So much paper.
Reports are laid about Aurora's meeting room. They're great heaps of paper, stacked up analysis of how each unit preformed in the assault on Benfal. Everyone's there and reading by the time you get in - Gisfal's there, as is Adrian and Tepen. Sage Vul'lath is also there, though hanging back.
Surraruthru and Afina arrive, Gisfal looking up, "Take one if you want," he says, "These aren't immediately important, there for the sages to pick over. Are both of you recovered from the battle and clear in thought?"
"I don't seem to have had any lingering effects from encountering Taelfagn," Afina says as she flutters in, having had a quite leisurely nap after finally sorting everything out upon the conclusion of that hectic battle. "As vexing as he may be to us in particular, he doesn't have as much spiritual weight as the likes of Auril." Going over to claim her customary pixie-sized chair she has a look over the paper. "Anyone have any initial thoughts they want to offer?"
"We need more soldiers. As of now, we have the right amount of elites, but we lack the simple numbers to be anything but a powerful strike force," Elder Magi Tepen says softly. He taps a finger on a report in front of him, "We can handle confrontations with powerful enemies. We lack the numbers to occupy large parts of Lifasa."
"Our work here and agreements with others should help there," Gisfal says, "We have favors to call on and realms that will answer us when we sound the horn to free Lifasa. But we do need more men."
"I'll agree with that," she nods. "Speaking of, our largest single contingent of soldiers comes from those we liberated from the Burning Aeropolis, so raids on Lifasa might be a more productive way of gathering extra manpower than relying on others across the planes being drawn to our banner. Also if I can get the funds I can produce large numbers of competent construct soldiers."
"I'm well rested and ready."
Saying so, Surraruthru lands on the table next to a stack of papers, and begins reading into the reports, looking for anything that needs attention.
"If we're lacking in simple soldiers, why not look into something like basic golems or clockwork machines? What else can you think of that is hardy and easy to produce numbers of?"
"I had a plan for a battalion of nimblewrights I put forward recently, but general Jaela preferred to see our fixed defences upgraded instead so I couldn't get the money I needed for it," Afina says. "If any can be made available from whatever we gathered off devil forces in this battle the plan remains on the table."
"What numbers and cost are we talking about here?" Gisfal asks, "Tell me."
"Seven and a half thousand gold per unit, I planned for twenty at a hundred and fifty thousand," Afina answers from memory. "Comparatively each one's around as strong as an erinyes for reference, capable in melee but mostly skilled at battlefield sabotage and assassination. Think of them as a reliable mid-point for bulking out our forces. I can make more numbers of cheaper golems for a lemure equivalent, but I don't see any point when fireballs would prove so expensive."
"Less for fighting and more for occupation," Gisfal says, "I'd support your venture regardless, we need troops from as nay venues as we can."
"I concur, but we need money as always," Tepen says, "We're still finalizing the treasure from the last battle, that should be done shortly."
"When it comes to organisation, I had to expend a lot of my magic on simply getting between points to deal with crises, which also left the force I was responsible for under-strength without me," Afina goes on. "In this case it didn't matter, my task force faced no counter-attacks after taking the Dreamseer Temple and weren't called upon to strike any other points, but it could have caused trouble. It may be better in future battles to account for me or others with similar duties as purely a response force rather than being included at all in the general order of battle. I'll either need to learn better teleportation magic or cover for it with a magic item as well, since using gates for in-plane travel is inefficient and left me greatly weakened by the time I was nearly captured by Taelfagn."
"We're talking about commissioning several items that allow teleportation at will," Sage Vul'lath speaks up. "I concur with that and think it's a need we have."
"Hmm... I'm investing in an improved teleporting option myself, but if we're talking about moving officers around... There might be another option. The Gate spell allows for the calling of a specific creature. Could we not isolate and modify that effect and key it to Aurora officers, then create an item to allow a sending of a message and the calling into a single spell? I don't believe it would require as much power as a Greater Teleport spell, so if we could make it functional, it could be a cheaper way to go for us. Give one of the Calling items to each officers and the higher up squad leaders, perhaps?
