"People pursuing lichdom usually expect bad afterlives, and getting it a few decades sooner fails to loom large as a risk compared to the possibility of being one of the liches who instead successfully hides out underground for thousands of years avoiding it."

Well, that's just dumb.

"So, going back to the subject of our understanding of souls after death, it's confusing because Kasigna's claim of an afterlife is more aligned with your understanding of your world's physics, than our understanding of ours, which I'd have taken as evidence that she's from your world, except for all the other ways that doesn't match up... She could be from a third world, but that feels like reaching and doesn't make any more sense."

"Quite. I'm really hoping we can get records from someone somewhere."

"Let's hope," she says.

In the meantime, Hamil is finishing up his report on Laedonius Deviy.

On the first sheet he hands in is a pencil drawing of the god. It's strikingly good, with almost the quality of a live sketch. The god is speaking, in the drawing, mouth in the shape of a word, and there's a crinkle in his eyes that says he's laughing. His shoulders are drawn forward as if telling a story. His collar is rumpled and unbuttoned.

Yet, for all of that detail, Laedonius Deviy looks... ordinary. Not particularly handsome, not perfectly average—you could match a face to this drawing holding it up next to them, but not from a description. It looks like somebody you meet on the street.

Disconcerting. A god of dance should be splendid enough to kill a man at thirty paces with his smile. Anyway.

For the written part, either the drawing didn't take much time, or the kid's quick with a pen. His written account is less distillative than the professor's, written more like a story. The god showed up at his apartment out of nowhere, apparently, knocking on the door. Hamil thought they looked familiar when he opened the door, but was pretty sure they didn't know each other.

When asked, the strange man says they're a friend, and here to talk about, well, Hamil. Despite the strangeness of the unexpected visit, Hamil invites him in and gets them a pot of tea. The man makes himself comfortable and asks what's been on Hamil's mind. It takes a while for him to open up, but they talk about his life for what feels like forever. Hamil shows him his drawings, tells him about the dance troupe he's trying to get into, about who he fancies, and it almost feels like he's known the man for his whole life.

As the night goes longer, Laedonius Deviy asks if he's heard about the [Clerics]. If he's thought about being one. No, he says, he didn't apply, but he doesn't think he has the wisdom. The god asks what he would do, if offered it.

    It depends, he says.

I can make you a [Cleric], says the other.

    Of whom?

Of me, he says.

  Oh, well, that's fine, then, says Hamil. But what does it do? What do I do?

Laedonius Deviy explains he's the god of dance and love. Of meetings, like this one. Of family, quiet warmth around a hearth, but also of strangers, about company and passions sparked in passing. All who love and laugh are his people. The only thing Hamil has to do is live by those things, inhabit his best life, and teach the same to others. Find followers of the same mind. Tell the world the gods are alive, and the gods are here, and all they need is to reach out and believe.

All Hamil has to do is take his hand, and he will find what he wants.

So he does. The next thing he knows, the god is gone. The room feels colder, dimmer. The curtains are open, where they'd drawn them earlier. The biscuits he brought out are gone from the table, and he later finds them back in the cupboard, untouched. Only the cup of tea the god was nursing still sits on the table, with dregs left. Hamil makes a new pot, pours it into the same cup, drinks, and prays. And he gets them: [Cleric] Level 1. [Guidance]. [Charming Smile].

He's a bit discombobulated at this point, relieved and worried at once. He goes out to ask if anyone saw a man of this shape and size leaving, but no one has. He goes back home, prays some more, tries to sleep, and, well, that brings them to this morning.

...well, maybe he and the Caydenite and the Shelynite will get along great. Maybe it's all fine. Maybe there's nothing horrible about to happen at all.

It's, you know, not most of where Blai's brainpower is going here, but it does cross his mind, that it could be okay.

...Well, if Blai doesn't have any questions for him, Hamil is going to take that as good...?

Blai is going to want to go to both of the relevant locations to check for lingering auras in the morning when he has Detect Magic but needs nothing else from these people till then.

So they are free to go, and just need to refrain from using their [Cleric] Skills or telling anyone about their gods, is that right? Do they need to rendezvous back here tomorrow morning?

Yes, he'd like them back in the morning so they can show him where the visions took place.

Then they will disperse.

Okay. Time to point the obsessive fretting at something that could conceivably benefit even slightly from this. He will workshop various ways he could approach Shfan when he calls it.

Morning comes and no disaster has struck the nation yet!

The not!clerics show up on schedule, and can point him towards their not!vision locations. Someone's also brought Kasigna's necrodiagnostic doohickey in case he would like to shoot two birds with one Aura Sight with anything he finds at the vision locations.

Orison Detect Magic first, to know if it's worth blowing a Greater.

The doohickey has a strongly magic aura. He does not have sufficient Knowledge (Arcana) to identify its school. He does not have sufficient Spellcraft to identify its properties.

The locations do not have any aura.

What about the clerics themselves?

They are not magic. The professor has a few magic items she can identify for Blai along the lines expected for a magic professor.

Okay. Then they can go back to the project building to try Greater Detect just in case, and an Aura Sight on the object and both [Clerics].

He still doesn't have the Knowledge (Arcana) or Spellcraft to identify anything more than That Sure Is Magic.

The doohickey is Evil.

The professor has no aura.

Hamil has a faint Chaotic Good aura.

"The artifact is Evil. - I don't know if that means it actually does something bad. Skeletons also detect as Evil. But it's a reason to be very wary of it, and if it turns out to be a sapient object or something not to take any of its advice."

Yeah, that's pretty much expected. And obviously you don't take advice from sapient objects! That's how you get possessed or something. What about the rest of them?

"Professor, you have no alignment aura - unless you are a much lower level than I expect, that probably means you are true neutral - and Hamil, you're Chaotic Good, but I don't know what implications that has for Laedonius Deviy, it might be an assumption of Golarion that doesn't hold here that it'd have to be within one step."

Hamil looks pleased and slightly surprised, and a little thoughtful.

    "I expect I'm true neutral," agrees the professor. She doesn't sound surprised. "It's better news than a lot of possible readiings, on the whole?"