"Here's headquarters. Sorry about the state of things around these parts."

He looks to Elorri, hesitating to knock on the door.

"It takes time to rebuild after a disaster. Have you operated out of this location the whole time you've been organized?"

"Used to belong to the Sons of Westcrown. Back when we went by Heaven's Army, didn't have our own building. Moved in here when we stopped fighting them and joined together."

"And your lieutenant is from which outfit?"

"He's Heaven's Army. I think that outfit used to be Iomedae's Army but he changed the name when he took over. That was before I joined."

"And Sons of Westcrown's original mandate was...?"

"Well, their territory was from around that bridge over there, up to the next square this street connects to. Don't know if keeping territory counts as a mandate. Said they were fighting for Westcrown?"

"The territory in which they were responsible for... keeping order? Officially or on their own recognizance?"

"Keeping order, or at least keeping anyone else from starting anything around there. Nothing official. I heard the watch used to have a deal with them, cut of the protection money. Well, the watch had that deal back under hell, these days they just stay away."

"The watch stay away from this area? Why is that?"

"They don't really want to be in this part of the city, and no one here wants them either. Don't know if that's the only reason but it's my guess."

"Which is because of - what feature of this part of the city?"

He has to think a moment to put it into words. "Well no one important enough to guard lives here. No gates or docks to guard either. Watch probably wants the whole city as their territory, even these parts, but they don't have enough men for that. Not since the crown started beheading them."

"I see. So the parent organizations of this one are a - lay holy order, and a... territorial Guard supplement. Is that right?"

"That's right."

"Is your lieutenant in that I could speak to him?"

"He should be in, if I'm remembering the schedule right."

He knocks on the door. "It's Sergeant Gonzalo, I found a paladin who wants to talk to the lieutenant."

Muffled conversation from behind the door.

"I'm Ser Goés with the Reclamation."

Door opens.

"Lieutenant Arnis. Good to meet. Want to talk inside, or out here?"

Detect Evil. Just, you know, out of an abundance of caution.

Non-evil.

Non-evil.

Oh good. "It's lovely to meet you, Lieutenant! Inside suits me fine."

Past the common room, into his office. There's a shelf for his gear, a rolled up mat to sleep on, a few chairs and and a well-organized desk. Two copies of the Acts of Iomedae, one very worn.

"We've been hoping for a visit from the church. Or the reclamation, I understand they're separate organizations. Any one of Iomedae's own."

"Apparently Select Artigas's pamphlet attracted some attention sufficient to alert us to your existence! What can you tell me about what you're doing here?"

"I told him not to take up any unneeded attention from anything more important the church is doing. Just offer the Select guards in case anyone went after him again."

"What we're doing. The big picture is fighting evil in Westcrown, and using the vows of a holy order to keep members to a Lawful and Good standard of behavior. Enough to get to heaven, if we can."

"The specifics are trying to keep order in this specific area, mostly patrolling the streets so the pickpockets and robbers don't try anything. A couple more complicated operations, but it's mostly the patrols. Otherwise, trying to keep our men out of trouble and out of the taverns. Enough training and attending sermons and reading scriptures to keep them occupied."

"I for one am glad to now be aware of your existence. We can't triage problems or allocate resources we don't know to exist. Almost every time an incident report comes out it scolds people for not delegating more, and an entire lay order of volunteers aligned with the Church is very much the kind of thing we'd want to know to get ahead of that a bit. Are you actually having people take vows, or just using the text of some vows as a guideline?"

"Understood. I set a policy of avoiding bothering the Church based on your attention being scarce and needing to be prioritized, took that too strongly."

"We take vows, but I tried to set them up so they don't damage men's honor on the net. Based on that part of the Acts where she's setting up the knights and... Sorry, paladin. Don't have to explain to you which part I mean. The main safeguard is that our vows have a section about being released on resigning from the order or being expelled. We've had men who couldn't keep to them, especially the water one, but we try to have them resign and leave before doing anything. So, there are actual vows, but not as strong as holy orders where it's harder to leave."

