A Faraway Victory

[Ebiris]

"Looks like you ran into trouble, were you discovered?" she asks, Syala also present to hear this and provide Jessica with some healing.

[Anastasia]

"No, but I had to blow cover to escape," Jessica says, "It's set up so once you get in, you can't get back out stealthily. It's pretty clever, I was just able to overwhelm the unfinished defenses before they could bring pressure to bear."

[Ebiris]

"It must be some sort of unique trick to stymie you like that," Alicia says, impressed. "Okay, so tell us what you found out from the top?"

[Anastasia]

Taking a long breath out, "First of all," Jessica begins, a pause.

Syala appears, waving it off. "I want to hear this in person," she says, "It sounds fun."

"I thought you might like it," Jessica admits, "They're building a lot and they're building fast. It's a fairly basic castle structure, ring fortresses on the outside leading to keeps and finally the inner keep. Flying in looks difficult, something with space and gravity is twisted above the castle, but only if you're going in to it. I saw someone fly out without problem. Whomever did this is good at one way effects like that. The outer wall's about 40ft high and 10ft thick. It looks like normal stone on the outside, though I wasn't able to confirm in the insides are reinforced with anything. There's all the typical positions you'd expect for an outer wall. Nothing we can't handle some way or another."

[Ebiris]

"No, that size of wall is still easily vulnerable to disintegrate spells, far less silver fire," Alicia agrees. "How big is the earth-mass the castle sits on?"

[Anastasia]

"Large," Jessica says, "There's enough room they could build another ring or two if they wanted, it's mostly barren right now. It's more tall - about 2000ft tall. I poked a little before I went in, there's signs of some caves, though I noticed a signs of patrolling, too." Sitting back a moment, finishing her water off and blowing a long breath out, "If our enemy's competent as I think she is, any caves will be difficult and may not even connect to the fortress itself."

"Let's assume so," Syala says, "We aren't planning an indirect assault as of right now, anyway," Waving a hand in dismissal, "My instinct would be that those caves would be for the dirtier things, like slaves and sacrifices. Garbage as well. Somewhere for the minions to be."

[Ebiris]

"Had the earth-mass been small enough I'd have considered blasting our way through, but at that size there'd be no real benefit to surprise," Alicia shakes her head. "Frontal assault looks the best option so far."

[Anastasia]

"If the defenses getting you in are so good," Syala drawls, "That may be the point. Jessica?"

"It may be," Jessica says, "Past the inside gate is what you'd expect - defensive rings by and large, function dominates over form before the keeps."

[Ebiris]

"So what sort of defenders do they have on perimeter duty?" Alicia asks.

[Anastasia]

"Cultists and demons, mostly," Jessica says, "Sharp eyes and keen ears, and passably strong enough not to crumple to a random slaad attack."

[Ebiris]

"Do they have any scouts or roving patrols out past the walls?"

[Anastasia]

"A few, mostly natural fliers, though I saw a few mounted on some sort of creature similar to a pegasus, but mud brown and bloated," Jessica says.

[Ebiris]

Any knowledge check for what those might be?

[Anastasia]

Sure, K:P

[Ebiris]

Take 10 for 54