"That I've got," he says, smirkingly.

"You up for proving that?"

"Absolutely," he says.  "Did you have a place in mind?"

"Yeah. Got word of a Master Vampire recruiting hard recently. I want to try smoking her out, get her entire group taken down."

He leans forward seriously, nods.  "We talking about a basic smash-and-stab, or would we need to put together something more serious?"

"I'm thinking more serious - we're outnumbered, and they're smart."

He nods.  "What do we know about her?"

"She's got magic, more extensively than the basics most master vampires know - rumor's she used to be a student at the College in Winterhold. She seems to preferentially recruit mages, especially young ambitious ones, for turning into vampires. Among existing vampires, she's swept up some of the survivors of other cleared nests. I don't think she has more than two dozen vampires - more likely half that - and most of them will be fairly new, but we should be prepared for surprises and outdated intel. Some of the vampires I'm pretty sure she got were two from a nest known for using traps."

He nods along and jots down a few notes.  "So we can expect surveillance, sounds like, and trap-runes and alarm-runes... mundane traps I can deal with but I've never been much of a spellcaster beyond the basics.  Do we know anything about where she's holed up?"

"She's taken over an old Nordic tomb, actually, north of Whiterun - and my academic connections have gotten me journals and descriptions from preliminary archaeological teams. Not much - it was a pretty minor site - but enough to get a vague idea of the layout. I'm unsure if she'll have figured out how to work around the draugr or not, though, nor what state the existing traps will be in."

He muses.  "Is the family connected to the tomb still around?  Could they give us some tips?"

She shakes her head. "Main caretaker family's dead - and recently, too. Not obviously vampires, but the timing's suspicious. I think we could track down some third cousin or another who's ever been to the tomb, but I'd be hesitant to draw attention to them."

"Makes sense," he says.  "Sounds like we'll need at least one mage - and it might be smart to do some recon beforehand, get a better idea of the layout.  You got any friends who could be helpful?"

She pauses. "An academic friend who could help with research, but she's not really a scout - and I'm rubbish at sneaking."

After a long moment - "My sister's pretty quiet, though, when she wants to be, and she's sharp. Observant. I don't know if she'd be willing to help, but..."

"But, worth a shot?"

"Worth the cost of postage, at least, and a meeting if she responds to that."

"And if not, work the research angle," he says.  "Hmm... we're probably not gonna know much more about who we need until we know more about the place.  Time to get in touch with people, you think?"

"Think so."

"Well," he says, "I spend a lot of time here, if you wanna just get back in touch when you've heard back from your sister."

"I'd like to spend the mean time doing any research, but we can likely split up for that."

He nods.  "I'll see if I can scrounge up anybody who'd be up for a job like this."  He raises his mug, briefly.  "See you soon."

"Thanks, and see you soon."

And she heads out to contact her sister.

Ena gets back to her fairly quickly.

She's not busy, will be roughly in the area, and, sure, can help scout something.

Does Lianda have somewhere to meet?

Yeah.

She gives a time and place for meeting up with both her sister and Tabar.

Ena's there early.