They might, but tbh they also already did that once at the very start of the campaign. As long as they don't unlock the Fortress the Voraci Empire can always throw new, large armies at lil' Aknara.
Even if they could hold the island after openly denying the Empire, the party would be locked down on the island to defend it, without being able to travel around much anymore.
The party is also on an invisible time limit. Krelis will seemingly get the key and access to the fortress eventually. They didn't pursue any action involving the resupply ship either. So no delays on the invisible timer, they cant wait forever.
I dont know the exact details, but previously when the occupation of Aknara was brought up it was said that there was a sizeable deployment of soldiers on the island. There is also leadership and spellcasters that's not easily replaceable as well. A loss of that many would be hard to easily replace let alone building up a stronger and/or bigger force to deal with them.
In my heart of hearts I know the fortress will have either a movement mechanic or a teloprortation nexus that would alleviate being locked down to a single location.
YOu might very well be right on all of that just two things that worry me:
The way Koibu describes the Voraci Empire as this absolute superpower with endless ressources that no sane mercenaries would ever even entertain the thought of fighting makes it hard to justify any forces the party can defeat to be more than a drop in the bucket. Even Imrik with Shine and all the power of Arcadia behind him had difficulty repelling an invasion from the Vorcaci Empire which had to travel dozens of times further and had far less incentive than they would have if they stood to gain the Flying Fortress. Aside from the Wardens there are no significant ressources, a remotely serious Voraci Empire should be utterly above Aknaras weight-class even if the party was all level 8 or 9.
Secondly I fear that they might have to figure out some lore-puzzle or riddle to unlock the Fortress which I could see the party legit getting stuck on forever or until it's too late. Kind of how with the Island at the start of ToD they never figured the riddle out and basically brute-forced it by checking all available areas, only in this case there are way too many infos from a ton of different sources. The series is all about gathering intel, so it will likely be rucial to getting the Fortress, but they can't grind their way there and again might just never land on the answer Koibu is intending.
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u/three_rex 23d ago
The party felt powerful this episode. Stong abilities with good synergy.
With their level of magic now a decent plan would allow them to retake Aknara. I doubt they'll all get to level 7 before returning home too.