Encouraging...?

"Does that mean no arbitrage?" asks the Crown delegate tentatively. Did the inevitable pick ones that are particularly small or large or clear or discoloured? "Would it be useful if we labeled how much each diamond costs, locally? Or is that—implicit arbitrage—"

"I think this is arbitrage. Diamonds are worth very little here, so amounts that would command the wealth of sovereigns on Golarion are available at all. No one on Golarion would buy books this way."

No one in their world would buy books like this either!

"It would be useful for procurement if we could get specifications of how size and color affects price."

"If you want to tell me how it affects price for Khelt I can put that on a sign near the offered gems. Shfan is an inevitable, it's not going to take more than is fair. Since I can't cast any of the spells that call for diamonds I am not perfect at identifying the cutoff sizes, but I think it's about yea big," this little guy, "and yea big," this bigger one. "Such that ones bigger than that aren't worth much more unless you could chip off a piece and have two. I don't believe color matters at all. But that assumes that the thing driving diamond prices in Axis is mostly spells castable on Golarion, which might easily not be the case."

Notes are taken.

"We'll have estimated local prices for each gem next time. We can test the matter of color and clarity relatively easily, it sounds like, since if it's irrelevant the inevitable would reliably prefer the cheaper ones of the same size if so labeled? Cut, too."

"Right. Though of course I'm taking some of Shfan's payment in covering the intervention budget so Iomedae doesn't pay for it, so it might deliberately throw in confusing selections occasionally in case that helps on that front more than it costs on this one."

"If we can't do better, we can't do better."

"If we were going to be doing this for years it would probably be worth asking more about it but for a few months I don't think it obviously is. They're not my diamonds, though, I'll defer on how to spend them."

The next few days are a flurry of applicant processing. The recruiters pick up a solid grasp of Wisdom, and after some test runs can screen for it with judgment not exactly the same as Blai, but not obviously more wrong.

The candidates that pass the basic Wisdom screen get a proper interview to get a picture of their understanding of the job, theological compatibility and general vibe. The recruiters can do the talking part but let Blai make the final rulings.

There's a pretty broad mix. A lot of young people with no profession looking for a calling. Some adults in their thirties or forties with no profession too, actually. Artists of all types. An astronomer. Farmers, or members of farming households. There are the most hits for Shelyn, a good number for Erastil, few for Desna or Sarenrae or Abadar, none for Iomedae.

Iomedae can't use any anyway. Probably the ideal Iomedaean candidate is doing something higher-return with his time. What do farmers in Khelt... do... given that there are all these skeletons... He's kind of disappointed that they're not turning up more Abadarans, Abadarans are great and furthermore will be able to do negative channels to fix the workforce, what's the finance sector like in Khelt?

Skeletons don't have Skills! Farmers plan and run the farms and the skeletons do the heavy lifting, and the Skills they get from leveling improve yields or produce quality or crop resilience in their fields. There are state-run farms with [Farmers] employed by the government, and also private farms which can rent or loan the skeletons under different schemes but otherwise operate like an ordinary for-profit business.

The government offers generous loans or grants at different levels. There are private loans and banking services, and the concept of trading stock and debt, but it's a far cry from a mature financial sector. Part of it might be that the government offers exceedingly generous terms on its financing options, meant to lose money in expectation, which it can do because the Crown controls all the skeletons, which account for most of the nation's productivity under a lot of reasonable interpretations. 

There is a Ministry of Trade and state-employed analysts and traders! And people study philosophy of wealth, mercantile theory and so on. Markets do exist. If Blai interviews people who work in relevant areas (or sends someone to interview them), those that have heard of the cleric project will say that they already have commitments and it's unclear what value a [Cleric] dip adds to their work. But also there's just not as many of them as there are artists or farmers.

The Abadaran hopefuls he did get are, like, roughly the right kind of guy, if from a context with underdeveloped economic theory compared to Golarion. There's just not a lot of them.

