Then there will be nobody to witness the appearance of a startled hyperventilating man in chainmail!

Indeed not. Plastic tables. Weird city. Trash. It's drizzling, slightly.

So it is. It wasn't where he came from. What the fuck are those shiny foul-smelling lumps. Why are there so many magic lights. He doesn't even have Comprehend Languages prepared.

He will... start walking, in a direction that other people are walking, in the hopes that it is a reasonable and informative direction to walk, because he certainly isn't accomplishing anything by standing near shiny foul-smelling lumps.

Walking along the sidewalk takes him past storefronts, all festooned with magical lights. Many of the objects within are mysterious, but there are thin shiny books and packages with pictures of fruit in one of them. He kind of sticks out in chainmail and with a mace, and gets a few furtive glances on this account.

Random lampposts additionally have bright, shiny propaganda screens showing footage and images of proud-looking people in weird armor posing as defenders, dramatic monuments with cheering crowds, and shiny city spaces that look much nicer than this one while a smooth voice plays a practiced speech.

It would be really handy if he had Comprehend Languages but he super does not. What time of day is it?

Evening edging on to night.

Okay. Well. Priority is a place to spend the night. Asleep, if possible, but he can sit vigil if that's the best he can do without any way to communicate. Any hints in his surroundings about inns or encampments or anything?

Some of the alleys he passes have homeless encampments. Barrel fires, improvised tents, hard-worn people. Not reading the language is an impediment; Most things are text rather than pictures or symbols.

Also, up ahead there's a roadblock, all black and red colors with weird-armor people! They seem to be going for a different aesthetic than old Cheliax. All blocky and glowy. People line up for a security checkpoint if they're going that way; Most aren't. There's a coat of arms or possibly holy symbol repeated a bunch of times, same as the propaganda screen.

Is that supposed to be a... dragonfly...?

He isn't going to try to get past a checkpoint while he can't talk to anyone. The lights notwithstanding he hasn't seen anyone cast a spell at all in the course of this walk. Are people obviously upset about it if he approaches an alley camp?

Well, everyone in the alley is looking at him rather intently and silently now.

"Hello, I don't speak the language," he says, which will hopefully communicate that, uh, he greets them and doesn't speak the language. And isn't putting his hand near his mace, that either.

Yeah that's not a great sign. What if they try a bunch of different languages- Afrikaans, Farsi, Mandarin and Cantonese, Hindi, English?

He'll repeat himself in Common Taldane and Infernal just to indicate he's trying to get with the program but yeah no, not till tomorrow.

...Well, they won't kick him out of the alley. There's a half hearted attempt to mime something complicated and violence related, quickly abandoned. There's space in the alley and around the fire and they all seem to accept that he's here for now.

Down he sits. He pulls his mug off his belt and Creates Water into it.

Wary murmuring all around.

...he drinks it? In case they were concerned it was something else that resembled water? Water. Down the hatch.

Someone scratches a sketch on old notebook paper: Blai (indicated by a mace holding stick figure) creates water. Weird armor people (the holy symbol is above their heads) see him creating water. And then they arrest everyone.

Oh no. Uh, do they produce any further explanation if he indicates the holy symbol around his neck?

Well, now they're having an argument. In a language he doesn't understand.

Oh dear. Well. He'll sit here and not create any more water.

The end result of this argument is two people leaving and then everyone else starting to pack up as well. Someone peeks out of one of the alley doors, annoyed, and someone else makes sure to stand between Blai and them as the situation is defused.

Oh no. ...he considers many possible things he could do about this and lands on 'sitting very still' on the grounds that this at least probably won't make anything worse.

They give him apologetic looks. And also a 'please don't follow us, but you should probably get out of here too' sketch on paper. And then they're all leaving in one direction or another.

...okay, he'll give them all a head start and then try to find another place to sit with nobody in it.

How much of a head start?

Three minutes.

There's some sort of activity visible at the checkpoint down the road. Foot and vehicle traffic is enough that details are not super clear.

He will probably interact with the checkpoint later. For now he is going the other way.

The city has more little empty spots for the finding. Well, empty of everything except trash, for the most part.

The drizzle has stopped, and the sun is setting. There's significantly less artificial light in one direction than the others at the next intersection.

He will sit near trash. Demons smell worse. He can sit up all night, practicing Prestidigitation with motivation to keep him at it.

Big trucks with the ADVENT symbol drive by a couple of times through the night. As well as foot patrols of troopers, who everyone gets out of the way of. (Things are mosty but not entirely dead late into the night.) At one point a woman comes and tosses another bag on the trash heap. He is otherwise undisturbed.

He gets so much Prestidigitation practice done. By the time the dawn comes he has made visible inroads on a coin-sized puddle of trash juice; it's closer to the size of a crown than a copper, now. Probably much of that change is evaporation, but the main object was to stay awake for lack of a suitable place to sleep, and he has spent the time productively instead of having nonstop flashbacks, even.

