Oh no, this committee was a spite-nomination. Lluïsa looks around nervouslysedately.

"I don't mean to deny Sefora's extraordinary contributions to the cause," says Joan-Pau, entering and sitting down, "because surely very few of us here have killed Chelish counts, but a few points of procedure, first, we aren't empowered to overthrow the Queen but only to make recommendations to the general convention, second, any proposal we send to the general convention needs to pass the entire convention half of whom - such as myself - were appointed by the Queen, and third, the chair is elected, not self-appointed."

"No man will give you permission to overthrow them. You just do it."

"I have no problem with Sefora being the chair of the Committee for Further Revolution and finding other members of her committee. But we should elect a chair of Alternative Political Arrangements To Monarchy And Ways They May Be Further Studied, the committee I actually joined."

Her eyes meets his, hot but self-controlled. "Perhaps I expected feelings to run hotter, in Cheliax. Did your count have a purpose, then, Friend Gnome? Did the old Queen come to your aid? Did the tax farmers show mercy to your poor? Speak up for them, if you mean to keep them."

"Sefora, Levrolurment is right. If you want to start a rebellion against the Queen, do it somewhere else. We're trying to figure out how to do our jobs better, not start a civil war."

"Delegate Ardiaca, would you accept the Chair's Seat if elected thereto?" asks Lluïsa.

"I'm already chairing the Imperial Committee, but I suppose I can if until we find someone else to fob it off on." Wasn't there supposed to be a fifth person in this room?

"Do your jobs better? What is your job, Arcadia?"

"Well, last year I was committing grand piracy against the Lord Protector of Molthune to lead a rebel army to join the war against Cheliax, and after that I had to defeat bandits, overthrow Asmodeans, defeat a necromancer, stop an orcish invasion, forge an alliance with the local druids so they'd go back to making the crops grow and, the war being over, demobilize my aforementioned army without anyone starving to death and get started arranging local elections so my people could tell me what all the other problems I needed to deal with were."

"- The job title is 'count.' And it's Ar-di-aca, actually."

"So, friend Ardiaca, you joined a committee for the Alternatives to the Monarchy to become a better adventurer, a better lord?"

"I joined it to study what they did in Republican Galt and Rahadoum and Theocratic Lastwall, both of which had people in charge of other people talking to druids and leading armies and making sure necromancers didn't murder and reanimate anyone - whatever their titles were, the work still needed to get done."

"I suppose," says the ever procedurally-minded Lluïsa, "that a Chair cannot be chosen until our requisite Clergy arrive."

She's fairly confident that the gnome and the... whatever that is are not religious delegates, and of course the sensible count is a count.

"Friend Gnome - I don't have your name- what do you see as the meaning of this committee?"

A cleric bursts into the room, slightly out of breath. 

"Sorry, there was an emergency and I had to stop and deal with it, did I miss anything?"

"- Of course. Not much; Sefora would like to start a revolution against the queen and we were trying to explain that that wasn't what the committee was for, and also to decide on a chair. I don't suppose you want the job?"

“—I mean, not especially, but I can probably do it?”

Séfora gazes at her. "I'd like to hear your vision for the committee, Friend Cleric."

“—Uh—do research on things that people do in other countries, see if there’s anything we can copy, wholesale or piecemeal?”

"I've done a small amount of reading, though many foreign practices seem barbaric and ill-suited to a civilized Realm, like that certain land in Garund once the Kingdom of holy Aroden, where each year the King is chosen by Lot, and at the year's end is put to Death, and Eaten by all the People in a great Festival. The practices of Galt, Lastwall, and even Rahadoum I would be interested to discuss more."

"If the folk here want to study, then so be it. I should like to study Sarkoris- perhaps they have learned to do without lords. But this is certainly the only constitutional convention of our lifetimes. There is no other committee who could recommend a change of government. No others have this work. Now we are here."

"Any of us could leave. If we do, the committee fails. Let us study, indeed. But I would like us to agree that we likewise can recommend a change of government. That is our work also." 

"Delegate Levrolurment is also elected. - but as it happens I agree. We can recommend a change of government. But we're here to study alternative political arrangements to monarchy for the good of the Chelish people, and if there's a reason to do that it's to make proposals to the convention that will pass the convention, not to start fights with people who swordfought the tarrasque." 

