The owner of the inn is a retired soldier, and not much for words in the mornings; late nights dealing with drunkards and latecomers puts him in something of a mood, and he's long since learned better than to drive away business by taking point on that kind of interaction. His wife, however, is in a much more personable, and is more than willing to strike up a conversation with a well dressed young woman.

"What brings you to Halmyris? You don't exactly look like the usual merchants, and this is the wrong time of year for that regardless."

"The Abbess of my Monastery, a cleric of Irori, is considering relocating to this city at the invitation of Condesa Lucía.  Events in Westcrown have both of them busy, so I've traveled to see the city.  I have a letter of introduction, but I arrived late last night, so that is why I stayed at your inn first."

She'll get directly to the important parts.

"Have any foreign clerics or newly empowered clerics taken up a role in this city yet?"

Illda doesn't understand economics in general, but she has grasped the concept that Thea can't charge as much for her spells if there are a lot of competitors.

"There's a cleric of Shelyn from Andoran doing channels down at the main temple, but I don't think he plans to stay long term. Other than that, there's one Abadaran at the bank and a Pharasmin who delivers babies, but I expect everyone would be glad of another person around who can create water."

She's glowing with pride, particularly about the first part, but it might be hard to diagnose the exact cause.

She nods at that...

She has no idea how to ask the more sensitive things she needs to know.  But she thinks there was something important about the first part?  She's not good at reading people but there is something?

"Is Shelyn a popular God around here?"

Ilda wracks her brain for details about Shelyn.  Music, Art, and Beauty.  Neutral Good. Sister of Zon-Kuthon from before he was evil.  Her Holy Book wasn't as boring as the more abtruse parts of Irori's but it was less obviously useful than the practical parts of Irori's.  And... that's all she's got.  She kind of skimmed Shelyn's book hoping for some adventure story parts like Iomedae's book.

"Oh yes. My daughter always loved lady Shelyn, and when she helped us throw out the Asmodeans back in the war and helped us make sense of things after a lot of people listened to her. They sent over a cleric to help out with the things she couldn't do herself, and she's picked up a pretty strong following since. Not that we don't like Iomedae and Erastil and such too, of course."

So getting along well with Shelynites will be important if they reside in this city.  Ilda should make time to visit their temple.

"Was she chosen by Shelyn?"

Oh wait maybe if the answer is no that question if rude.

"Or uh, did she manage all of that as a lay follower?  Either way, it sounds impressive.  I'm trying to get a feel for this city, would she have time to speak with me sometime in the next few days?"

"No, but she could heal people and inspire them to see the best in themselves, so it was still a persuasive message for a lot of people." And in fact Alicia did think she was a cleric, for a while there, but her daughter is embarrassed about it so there's no call to go sharing that with strangers.

"She's off in Westcrown right now, got elected for that convention business - I guess I don't know she won't be back soon but I think it'll take longer than that."

Not chosen by a God, but able to heal?  And presumably she wouldn’t be bragging about the typical infernal healing?  Ilda is lost in thought for an uncomfortably long moment, trying to recall lessons on types of magic users.  The daughter is probably some weird type of sorcerer?  Ilda gives up trying to remember, there are too many weird sorcerer types.

“My Abbess is at the convention as a delegate of Irori’s faith.  Perhaps they will meet, although I understand the convention will be quite large.  And I will almost certainly make it back before the convention ends if it lasts at least a few weeks, I can suggest they meet so my Abbess can hear first hand from one of Halmyris’s finest.”

The flattery at the end is delivered a bit awkwardly.

That's okay, she only recently started getting flattery at all and hasn't had time to develop discerning taste in it.

"I hope so too. I don't know very much about Irori's priests, is there anything you tend to look for in a temple?"

She's heard of and met people who worship him, of course, but even a relatively tolerated diety like Irori would hardly be permitted a temple that might encourage primary worship.

“Our Abbess, Ei-, um, Thea, was chosen by Irori after the Four Day War, so she’s still figuring out what direction to lead us…”

Ilda tries to think of how to lead this back to her questions…

“Thea’s mostly just led us in continuing to train and perfect ourselves… it’s been more philosophical and meditation and less practice with assassination relevant skills compared with before the Four Day War.  Probably after Thea figures things out she will offer classes on meditation to the public or something like that.”

