Tanya tries to apply force to the disk with the flight spell. Can she make it accelerate a bit? Not at ten gees, just a little?

...the spell doesn't think there's anything there. It's behaving as if there's no mass resisting the force being applied, rather than (for example) a mass that is too large.

"I can't move it. It's behaving like an impermeable magical shield, not like a physical object." Hmm. Belmarniss said she could make it follow her but only horizontally, and couldn't move it while she was on it... "Its main limitation is that you can't make it move up, correct? If I fly you up - or around - can you make it follow us? That would make it much more useful for carrying things around if we encounter vertical obstacles in the tunnels, or possibly even as a shield from things on the ground."

"Rynaeri can do that, but I couldn't make it follow me up a ladder when I tried."

"Pity. Maybe she can teach you? It would be very useful for transporting equipment if it could surmount slight vertical obstacles. Although, you're planning to buy a magical bag for our journey. In that case you should find some kind of platform you can stand or sit on that we can take with us so I can fly you over obstacles or through vertical shafts. It needs to be strong and rigid, so I can apply force without risking breaking it, light and compact enough to carry, and ideally with something for you to hold on to."

"She tried, and I worked on it for a while, but I did not seem to be making progress. How big does it need to be? Like, would a dinner plate work?"

"Technically, yes, it would, but you need not to fall of it when I move it sideways and not just up or down. And a dinner plate would probably be too fragile; it should be something strong enough for you to jump or stomp on."

"I might need to get something like that made custom, I'm not thinking of anything commonly available that's right for the job."

If she can make a ceramic mold then Tanya can melt metal and make a platform out of scraps... Really, Tanya is just excited at the whiff of non-military applications for her skills. The reasonable thing to do is of course to leave it to the professional smith.

"Alright. What next?"

"Well, if you have any more suggestions for what it should be shaped like that'll be convenient for putting in an order."

Hmm. "What are the material options? You said wood is expensive; that leaves metal, or I suppose stone but stone would probably be too heavy to carry with us. A metal disk for you to sit on - no, that's too heavy, a strong metal hoop with fabric that can hold your weight. You can tie ropes to its sides to hold on to. Its weight together with you and other cargo should be below a hundred kilograms, ideally below eighty - I'm assuming everything you carry can fit in the magical bag, which would then fit on your lap. I will need to apply upwards force at several points around the hoop to balance it so it doesn't fall over, and you will need to hold still to avoid disturbing that balance; I can also support you with my arms to help with that. Because of balance issues, I don't expect it to be safe to use in combat conditions; in an emergency I can carry you myself but only for a few minutes and it would likely leave both of us bruised."

When aerial mages need to evacuate a wounded or unconscious comrade, they take him in a fireman's carry and switch out every few minutes. This places the weight on the mage's body; the compensating thrust is applied to the mage carrying the body, not to the body itself. This is almost as stressful as a regular fireman's carry, which means Tanya can barely do it for someone of Belmarniss's build. A collapsible stretcher isn't very practical to carry along on routine missions. ...would a stretcher for Belmarniss to lie on be a better solution? It would be easier to balance and harder to fall off of, but making it sufficiently rigid when assembled might be difficult - wait.

"I just thought of another approach. Sling a hammock from a single lengthwise metal pole." She throws up an illusion. "This could have two advantages. First, it's easy to secure you in the hammock so you can't fall out of it, with ropes if necessary. Second, I only need to balance the pole between its two ends, and you can't move the center of gravity as much by shifting; if you swing the hammock, it will pull the pole to that side but it won't change the pole's angle and so won't risk spilling you. Does that make sense? We'd need to carry a fairly long pole, would it fit in the bag?"

"Yeah, a long pole can go in the bag, and shouldn't be too hard to come by either, and I can just take my existing hammock from home."

"Then we can test that solution that before placing a custom order."

"Cool, that can be the next stop."

Belmarniss obtains a long metal pole without too much ado, and apparently has decided that it does not endanger her family to let Tanya know where they live, since she escorts her to the cave in question to take her hammock off the ceiling. (Rynaeri and Sovi are both out, but one of the halflings is in, pickling some mushrooms.)

Tanya certainly wouldn't want to maneuver like this, or even accelerate beyond a gentle one-half gee, but she can in fact hold up the pole and hammock up with her flight spell and move it around! The pole's two ends need to be close to her, so she ends up carrying Belmarniss in front of her. She can even pretend she's doing this by holding her in her arms, if that's an appearance they want to give for some reason.

"It's not particularly, no."

That's one problem resolved. "What else do you need from me to prepare?"

"Are there other things you can do that you haven't mentioned? It'll inform what I buy."