[X] Wait for them to arrive here and ambush them when they arrive.
You calm down after a few seconds, though, forcing the laughter to die. Amusing, yes, but 'old and abandoned' isn't the same thing as forgotten, and if there are enough Dawnguard, and they catch you in a poor position …. You shake your head. "No, no. We'll wait for them here and wipe them out, but we won't go hunting. Besides, this way you'll be able to study everything and see if there's anything that might be useful later, or something else that might warrant caution." Vingalmo bows in response.
"Very well, Lady Flandre. I will see what I can discover." You nod and turn to leave.
"Good, good. If I want something from you, I'll send someone," you say as you leave the tent. You hum happily as you skip back to the others, quieting and slowing to a walk as they drag Lisette into the medical tent.
"Lady." One of the vampires addresses you, kneeling when you look at him. "She will be fine, with rest and blood. Have you a command for us?" You tap your lips twice before smiling at him.
"Well, there's another group of Dawnguard that should be arriving in the next day or two. We'll stay to wipe them out, then head back to the castle. So just rest, and be ready. You all did well." He bows deeply before rising.
"Then, my Lady, is there anything we should do with the dead?" He gestures at the Dawnguard corpses and you shrug.
"I don't know, is there?" He frowns, confused. "They're dead. I mean, it might be worthwhile to pick them over for valuables - and their crossbows can certainly be useful - but doing something with them? Vingalmo might want some of the more intact ones for animation, but I'm not sure there's anything to gain from doing anything particular. They're inconsequential, so why not just let them bloat and rot?" He nods, bowing his head low.
"Of course, my Lady. I shall inform the others." You give him an amused glance as he pads away. It occurs to you that assigning someone to watch over Vingalmo might be wise, but you dismiss the idea almost immediately. You'll watch over the camp today, so assigning specific guardians is redundant, and you don't need to antagonize him by having someone check over his work as he does it. Besides, they did do rather well, even if it was completely unnecessary, and telling someone to guard Vingalmo when no one else has duties would be counterproductive. You head off to determine the exact scale of the camp and its normal entry points.
The day passes normally - that is to say, it's boring and frustrating, keeping any eye on the humans in Dragon Bridge from the overlooking ledge and occasionally sweeping the rest of the camp for anything that would indicate an intruder. Your vampires aren't completely lax, either, as you see them checking the dead and their tents for useful and usable things, all of which end up in a careful pile near the watchfire.
The town is quiet enough as well - people doing whatever it is they do, a very active lumber mill, a small farm. Guards in red patrol the town, but a few men in darker armor seem to be guarding a specific building. The bridge itself is of moderate interest, fashioned with jutting spikes of stone, perhaps intended to resemble a dragon's spiked back, and stretching without support over the river; perhaps it would be different if you examined it more closely, but from your spot, it looks like it's rock rather than masonry, and either grown or hewn.
"My Lady?" You glance back in the twilight and pat the ground next to you as Lisette calls out to you. She balks for a moment, but when you repeat the gesture she hurries over and nervously sits next to you. "… I apologize for disrupting -" You cut her off with a sharp gesture.
"Did you threaten Vingalmo?" She swallows and nods, and you turn enough to look right at her. "Do not do that."
"Yes, my Lady." You watch her for a moment, then look back at the town, its frantic sawmill slowing as darkness falls. One of the dark-armored soldiers mounts a horse and heads away, toward Solitude. You frown, wondering whether it's worth it to go after him; he's leaving town awfully late, after all, and the Dawnguard are coming from there … but deliberately attacking him could have political repercussions, especially if it's not related to the Dawnguard.
"So, what's been happening? I haven't been watching inside the camp much." She takes a breath and looks up at the sky before answering.
"Hm, four of the crossbows are in excellent condition, and a fifth isn't quite as good but has a different mechanism of some kind. They had a war chest there; Horik thinks there's as much as two thousand gold in there, based on the weight, and he's probably right, but we haven't been able to come up with a good reason for them to have so much with them. The best guess is to hire mercenaries to build up their forces; next best is that they were planning on establishing a more permanent base somewhere, and the money was for long-term expenses." You nod and gesture for her to continue. "Few enough trinkets among the troops themselves, although we did find a fair number of good-condition armor pieces. Not new, so the wearers probably didn't survive, but we could probably use them for infiltrating their camps if their security is lax enough. They … itch, though, and make our skin burn if we hold them too long, so it might not work out."
"Thralls and other mortal servants," you say. "Their gear is enchanted against vampires, but a loyal mortal wearing their armor might pass muster as a new recruit. Not something to put faith in, but it is worth considering." She smiles, probably relieved that their efforts haven't gone to waste, but before she can continue, Vingalmo clears his throat.
