show your opponent too much," she says. "Does it feel pain when you strike?"
"Not generally. I mean I can harden it and wear it like armor without pain," Alptraum points out. "It isn't flesh with muscles and nerves; hard to really explain well. I think it would hurt if a chunk was cut off, but impacts don't seem to be an issue." He continues with this for a bit, testing the movement rate and how the reaction of stopping at limit feels. It won't be until he's comfortable with moving it that he'll try to hit with it hard.
It's more feedback than he usually gets from the shadow, but he's never tried to animate something with it before. Which is odd, since the shadow's previous purpose was animating... things. So it should get easier. After a few more practice swings, and then some that involve arm-swings, Alptraum feels that he has a good handle on things.
"Now I'll try to hit hard," Alptraum warns Koldesh. He waits a few seconds for her to prepare, then tries to whip the sword-thing both hard and fast into her shield; as hard as he can, really.
There's a loud CRACK as the whip hits the shield, which gives a little as Koldesh shifts it so the whip can slide off. "Very good," she says. "See what I did there? In a normal strike, the whip wielder would have to finish the arc before striking again. You'll be using your control to make the tip curve back to get behind the shield though."
"Right, I see what you did, now let me see if I can counter that as you describe. This time I'll throw muscle into it as well," Alptraum says, then waits once more for Koldesh to prepare. This time he swings with both arm then when the 'blade' gets close he engages the shadow to whip it even harder! And if he can, hook the blade around the shield in the process.
The report of the impact is even louder, and Koldesh even grunts. The shield tilts to deflect the strike, and Alptraum does manage to catch the edge by hooking the tip back. The grip isn't good enough to yank the shield however. "That hit as if the tip was weighted," Koldesh remarks. "Flails are trickier to wield though. Now.. can you make it stick on impact?"
"Probably," Alptraum agrees, "I'll repeat that..." Again, there's a recovery period for Koldesh before he puts both arm and shadow into a strike on the shield. This time when he curves the tip back, he tries to extend shadow tendrils around Koldesh's shield to hold onto it.
Since Koldesh isn't deliberately anticipating the move, it works, and Alptraum now has a grip on her shield. "A tar whip technique," she calls it. "Except it isn't on fire. Chitin doesn't do well in fire though. Now, you said you can harden it like armor as well. Could you turn your whip into a spear, long-sword or scimitar by doing that?"
Alptraum releases his grip and steps back. "I should be able to," he agrees and holds the whip-sword upright, then tries to harden the shadow within it, to straighten it and make it solid through the core; not unlike creating armor way back under Melusine's guidance.
"See how hard you can hit with it like that," Koldesh says, raising her shield up again. "And how fast can you go from soft to hard?" she asks.
"That's what she said," Alptraum quips as he draws back and swings to strike! This of course would be mostly muscle! But before she can recover to much he draws back again, tries to relax the tense shadow, then strike with arm and shadow, and only try to harden it after he's got a grip on her shield.
"Hard and sticky is better than limp and sticky," Koldesh notes after tugging back on the shield a bit. "Your shadow seems to be as strong as your actual arm. How many appendages can you manage at once?"
"How many tentacles you mean? I've managed a few, but there comes a point where it gets too hard to keep track of them all. I'm no tentacle monster," Alptraum claims.
"How many if they aren't actually doing more than flailing around?" Koldesh asks next.
Alptraum says, "Two, to four, depending on how complex I need to move them."
The Yodhrephath hmmms. "We can come back to that, after seeing how well you can mimic the weapons," she says. She then goes to the rack, and takes down a sword-tail Skedat shell, "Use your right hand for this, keep the whip in your left one."
Alptraum takes the new weapon and slips it onto his right hand and gets it situated so that it feels comfortable. Now with both hands covered, he asks, "What do you want me to try?"
"I want you to use both at once," Koldesh says, arming herself with a second weapon as well. "You don't need to use the shadow. But with two weapons you can attack and defend at the same time, and a skilled warrior like the General will definitely be using at least two weapons. This is the usual combination, but some specialize in using two whips or a whip and a weighted flail. The most dangerous sorts will have a weapon in both hands and one in their feet, like a weighted net or a spear."
