"The more problems I can solve here, the more problems Lastwall can solve for all Golarion."

"...May Iomedae guide you in her steps, Watch-Commander."

And now, she has to figure out what even would be most useful for Weaver.  Without particularly good models of her skillset!

This is not a good thing!

On the other hand, getting to raid the oddball items stash is exciting; you never know what you'll find in there.  Lastwall is surprisingly good at looting the bodies, for Lawful Good.

...Fuck it, she'll call on the mirror; it's not revealing anything that's not already exposed.

A polite cough comes from the mirror Ophelia handed Taylor, and an image of her face forms upon it.  "It occurs to me that I have not ascertained what weapons you know how to wield, and what armor you know how to wear.

"As this is rather important to the matter of equipping you with appropriate gear, I must therefore ask you about it."

("I always draw an audience", Gord remarks, "no need to wonder what brought her here", and begins packing away his portable pyramid of skulls.)

"I wasn't talking to you, Gord."

That is...a good question, actually.

"I know how to use the knife I have, though it's - complicated, presently something I can't maintain, and easily-broken, especially when I use certain features."  All of them, but no-one needs to know that.  "It cuts through anything physical, though.  I also know how to fight with a baton, and unarmed.  I mostly rely on field control, however."

A whisper from her familiar mirror, earlier that morning, surfaces, as if waiting for its cue.  "The bloom that endures upon the battlefield is the most beautiful of all."

"Can you use a proper mace?"

"I wouldn't say I've kept in practice, but I know the theory."

Then onto her list a (cold iron, as every possible weapon they can get is) enduring bloom goes.  What else...

...Really, it's surviving that she needs to optimize for, here.

And that is something Lastwall knows how to do.

And avoiding mind control?  That is the Watch Commander's specialty, practically.

That and leading forces to accomplish feats they rightly shouldn't.

"Quartermaster.  I have a writ from the Watch-Commander to equip a strategic asset."  She produces a badge of authority, impresses upon it her allied adventurer status.  Hands it to the quartermaster, watches as he confirms the badge's metal actually shifted.  Makes it work again while he's touching it.  Watches him confirm that the badge works.

(There's normally one chained to the desk, but as no-one's yet been able to spoof their effect to the requisite degree, if an adventurer can prove they have one they're authorized to use it.  She got hers from someone who very much did not deserve to have the authority he was allowed.)

With identity satisfied, and the writ carefully examined...

...The Quartermaster lets out a low whistle.  "Don't tell me what we're doing, I don't need to know, but the commander really must think whatever you're doing is important.  Don't suppose you have measurements, if'n you're looking for heavy armor."

"I do not think I am, thankfully; the threat I am expecting to not be successfully avoided without supplementary equipment is teleportative assassination.  And enchantment effects.  Unfortunately the solution to this cannot be 'be ready to teleport away swiftly', at least not on the scale of teleport, or I'd have already asked if you have the boots.  Shorter-range displacements will not pose the same problem, but - well, the commander works with tactical-scale persistent effects often enough that I imagine you can imagine what having made an enchantment strategic-scale would do, from what she doesn't plan.  Once she's hit her target, she has to stay on the field of battle, awake and alive as possible, or things go directly to shit.  Assume there are similar constraints."

"...So if'n we're looking for survivability - an', I'm assuming you're equipping a caster?  What sorta restrictions are they operatin' under, armor-wise?"

She closes her eyes for six seconds.

"Weaver.  If you were given enchanted armor or a shield, would you know how to use them."

"...I've handled a shield before but not extensively; I have yet to find armor that's better at keeping me alive in a fight than what I have and in fact have been commissioned to make equipment like mine for others, before, but I could probably make some adjustments to incorporate magic armor, if it's good.  Why?"

"Well, Lastwall's field command is rather invested in making sure you don't die on them, or get subverted, considering what you could do, and are planning to do."

"...I see."

...She's expecting another shoe to drop any minute now, at this point.  This authority is being too reasonable.

If only Ophelia could see inside her mind right now.  Unfortunately, she hadn't expected to need to do that this morning - damn that demon and his penchant for surprise meetings - and she hasn't had time since the ritual, really.

