"Yes, clerics all have two domains that come with powers. Mine are not amazing, they both last for only a round and take as long for me as casting a spell, but the Good one will give you a general bonus to the same things you can spend a Guidance on - they do stack - and the Law one will make it so that if you could usually succeed at something you are about to attempt, you definitely will, though you will not pull off peak performance. I get five of each a day."

She gets those into the list too, and then contemplates what she has wrought.

"What would you tend to suggest as a spell lineup for patrolling the town between sundown and midnight looking for local vampires? What jumps out at you as useful to test on local phenomena?"

"Bless. Perhaps Hide from Undead if we might find a nest in a way that doesn't alert them immediately - do they nest? - maybe a Weapons Against Evil in case you've been punching through some resistance without noticing because you don't fight things other than vampires very often and it turns out to be really effective. Sanctify Corpse in case of a victim who might turn. Divine Favor.

"Aid, since you're the only other person in the party. Burst of Radiance. Share Language so we can talk that day at all. Qualm.

"Daylight, and Prayer."

"Some of them do nest, but I don't find nests that often - Hide From Undead might be mostly useful if we're specifically out looking for one, but it's probably worth testing ahead of time just in case something's weird about it when it comes to local vampires. Weapons Against Evil sounds like a good test. Sanctify Corpse would be nice to have although there are other ways to prevent victims from turning and your spell slots are quite scarce." She pages thoughtfully through her list. "Hmm... how useful are the mental ability enhancement spells? Have you tried them? If they have significant practical benefits and last long enough to get some good thinking done I might want to spend some time thinking with extra Wisdom once a week or so..."

"They're quite good, each one is I think approximately the difference between a normal person's Wisdom and mine. Each'll last five minutes. It's a good use for them though you should be aware there are occasional stories about someone getting Owl's - in particular, the others don't have this reputation - and then deciding to do something like desert the army or abandon their career."

"I endeavour to live the kind of life where I notice pretty promptly if I might be making a major decision that a wiser version of me would advise against."

"It doesn't happen to everyone, it just seems a relevant disclaimer."

"I appreciate the warning but I think I'll be all right. And if I'm not, better to find out sooner than later." She taps her pen thoughtfully against the page. "I should get you those Light and Spark widgets. One moment."

She rummages through a few kitchen drawers and returns in a bit less than a minute holding a small flashlight and a disposable lighter. "This one makes light; this one makes fire. The fire one has a reserve of flammable fuel inside," she shakes it to demonstrate the noise, "and burns that in sparks generated by pressing this button," she demonstrates that too. The flame springs up, then goes away when she takes her thumb off the button. "It's very cheap, and should be safe to carry around in your pocket anytime you want a fire source." She sets it down. "The light one works by a mechanism that's harder to explain, but in functional terms, it makes light when you push this button and stops when you push the button again." She demonstrates. "There's a small cheap object inside that holds the power reserve that it uses to make light, and when it runs out, it needs to be replaced before the light will work again. I think they usually last at least a few months, maybe years; I'm not in the habit of tracking that very closely."

"Do you know how long this one has?"

"I don't remember offhand, but I could replace the power reserve with a fresh one if you like."

"It'd be something of a weight off my mind if they're really that cheap."

"No problem."

She grabs a battery from another drawer and demonstrates swapping them out - "there's unfortunately not a good way to tell how much power is left by examining them. I think there's yet another widget for testing them, but I've never had much need of one and I don't think we have one in the house."

He watches the swapping process, including what happens to the battery to be disposed of.

She puts it in the kitchen garbage can.

Straightforward. He pockets the flashlight and lighter both.

"Okay, where were we?"

She sits back down with her notes and flips to a fresh page to write out some notes on possible spell loadouts.

"We want to test Daylight, Weapons Against Evil, and Hide from Undead. An Owl's Wisdom once a week would be nice. Share Language is going to be a necessity until you can learn our language - I should figure something out for getting you started on that. Divine Favour, Qualm, and Prayer are your domain spells of choice, and you like Bless, Aid, and Burst of Radiance for bringing to vampire fights, plus maybe Sanctify Corpse although I think I'd rather sanctify corpses if necessary by putting a wooden stake through their heart since those have much less opportunity cost than a spell slot does." She considers. "Rupert will be good for language lessons, I think, and you can give him your best available introduction to that chess piece creation spell of yours along the way."

"If the stake will work certainly that's the better choice. I'll ideally want some Comprehend Language slots while I'm learning, it speeds things up enormously."

That goes in the notes, then. "Makes sense. I'll ask him to start on that tomorrow; I think today he won't want any distractions from your books."

"Understandable."

"Chris is working right now but she should be taking a break soon for lunch. Until then, chess?"

"Of course!" Chess!

They have time for a few games of one-board redeployment chess with added PTSD.

Then Chris comes down the stairs and asks a question that is pretty clearly 'what in the world is going on on that chessboard?'