"Great," Alptraum grumbles. "So, attack, or defend?" he inquires next. "I assume we'll trade simply to kee p from injuring each other?"
That toothy grin reappears. "We both do both, at the same time," Koldesh says. "You can defend with both if you feel overwhelmed, but it is never a good idea to attack with both unless you are very confident. You cannot assume that your opponent will not sacrifice themselves to score a fatal wound on a high-profile target."
"You are evil," Alptraum remarks dryly as he steadies himself. He's going to try and fight like a normal Eeee, and tells her that. No shadow cheating or using the aura to try and intimidate her, yet. This of course means he realizes he's about to get his butt kicked.
Koldesh presses the attack, but isn't being particularly fast or hard with her blows, telegraphing each one clearly.
Alptraum realizes she's being kind and uses this as a chance to learn what sorts of telegraphs mean what kind of attack is coming, and tries to counter them. When he attacks back, though, he tries to avoid telegraphing like she is, to see if he can conceal anything.
The Yodhrephath seems to use less attention when defending that she does when attacking - everything is reflex for her, so that she can devote her effort towards watching Alptraum for openings. But it isn't until she starts using her feet that it becomes hard to follow. It's just that every so often, whenever Alptraum gets close enough, she uses one foot to grab at his legs.
Alptraum expected she's be far better than him, so isn't frustrated by this. Instead, he tries to learn from it and what sorts of things she can do with her feet and how to avoid them. He feels no need to show off, or try to one-up her. He's here to learn, not perform a proverbial genital measuring content.
"Armored opponents won't be using their feet like this," Koldesh does point out. "I can do it because I'm barely wearing any weight at all. Armor can protect and hinder you. The General may be a special case if she uses living armor - but then, you are also a special case that can do the same." She does start moving faster, and hitting harder as Alptraum adapts, mainly to make sure he's always challenged.
"When do you want me to use my other shadow abilities?" Alptraum asks during a brief lull in the steadily growing faster movements and his attempt to keep up with everything.
"When you can use them while still dealing with my attacks," Koldesh says. "I don't need to know when you start. Try to hide it."
Alptraum nods slightly, and continues just fighting and defending, and learning. It's a food few minutes before he taps the aura now, and slowly ramps up the feeling in the room. It starts with unease, the kind you get after reading a scary story than going to bed. It only grows steadily from there, growing over time into sort of an unknown dread, as if Death herself was looking over the shoulder and about to whisper in an ear.
The impact of this effect is slow to build, but Koldesh's neutral battle expression grows into a frown, and then into something close to frustration, before she had break off with a backward flapping of her wings to put distance between her and Alptraum, followed by a barrage of sonar pings cast around the courtyard to search for hidden presences.
Alptraum ripples the aura, just a bit, to keep it fluctuating and make it come and go. He also pursues her, not letting up on his press of the attack. HE also tries something ... and sees if he can induce the feeling of grabbits climbing all over her; he knows how that feels after all.
This added effect, however, causes Koldesh to focus back on Alptraum. She digs the sharp edge of her whip-shield into her right thigh - hard enough to draw blood but not hinder her. Then she's able to meet Alptraum's attack with full focus again. "Mind magic," she notes. "Or a mind miracle, in your case. I wasn't expecting that, but we do train to deal with it."
"Pain, it does tend to help," Alptraum grunts as he's pushed back. So, he pushes another effect; he starts to shadow-envelop himself, shaping out shadow armor, complete with spines, and segmented plates like an insect. He also thens throws in some more chaos, the fear push is shifted to an arousal push; he's using Snow's 'turn on' aura, and all directed at Koldesh.
"I like the armor," Koldesh notes, and grins.. becoming a bit more aggressive in her own attack under the influence of the aura. Which hints that Yodhrephath may find combat to be sexually arousing!
