Moving on

[Anastasia]

Thus the group returns back to the guild. You have a chance to rest and eat, then the question looms: Now what?

A chance to define your next move, Alyssa. You may or may not get an interruption to that, but I want touch base on what your next move is first.

[Iron Dragoon]

Eb brought up a good point. I think I'm going to ask Emily and possibly Jarem to work on finding any Shar enclaves on the prime. Other than that, find more out about Melweather's thing and continue nation building.

[Anastasia]

"Okay," Jarem takes the request with good graces, as does Emily, "You want us to hunt down Sharrans? How far a net do you want us to cast?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"Intelligence-wise, everywhere you can. Action-wise, keep it in the borders of our allies. We can disseminate the information and let other countries maintain their borders in good faith, unless they ask for assistance."

[Anastasia]

"Sure! It sounds fun," Emily's smiling now, "Finding Sharrens, smiting them into the oblivion they claim to love. Let's get going, Jarem!"

Jarem glances over, "You go ahead, Emily. I'll catch up in a minute." Once Emily's gone, "So." He takes a breath, "I think that we should go report to the Red Knight."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods.

"You'd like to inform her about the bond, then? And about supporting the founding of a nation?"

[Anastasia]

"Yeah," Jarem says, "Face it - we're blundering around in the dark here. Let's go get some light rather than keep blundering."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Not too terrible of an idea, and I don't want to alienate the Red Knight by pulling her name into the founding of a nation without so much as asking. How about this: make that arrangements. I need to check in with the council and get Leogeon out to Lord Melweather to arrange either a collection of samples or a trip to Professor Tinsel. I may walk into the council shutting the idea down before we leave, and it'd be pointless to bring it to the Red Knight's attention if so."

[Anastasia]

"Alright," Jarem says, "It'll be ready for you."

Next move in that case?

[Iron Dragoon]

Find my halfling minion to send off, then onto the council.

[Anastasia]

Thus you gather the council, all eyes on you as...

Go ahead and set yourself up, with whatever you want to tell them. The initiative is yours here.

[Iron Dragoon]

"As you can all see, I've returned. I'm sad to report that I was unfortunately unable to meet with Queen Morwel. I did, however, spend some time in their library and made a few contacts. One has invited me to return, so I'm hopeful for future relations. You've had some time to consider my proposal. Questions? Thoughts?"

[Anastasia]

There are murmurings all about before a question is called out, "Let us cut to the quick: How will this profit us?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"Right now, we're hamstrung by what we already have. We're cautious. Too many recruits, too much power and the world will get nervous. We're at the cusp. We either stay where we are and never grow more, or... Not. We all know that far greater knowledge and magic exists beyond what we've done here, but getting to it... We don't have the means to. Not enough wealth. Not enough power. Not enough people for delegations. Not enough of anything to do more. Only as a nation can we move as a singular entity. We can build trade; crafts, services, agriculture. Our magic allows us to do and have things not native to this world. But to do so we move in one of two directions; we either become an entity much like a trade guild that spans the world. I think that's a far more dangerous choice. It decentralizes us and spreads us thin. Hard to coordinate and maintain. Or we become a nation. Our only real competition here is the Mageocracy. They use their power to intimidate everyone else. We match them, offer our services to help keep them in check, and most of the nations will come to our side. If we do neither... We exist as we are until some other nation decides they want to counter balance the Mageocracy and we're a fresh source of magic. We become theirs.

Or we establish ourselves and rule ourselves. Our founders set the corner stone for this, and I think you all knew it would happen one day. My presence and power is felt and known across the world by those that would rule us, and it gives them pause. We give them pause. Let's use it to our advantage and make ourselves their equals."

[Anastasia]

You said something right to them, enough to warrant a Diplomacy check.