"I am Alfonso Antoninus Blanxart, Archduke of the Heartlands, and also a follower of Iomedae, though not an empowered one," nor a fucking insane one, which isn't a thing he ought to think about a Select of the Goddess but She picked this one to lead a doomed rebellion against the Thrunes, not to attend this convention, and it shows.

"Ester Lacort of the Creator Herself."

Holy gods, Valia is so cool. The part about destroying Hell is kind of confusing (maybe she means something like getting vengeance on Asmodeus? but why talk about silencing screams?) but mostly that's drowned out by how incredibly cool she is. Victòria wants to be that brave.

"Victòria, of Calistria."

"Aspexia del Mar Lluisa Gosol, countess of Cérvoles, worshipper of Desna." Desna is the goddess of the stars, and that's where Aspexia del Mar is headed.

Well, the girl has fire, you have to give her that.

"Xènia, also of Pharasma."

Korva crosses her arms and stares as levelly as she can at the chair, who she's pretty sure hates her, although honestly her hearing wasn't working perfectly after that speech and she is not entirely sure what was said about her after it, apart from the thing where she was definitely drafted to sit on this committee. It is fairly terrifying to be seen by Iomedans. You'd think it would be less terrifying than being seen by Asmodeans, but it's been a long time since one of them has looked directly at her.

Well. Let the gladiator games begin. Her primary strategy right now is going to be remaining as calm as humanly possible, which is admittedly not one of her greatest strengths as a person.

"Korva Tallandria, of Egorian and of no one in particular. I pray to Pharasma, Erastil, Irori, and Abadar, when I pray. I care for children in an orphanage currently run by an Iomedan order."

"Aspex Ibarra, known as the King-In-Irons, captain of the Court of Exiles, late of Absalom, Andoran, Varisia, and the Academy of Westcrown's dungeons, friend of many gods but servant of none and foe to Asmodeus in my own person." He taps the acid-scars eternalized on his iron mask. (He's not under an illusion, right now. Well, he is, but not that illusion.)

"Alicia Rivera, of Halmyris in Longmarch. I'm a lay priestess of Shelyn."

"Right. Well. I think we should start with a statement of the wrong which this committee is tasked with righting. If we all agree on what the problem is it will be easier to agree on what to do about it, and if we don't even agree on that then we may as well determine that as soon as possible.

As I see it, the situation is thus: many of the people who prospered most under Asmodeanism, people who still worship Asmodeus, still serve Hell, or would should Hell bother to convey any commands to them, remain in power across Cheliax. Hell's servants, not being idiots, have identified this as a moment to lie low; but they aren't gone. Secondarily, many people who have done great evils that are not precisely the great evil of diabolism - say, pacts with different infernal powers, or simply the evils and cruelties in which they were encouraged, but evils that certainly served the ultimate Evil and that continue to do so - are unrepentent and continue to practice those evils openly. Thirdly, those of the Chelish people who have renounced Evil in all its guises are still many of them misled, serving those who themselves serve Evil or just unable to identify it from Good as Hell sought to hide the knowledge of that.

There are many other ills in the realm, of course, but those are the three that I identify as being ours to redress. Does anyone disagree?"

"I think the third has some overlap with the Committee on Promulgation of Virtous Churches, but I don't think that's disqualifying - it's an important task, and perhaps more central to this committee than that one. I can keep us abreast of anything that comes up there."

"For a broad enough definition of 'power', no. There's a good many rich men with no office who'd serve Mammon again for a crooked cent."

"I've also heard there might be a count who's a vampire. I don't know if that's Hellish or just some other kind of problem."

"I agree in spirit, but I think it is possible, in trying to drive out evil, to do an even greater evil inadvertently, and we should take care not to do that."

"Really, a vampire count? No, I shouldn't be surprised. Does that mean he's a delegate? Are we allowed to talk about killing him, if he's already dead?"

"I didn't spot him squinting at the nobles with Detect Undead so maybe the rumor was mistaken, I certainly don't know if we're allowed to talk about killing him."

"I think his granddaughter, who is technically alive though she doesn't quite look it, has been attending in his stead. I entirely support removing him but I don't think it's in the remit of this committee. He was, as far as I know, an enemy of the diabolists."

"Let's stick to saying that if we were at liberty to make our own rules for the convention, the undead would be made deader than that. ...thank you for checking, honored priestess. Is there by chance any similar way to check for diabolism?"

Of course, the nobleman is the one going around saying they should just abide by evil rather than risk... what, hurting evil too much?

"If we worry too much about 'doing a greater evil' we'll never manage to eliminate the diabolists. We can't just sit around and not even try to make things right."

"I'm worried about what happened in Galt, that is, mass killings of those who were by any account more victims of diabolism than perpetrators of it. Do we all agree that we do not want another Terror?"

"Some of us don't have pen friends in Galt."

"There's a spell for detecting clerics and devils - it's an orison and cantrip - but I don't think there's one for the unempowered followers, other than of course discern lies and truthspells combined with questioning. As for Galt, well. I'll certainly be taking some cues from Andoran instead, but the country is remarkably free of Asmodeans."

Alexandre Esquerra would not say he's a 'Baphomet cultist," exactly. (He mostly worships Norgorber.) 'Person who shares a lot of goals with Baphomet', maybe. But if he goes to the Abyss when he dies he is going to show up in Baphomet's court, turn into a pride demon, and start trying to destroy everything Asmodeus has ever done. 

"The difficulty one must face about Galt is that it worked. It threw off Asmodeus's governors, defeated his armies, and in two hundred years - or twenty, if the archmages make it a project - we'll dig the souls of the innocent out of the Final Blades and give them new bodies, just like we have half the nobles here at the convention. With a Final Blade, all mistakes are eventually correctable. All mistakes in one direction."

"Nor do I, Delegate Lacort, but I have read history. If the President seems overly friendly to diabolists, it may well be because he has seen with his own eyes what results when the sort of passion of which this committee seems full gets out of hand."

"I don't know much about Galt. I obviously don't think we should kill innocent victims, that's awful. But diabolists, tyrants, people who abuse or rape or kill innocent people— every day that passes with those wrongs unavenged is an evil that can never be righted. If you think rectifying that is 'getting out of hand'— well, I frankly question why you're so interested in protecting evildoers."

"If you've got Detect Innocent Victims that's all well and good but if you haven't then it seems you will need to go through many more kidnappings than this convention to sift them out, since I don't see who'd care to take time out of their day to stand for questioning after what an ominous word that was a couple years ago."