"Both of you have Rope Trick and Communal Mount, so we don't need to be too conservative with planning out other second-circle spells."

"That reminds me, if you happen to have extra spellbook ink, you are welcome to copy any of my spells."

"I have at least enough ink for one third-circle spell, and I don't have many third-circle spells, so anything that isn't enchantment and is third-circle would be helpful, conjuration would be best.  I don't even have Summon Monster III yet."

It is one of the strongest signs that his old group didn't really like or value him that they didn't spare more resources on getting him another scroll or two to copy before sending him off.

"They are likely to favor illusions... the other three wizards I knew in the cult were all at least somewhat specialized in illusions.  Protection from Evil should help with seeing through illusions.  Greater Invisibility is a possibility... I could prepare a Glitterdust?  Although I'm still pretty hopeful they don't have someone that can teleport, even if they have someone that can scry, so spells that will be useful for any other fights or such are a good idea."

"I actually don't have Summon Monster III either — clerics can cast it too, so it's always seemed less urgent than other spells. Most of my third-circle spells are transmutation, but I do have one conjuration spell at third-circle. It's a fairly obscure one, developed by some researchers who were trying to compress Dimension Door into a third-circle slot by reducing its range significantly. More importantly, the current version is blocked by any solid object, even a thin sheet of glass, so I rarely prepare it. Outside of conjuration, I also have Haste, Slow..." He's perfectly willing to recite his third-circle spells, with occasional commentary on where they're unexpectedly useful or useless.

...Right, the man also had a strategic question about Glitterdust.

"—It's rare to encounter invisible enemies in this area, so the main benefit against most opponents would be the possibility of blinding them. It may be better to plan to cast it from your bonded object if necessary."

"They probably don't have a teleporter, anyone who can teleport and hasn't sold their soul to Hell could just leave Cheliax. Even if they're really dedicated to fighting Asmodeus, people who can teleport mostly spend most of their time outside the country. But it's good to be prepared just in case."

"They might have sold their soul to Baphomet instead."

"—That's true, they might've." It'd be a stupid thing to do, but so's selling your soul to Asmodeus. In that case her best guess is that they would still leave Cheliax, but they might still be taking orders from Baphomet's priests. 

His old group's leading cleric had made mention of rituals to gain boons from Baphomet, culminating in a demonic mark which granted the ability to recast a spell once a day, and a few other perks, like summoning demons without a spell.  But successfully completing the ritual requires fourth-circle, at a minimum, so Fernando hadn't inquired for more details.

"A 3rd circle teleportation sounds really interesting!  …I shouldn't use the ink if it's not going to be useful for a potential fight... but if someone teleports right on top of me, even a short range repositioning could be vital!"

Teleportation is one of the best tricks of conjurers, but Fernando had resigned himself to not being able to teleport (even short distances) until he died and worked his way up as a demon.  He is tempted to get sidetracked with discussion about teleportation as a subschool of conjuration... he needs to focus on the tactically relevant for now.

"I'll focus on spells we are sure to need and save the more niche spells for my bonded amulet.  A Mage Armor for myself, more Mounts and Communal Mounts, a Summon Monster II... " he lists out some options for them to work through.

He is reasonably knowledgeable about arcane magic and will endeavor to discuss the strategic implications without getting too distracted by magical theory.

The rest of the group is less knowledgeable about arcane theory in particular, but they're perfectly competent to discuss strategy.

Eventually, the halfling peeks out of the Rope Trick. 

"It's getting late." She fishes some food out of her bag and starts dividing it up into five portions.

All in all a productive conversation!  He also made good progress on studying the third circle teleportation, Phase Step.

"If I get to sleep soon and wake up before dawn I should be able to finish getting this spell copied well before the possible scry time.  And I'm not sure I mentioned it among our other magical discussion, but at risk of repeating myself, I only need around half to a quarter of the time for spell preparation... I'm kind of inconsistent, but I can definitely finish under a half hour."

Then once they've eaten dinner, he can cast the Extended Rope Trick, and they can settle in for the night. 

The next day is largely uneventful. Fernando is able to copy Phase Step into his spellbook. They manage to find a reasonably good location to ambush a Teleport strike team, but no one attempts to Scry Fernando at the scheduled hour. They don't encounter any other people in the woods, though they do see signs of a trail heading northwest. At one point they have to fight off a colony of hostile human-sized beetles with enormous teeth, but it's nothing the five of them can't handle; they don't even end up injured enough to need a second channel. They manage to avoid fighting something the halfling identifies as a man-eating tree.

Nothing disturbs them overnight.