Assassination? And only less of it? Isn't Irori supposed to be a lawful god? She's suddenly unsure she wants to help encourage these people to set up a temple in the city. It's probably not the young girl's fault, though, she understands all about how evil leaders can make their subordinates do evil things.

"Maybe you should head down to the temple of Shelyn first, then, and talk to the priest there?"

And maybe she should come to to make sure the songbird knows what he needs to help the girl with, but that might make her more reluctant to go.

Lots of skills are broadly applicable!  The same meditation to clear your thoughts before a (assassination) mission can be used to clear your thought in general!

But Ilda can’t sense the woman’s unease to know to make this clarification.  Her training was more for ‘kill a target in the streets’ and not ‘infiltrate and deal with social situations to kill a target’.

“I was planning on presenting my letter of introduction to the Condesa’s father first thing I could this morning but I could try to get a conversation with Shelyn’s priest now if they aren’t too busy at this time of day?”

"I expect he's probably free in the afternoons, if you have an appointment with the Regent to get to first, and he certainly wouldn't be offended by you heading there first; Shelynites don't exactly stand on ceremony. I think mornings are usually the second busiest time of day anyway, since lots of people want to pick up water around now."

"I don't have an appointment or schedule yet (possibly the Regent will suggest one once he see my letter), but if the Shelynite is usually busy in the mornings it would make sense to try later this morning or this afternoon.  Speaking of the Regent, and I suppose of the Condesa... I assume the changes since the Condesa took her position have been overall favorable?"

Ilda needs to know what the Condesa (and her Regent) is like as a ruler and has very little idea how to ask deftly in a way that couldn't be interpreted negatively if it got back to the Condesa.  She workshopped a few ideas with Dia, so she will try for some blunt, but earnest flattery!

"The Condesa seemed like a decent sort in the brief time I met her.  The Abbess offered her an introductory lesson in martial arts, and the Condesa had the disciplined will to push through the full lesson despite her lack of endurance and the wise humility not to be shamed by her exhaustion at the end."

If Pride is of Asmodeus and Eiseth, then Humility is a Good virtue right?  Ilda has (just barely) enough religious education to know you can't simply invert Evil to get Good, but Thea seems to think humility is a trait to cultivate now, so it's probably in the right direction, at least for Irori.  Hopefully it's the same for other people trying to be more Good?  But... Iomedae didn't seem particularly humble in her holy book?  Ilda should have workshopped her flattery in more detail.

Ilda's outward expression is perfectly stoic, even with her inner debate.

"Oh yes, certainly much more agreeable. Some of that is from the queen and the good gods, of course, but Halmyris is mostly recovered from the war and you don't hear any of the horrible stories these days. I hardly think anyone has cause to complain."

The second part is even more concerning, she hadn't even imagined that she had to be afraid of the Irorites training the Condesa in assassination. She definitely need to talk to the songbird about this.

Ilda is feeling pretty good about things!  Dia seems to think all the other sisters are idiots that can’t hold a conversation, but Ilda thinks she has learned what she needed to and represented the monastery well.

She finishes up her breakfast.

“I suppose I’ll be on my way soon.  Is there anything important I should know about this city?  Or anyone important to talk to besides whoever the Regent will point me at?  I’m currently planning on talking to the Shelynite priest and maybe the Abadarans as well.”

Ilda’s voice is cheerful, but her expression remains unmoving and blank. 

"I think that's most of what I'd recommend. A couple of people are using some of the other Asmodean temples, so if you end up wanting to take one over you might want to talk to them about it? Or one of the local construction workers, if you think you're going to want to build new."

“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you!”

And she’s off to find the manor or whatever the Regent’s residence is to present her letter!

The castle's quite prominent, really. It sits on a high hill, looking down over the port. 

There are guards, with the same red shields as the Condesa's guardsman. 

Direct approach it is!  She walks up to a guard.

“I have a letter of introduction from the Condesa written to her father.”

Fermi's no slouch. He's risen through his current rank through hard work, and a complete and utter willingness to beat up absolutely anyone. 

