Alphatian Wizards Teleporting over Glantri City?
by LoZompatoreJust for the fun of it, here is another possible workaround, all by the rules and true to the timeline. :mrgreen:
In summer of AC 1005 - just before the Alphatians infiltrate a task force of wizards into Glantri to summon monsters and create havoc - some 500 Alphatian druids are convened somewhere in Foresthome to familiarize with a specific, mundane plant in a pot. Level of such druids is not important, they must be able to cast just a single 5th level spell, meaning that a 10th level druid (i.e. very close to be any druid) is good enough.
This plant is then given to one of the wizards of the task force to be sent to Glantri.
Instead of creating chaos, this wizard hides in the vicinity of Glantri City, keeps a very low profile, and tends to the small plant in the pot. He is given a Scroll of Communication that will activate him from his sleeper agent status.
When Zandor orders the Council to attack Glantri City, the sleeper agent is activated. As per orders received he waits a full day, than he takes the plant with him and casts a Fly spell on himself, hovering high above Glantri City and its Anti-Teleportation Shield.
In this 24 hours the 500 druids are assembled together with the wizards of the Alphatian Council and all of them prepare the spells they need for the upcoming tasks.
As soon as the sleeper agent communicates (again, by using his magical Scroll) he is in the right position over Glantri City, the wizards of the Council cast Fly on the druids and on themselves.
On their part, each of the 500 druids casts a Transport through Plants spell on a nearby plant, with an exit set to the plant in the pot held above Glantri City by the sleeper agent. As per the spell description the sizes of both the enter and the exit plants do not matter, so each druid could target a flower, or some weed, or a bush - let's also consider that this action might be performed in Aquas, where little plants are available.
Now, the Transport through Plants spell enables the caster to bring with him two more people, in this case two Alphatian Council wizards. So, for each druid casting the spell three people (the druid and two Alphatian Council wizards) are teleported without error (the spell description explicitly mentions this is a teleportation) above Glantri City, stepping out of the plant in the pot and hovering above the city thanks to their Fly spell.
As the Transport through Plants spell does not specify that the same plant cannot be the target of more than one spell in a given timeframe, we could say that - with a careful timing of these Transport spells - it is possible to have the whole Council of Alphatia being teleported above the city in a single round or so, fully catching by surprise the pesky Glantrians.
Of course the druids and the sleeper agent ought better to flee the battle zone if they are not powerful enough!
The PCs involved in the final part of WotI might try to stop the sleeper agent with the plant in the pot before he is in the right position for the Council to teleport. The PCs have just the 24 hours following the agent's activation in order to stop him. They could try to kill / incapacitate him, destroy the plant, or steal the Scroll of Communication to prevent the agent from sending the 'ok' message (or they may use it to send false information to the Council of Alphatia). It might be a funny adventure!
On a final note, WotI mentions that the numbers of wizards teleporting above Glantri City is somewhat diminished from the standard 1000 members, as several Council members were killed in the destruction of Sundsvall, while several others (most notably the Shyie-Lawr representatives and Terari) decide not to take part to the action and are exiled by Zandor. So, the druids necessary to the teleportation of the whole Council may be less than 500 (albeit other war mages of level less than 36th can fill the places left vacant by the missing Council members).
;)