Then Iomedae will sit down with whoever is willing to consult with her and start asking a lot of questions about what would go wrong if she did an offensive like this, an offensive like this, an offensive like this....

Urtho's generals - at least the specific ones Urtho put her in touch with - are, overall, more cautious and paranoid than Urtho, and better at taking into account the sort of strategic considerations Iomedae takes for granted. They have lots of specific information and counterarguments to her suggested plans. 

(They do, for the most part, come across as very young, and very inexperienced, in a way where if they were in Golarion, they would probably have gotten themselves killed or at least run into serious problems much earlier.) 

She is delighted to work with them! She will workshop the plans for the invasion, and also hear them out about how they assess the odds of turning things around, if Ma'ar lives and if he dies.

....They don't trust Ma'ar. He's scary and has no scruples and - well - it's not that he's smarter than Urtho, who is the most brilliant mage in the world, but he's - sneakier and more ruthless and willing to take advantage of any opportunity. Urtho likes him, because Urtho likes everyone, especially his students. But Ma'ar isn't his student anymore, and hasn't been for decades, and they're pretty sure Ma'ar doesn't hold to nearly the same level of - scruples based on loyalty and friendship - that Urtho wants to. 

(They don't outright say that they think the odds are better if Ma'ar dies. It's pretty strongly implied, though.) 

Hopefully they will reach a peace agreement. 

They're not very hopeful. They're happier about workshopping lots of potential invasion plans with her, taking advantage of capabilities she hasn't yet demonstrated in front of a lot of people, and thus might still have a chance of catching Ma'ar by surprise. 

Ma'ar's reply reaches them early the next morning, via an unarmed, un-Gifted messenger arriving on foot at one of Urtho's outlying camps. (And additional copies trickle into other camps with additional messengers over the ensuing candlemark; Ma'ar, too, wanted to make very sure that Urtho received this message.) 

He agrees to the ceasefire at the specified time and date. He's attached his own copy of the map they've been referring to, with a few differences marked boldly; the main difference is that, for a particular river suggested as a front, Predain actually has a concentration of troops on the far side of the river already. 

He cannot promise that there aren't other smaller units in pockets deeper in Tantara, probably in these general regions, and he promises to make very sure that word of the ceasefire reaches them by the time it's in action but he cannot promise they will still be where he thinks they were last. It's not impossible that he'll fail to reach one of the parties, if they lost their comms-mage or Mindspeaker at some point more recent than their last report in. 

Also, for this other section of river, while he's content to consider it the dividing line for ceasefire purposes, Urtho should perhaps be made aware that it is currently a dry riverbed and not going to present much of an obstacle to anyone crossing it, though it's still probably hard to do by accident. 

Of the list of prohibited activities, he rejects Urtho's proposal that camps at the front should only be able to set up passive wards and not ones that bite. His people are going to be feeling very nervous and paranoid and anything that makes them more nervous is going to drastically increase the odds of a miscommunication leading to a breakdown in the ceasefire. He agrees that magic for communication and scouting purposes, like the communication-spell and scrying, should be allowed. 

He would like to specify that camps on rivers will be cleared to use magic to fish in said rivers, which is going to be important because in a few cases their re-supply plans involved foraging on land on the other side of said river, and an army holding still is going to have a much harder time feeding itself. Predain relies less on Gates for supply logistics than Tantara does; they don't have enough mages with the range or the power to hold a Gate open long enough. 

Predain does have some hired mercenaries. Reputable companies, this list, and it shouldn't be a problem but he does want to note that they're not integrated with the main army chain of command. 

He proposes his own list of monitors. He promises that all of them speak very good Tantaran. These three are also Mindspeakers – and powerful enough to reach the un-Gifted, if Urtho is willing to agree to that, which Ma'ar is not taking for granted. 

He is deeply grateful that Urtho is willing to consider this de-escalation, and hopes that they'll be able to negotiate further from here. 

"- promising, I think. I don't think we need to pick a fight about the camp wards. I suppose you'd rather have them fishing than living even more off your locals. I want to separately contact the mercenary companies, actually, that's a good source of information on whether the man can keep an agreement, can you write in the response that we'll be in touch with them? And then let's review the lines very very carefully and imagine at each spot what, if a fight starts, it'd start over - a ceasefire is a very difficult command situation to navigate, your men evidently trust you and I believe we can achieve this but it's going to be tough on them and we want to set them up to succeed."

