Nod. "Do you mind explaining the interrogation Skills? I don't know if they'll want to use them with me, it seems likely that a truth stone will suffice, but having some idea of the range would help."

"The one I remember they called a lot was [Spit It Out]. I think it makes you say something you trying not to say or trying to rephrase in your head, maybe to make it harder to weasel around truth spells. At some point there was definitely something making me feel friendlier with the [Interrogator], but I don't know if it's a Spell or Skill or what. Let me think... probably there were other things active, but I can't really separate out any specific effects, sorry."

"Thank you.

"If I wind up trading for your release do you expect to go right back to getting arrested or was it an exceptional case?"

Wince.

"Iiiiii am probably going to enlist in their army for a few years. So that puts a lower bound on how soon I can go about breaking the law again. I don't know how to qualify 'exceptional case' but I've definitely learned my lesson about the consequences of my actions! And, y'know, caution, and so on. I did, uh, want to ask if you know whether that's going to be too Lawful to fly with Desna."

"The god of war is Chaotic. I don't think it's particularly difficult to be a non-Lawful soldier. But that was actually floated as - cover, for your release; it might not come with much in the way of actual deployment."

"I'd still need to be put in a squad or some nominal role, is what I understood, it just doesn't need to involve any substantial duties, I think? But I kind of don't want to cool my heels turning in empty reports in Manus for three years, so honestly I wouldn't mind being sent on a healing circuit or something. Which might involve following orders. I don't really understand how you can be a Chaotic soldier, or, uh, a Chaotic soldier that's not discharged for insubordination."

"Obeying orders from your superiors is a Lawful act by default but your unit doesn't necessarily have to behave particularly lawfully and that chaos comes from somewhere. The... standard measure of unit discipline that there are sayings about... is the amount of rape and pillage an army commits... but I imagine there may be less Evil options also. And many soldiers are not consistent about obeying their regulations and orders. If you snuck off after curfew to attend the theater that would probably not be a discharge offense, at least not if you only did it once, but it would not be very obedient."

That sounds like how you get lashed and she also doesn't want to get lashed either!

"... I'll figure something out."

She left Liscor not planning any specific crimes and still immediately ended up doing crimes anyway, so maybe she's foreseeing a problem where there isn't one.

"You're a cleric, not some kind of chaos paladin who must never commit a lawful act. Desna tracks your overall alignment, and it's not going to shift over little things that much. You don't even have to be Chaotic, Neutral Good still works."

"I guess I'm probably pretty far in the green for Chaos right now."

"That'd be my guess."

"So their [Interrogators] are pretty good and I did already tell them what I know about... everything, really, which isn't all that much, but just so you know."

"Understood."

"Do you need—help with anything—"

"If there's more background information you have that might be relevant to my executing the trade, then that. Otherwise I think I'm doing fine."

"I don't actually know what they want to talk to you for specifically. Your world?"

"I'm not sure it's wise to say, unless you have a specific model according to which it might be germane."

"I don't know much more than the average person about Manus, apart from what their dungeons look like from the inside, so maybe it's not worth it."

"Well, I can't actually go around asking the average person about Manus, I'm under a confidentiality agreement."

"Should I just summarize everything I remember about Manus, is that helpful?"

"It could be."

"Manus is southwest of Liscor, past Pallass, bordering Antinium territory. It's called the City of War and has the strongest military of all the Walled Cities. It's also one of the older Walled Cities, and one of the poorer ones, I think. It's more... progressive? Big ruling council, meritocratic, or so I hear. But I've heard conflicting accounts on that."

"What does progressive mean here?"