...okay, a government heavily involved in granting loans and aiming to lose money thereby does seem like it would fail to inculcate the Abadaran spirit in its populace and he's not even sure that this makes it bad. The point of a cleric dip is that you can sell spells and they don't take long to do, so you can fit them in around other work, but it does take an hour to get them in the morning so perhaps it's not the right trade, in this context, for Kheltan financiers.

Once they have candidates picked out they can all have a book club sort of arrangement with whatever of their holy books has been translated to a tolerable polish.

Someone shows up to book club reporting they have an [Acolyte] class.

"What does that mean?"

"...I don't know. I got it after praying to Shelyn yesterday—it gave me the [Prayer] Skill. I don't think I have channels or cleric spells?"

"People on Golarion don't level in the locally customary way at all, I'm afraid I have very little idea what that means. It doesn't seem likely to be a bad sign but I can't vouch that it's a good one."

...She's just going to keep book clubbing, then.

Does Blai know what [Prayer] does? She's just been doing it every time she prays and there's some sort of feedback but it's not obviously doing anything.

"That's also as far as I've gotten figuring it out, sorry."

Two others have picked up the [Acolyte] class. A Desnan astronomer and an unemployed Sarenrite. The Sarenrite gets [Prayer] as well, the astronomer gets [Basic Preaching].

[Basic Preaching] seems to improve her interpretation of the Eight Scrolls, or at least her new insights sound more plausibly like what a proper Desnan might say, though no one here is qualified to judge. And she's more eloquent at explaining it—more charismatic, though only in this specific topic. It doesn't generate Desnan catechism ex nihilo.

The first Shelynite hits Level 2 in [Acolyte] at the end of the week, wakes up in the morning, and prays.

What's this Shelynite praying about?

Hi Shelyn! I saw a dove yesterday and I know that's Sarenrae's animal and not yours, but it made me think of you anyway. I don't really know what a songbird is.

I'm still thinking about the second hymn of Melodies. I can't decide if the third line should go do dooo do doo dooo do, or do dooo do do doo doo do... I wish we had the original music, but it wouldn't fit the translated meter anyway, and it's kind of fun, this way. Is it wrong to think that? It's kind of plagiarizing your holy text, but Select Artigas said religious practices are all derivative anyway, or something like that. I'll bounce my thoughts off Marien.

I wonder if it means anything that I'm the only one that picked up [Acolyte]. Or that I got my second level in it yesterday. That's really fast. Temile is definitely a better singer than me but he... doesn't really take this whole thing seriously? I feel like it shouldn't count against him. I sure hope your whole church in Golarion isn't as serious as Select Artigas all the time. Don't tell him I said that.

Yesterday we were talking about making a big painting about you to put up in the discussion room, but we spent an hour arguing about what to paint and I suggested that everyone who wants to do one can make one and we can put them all up, its not like it's worse than having one big one. I wonder if there's a way for you to tell us if you like it. Maybe if you cleric the one who painted the one you like best. That sounds a bit silly, though. Maybe it doesn't matter as much that you like it as that we like it. Art is made for the people that look at it, after all.

Unless it turns out there's a fundamental axis of Beauty and Ugly just like there is Good and Evil. You should grant your clerics Detect Beauty so the art appraisers know how objectively good a piece is. (That's a joke, in case you can't tell, however you're hearing this! I'm being mean to the appraisers. All the ones I know are very nice.)

I hope you manage to get a church here in Khelt. I talked to some of my college friends yesterday and they're afraid that this is going to be the Bureau of Commissioning all over again, but I really don't think you're like that. It's nice to have new things and it's nice when the new things are good and beautiful.

Aw <3

Boop.

[Conditions Met: Acolyte → Cleric Class!]

Oh.

It's not just a level, it feels like—something filling her, whispering truth and beauty—

Thank you, Shelyn. I don't know much about being a [Cleric], but I won't let you down.

She started praying at dawn because that's when Blai said they pray to get spells, but it's already past dawn when she gets the circle. Does she get spells if she asks Shelyn to decide for her?

Yup. Shelyn gives her:

Create Water, Guidance, Light, Tap Inner Beauty, Aspect of the Nightingale, and Charm Person.