...Urtho had not really thought to be worried about that! Should he be worried about that? He maybe actually wants to send Iomedae back to meet with his generals directly, at this point he trusts her sense of who's likely to start fights over what much more than his own sense (which, though he doesn't admit this out loud, is mostly internal flailing right now.) He can arrange Gates for her, and send her with a hertasi Mindspeaker escort and translator. 

General Korad is in charge of the First Army, or more accurately the rear camp near the Tower, which isn't anywhere near the front but is heavily involved in organizing the Gates for supplies and replacement mages or Mindspeakers or Healers for units that suffer casualties.

General Micherone commands the Second Army, here on the map, near the river which is apparently not a river after all. Urtho has a very high opinion of her, and she keeps good troop discipline.

General Polden commands the Fourth Army and...apparently completely failed to notice a bunch of Predain troops on the near side of the relevant section of river, which seems like it might indicate a problem? 

General Shaiknam commands the Sixth Army, which previously had the largest concentration of nonhumans, especially gryphons, but the gryphons had a grievance with General Shaiknam and are now their own separate unit under the command of Snowstar, a Kaled'a'in mage, and assigned to the Second Army under General Judeth. He additionally has the unfortunate trait that he doesn't respect mages very much and, relatedly, most of the mages under his command dislike him strongly and Urtho probably needs to make provisions to have them reassigned between the other armies, except that it's a terrible idea to leave them without mages in their current strategic position. The Sixth was recently able to retake Stelvi Pass, here on the map, when under the command of a different general who is unfortunately now dead, so they're also near the front, though at least Ma'ar hasn't informed them of any irregularities related to that. They are in an unusually awkward position in terms of supplies because the Stelvi Gate was shut down when the pass was initially taken by Predain, and have also just lost their gryphon wings and have limited access to mages. 

General Judeth commands the Fifth Army and Iomedae has met her already. She's here on the map. They're on the front, still just barely hanging onto Korbast Pass, and they're currently rather desperately short on Mindspeakers to stay in communication. The remaining gryphon wings formerly allocated to the Sixth will be catching up with her soon, though in light of the ceasefire, possibly they should reconsider major gryphon movements? It spooks the Predain army. 

General Movat commands the Third Army, is...fine, if not brilliant, and is apparently some distance back from where Ma'ar thinks his closest units are. However, the Third Army has the complication of containing all the worshippers of Vkandis Sunlord, who especially hate irreligious Predain and one gets the sense this feeling is mutual. 

Iomedae is going to spend the day introducing herself to these people, hearing them out, admiring their work, humbly suggesting advice, problem-solving where it's welcome, emphasizing relentlessly that keeping the ceasefire is a necessary element of Tantara retaking its territory which she intends to help it do, and emphasizing just as relentlessly that while actual betrayal by Ma'ar will be met with his immediate destruction, a few idiots from Predain causing trouble in violation of the ceasefire is leverage for further negotiations not grounds to immediately start shooting back. She cannot solve literally all command problems today but she can try to make sure they won't explode during the crucial three day window and she can try to lay some groundwork to work with these people in the long run (she might instead replace them but you don't start diminishing your effort on someone you have not actually already replaced.)

They are, for the most part, happy to talk to her!

General Micherone makes a very good first impression. General Movat also does, actually, despite Urtho having apparently been less impressed; he's an intensely thorough, diligent, careful-thinking man, and has the best documentation of any of Urtho's generals on his forces and their logistics. He's on good terms with his Vkandis-worshipping mage units and doesn't expect trouble from that side. 

General Korad seems more optimistic about Tantara's situation than is really warranted and is thus unhappy about some of the conditions of the ceasefire seeming unnecessarily favorable to Predain - he has a bit of a snit about the fishing thing, those are Tantara's fish! - but he's not going to be near the front, and he's definitely very much on top of the work he actually needs to be doing, of making sure Tantaran forces are fed and supplied. 

General Polden seems overwhelmed and harried, and doesn't actually make a lot of time to talk to Iomedae, despite the fact that the unexpected presence of troops much closer than he was apparently aware of does seem like a major source of potential complications. 

General Shaiknam, on the other hand, is very polite and helpful, and immediately sets aside a full candlemark to speak with her. He assures her that after the separation of some of his 'problematic' units, he's confident in his troops' discipline, and they also shouldn't have to worry as much about hotheaded young gryphons daring each other to flout the aerial activity restrictions. Gryphons are awful. 

The day passes. Nothing else explodes. 

Luckily she can also work nights. Time to start drafting the proposals for peace talks. Not face to face at first, they can both send some representatives and see how that goes, but there should at least be people in the same room authorized to sign a sufficiently favorable deal. 

