Dire badgers are obligate carnivores and there's no easy way to pen them in, so breeding them in captivity isn't free. It's just that it costs meat and land and labour. Those things are cheap compared to all the powdered diamonds and rare gems and masterwork tools and the like that all the other options demand of her.

She let some Chellish rancher live out his childhood dream of raising dire badgers for the Crown. She got an incredibly cheap military asset out of it. She doesn't have to be all Evil all the time. Sue her.

A dire badger can dig 10 ft a round through solid stone. A dozen of them, well trained, can undermine a city wall given half an hour, even starting from lines a safe distance out. The loose gravel they leave behind would, if desired, let better movements with the spell Burrow follow through.

She doesn't expect it to win the battle. She just wants to see what they'll do. She's allowed to have more than one plan.

We didn't think of this. Anyone got any ideas?

Burrow (3rd). Stab stab stab stab stab.

It's a bit boring, really.
He'll have to embellish it a bit for the book he's writing, if he wants to keep audience attention for this part.

Badgie nooo...!

Eh. It was funny to watch.

Burrowing is still an interesting tactic, people tend to expect attacks from above more often than below.

Are all the units in place now? She's not actually planning on waiting them out, since there seems to be few enough combatants here that they can just supply themselves forever by teleport.

She'll do a final check.

The funny thing about infiltrating the enemy is that both sides can do it.

They found a company camping off by themselves, and he got a junior Chellish officer in a Possession. His buddies carried his body away, while the conscious mind of a 5th-circle wizard stayed behind.

He's kept up the deception for a few hours now, and nobody's called him on it yet. He'll be standing with the men, when a group of Hellknights in black armour ride over to check up on them.

That guy looks pretty senior. There's quite a few in range.
He's probably not going to get more than this.

Enlarged Detonate.
Wow, he's not dead yet? This body he possessed is pretty tough.
Have another Detonate.

He wakes up in his own body, with his buddies, already back in Absalom.

He'd started detecting Chaotic Neutral a few weeks ago, ever since he fireballed those kidnappers not knowing the kids were in the same room which was completely an accident and in no way his fault, so hopefully that'll be enough to get him back into Elysium.

What, it's not? This is bullshit. That was like a hundred Goodness points at least.

For no apparent reason, one of their units explodes.
It's a good thing we sent those Hellknights to check up on them!
That could've gone a lot worse, probably. Hopefully none of the other units will do that.

Right. No checks then.
Lets just attack.

A heavy chain hung across the harbours entrance.
It would've annoyed a warship. There are no warships present, on either side.
It did not annoy the Drowned Devils.

Under inky waters they moved up to near the shoreline, just beyond where they might be seen.
Nothing appeared to oppose them.

When the moment comes, a massive and unnatural wave rises up from the sea, and begins washing through and in the process destroying the docks and harbour equipment. If anyone is standing too close to the waters, they'll be having a bad time.

...nobody thought standing guard near the sea was a good idea who isn't basically already half-fish.

They're not really here to defend the city anyway, they're just here to fight stuff. You can destroy the docks if you want to. Jumping into the water to fight drowned devils doesn't sound fun.

Did nobody explain to you the strategic importance of Augustana's shipyards with respect to the bigger picture of who can dominate the Inner Sea, and therefore the myriad geopolitical effects this battle would have?

This battle is going to have geopolitical effects?
I just came here because a cute girl said it'd make her think I was cool.

At the same time, massive unnatural waves of dirt rise up from the ground before the city walls, forming five separate ramps that a good soldier can run up.

The infantry think the warwizards are terrifying, but they'll charge.

We should use one of those AoE spells with Fog or Cloud in the name.
No, we should grease the ramps.
No, I should take out my permanent Symbol of Laughter and run ahead and put it in the middle of the ramp.
No, idiot, they'd just dispel it. Save that for later.

...

When they're about to arrive advance units will teleport directly onto the walls, to attack whatever Augustana has prepared to prevent the infantry reaching them.

What's on the walls to meet them?

A bunch of people arguing. They'll very quickly turn around and start fighting, many of them with surprisingly good coordination despite the surprise, but they'll keep arguing while they fight over correct tactical choices.

One of them gets a Solid Fog off, on this particular ramp, preventing anyone from seeing more than 5 feet away. It'll get dispelled a moment later, to reveal that he has in fact pulled his Symbol of Laughter out. Revealing the Symbol triggers the effect. Pretty much everyone here is under Protection from Evil, and the caster who made the symbol was themself Evil at the time so Protection from Good doesn't apply.

He's like 80% sure it'll mostly get attackers.

The cavalry and hellknights will form up and charge, not towards the ramps but directly at the walls with a terrible calmness.

I think I know what they're doing here.
You know what would be really funny?

The cavalry charge follows a dozen separate single-file columns spaced a short distance apart, with a particularly terrifying Hellknight leading each. Right before they reach the walls, units dimdoor onto the walls above to secure them, and a spellcaster on horseback dimdoors up to the door to deliver Passwall, opening a roughly horse-sized channel for each column.

Spies checked beforehand. Andoran hasn't metal-plated their city walls.

They were guessing either that or Disintegrate.

He's used Earth Glide to hide inside the wall, pre-emptively.

He was mostly expecting to have to cast Wall of Iron, if it was Disintegrate, but then they'd probably be charging two abreast.

But since it's just Passwall, the funniest option isn't Wall of Iron.

The funniest option is Dispel Magic. He can get four of them, before his Earth Glide runs out.

The first two horses get a faceful of wall and the rest manage to feint their charges to the side in time.

Aspexia is in Hell, with the other half of the cavalry.
Supposedly it was strategically optimal, or so Abrogail says, but she thinks maybe it's also because Abrogail is upset with her, for some reason.

When the agreed moment comes she'll open a Gate, targetted off of a scry of a chellish spy who found a good spot for it, and the cavalry units already at a full charge across the planes of Avernus will rush through a 20 ft wide opening into what should be the near rear of Augustana's defenders.

The imps have spotted Codwin already from a distance. They don't want him finding some clever plan that could take out the Gate. Since he's the commander, the group should fall apart if they can take him out first.

The hit squad teleports right on top of them.