"Show me this letter"

Fermí glares at her, then at the letter.

Sucks his breath through his teeth. 

"The Condesa? You're from Westcrown?"

“Yes sir, I walked from Westcrown with travel money and pass provided by the Condesa.  My Abbess, a cleric of Irori, is considering relocating to this city at the Condesa’s invitation.  With the events of the Four Day War my understanding is that clerics are in high demand.”

Hopefully he gets the obvious subtext that Ilda is an important messenger!

Fermí sucks air through his teeth again.  

"Irori? I'd better check with the captain. Bru, take over?"

Don Danilo is quite enjoying being his daughter's governor-in-absentia. She's refreshingly simple in her desires (certainly compared to the Conde), which means he can generally administer the port as it should be administered, and merely make sure that everyone pays their taxes. 

And, of course, being attractive to the women of the court, especially now that his awful wife is away, hasn't palled.

Could he have her killed in Westcrown, and give Lucia a new mother? She'd appreciate that, he thinks. 

A courtier whispers in ear.

"Irori? Certainly, certainly. Send her in" He smiles. Her daughter's up to her shenanigans again. 

Ilda present the letter from the Condesa to him.

“My Lord, I have this letter from your daughter introducing me.  I am Ilda, and I am here on behalf of my Abbess, Thea Iroria, cleric of Irori, and delegate of his faith to the constitutional convention.  Abbess Thea is considering moving to this city at the invitation of Condesa Lucia along with her students such as myself.  As a cleric, Abbess Thea’s spells should prove valuable to the city, and as students of the martial arts us members of her abbey may prove useful allies to the Condesa in time.  I would like to familiarize myself with this city and anyone you would recommend me meeting, in addition to inspecting the Old Fort as mentioned in the letter of introduction.”

Ilda delivers this statement with rehearsed steadiness.

"The old fort- that was going to be for the expansion of the guard-"

He glances at her, briefly, before putting it together. "I suppose we must do what the Condesa commands! Another cleric would certainly be welcome- what circle?" 

“Our Abbess is still first circle, but she will be looking for opportunities to grow stronger.  Likewise, several of us older members will want for combat experience to grow stronger within the next few years, we have some relatively unique combat skills.”  

Her voice shows some pride at the last part.  Ilda wants to show off deflecting arrows.

”As to how the Condesa allocates a place for us… the abbey is open to considering options, the old fort was simply the first suggestion the Condesa had.  We would need a place to house 19 people, more if we are to expand our numbers.  If you have other locations to suggest I can of course view them and report back.”

Ilda is slightly nervous at the way he replied… is there some tension at the fact his daughter and not him has the title?

"Of course, of course! I would imagine that a cleric of Irori must have been born into their faith very recently, very recently indeed!"

"We can put you up, I would imagine. Núria- why don't you put her up somewhere on the lower floors, and find some maid to give her the Grand Tour?"

It's clearly a dismissal.

A dismissal is fine.  Less chance for her to mess things  up.  She’ll follow along with whoever she is directed to.

Núria nods, not very humbly.

"Come with me, young lady. I'll see to it that you're taken care of." 

Núria ushers Ilda backwards, and out the door. "If you wouldn't mind getting settled first, I can give you the tour myself. I would love to hear about what's happening in Westcrown. One hears such rumors."

“Thank you.  Yes, that will work for me.”

Ilda will follow along as instructed.

As Nuria guides her, Ilda is looking for several things which she will report back: are the servants overly fearful or deferent, are there any signs of wealthy or of poverty, and how other important people speak of the Condesa.

Ilda thinks for a moment about how to answer Nuria’s question.

“With the announcement of the convention pamphlets commenting on all sorts of religious and political and social matters become popular in the city.  Abbess Thea read one which messed up basic details about Iomedae you can learn in her holy text, so she didn’t want us reading them.  Maybe with actual clerics arriving in the city the religious pamphlets will die off in popularity in favor of sermons?  The price of orisons was starting to finally drop with clerics arriving for the convention.  Good for the common people, bad for our monastery’s finances, but our Abbess was frugal even when orison prices were out of control, so we should be fine until the convention ends even if it takes a few months.”