Also, time to meet some gryphons? And any representatives of the lizardfolk, actually, if they have an independent command structure. And she'd like to scrounge up some gifts she can bring with her when she returns north - blankets, food, that kind of thing - and write a very simple-language guide-to-deescalating-less-than-full-scale-incursions for each of the generals, recapitulating what she said in person.

And then she'll sleep.

The gryphon leader who everyone agrees she should talk to is currently leading a scouting party and will need to sleep after that but can meet her tomorrow morning. 

The hertasi will send a representative immediately! They're so helpful! The lizardfolk are entirely in noncombatant roles – they cook and do laundry and provide a lot of the non-magical medical care and are involved in caring for the gryphons, who need considerable help with their grooming and other personal hygiene since they lack hands.

Iomedae will also quickly learn that the hertasi, too, are a created race, though not by Urtho. A mage shortly before Urtho's time wanted a servant race. Whether creating one was ethical is not something the hertasi really address, but they seem very happy with their situation. They're also incredibly gossipy and can tell her so so much about the various generals if she likes, though it'll be overweighted toward their romantic lives. 

Iomedae wouldn't herself create a servitor race but she's hardly going to feel distaste around them. She's so happy for their help! She'd be delighted to learn about the generals, though not as much about anything they might've thought was between them and a lover; in her culture, that's private. She is more interested in what sorts of things they like and are good at, who on their staff really likes them and who just puts up with them, whatever happened between Shaiknam and his gryphons if the gryphons gossip about that, etcetera. Are they interested in things of Golarion? Dishes? Hairstyles? Fashions?

....They will reluctantly restrain themselves on the romance gossip, just, see, people's love lives are usually the most interesting thing about them. 

General Micherone is from a wealthy noble family and well-liked by nearly everyone. General Judeth is well-liked by everyone competent and diligent, and has also left behind a string of people with grievances; she holds her people to high standards and isn't shy about dressing them down if they fail to live up to her expectations. General Polden is discussed with fond exasperation; the hertasi are clearly covering for many weaknesses in his organization and thoroughness. General Movat, on the other hand, is adored by his hertasi, if not necessarily all of his human staff. General Shaiknam is, approximately, liked by everyone whose regard he cares about and disliked by literally everyone else; he's also highborn and, in the hertasi's honest opinion, much better at the politicking side of things than the military strategy side, and more concerned about his future career and promotions than about the people under his command. 

He seems to...not fully think of gryphons as intelligent people? Which, unsurprisingly, the gryphons hate. Gryphons are also not, well, particularly subtle or sophisticated in their politics, and so General Shaiknam's charm is wasted on them. 

They would like to hear EVERYTHING about Golarion! But especially the fashion! They love fashion! (From the way they talk about it, it sort of seems like they enjoy dressing up their favorite humans as though playing dolls.) 

In the morning, a messenger from Ma'ar arrives, alone and unarmed, and waits five hundred paces back on the far side of the dry stretch of river. She's a Mindspeaker, and can relay that she has instructions on how Urtho's people can contact the commanders of these several mercenary units, if they still want to do that. 

They do. Everyone who has ever worked with Ma'ar in any capacity, really. It's not as if he'd have stopped paying his mercenaries midway if he still had gold for them, but there are other signs, sometimes, of a person's character. 

She'll try to get those conversations set up, and she'll bring her gifts back north to the prison and explain that the ceasefire has been arranged and should go ahead in the morning.

A couple of the mercenary captains are willing to exchange letters. One is willing to send a delegate in person; one is willing to hold a conversation at range via a Mindspeaker relay. 

The Predain prisoners are so suspicious and do not really believe her about the ceasefire being a real thing. They're also pretty hesitant about touching the gifts. This is probably some kind of very confusing trick. 

It is not a high-trust culture, she's getting the sense. She won't dwell too much on it; she doesn't need them to believe her. Everyone is alive and well and there are no obvious indicators they've been mistreated since she left?

They seem fine, yeah, including the woman who spoke to her earlier, and who currently seemed to be focused on reassuring the other prisoners. She does, eventually, seem to decide that the blankets are probably safe, and gets one. 

Conversations with mercenaries can be arranged for later in the morning. For now, does she want to meet with Skandranon, the lead spokesperson for the gryphons? 

(The ceasefire should now be in effect. She has yet to hear of anything going terribly wrong.) 

She'd like to talk to the representative for the gryphons, then, yeah. Though she'd like Urtho to interrupt her if anything even slightly weird happens.

She can get a Gate to his location, then! 

