"I am not familiar with Dretha either," though the name has a half-familiar feel to it, "but Zura is a demon lord who commands Her followers to practice cannibalism." Her cults were one of the many problems that grew far worse after Aroden's death; it's not surprising that the Duke of Fraga wouldn't be familiar with Her.

“Drutha is the orc fertility goddess. There is an enslaved cleric of hers in Kantaria, doing healing for the locals. if she broke the laws, including against proselytizing, she would of course be punished. She has not spread her cult, but by saving many from death until they had time to repent she also saved them from damnation. Drutha’s only evil teaching to my knowledge is that there should be lots of orcs, and while I would see her worship banned eventually it does not come to mind as a priority in a country where millions of people have no access to priests.

If the Hellknights are currently conducting cult investigations perhaps the wisest starting point is simply to get a description of everything they are doing and think about whether we want more of it or want it to change. Who would we talk to for that?”

"Heaven help us." It is dangerous to know too much about demons, in Mendev, and he also is not a fan of there being lots of orcs. Is Menador really so poor it cannot contract a cleric of Abadar? Well--perhaps they would still want a second cleric, even in that case.

"Lictor Rouen Stought of the Order of the Pyre is the one I would start with, but the Order of the Godclaw also has relevant expertise and has a representative here who I haven't yet met. A gnome, I believe, and so he should be easy to find. I believe the Lord Marshal of the Glorious Reclamation is collecting a summary of their efforts in this area, but I haven't received it yet and so can only guess at it."

"I'll go speak to them at once and try to get you some useful examples of the problems on the ground to reason from. Thank you, gentlemen."

He nods. "We appreciate your counsel."

The Lictor is not difficult to find, since she's accompanied by a pair of armigers and appears to be of the opinion that Hellknight plate is only acceptable to not wear when asleep. The elected delegate she's speaking to finds somewhere else to be very quickly, when a priest of Iomedae wants to talk to her.

She gives him a proper salute, person-of-a-higher-rank-to-person-of-a-lower-rank-in-a-distinct-service-branch. "Ser."

"Lictor. Thank you for your time. I advise the Archduke Narikopolus, and he mentioned that the Urban Order committee is discussing the best way to combat illegal cults. I want to make sure Cheliax's limited enforcement resources are directed at the cults causing the most problems, and I do not have a good sense of what resources your order currently has, how it is using them, and what work is going undone that in your assessment ought to be done. I think the committee would benefit enormously from a few examples of the sorts of problems you're dealing with and of the sorts of problems you'd like to deal with if you had more resources or broader remit, as they plan the cults law."

Rouen nods. "A summary of our recent activities has been registered with the Queen and the Reclamation." Because in a practical sense, the Reclamation is the Church. "The Order of the Pyre presently consists of five hundred and forty-one knights and seven thousand, six hundred and thirty armigers. Our chief activity is eliminating cults of forbidden deities; in the past sixteen months our chief targets have been demons and diabolists, though daemon, demodand, asura, rakshasa, qlippoth and div cults are all presently within our remit, as are those of the Evil gods. Her Majesty the Queen and the Lord Marshal of the Glorious Reclamation have been provided with appropriate copies of our reports.

"The most recent eight troubles that have come to my notice in the remit of the Order of the Pyre were -" she checks her notes "- a Skinsaw cult headed by a former cleric of Asmodeus attempting a human sacrifice ritual to open a rift to Duskfathom, identified through a program of investing randomly selected murders in all major cities, a clique of Worldwound veterans who had returned devoted to Deskari engaged in a plot to disrupt food shipments to the Worldwound, identified through reports of increased locust activity in the region, a Kuthite cult in western Menador spreading copies of the Umbral Leaves, identified through the fact that there are always Kuthite cults in western Menador distributing copies of the Umbral Leaves, a cleric of Baphomet disguised as a cleric of Asmodeus who had taken over a town in Sirmium, identified by his community's continued access to conjured water, a Moloch cult in the army near Corentyn, identified through the assassination attempt on one of our members during a regular garrison inspection, a Lamashtu cult breeding horrors in the Whisperwood, identified by the escape of the abominations, and a witch of Kabiri killed while attempting a ritual of lichdom, identified through a program of monitoring sales of known ritual components. Fuller descriptions of these investigations can be provided if the Committee wishes them.

"The chief concern of the Order is not with expanding its resources or remit, but with maintaining our existing charter as an organization and the establishment of coordination mechanisms with the inquisitions of the permitted gods and with royal agents similarly acting against illegal cults. There is presently an inefficient duplication of labor, and moreover three times in the past sixteen months we have faced overt conflict between knights of the Order of the Pyre and their fellow royally chartered allies, due to a combination of the failure of the allies to identify themselves and their disbelief in the continued legitimacy of the Order. An additional thirty-seven times the Order has found itself in conflict with entities identified as regional militias or watch forces, though in thirty-two cases these proved to be affiliated with criminal organizations under investigation by the Pyre. The establishment of an official by the Queen with the authority and staff to maintain a list of forbidden and permitted deities and ensure the ability of those organizations loyal to the Crown to avoid conflict between their members, particularly between national organizations and regional security forces, would be of great value to the Order."