"That's very reassuring, it would have been easy to damage someone's commitment to Law that way but it sounds like you've anticipated and avoided the issue. What's the water one?"

“Only drinking water. We know alcohol isn’t evil, but it isn’t lawful either. Or, it makes being disciplined and keeping commitments harder.”

"Hm, not all orders require going without it but some do and if it was causing problems among your men that makes sense. May I see the text of the vows?"

“Of course.”

He has a drawer full of copies, takes one out. 

There is a preamble, ‘I, name here, do swear’ and an explanation that the vows are only while a member of the order. The vows themselves are:

I will not draw my sword unless given lawful orders to fight, or in immediate defense of self or another

I will drink only water.

I will be celibate except on holy days of Shelyn. 

I will not lie while representing Heaven’s Army.

“The third one is a compromise. I’m going to have to fix the first, since there’s been some trouble understanding it.”

"What is it a compromise between? Do you not have any married members?"

“Compromise between the will of heaven and the recalcitrance of humans, I’d call it. By rights it would have no exceptions, but then the order would dissolve.”

“If a man wants to get married and he’s serious about it, I tell him to resign, get a job that pays, and ask the temple of Erastil how to have a family the good way. If he wants to stay, thinks he can do right by a wife while fighting for heaven, I have him bring her in and read some from the Acts. The part where the lich took that officer’s family, and when he asked, she couldn’t spend the spells to rescue them.”

"...are many of your members having their families kidnapped by liches, here?"

“No. The most we’ve done against the lich is tearing down pamphlets from the walls and burning them. The lesson of the story is what I want to get across, not the specific threat of a lich.”

"So, it could be that this is the best tradeoff and compromise for your order, but you're taking on the role of a city watch, not a crusade, and your men would not obviously be neglecting their duties here to confront a kidnapper who abducted their loved ones, and I would expect membership to be compatible with marriage where finances allow. The Reclamation encouraged celibacy but only up until the overthrow of the infernal regime and I myself am not planning to renew my own oath of celibacy. Not because I mean to go carousing on Shelyn's holy days, but because I might want to marry."

“Understood. We’ll change the oath, but there’s another constraint. Most of us are living here, and it’s simplest to say no one should be bringing any women in. Maybe men in other places are honorable enough that something more complicated than that can work, but here I’d want finances allowing to include a separate place to sleep.”

"Ah, I didn't realize the men were resident, it would certainly be awkward to install a wife in a barracks. 'Finances permitting' should include a place to live. - is that a popular reason to sign up, free lodging? Do you also feed them? Out of your own accounts?"

“Free room and board gets us recruits, but most of those leave after hearing the vows. Out of the orders account. Some of it is my money and some is the war chest from the last organization we’ve… taken over the responsibilities of. I was praying we would hear back from the church before money runs out.”

“Guess we can’t all have the Emperor of Taldor funding us, especially if we don’t even have a lich to fight.”

"We certainly cannot. Have you applied for Crown funding?"

“I have not considered that, and would not know how to send a letter to the crown if I did try to do it.”

"I'm not sure if it would be granted at all, but you seem to have taken up a task the Crown is at least in principle willing to pay for. I would be happy to collaborate on a draft letter."

“I thank you for the help if we do. Do you think the chance of help is worth the risks of coming to the attention of the crown? The risk of the crown prosecution specifically.”

"...well, do you believe you've been operating illegally?"

“Yes.”

"There aren't very many... laws... right now. Which ones have you been running afoul of?"

“…I will have to ask a few questions of you before going into detail.”

"I understand."

“What obligations do you have to report any information I tell you, and to who?”