Núria is listening, and keeping an eye out for maids. 

As soon as she spots one, she excuses herself with a smile.

"You. No, I don't care what you were doing. This is Ilda. Tell the cook to get us a light meal, with iced drinks. We'll be on the terrace. Then, prep the little green room on the south side for her, and put her on the meals list."

Núria leads Ilda out on the terrace. Long graceful pillars hold up a pristine white awning. A tiny rivulet of water runs down across the terrace, and cascades off the edge.  It's cooler than one might expect, with the water, and the sea breeze. 

She points to a nearby escarpment, and the square sandstone tower sitting there. Some of the fort has has fallen, at some point, but the remaining tower seems strong. "The Old Fort."

It needs some repair work… Thea could probably handle most of it in a few years, there’s a greater mending spell at second circle, but if they are moving in soon, they’ll need to make sure the Condesa plans to repair it.  She eyes its size.

“How many can it hold?  Can you give two guesses one for sleeping barracks style and one for sleeping individually. Or maybe 4 guesses, adding in guess for as it is and  with repairs?”

Ilda will want to see it up close and make her own estimate, but Nuria’s guess might reveal some insight into how she is thinking about it.

"It has nine bedrooms on the bottom floor, which used to be the Conde's harem, before the house moved here. Each hold from one to six, in varying degrees of intimacy. The rooms are set around a large central chamber. I wouldn't know how many it could hold, but many. There are stairs, five floors up, and then at the top, there's a false roof, which I would imagine you could do something with, and then the top of the tower. There are cellars, but they have not been used in a generation." 

Six and six and six is eighteen… so with a few more sixes to spare, it is easily the minimum size.  Or doing a room per age-group cohort, that is two rooms to spare.  It occurs to Ilda, although she doesn’t want to, she should ask Thea for some math meditations to get better at math.

”Sounds suitable.  It might be helpful for my report if you could show it to me up close on our tour.”

Overall it is obviously inferior to their Westcrown base, but that was the work of generations for the Sisterhood of Eiseth, with countless stone shapes and permanent magical flames, and even (at their peak when they could afford higher circle arcane support) permanent illusions and spells to turn dirt to solid rock.

"Of course."

The clinking of glass announces a maid with a tray- who comes up and whispers in Núria's ear.

"Oh! Well- it appears as it I am being pulled away by the affairs of state. Joana will take care of you, and I will meet you again after you have a chance to freshen up!"

Some time later, after Ilda has gotten the chance to settle in, Núria shows up again, at the little green room on the south side, and in much less formal clothes.

"Knock knock," she says. "Did Joana offer you a bath- I forgot to ask if you wanted one? I thought we might visit the fort?" 

Ilda is clean and dressed.

“She did, thank you.  Yes I’m ready for the tour now.”

Núria glances briefly at Ilda's clothes, and doesn't comment on them. Maybe it's a religious obligation, as a monk. She's not going to offer horses, because who knows if city folk can ride.

"It is a quick stroll along the escarpment. In the meantime, perhaps you can tell me the any recent gossip about... our new rulers"

Ilda’s robe was actually a brilliant orange and black before she bleached it so it would no longer be Eiseth’s colors.  And it hasn’t been properly tailored in over a year, only some ad-hoc adjustments followed by mendings.

Ilda has some (relatively) safe answers.  Hopefully Nuria isn’t digging for something to entrap her with.  Ilda will just shut up if it looks the conversation is going in that direction.

“The very fact a constitutional convention is happening indicates an interesting relationship between the Queen, one of her Archmages, and their shared Galtan upbringing.”

"Ah- I forgot about this part- it's the recent rains, you see.  This boulder is a bit large for me- perhaps you might be strong enough to give me a hand up?"

“No problem.”

Ilda can find stable footing even on irregular surfaces and has the upper body strength to practically lift Nuria up directly.

"Oh- my, you're strong." So the monk part wasn't a lie.

Núria points. "See, those are the gates to the cellars of the fort. After the rest of the castle fell, they're a bit precarious to get to, but I'm sure you could do it. I must ask- how ever did you come to be in such female an organization?"

