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The stone floor is cold. A trail of water drips slowly down the far wall. The light is dim, a few grumpily smoldering coals in a brazier above.
Her left hand aches abruptly, a pulse like all her joints ossifying at once before the sensation fades again. This is accompanied by a dull flash of green light. She's kneeling, hands locked shoulder-width apart by a metal bar clasped tightly around her wrists.
Sounds of footsteps in the corridor beyond say she may have visitors soon.
...Hm.
"There's weapons I can make with alchemy, which could make pushing along the main route far easier... But it might be faster to hold the line here while we loop around through the mines, and then sweep back towards the lines to clear up any lingering demons in a pincer formation..." She starts indicating forces, asking clarifying questions about how quickly they could move, how good their fortifications are... "I can strengthen the defensive fortifications too, pretty easily..."
Leliana answers the questions. They're pretty much at a stalemate now, so wherever Lionheart can bring her weight is likely to tip the scales.
Amestrian alchemy should primarily be thought of as a way to move physical material around quickly and accurately, really.
Her problem with planning is that they don't have the kinds of infrastructure she's used to, and she's not used to the way their magic works, nor to the demons, nor to their - obviously very different - ways of organizing their military...
Her own instincts would favor strengthening the defenses here, a small powerful team pushing quickly through the mines, then sweeping back, but she doesn't know if they'll need the extra fire power at the main rift, nor if Leliana's people are stronger on the offense or the defense...
The hammer and anvil is sound strategy. The road creates a natural funnel, if she can raise walls at the edges to ensure things remained contained approaching the choke point.
She'll need to be physically present at each wall she's raising, so that depends a bit on their time budget and how far out the nearest demons are and where she's raising walls...
Not too far out. They should have an hour or so to spare, and still be able to have light for the press.
Solas would like to observe, if she doesn't mind.
Of course. As long as it will not distract her unduly.
Then he would enjoy the opportunity for further discussion.
Good!
Speaking of discussion... How vulnerable are demons to things like spike pits, caltrops, and/ or landmines? As long as she's walking out here anyways...
That will certainly slow them, and may discorporate some. Taking physical form does render them vulnerable to physical attack, if they do not have the magic to compensate.
The real problem will be reducing the threats to their own forces if they end up advancing... Bellona can use shaped charges in some areas that can be triggered by a well placed arrow, and if demons are color blind she can label any landmines, or just put the labels so they're only visible from their forces' direction...
It would be unwise to count on the demons being unable to read. For the rest, she will need to coordinate with the Seeker and Leliana.
This is, apparently, a problem Bellona's own civilization has put a lot of thought into - she obviously can produce maps of where she's left landmines, and use subtle labeling like 'a strip of color', but there's a lot of other things that very regularly go wrong with trapping a road...
But, anyways: this road can be very quickly transformed into a valley of death! Alchemists are awesome like that.
That will do for now.
They may wish later for her to disarm any unused traps, if that is possible.
"The Temple of Sacred Ashes. The last resting place of Andraste's remains."
"-Andraste was the founding prophet of our faith."
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