In any case, I like the idea of the Nimblewrights. I approve of it, but I think we may need some additional creatures to help. Have we talked to our nymphs and druids to see if they can get any of their animal friends to help? A few packs of Dire Wolves, Lions, Tigers, or Bears would be a significant boost as well, with minimal upkeep, as long as we find space for them. The nymphs and druids have a natural empathy with them, or if we have people who can directly talk to the animals to keep the peace and pass orders. I can speak to them, but I'm only one, and my attention is usually focused elsewhere."
Just to cover bases and clarify, I'm suggesting a modified and downgraded version of Gate that only uses the Calling Creatures effect, and keyed only to Aurora personnel. Since we're not getting a full Gate effect, I don't think it should be a level 9 spell, and Greater Teleport is level 7, but it has unlimited range. If we limit the range a bit, it might cut down on what level the spell is. If it can be 5 or 6, and maybe a X/day deal on the item, it may wind up being cheaper in the long run.
I'm going to punt a lot of OOC commentary on this over to nagging. I'll touch on that when I reply to your nagging later tonight or tomorrow.
Tepen considers that, "We can work on those summons In the meantime, animals may help. But as simple minded creatures, they're usually vulnerable to counter manipulation. Still, it's a good idea."
Surraruthru nods. "It's still a stop gap measure for sure, but until we can establish new recruiting it and the constructs are probably the best we have. What's the next thing on the list?"
Surruathru asks as he continues going through the papers.
"Rapid response. It's proven to be valuable, we should make it a standard part of our doctrine," Gisfal says, looking down and checking one report. "The members of the group should have the following qualifications: They should be able to teleport and planeshift OR be able to reliably cast or call on gates. Secondly, in case of areas that prevent teleportation, they should have both flight and great speed so that they can deploy fast in spite of that. Third, they should not be overly talented in directly commanding troops, as they're usually more valuable leading than responding. Thoughts?"
"Hmm... Some of those requirements can be met with equipment. Do we want them to have those movement abilities innately or through equipment?"
"Either will do," Sage Vul'lath speaks up, "Few of us have all of those requirements. We would limit ourselves otherwise and neglect Afina's resourceful crafting."
"Yes, as long as it works," Gisfal says, "Be it your own talent or magic, so long as it does what is needed."
"Numbers? Five? Ten? We'll need at least one healer, and everyone should be able to exert some level of battlefield control. Summoning should be considered important, I think. A good emergency force multiplier."
"Five's good, give or take a little," Tepen says, "Large enough to matter, but not large enough to neglect the actual troops and command."
"That's about my thinking," Gisfal says.
Surraruthru nods. "Do you have a short list?"
"Afina's the most logical candidate, she's ideal for the position," Gisfal says. "She has great speed, can manage gates, can fly and her mastery of haste helps others be faster as well. Opinions?"
"Logical. She a solid front line fighter as well as solid support. Candidates should be able to fill multiple roles and sources of power."
"Logically, yes. Who else?" Sage Vul'lath cuts in.
"Well, we need a healer, someone who's good at engaging multiple enemies, and someone good at single target. Ideas?"
"Balyss for the healer. She has wings, can manage the flying part and is one of our best healers," Tepen suggests. "Her offensive power is relatively minimal, however, so she's best put in a response group that already covers that completely."
"I like to consider myself a good commander as well, but the fact is I can't be everywhere at once, so this may as well be the best role for me," Afina admits.
"No one can be," Gisfal agrees, "Who else do you think fits, Afina?"
"Vivantha's a possibility, once she comes back to us," Afina says. "She's a fast flyer and offers good battlefield support. And Mirima is exceptionally skilled at single combat, which would fit in well with us being tasked with removing enemy elites that others can't handle. I could think of a few others, but that might be concentrating too much strength in a group that won't be seeing consistent combat."
"Regardless," Tepen clears his throat, "Ahem, pardon. Regardless, if you are the general on team, it's your squad to fill out, Afina. If you're in it you should naturally lead it and select the members."
"We'll go with that for now, then," she nods, quite able to work with the three mentioned. "What's next on the agenda?"
"Our final matter is a question for our elites: Reserves. Afina, I believe you were one who was heavily taxed by excessive spellcasting." Gisfal says, "We won't have the luxury of always fighting fresh when we attack Lifasa. Plans for an acceptable level of combat ability even when your magic is exhausted is critical."
