Ready to roar

[Anastasia]

Amaryl reddens. "Ahem." she clears her throat, the entire meal a little more awkward now.

Meanwhile Emily just looks away from the avatar, stumbling over the coins before hopping over them and landing smoothly.  "Go away!"

[Corwin]

"Stop acting like such a brat!" Seira snaps. "Oh woe is me! I don't have the power of a literal deity at eighteen, I must be a failure at life! Did you stop to think how it makes your mother feel?! She's only ascended a week ago, and might I point out you missed on the weeklong celebration! But forget about that. Are you calling Amaryl a failure for taking over a century to get to the startling line?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"Well... In order of concern... You should probably let Emily stew for a bit. While I've never been a mother, I've dealt with enough runaways coming to the Order to know most of them just want to stew and huff for a while. To your concerns, we've spread word of basic safety measures, but we're far less of a rules imposing structure than that, so while we've made it clear, our members are responsible for their choices. Most have taken the advice outside of personal quarters, though. As for Wishes, I've personally tried twice now and it's failed both times. The spell Hindsight has offered some small information, a few details like gender, height, build, and a specific ring. We're mostly mages, so access to holy power is limited, though I personally have some, though not nearly potent enough for what you're talking about.

On the note of the Deep Ethereal, I've been semi-avoiding it. I had a small conflict with the Gith over a crashed ship and I discovered that their ships are powered by a matrix that's directly tied to the Deep Ethereal, and haven't wanted to press my luck there. If they monitor it and detect me, they could respond in a rather extreme fashion under the assumption that I'm there to retaliate for the conflict we had. Combined with the information I've gotten about devil-kin prowling around and a run in with some sort of frog-horror we can't identify, I've decided its best to avoid until our footing is more stable."

[Anastasia]

"Maybe you just have a weak point for failures!" Emily snaps back, a moment of fury crossing her face. It melts like snow in the sun after that, a slump to her shoulders.

[Corwin]

"If it were anyone else, I would smite them where they stand for talking that way about my beloved daughter," Seira says in a tightly-controlled voice. She snorts, then, letting much of her tension flee and closes the distance to rest her hand on Emily's shoulder. "Figures you'd get our bloodline power for finding loopholes in everything."

To Alyssa, Seira says in an apologetic tone of voice, "I'm afraid that I favor the direct approach, so I'm already handling things on that front." She tries the soup to think over Alyssa's response. "Well then. I do suggest you force people to move in groups of two, and not to let their partner leave their sight. I'd also suggest distributing some device that would be immediately recognized as a call for help. I recommend whistles, for a low-magic option. If holy power is insufficient, and the Red Knight is incapable of filling in the gap, you could do it yourself with Emily as Wish would be able to emulate the necessary ability adequately. If you truly want to borrow more suitable manpower, we could negotiate the compensation for that. As for the Deep Ethereal, while dangerous the gith are not the hazard you'd be risking if you were to go. I recommend taking a look at the echoes of reality."

[Anastasia]

Emily slumps as you put a hand on her shoulder, "...sorry," she murmurs, "I just wanted you to be happy when we came here."

Meanwhile Amaryl adds, "All of those are options," she agrees, "Though you may need to force some of the wizards along. I've found they tend to be rather independent."

[Corwin]

"You really only have yourself to blame there," Seira's avatar tells her daughter. "I felt like you lied to me when I contacted you and you told me you were going to the Inner Planes. Since you hid what you were doing from me, you probably agreed it wasn't on the up and narrow?" She sighs. "Why didn't you ask me to make you a proxy for the duration of the visit or something? Did you really think I'd forbid you from going? Or that telling your parents where you'll be somehow makes you weak or foolish or ugly?"

"Projecting power in that situation might play fairly well. Wizards are people too, and rather squishy ones. Their worries might be reassured that way," Seira muses.

