A squad of four Sable Company marines—

A dozen more guardsmen—

A cleric of Sarenrae and a very well equipped cleric of Pharasma—

And two more wizards enter the planning room.

A captain yells from the center of the room. "Everyone! Everyone! Your attention, please!"

The ambient discussion fades away. "This operation shall contain two formations. Formation one shall be comprised of myself, the squad of marines, four of our five clerics, our fourth and third and second circle wizards, our sorcerer, and two more squads of guardsmen. Twenty three total. Formation one shall ambush the cultists via the underground access tunnels in the sewers. Entering behind them will be another dozen guardsmen."

"Formation two shall be comprised of a second captain, two dozen guardsmen, and our last cleric. They shall breach the warehouse on the surface and wait to catch any fleeing cultists. A wizard with the first formation will cast light on a small device. When formation one breaches the underground compound, he shall cast it again, and the light with formation two will turn off. That's formation two's signal to breach. Is that clear?"

A dozen guardsmen shout. "Yes, sir!"

During the ambient discussion, she walks up to one of the wizards. "Do you know how Silence works in a bull's-eye lantern? Does it shine out in a cone like Darkness?"

"I'd expect it to. I've never cast silence myself, it's not a wizard spell, but emanations don't go around corners."

"Oh good. Thank you!" She informs Shadi of the result.

When the captain starts talking, she too quiets down and listens. They're entering simultaneously, even with the delay? That's unfortunate. It is possible some of the cultists will be in the warehouse above? It will help if they are. She should plan for having only the lower group with her as they need to fight everyone, though. Four clerics and three wizards is better than last time, but preventing the Flame Strike from potentially wiping them out will be down to her unless they have useful buff spells.

They can win, but they will need to be careful about it. Good to know.

The captain clears his throat. "Right. We're going to do long duration buffs now. These are being generously provided by the Church of Pharasma at a very good price. Mass minor reversion is first. Marines and wizards, over here. It takes thirty minutes to cast, so you'll have to be patient."

The marines and the wizards move over to the well-equipped cleric of Pharasma. He starts casting a spell.

Ooh. Alright, long duration buffs for the underground team mean this makes much more sense. She... has never heard of Mass Minor Reversion before. Shadi probably has.

"What does that do? I don't think I've seen it before."

"It heals you automatically if you get injured enough. Lasts all day and discharges once. Sixth circle."

"Oh! That seems very useful! But that's a very high circle, I can see why it's not common." The marines not being dropped by a Flame Strike will help a lot, but there's still no reason to just let it happen.

...also, does that mean that's the high cleric of Pharasma in the city? There are not very many sixth circle clerics in Korvosa! No, Pharasma has a high priestess, and he's male. Still, Tencednil will watch the casting. She doesn't often get to see a sixth circle spell cast up close.

And only eleven targets. Only sixth circle, then, eleven would be a strange number of targets for a seventh circle caster's spell to have. Still, he's very impressive.

It's a lot of long and low chanting and subtle hand movements. The incantation seems to repeat itself fairly often. Thirty minutes later, he finishes.

The guardsmen spend the next fifteen minutes getting fully geared. They gleam in their chainmail, equipped with halberds and swords and crossbows. Both formations, over fifty men together, march down through the Citadel to an outdoor staging area.

The sixth circle priest of Pharasma unlocks a small metal box and loops a strand of beads around his neck. He picks up a rod. Much faster than mass minor reversion, he casts extended communal reinforce armaments on all of the guardsmen's weapons and greater magic weapon on the marines' arrows and life bubble on the captain, the marines, the wizards, and the clerics. A priest of Abadar gives them all the blessing of the watch. Tencednil feels warm and her nerves settle.

Oh wow, they really are spending magic on this. With spells like that behind them, she's much more confident that this might go well.

Off they go, then? It seems that, for one reason or another, the priest is staying behind. The captain only listed five clerics in the formations and he doesn't seem to be one of them. That does make sense, you really don't want to lose one of the possible casters of Raise Dead.

Much attention is paid to them as the formations march together up through Midland and North Point. They cross one of the widest bridges into Old Korvosa. The streets empty before them, shady characters of Bridgefront running into alleys and hiding from the scouring eye of the law.

At an three-way intersection, with the Shingles hanging above them, they stop. The first captain speaks. "This is where we split up. Formation one, with me! Formation two, remember the plan!" The wizard casts light on a small stone and gives it to the second captain. The formations split apart and head in different directions. Tencednil's formation is larger this time.

The captain leads them down a dark alley with a wide sewer hole. The tunnel angles downward sharply. "Here's our access point. It should be a few minutes to our destination."

They go forward.

The sewers are dark and horrible. Lanterns are pulled out and lit. The formation descends rapidly, down long winding staircases.

Tencednil recognizes this section of the deep sewers as they emerge from a doorway in the wall. The access tunnels are evenly spaced on the walls.

Navarro leads the formation to the secret door. There still aren't any barrels by the sewer water.

The captain speaks quietly. "Everyone, get in formation. Marines up front. Wizards and sorcerers in the middle. Clerics spread throughout. Guardsmen leading up the back."

To the middle!

"Shadi, this is the Silence target, when we need it." She holds out a pretty large rock she found above, which shouldn't fall out of the lantern too easily but should be removable if they need to, then puts it in the lantern. The shadow will keep it pointed towards Shadi until the Silence is cast.

She nods. "Okay. I'll cast it once the fighting starts."

Everyone is in formation. "Minute buffs!"

The clerics and wizards cast a variety of personal spells. The marines cast gravity bow. The wizards haste the marines and the guardsmen and the clerics. Finally, one casts light on a small rock.