Of course I renew my buffs for my upgraded caster level… and also add more. Superior Resistance for better resistanceto things that a body or mind can fight off, all five versions of the Energy Immunity spell (it does what it says on the tin: Makes one immune to fire, cold, acid, and or so on completely), plus Elf Lord's Battle Armor (it's like the Mage Armor spell, but better, visible, and explicitly a form of armor… Invisible Spell fixes that) to which I then add Magic Vestments and shift it to my shadow. I add Invisible Spell to Greater Angelic Aspect, Arcane Sight, and Aura Sight to get rid of the wings and glowing eyes. Also, yes, I look up Enable Function. Then I spam that and pick up a ton of metamagic; nearly all of the talents from the “Spheres” system (Power, Might, and Guile); and all of the Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, and Druid spells I can think of as spells known, whether I can cast them yet or not.

  Of course, that gets my Summoned Party back… four Bipeds and six Quadrupeds (one mount for each Biped companion, plus one for me, plus one for a guest), plus one each of the biggest and smallest monsters I can currently make... all with the Mage Archetype for better casting. This would be at the cost of their ability to attack normally… but I can load them up with all of my buffs, and get them all of the useful Conjuration Form talents that don't interfere with their intended purpose… so the bipeds don't get extra natural attacks (and I even trade those away via the Warrior archetype), while the quadrupeds do. I find that Enable Function on myself can grant Capable Companion to my summons… which frees them to have bonus feats support bonus feats: They can have entire feat chains, no problem… and thanks to the Exempr Trait Curator of Mystic Secrets and the Additional Traits feat, means I can get them many magical traits, including a copy of Gift for Magic for each sphere so their caster level is eighth.

  I also take a few hours when Last Shadow is sleeping to set my egg up to succeed a bit better: I build a small fortress (via the Small Stronghold spell; I have time limits): It is a simple stone keep suitable for housing seventeen people… more if people share beds: Twelve beds in the servant's quarters, four in separate bedrooms, plus a bedroom suite and a stable suitable for six horses (or griffons). I settle on leaving a little room for guests; so I fill it with a dozen Cleric-9's from Summon Minion VI (including the first from the initial hand-off), and four Griffons (likewise). I buff them all heavily; they should be difficult to kill, difficult to trick, and skilled at anything that might come up (and yes, I make materials for them to use their skills to build things)… including shooting back or meeting people in melee. Now, I'll still need a real person to raise the little one at some point… but I figure I have nine months to sort that out, and the pce has five spare beds… even if they are all just straw mattresses. Of course, the summons are all female, and I set them to the self-milking regimen… because the child is probably going to come out basically humanoid, and will need milk when he or she hatches.

  Also, it's fun to watch them practice.

  Now, I could set up an entire town: Make a bunch of houses via the Secure Shelter spell, cast Small Stronghold and that named Billet spell (from “Heroes of Battle”, per my library) a few times to house an army, fill it with summons, set up a wall and my own dungeon somewhere… but that could be seen as a challenge to the status quo, and risk having a king or something come down on it hard… a small keep with a dozen priestesses will be seen as a convent, however; as long as they keep to themselves, they should be fine.

  They might end up taxed by the guild for dungeon maintenance, however.

  I clean up the st of the gnome's clones (and raid his backup gear stashed with them). As I teleport back home, I consider: I'm going to need to figure out my other children too. Last Shadow will begin ying soon. I have no idea what they're going to be like… but at least I don't have anyone trying to kill them.

  Over the next few days, I finish the structure of my castle. I don't need to worry about architecture as I'm using Walls of Force for flooring, and they simply don't need supports… so I make the top floor a ballroom three hundred feet on a side - which means it extends outwards from the tower a good hundred feet in each direction. I do the entire top floor in Walls of Force, and (thanks to the Creation Sphere) I can actually do detail work and moving parts with Force now: Arrow slits, well-crafted stairs, doors, windows, chains, and so on, and can even color them and make them partially transparent rather than entirely so… which also means I can hinge sections of the floor in the ballroom and we can use them as murder holes in a pinch.