They may not find it such if Alptraum mixes in some of the sensations Gorphat has induced on him! Or at least he tries to, anyway! Then the lust aura reverses suddenly, trying to induce a feeling of hopelessness/loneliness.
"Hard to counter adrenaline once it's already flowing," Koldesh growls. "The trick works best before the opponent is aware of it though. Focus on the physiological more than the existential. Pushing aggression into anger can lead to sloppiness and more obvious telegraphing. If you can make someone feel sick, that is also good. It's hard to make an Eeee dizzy though."
Alptraum switches to more physiological ones, then; and this relies more on things Gorphat taught him; like trying to temporarily blinding her. Not that useful against Eeee, other than being a way to startle them. If he can combine that with an ear-clogging cold, though...
What he sees is some sort of odd convulsion from Koldesh. It looks like a held in sneeze, but may be an attempt to clear her ears. "Better," she croaks, and her eyes are looking a bit more bloodshot. "If the General really is undead though, none of this may work on her - but against a regular soldier they are all very effective."
And this is when Alptraum extends several shadow tentacles and tries to bind Koldesh up with them! He can actually flow them into her, and will, and even try to control her muscles.
It's a lot harder to control someone who is alive and resisting - and strong. But it's enough to force Koldesh into defense mode.
Alptraum keeps at it! Worse, he tries to do some small shifts on her skin to throw her concentration off. Namely, he tries to apply some grok chitin layers to her arms! Nothing serious, but hopefully very distracting.
It may be painful though, or at least very irritating. "Enough!" Koldesh finally yells, and tries to pull away.
Alptraum drops the shadow from her and steps back.
Koldesh is panting and gasping as she staggers back. "That was extremely unpleasant," she notes, but not in any sort of accusing tone. She just seems a bit exhausted.
Alptraum is rather tired himself and is letting all the shadow applications fall away and he pants too. "It was intended to be," he says, "Not enough to harm you, but enough to cause you issues. It's possible to do much worse, but I wish you no true harm."
"How much of a strain was it for you to do all of that?" Koldesh asks. "Are you only looking tired from the physical part?"
"One target isn't too straining, but if I kept that up for an hour I'd regret it," Alptraum admits. "It's probably half fom that and from the physical, truth be told."
"I wouldn't normally ramp it, though, I'd hit hard first, an attempt to overpower the target so they don't build up resistence, like you did," Alptraum points out.
"It would be an ideal stealth accessory," Koldesh claims after catching her breath. "Especially on guards that are already a bit jumpy, if it can make them flee in a panic, or be primed to cower in fear."
Alptraum nods. "I've used it as such from time to time," he admits. "I know I can be a lot more lethal, but I'm loathe to take steps down that path," he notes. "For example, I could have impaled you on the shadow and sucked out all of your life essence. But that is ... risky to me too, at a more moral level."
"There is such a thing as moral injury?" Koldesh asks. She rubs at her arms where the tentacles touched. "And what were you doing to my skin?"
"I was replacing it with grok-chitin," Alptraum explains. "And yes, there is. look at it this way; I could consume the very souls of all those around me or threaten me. The only thing stopping me from being just as dangerous as Amena herself is my own morals, and walking down paths that break them make them easier to break, until they no longer exist. I'd rather not become the monster I face."
"And her minions have no souls to consume," Koldesh supposes. "Could you transform me into a Grok? What are the abilities of your shadow, exactly? The messing with mental states.. is that part of it, or part of being the Barsunala?"
"It is ... a mix of abilities that come from the shadows, and ones taught to me by the Sisters," Alptraum admits and shrugs. "And yes, I could turn you into a grok. I've turned myself into one before."
Raising her eyebrows, Koldesh asks, "What is it like?"
"Extremely odd," Alptraum admits. "They 'see' the world in unqiue ways. Moreso than being a hog, or a dragon, or ... well, other things I have changed into."
"I assumed they see like we hear," Koldesh says.
"Sort of. They see mostly by smell. Smells have color to them, and shape," Alptraum tries to explain. "It was very hard to navigate until I got used to it."
