Setting up the stations themselves is no big deal; I'm going with the “big circle” paradigm, so it's a swift action cast the spell for the keep, a full round to cast the Magic Circle Spell (Knowledge (Geography) gets enough of a “reliable description” to target it for public areas like the roads outside of towns), a swift action for an Illusory Wall spell with appropriate information for the site (where the town is, which town, where the next section goes, and so on), step through as a move action, a standard action to restore the spent resolve point, and repeat. The stone keeps, Teleportation Circles, recharge, and Illusory Wall signs all average about six seconds per set. The staff summons (which I make first, as I have to observe the srea for a minute before I can make the keeps) take longer. I make fourteen for each facility: Two visible, twelve not... but unlimited metamagic with reach spell and chain spell speeds things up too by letting me buff a baker's dozen of my summons at once... which means with breaks to check up on Last Shadow and our eggs, I have the network set up in a few days. A couple of postings in taverns frequented by traveling merchants at each city listing what and where, and we're in business… theoretically:

  It's three days before we get our first customer.

  Forty six crowns for getting a dozen horses loaded up with spices, plus three handlers, the merchant herself, and six guards from one end of civilization to the other in just one day of travel. She spends three days in that town, and comes back with fifteen horses, four handlers, and eight guards for another fifty-eight crowns (this time for the rest of the party, because we charge for entering the network, not leaving)… and every time she stops at a town, more merchants start coming through… as well as simple travelers and guild members… and anywhere they go, more start coming: The magic of word of mouth.

  It's not all sunshine and roses, though. On day eight, my minions report that they fended off an incursion of bandits. On nine, a small army. On day ten…

  “Sir, we're losing,” one of my summons fgs me mentally.

  I cast Greater Invisibility followed by Greater Teleport, and arrive a hundred feet over the tower. I look down and see… okay, yes, we're losing. My minions are outnumbered by about a hundred to one. The massed archers aren't getting through the damage reduction from my Augmented Mythic Barkskin when they manage to figure out where the invisible archers are shooting from… but the ballista and trebuchets are certainly doing damage to the building. I spend a minute just watching (and yes, there's a reason): This has to be the most mismatched, cobbled-together army I've ever seen: Any uniforms that exist are limited to maybe a dozen people, but almost nobody is in uniform. Everyone here is a martial type, of course: We're outside the range of dungeon support… which doesn't matter for me.

  So this will be really one-sided.

  The same volume that contains The Small Stronghold spell I'm using for the keeps also contains a spell that's perfect for this: Summon Monstrous Horde. It's basically Summon Monster II (which is very, very weak), except that it summons twenty five creatures… per caster level. It also requires I study the area for a minute before casting it… which is done now. Four quick castings gets me twelve hundred Small Air Elementals. They're not buffed up, but what I want is the numbers. I give them telepathic orders, “Take down the attacking humanoid army, do not allow escapees. Fight nonlethally; I want prisoners for interrogation. Once no opponents are left conscious, return here for further orders.”

  I watch as they obediently follow instructions. They're individually outcssed, and are currently just barely outnumbered… but I have no apparent limits to my casting. I simply keep repeating the same spell and giving the same orders. In a matter of minutes, the battle is won by sheer numbers… and the only possible escapees are those who fled under stealth: Air elementals are faster than any unaugmented humanoid, and magic doesn't work here.

  Hmm… the tome that one came from had notes about researching better versions… I should probably do that soon, so I have better minions avaible for this kind of thing ter.

  The battle over, I dismiss all the air elementals, and head down to the field. I have at least an hour before the first of the soldiers wake up on their own, so I pick one basically at random. I cast Dominate Person, confirm it sticks, and follow up with Cure Light Wounds to wake him up. I then start giving orders.

  I start with, “Stand up and then do nothing but answer questions I put to you until I contradict this order.”

  I watch as he stands, and I start asking questions, starting with the one foremost in my mind, “Why did you attack this pce?”

  He responds, looking around for me, a bit gssy eyed, compelled by my technically-not-magic spell, “I don't want to starve.”

  …not the motive I was expecting. “What do you mean by that? How does attacking this pce solve starvation?”

  He continues, looking around in confusion at the sourceless commands in his head, “I'm a caravan guard… or at least I was. This pce is putting me out of business: The merchants are all going to finish up their entire annual routes in a couple of weeks and have little need to do business for months… how am I going to keep myself fed when my bread and butter job suddenly only needs me for a month a year? The pce has to go.”

  Oh. Huh. Umm… I didn't mean to… wait a minute: It's going to take months for trade to die down, and that only due to ck of materials… which the faster trade itself is going to fix… especially because few merchants will just sit doing nothing. Gigs will be shorter, but he should be able to just book with the next merchant if he doesn't want to wait for his current one to finish trading in a given town. This shouldn't be an actual problem. Unless… “Did you figure that out entirely yourself, or did you come to that conclusion while someone was discussing it with you?”

  The man frowns through the control spell, “While discussing it. I was talking with my buddies over a beer, and this nice chap started compining about the plight of caravan guards now that travel is so easy… he was so convincing…”

  Yeah… this is starting to make more sense… “When and where? Also, describe him, please.”

  I get the description, time, and pce, then put him back to sleep (by hitting him with an Admonishing Ray spell), Dismiss the Dominate spell, pick another downed opponent a hundred yards away, and have the same conversation. Then another, and another, and another. I stop when the first of the poor pawns start staggering to their feet on their own: I have a clear enough picture at that point.

  I summon another few thousand small Air Elementals, tell them to hold position in the sky, and cast a spell called Mage's Decree seven times to broadcast a message to all of the soldiers, and hang around to repeat it as more recover, “As you can see, most of you are alive: I didn't particurly feel like sughtering pawns… which is what those attacking me are. Some idiot hired a bunch of smooth talking folks to lead many to false conclusions: Namely, that my business is liable to put caravan guards out of work. Now, while I'm certainly going to change how such work goes… they'll ultimately get more of it: The merchants aren't going to just stop trading for months on end because they can now do their normal route in a month: They're going to find new routes and do more trading, moving more and more valuable goods… for which they're still going to need guards as the bandits risk getting closer to town. They're going to be fine. Well… unless they cross me again. The next time this happens I will forward everyone to the gentle embrace of The Comforter. Now solfiers: Take your wounded comrades and go.”

  It's a fun spell. I only get twenty-five words per casting, but I can recast it as needed and set it to give every humanoid in twelve miles the same message…which yes, includes the nearby town. The full range isn't required: I could easily have limited it to just a few miles to cover the battlefield… but I want the civilians to know. I want, especially, whoever concocted the scheme to know how poorly it went, even before the scouts and spies get back with the troops... and yes, they're going. They were just soundly beaten, and I have a big army of the same sort that did it simply flying at attention over the battlefield. They aren't going to try anything when I'm offering them quarter, and the few that might will be taken down by their more sane companions… and they all spread word that these travel stations are not to be messed with.

  Which is good, as I have some work to do tracking down the schemer.

  As I organize my thoughts on exactly how I pn to go about it, my uncle whispers in my ear, “Good show overall, although I am a little iffy about being used as a threat like that…”

  “Sorry Uncle.”

  “...but that's not why I'm contacting you. Would you like to know what your mother picked for your eleventh level?”