"I've been removed from assizes duty so as to free me up for the convention but believe I am still invested with the power to individually rule on cases I encounter. It'd go in a report to my commanding officer. If, and only if, we were then to pen a letter to the Crown, I might consider it an objectionable omission not to mention having done this, and of course the Queen's empowered to overrule and supercede my judgments should she care to do so, but I do not have a proactive duty to bring every crime that crosses my field of view to her attention."

“I am currently operating under the assumption that we would be of no help to heaven with some of our members executed or our organization dissolved. Should I continue in this assumption. Or speak to you without regard for that, and let you and your superiors make the decision about which would better serve Iomedae’s aims?”

"I think you are very likely more help to Heaven intact. I cannot guarantee this is true of every one of your members, of course, but the organization seems of hearteningly sound construction from what I've seen so far, and I'm presently" burdened "equipped with a number of mitigating factors to apply to situations I encounter in light of the difficult project of the Chelish populace approaching Good."

"Well. I want to ask to give them all a chance to run, just out of loyalty. But that wouldn't make sense. Asking more questions would just be delaying, so here it is."

"Some of what we do hits the laws on fighting, assault and those ones. When we went on the offensive, that's breaking into buildings. Murder. With honor, in open combat, but I don't think the law would recognize it as war and not murder."

"Separately, many of my men were previously part of less disciplined organizations, street gangs and completely aimless lay inquisitions. I have promised confidence when talking to them about their pasts. and will not betray that, but you can infer the broad category of crimes that involved."

"I'm not pursuing anything that happened before the amnesty and you may feel particularly free to omit it. You're construing yourselves as at war with - whom?"

"I was only active in this after the amnesty, a lot of of what I know about isn't covered. Streets didn't quiet down just because the queen said she was feeling merciful one day. If anything, it's made the calistrians worse."

"We were at war with those calistrians for a bit, and with the other half of Sons of Westcrown. That's quieted down, though, right now we're just holding our position. Some fool tried to start Iomedae's Army back up again, after the riots. I managed to convince half his recruits to join us instead, so that probably won't be a war."

"What is it the Calistrians were doing?"

"Revenge and prostitution, mostly."

"Prostitution is not illegal. Neither is revenge per se, depending."

"Illegal isn't exactly what we're doing, at least not by the crown laws as they are now. We're trying to keep order on the streets, and that's hard when they're starting fights in broad daylight or trying to slit throats in the dark. For revenge or to keep their monopoly. Now, some of the types they're taking revenge on deserve it. We've even worked together a couple times. But, usually it's one word against another and none of us have the truth spells to tell. So we break the fight up, and then they want revenge on us."

"There's no war with them now. They left and took the rest of the whores with them, and things around here are all the better for it."

"I see. I think... I think you're making steps in the right direction but very much handicapped by the nature of what you're starting with, here. I can imagine it would have rankled very badly to have there be so few laws and people taking advantage of that. There's nothing more aggravating to a Lawful soul than anarchy. It's just that you didn't, quite, establish the standing to impose as much order as you liked; there's a legitimate Queen, and she lives in this very city."

“She lives in this city, not much around here.” 

“I know we’re not doing it anywhere near right. Some of that is what I’m working with, but it’s on me and my decisions too. But I do believe we’re a cut above the watch. Or what it’d look like here with no one trying to keep order at all.”

"I expect you're right. But it's better to coordinate than to have a dozen hydra heads biting each other. I'm not going to oblige you to write the Crown but it's what I would recommend."

“Understood. We’ll be following recommendations from you and your. Orders, ideally, but recommendations for now. I’ve been making sure we don’t represent ourselves as part of the church or reclamation chain of command, because we aren’t. Like that to change if possible.”

"If you want to join the Reclamation I'm not the person to talk to, but I can put you in touch with them. It would take longer and possibly be more difficult to be declared an Iomedaean independent organization in good standing. How do you think the men will take to it?"

“We have standing orders to transfer command to the church or reclamation if either one ever asks. Don’t know of they’d actually follow if it came up, but they should. If they’d have to leave Westcrown, most might resign. Otherwise, I think they’ll take to it well enough.”