"Smells.. I would not have thought they would see that way, only that they could track," Koldesh says. She sets her weapons back on the rack, and says, "I want to experience this."
"Risky. The longer you stay in a form, the more you start to think like it," Alptraum warns. "I have an advantage of a sort of guardian spirit that could revert me if I pushed too long. Someone I shift wouldn't have that and could end up staying something. I have, in fact, done that to people as a punishment for their actions."
"Would I need to change myself back, or just depend on you to do it?" Koldesh asks. "Groks are not just animals, they are hunting beasts. Our hunting beasts. I worked with them all my life."
"You couldn't change yourself back, I would have to do it. You would probably shift back on your own over time as long as I don't force the body form too hard, but by then your mind might be broken," Alptraum explains.
"How long were you able to maintain yourself as a Grok?" Koldesh asks.
"I could manage a couple days in any form safely now," Alptraum explains.
"Then I should be able to handle a few hours," Koldesh says. "Long enough for a hunt."
"Oh easily," Alptraum agrees. "You could try lots of stuff as one, not just hunting."
"Oh?" the woman asks, crossing her arms. "What else is worth doing as a Grok?"
"That all depends on your interests. You could play, explore, even, er, mate, if you were so inclined," Alptraum ticks off.
"Is that what wild Groks do?" Koldesh asks. "Have you played and mated with wild ones?"
"Cannot say I have," Alptraum admits. "I have no idea what it would be like."
"The Beastmaster would know," Koldesh notes. "You can change us both together, and then back?"
"Yes?" Alptraum says a bit hesitantly. "You really want to do this, don't you?"
"It is a unique opportunity," Koldesh notes, walking towards Alptraum. "Don't you want to hunt with me like that?"
Alptraum grins nervously. "Well, it would be a unique experience, yes," he admits. "When will there be time, though?"
"Why not right now?" she replies, stepping up to take Alptraum's weapons and return them to the rack.
"Well, I suppose I could do it now," Alptraum admits and rubs his chin. "But, do you want to be male, or female? I currently only know a male grok form. I would need to learn a female one. I'm sure I could learn one from the beastmaster."
"Female of course," Koldesh says. "They're bigger." Before going much farther with that thought though, an acolyte pokes her head in from the courtyard entrance, and politely clears her throat.
And Alptraum covers his bits! He was still naked, after all.
The High Priestess turns her head to snap, "What?" at the girl, who squeaks in alarm.
"It's.. uh.. Captain Karada, High Priestess," the girl stammers. "He's ready to give his report on piracy."
"Oh.. that's right," Koldesh says, calming down a bit. "Is he in the hall then?"
"Does it begin with the letter arrrr?" Alptraum has to ask. He's prone to stupid questions when embarrassed. Or in this case, bare-assed.
The acolyte nods, and Koldesh says, "Send him in then," before turning and giving Alptraum an odd look. Since Babel uses a non-phonetic writing system, the reference (like others Alptraum has made) seems to go over her head.
Alptraum shrugs. "Pardon me while I get some clothing," he says quickly and shuffles off to where his clothes are!
Karada and Wynona enter immediately, before Alptraum can reach his clothes - which are near the entrance anyway. Wynona immediately looks away, which means staring at a wall. She's there with the Captain so can't just leave without being dismissed. "High Priestess," Karada says, and bows from the waist without seeming to notice Alptraum. "We are having issues with the Saskanar route."
And Alptraum quickly dresses. "Great, Wynona was with him. What must she be thinking now?" he wonders as his ears flatten and clothing is pulled on in a hurry. He does at least try to listen, though.
"I don't like issues," Koldesh replies. "I especially don't like political issues. Tell me, Captain, how much I am not going to like this report?"
"If I could, I would have it taken out and beaten first, but facts are stubbornly difficult to beat into submission," Karada notes.. all with a perfectly flat, serious tone. "They know to strike beyond our escort range, since we do not have permission to cross the border into Saskanar. The pirates attack on our side, then flee across to the other. They do not depend on that, however, since if we engage them we can pursue as far as needed. But they know when to strike, and have begun using overwhelming force against Yodh on patrol, since the Vigilant Eye cannot be everywhere at once."
