They react quickly… the Druid and Wizard cast spells, the fighter draws and charges, while the ranger draws and fires his bow. The arrows arrive first, making a pincushion of my summoned minion… but he lives. The fighter's sword swing, however, finishes the creature off, causing it to vanish back whence it came in a purple fold of space.

  The man in green leathers goes first,“A summon?” He's speaking Elvish.

  “Not from any spell I recognize…” the man in robes responds simirly.

  “Then we have the right pce,” the nominally unarmed man I have pegged as a Druid adds.

  “Eh… that could have been a regur summon with a Polymorph applied…” the heavily armed one rubs his chin.

  I repeat the summon and Greater Magic Aura combination, and interrupt, “That was pointless. Are you going to actually answer my question?”

  They again kill the summon with arrows and bdes rather than answering.

  The Wizard frowns deeply, “There's no Scrying sensor, it has to be direct observation…” and looks at the Druid.

  “There's nobody here but us,” the Druid joins the frown, and gnces at the man I presume is a ranger.

  “They must be good at hiding,” he shakes his head, “I'm not….”

  I repce the summon, this time using one of my “adventures” from the Conjuration Sphere… because those maintain their state when they're not summoned, which lets me keep them pre-buffed, “This one should be a little more durable,” I add telepathically.

  They test that, of course. The Druid tries Sunbeam (it produces a bst of searing hot light that can blind people forever) while the Wizard tries Finger of Death (it deals a lot of damage). I counterspell both. The Ranger and Fighter find they can't nd a blow as they cut loose with arrows and sword swings.

  I continue chatting as they fail to harm my minion, whom I order to focus on dodging for now, “Yeah, so… you have a professional army: That means you're paying them. We clearly have something you want.”

  The Wizard tries casting again; I simply Counterspell again. The Druid confirms his css by Wildshaping into a giant animated pitcher pnt with tentacles and joining the fighter in being completely useless in melee.

  I proceed with stripping them of their assortment of long-term spells and disabling their magic items as I continue chatting, “Now, if you tell me your actual goals here… not just the immediate task…”

  As they continue to ignore me, filing uselessly… oh, hey, he got a hit in; eh, Regeneration and Fast Healing will take care of it… I shrug, “Fine…” I cast Fabricate for some closable bottles, then Smokey Confinement with Reach spell, Twin Spell, Persistent Spell, and Chain Spell twice. Eight saves each, and if they don't pass them all… well, none of them do: All four are converted to smoke and drawn into the bottles, which I close. They'll keep: They're unaware and ageless as long as the bottles stay intact and closed. I drop them off in my Warp Storage… I'll need to think about how and when to open them. In the meanwhile, though, I need to dispose of an army.

  And they're on my home turf.

  I head out and zip around the army, casting my new Summon Monstrous Horde spell (with Invisible Spell metamagic, just to mess with people) every hundred feet or so far enough away that they don't immediately know they're surrounded, issuing an order to them to hold for now as I summon each set. I take my time; I mean, an army takes some time to dig in and one sieging a city over a thousand miles from any others isn't going to be overly concerned about getting fnked… and especially not by an army of Invisible Branis (they're Chaotic Good Outsiders that look a lot like elven archers with silver white hair and eyes of swirling color… when they're not balls of wind and mist shooting lightning bolts). They make good choices for the summoning spell because: One, they can fly, so I can summon them in mid air (important when the spell requires they all be no more than a hundred feet away from any other at the time of summoning, each takes a five foot space, and I'm getting three hundred twenty-five per casting). Two, they have ranged attacks (specifically composite longbows, which have very good range) which pairs well with their natural flight. Three, they have some minor healing capabilities if anyone asks for quarter. Finally, they're NOT EVIL which is important for when they're not operating with sufficiently specific orders… which is a given with this number of them.

  Once the invading army is properly surrounded and outnumbered, I start spamming Mage's Decree, to talk at the invading army:

  “Hello invaders,” I begin for the soldiers,“I've already captured your commanders, and I have you surrounded by invisible archers. I am going to order them into action shortly. Anyone who does NOT y down their arms and surrender unconditionally will be killed.” No, I don't expect them to beleive my word on the matter: I expect most of them to die in the initial volley.

