Summons come from Adrian of all people. They come to Afina, Jaela and Moore, the four meeting him in Aurora's strategy room. The hagspawn's kicking back, feet up on the table as the party arrives. He smoothly takes them off once they come in, "There's news, so apparently we need to have a meeting. So let's get this done. Moore's here because I've been meaning to get something accomplished with the two of you, and it hasn't happened with everything going on."
"Hey," Jaela says curtly as she settles into a chair, preoccupied with Kascha's situation.
"What's the news then, Adrian?" Afina asks, fluttering over and taking her customary seat.
It's not a high chair.
Really.
Moore just follows along and takes a seat himself, curious what his role in all of this is!
Adrian straightens up, "We got word from a company of Lathanderites. They're coming here in time for the assault on Lixer's holdings. It looks to be a good sized force of them."
"He came through," Jaela says in satisfaction. "Not that there was any doubt." She snorts. "Did the sun maiden we borrowed a few months back come with them?"
"I'm not actually sure," Adrian says, "It was a message, not a conversation. Anyway, that'll be happening soon. Might be today or tomorrow, so I'll have Elena let you all know. Speaking of, Elena passed me a message just before this, since she didn't want to interrupt. Queen Ilsenine's gathering the court this afternoon and wants attendance."
"And she asked for me?" Jaela asks Adrian in surprise.
"From all of Aurora's general staff or just me specifically?" Afina asks since it's the first she's heard of it. Good news about the forces from Lathander, though!
"No, just the pixies," Adrian shakes his head, "Mentioning it before I forgot. You're a bit tall to be a pixie. Anyway, next up is the castle. It's done and fit in, plus we found something with the ward stones when fixing them in." A dagger is produced, put onto the table before you. "It's enchanted. Fairly strong at what it does, it was buried in the stone."
Loot.
"Oh, I wonder what Her Majesty has to say." Moore wonders aloud.
Afina takes a look over the dagger after nodding to Adrian's clarification. "Nice ability, though it'll need further enchantment to be good for service. Do we have any dagger users actually?" It wouldn't be hard to convert it to a pixie-sized short sword for her own use but she already has two of those and only so much space on her back.
"No, but someone will find it useful," Adrian says, going to the illusion and battlefield projector. He fiddles with the magic briefly, "Like this..." he mutters, as an image of Aurora appears.
Moment of truth on the castle: How did y'all want to integrate it precisely? Directly into Aurora as a new section? A stand alone in an expanded part of the courtyard? Something else?
This was Afina's thing so Moore has no opinion unless asked.
It was Jaela that wanted the castle, Afina thinks it sucks!
"Considering what I saw of the castle wasn't much compared to Aurora, integrating it would just make it look shoddy by comparison. Better to stick it in the courtyard so it can serve as a strongpoint if we get temporarily overrun in the courtyard, force the devils to split their attention that way," Afina says.
My mistake! Moore is still fine with whatever!
"That'll work," Adrian says, "Though we'll need to greatly extend the courtyard."
Giving Jaela a chance here.
I overestimated Auroras size. First time for everything!
"That raises it's own problem of slowing our ability to deploy forces out the gate in a hurry," Afina says thoughtfully. "Maybe this isn't worthwhile?"
"What if we integrated it as a guardhouse, complete with portcullis, that everyone would need to pass through to and from Aurora proper?" Jaela muses. "Keep it within the walls, of course, and still run the trap on the gates just outside it. But it'll let us keep a garrison right there at our one entry point instead of having people be out in the open or run all the distance from the barracks. And there would be a way through, even if we have to force it. Perhaps even one-way walls? I know there's a spell for it. Reinforcements would just rush through them, but invaders would have to navigate the fortifications properly. How feasible's that?"
"This is starting to feel like more trouble than its worth," Afina says, "If we want a gatehouse we may as well build one to specification rather than coopting unsuitable giant architecture."
"Perhaps, then, it'd be best to just break it down and use it as materials?" Moore offers. "If it won't fit quite right anywhere... better to make a round ball out of a cube than try and fit the cube somewhere it doesn't go, right?"
"So long as we have proper housing for the giants, I'm not married to this particular castle integration," Jaela says agreeably. "What are our options, Adrian?"
Adrian kicks back again, "Well, now it's all complicated," he hmphs, "Break off parts and use them rather than the whole thing? We have the magic and power to do it, the earth elementals will be great at that. Hell, I don't know. It's a oversized castle."
"Then let's un-complicate it -- it seems like it'd take a lot more time and effort to integrate it than to just use it to reinforce what we have." Moore says. "I think it's best just broken down unless there's some part of it that houses some useful functionality."
"I haven't heard any complaints - certainly if I were the Jarl I'd be a lot happier with quarters in Aurora than in a drafty looted castle," Afina says with respect to the furniture situation. "As to breaking it down... it's just stone and wood, we can get that to order if we wanted but we'd be better off using adamantine or the like for any fortifications. Or whatever Aurora is made of, considering its self repair properties."
Adrian holds a hand up, "Alright then, I'll have Elder Magi Tepen and some others take a look at it, see how viable any of that is. One more thing before we're done. Moore, didn't you mention being able to help forge?"
"Hm? Oh, yes." Moore nods a few times. "Part of my life has been devoted to motivation and giving speeches. I'm very good at making people attain skills higher than they're normally able to. A little magic here, a little motivation there. I'm sure I could help with that."
"The main bottleneck is people focused on magical enchantment," Afina says. "I have a few assistants but almost all equipment used in Aurora is made by me, with the exception of magical rings that Sylvie usually helps with. Still, there are a few techniques to improve weapons and armour through sheer craftsmanship that can rival enchantments, so help at making that more consistent would be useful."
"One thing I think we should look into is improving our wardstone," Jaela muses. "I think I heard something about the castle's locking down planar travel for miles? It could be a nice feature if we're expecting an attack or want to prevent a retreat."
"Two sided sword, since it'll stop us," Adrian points out, "The wardstone's main attribute is the sheer range on it. From what I understand, it's much harder to make it something you can turn off and on at will. I'll talk to Elder Magi Tepen about it."
Moore nods to Afina. "I'll help out the next time there's something significant to be created, then."
"Thought it was as simple as moving it out of alignment, but I never specialized in it," Jaela freely admits. "Afina's got another good point. I thought the giants might want their own environment like we have for other planars, but if you could check with them to confirm it'd be good." She nods to herself. "So you've got things to look into, and sounds like I'm free until you check them?"
"From what I understand, Aurora's wards are also complicated. But I'm not the person to ask about that. Yeah, you're free." Adrian stands up, dusting his hands off. "This one's done."
"Have fun at court, then." Jaela stands up, nodding at those present, and then heads out.
Going off to catch up with Ellese, Jaela?
"I'm sure we will," Afina answers blandly, fluttering into the air. "I have a few things to take care of now, but I'll see you this afternoon at her Majesty's court, Moore," she says to her fellow pixie before flying off to do all sorts of important and arcane functions before her presence is required by Ilsenine.
Yes
Okay, I'm going to split you two into two new threads. One's for court stuff and the other's for Ellese. Thread locked, new threads coming.