They aren’t all that strong, the weaker or less wise or more charismatic or more dexterous monks just specialize differently!  Ilda doesn’t even realize Nuria is taking the strength as proof of monkhood.

“We used to be acolytes of the Sisterhood of Eiseth.  One night after the Four Day War, the fully initiated sisters abandoned us.  Several of the older acolytes also left, but Thea, the oldest acolyte left, decided to find a new God to worship, and settled on Irori, and he empowered her and so she is now our Abbess.  With the shortage of clerics, Thea was able to make enough money to support the rest of us so we could continue to train.”

"What a talented woman! What vision!" Núria means it. 

On the one hand, an all-female order of monks. On the other hand, they would also be a great hindrance for my plans. On the mage hand- they can be subverted, of course. 

"And how did they then come to the Condesa's attention? I know she's looking for a new god- she's been attending the Fiducia's lectures down at the port. Is it Irori, then?"

Thea made it sound simple: they’re monks in a monastery, they need divine patronage, Irori is a monk God.  Ilda can appreciate the complement to Thea nonetheless.

“My understanding is that it was a chance meeting, the Condesa was seeing the city and they started a conversation.  Abbess Thea had already been considering both connections to make with other delegates and the possibility of finding noble patronage and the Condesa seems outgoing and friendly.”

Núria blinks.

"She is that. As you can see- Here's the gate, as you can see, rather sturdy." She pulls a large cast iron key off her chatelaine, and hands it to Ilda. "You're best suited to turn it, I fear. It's quite a lock" 

She hesitates. "There's quite a lot of torture equipment in there, I fear- an artifact of the old Conde- he had it all over the castle, and rather specialized. The Condesa meant to have the metal go to the smiths, but the Captain of the Guard put a hold on it. I couldn't comment on why. I do hope you're not squeamish"

Ilda was nearing the point when she would be told to beat someone to death with her bare hands when the Four Day War happened.  So no, she isn’t squeamish.  She isn’t sure if being squeamish is a virtue now or if it’s still an undesirable trait, so she’ll say nothing.

“It seems of questionable loyalty and sense to hold on to it, given the recent changes in Cheliax’s rule.”

Ilda could easily muscle the key, but she’ll try the minimum amount of force first then gradually increase her effort so as not to break the key or the lock.

Núria smiles microscopically. "I would tend to agree. I'll send a letter back with you, explaining everything to the Condesa. Then, if she overrules him, we could have the place cleaned out by the time you would be moving in. Yes, I'm afraid you'll need to force it."

Ilda deliberately makes a fraction of lip movement that could be interpreted as a smile back.

“The Condesa is lucky to have your aid in this.  Is the Condesa in need of more loyal women who can see her will carried out faithfully?”

Ilda doesn’t actually believe Nuria is helping out of straightforward loyalty to the Condesa, there’s probably some complicated noble bullshit games going on.  But Ilda is vaguely aware how she comes off, and she can at least try to play into that by pretending she believes Nuria is genuinely that loyal.

Aww, she's trying to do politics. That's adorable! Well, a teen assassin cult leader could hardly do a worse job than the present appointee.

"I certainly think that the Condesa could be better suited by finding another military representative"

"So this is the central room. You can see one of the bedrooms beyond that thing with the steel spikes, and if you move that wooden- yes, I'm afraid that's blood- you can probably get by. If you want to take a look in there- I can swear to you that all the rest of the bedrooms are the same- then can go up to the roof. "  

Ilda will look over that room… and check one other room at random on their way up to the roof.

She'll have to clamber over things with spikes and dried blood on them, but that's fine, it's not Nuria's dress that's getting torn.

There's a long set of narrow stone stairs, winding back and forth. There's both interior (to the court) and exterior windows on the higher floors- the latter sealed with shutters.

At the top, there's the usual wooden shed for hoardings, and small bench covered in lichen, for watching the ocean. 

“Nice view, our current monastery is underground.”

"Yeah- that's the arena, that's the old temple, that's the well. It's a great city. Halmyris-"

Núria has a long standard speech for this. Usually she uses it on merchants who might want to move here, and anywhere where she wants to puff up Halmyris, as The coast city of Cheliax (other than the capital, of course)

It's quite long, and today she makes sure to drone on a little extra.