"If I'm not interrupting, Lady Flandre?" You wave your hand and lean back, and with a barely-audible sigh he moves up next to you, remaining standing. "I've gone through most of the documents and tried to work out what's going on. Unfortunately, Garan probably has a better idea about what's going on in the greater part of Skyrim, so some of what I have to say is mere guesswork."
"That's quite alright, Vingalmo. I don't demand miracles. … Most of the time, anyway." You giggle, then wave at him to continue when he stares at you.
"Yes, well …. As I believe you already know, Whiterun declared itself for the Stormcloaks, and while there's still quite a lot of fighting going on in the Hold, it seems that Fort Greymoor fell and it's mainly skirmishing, with the Imperials fortifying many of the caves and ruins in the western half of the Hold. Which the Dawnguard discovered mainly because a small contingent of them had been taken over by a moderately powerful vampire based in one of those caves, and the Stormcloaks in the fort refused to assist them. The situation in Falkreath is more confused, as it seems they have allied themselves with the Stormcloaks. It's possible that they're simply cooperating because of the powerful vampires in the region, however." You frown at him.
"Anyone we should be worried about, or who might consider siding with us?" He shrugs.
"I don't think anyone will cause problems, certainly not in the same fashion as young Babette did. There is a well-maintained fort, the Bloodlet Throne, but as the master there was actually forced to flee by Lord Harkon, diplomacy might be … difficult. However, he is rather solitary as well, and unless you plan to expand your dominion that far, he shouldn't move against us. There is another cadre of vampires that seems to have taken over a Nordic ruin in the mountains overlooking the capital, and they have been plaguing the Stormcloaks. What is most curious, however, is that a group claiming to be the Dark Brotherhood is striking Dawnguard targets … and only the Dawnguard." Lisette laughs, earning herself a glare from Vingalmo.
"Someone is hiring a group of assassins to wipe out the Dawnguard? They must be rich, and have bodies to spare. I remember how they work. Maybe I could go down and do the ritual, see if we can get them to target someone in particular?" You consider the idea, then shrug and shake your head.
"No, I don't think so - at least, not unless and until we need to. Anything else, Vingalmo?"
"Hmm. Not particularly. There seems to be a group of Silver Hand in the area - werewolf hunters - and the man's journal indicated that he might try to contact them, but nothing specific on location. An underground fort nearby that they're going to try and refurbish, but again, nothing about where it is, only that it's close to Dragon Bridge. And dragon activity in Eastmarch has picked up, all along the Velothi Mountains, which is restricting both the Dawnguard and the Stormcloaks. We probably can't count on them to destroy the Dawnguard for us - what I understand of Fort Dawnguard indicates that it would take a concerted effort even from them to destroy it - but until the situation stabilizes, they will probably slow their efforts against us, and any attacks we make will run the risk of similar disruption." He sighs and shakes his head. "But no news here of northern areas. I suspect the newcomers will have some knowledge of Movarth, but vampires have always been rather scarce in the other northern regions. He writes pages and pages on the situation with his troops, who's bedding who and who needs to be kept away from who. Hundreds of words on his disgust for the 'Forsworn' and how he considered them worse than vampires." He scowls and kicks a small rock off the cliff. You think about the information for a bit. You'd rather not set your forces against dragons, so the Dawnguard will probably survive for a while, unless you or maybe Serana go with them to deal with the creatures. But an underground fort, away from the ocean? That has possibilities … or would, except you don't have any reason to move out of the castle apart from liking another place better. At least the move to the mansion was based as much from necessity as from desire. You give yourself a shake.
"Well, until the Dawnguard get here, there's not much to do, then, is there? Make sure anything important is ready to go, both of you. Haa~" You stare at the town, wishing you could simply wipe it out, but that's exactly the sort of thing you're trying to not do. Destroying towns has a tendency to put you at odds with the people who own those towns. Vingalmo and Lisette bow and withdraw, and you see them off with a desultory wave, visions of fire and blood clouding your thoughts.
"That's … a problem, my Lady." You snort at Lisette as the sun beats high overhead. Even from this distance, you can see dozens of Dawnguard are marching through the town. Fifty or sixty, at least, and Vingalmo reported another score coming up along the mountains, probably unaware that they're heading into enemy territory. But in the middle of the day, it's far more than you're willing to risk your vampires fighting.
"We could withdraw, Lady Flandre," Vingalmo says, and you growl, snarling in response.
