(None of the chairs are mimics. He did check; it would not be the first time someone had tried that particular plot.)

And Irabeth has a briefing.

The current plan is to split up into two groups: a larger group, led by Irabeth, which will be distracting the demonic forces and making it possible for the second group to reach the Wardstone at all, and a smaller group, led by Select Artigas, which will be attempting to reach and purify the Wardstone. (Select Artigas's party will also be accompanied by a few, ah, local experts on disabling traps, and two members of the Order of the Flaming Lance.) Most likely Blai's team will still have to face some demons, but hopefully the larger team can reduce their number and (critically) distract Minagho. Communication between teams will be handled by having familiars carry physical notes, and therefore will be extremely limited, unless someone manages to scrounge up a better one.

They have information about the following secret passage, which they intend to use to enter the Gray Garrison. They have a separate informant who verified various information under Abadar's Truthtelling about the composition of the demonic forces and their layout. Highlights include: there is at least one succubus. This part of the Garrison has been taken over by brimoraks. These parts of the Garrison have particularly deadly traps. Vrocks have periodically been teleporting in and out, though as of a few days ago there were none permanently stationed in the Gray Garrison. 

Select Artigas and Luminary Ingaberta should speak to her after the meeting for more information on spell allocations for their contacts. They will initially be gathering at a few different staging locations, which will enable them to more efficiently distribute long-duration buffs from the noncombatants and avoid interpersonal tensions. (Blai may pick up on the fact that 'avoid interpersonal tensions' is in part a euphemism for 'avoid the Desnans being arrested by Hulrun'; she has arranged the staging groups so as to avoid this permitting them to simply break Thall out.) 

Many of them will probably die. But they will die in service of not letting demons overrun all of Golarion.

Any questions?

"The only member of my party with a familiar has one that will be unlikely to handle notes effectively, does an assignee from the Flaming Lance have one?"

Yes, they'll be accompanied by the one with Nex the thrush. (Nex can also carry messages by talking if necessary.)

Any other questions?

Who's their informant?

Among the commitments she's made in this endeavor is a commitment not to turn that informant over to the Inquisition.

Hulrun thinks they should consider the possibility that this is a trap.

Their claims were verified under an Abadar's Truthtelling, and it's not like 'prepare for brimoraks and succubi' wouldn't be good information regardless. If their informant's claims about impassible parts of the Garrison prove false this will be very obvious.

Any other questions?

"What margin from the Wardstone should I require of Thall, if he's in my group and we're the ones attempting to reach it?"

If he carries out Thall's sentence before they enter the room with the Wardstone, Thall shouldn't be able to sabotage it. He is wiling to authorize the Select or Ser Seelah to carry such a sentence out.

...Irabeth understands it to be consistent with his obligations to closely supervise Thall while in rooms containing small portions of the Wardstone, and handcuff him while leaving him under the supervision of Ser Seelah during the time when he's in the room with the Wardstone's core attempting to purify the Wardstone, provided that Ser Seelah agrees to this. 

"I'll ask her."

"Thank you, Select."

Any other questions?

The Order of the Flaming Lance representative wants to know if they've considered using a Nap Stack to enable the people casting hour buffs to cast slightly more of them.

They considered this but concluded it would be logistically infeasible even if a suitable pillow could be located, and would run the risk of leaving some people unfit to make the assault at all.

...Staunton Vhane has questions about the extent to which his role here is 'bait for Minagho,' but he isn't going to ask them.

Then he will not get an answer.

No further questions, he's ready to see what spells they want from him and his party.

She fields a few questions about the layout, and then has spell lists for him.

It's fairly similar to what they've been preparing, with a few notable exceptions. Nenio is not to prepare any Haste spells, as this is to be handled by the Order of the Flaming Lance's ritual. Spells of even moderately long duration, like Resist Energy, will be handled by the non-combatants. His wizards will be preparing mainly crowd control, supplemented by summoning from Thall, though the Order of the Flaming Lance isn't working in the Avistani tradition and will be focused more on disabling magical defenses. Voyager Ramien will be providing two Freedom of Movement spells to his team, most likely him and Ser Seelah, though if his judgment from observing his companions fight is that they would be better used elsewhere he can direct them otherwise. He's to swap out his first-circle Bless slots for more Divine Favor, as Count Arendae is expected to be able to handle the necessary Bless spells. And so on from there.

She is issuing him some additional scrolls and potions, listed here, and he should spend them whenever he thinks they will increase the likelihood of his team successfully completing the mission.

...She does not recommend discussing this where it might be overheard, but he is also advised that the Storyteller believes Terendelev's scales will function similarly to a Breath of Life with slightly more margin for error (or perhaps more like a Raise Dead that must be cast within a minute or so, it's apparently not the sort of thing his magic is good at distinguishing). They are keeping his scale and Seelah's scale with his team and reserving Anevia's scale for the other team. He is to use his best judgment about whether raising any given person from the dead is the best way to complete their mission objectives.

"What are the prospects of having her resurrected?"

"We expect the demonic forces to have been working quite hard to prevent that outcome."

"But, in terms of whether the scales are valuable to that end."

"—Apologies, I spoke unclearly. Given our understanding of their resources we expect they would have been able to make it very difficult to resurrect her, such that access to a scale is unlikely to be sufficient, though we don't have specific intelligence yet as to which specific method they used."

"But it would still be necessary, no one made off with any part that would not also serve like a Breath of Life nor would access to such necessarily be part of a later mission to make her resurrection feasible? Or the scales have little to no value for that purpose?"

"Our best guess is that whatever method they used would either not be fixable at all, such as anything involving the destruction of her soul, would require a rescue mission that would almost certainly grant us access to her body, such as raising her as an undead. It's not impossible that some of the more obscure methods Anevia has heard of would actually be fixable with a Resurrection, but in that case I would expect them to use a different method. ...But we don't have anything but the scales from her body, they took her corpse, so if our guess is wrong it could be very costly."