"I don't imagine they'd have to leave Westcrown immediately, but in general if one is in the command of a large organization one must have some willingness to redeploy at need."

“I’d have to talk to them about that. Some of them would rather resign, more loyal to the city than to Iomedae or the order. Most would follow to another country if Cansellarion gave the order, the man’s a hero. But… you see how we’re all here, instead of the worldwound?”

"Yes. The Worldwound isn't the right place for everyone, and in particular it's out of the Reclamation's scope. I wouldn't expect your volunteers to be ordered there. But excursions to other cities in need of peacekeeping wouldn't be out of the question, with the understanding that your men are specialized for Westcrown and the rest of us aren't at all."

“Other cities, I think we can work with. Sounds like you’ll have to talk to your people and I to mine about this.”

"Yes. How many men shall I tell them you have? How's current - let's say in the last two weeks - compliance with the standing regulations and with the law of Cheliax?"

“Twenty members… no, eighteen now. Not all living here, but most. Twelve associates, they haven’t taken the vows or started going on patrols, but we’re getting them ready. Not sure where to put them, it’s already getting crowded in here.”

“Last two weeks are going to make us look a lot less lawful than usual. What with Valia Wain and then with Valia Wain again. I can give you what happened, but the weeks before would give you a better idea of how we are most of the time.”

"All right, the last month; though I do also want to know what went on as regards Select Wain if I may."

“As far as I can tell, she gave a speech about rebelling against evil nobles. Someone put it to paper and changed the words saying to do it right now and kill the hellspawn too. Riots that night, until a rainstorm made everyone go inside. The next week, they held a trial for Select Wain. Said she was innocent, but someone put to paper that she was eaten by lions.”

Displeasure at the existence of pamphlets.

“We— the main group, living here, spent the night of the riots out in force. Keeping everyone else inside instead of killing or robbing. Had to scare off a small crowd, don’t know where they went but it was out of our territory. Fended off a group of the hellspawn, too. Said they were together just for defense, but I didn’t believe them.”

“A few of the members living away from headquarters decided this was an order from a Select of Iomedae. Showed up the next morning with loot from some petty noble’s townhouse. I dealt with the instigator, expelled the rest of them. Gave the coins they stole to the church, dumped the rest.”

”Day before the trial, we had one problem. Couple men, away from their officer, got together with some former members and attacked one of those pamphlet urchins.”

He goes over the rest of the month. A few scuffles during patrols, some arguably assaults.

"Please don't give stolen goods to the church without at least explaining how you came by them."

“Understood. What would be the recommended action in that situation?”

"Return them to the person they were stolen from, ideally! If this is impossible you can give the to the church and explain why it is impossible."

“That situation shouldn’t be happening again. If it does, we’ll keep to that recommendation.”

"Did you keep a record of the victim and the sum so that we could rectify it now?"

“We did not. Got rid of it in a hurry, didn’t take the time to count it out. As for the victim, I know which house it was but not the name of who lived there.”

"Do you recall which church and the date, so we could see if they have a record?"

He does have those. Was there during the handoff, just in case anyone thought about keeping any.

Well, at least no one kept any. "Is this a good time for you to walk with me to see if they can fetch out the money again and hopefully return it to the fellow? We can talk more on the way."

Speaking quietly. “If you need to get me out of this building full of armed followers, to make an arrest, I should make a couple preparations first. To stop them doing anything reckless once the news gets out.”

"I'm not planning to arrest you. I just consider it important to get the fellow's money returned to him insofar as we can."

“In that case, I’ll bring another man with me. We travel in twos when possible, oaths are stronger with company.”

"That makes sense, please go right ahead."

He will collect a second, and head out. 

To a chorus of ‘goddess be with you’ from everyone in the building.

"And with you as well," says Elorri. They're trying! They are somehow getting weird esoterica right and not getting 'return stolen goods' right but they are trying!!

