"Then we should begin a strategy meeting now, as long as that is ok with you." I say.

  The dwarves briefly discuss the idea and then give sent to begin.

  "I'm thinking that despite the numerical disadvantage, we do have other advahat we should py into. First, we have the advantage of secred information. The other side's pn is at least partially uood, whereas our pns should be easy to keep hidden. Sed, we're a mountainous volid. That means that they first have to get here across the water, which be taken advantage of, then also siege the beaches, and finally, actually find us in the forests and cliffs. The third advantage is pretty simple, but we're pying on our home turf so we ily should have some informational advantage while fighting."

  After Shasta transtes for me, Kao sits ihought for a few minutes, as does everyone else. Eventually, Kao is the first to speak up.

  "I 't deny that this isnd would be easier to defend than mine, but I'm not willing to simply throw my isnd away, and potentially give the other side a staging grounds for attag here."

  "What of the other two isnds between here and your isnd? Could they not also be staging grounds?"

  "They could, but it'd take extra work, and I don't know that for an army of that size, it would be feasible to spend that long on those isnds. The only reason mine works is because it is already set up to send and receive ships."

  We all sit for another mihinking about this problem, before an idea es to me.

  "What if we removed that as an option for them?"

  "How would you io do that? I'm not going to sabotage all my own infrastructure, they could just repair it."

  "We don't o sabotage it, we simply o make it unfavorable for them to want to use it. What if you pretend to stay ral in the flibsp; Say that 'Given the circumstances, you won't aid us, but given your military agreements, it would be dishonorable to assist them.' It would be even more effective if they believe your armies could attack them bae, especially if their armies are already out here."

  "It could work, but it'd require that I send my troops home, in order to py up to the fact that we're not participating in the fli either side."

  "Is it possible to rey false informatioed to where your troops are?"

  "Perhaps. Though I'd o think for a moment..."

  Kao pauses in thought for a few minutes befiving an idea.

  "It'd be risky, but if we only send back half of the troops, I think I could pull the wool over the eyes of any spies. What I'd do is send all the boats back, but only half the troops, and have the full boats unload at my normal unloading location at one of our coastal cities. The almost empty boats would go to some of my more remote garrisons and appear to be unloading and reloading cargo, but would actually be smuggling most of the garrison onto the ship. Then those ships would go and unload the garrison in the normal location. Then I'd have to shuffle my troops around, which I'd want to do anyway to appear to be positioning for a ter attack should Rathnd decide to attack me."

  "Pardon if this is rude, but what if you have spies within those garrisons, among your own men, or the men here? A spiracy is quite hard to keep secret, after all."

  "Well, most of the men won't know. I'll simply tell the men that we'll be staging our return to different locations, then half the ships, when out of eyesight of the others, will return here, rather than the mainnd. They'll unload the men here, theurn to do the cargo run. The individuals at the garrisons will simply be told they're moving assig in preparation for the uping potentiality of flict, but that we're ed about their relocation information being leaked, so they o be tight lipped. Anyone who leaks information will be lead to think its because we're attempting to stay ral. The only people in on the spiracy are in this room now. Though, to keep up the appearance, I'll have to be one of the individuals to leave."

  "Then who would lead your troops?"

  Kao nods to two of the other dwarves he brought with him.

  "Atatuk Ostark will return with Karta Debroik, and they'll lead my troops in my absence."

  I raised an eyebrow, "A retive?"

  "ion, recall how we gain our names..." Shasta replies without transting.

  Oh. Right. Their st names are for the location they were born. Wait. I hadn't thought of this before but then would any dwarves born here bear the st name Kembora? I shake my head to drive the thought away, now isn't the time to be thinking of matters like this.

  "Alright, so a portion of your men will return. Would it be possible to smuggle extra supplies to the isnd, or purchase them without too much hassle? I'm mainly ed with explosives, gunpowder preferably. Part of the strategy I'm starting to think about involves the cept of 'defense ih'. Fallback position upon fallback position to retreat to, each time attempting to take minimal losses while frustrating our oppo and bleeding them dry of resources. They 't afford to spend weeks or months fighting here, they won't have the food to supply a rge army easily here."

  "It might be a double edged sword to directly acquire additional gunpowder. If tries that are thinking about stayiral see you buying a bunch of gunpowder, they might resider their rality."

  "What if we only bought the sulfur?"

  "It'd be a bit less risky, but there would still be some risk."

  "Before we do that then, I'd like to sult with Konkur. Given these isnds are volic, I'd expect that there are sulfur deposits somewhere, but I haven't found any. If we find that, then we make our own gunpowder. If Konkur has insight, then I'd rather not risk it."

  "A wise decision. Given the already rge disparity in bat force sizes, ara enemies could prove fatal."

  "Moving to the opic, I am looking to get some historical information from you, if you know of it. Do you know why you travel to these isnds in winter only?"

  "Why, I ot say, but when the eagles first came here in winter a few years ago, and we sent an expeditionary force out, it was expected to be eaten by leviathans. Surprisingly, they returned back to inform us that yroup was here, and you'd taken hostages. We gathered troops to set out, and by then it was te spring. One of the four ships was eaten by a leviathan, so we turned babsp; We then waited, biding our time tain if any eagles set out. Sure enough, year another did, and so we followed. We've siermihat in winter, for whatever reason, the leviathans don't seem to be located between here and the mainnd."

  "Is there any historical reason or ats of people trying to sail out this way during winter and being fine?"

  "If they did, it would have been a long, long time ago. Everyone knows, or I suppose khat the waters outside the tis were deadly. There are tales of attempted expeditioing out in the early days of the demon invasions, but they never returned."

  "This is just a hunch, but there are a few too many ces for me to believe that it isn't ected, I think that the rge crystals like ParTor are the reason for the leviathans not being present in winter, although the exact meism and why it is only in winter, I'm unsure of. In the year before the first eagles travelled was when I pleted the first rge crystal and installed it within our vilge. If that is the reason the leviathans don't seem to show up, then I'm suggesting that we actually move both the new crystal on this isnd and the one we presented you with deep underground, avoiding as much tact with the ground as possible during the eighth month of year, and leaving them there through winter. I'm hoping that we maybe use the leviathans to our advantage and cull part of the ships before they even arrive."

  "An iing proposal. How certain are you that this will work in some way?"

  "Better than 50%, but not by mubsp; It's just something that we try that might increase our odds of winning, so I want to try it. Then, e spring time, if we succeed on this isnd, we'll install the crystal again as you on the mainnd. If we fail, well, you'll be free to do as you please with it, I suppose."

  "Well, that sounds like it would probably be worth the risk then. Are there any other ceptual things we should discuss, or should we start the actual detailed pnning process now?"

  "I think we start with the detailed pnning now."