"Are you saying we have lost Yodhrephath to them?" Koldesh asks with a dangerous drop in her voice.
"That sounds like they have allies on this side that are feeding them dock information on what leaves and when," Alptraum remarks as he's tucking in his shirt and walking over.
"They would have informants on the Saskanar side," Karada says to Alptraum. "But... they know the returning ships are not exactly empty, as they have the payment for the goods from Saskanar. This is causing grief. The Saskanar merchants are especially unhappy when they do not receive payment and lose crew. These pirates must be short-range, however, using pteras or rakhtors instead of airships. A Yodhrepath on patrol could deal with an airship."
"They aren't using magic," Wynona pipes up, daring a glance to see if Alptraum has put his pants on. "They don't reclaim their dead, either. For each Yodh taken down, it costs them several mounts and raiders."
"I know there used to be old fortresses in some of the mountain ranges; they're probably using one to be able to go short-range," Alptraum says. "Tulani and I dealt with one sometime back. It wasn't that route, but it's likely similar in organization."
"Hannelore will have the records of these old border fortresses," Koldesh says. Turning to Alptraum, she asks, "How difficult are these old bases to destroy? If they were not vulnerable to modern weapons, they would not likely have been abandoned."
"The problem with them is they tend to be a bit of a maze. Places to hide," Alptraum says, "And the ones we found were holding hostages, which was probably intended to keep people from just bombarding them."
"Hostages," Koldesh grumbles, throwing her arms skyward as if beseeching Rephath. "And we can't just kill them along with the enemy anymore! They won't even be Babelite ones, but Saskanars."
"Killing citizens of your neighbors do not do good things to relationships," Alptraum points out.
"They haven't taken any Yodhrephath prisoners," Karada notes - meaning they've accounted for the bodies. But bringing a live Yodhrephath into their base would be a sign of insanity.
"How do you want to proceed, Karada?" Koldesh asks with an angry sigh.
"Well, a poisoned pawn can still be used," Alptraum remarks. "Just ... not an Eeee. Too obvious."
"We need to put our forces on the returning airships," Karada says. "Or make a concerted effort to secure the border area."
"We are already stretched too far," Koldesh claims. "If not for the Eye we wouldn't be able to deal with any of this! There are still renegade soldiers and warships out there on the main routes."
"What is a poisoned pawn?" Wynona asks Alptraum. "You don't mean to literally poison the crews?"
"It's a game strategy term. It means sacrificing a game piece to set up a trap. In this situation I mean it as someone who is intentionally allowed to be captured on one of these raids, but that hostage has a job of getting all the other hostages free, making their base vulnerable to bombardment," Alptraum tries to explain. "A non-Eeee would probably work well because no one would suspect them as a Yodh, or the like."
"Vartans are not easy to subdue," Karada notes, picking the most prevalent non-Eeee flying species. "But that requires putting a ship in danger - none of the other crew could know they were bait. However, a decoy airship filled with soldiers would not likely find the base. So.. having a plant aboard a ship seems the best option, if we could know which ship was going to be attacked. Putting one on every ship would be impractical."
"I know a sphynx who would probably help, and she is a former airship crewman," Alptraum notes. "As for which ship, have you collected all the current attack details and looked for patterns? Specific times? Or ships that tended to have specific cargo?"
"I couldn't pick out a pattern," Wynona admits. "Ships carrying livestock have been raided, along with those carrying fruit. I suspect those were merely to supply the pirates with food though. Most ships heading to Babel make it, drop off their cargo.. then get waylaid at the border to be robbed of the money they are taking back."
"There is almost certainly an agent aboard the ships, which lets the raiders know which to plunder," Karada suggests.
"Any commonality with ship names, or ownership? Specific dock usage in Babel?" Alptraum suggests. "There would need to be a path to get the agent onto the ship."
