The door creaks open. "- hi?"

"Hello, I'm Thea, delegate of the faith of Irori.  I was impressed by one of your race's showing during the open floor this morning at the convention, so I thought I should talk to some halfling delegates!"

Oh no. That type. 

"Why can everybody find this house?" wonders Aina rhetorically.

Should she be honest with them?  They are probably crafty enough to have figured it out anyway, so might as well tell them the truth.

"I've had eyes watching for people repeatedly going to collect stipends, and there are multiple stipend collectors here."

"What, and then you followed us? What for? That's creepy!"

"Hello?"

They can't hurt her. She's under an archmage's protection.

Okay not off to a good start.

"Well, I wanted to connect with other delegates so we could trade votes on issues or at least feel each other out on votes.  And we happened to find you all that way!"

She turns to Permira.  Maybe she can salvage this!

"Hi, I was really impressed by your self control over your murderous rage during the open floor!"

Dia tries to look harmless and gives a small smile and wave.  Hopefully looking harmless doesn't trigger the murder instincts.

Permira IS admittedly very murdery but like. That's a weird thing to say. Right? Super weird?

"I don't think I understand what you mean," she says.

Right, the worship Thamir is kind of secretive.  She needs to indicate she will keep the secret safe.  Strained smile.

"Right, of course.  I'm sure that was just nervous excitement you had.  Anyway, I've been trying to feel out other delegates on issues and what sort of things we could do for each other."

Right, they discussed the possibility that Thamir and 'The Instinct' might be secret... Dia is trying not to look scared, but her eyes are tracking every potential weapon and angle of attack in the room.

"All right. Come in." She'll let this woman and her attendants in to talk. The furniture won't be to size, she hopes that's all right.

Why are they letting these creeps in!

Seconded.

Thea will make do without comment.  She takes a moment to calm herself and steady her fear.

"So would you like me to elaborate on my own political aims, or would you like to describe your aims in more detail?  And I think I've thought of an idea or two that may be useful to you?"

Because you need to talk to people and you don't do that on the open street.

"Say what you want. All we want is very simple."

Is that simple want bloodshed, freedom, or both?  Well, the Archmage banned talk of retroactive punishment, so Thea would avoid mentioning the bloodshed directly even if she didn't need to show discretion about 'the instinct'.

"It has occurred to me that many committees will overlap in topic, and some may reach for adjacent topics not within their original naming.  The anti-diabolism committee is apparently out for-" she pauses momentarily to chose her words carefully "- justice.  And slavery is one of Asmodeus's primary concerns.  So it seems anyone too defensive of slavery, or later doing slavery related activities even if slavery itself is abolished might be considered Asmodean.  And thus might attract the... justice of whatever institutions or procedures that committee sets up."

She originally planned to present some more nuanced ideas, but her conversation with Alicia earlier (and Dia's explanation of the implications) has her shaken.

They should have a standard excuse for Dia to talk more and they should have had a specific excuse prepared for this conversation.  Thea is terrible at being subtle.

Dia's continue to dart around, her nervousness visible.

"That all sounds good." Freedom, revenge, freedom...

"As to how I benefit... what do you think of Theopho?  I heard he freed his slaves as soon as it was legal, but perhaps he shouldn't have had slaves in the first place?"

"There was a guy or two on the slavery committee I wouldn't mind pointing out to an angry Calistrian." He probably shouldn't mention Tibex.  

"Theo did what they all should have done."

"I met someone he freed. He wasn't angry about anything. When it wasn't legal for halflings to be free, it wasn't so bad to be a good master."

She nods along about Theopho. 

"Theopho gave me some really good advice once, so I want to repay the favor to him.  I think the anti-diabolist committee may turn their 'justice' towards him simply because he is the most visible.  But... with enough other targets more deserving of justice, such as slavers, or former slavers trying to leverage indentures and tricky contracts and Asmodean deceit to continue slaver like behavior, perhaps they can be satisfied, or at least distracted from going after other targets, like Theopho."

And like former acolytes of a Hellish cult.

Nod nod. "Throw the angry guy a distraction" is a very effective tactic; it's how they managed to protect Felisa as well as they did. 

She nods. "I see." Theo is indeed a human she wants to be a model for imitation.

That sounds like success?  Maybe?  Well, as long as they aren't dead it's at least something of a success!

"That was the main area of shared interest that occurred to me.  If you think of something advantageous to the halflings that fall under the label of 'virtuous churches' let me know.  Like permissions or authorities for clerics of Gods you would trust?  And if I think of anything you might find advantageous to bring up in the anti-slavery committee I will let you know.  Oh... and I was going to mention some other matters to the anti-diabolist committee tomorrow... just so we are on the same page, I will be avoiding trying to directly defend Theopho to them if it seems... counterproductive."