"Nothing can be done about it," Afina shakes her head. "The battle for Lifasa won't be decided in a single day, we'll have to rotate people around to allow for resting between engagements. That's part of where our manpower deficiency hurts us, every hand is needed just for us to have a fighting chance. When exhaustion and attrition takes its toll we don't have reserves to fill in the gap. I will say however that my combat ability remains quite acceptable, I could have fought dozens of pit fiends even after the point where I judged I was incapable of fighting one offs like Taelfagn or that dogai."
"There are a few options, actually. The first is scrolls and the like. There are infinite scroll cases, for non-critical, non-immediate casting we can begin relying on scrolls or wands and the like. Alternately we can try to use the principles of a spell like Time Stop and try to build a room that can, in a way, accelerate time. If we can make it work, it would be an emergency option to reduce the time needed to prepare new spells. I personally haven't tinkered with time magic enough to say how viable it is. But it's an idea."
"I've looked into magic like that. It's forbidden," Tepen says, "Anything that approaches true temporal manipulation is, and the difficulty and price of breaking it makes it absolutely prohibitive."
"And scrolls are worthless for actual combat applications," Afina adds. "They're far too weak and easily resisted, even attempting to use a fireball scroll on a devil is a waste of time compared to anything else I could be doing."
Surraruthru snorts in distaste at that. "Bah. What about something similar to a spellpool. Something where we can deposit an amount of arcane power we have left over to be called on later?"
"I'm not familiar with that," Gisfal says, "What is that?"
Do you want me to roll K:A for the amount of details Surraruthru knows, or just list stuff out?
If you're familiar with the spell, just list it out.
"I don't know exactly how they work, but from what I recall a spellpool is a reserve of pure magical power. It functions sort of like a community garden. Everyone pumps magic and spells into it, and everyone can pull magic and spells from it. Normally you leave a spell unprepared, and then through focusing and the use of a spellpool, you can pull any spell that's been cast into it in place of the uprepared spell you have.
What I'm proposing is trying to find a way to use it more like a reservoir than sharing spells. It'll take some research, and maybe a specialist, but if we can modify a spellpool to instead simply store a spell so that once we've expended the same spell, we can just call the magical power from the spellpool to replace what we've cast, then our recovery time between battles might be significantly reduced."
So mechanically, what I'm suggesting is a combination between a Spellpool and psicrystals. Basically treat it like psicrystal PP storing, but for magic. You can pump X number of spell levels into it for retrieval later. I know there's a few things that let you do similar things; Heward's Fortifying Bedroll lets you shortcut the prepare/ready spells, Spellstoring and Greater Spellstoring, then resting to regain spells is a thing (though shifty as hell), Retrieve Spell lets you swap turns for spells (for Divine), and I think there's a spell or feat that lets Arcane casters trade two spells of a lower level for one of a higher level. Those all sort of do the same thing, but what I'm proposing is having a single pool for everyone to store their stuff into instead of maintaining it separately. I'd also say that, like the normal Spellpool, it should be communal, but if you pull more than you put in, you rack up a debt that needs to be paid at some point.
"It's technical and complex," Tepen agrees, "I would suggest that we look into it and decide how viable it is."
Gisfal nods, "In that case, I think we're done, unless there's any thing anyone else wants to bring up?"
"I think we've covered the essentials," Afina agrees, getting up.
"I agree. Anything else major?"
"That's it for now," Gisfal says.
Ready to move on, you two? If so, to what?
I'll let Gulba know I'm free to attend a soiree for her so we can schedule around that, and if she has nothing immediately ahead I'll be free to go fight a 'loth with Jaela.
How are you contacting her, Afina?
Limited Wish Sending. Message: "Hello, Afina Devilsbane here. My current campaign's concluded so let me know when you want me to attend one of those soirees we talked about."
Your reply is, "Oh! That's wonderful! Yes, I have something, can you make the day after tomorrow for a soiree? We're hosting a guest from the clergy of-"
Aaand she ran out of words.
Fortunately, ten minutes later, you receive a sending back.
"Oh! Sorry! Yes, yes, where's Aurora, we'll send someone over to handle the transportation."
Start looking into Spellhoarding. Start here in the library, and then possibly hit the Cauldron.
Afina will suck up the spell failure rolls to reply promptly with another limited wish.
"We're on Thalassia near the city of Liber and should remain a few days. I'll await your contact."
Okay then, both of you into new threads.