Then he'll take half a day to make them, and either hand them off in the caves or Gate them to some other location if he can get a memory of it, and then continue his other work. 

Rumors from across the continent as he works: 

Valinor has strengthened its defenses against external invasion, and no one may enter by magical means or by boat!
The Valar are working on a replacement for the Trees, which are dead. 
Elwë let in a group of refugees who promptly murdered dozens of people and he is done letting in refugees. 
Denethor is letting in refugees but can't feed them, and wonders if the bright-Quendi want to help out with that.
Círdan was planning to build ocean-going boats and go petition Valinor for help but in light of 1) maybe this is a bad plan? He's proceeding with the building but not the expeditions.
Dwarves are really cool! Dwarves use money to mediate virtually all of their exchanges of goods and services, like, even getting dinner every day or doing things with some risk of damaging your neighbor's property.
Utumno is still vacant but Melkor has settled into a new fortress, to the north.
Nolofinwë's people are stuck in Alqualondë trying to build boats.
Orcs don't like cavalry at all.
Orcs will sometimes surrender? No one is accepting orc surrenders because they don't really know what to do with them but like, maybe there's something to be explored there.

Leareth is going to check if a tiny, very quick Gate back to the random wilderness location works, just to see if 'magical means' includes his kind of magic. 

Apparently not.

That's interesting. It does mean that he can use it to help Maitimo get messages to Nolofinwë's crew, if that's something they want. 

Probably. The big question is whether we're going to be conducting the sort of war effort here for which we want a lot of people, or whether we're just going to be hiding out researching magic. Nolofinwë will want to know and - I think having nothing to tell him might go over worse than having no way to contact him. But as soon as we have a read on that I'll want to be in communications. 

"That makes sense. Tell me if and when you know more." And Leareth will keep working on searching the Void and on making standard but eternally-powered artifacts and poking at permanent Gate work, if they do decide they want Nolofinwë's people and make contact then it'll help to have a way to actually bring them over faster than boats. 

My father wants your thoughts on  - big picture strategy. 

Leareth hasn't been tracking their current big picture strategy that much (if there is one), but he's happy to join Fëanáro and get brought up to speed and then see if he has suggestions. 

"How do you see us winning?" 

"I am not sure of any details. You would need non-magical forces that at least match Melkor's, in the overall combination of size, training, coordination, and equipment. Better intelligence on his operations than he has on yours. A weapon, probably a magical one, that could take him on directly as well as the Maiar on his side. And then a plan for how to combine these things." 

"Sure. If you were in charge, where would you start?"

"You need spies." Leareth smiles slightly. "Also, you have orcs surrendering sometimes, and nobody is sure what to do with them. You could, if you wanted, imprison them rather than killing them. This offers the advantage that you can interrogate them, find out what conditions are like in Melkor's forces. Also, perhaps you can persuade some of them that your side is better than Melkor's. If so, you could occasionally stage a 'prison break' where some of them escape – most of them not your agents, but you might be able to slip a few spies in that way." 

:I could read their minds if they are unwilling to talk: he tells Maitimo privately. :And, of course, I could use compulsions to make spies of them whether or not they wish it. If you would like: 

"Huh. I guess that's a good idea. - I assume Melkor can read his orcs's minds and tell if they switch sides."

"It seems good to make him spend a lot of his time on that, though."

Leareth nods. "We can learn more about where his orcs are located using a combination of the local's reports and my magic. Estimate their numbers and weaponry. If we judge that he is going to be fighting mainly on this continent – which seems likely if the orcs, the spider, and his new Utumno are all here – then we are going to want more people to fight. Gates to Valinor still work. I am not sure how much longer this will remain true." 

"We should get the rest of my people who want to come, then."

"I think so."

"I agree. In any case. We will need weapons for them. Likely purchased from the Dwarves, so we need something to purchase them with." 

"Oh, we're negotiating a deal to pay them in chemistry and biology lectures! - I don't know that that'll go far enough to arm all our people."

"How clever!" Fëanáro looks so pleased with himself about it, too. "Perhaps the Dwarves would trade minor magical items made with my world's magic for weapons at a favourable rate of exchange. It is not as though they can obtain them anywhere else – and there are some spells that are less useful for our purposes but are very easy and quick. Coloured lights, for example, or small illusions of particular scenes." 

"We can pass that along. I think things they can trade with even more distant Dwarves are ideal."

Leareth nods. 

"...Magical weapons. Oh - Nelyafinwë, I thought of something clever I might do to any Maiar I encounter next. Would you like to hear it?" 

"- sure."

"I have spoken to you of the Void, I think. It is the place between Gates - space and distance are not coherent there. Also, it has a - what one might call a negative density of magic. It draws in magic from all other places. An ordinary Gate opens only the tiniest and briefest of cracks there. However. There is a rare technique which is extremely ill-advised under usual circumstances, where one can – very temporarily – open a one-sided Gate directly into the Void itself. I think that if I did that inside a Balrog, the results would be very dramatic. If I judge correctly, it might be sucked permanently out of your world, and I do not think it could find its way back."