Sergi was a decent adventurer, and with his old party at his back and the new one he's gotten as secondary response party for the short term with the promise of baronies at least in the longera, he could fight off a mob, if he had to.
But he is a Sarenrite, and a pretty good one, if not (yet?) a Good one. So he does not want to, and instead he sits in a borrowed study in a magnificent mansion after dinner and starts writing a letter.
Sister Ninfa,
It's worse than we knew.
I know I asked for adventuring clerics before, who could preach between incidents; I no longer think that request is wise, or at least not worth prioritizing. My duchy and my county will stand without them, and the villagers will muddle on in the ancient way. I would still welcome them, but they are no longer my chief concern, even though as I write this I hide behind magical walls from riots in the capital.
No, what I must ask you for, instead, is as many lay priests and first-circles with experience in the orphanages as you can possibly spare. Ask east to Taldor, too. A hundred orphanages just in Egorian, with twenty children a night and sixty a day while their mothers work, and a dozen Iomedans of the Glorious Reclamation checking in on them, occasionally, and wishing they could spare more work to make the places better than they were under Asmodeus. They have less money than they did, much less in many cases, so the children are likely in even worse shape than they were before. (I know you do not have money to spare and do not ask it of you. Even if you did, I would ask you to hire more laywomen for the orphanages there to replace women sent here, rather than give money.)
And the women who run them need our help, too. The young woman who told this to me, Korva Tallandria, a delegate to this constitutional convention of ours, (selected by lot by the archmages, and thank whichever goddess cast the lots for them) cares very deeply, but even I can see the scars on her soul. According to her own account Pharasma's early judgment accords her True Neutral, and it is my personal assessment that she tries as hard as anyone in the orphanages you run to do right by her children. She would not shame Sarenrae to choose. I suspect, very strongly, that if we spoke with those who run those other hundred, and their equivalents in other cities, we would find they are even more desperately in need of a vision of Good, and guidance on how to do their work in ways that support the Good. I will attach copies of the discussion from the notes of the Committee on the Family. (Which I am leading with all the grace and wisdom I can muster, some learned from you. May we rise together.)
I swear that if you grant this favor I will never ask another of its size in my life. I have donated to your churches and orphanages before and will do it again, but I doubt it will ever repay what is needed to make up for this service. You will be helping Cheliax heal, and I ask for this because I want her to, but you should not grant this favor because I desire it. You should read this letter because I ask it, and do as I request because Sarenrae desires it.
In light and in strength, but mostly in sorrow,
Duke Sergi Noguera i Mata de Roda-Mar i Lestdemarc
May some good come from tonight. Not enough, for all the harm that will be done. But a ray of light in the dark.