World Revolution

[Rezantis]

"Exactly why I was leery about the idea of a mad dash when it was first suggested.  Our men themselves can usually afford to take arrow fire because if their armour doesn't protect them, they've usually been hit somewhere that won't immediately kill them - so the healers can save most later . . ."

Rez hums.

"Well. In your plan, Liandral, if the men fail to kill the general, almost none of the noncombatants will make it to the keep - and most of our wounded can't run. This doesn't take into account whatever booby-traps the keep dwellers may have set up. A mad dash, I think, is still too dangerous . . . but the idea of dropping most of our men in the middle, leaving some behind to guard our noncombatants . . . that has potential, and it might be our only hope . . ."

Rez considers.

"Unless we could rout their front line back.  That would give us a hope, but it's still very, very risky."

[Brian]

"It'd take coordination," Liandral says, frowning.  "But if we knew that the general was in the back, and we could swarm him -- and I'm confident, in all honesty, that we could, taking them from the back unawares -- then we'd have a clear path to rush the innocents to safety.

"We'd need to be quick about it, and it's not risk free ... but I don't know that there is a plan that is.  I can't imagine that the Dreadmarch is going to idly sit by and ignore us out here -- and if they do, we've got problems, such as the fact that the ice cap was pretty much cut in half.  We've got Eske to help us cross it, but I think they've got something, too -- the entire Dreadmarch army that left the dark citadel made it from there to the temple of Hammar in a veryshort amount of time.

"If we stay here, it's a given we're going to die.  They can't expect us to know that, though.  It seems to me in all honesty, teleporting into the middle of their offensive of the keep is not only the dumbest thing to do, it's also what they'd least expect.

"But ... I harbor a suspicion that they expect we'd do it, anyway.  And that we'd only do it if we had no other plans.

"I think we need to assume that they can communicate ... well, we know they can.  But we need to assume that they can communicate without letting us eavesdrop, too.  So they'll know if we're desparate enough to make the jump.

"Money says they're ready for us right now, and if we jump, we get slaughtered.  What we need to do is fool them -- in every possible way.  We need to convince them that we're going to hole up here, so they ignore the threat of us dropping into their front-lines.  The second they don't expect it, we jump, crush a general, and are essentially home free.

"I think there's two other possibilities with that seal, too.  I don't think it gets in their way ... but I think something prevents them from making gates like ours.  Otherwise, they'd just go to the other side of the mountains from the citadel, circle around, and fall upon the keep from behind.  It'd take a tiny force to pull that off, and they haven't yet."

Liandral gives you both a moment to absorb this, and adds, "That's what I think, anyway.  If you're using a code of some sort, we can use that to our advantage to coordinate."

[Dracos]

"They can't have gates.  They might have something that lets them move fast, but they can't have gates.  Otherwise they would've never bothered with a seal that would've limited them.  Eske wouldn't have been as important if they could stick a million men behind the citadel to rush the rear.  It'd be strategically dumb to give that up in exchange for us getting a few thousand more men in.  They could possibly not have expected it and accidentally trapped themselves, but that doesn't make much sense either.  It looks too well prepared not to have considered that possibility.  I'm almost never a believer in 'they planned for the plan of the plan'.  I can't see any reason they'd be that prepared for us gating into the middle of their ranks.  The more pertinant problem is that without any specific plan against us doing this, they could quite possibly end up crushing us under the numbers.  No need for subtelty when you have that many men between us.  Either way, I think that the road through is probably the best thing to take, if it can be done.  Eighteen thousand is a lot to bring through and cover though.  Hmm...  We do have that secure communication, so we can know where and what traps are there to dodge.  We'd have to go right for the general, in the middle of it all.  A wedge formation, keeping the woman, children, and injured deep inside the wedge, The strongest of us at the forefront going right towards the general.  Time it to coincide with a charge from the keep dwellers as it should get through.  While the idea of sending false info is idea...  At the same time, how would we do it?  Assume they can spy on our preparations?  Can we really fake 30000 men holing up while preparing for an attack if they can spy accurately with magic.  If we drop info over communications, they'd disbelieve it and know we were coming because we've shown that we can encrpyt it and it'd be silly to say 'yeah, we're staying right here'.  Hmm...  Any other ideas on doing that?  It seems sort of a waste of energy to me at the moment."

Dracos

[Brian]

Liandral considers this, and then says, "It may not actually be too hard.  We could return to the death-trap we'd established, and make it look like we're digging in for good there.  We could go to the opposite side of the mountain range, and dig in there.  The idea is to make it look like camp is going to be more than temporary, which isn't too hard.  Just build a few solid looking structures that are visible from a distance -- watch towers, a few extra fires with green wood to make more smoke, if we've got a field anvil in the supplies -- which we should -- we could set up a smithy.  That doesn't take too long, with as many men as we've got, but I'm sure it looks like it does."

[Dracos]

"Hmm... And that would leave the gate inside the deathtrap.  Hmm, not that there should be tremendously much room to move there.  Hmm...the other route might be better.  Either way though, we're assuming scouts, rather than what is the main risk, magical vision.  If Mattias can see through what you describe, than we should assume the other loremaster is capable of it, I think."

Dracos

[Brian]

"Well, we could find out from him, then," Liandral says.  "You want me to go get him?"

[Dracos]

"Hmm...yeah, why not."  Dracos nodded.

Dracos

[Brian]

Liandral vanishes, and returns shortly with Mattias (and Eske) in tow.  The two Loremasters look around, like they're expecting to see something, and seem dissapointed when they don't.

"How may we help you?" Mattias says, pulling his eyes up from the floor of the tent and looking at you directly.

[Dracos]

"Sorry to bother you, Loremasters, but Liandril had an interesting idea on how to go about getting to the keep, and I'm trying to figure out if we can actually do it.  The idea is during the middle of next battle, Eske would open a giant gate and we'd charge into the rear flank of those leading the assualt on the keep, charging for the general and all going through.  The gate would cover the whole range, cutting off the retreat and any reinforcements, or at least, dropping them off here, scattered away from the rest of the army.  It's figured though that if they expect us to do that, they'll be prepared... so the question is how accurately can your wards detect what's going on, Mattias?  I don't think the enemy loremaster is likely to be far more effective than what you'd be capable of in keeping an eye on us, so it'd be a good estimate of what we can get away with."

Dracos

[Brian]

"Unless he thought to place watching wards in the camp before we were there, he wouldn't be able to see much of anything at all," Mattias says after a moment of thought.

[Dracos]

"Could you find said wards if he did?  Would it be possible for him to have put watching wards over most of these plains beforehand perhaps?"

Dracos

[Brian]

"Yes, and yes.  But my guess is that the seal on the mountains really took all of his attention to set up.  I have been watchful, but not encountered any wardstones to watch us anywhere nearby," Mattias says.

[Dracos]

Dracos nodded.  "That's very good to hear.  Anything you can do to help protect the non-combatants who'll be at the center behind us when we charge?  Anything you can do will be much appreciated."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Rez taps his chin thoughtfully as something occurs to him.

"Hey . . . if we were thinking of having the dreadmarch charge forwards through one of Eske's gates, why not have that side of the gate lead into the chasm?  That way we don't even have to worry about them starving out here,  or any confusion with them popping out and walking -around- the gate to the rest of our forces that haven;t charged through yet."

[Brian]

"That ... is much harder to manage," Eske says, frowning.  "Unless the edge of the gate is in front of the chasm, of course.  But it's possible.  And I can make it wide enough to cover the entire approach to Stormwall Keep....  But I don't think I could make it last for more than ten minutes."