  Next up I cast the same Mage's Decree spell, this time addressing my Branis: “Shoot at any humanoid you find outside the wall of the city who is carrying or operating a visible weapon until such time as they drop their weapons, get away from weapons they're operating but not carrying, or until they die. You may heal any opponent that seems to be legitimately surrendered or surrendering.” Branis are decent archers. I mean, they're only rated at a “CR” of six, but they're shooting at grunts, sergants, and the occasional lieutenant… and my forces outnumber their targets, plus they're all invisible. It's a sughter.

  But at least it's over in a few seconds.

  I survey the enemy camp after: Broken arrows everywhere, lots of dead and dying bodies, the occasional soldier that's completely untouched, their weapons on the ground at their feet, a terrified look on their faces… nightmare fuel. Just as well I don't sleep.

  My uncle speaks in my head as I go, “War's never pretty.”

  “Downright sickening,” I agree, “is this going to be a problem?”

  “Not in a moral sense, no,” he answers, “you killed professional soldiers who were actively engaged in an act of war, and used your chosen weapon in a way that would only target soldiers. Technically you struck first, but they demonstrated intent clearly enough, so…” I get the impression of a shrug, “I'm not going to do any scolding.”

  “With the sheer numbers of deaths, I'm guessing… “

  “You leveled up, yes,” my sponsor completes, “Setting aside simple numbers progressions: First off, continued spellcasting. You're up to native sixth level spells…”

  As Uncle C trails off, I fill in, “...so seventh with tricks.”

  “Indeed,” the actually bck man keeps going, “Your mother also set you up with Uncanny Dodge; that will prevent you from being surprised or ft-footed the vast majority of the time, so you're basically always going to be able to use your immediate action spells.”

  “So I'll always be able to throw out an Emergency Force Sphere…” I consider, “...which is good for blocking anything incoming.”

  “That's the big one, yes,” my uncle agrees, “it'll stop most things cold. The next item up is called Bloodlust…. despite the name, what it does is always let you act in a surprise round, and let you use Charisma in addition to Dexterity for your initiative.”

  “So I'll pretty much always go first.”

  “Especially when combined with Divine Providence,” Death chuckles, “If someone else moves before you… well, I'd suggest running. Your mother is very good at this kind of thing, so if someone is beating her at that game… well. Last item of note is the feat, and he went with Extra Lineage Domain for the Monkey domain; that in turn grants the abulity to summon a monkey familiar - your mother made note that this will qualify you for Improved Familiar for something elseand Evolved Familiar to improve upon it - a limited bonus to certain skills, and the ability to work with Disable Device and Sleight of Hand at a small distance for light objects."

  “Another pet, huh? What should I get…” Hmm… I mean, I don't actually need another pet… most I can just make with other spells as needed. Still… may as well.

  “Anything that gets Commune natively,” my sponsor replies, “Preferably an Arbiter from my service, but a Cassian with a humanoid form option from their Alternate Form ability or a Silvanshee topped off with Shapechanger's Gift will also work well. Load your choice up with your regur buffs plus additional skill boosters via Evolved Familiar, give it a library of scrolls for Use Magic Device, and have it check in with me once a week via Commune to make sure you're okay.”

  I pause, “You pnned for that question, didn't you?”

  “After speaking with your mother,” he admits.

  I chuckle, “Still… it is a solid pn, and I don't have any better ideas for the feature. I'll get right on that… after I figure out what I'm going to do with half an army.”

  “More like a tenth… most didn't have time to react to everyone suddenly dying around them. You have the particurly lucky soldiers, the particurly durable soldiers, and the entire baggage train to sort out.” Uncle C's voice starts to fade from my head, “Be seeing you.…”

  I use Mage's Decree to order my invisible army to round everyone and everything up into a small area by the main gate of the town. While they're working on that, I get to work updating buffs. I have myself, ARMOR, CAR, my ship, Last Shadow, the summoned adventures, the mounts… and I need to add some more buffs to my list to get my target familiar, and then buff that....