Walking and talking. “For my understanding, what’s the law behind returning the coin? Church would do more good with it than an evil noble, but sounds like there’s law reasons that I haven’t gotten yet, make it more complicated.”

"The church would do more good with it than almost anyone in the world, and also we aren't thieves, we must not stand to benefit from theft, we must conduct ourselves in civilized places as safe for law abiding people to interact with and that means not stealing from them."

"It's not like you ordered anyone to steal anything, and the people who did weren't ordered to and were punished after. I've been really trying to make sure people know we don't speak for you. But, even if we don't represent you... You don't want the church to be a fence. Is that it?"

"We definitely do not want the church to be a fence, but also the - incentives are wrong, the effect it has on our ability to operate honestly is wrong, everything about it is corrosive. If this man who had his house robbed learned exactly what became of his money of course he'd demand it back, wouldn't he? And we wouldn't have any grounds to deny him, because we wouldn't have stolen it in the first place - so then we're in a position where we're richer if it's kept secret, and we are not the kind of organization that should be richer with secrets."

"I'll need a bit of time to think on that one. I was never too good at understanding the incentives and hypotheticals sort of things. Not doing something that someone wouldn't want you to have done if you hadn't done something else, that sort of thing. I think I understand the thing where Iomedae doesn't betray you if you're praying to her, and she made that deal with Aroden, but it took me a bit of time to think on that part, too."

"I want to reiterate that I do think you've done an incredibly impressive job of all this. It is possibly the single most encouraging facet of Cheliax I have seen in the last year and a half."

"Glad to hear it, and sorry about the rest of Cheliax. I've spent a long time wondering what Iomedae and the people she really Selected would think of us and what we're trying, most of us have. I know she's not the type to throw anyone into the fire for obeying her wrong, but really that makes disappointing her worse."

"I think that, regularized and caught up to the state of theology as it's been developed since the Acts were written, you'll do tremendous Good in the world."

"Thank you, and I do hope so."

"Hadn't realized they were still developing new theology. What's the biggest new thing since then, that people should know."

"I'm not sure I could point to a single biggest new thing, just refinements in how Her principles are implemented and communicated." Which now that he thinks of it is a little embarrassing. "And changes in emphasis, since the Age of Glory didn't happen and the church of Aroden is defunct."

"Makes sense. Iomedae looked at theology from the god and the mortal sides, hard to find anything big she didn't already see."

"Right, the age of glory. Those parts are always sad, reading them now. Whenever they say something is wrong but a temporary ill, that will soon be gone, when the age of glory comes." 

"Yes. The Iomedaean church bears some hallmarks of having been originally a complement to the Arodenite one and now it's trying to do more in a world that has more damage, not less. Though recent events are encouraging in some ways even if they represent short term resource limitations."

"The recent events meaning the archmages? They're powerful and I'm glad they took Cheliax back, but they're no Aroden. Is it true that Asmodeus is the one who killed him?"

"We're not sure. The archmages' closure of the Worldwound closure in particular comes to my mind as healing a nigh-literal wound Aroden's death left."

"Worldwound, that is a big one. That and taking the country from hell, maybe I should stop complaining about them putting their Galtan project in Westcrown. Not the worst thing an archmage can put in a city."

"It could be worse." It's pretty bad, but it could be worse.

"Could be."

"What's doing assizes like? It's not the same as patrolling a territory, but I still might be able to adopt whatever techniques you use for keeping order the Iomedaean way."

"...it might be too disanalogous to take many lessons from. There is so little ability to do any followup. I suppose if you're acting in an unofficial capacity, you might even while stationary have some loosely comparable limitations on what sentencing you can do, but... are people bringing you any complaints, or do you mostly just have patrols responding to things as they emerge?"