  I also keep Last Shadow well fed, and on day four after our mating flight she starts ying eggs at a rate of about one a day until she has a clutch of four… at which point, her appetite goes way down. Each egg is curiously only ten pounds… I hope the kids aren't born too small. I'll need to check with Mom on timing for cracking the shell for the child that probably won't be born with an egg tooth… and to see if these ones will need help when the time comes, given their mixed heritage… but I have a few months to worry about that.

  Roger, Bearcw, and Wesley show up about a week after I make the announcement that I solved the problem with the gnome. I see them coming from a mile away (literally), and meet them at the gate when they fly in.

  “Okay, that's ridiculous,” Roger begins, “twenty foot tall iron walls, five feet thick, topped with stone crenutions?”

  “I'm looking at the tower…” Bearcw shakes his head, “I could see that thing from twelve miles out.”

  “I'm just happy to be back somewhere civilized,” Wesley chuckles, “it's nice to have the support of a working dungeon. You've clearly grown.”

  I shrug, “True enough. The castle is still getting the innards set up, but your rooms are waiting. This way….”

  I lead them through the gate, waving at my well-equipped summons (enchanted armor, weapons, shields, and ammunition are free for me, up to what Mom terms “+3”, and I can add some special abilities to boot… and most magic items of importance are easily repced with my permanent spells… so all of the guards have flight, True Seeing, boosted ability scores, boosted saves, unlimited ammunition, and so on).

  “I wouldn't want to pn an invasion of this pce…” Bearcw comments as he notices a few of them flying, “...especially knowing that the stuff you do doesn't rely on the dungeon, and can't be so easily cut off.”

  I consider, “A siege could work eventually if you killed the dungeon; food would become a problem, but we have several months of stores at this point, and growing rapidly; the summons’ spells would be affected, but the summons themselves and the spells I've id on them would not….”

  Bearcw rolls his eyes, “Killing the dungeon would cripple the attacking force far more than the defendering one, but most people wouldn't know that.” He takes a breath, “I wouldn't want to go up against this pce, even without you nearby, knowing what I know.”

  “Not that there's much reason for it,” Roger ughs as we head for the castle, "this isn't exactly a strategic site: No trade routes, well away from everyone and everything, and the nominal reason for the pce - the gold mine - isn't sufficiently well-established to be worth fighting over…” he pauses, “...or has that changed?”

  I shrug, “I haven't been paying much attention to the mining operations. You'd want to check with the town council.”

  “Oh, I can think of at least one thing in town a lot of people would be willing to kill over,” the elf looks at me, his lips pursed, “but I don't expect an army would be the right tool.”

  “I'm also hard to catch,” I chuckle.

  “True enough, I expect,” the party wizard joins in the chuckle, “but I'm curious: How'd you handle the Woudrazed?”

  Ah, that. Umm… “It's a little embarrassing.”

  “Okay, now I have to know,” the barbarian raises an eyebrow, “spill.”

  As we approach the second curtain wall (for the castle proper), I hedge a little, “Well… you're know how you guys can't actually say no when I tell you to do something?”

  “You mean…” Roger seems to be suppressing a ugh as we walk through a kill box.

  “Yeah… I fell for a mind control trap he'd id, and with his habits, he wanted to y me, and well, mind control, so…” my cheeks are burning.

  Bearcw puts it together, “So he mind-whammied you, had you turn into a girl, and got infected… at which point, you mind-whammied HER?”

  “Yeah…” I bite my lip, “I told him he's not allowed to defend himself anymore, and told him not to leave a specific room in the castle. He's been there since.”

  Roger considers, “Have you ensured he won't revive this time?”

  For all practical purposes… “yes.”

  “Great!” The half-orc barbarian smiles, “Any objections to me finishing him off?”

  “Nope,” Roger smiles.

  “Best to get rid of him now,” Wesley agrees.

  I blink a few times. So they're going to execute him, just like that. Umm. But I suppose he did mind-control them all… and killed me… and mind controlled me… and raped me… and a zillion other people… you know what? Fine, but… “We may want to make it public, so that his living victims get some closure.”

  “Everyone we specifically know he raped already saw his corpse,” Roger shrugs, “Most think he's dead already, we're just making the lie true. Come on….”

  I shrug at that, and lead them up the stairs to do the deed….