"I have seen devils out of Hell with my own eyes. And demons of the Abyss. It appears that they are not as commonly at work on this planet, but they exist."

"And I'll believe that when I see it... Or when other evidence adds up enough to overwhelm other priors, I guess."

"Well, I can't summon devils, because that would be casting against Iomedae's alignment. I can summon angels, though."

"Healing could be... Really aggressive medicine. Same with the language, some kind of mind spike. Spikes're like - headbands? Apparently? But enough different categories of magic and over enough time and maybe talking it out and maybe I'll come around on it."

"Well, today I prepared a Create Food, I'm doing that every other day out here."

"Some created food sounds pretty convincing. Maybe even sell it."

"I'm going to cast it later in the day, because the food only lasts a day and I'm casting it every other - skip breakfast and have a big dinner, big breakfast and skip dinner, repeat. But you can watch me do it if you like. And decide what you'd like to eat."

"I always have a craving for Green Dragon's hash browns if you can be specific like that. That's shredded, caked, salted, and lightly fried potatoes. Hey, you might as well give me the whole spiel, the least I can do is help you literally and culturally translate it for future audiences."

"They will not come out salted. I have separate salt. Which spiel exactly do you want?"

"Hell, something about a judge, what the cult of Iomedae wants people to do..."

"Do you prefer it from me than from Her holy book? I'm not actually well-catechized, especially for a cleric, though I know basic cosmological facts like the Judge's existence."

"Either way's better than sitting here bored. I guess there's more chess, but, eh. Later. Anyway, I got the impression you wanted proselytizing practice?"

He pulls out a copy of the Acts. "I think the things I most need to become more capable of proselytizing are - comparisons between my context and yours, which I think the book will equip you with at least as well as will I. And also English vocabulary suited to the topic."

"Okay, I'll read some of this and translate it to English and give commentary, I guess?"

"Yes. I have some paper, not enough for all the Acts but perhaps enough to get started."

"Paper's pretty cheap in Cinci. Buy some off the next Nomad clan you meet. Twenty dollars- Ohio dollars- Tops for at least a couple books' worth, or you're getting ripped off."

He reaches gently for the book.

"Well, I don't have twenty bucks." Here is his self-Scrivened copy, the other one is still safe in his bag in his church-in-progress.

Starting from the first Act, then. He finds a cheap ballpoint pen somewhere in the motorcycle's saddlebags to start carefully marking down English words in slow, neat handwriting.

Iomedae first slew Nakorshor'mond, cutting the unconscious bodies of her circle from the beast's stomachs.

Commentary in English with backtracking into Chelish for anything Blai doesn't get first try:

"-So I'm not entirely sure what moral lesson these are trying to impart beyond 'Iomedae is really cool'. It's pretty foreign. Diving into danger to save your crew, I guess? Committing to helping those you have obligations to even when it's nasty hard? And obviously the big monster was going to go on eating more people, that has to stop. We don't so much have enormous monsters like this."

"I think the choice to render the holy book in the form of epic poetry about her mortal adventures was probably made significantly to improve uptake rather than moral clarity."

"Okay, so translate for maximum cool factor, then?"

"If the same considerations will apply here."

"I'm not really sure how religion works, I might not be the best head for this. I think a lot of it goes on, like, hope?"

He shifts his register to a Preacher Voice. "For she wishes for all to live in the land of milk and honey, a land of plenty, of peace and safety and joy! Alas; Such a land does not exist here on this impure earth. The world is cruel, and cold, and heartless. No, we must build it ourselves, in pieces large and small. We all cry out for help, sometimes. But who will answer the call? When you give a beggar a dollar, you bring us closer to that world. When you defend your friends and loved ones, regardless of the danger to yourself, you bring us closer to that world! Behold, ye who have come to this church! Behold the miracles that God does grant me! I cannot change the world alone, but I will do what I can, just as you should! -And then you channel."

He coughs. "Somethin' like that."

"...well, the theology doesn't sound right but I could try to mimic the approach otherwise if that is what will land."

He shrugs self-consciously. "It's the style local preachers use. Can't speak to how well it works. Usually there's music, too, I think? The thing is- This is a low trust environment, right, you're going to have an uphill battle really convincing people. Unless you hang out long enough to become a local fixture, like the Mercy Crew. People trust the Mercy Crew and they're probably not too wrong to. If you get folk sticking around I'd bet a lot that, at first, they just smile and nod at the scripture and consider it 'a crew to run with'... The sense of community and belonging, you know? Of a safety net. I mean, actual magic is a big leg up. There's this vampire cult down southways a bit. Insane, obviously, but what always struck me about the people who join them is they say how nice and calm the place sounded. So they go along with the bloodletting and the chanting at night and whatever, because it's safe and there's consistent food available. You're going to be in the same category as them in peoples' heads, head."

"........vampires on Golarion are evil."