Ilda is initially interested.  And then as the speech goes on and on she gradually finds her attention drifting.  Luckily it’s a nice view and Nuria is dramatically gesturing at the various relevant locations visible from it, so Ilda can feign continued interest while looking out at the city and ocean.  And Ilda’s facial expression never changes, so it isn’t showing any boredom.

[Unseen and not Undone][Cunning Caster][Hypnotism]

"-so I really do think it's the best city you could possibly hope for, given the unfortunate constraints of Remesiana. Because of that I really hope you support me as a Potential Ally, and Halmris as a suitable city, when talking to your Abbess"

Ilda has ever had practice spotting spells being cast and resisting them, but that was over a year ago back when she was being trained by the Sisterhood of Eiseth, Thea hadn’t had the spells to spare on it and Estella only helped them train a few times then got bored of it.

And in fact, Nuria blended the verbal components and physical gestures almost seamlessly into her speech and gesticulations, so Ilda would have had bad odds of even noticing the spell even if she was paying attention.  In short, the spell goes off without a hitch.

“Of course, the way you’ve described the city sounds wonderful and you’ve been very helpful.”

Ilda’s voice is the warmest and friendliest it’s been yet, and a slight but natural smile shows beneath her constant stoic expression. 

A genuine smile back. "Oh, I'm so glad. I'll leave the key with you- please do return it when you go back to Westcrown- but unfortunately I simply must be going."

“Do you know if the Regent had any other things he wished me to see or do today?  I would like to visit the Shelynite Temple if there is time.”

"Oh, I shouldn't think so! Do enjoy your stay and do please come to me with anything you need! The only place I'd really avoid is the lower port- when the wrong sort of ships are in town, there have been known to be some... ruckuses down there."

“Thank you for the advice.”

She’ll spend a bit longer staring at the sea then be on her way to Shelynite temple then.

She thinks on Nuria a little longer.  She feels set on recommending her to Thea.

Dia would think she’s being a naive idiot, but she thinks she can feel some common interest with Nuria.  The Sisterhood of Eiseth often offered aid to noblewoman in need of a trustworthy fist to put down their problems, perhaps they could figure out a similar arrangement with Nuria.  What actually is Nuria’s rank and position?  Ilda should figure that out, it wouldn’t do to offend an allied noble over some titles bullshit.  And Ilda has gotten the impression the previous default solution to an offended minor noble is no longer acceptable to Thea.  Well if Nuria turns from ally to problem to outright threat… Ilda and Dia can get Thea to accept the pragmatic option.

Doing ministry in liberated Cheliax has been surprisingly easy so far, so much so that he almost stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop. This means that rather than relief about finally seeing the catch, he's actually quite concerned to be told about an Assassin cult of Irori who indoctrinates children and plans to move into the town (the story has gotten somewhat mangled in the retelling). He can't even reassure them not to be worried, both because the Rivera family is one of those he listens to most closely and because he can't truthfully reassure them that Irori would never condone an assassination order. He would, it's a serious problem.

None of this shows on his face when he welcomes Ilda to the temple, though. She's just another at risk soul like so many others in Cheliax, and his mission is to help them, not judge them.

Ilda managed to learn the title of Shelynite clerics and this particular songbird’s name, so she feels reasonably prepared for this meeting.

“Greeting Songbird Armando, I’m visiting this town on behalf of my Abbess, Thea, cleric of Irori and delegate of his faith to the constitutional convention.  She has been considering relocating our monastery and is considering Halmyris at the invitation of the Condesa.  How are you liking this city?”

"It's mostly been a pleasure so far, especially compared to the worst my fears when I first arrived - it certainly helps that I had something of a congregation already waiting, and did not have to do all of the work alone. I've worked alongside some followers of Irori before, but I can't say they have all followed a single theme beyond honing their skills; how would you describe your monastary?"

