Rayne remained silent through most of the conference, listening, while glancing through the dragon statistics they had cobbled together, and considering her own abilities.  Some of the discussion involved things rather above her pay grade - she'd never been a powerful enough caster to use the scrying/teleporting tactic... and as a player, Rae-lynne had always preferred the methodical approach of working through a dungeon rather than taking a shortcut to the end.  But things were different here and now... they didn't have the luxury to go slowly.<br/><br/>As the debating characters turned her way and grew quiet, Rayne coughed, ordering her thoughts.  There had been such good points on all sides...<br/><br/>"While I feel rescuing the players is our real goal, Telathrax already has a pretty sizeable army.  Surely if we deprive him of his breeders, he'll make the effort to whip at least a portion of them into attacking us... lending his own strength to the assault at his leisure, and presumably in the dark of night.  He can choose the moment of his attack, and the manner.  He has to get into missile range to use his breath weapon, but I'm not sure the fort gives us enough defensive advantage to offset the benefits of having the right buffs and attacking at our chosen moment, when he hasn't gathered his most powerful forces... and some of our best fighters are built for melee.  And yet... at least here, we know the ground.  Who knows what surprises might be at his disposal in his lair?"  She sighed.  "It seems, if we have the strength to defeat the dragon, then we can free the prisoners.  If not - then I think we can't free them in any lasting sense, as he can come here and take them back.  But we have no choice but to make the attempt, and soon."<br/><br/>She took another deep breath.  "And I have to admit... I don't know all your capabilities, but from what I see here, I don't think much of my own ability to harm such a powerful dragon.  Offensive spells are out for me, of course, with all of that spell resistance.  I can provide acid resistance to six... but then I figure I'd only be able to hit him perhaps one time out of 4.  Less, if his darkness interferes.  Or if his fear affects me.  Or several other ways he can make himself a more difficult target.  So ..."  she looked at the others, and realized that she wasn't helping in any way.  "... so, we need to prepare in every way possible.  I'd use bleeding arrows, so any hits would at least continue to sap him.  And perhaps some potions ... darkvision would be helpful.  Remove fear?  Anything else we can scrounge up."<br/><br/>"I do have one question: will that teleportation circle work both ways, so we could shuttle prisoners out through it?  And use it as a means of retreat?  Perhaps we should jump in, loaded for b-... for dragon, pulling the prisoners out but then pressing on and trying to get the advantage.  Even one round of surprise would be a huge help.  We could even have some other players stage a diversion in some of the sewers, to draw away attention and minions."  Of course, that depended on being able to slip the prisoners back out through the circle, presumably to lower-level players waiting to shuttle them from the bazaar to the fort.<br/><br/>"Actually, one more ... is there any hope that we could release the prisoners without immediately causing an alarm to reach Telathrax?"  Ishtar might be able to answer that, having been actually in that part of the sewers.