Moving on

[Iron Dragoon]

"We'll have to work at doing better than that. Though giant abomination attacks weren't exactly something we planned out."

[Anastasia]

A nod to that and from there...

How do you plan to reassure people?

[Iron Dragoon]

I honestly don't know for sure. I guess after doing an after action thing, pointing out what we did right and what we learned, saying we're looking into the origin of the things, and not to needlessly assume it was anything more than ancient beasts that got disturbed. That way, they're not concerned about a direct attack, unnecessarily.

[Anastasia]

Okay.

Give me a Diplomacy check here real quick?

[Iron Dragoon]

> roll 1d20+38+22 Diplo/Cunning Knowledge
<Penuche> Iddy invokes Penuche's magic: < 74 > [d20=14]

[Anastasia]

Between calming people and finally getting rest, it's past noon when you're refreshed for the next day. Jarem joins you for the meal - just fruit and bread - and starts talking. "No sign of further monsters," Rubbing his scarred wrist before getting a hunk of bread, "I'm not sure it's Shar now after all. It feels like Shar, it looks like Shar, but...." A shrug, "It doesn't act like Shar, unless it was an agent and something went wrong."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Could have simply been a low cost opportunity for her. If the creatures we already there and the new island disturbed them, a push into a frenzy to attack wouldn't have taken much... Or it's just what it looks like. In any case, until we know either way, we need to do some review and preparation. Let's look into what went right and how to fix what went wrong."

[Anastasia]

"Could be," Jarem says, "The diviners should shed some light on this."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods.

"Agreed. We'll get them on it. Anything else?"

[Anastasia]

"Nothing major," Jarem says, "As long as they don't attack again, we have diviners and spotters on the coasts, too."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods.

"Then  I have something for you. A tactic I thought up. Something the Order can help The Red Knight's army with, and also use. It's something that will reduce the support wagons needed for an army to almost nothing. It'll make an army move faster, be supplied longer, and almost completely negate the need to build siege engines on site."

[Anastasia]

Cracking a smile at that, "This sounds like a wizard thinking up something witty with magic."

[Iron Dragoon]

"It is. Remember the trick with the boulders? I can do it with nearly anything. I've done some quick math on it. Take water, for example. From my experience in adventuring and exploring, in harsh conditions, the average person needs roughly three to four gallons of water per day. For a soldier, I imagine it's a bit more. For an easy to figure number, lets go with five. That means for a one year campaign, that's 1,825 gallons. If you take a standard barrel, which holds 50 gallons, that's 37 barrels, rounded up. Now, if you can fit.. say.. nine barrels in a wagon, that's four wagons per soldier for one year. Multiply that by 10,000... Well, that's a lot of wagons, even for a single month. But... If I use the spell Permanency in conjunction with Shrink Item on those barrels..."

Alyssa sits back a moment to sip at a glass of alcoholic punch. "That spell will reduce the size of the barrel to 1/16th of it's original size. Combine it with a Haversack... A few people in each platoon can carry all the food and water needed for that platoon on them, with no wagons needed. That means whatever army does this... No longer has to move water source to water source. It no longer has to hunt or scavenge or trade for food. Which means it can take a direct route. It can avoid any towns and never be seen. Even going through thick forest, it'll move faster than any army on a road with wagons, and do it completely unseen."

[Anastasia]

"Sure, I've seen things like that. Usually wizards, clerics or decanters of endless water. It's not really practical for mortal armies much of the time, and immortal armies don't usually need water in the first place," Jarem remarks, scratching at his chin.

[Iron Dragoon]

"But what if it were practical. Magical items like a Decanter of Endless Water end up being expensive when you try to produce them in mass. Enchanting an item like that requires very specialized training and materials. But this only requires two spells and a barrel. Permanency normally comes with quite a cost to it as well, however... Have you ever seen me use a spell component? Even minus the barrels, there's the other side. The siege engines. What if you had access to a mage who was powerful enough to apply that magic to a siege engine?"