“We’ve continued in training martial skills as we did before… I should explain in order.  All of our current members were acolytes in an infernal cult dedicated to Eiseth.  The fully initiated members abandoned us after the Four Day War, and then some of the older acolytes abandoned us, and the oldest remaining acolyte, Thea, turned to Irori and was empowered by him.  She’s kept us fed and clothed selling her spells, and she also reworked our training to be in line with Irori’s teaching… We’ve retained most of the martial training but also added in a lot more reading and intellectual exercises.  Abbess Thea has also changed up our meditations from purely pragmatic exercise intended to help develop the ability to use Ki and hone killing intent to more intellectual and enlightening meditations she’s learned from Irori’s holy text.  I think if she establishes lessons for the public, she’ll do basic meditation, and maybe some basic defensive unarmed combat training.  By that I mean, for example, in an introductory lesson, she taught the Condesa some basics on how to break free of grapples and grabs so the Condesa could cast spells with somatic components.  Long term, I think Abbess Thea also means to figure out how we can sell our skills as adventurers and bodyguards.”

Ilda had already been prepared with most of this statement in advance, so she recites it smoothly, only needing to pause to adjust a few times to focus her answer on the Songbird’s specific question.

That's... less reassuring than it could be. Even if he takes everything at face value, that's still an only slightly deprogrammed infernal cult, with no external support or internal role models who know anything outside of the cult, dedicated to the god who would be perfectly satisfied with a result where they went back to doing assassinations under a different goal. And he didn't miss how rehearsed that speech was either. It's times like this that he really wishes he had a whole seminary of songbirds here to help him out, and a few summoned agathions for good measure.

...Well. Lady Shelyn may tell them that Nirvana is for everyone, but she never said it would be easy to accomplish that. Get your head in the game, Armando, there might be a whole abbey of kids counting on you. And the first step is to make sure they know they aren't trapped.

"In Andoran there are usually rather more clerics in a city of this size than Halmyris has, and from a wide variety of faiths. I certainly have no intention of discouraging an Irorite from their chosen method of self improvement, but even if the adventuring doesn't work out as she hopes I expect your abbess will have options. For your other acolytes without such advantages, I run a number of classes on varying crafts in the evenings out of the temple, and would be happy to have any of you who wished to attend do so. Do you think there are any that would be particularly popular, either for your abbey or for you?"

More clerics means Thea is undercut on spellcasting price which means less money for the abbey.  She is actually aware she can’t just say that to the Songbird, it might sound like she’s saying she wants him gone.  She’s distracted by these thoughts for a few a moment before processing the rest of the Songbird’s comment.

“Abbess Thea considers diversity in studies and skills valuable, and is experimenting with different styles of teaching and areas of subject matter, so yes, learning crafts sounds like something she would at least like to introduce us to.”

Ilda tries to think ahead and see the implications.  Is the invitation a way of… feeling out competition from another God’s church?  A friendly way of networking?  An approach to proselytizing?  Whatever, she’ll act friendly and leave the door open, Dia can figure out the right follow-up move later.

“I should be in the city around a week, maybe up to two?  Are there any introductory classes in that time you would recommend I try?”

She doesn’t sound enthusiastic about it, but she doesn’t sound outright bored about it either.

"I was personally most fond of the painting lessons at my own church growing up, and if you feel the same way I'd be happy to have you over this evening, but I as far as the city in general goes the most popular tend to be the lessons on weaving and sewing and you'd have to wait for tomorrow for that one."

He's very proud of his work there, lots of people in post-Asmodean Cheliax have no idea how to do any of the things that kids in other countries learn from their parents, but they often fear the idea of it being common knowledge they don't know how. If he brings brings free colorful cloth to the classes, though, they can tell themselves they're only showing up for that and he gets the added satisfaction of seeing people joyful about the way they look for the first time.

"Painting sounds good to me.  We defaced our old iconography dedicated to Eiseth, and still haven't finished painting over it with new art.  Well, I guess we'll leave it all behind if we move here, but our potential location here needs a lot of work to look nicer as well."

Then he would be happy to have her attend! He’s something of an expert at making buildings distinctly unasmodean and pleasurable to live in.

Ilda attempts a smile, but it is more like a momentary twitch of her lips than even a subtle smile.