Most of the gryphons are brown with various markings, but Skandranon's feathers are glossy jet black. On his hind legs, he towers over her, and his beak is as wide across as her entire torso. 

He speaks perfectly comprehensible Tantaran, albeit with a sibilant accent. The hertasi will translate for him without difficulty. 

He says that he is honored to meet such a skilled warrior as he understands Iomedae is, and would like to someday hear tales of her exploits in battle, but will (reluctantly) put that aside until after they've crushed Predain. What does she want to know? 

What the gryphons are like, what they have contributed to the war, what they want from the peace, how they like Tantara, whether they're appreciated, whether they understand why there's a ceasefire and will respect it, and then they can absolutely talk about exploits in battle, it's good to get to know the people you're working with, though she's concealing most of her capabilities from Predain's no-doubt-numerous spies.

Gryphons love flying and love fighting (and, if Skandranon is a typical example, definitely love bragging and showing off.) He comes across as brash and impulsive and very high on bravado, compared to the humans she's met. 

Gryphons like Tantara! They especially like Urtho, their creator, who is brilliant and always treated them well except for that one thing where he kept it secret from them how females could become fertile to breed, because he wanted executive control over all their breeding choices. Skan stole the spell from him, though! And he apologized! So they're all friends again now. Some people don't appreciate gryphons. Those people are idiots. Everyone who's not an idiot thinks gryphons are great, since they are. 

Skandranon is...honestly very dubious about the ceasefire, because Ma'ar is a horrible person and is probably going to break it in the first candlemark, and he's really annoyed about the restrictions on flight, but he has been given clear orders and General Judeth is not an idiot and does adequately appreciate gryphons and so he's willing to listen to her. 

And then he'll brag about his exploits in battle! Gryphons do, in fact, seem to be unusually bloodyminded and violence-seeking, if Skandranon's rather gruesome and gory stories are a good example to go on. He's so excited about it, though. He bounces. 

Well, it's not like she can't match him for stories, warning him in advance that she's changing some details so it's harder to guess things about her. 

(If some of her soldiers are gryphons, she will learn to be a good commander to gryphons; people aren't all the same, but they all matter, and there would be a place in a good world for all of them. And it's not as if there aren't some terrifyingly bloodthirsty people of any race you care to name.)

The gryphons are definitely going to get along with her, if she appreciates them like that! Skandranon warms to her very quickly. 

And then it's time to talk to the mercenaries. The relayed-Mindspeech conversation is the most useful, but they all give the same general impression. 

They like Ma'ar. He's not perfect, but he's straightforward – Predain folk are in general, no tricky diplomacy, they'll just talk straight with you – and he tried hard, at the beginning, to be scrupulously honest about what he would be asking of them and what he could realistically offer in return. They haven't always been paid on time, and sometimes were paid in-kind when they were expecting coin, but he warned them this was likely to come up, and offered to pay more upfront such that they would still be happy about the deal. The contracts don't pay as well as they would usually look for, Predain is poor, but Ma'ar is a genius with magic, and offered to kit them out with specialized shield-talismans and camp wards and other protective artifacts. Not just as loans for the duration of the war, either, they can keep the stuff. 

He has very good situational awareness and 'street smarts', but he's in some ways inexperienced in large-scale inter-state war, facing a well-organized army. He's certainly inexperienced in diplomacy and not very sophisticated at it, and one could argue that his decisiveness occasionally verges on rashness. The implication is that he's leaning rather hard on being a genius at magic, and while he's certainly not as good as Urtho, he's better at coming up with creatively ruthless approaches to win battles with clever use of obscure spells or artifacts rather than with numerical superiority. He hates killing people if he could put compulsions on them instead, which is...nonstandard, to say the least. 

But he doesn't give them stupid missions, and he does respect their expertise and seek their advice. He's not careless with their lives; a lot of kings and generals would rather put mercenaries in the most dangerous positions rather than their own people, but if anything Ma'ar does the opposite. He always listens to their disputes with his decisionmaking and to their grievances, and he even demoted one of his commanders after they registered complaints that the man was impossible to work with. 

(And meanwhile, reports from Urtho on 'any weirdness': General Polden was late on a scheduled report, but Urtho had his people follow up and it seems like everything is fine and their timekeeping was just unreliable. General Micherone's people found some apparently-starving Predain civilians in the woods and are honestly very confused about how they got there and why and would like advice. Some young gryphons were giving each other dares and kiiiiind of violated the 'six thousand paces' rule but were ordered back before they actually got close to the dividing line. Nothing else unexpected has happened; Ma'ar's side is being very very scrupulous about the aerial restrictions.)