I did not head directly to Covern House. Instead, I went to Eldro’s Magic shop. I planned on making a quick stop to pick up more tomes and magic ink. I would need these to ensure I could teach the spells. The two tomes I had with that spell still had magic in them, but I didn’t know how long it would last.

  Eldro’s shop was open, and I went right in. He, as always, was behind the counter.

  “Welcome Young Master Trevor. What may I see you today?” he said with a smile.

  “To start, I need 8 tomes and 4 wells of your finest magical ink.” I answered.

  Eldro telekinetically brought the tomes from a shelf to the counter. He did the same thing from the ink. “Here you go. You did say my finest ink, right?” Eldro was happy because this was going to be expensive. Expensive for me, not him that is.

  “Eldro. I have bad news. There is a powerful monster wave coming. I am going to be teaching my Minor Healing spell to some mages tomorrow morning at Covern House. If you are willing to help at the healing stations I will be setting up, you can come and learn the spell. You don’t have to fight, and if monsters get close, the healing station will relocate or disband. Depending on how things go. The station personnel will only know Minor Healing, and possible Minor Life Regenerate. I will offer both spells to those who are willing to help.”

  “Thank you for the offer, I will consider it. I am not much of a magic user but would like to help. Now, back to business. The total is 10 gold.” He held out his hand, and I placed 10 gold coins in it. No haggling today, too much to do. I thanked him and left.

  Next stop, the Earl’s residence. I wanted to speak to Ruberm and tell him about the healing spells I was offering to teach. He might have someone he wanted to learn it. I also wanted to what tactics would be employed tomorrow. This would go a long way in determining the best placement for the healing stations I would be setting up.

  When I reached the Earl’s residence, I told them my name and asked to see Ruberm. Instead of Ruberm coming out, I was led to a conference room that contained the Earl, Ruberm, Captain Willop, a few more guard captains, and at least a dozen nobles. There were all gathered around a large table with a map. It was a geographically detailed map of Forest Glen and the surrounding area. There were some figurines on the map, which I assumed to represent monsters and defenders.

  As I approached the map, Ruberm said “Welcome. We are discussing our defense against the monster wave. Please introduce yourself to everyone and how you can help.”

  “I am Trevor of House Tierra. By profession, I am a magical healer working out of Covern House. I have recently created a spell called Minor Heal. It is not as powerful as my Heaven’s Heal spell, but it does work and I have taught it to two Adventurer Guld members. They are also willing to provide healing for the defenders. I plan on teaching more tomorrow. Those that learn the spell will also provide healing. As such, I would like to set up healing stations to help out with the defense. If I know the defense approach, I can determine the best locations for the healing stations.”

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  As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir in the room. Free magical healing during the defense would save many lives. But the fact that I was willing to teach others the Minor Healing spell was even more startling. Mages were quite stingy with their spell knowledge. Only minor spells were ever traded or written.

  Captain Willop pointed at the map and started to layout the strategy. The first two waves would be lower-level monster, so adventurer and guards would be attacking the monsters outside the walls. It would be a general melee but has been successful in the past. For the third wave, the everyone would be on the wall, providing an extra layer of defense. Archers and mages would be able to fire on the monsters from the top of the wall, increasing their range. The last two waves would have dedicated powerful teams to take on the monsters because the monsters were much tougher, but lower in numbers. Once again, the main issue was if the monsters gathered together rather than be spread out. It was a simple strategy but has been effective in the past.

  After listening and reviewing the map. I suggested a slightly different strategy, “If we created a series of walls and placed them in a ‘V’ shape, with the bottom of the ‘V’ open, we could funnel the monsters to choke points. This will allow us to concentrate our firepower into the chokepoints, while reducing our own exposure. We should set another set of walls that divided the monsters so they would hit the different ‘V’ formations. Traps would be laid in the lower section of the ‘V’s making them more effective.

  “A three-to-four-foot stone wall would be best, but the walls do not have to be extremely sturdy, since their purpose was only to funnel the monsters to the choke points. They could even be wooden railing because the point is to funnel the monsters, not stop them. We used this strategy to break up cattle stampedes where I was from.

  “Just past the choke points, there would be defensive formations to allow the defenders to attack the monsters at the choke points. These should be very sturdy, possibly made of stone. This allows the defenders to be close enough to concentrate their power at the choke points. These smaller areas would be more effective than having to defend the entire wall. Particularly for the lower leveled monsters. We had enough guards and adventurers to make this a feasible strategy for the first two waves. This could also work for the third wave, but the teams would need to be higher levelled. We would be able to have healing stations behind the defensive arrays, allowing quick healing for injured defenders. This would allow the defenders to return quickly to the fight.”

  Finally, I said “This strategy is dependent upon the type of monsters we will be fighting. It does nothing against flying monsters or behemoths, but since the first two waves will be relatively low monsters, I don’t think that will be an issue. I also don’t know if it is feasible to create the funneling walls and defensive structures in time for the monster wave. If we try this and the monsters don’t funnel, then we fall back through the gate and use the wall strategy. It’s a rough strategy and needs refinement, but I leave it up to you and your team Lord Donnert.”

  When I finished speaking, the Earl and his captain began discussing the idea. Some were very much for it, some not so much. Some of the nobles were involved in the discussion on the logistics of creating the walls and defensive structures, but the decision of the which strategy to use was solely the Earls. When they asked questions, I answered to the best of my ability, but for the most part I stayed quiet and let them decide.

  During the discussion, I had an opportunity to talk with Ruberm, and let him know that if he had a mage or two that wanted to learn the Minor Healing spell, he was welcome to send them to Covern House tomorrow morning.

  After about an hour, it was decided to use my strategy with some adjustments.