[Iron Dragoon]

"Hm... Speaking to the Red Knight about it isn't a bad idea. I intended to consult with her about Malcanthet anyway, so it's another thing to bring up. I've been considering a wide-range array of Peacebond with a secondary Alarm function for the guild, but your suggestion makes a good interim solution... The offer of assistance is appreciated, but I'll have to discuss it with the council before I say either way on it. As for the Deep Ethereal... I'll figure something out on it. I may not move on it immediately, but I've been meaning to look in on the devils there anyway, so it was on my list. Since you seem to be so familiar with Shar, would you happen to have an agent that could be employed to hunt down our assassin? I was going to have Jarem and Emily search for one, but this may be a faster route, though perhaps more predictable."

[Corwin]

"I'm not offering assistance," Seira interjects. "Due to the bullshit rules we must operate under, if I were to do that Shar might have leave to escalate. Therefore, I explicitly coached this as negotiations for services rendered. If it's not my support but rather services you happened to purchase, there should be no way for her to exploit this."

Thinking about the situation some more, she adds, "In any case, this was all merely covering the basics. You could do all sorts of plays. If repeated divinations fail to work, how about setting up a trap? Prepare an irresistible target, but have someone powerful enough disguise themselves as it and lay in wait for this assassin."

[Iron Dragoon]

"I understood the offer, but just making the offer of allowing me to hire your people is more assistance than many would give, so I meant the thanks in that way, if I was unclear. I have considered a trap of that sort, but... it comes down to deciding what would be effective. Mundane traps might work to distract, but with the skill level displayed, I doubt I could prepare anything that would be more than a moment of inconvenience, and most likely a tip-off. On the more magical side, the fact that two of my wishes have been outright defeated makes me concerned at either the person's skill in magic being rather impressive, or the protections granted by Shar being even more so. Effectively, I'm not sure if they'd be functional in any way and only set our bait, most likely myself, up for failure."

Alyssa sighs. "Also, I'm not sure the assassin would even go for it. He's had plenty of chances to do far more damage than he has. I think it might be more of a harassment play than any real effort to wipe us out. If he wanted me dead, I would have been his first target. If Shar wanted the Order destroyed, there'd be more than just him..."

She trails off for a moment. "If it's just him. I wonder if it could be a rotating team in place. One assassin per target, triggered and then passed on... Still, it seems to be more to keep us busy than to really stop us, I think."

[Corwin]

"Like I said earlier, using several Wishes and Miracles to try and pierce through the protection is a perfectly valid brute-force method. But there is another way. Rather than using the cooperative magic for purely combat-boosting spells, you can directly use one Wish to fuel an aspect of another, or to lower the defenses of the target. Use three of them that way, one debilitating your opponent's mental defenses by briefly lowering them, another boosting your own skill at penetrating their protections, and the third being the weapon you need to achieve a very specific goal. Divination, in other words, for those are harder to guard against, especially if you have a piece of clothing or have glimpsed this person through Hindsight. A Miracle might work differently there, so I would try again if my first attempt failed. And naturally, I'd ensure that enough qualified and trustworthy people protected myself and my companions while our magic was being impacted."

[Iron Dragoon]

"That's an interesting idea. We'd have normally avoided it since we're very limited on that sort of power at our size, but it might be the option to go with. I'll discuss it with the council and Jarem. I'd rather have Jarem and Emily help provide the security since I'll be unreliable after."

[Anastasia]

Emily slumps down with Seira's further words, "I wanted to do it myself," she finally adds.

Amary listens to it all and nods in the right places, while Vayley comes in, "Ma'am," she says, "I have have crunchily come on an idea to help with this dilemma."

[Corwin]

"Oh, Honey." Seira's avatar sighs. "Are you proud of me?" She gives Emily a chance to respond, before asking her, "Of the deeds I value the most, how many were accomplished on my lonesome? And for how many have I relied on friends and allies and family?"

The stories she and Amaryl used to tell their children should help her, Seira muses.

At the dining table, she quirks an eyebrow at the maid. "Please share your thoughts, Vayley."

[Anastasia]

Emily just looks down at that, "Of course I am, Mom."

"Make me your proxy and let me go hunt him," Vayley says, "I bet that guild is just filthy too, I can clean it up as I go."