Valia is late to her committee on excising diabolism because the paladin wanted to talk with her but that was probably more important. She does not, after all, want to offend the Queen and all the non-evil powerful nobles in Cheliax and she doesn't want people assuming that the Church agrees with everything she says, much less that the Church agrees with a bunch of things she didn't say but kind of implied.
None of that means they don't need to do plenty of excising diabolists.
"Those entities all exist and are Powers of Hell and I do not recognize any inaccuracies in their descriptions but I have no specific knowledge about followers of theirs or their operations."
"That's promising at least though that that much is true, since they probably didn't know you'd be here to verify it."
"My understanding is Truthtelling requires extensive measures to overcome, and outright absurd measures to overcome in a way not beatable by moderate skill at spellcraft, knowledge at arcana, and a detect magic. I think two or three silvers from each of us ought to pay for it and I'm easily willing to pay that much to see my information used to hunt these cults hunted down."
Why does the Evil person want her to teach her about Calistria?
"I... guess I can try to explain them to you later... but I'm not an expert or anything. ...And I'm not going anywhere alone with you."
She'd offer to help but it's not like she could do anything if it was a trap, she doesn't know that Iroria would beat her but she could definitely do it with help.
"Perhaps do it in the convention hall? The archmage's protection ought to be good for that, at least."
She's paranoid, but Thea can't blame her after dealing with Dia's paranoia.
"I think your understanding of your own nature and what made Calistria pick you would give me insight into Calistria. Irori encourages learning from many sources of wisdom. And yes, I'm happy to meet in a visibly public place, the convention hall is fine."
She smiles warmly at the paranoia. This Calistrian seems sensible, even if for the moment it isn't to Thea's advantage.
In that case the committee will go and find an Abadaran to confirm all the things she said about evil cults.
"If there is anything else any of you want to ask, it is likely fine with me, but I want to agree on the questions in advance, no extra questions sprung at the last moment while the spell's duration is going."
"—before we have him cast the spell, are you willing to say that you haven't, like, burned down a house full of kids who did nothing wrong, or anything like that?"
Some insane part of her is tempted to volunteer that she has killed innocent people. She is not going to do that. She's not doing anything. She's extremely unclear on why she even bothered to be here.
She was reassured by the Archmage's words on day 1 and she reread the relevant decrees last night, so she will tell them the truth without asking for a lawful agreement restricting how they will use that information.
"Yes. When I was an acolyte of the Sisterhood of Eiseth I killed two people that would be considered innocent by most definitions. I killed a sparring partner on accident. Our instructors regularly commanded us to push our sparring to the point that immediate healing was needed for the worse fighter to survive afterwards, and I got a lucky blow to the head in at the same time an instructor was a bit slow with healing. The other kill was at the orders of the Sisterhood of Eiseth. My orders were described to me at the time as executing a minor criminal, but in hindsight I think it likely the only clear crime of the person I killed was vagrancy, and the intent was to ensure my discipline, ruthlessness, and resolve as opposed to a lawful purpose of society. I regret causing both deaths now, and understand doing so was evil, and also even of questionable lawfulness."
There is some genuine sorrow clear in her voice as she mentions the sparring partner, but her voice becomes monotone as she finishes reciting her crimes.
"If you need more details I can give them before the truth telling so we aren't at risk of running out of time on it."
Valia actually has...no idea what to do with that. One impulse is that the woman was the victim of the cult and is trying to bring it down. The other is that you could say things like that and also have another dozen murders behind the curtain you aren't sorry for - well, she can ask that - "Are those the only instances?"
Well. It's not that it's okay, but the woman knows it's not okay, and - the Asmodeans induced people to do Evil things to try to damn them. She knew that already. "You're - trying to set it right, by warning us about the cult and destroying them so they can't hurt any more innocent people?"
"...I think I don't want to explain Calistria to you anymore. Delegate Ibarra said he was a Calistrian but he was using it to take vengeance on innocent people, not just people who deserved it. ...Also I want to make sure the wording about you not trying to trick us is really tight but I don't know how to do that."
And — there's probably no one out there seeking justice for the vagrant she murdered — why are all the obviously Evil people so much stronger than her — that's not an excuse —
Her chest feels like it's on fire. People shouldn't be able to just murder innocent people and then stand there telling you about it and get away with it.
”I admit I personally want revenge on the cult, and want to ensure they aren’t in a position to come back to kill me or the other former acolytes, but protecting others is my next most important motive.”
Hopefully revenge doesn’t sound too questionable as a motive with a Calistrian right there… except she’s turning against Thea. Thea is hurt by this a lot more than she expected.
“I’m not sure how or if you expect to promote your Gods teachings without explaining them to people that want to learn.”
Thea tries to keep the irritation out of her voice. She’ll leave the question about truthtelling wordings open.
"......if you can say under the Abadar's Truthtelling that you're only going to use it to take revenge on evil cultists who deserve it, and aren't going to decide that actually revenge means burning down houses full of children, or other Evil things like that, don't only say the houses full of children thing, I'll explain them to you." While also trying to figure out whether she can deal with Thea, but she's not going to say that part out loud.
Only going to use the information she gives them? She just listed two other motives! Oh wait, she means the Calistrian teachings.
”My primary intent in learning Calistria's teaching is to understand the dividing line between Evil and Neutral in seeking revenge, but I don't mean to tread that line in practice, in the long run I want to aim for Lawful Good, I figure overshooting is better than undershooting on that alignment axis. So yes, I can swear to only practically apply the teachings of Calistria I learn from you in taking revenge on evil people who deserve it, and I'll add I will only do so if I believe is it likely to make the world better in some way, and I will only do so if I can prevent harm from my actions to bystanders, including children as bystanders automatically. Does that wording suffice? I'm fine working on the wording more, I'm not actually used to Asmodean contractual wordings, the SIsterhood of Eiseth preferred other evils, but I'd won't swear a carelessly worded oath."
"...does that sound like a reasonable wording to everyone else or does that sound like something a diabolist would say to trick people."
"I...think it sounds pretty reasonable. ...do you still worship or venerate or act on behalf of any power of Hell?"
She looks around the room at the other committee members.
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