Preparing for Benfal (Everyone)

[Iron Dragoon]

"Hmm.. We could use wall spells to create holding points and channeled routes. That won't let us truly hold areas, but it'll give us anchor points to work from."

[Corwin]

"Given the chance, should we try to evacuate the civilians caught on the front lines to our ocean demiplane?" Jaela voices, curious about the opinions on the subject. "Locked away from Aurora's proper in case of infiltrators, but kept safe for the duration?"

[Anastasia]

"Do we know much about the geography of the cities?" Tepen asks now, raising his voice. "How are they designed?"

[Ebiris]

"That's a good idea," she agrees with Jaela. "And wall spells are always tactically useful. As for the cities..." she sweeps a hand to clear the overworld map illusion before examining the parchment Syala sent via Ebony, examining the details on Elons Rapid before creating an illusory map at the street level for everyone to examine.

[Iron Dragoon]

"Well, evacuating the civilians is a good idea, but we'll have to be smart about how we spread out our people who can do it. What about underground areas? Any of those?"

[Yuthirin]

"Gotta be careful with evacuations. Devils would have no problems striking at evacuations in order to divide our forces." Calleigh says. "Easily defensible places are best, like underground caves and stuff. We could gate people away onto Aurora from there."

[Iron Dragoon]

Surraruthru nods to Calleigh.

"I agree. Something that can burrow the same way a Thoqqua can, or a Xorn. Spells to shape the earth are good choices, too, but I feel that may bring attention where the tunnelers will be harder to detect. We should be wary of gathering too many civilians in a single area either way. A single large spell getting through could cost many lives."

[Corwin]

"Ideally, people will keep away from the fighting where they can," Jaela muses. "Those who can't, we'll try to protect for the time it takes them to get to safety, whether in the demiplane or away from the combat."

Addressing the topic of burrowers, she says, "Aurora won't be breached by xorns, but for the battlefield we could field a few with tremorsense. As for controlling the skies, the fleet of ships should be up to the task. They look intimidating enough for the job, and should work better as a single force rather than split apart. Then, they could be sent to take one of the other two targets."

[Nephrite]

"In that case, we should probably start to determine what sort of teams we want heading for the different sites. It'll make it easier to determine what each one is capable of dealing with efficiently, right?" Moore asks.

[Anastasia]

Elon's Rapids is a packed, winding city. Buildings on buildings - and the map shows several basements, tunnels and sewers beneath it all. An interconnected mess all told. \

Gisfal studies it intently, "Aye, this'll be a baptism of fire for us in city warfare. Imagine it like a maze full of minotaurs who want to make your life a living hell - you'll have to clear out many pockets of resistance instead of a single decisive battle surrounded by skirmishes. We'll need to use our larger troops on the street level and the skies," he gestures at the illusion, "While saving our more elf sized troops for clearing out the tunnels. Realistically, we don't have to clear all the tunnels right away, but enough that we hold the choke points and can slowly flush them out."

Here he pauses to lean forward on the table, gesturing with his other hand at the map. "Pacifying this sort of area takes time more than anything else, due to the nature of it. Expect ambushes, hit and run tactics and finding even more hidden passages than we expected. City's design suggests that it's old."

[Iron Dragoon]

"We might consider designating a few of the ships for troop redeployment and evacuation duty. If lines of battle suddenly shift and our people need to get to the other side of the city, using a ship for it will be much faster than trying to slog through the city streets. Same for evacuations. If a group gets isolated or surrounded, having a ship come in for them is better than trying to sneak through active combat. The ships will be targets, but the fighting should also distract the devils from fully focusing on them when they get close."

[Ebiris]

"In fact, while I wasn't initially in favour of the ships I see that they can be useful for quick deployment of our less mobile forces," Afina agrees with Surraruthru. "Without immediately getting into specifics of who goes where, I was thinking we'd have Aurora gate in here," she points, "At the eastern edge of the city opposite the river, and only a hundred or so feet in the air. Then we could send the ships out fully laden with forces to encircle the city North and South so as to stop anyone from fleeing and slow down any reinforcements from the other two. Meanwhile our aerial forces can emerge directly to assault the city, while those incapable of flight can simply drop down with feather fall spells. All the while Aurora can slowly fly over the top of the city both to keep the gates close to our front line and to erode the morale of the enemy.

Once the ships have finished deploying our blockading forces they can come back both to assist in evacuations and redeployment as necessary. After organised resistance in Elon's Rapids has crumbled we can leave behind a reserve to mop up stragglers and hold ground while we reorganise into two flanks that can march on Fairwater and Liber. The status of those assaults really depends on whether they rush forces in to contain us at Elon's Rapid or if they sit back and dig in to wait for us, so we'll have to be flexible there."

Letting everyone absorb her plan there and think of any helpful modifications or point any flaws in it, she adds, "One more thing, on the topic of devil reinforcements. Beyond Semyaza's own resources, we may draw attention from those involved in Lifasa. Gathgorian may seek to test himself against me, or he may be held back I don't know. But 27 strongly believes the Duke of Destiny will personally engage us when we take part in this battle, and that we're destined to fall against him. If Taelfagn is sighted, everyone is to avoid battle where they can and focus instead on his retinue. Jaela is the only one that can safely fight him, and even the presence of her trump card against his destiny control may see him retreat. For that reason it's of the utmost importance that Jaela be deployed immediately to any location Taelfagn is seen." She looks at Jaela now directly, "It doesn't matter how vital your current circumstances are, even if you're the only thing holding the gates of Aurora itself. Taelfagn must be brought low, and every one of us will do whatever is necessary to see that you get the chance."

[Nephrite]

Moore nods to Afina's explanation. "I'll do what I can to manipulate things if we see him. I have some ability over that, but obviously not as strong as Taelfagn's. At the very least, I might be able to help protect everyone else if he tries to do anything."

[Anastasia]

"If Jaela falls or is unavailable, I can contest against him with 21. I know I can hurt him with it," Sylvie speaks up. "It may be best for the two of us to work together, because together, we may well be able to end Taelfagn here and now, forever."

[Ebiris]

"We'll keep you three together however the assignments work out then," Afina says, "That way Sylvie can handle teleports as needed and you can all engage at once wherever he appears. Simply removing his ability to interfere with the battle is sufficient, but killing our capturing him would be a greater coup than killing Abigor was."