Preparing for Benfal (Everyone)

[Anastasia]

It is a solemn, prepared group that heads into the meeting room. All of the generals and officers are here, seated in groups and ready. Ebony and Morniel sit at the head of it all, awaiting.

Go ahead and intro yourselves. As I need longer due to a tidal wave of DM work, expect this to largely be a set up topic for a day or two.

[Nephrite]

Moore will enter and take a seat on the side, but trust there will be some explanation as to the potential proceedings!

[Ebiris]

Afina is of course one of the first there, wearing her usual black outfit with its clashing orange and purple diamond pattern over it. "Everyone's here? Good," she says, looking around. "None of this leaves this room until Aurora moves through the gate. Which won't be to Lifasa, as some of you may have gotten the impression. Instead we're supporting Alicia and Seira in their effort to liberate the world of Benfal from the dominion of the Arch-Devil Semyaza."

She waits a moment for the obligatory shock to ripple out and die down. "Benfal is a world much like ours, and has laboured under devil tyranny even longer. Alicia and Seira have been working in secret for decades to see to its liberation, and we've been honoured with a part in that final battle. But make no mistake, this is for Lifasa. Winning this will free up far more forces from our allies to come to our aid, and as we will be taking and holding ground in the assault rather than simply raiding, it will provide invaluable experience for all of us when the time comes to retake Lifasa itself."

[Iron Dragoon]

Surraruthru lies next to Kascha's feet, lounging as he listens, and perks up at the mention of Seira.

"As this is something Seira desires, I will throw my full ability in. Do we have any details on what type of defenses and forces we will be facing? What type of magic and tricks Semyaza prefers? How many locations are we striking at?"

[Corwin]

Having kept silent as Afina introduced the target for their next raid, Jaela shifts at Surraruthru's question, her rarely-used full-plate almost hitting the edge of the table before she catches herself in time and relaxes back into her seat.

"Afina will go over the details in a moment," she says, looking at the gathered officers. "It cannot be stressed enough that this would be the first time that Aurora would remain outside a safe realm for an extended period of time, nevermind a Prime. How we manage that matters just as much as destroying our opposition in the actual strike."

[Ebiris]

"Our targets are these three cities," Afina gestures over the table and an illusory map appears of three large cities arranged in sequence along a large river on an otherwise fairly flat and unwooded landscape. "Fairwater, Elons Rapid, and Liber," she names them in turn. "They're to be liberated, and we're to do so in a fashion that attracts as much diabolic attention as possible. There will be no subtlety here, and any devils we draw to our theatre is less for our allies to fight."

"As far as specific opposition goes, Fairwater is defended by irregulars under erinyes supervision - so expect local collaborators for the most part. Elons Rapid is home to the Beautyseers, an elite group of diviners commanded by a fallen astral deva. Liber is their naval base and likely to be the most heavily defended. Given the presence of the Beautyseers though we should expect the devils to respond rapidly or even in advance of our movements as long as they remain a factor."

"Furthermore, we are aware of numerous press-ganged members of the devil garrisons who will surrender promptly to us. Tepen has a list of names, and officers will need to check them via telepathy when accepting any offers of surrender so we know who can be trusted and who will need more careful watch. We have more detailed information on enemy dispositions as well, courtesy of Syala, which will be covered more thoroughly at the end of the briefing. As for the general tactics and unit types favoured by Semyaza's forces, Sylvie, Gold, and Tepen have been helpful there," she nods towards the trio.

"In general they lend towards those who rely on force of personality. Dark paladins, sorcerers, warlocks, 'favoured' souls of hell, that sort of thing. So beyond the generic devil infantry almost all enemies should be assumed capable of spellcasting to some degree or another. They disdain melee in general but again, expect ranks of barbazu and lemures to be used as living shields to preserve them from attack, and the impetus will be on us to get past such defenders and pin their casters down in physical combat where they're less practiced. One tactic they're fond of is employing illusions to make their forces seem much greater and in more advantageous positions, so we should spread out our own soldiers with true seeing or blindsight capabilities, and avoid panicking or over-extending ourselves. I've been drilling the troops on dealing with these tactics a lot in the past week, because in truth it's not dissimilar to how fey fight."

[Anastasia]

There's lots of nods all around, and it's Cresiel who speaks up. "Three towns, three forces, I presume? Or will we take them one at a time and leave forces to hold them?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"I may have a few suggestions. I employed some Anti-Magic Stones to good effect when reaching Secretus. Some of those dropped in strategic locations will open holes in their defenses and reveal illusions. They're not incredibly expensive to produce. I am also willing to put forward a significant amount of my funds towards improving Aurora's defenses if need be. If I recall, there are plans for Holy Wards or a Prismatic wall?"

[Ebiris]

"That's what we're here to determine," Afina says to Cresiel. "I've been drilling our troops on tactics, but between us we have to decide on strategy. My preference?" she points to the middle city. "Aurora gates in at Elons Rapid and assaults it with all our forces so as to knock the Beautyseers out early on, then leave Aurora and a garrison behind while two forces split off in either direction to attack Fairwater and Liber. Information is power, so eliminating their diviners first will pay off in the long run. This also leaves us well positioned to send reinforcements or retreat from either front if necessary."

[Nephrite]

"Sorry, you're probably going to get to it, but what sort of reinforcements are we expecting to see from other forces of Hell?" Moore asks.

[Yuthirin]

"We can help determine if there are any spies among the people surrendering!" Calleigh says. "Also, we're good at removing defenses and explosions!"

[Iron Dragoon]

"Hmm.. A wise choice. They likely have artifacts and ritual circles that empower divination. Taking them over and then repositioning our own diviners there to make use of them will benefit the fight greatly in the long run. The force of personality focus is somewhat worrisome, but liberal use of Mindblank will help there... Most of my fighting was done in the forests, so I'm not sure how city fighting will go. I imagine it to be much like fighting in burrow tunnels?"

[Anastasia]

"I agree," Adrian speaks up, "A blinded opponent is a weaker opponent. It'll also make them scramble to try and replace what they've lost. As for reinforcements, that's a good question. My understanding is that this is Semyaza's fief and we won't see too much from other devils, but we could be wrong."

[Nephrite]

"I mean, obviously we don't want to escalate things more than we need to, since if we show up with an army from Celestia it's just asking for Hell to respond in kind, but it may not be a bad idea for us to have reinforcements of our own ready if needed. I'd be happy to help with diplomatic endeavors in that regard if we decide to pursue it as an option." Moore says.

[Corwin]

"We might draw our own fans as well," Jaela muses. "But that's just fine." As Moore speaks, she listens before shaking her head with a mild clunk of helmet on armor. "We're the reinforcements. If anyone decides to speak of this to any of our natural allies, it'd be Alicia and Seira, not us."