Regardless, she has what she needs.

"Light armor, preferentially.  That, or - something that could be inset into an existing..."  She'll produce a mockup of some of the chitinous chest panels she saw.  "If you have such, pieces about yay size.  I don't believe that a standard shield would be useful, considering that there wasn't one they bothered to carry, but I suppose if you have something that's not as unwieldy, or has spell resistance, the person I'm equipping has some idea how to use one.

"The problem isn't the armor so much as the magic - or rather the armor's lack thereof.  Though I'd hazard a helmet would be rather a boon.  And, hmm, if you have cold iron clawed gauntlets, I believe they have a good idea of how to use sharp objects on their fingers.  Not that I think that it would be a good idea for them to try, so...hm.  Strike that, possibly.  Regardless.  I'd appreciate the benefit of Lastwall's expertise."

It's odd, the way you can get most of the particularly devoted Lastwallers to shine by framing their actions as not done to their own credit but their collective's.  Still, she'll take every edge she can get, here.  To do something as ambitious as retaking a demon-held city...

She's no battlefield commander, but she knows demons; they'll need every edge they can get.  She won't be surprised if they have to kill a balor, and not just kill a balor, but kill it by themselves, because Mendev's head is still up their ass and Lastwall hasn't found a fifth-circle Desnan.  And the less time spent on considering how helpful Cheliax would be, the more time she'll waste on considering more likely possibilities like divine intervention.

...She is not yet prepared to kill a balor.  Oh, she'd make a random example work for it, don't get her wrong, but even metamagically-Widened wreath of blades with nullifying demon-bane mithral daggers only gets her so far, leaving aside the way they have an inherent ability to dispel magic.  She'll have to spend too many limited resources keeping them occupied, and unless someone in this fortress is capable of pulling an army out of their pocket whenever they want...she'll run out of spells before the balor runs out of "not exploding in a ball of unholy fire".

Even if she successfully hits them with enervates and her kiss, she's not there yet.

And that's not even taking into account the possibility that they'll be up against someone like Khorramzadeh.

She's seen him fight, once, in memories; she does not wish to see him fight again.  Much less if he's aimed at her this time.

Well.  Sourcing and using an army that can kill balors will have to be Weaver's job.

The quartermaster busies himself picking a selection of magic items out of storage that would have him boggling if he was less professional.  Meanwhile...

...Diana Pallas is gathering her troops.  Or rather, her command team.  There's important business to discuss.

Her Inquisitor already knows quite a lot of this; she was in the room when Ophelia explained it the first time, after all.  Still, she shows up to the meeting,  It would not do to let her guard or aura down now of all times.

The representative of the alchemists and other crafts that are supplied from Lastwall's efforts is abuzz with both curiosity and concern as she valiantly tries to stay in her seat, fidgeting with some clockwork.  She wasn't in the middle of brewing anything when she was interrupted, thank goodness, because whatever Diana's up to, it seems important.

The other member of Diana's war council that is neither under her sole command or Abadaran, Kalara Sunaph of the Pathfinder Society, is already dressed for a trip outside.  Then again, she's almost always dressed for a trip outside, because frankly it's hard to be underdressed for even absurd weather when you're mostly pottery.  Hard, though not, alas, impossible, given the temperatures winters reach - but right now, it's coming up on spring.

There is one man on this council who has a job more fraught than Diana's, and it is the commander of the scouting forces, who is their first resort when something goes wrong and a demon escapes the containment line.  He's quick to arrive, when called, but he never stops looking out of the corner of his eye for invisible demons.  He seems to calm down a bit when the cat with a small gem orbiting its head curls up in the corner to watch the proceedings, however.

It is also he who calls for the meeting to start, before the narration can get through the rest of Diana's war-council.

"We're all here, Commander.  What's so important that you need all of us in one place, rather than using the usual methods?"  Conferenced singly-linked magic mirrors, he means.  (For while Cheliax has many more wizards per capita, it is Lastwall that has more dedicated artisans, those willing to spend sweat of their brow for items others will best use, rather than they - and the support they receive from Osirion and certain Alkenstar factions that allows them to turbocharge production of various needful things, and sometimes obviate demand for others nigh-entirely.)