"Sarkoris, ah, makes do without people, being a colony of the Abyss. Or having been such a colony; I have heard rumors both ways regarding the state of the Wound."

"Delegate Tosta, I would support you as chair."

"I support friend Ardiaca, then, among the ones I have heard speak. He at least accepts that we can make a recommendation. That this is no mere study circle."

“…Obviously the point is to make a recommendation, but we have to have any idea what we’re talking about first? If anyone here has experience to speak from, that’s great, but there are a lot of ways of doing things and not enough people here to have experience with all of them.”

"I am a citizen of Brastlewark and loyal to our duly elected King, Drum Thornfiddle, who kept Brastlewark safe as a gnome enclave and as a Chaotic city throughout the rule of the Thrunes. I attend our governing Meeting and vote when I have something to say on the agenda items. And I am now a loyal citizen of Cheliax and to Her Majesty The Queen. So, yes, I know that power can be wielded justly and for the benefit of all. 

"I do not know how we ought to rearrange the state. But I believe in discussion and in learning and in understanding the world. You can't sail the ship of state without understanding water displacement and woodworking and the tides, and we know almost nothing about any of that.

"The last time that someone slaughtered all the nobility and remade Cheliax, we got the Thrunes. Let's try to outperform that depressing track record, shall we?"

"Hear, hear! My only experience is this last year of improvisation and what the RAI governs under in Molthune province, but I've kept in correspondence with Andorani, Galtans and Rahadoumi regarding their system, and studied the legal systems of these countries." Because he hoped to write a better one.

"If we find ourselves short, we may want to see if we can recruit Delegate Lebanel; he has practical experience under the Rahadoumi system as well as the Chelish."

"Delegates Levrolurment and Ardiaca, would you care to describe for us firsthand any Unique and Salient features of the Governance of Brastlewark and Molthune? I confess myself ignorant of their local Customs differing from the Empire at Large, and would learn more, before discussing Foreign Practices."

She hopes we're just pretending the whatever-it-is who wants to murder her Majesty isn't here. Not likely; she's going to keep speaking up, of course.

"Brastlewark runs on open town meetings. They happen once a week, and the agenda for each meeting is set at the previous meeting. If you care about any of the topics on the agenda, you show up and debate and vote. I don't really expect this to work for humans." 

"I could live with the Brastlewark system. Why can't our counties be permitted your luxuries?" Séfora scowls. "The last time someone slaughtered most of the nobility was just now. It is what conquerors do."

"I think town meetings don't really...scale? But I admit that I don't know for sure." 

"They do not. Too easy for a single gang of men to take over one meeting and then change the system without telling anyone." He's got a speech on Molthune ready.

"Fortunate, then, for Gnomes that the Gnomish Character is a Bulwark against such Underhanded Rapacity."

"A gang of men." Séfora says, with a level stare at Ardiaca, "is what they call a noble and his guards."

"That's what they'll start calling themselves after they do it, yes."

"Well, King Drum came with a gang of men to change the system and I think it worked out well for everyone. If we really disliked him we would end the monarchy. Again. --But again I worry that that's just because we're gnomes."

"I think a human who came in and changed everything would make sure nobody could throw him out with another meeting."

"At any rate, Molthune is not a Gnomish Polity, is it, Delegate Ardiaca?"

"No. The RIA - Royal and Imperial Army of Holy Cheliax, formally - is essentially a military government, not a civilian one, considering itself a temporary wartime government of Cheliax that simply happens to not control any more of Cheliax than Molthune Province. Nobles have their lands, of course, but the head of state is the Lord Protector of Molthune, chosen by a council of the leading men of the state - chiefly generals, but the Oracle gets his own voice - from among the active-service generals still qualified to take up the post. The country is divided into civilian and military districts; civilian districts are those far from a hostile border or active rebellion and are overseen by civilian administrators chosen by the Lord Protector, usually from among the province's chief noblemen, while military districts - forests and hostile frontiers - are overseen by generals. All districts are supposed to provide taxes and conscripts for the army, with the taxes raised from the entire population, including nobles."