"We stayed here to wipe them out. That means they're going to die. I'm just annoyed because they know we're here and it didn't occur to me to think that the town could have known about the camp." Your advisors remain silent, and you let out a huff. "How long until the other group gets here?"
"Less than half an hour until they reach the outskirts of the camp, my Lady, although they might become aware of a problem sooner if there are supposed to be pickets farther out." You scowl at the company coming through the town, wondering if the southern group is aware of the camp's fate; the timing is too close for a coincidence to be likely. The town is turned out to watch the Dawnguard troop past, civilians and guards both, although far enough that only clumsiness or carelessness could produce collateral damage.
"… Fine. Might as well get this over with." You stretch, aware of the concern of your followers. It's just a shame you can't let Headless help - if she worked with you, you'd probably destroy the town. "I won't be long." Without waiting for a response you leap forward, hopping from rock to rock as you make your way to the bridge. In the same vein as your reasoning for not destroying the town, you'd rather not destroy the bridge. Leaving it intact is just too valuable for you to break it while the Dawnguard are trooping along it, but you want to give your vampires time to respond to the southern group - they need to learn how to fight during daylight, after all.
While your descent might have gone unnoticed by the town, your obvious approach along the bridge isn't, and the citizens and guards pull back even as the Dawnguard begin forming up. Perhaps they want to make a show of it, maybe they know who you are and think they can counter you. Maybe standard procedure is just to fill a vampire full of bolts and quarrels. It doesn't matter, though, because you don't let them get a volley off.
You dash forward, and you exult in the widening of the soldier's eyes as he realizes just what is going to happen. You slam bodily into the large shield, following up with a hammering blow that sends him flying into the ranks behind him. Even as the others start to turn, to draw weapons and take aim, you're tearing through the line to your left, tearing through armor and flesh with glee. You tear a shield away from one soldier, ripping her arm off in the process, and hurl it back to the other side, then slip to the side into the mass of troops as a ragged salvo of crossbow bolts is loosed. You spin, disemboweling the Dawnguard around you with claws and wings, then leap back and grab two of them by the leg, swinging them about as massively oversized flails for a moment before hurling one brutalized body into the almost-reorganized mob on the right while using the other as an impromptu shield against another discharge of bolts.
A brilliant burst of light from one woman washes over you, and you shriek in outrage. It hurts, the pain of sun and water, and you rip her head off. Standing just behind her are two of the town's guards, and though they tremble with terror, they still raise their shields against you. You pause for a moment, raising an eyebrow at them, and though one holds off, the other tries to strike you with his blade. You simply catch it in your hand, yank it from his grip, and slap him - lightly - for his impertinence before turning back to the Dawnguard. The woman's spell and the guards' distraction gave them time to reform, for what little good it will do them, and you burst toward what seems to be the commander, a tough-looking green-skinned man. He fires his crossbow reflexively, and the bolt rips through the right side of your throat. You rip the front of his face off and cave in his chest, leaving him to die in agony as you butcher the remnants of his command. Two more explosions of light burn you, bursting your skin. You don't slow down, even as your blood cooks in the noonday sun, not until there are only two Dawnguard left standing - a mage and a warrior, both trembling and staring at the blood-covered devil in front of them. You smile at the mage before lunging forward, crushing his hands in your grip, then swinging to the soldier and ripping out his throat, feasting on his life's blood.
"… Are you still aware, little mage? If you are, remember this: Go back to your leader, your Isran, and tell him that Flandre Scarlet orders the immediate dissolution of the organization called "Dawnguard," and any affiliated and allied groups. Disband and return to your homes, and … this … won't happen to you. Continue to resist me, and I'll see you dead." He nods jerkily, and you take that to mean he understands. As you turn away, you see one of the dark-armored warriors staring at you. You curtsy. "I'm sorry to leave you to clean this up. Good luck!" You turn back and skip back across the bridge, humming merrily to yourself, then leap up the rocks to your troops. You laugh brightly at the expressions of shock on their faces, even on Vingalmo, and shoo them back. "Go, go! Don't take chances, but take out that other group. Take care not to get too close - that spell is pretty short-range, but it still hurts." Lisette recovers first, her jaw snapping shut with a very audible click.
"Ye-yes, my Lady! Come!" The others follow her as she hurries to the other side of the camp, although Vingalmo turns to give you an unreadable look before shaking himself and rushing after them. You sigh and stretch again, rubbing your fingers against the side of your throat. Already healed! Your clothes, on the other hand, are a little bit dirty, and you change into one of your dresses; hopefully Remilia's spell of repair fixes them soon. But now ….
What do you do?
[ ] Head back to the Castle.
[ ] Stop by the ruin.
[ ] Other?
