The Old Charlatan thought it over a little longer. "The gate inside is more important. I'll draw up a materials list later. Have someone bring them over, and I'll handle building that inner gate." With that, he turned and headed back, evidently to write up the list.
Two days later, the Old Charlatan finally handed the list to Yu Lin Bloodhawk. After reading it carefully, Yu Lin Bloodhawk had someone take it away to prepare the supplies. Though the materials were not cheap, they were not materials for building a portal, so they were nowhere near as scarce or difficult to obtain. Within a few days, his subordinates had everything ready. Yu Lin Bloodhawk opened the runes metal gate and had the laborers deliver the supplies to the location Sorens had designated. Once everyone had withdrawn, the metal gate slammed shut again. Throughout the delivery, the laborers saw no one except their fellow workers and the rangers on guard.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk looked at the rangers guarding the now-closed runes metal cave gate and frowned. The guard detail seemed far too thin, and he considered forming a unit specifically to hold this gate.
After two days of consideration, Yu Lin Bloodhawk ultimately rejected the idea of creating a new unit. He felt that a territory the size of The Hinterlands should not have too many independent forces. Too many scattered units would make unified deployment difficult in the future, so expanding an existing force would be better than creating another one.
At present, aside from concealed, unofficial reserve forces such as the pirates, Quel'Danil openly maintained two sizable armies with standardized regular formations. One was the Eastern United Burning Legion, jointly formed with the Vilebranch Trolls, which had followed Alleria on her expedition. The other was the Quel'Danil Standing Army,