“Mostly we patrol and respond to things, but sometimes people bring problems to us. Which is always complicated. We can fight evil but don’t really have the resources to look into disputes and resolve them. But if it’s obvious, we can throw the wrongdoer out of the neighborhood.”

"What kinds of obvious situations have you seen?"

“Kidnapping, not by force but with spells. We had to get her out of the house, after making sure she was actually there against her will. Worked with the Calistrians on that one, a temporary truce.”

”While back, there was a little ghoul nest. Just a family having a really bad time, and a couple victims dragged back to the lair.”

“Debt collector and his men went too far trying to scare someone, we had to visit his part of the city and knock some sense into him.”

"Went too far how?"

“Attacked someone’s kids on the street to scare him into paying up. No blades, but they said the next time it would be.”

Nod nod. "It sounds like you've done good work there."

Nod. “There’s enough obvious ones to keep busy. Think it might hurt that there’s no one handling people’s more complicated problems, but we’re not really ready for those.”

"The kind of thing that will be solved when the civil courts are running, or...?"

“Civil courts are supposed to solve those, yes. Most around here aren’t rich enough for court, though. A headman would help, someone who everyone agrees can handle disputes.”

"I assume the lord mayor was not serving in that capacity even before he abruptly left the city."

“Not here. I mean like, for this neighborhood. The gang I took over this territory from did a lot of that sort of thing, usually for their own pockets. I’m trying to keep us from becoming like them, but that’s left an empty spot and no one in it.”

"What's the extent of the neighborhood you cover?"

He can describe the boundary landmarks.

Fairly small, as far as territories around here are. 

"Does the neighborhood have a name?"

“Not anymore! No one wants to keep the old name, it was after the archdevil of flies. But no one knows if there’s an empyreal lord of dingy fly-infested hovels, to change the name to.”

"I'm not aware of one, but there are more - aspirational - names to be had, or ones that have nothing to do with the Outer Planes at all."

“I think people will want something with some connection to the old name, more than aspirational or unrelated.”

The other man walking along speaks up. “Everyone laughs at Miraflores for not actually having any flowers anymore. Neighborhood name has to be real.”

"Well, perhaps something will emerge naturally."

"Hope so."

They reach the temple. Elorri beckons them in. "Do you see the person you gave the money to or should we just see who's maintaining the books?"

"We were in a bit of a rush. Let's check who keeps the books. 

They go find the books. They can find the amount and the date in the record and Elorri can explain the situation and get a lay volunteer who looks so busy she might be about to cry to count out the gold and hand it over to be brought back to the noble's house.

Watching the harried Iomedaeans continues to be distressing. He quietly says. "This is why I tried to stop my organization from bothering the church at all."

"It's a good impulse. But - you could be helping, with a little onboarding. We all know that onboarding is worth it. Learning everyone's names so you could direct people and assuring people who've been waiting for hours that it's okay to go to the Shelynites instead would be better than nothing."

"I think that'd be good for– a lot of people. Who desperately want to help, but aren't fit to do it the way my volunteers have been trying to. Patrolling and fighting is too dangerous, and the discipline of trying to live in a holy order is too much commitment. But if it's as easy as making the walk to the temple and a bit of onboarding– give me a day and I could find them and point them your way."

"Would they be - effectively unskilled entirely, or would they be able to do things like take notes, summarize written material, be trusted with money..."

"Effectively unskilled. Most around here did get letters beaten into them, but not well, and they're not inclined to do it unless someone's threatening them with a whip. There's a couple skilled, one is a merchant's nephew and the other tried to make wizard track. Wouldn't trust either with money, though, at least not more than a few gold."

"I don't think the church can absorb more than four or five of those, at least not at this specific location."

"Understood. I can find the best five, and try to keep the rest out of trouble."

How far away is the noble's house.

Not too far. It is currently empty of nobles, missing a door, and occupied by squatters. 

Oh for crying out loud.

"Do you know who the noble was," says Elorri, gazing despairingly skyward. "Anything about his accent, how many people he had with him, etcetera."