"Churches are self-governing and state-licensed; licenses are not extended to Evil churches or most of the Chaotic Neutral ones, and this license can be revoked if the church can't stop its clerics from engaging in active rebellion against the state, as has happened to both Milani and Cayden Cailean. Cities not in rebellion elect their own mayor, with the mayor chosen by the leading merchants and guildmasters."

"Any questions yet?”

Fascinated note-taking.

"I do not recognize the title of Oracle; is it a Religious office? And if you will forgive the juxtaposition of unrelated Questions, I am curious about the mentioned tendency toward Rebellion in the Churches of Milani and the Drunk, involved as I am with the Promulgation of the Teachings of Virtuous Gods, but tending, myself, toward Iomedae and more generally toward Law, rather than the deities of Chaos."

"Cenmyrion, the Oracle of Axis, is or was the RIA's eighth-circle spellcaster. It listened to him because it's usually wise to listen to eighth-circle spellcasters; he showed up sometime during the Great Chelish Civil War to try to turn the war around. It didn't work out, but since he is or was both immortal and chiefly interested in opposing Asmodeus and the northern reaches are and were short an archmage, he got a significant place in government. He's Law-touched and tries to make sure the government ends up both Lawful and anti-Asmodean. He ran a lot of the education for new officers. I've heard conflicting reports about whether or not he's still around." Ranging from 'left a denouncement of the Lord Protector and plane shifted back home to Axis' to 'got murdered by the Lord Protector' through 'went off to fight Zedoran, hasn't been seen since' and 'is absolutely still around and all these are just lies meant to make Molthune weaker.'"

"I think we should ask the archmage to teleport us to Vudra."

...her brain catches up and realizes it's probably not a non sequitur.

"Seconded."

"To study their political arrangements?"

"Exactly! How are we supposed to propose alternatives to monarchy if we only have the benefit of one continent which has mostly investigated peasant revolts?"

"What a fine idea. Just Vudra, or also further continents?"

"Perhaps an Itinerary visiting each Continent in turn. I should like to see a King feasted upon, though it may not be the season for that barbaric Festival. And of wondrous Tian Xia I have only the barest rumors."

Do they have to bring the scary metal woman... well, the archmage will probably just refuse the whole thing, alas, so it may be immaterial. "Delegate Séfora, I trust your Queer Clockwork is able to operate in Foreign Climes?"

Oh no, she hopes Levrolurment doesn't start trying to disassemble Séfora or something at hearing the word "clockwork".

Oh no, she hopes Séfora doesn't start plotting regicide or something at hearing about a king being eaten.

"Vudra is the most fractured, I believe, so it will give us the most philosophical knowledge per Teleport. If he wishes to teleport us to Tian Xia or even Arcadia, we should obviously accept."

Séfora nods. "If magic still works the same. But I do not think he will do this thing, and why would he? Learning how things truly works in each place would take a long time."

"Well, he's the one who called this convention, isn't he? And that'll take a long time." 

"I don't think I really have time to make the trip myself," Joan-Pau says with regret, "but it certainly is an excellent idea." It will get Sefora out of his hair (which might get him a favor from Carlota) and the other three will all be grateful. And who knows? They might learn something!

"You're a noble delegate, right? Do you have a staffer you could send with us to take notes?"

Lluïsa nods in agreement. "I propose the Committee's Recommendation, that the Committee, or the designated Representatives of its Members, teleport to Vudra at a time to be coördinated with Archmage Cotonnet, in order to Study its Forms of Government and prepare a Monograph on same, other Continents perhaps to follow," she declares.

"I'd love to," he says to Nuria.

"Okay. That part settled, we should, uh, prooobably sort out who's the committee chair? I'm not sure we actually explicitly did that, some people said vote-ish things but, uh, I don't think we actually...tallied them, or anything? I feel like indefinitely not having a chair could get annoying." 

Yeah, it's been bothering her too.

"I vote for Delegate Tosta," she says after considering Levrolurment briefly.

"So do I."

"She will do."

"Sounds good to me."

“And I abstain.” Does an abstention make something not unanimous? Whatever, doesn’t matter.