Guilding

[Anastasia]

"Hey, wait up," Emily calls, following along.

Jarem flies along with a smile, "It's like Air, Princess. Just think and fly."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa, being used to planar flight thanks to her abilities, does a lazy loop, making a show of the ease of it while waiting for Emily to get it down.

[Anastasia]

Emily jets right up, "I've visited Air plenty of times," she says, a huff afterwards. "Really, Jarem!"

Grinning even more now at that, "Didn't say you hadn't, Princess. Now you know."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa heads off then! With the others in tow.

[Anastasia]

Gimme a d100, Alyssa.

[Iron Dragoon]

> roll 1d100 Serith
<Serith> Iddy roll for Serith < 85 > [d100=85]

[Anastasia]

About an hour of wandering follows. You're exploring, flying about in a bright but largely empty void. As you go along...

"Hey, Princess," Jarem speaks up. "Do much military training in the Cauldron?"

Emily looks over to him and says, "Well, you mean fighting? I know how to fight and-"

"No, not that," Jarem cuts right in, "No, no. I mean like military tactics, planning, leading soldiers."

"Oh. Some," Emily admits, "Most everyone obeys me anyway if they know who I am, so I have to."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Proper leadership education is invaluable. I didn't have much when I got promoted through the Order and it hurt at first."

[Anastasia]

"Yeah," Jarem remarks, "I had to learn it as I went and then learn it once I had hands on experience from a teacher." Shaking his head a bit, "I did some things right, but I also had to unlearn bad habits I had. Better to be taught right in the first place."

Emily hms at that, "Well, elementals are easy to command, at least. I focused a lot on them and they take orders well, if uncreatively."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Mmm... We have conjurers that think the same. It's not wrong, but Elementals think differently, so how they interpret orders can go wrong sometimes. I've found they're best used as surprise force multipliers. A group of three suddenly becomes six."

[Anastasia]

"Like earth elementals coming from the ground, fire elementals from a fire your mages start, water elementals from a lake and so on?" Jarem asks. "Relying on them to be surprise and shock troops?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"Not exactly, but same concept. A good time stop, summoning some elementals, and a few buff spells, and you have instant front line troops to fill holes."

[Anastasia]

Emily turns back and forth, listening to the two of you.

"Oh sure, but any summoned monster can do that, Queen," Jarem says, "I like to use elementals in a way to play them up, and in terrain that makes them more powerful. Earth elementals are amazing as land support or in any sort of underground battle, for instance, and fire elementals work great after setting an enemy's camp on fire."

[Iron Dragoon]

"True, but that's all expected. Throw a control weather spell out and make a monsoon. Sudden, unexpected, and gives you the advantage. If I see someone set up near a lake, I expect water elementals."

[Anastasia]

That gets Jarem to smile, "Then if I know that, I hit you with something more unexpected when you're dealing with them," he says. "Like a reserve of ice elementals who come, freeze the lake over and let the water elementals retreat and decimate overextended, trapped forces in a frozen lake."