Ilda actually dislikes Thea's austere ascetic preferences, it is one of the more annoying things about the change from Eiseth to Irori.  Luckily Thea is easily sold on making their abbey less infernal in aesthetics, which some nice art counts as, as long as it doesn't cross the line into luxury or decadence.  She doesn't want to get into this with an outsider though.  So, back to practical questions.

"Are you planning on staying in this city long term?  Or are you going to leave once you've reached a key milestone, like getting enough local support for Shelyn's temple to be self-sustaining?"

“I’m not sure. I don’t plan to stay here forever, but there’s not enough water as it is and as long as the convention is ongoing there isn’t anyone else with enough healing either. Less than four years, I expect, but I don’t know how much less just yet.

Not enough water sounds great!  During a dry month, Thea once made 50 silvers for a few hours of filling cisterns.

“Perhaps in that time the beneficent Gods will see fit to choose more people?  At least enough to cover the essential basic like water?”

It’s something Thea’s had fretted over but didn’t find any way of guessing, maybe an educated cleric will have a better guess?

"In time, yes, but I do not expect it will be swift; it is the work of years to help people grow close enough to the gods to be chosen, where it can be done at all. In Andoran we have perhaps four times as many clerics per person as Cheliax does now, but they were rarer when I was growing up and in some places the shortages lasted years after the revolution."

That’s great for the abbey, it’ll mean enough time for the youngest sisters to grow up before Thea’s spells stop being so valuable.  Ilda continues to have the bare minimum of sense not to say this out loud.

“I think that’s all the questions I had, I’ll see you this evening for the painting class?”

"Yes, I'll see you then!"

She wanders the city for a few hours, trying to feel it out, but even with Dia’s preparation, she’s not actually skilled at drawing people into conversation, so she doesn’t learn anything notable from talking.  She does directly see and collect some basic information: the number of former Asmodean temples, which areas are poorer and richer, the number of ships in the harbor, and a few other such markers of the city’s health.

Finally she returns in the evening.

She's not the only one! The building is hardly packed, but regardless of whether it's because of interest in the arts, the free paints, or just a desire to curry favor with the city's strongest priest, a few dozen people arrived before Ilda did. Armando is wandering the room, talking with his flock as they get set up.

She eyes the other attendees, mentally tabulating age, social status, genders, and apparent wealth.  She may not have an instinct for how to use that information, but she can accurately remember it to pass on to Thea and Dia.

About half the room seems to be comfortably part of chelish middle class, the other half spread out lower along the social strata; there are more women then men, but not by much. Only one of them aside from Armando is someone she would peg as locally important in their own right rather than as a constituency.

She isn't sure of the implications of the spread of social strata, but she remembers it anyway.  She doesn't need any information from anyone in particular, so she doesn't bother trying to introduce herself to anyone.  With no other priorities, she starts trying to figure out what to do to get setup to get painting.

There's only one kind of paper - the mass produced stuff that the Archmage Cotonett has been driving the price of through the floor - but she's got a wide array of paints to choose from, and a few kinds of brushes. There's a smattering of everyday objects around that some people seem to be using as reference material for their own work, but only about a third of the people there seem to be making use of them while everyone else draws from memory or abstraction. 

Armando is walking around, giving snippets of advice here and there - how to hold a brush so you have better control of it, how to keep your paint from dripping, and such, but he seems to favor a style of teaching where people learn mostly by doing and he fills in the gaps.

Ilda gets started!  She has a simple plan of what to paint: a snail squishing/eating a serpent!  She knows how to draw a simple stylized snail, so she gets started with that part first.  That part at least is coming out decent, is rather simple and stylized.

And his path eventually takes him around to her, where he has some advice! If she gets less paint on the brush, it will run and smudge a bit less, and for some shapes she can hold bits of scrap paper like so to keep any excess liquid from getting into the wrong area of her painting-

She’s happy to take the advice!  Her picture is shaping up rather decently, she has some basic practice from helping repaint her abbey’s iconography, and the songbird’s advice helps bring it to another level.

She’s not sure what to add once she’s got the basic snail killing snake down.  Some abstract colors?  A background of nature scenery?  Some geometric patterns?  She’ll ask for input after a few minutes of thinking.