"I'd call it around eight people. A brother, a manservant, a few maids, a handful of guards. No wife or children, at least no children he'd claim. No accent, he's a Westcrown man at least. There's a couple merchants he met with regularly. If he fled to the countryside, one of them might know where to."

"...well, if he's a noble from Westcrown that fairly well rules out that I'll be able to find him at the convention. I guess we'll have to hold this till we can track him down." Trudge back to the temple.

"Guess so. Hope he did flee to the countryside, and isn't dead. Though if he died, I think the watch would be poking around. So it's unlikely... Would it help any to clear out his house? I don't think the woman living there is causing problems, but if we're to act like we owe him, that'd be a place to start."

"We owe him what was stolen for the church's benefit. I am not at present inclined to take on the task of investigating the disposition of his house; I'm mostly supposed to be concentrating on politics. I'd be inclined to recommend that you get yourselves aligned with the Crown's forces keeping order or the Reclamation command before taking on any tasks outside your historical remit."

"Understood. So, next step on getting aligned is a letter to the crown, and your report to your commanders about us?"

"Right. Do you want my help with the letter or do you have it in hand?"

"I don't think I'd mess up a formal letter too badly, but I also haven't interfaced at all with the crown before. So I'd appreciate the help, but not if there's more urgent politics for you to get to." 

"I haven't interfaced with the crown directly either."

"Ha, we're on the same page, then."

"Do you have any recommendations on how to explain our situation to the crown without confessing to a dozen crimes that we are all then arrested for?"

"I don't know what will in fact work, but what I would try is something like, you are operating an informal Iomedaenism-inspired neighborhood policing outfit in thus and such an area, you are interested in continuing this work more officially to supplement the existing efforts of both Reclamation and Guard, you would like copies of applicable regulations and letters attesting to your powers of arrest and search and suchlike if they are willing to have you aboard."

"Understood. We'd rather end up under the command of the Reclamation than the city watch, but might not say that to them directly."

"The Reclamation operating in this capacity is temporary. I don't know if the Reclamation will still exist in its present form at all a few years from now."

"Unfortunate. Most everyone in the areas you patrol will be sad to see the paladins go. But I suppose there's worse evils to fight than the ones here in Westcrown."

"Well, that and some of us were pulled off what would normally have been mandatory downtime. Keeping civil order is not a classic paladin occupation and cuts against the grain of the typical range of personalities pretty badly. If you're suited to it so much the better."

"They took you off your downtime? I thought that was sacred for paladins, that you had to have a feast once a month. Like Iomedae did."

"...it's 'have fun once a month', feasting isn't fun for everyone - and many of us don't in fact have rings of sustenance. Assizes are stressful and risky and require much greater periods of recovery between fairly short stints. The convention, at least, is - not unstressful but it's mostly less morally injurious."

“I may be getting several different things confused. Anyways. If you all are here when you were supposed to be resting, and generally not suited for this, we can prioritize expanding to the point where we can take over some more responsibilities. If things go well with the crown, regarding official sanction to keep order.”

"I think you might easily be an improvement over both the existing official guard and over any attempt to assign the Reclamation long-term. I'll see who I can put you in touch with who handles the recruiting and personnel situation if it does make sense to fold you under Reclamation command, though, and write you."

“Thank you. I don’t know how well our methods will scale, but for now, being an improvement over the watch is something we’re proud of. Largely on account of the vows of celibacy and against the drink.”

”If you write me and send a runner into our part of the city, I’d recommend using a local, or a group of at least three. Especially if it’s the evening.”

"Does that change any if a member of the party is my horse?"

“Most of the pickpockets and robbers will leave a horseman alone. You might get some very bold horse thieves, but it’s unlikely.”

"I'll ask her to bring someone over, then, she's pretty bored in a city."

“Hear from you soon, then. And, goddess be with you.”

"With you as well."