Great plan guys...
After all the planning, it comes down to this. Negotiation with centaur warlords, psychotic humans obsessed with Sydon and irascible gods, conversations with the nominal sacrificial lamb Anora and extended plotting and planning within the group. In the end, here we are, stood in chains on a sacrificial rock waiting for basilisks to make their attack or Sydon to launch his full assault.
Happily, Calliope seems to have remembered how her lockpicks work and the others have made their plans, including equipping me with a mirrored shield to hold off the basilisks to allow the others to cast and fight more freely without as much concern for their stony gaze.
It is a shame Calliope is not able to take to the skies above and both keep watch and be ready if the harpies above attack, but that is the nature of the sirens. Apparently despite his learning in other areas, the gnome is unaware of this, he seems desperately confused that she is unable to fly today - I almost feel like he’s about to search for entertainment for her to change this state!
I’m also not overly enamoured of a plan that requires me duelling blind with such beasts, especially given the need for this shield removes any opportunity for me to use my greatsword. My cousin always urged me to train with the rapier as an alternative, given the occasions where there is no space for my larger blade among the trees of the Oldwoods, for which I am grateful, but it still strikes me as infuriating that we face beasts ideally suited to being dismembered with some strikes of a heavy blade, but circumstances dictate I must use the cut and thrust of the longer, thinner alternative.