After another entire morning of work, Anser finally managed to teleport the three hundred-man garrison and part of their supplies to Moonscar Basin, at which point he could finally rest.
Of course, Anser was probably the only wizard who would ever put himself through this kind of grunt work.
All teleportation spells, including Gate, could only transport a limited number of people. Using them to move troops was simply far too extravagant.
Permanent teleportation circles were similarly expensive. Unless absolutely necessary, no one would casually waste resources that way.
Anser lay on the bed on the top floor of the Black Tower. Iris's lingering scent still clung to the pillow.
He let out a comfortable sigh as his thoughts drifted back to the two tasks Sehanine had given him.
'Orcs, a war of racial conquest...'
He repeated the words to himself a few times, then suddenly remembered the war he had witnessed back when he crossed the Faerûnian continent aboard the Dragonfly ship. In the Storm Horns, he had seen a battle involving more than ten thousand combatants.
One side had been Cormyr. The other had been a coalition of orcs, goblins, and gnolls.
'So it had already started back then.'
Cormyr wasn't particularly large, but its military strength was formidable. Its two elite forces, the Purple Dragons and War Wizards, were famous throughout Faerûn.
If the orcs dared to attack Cormyr on their own initiative, they presumably had some confidence in their chances.
And if even Cormyr couldn't withstand the orc coalition's offensive, the surrounding countries wouldn't fare any better.
With that thought, Anser waved a hand, and Sakkors's spirit form appeared beside him.
"Holrewen has already separated from Candlekeep and is drifting toward the Moonshae Isles. We expect to complete the connection with the temple in three days," Sakkors reported.
The existence of extraplanar spaces was extremely unusual. They were multilayered and multidimensional, and their drifting speed depended more on the planar environment than on their own propulsion.
Sometimes they moved at incredible speeds. Other times, they seemed to become stuck, unable to budge no matter how much effort was applied.
"Mm." Anser connected to the Spirit Net and quickly browsed through the vast number of news reports.
One headline caught his attention: [Land of the Purple Dragon Struck by Orc Disaster; Capital Suzail Under Direct Threat.]
"The Land of the Purple Dragon" and "the Forest Kingdom" were both nicknames for Cormyr.
"What's the situation with the war in Cormyr?" he asked.
"The orc coalition has considerable momentum. They've assembled a combined force of over ten thousand and forced Cormyr to retreat to Suzail. I haven't followed the details closely," Sakkors replied.
Countless events occurred across Faerûn every day. There was no way he could keep track of everything.
"No orc wars anywhere else?"
"There are. According to information provided by our members, orcs in the Thunder Peaks, High Forest, and Moonsea have been clashing frequently with surrounding powers. There have also been unusual movements among the orcs of the Spine of the World and the Kingdom of Many-Arrows."
"However, many of those areas aren't within the Spirit Net's coverage, so I can't obtain accurate information."
Orcs were scattered throughout Faerûn and could broadly be divided into two groups: the mountain orcs of the north and the gray orcs of the east.
The mountain orcs were the more numerous of the two, concentrated mainly in the Spine of the World at the far northern edge of Faerûn and in the Kingdom of Many-Arrows.
The Kingdom of Many-Arrows was the only orc kingdom, as well as the only sovereign orc state recognized by civilized nations. At its height, it had numbered hundreds of thousands of orcs, while its subjects also included goblinoids, trolls, and other creatures.
When orcs truly went on a rampage, they could indeed be terrifying.
"First, inform every Spirit Net user that the Spirit Net was jointly created by the Seldarine, the Platinum Dragon Bahamut, and a number of their Chosen to mitigate the catastrophic consequences caused by the disruption of the Weave."
"But the Spirit Net will always remain neutral. Any creature is welcome to use it. We won't engage in factional discrimination or exclusion..." Anser instructed him carefully.
"Will... that really work?" Sakkors asked, sounding somewhat hesitant.
No matter how much confidence he had in the Spirit Net's future, he still regarded the gods with reverence.
"You think I'm lying to you? Just do it."
"Yes." Sakkors suddenly remembered the ownerless temple. His thoughts raced, and he seemed to realize something.
"Second, remove the restrictions on recruiting members. As long as you can manage them, that's enough. Also, we still need to increase both the number and proportion of humans and elves. Creatures like orcs, trolls, and werewolves should be kept to a minimum..."
Things were different now. The Spirit Net's status had changed.
Once someone connected to the Spirit Net, telepathy would immediately provide them with a basic understanding of its background and purpose.
Under those circumstances, it was perfectly normal for the Spirit Net's services to favor humans and elves, as long as it maintained basic neutrality in how it operated.
"I understand." Sakkors caught his meaning, and a hint of delight appeared on his face.
He didn't care who the members were. As long as they could provide Spirit Coins, they were good members.
The membership had only just surpassed seventy thousand. If Anser hadn't been holding him back, even seven hundred thousand wouldn't have been his limit.
"Third, pay particular attention to the orc wars and quietly provide the human side with more support." Anser gave Sakkors a meaningful look.
Sakkors understood immediately. They were simply going to tilt the playing field.
He could deliberately gather information on orc movements and deployments, then promptly push it to the human side.
Information concerning the humans, meanwhile, could be kept as vague as possible, with its review process deliberately prolonged so that it became outdated and couldn't be exploited by the orcs.
For Sakkors, all of this could be done without leaving a trace. He could even fabricate member activity and make the orcs suspect that there were traitors in their own ranks.
Take the war in Cormyr, for example. Sakkors could provide the human side with communications and intelligence support.
After all, real-time battlefield command combined with instantaneous long-distance communication was nothing short of an overwhelming technological advantage in warfare at this level.
As long as the human commanders weren't complete idiots, that alone would be enough to give them an enormous advantage.
Conversely, membership applications from the orc coalition in the Storm Horns could simply be ignored.
That was perfectly normal. Orcs had an average Intelligence score of only 7, and their Wisdom and Charisma weren't much better, with few exceeding 12.
There weren't many orcs capable of sensing the Spirit Net in the first place, and even fewer would apply for membership. If their applications failed to pass review, there was nothing unusual about it.
Even if someone perceptive eventually noticed the pattern, the orcs had no grounds to complain.
The Weave treated everyone equally too, yet how many spellcasters did the orcs have?
Magic—was that really something a race of morons had any business messing with?
Without ever leaving his home, Anser could quietly alter the course of the war. That was the power of the Spirit Net.
Direct participation in the war wasn't realistic. The Holrewen Federation's entire population might not even equal the number of orcs in the Storm Horns and Moonsea.
All he needed to do was quietly provide intelligence and material assistance, and he could stabilize the situation.
If a Chosen on the orc side revealed themselves, he could exploit his intelligence advantage to learn their name, then use Gate to drag them straight into an ambush and surround them for the kill.
Once the enemy lost its core figure, Anser could personally move in with an elite squad and clean up what remained!
The whole process couldn't have been more perfect.
"That group of Spirit Net maintenance personnel is basically trained now, but with the network expanding, we may not have enough of them."
"Mm. Durlag has a group of death-row prisoners. There aren't many, but I'll have someone send them over now."
Those prisoners had all been carefully screened. Every one of them was either a nominal worshiper of an evil-aligned deity or someone with no faith at all.
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