"We don't have access to the manifests and rosters," Karada notes. "We can't have the Yodhrephath or soldiers ask about them without tipping off the agents. If we could bring it all to a halt by demanding the information, we would, but if it fails we will have nothing."
"And you haven't fostered relationships with non-Yodh that could get this information? That's a bit short-sited," Alptraum points out, though not accusatory. "It's always good to have allies in a port not directly connected to your 'family' so to speak. Also called an informant."
"We are not the Yodhbarada," Karada notes. "And as such, we cannot engage in activities which cross over into their domain. If they have the information we need, they should be offering it to us." The man scowls - his dealings with the Yodhbarada have not exactly been pleasant, after all.
"I have contacts with them and I could see what they know," Alptraum offers. He gives Karada a knowing look when he says that. "They generally do not withhold anything I ask for."
"Well, they need to be more open with us, without your having to intervene," Karada says. "You are not an.. errand boy.. for the Yodh or the Kindly Ones."
"That wholly depends on who you ask, I imagine," Alptraum notes. "I've known many Yodh that thought even less of me than an errand boy."
"I'm not a Yodh, I'm a servant of Babel," Karada claims. "I work with the Yodhrephath because they're the ones that can best make use of me. I know that you do important things. If you do things for the Yodh, it's because you choose to based on whatever merits you ascribe to the actions."
"Of course. I like to help," Alptraum says, "And I like to think I have helped the Yodh see things differently, too. I don't mind asking the Yodhbarada; they've been a ... project to try and direct to better things."
"Well, feel free to come to me directly with anything you get from them," Karada says. "After all, they can't claim favors from me like they might from the Yodhrephath. Clandestine operations are the domain of the Yodhbarada.. and Yodhsunala. Not the Yodhrephath."
"Karada is very diligent about protecting Rephath's honor and reputation," Koldesh notes.
Alptraum nods a bit. "I will do so," he agrees. "I don't worry about my reputation so much as I try to be what is needed. Only ten percent of things I've done are actually known as things I have done.""
"And I usually wear pants," Alptraum adds with an amused took at Wynona.
"Well, I know some of the other things, and I am grateful," Karada says. He certainly knows one thing.. but it's possibly he knows about Alptraum's intervention in Wynona's situation as well. "Until we have a better plan in place and ready to go, I suggest we increase the number of Yodhrephath escorting the ships from a single one to multiple, preferably three, all armed with Rephath's nastier blessings ready to go."
Wynona just smirks briefly at the pants remark.
"I will see what I can learn from my various contacts as well. I'm sure there have been some mistakes made, particularly if people were drinking and spouting bravado in one of the seedier bars," Alptraum says. "If I learn anything useful, I will pass it along either directly ... or through a dream."
"Directly is preferred, if only because I don't always sleep well," Karada notes, then looks to Koldesh.
"All right. Worst case I will use grok-mail if I cannot come personally. I have a grok I trust," Alptraum says.
"Bolster the escorts as you see fit, but do not ride the razor on it," Koldesh says. "If an overwhelming show of force is necessary to dissuade them from attacking, then send an overwhelming show of force. Make them back off for now, so that they are hungry by the time we're ready to go back to small escorts so they take our bait."
Karada bows again to Koldesh and Alptraum, and leaves with Wynona trailing in his wake, still somehow embarrassed at catching a glimpse of Barsunalabuns.
"I need you to do something," Koldesh tells Alptraum.
Alptraum's ears perk. "Yes?" alptraum inquires of Koldesh. "What is it?"
"Go to the Beastmaster," Koldesh says. "Learn whatever you need to about female Groks. But also.. find out if your fear effects work on pteras and rhaktors. Safely."
"I was about to suggest going to her. I will do so and when I return ... be prepared to spend a day on all fours," Alptraum says and flashes a fangy smile. The suggestion to test on the pteras and such was also a good one; that could be potentially useful if it works. It should in theory as it is dragon-based, not really intended for just people. He bows, then steps back. "I do believe I remember the way. I'll be back soon..."