"Not much of a story really. My family grew up in a very difficult position and then I was chosen by Abadar and my life got much better and once my siblings were grown up I decided to be an adventurer until I get a sign it's time to stop. Mahdi was smart and his parents had some money so he went to wizard school. Hagan - what's it going to be this week -"

"Ten thousand years ago, a random courtier was turned to stone to guard the tomb of a rich man. Much later, some adventurers wandered by and one of them said 'Dispel Magic' and I found myself alive."

"We met about six years ago. It's not a big adventuring scene, you get to know most people, and most of them were awfully reckless, or awfully lawless, or not going for good -"

"I'm not going for Good," Mahdi says. 

"And I'm awfully lawless."

"They'll tell you that but whenever I'm like 'hey let's rescue some slaves for under-market compensation since the slaves were meant as part of it, and then turn their captors over to the authorities', both of them go 'when do we leave'."

"Alignments just aren't very interesting," opines Belmarniss. "They're important, sure, but they aren't interesting, 'where are you going' is interesting but 'what alignment are you' is almost solely worth asking as a proxy for that question."

"There's definitely a lot of noise. But - I don't know, I find that lots of people are better once they decide to start aiming for Good."

"It's like asking 'what's for dinner' and getting 'I remembered the salt and didn't poison it', which is usually better than the alternative, sure, but doesn't distinguish between meat and potatoes and could easily taste repulsive and might still kill you if you're allergic."

Snort. "All right, where are you going?"

"A temple with a very charming insurance salesman."

He puzzles that one over for a bit. "Don't get it. You've already got death insurance - do they sell insurance for, dunno, attempting lichdom -"

"Starstone," says Mahdi. "It's pretty much just paying up front for the resurrection, though."

"I considered lichdom! I'd probably only have to kill a couple of babies and they could be ones with terrible parents. But Mahdi guessed it."

"Huh. Are you going to try to put Pharasma out of a job?"

"Well, she isn't qualified."

"And by many reports doesn't even like the work!"

"She could let Nirvana have their way and retire if she hates it!"

"I assume she complicatedly can't, somehow, but maybe it's a somehow there's some way to change."

"Yeah, I'm looking into that. It's a whole research project."

"Well, good luck."

"'preciate it."

They reach the mountains. The tunnel is where it's expected; they make their way in.

The ground's not very smooth. She casts an obscure cantrip before dicey sections.

"What's that?"