(I'd hope we'll start soon, but the approaching holidays may delay it a few days, it looks like.
I've noticed that I put Gur in the mount-user category, but I believe he expressed that he wanted to go the wilderness route. Reduces the number of mount users by one.
Richard: Barring extraordinary circumstances, the "spell-horses" are better than any mundane mount for the standard, 550 mile route. They're likely slower than mundane horses due to being encumbered, but since we're riding several hours longer each day (viable since we are using two mount spells per person per day, so one mount can be ridden for 8 hours, then the other is summoned and can be ridden for the remainder of the day), we can cover extra distance that would kill a normal mount. Mundane mounts work on the 550 miles route only if they are unencumbered light (war)horses.
Which casters beside Ashnar have flying familiars? They might help scout ahead a bit, looking out for potential trouble, but since they can't fly the whole day long, there'd have to be more than one for this to work well.)