When the sunrise begins he closes his eyes and clasps his symbol in prayer.

Activity picks up around him with the dawn. People and vehicles making noise.

Also, when he's most of the way through it, there's a loud explosion in the distance.

...it's not really possible to pray faster but he notes the direction, and when he gets up after his prayers he heads that way.

There are a couple more explosions and sounds of gunfire and fleeing civilians! A store is on fire and half blown up! There are people shooting at the ADVENT troops and the troops shooting back. Everyone is using large objects as cover. A few people are already downed. The troopers bleed orange.

He does not know which side of this fight to intervene on; he'd pray about it but that obviously wouldn't help. He finds a large object he can peek around and starts casting Stabilize.

He can reach two non-ADVENT (dead; stabilized) and five ADVENT (stabilized, dead, dead, dead, stabilized) without wading directly into the middle of the firefight.

The troopers attempt to dart to better positions in the chaos... But their enemy seems to know exactly when they're going to do this and already be aiming in that direction. The fight is turning against them. Even so, a flying black and red aircraft swoops in and disgorges a few reinforcements, including someone in fancier red armor with a cape.

An adventurer of some kind? Just one of them? Maybe the others find themselves still well served with standard issue gear.

If he's out of people to stabilize he will maybe create some water into the burning building, if it's not too far away.

There are lots of things burning right now, he's spoilt for choice. It doesn't seem to be spreading much, whatever all the buildings are made of it's not that flammable.

The firefight continues around him. Red Cape directs the troopers and they perform visibly better following his shouted orders. Things seem to be at a stalemate for a brief moment. Then, a thrown object starts emitting copious amounts of smoke and the attackers - wearing less armor and using what seem like cruder weapons - make another aggressive advance under concealment. Both sides are still ignoring him.

He should maybe have prepared any alignment detection but even if he knew which of these people were evil it would not in fact tell him much about who ought to be alive and who ought not to be alive. Stabilize. Create Water. Create Water.

Red Cape goes down in a spray of bullets and then it's all over for the ADVENT troopers, the remaining ones acting out in confusion. Though still with absolutely zero hesitation or fear. Three of the attackers barge into a nearby building and the other five still standing run to stand guard or go check their downed comrades. Two approach him, weapons pointed and shouting.

The fearlessness is maybe a paladin on their side, maybe Heroisms all around or something.

He holds his hands up.

The woman with a shotgun and a giant machete holds him at gunpoint and says more things he doesn't understand, while the man with an AR keeps watch down the street.

"I don't speak the language. I can cast Comprehend Languages," he says, those last words slow and clear in case they've heard the verbal component before.

Yeah no they don't understand and instead are just going to wait here, tensely. It'll be about one minute before the three who went into the building come back out.

Welp. He will hold his hands up and wait then.

The three who went into the building come out after a minute. Two of them are carrying a big torso-sized case between them and the third is carrying a woman who looks like she's been tortured - scars and injuries - in a fireman carry. The others go to pick up their wounded and dead and all retreat somewhere else.

How much do the people standing over him hate it if he moves one hand a lil bit.

Just a "Hey!". They're starting to back off towards the blown up store anyway.

Okay, in that case he has no way to offer to help with the wounded.

Apparently not. They're in a hurry to back off somewhere else, apparently. Maybe worried about reinforcements.

Anyone left to stabilize? Anything still on fire?

Red Cape is still alive. A trash pile is on fire.

...A convoy of black trucks rounds the corner three blocks away, gunning for this spot!

He stabilizes Red Cape. He puts water on the trash pile. ...he casts Comprehend Languages in case he's about to need to put his hands up again.

Yeah, more troopers pour out of the trucks and spread out to secure the whole area. They chatter orders in a dense artificial language that has two syllable words for concepts like 'set up a cordon'. 

Four go straight for him. "On the ground! Hands behind your back! ON THE GROUND NOW!" And they're not waiting for him to reply, they're rushing right for him and are going to try to cuff his arms and legs.

Well, he's going to do his best to cooperate with that, okay.

He is manhandled into a truck - surprisingly gently, all things considered - and relieved of the mace but not the holy symbol. The mace goes into a hard case.

A different Red Cape- His jaw structure and skin tone is a bit different, but the armor is near identical (sans bullet damage)- Comes over after a couple minutes.

"You are under arrest on suspicion of terrorist activity. We don't have records of you in our systems and you were found in the aftermath of an attack."

"Systems?"

"Our face recognition ID system has no record of you. You have never registered as a resident of any ADVENT sector or been entered into it for any other reason. This in itself is not illegal. You are not required to register to live in a border sector. We know that there are many people still living outside the sectors while we work to expand what ADVENT can offer. However, it is an exacerbating factor given the dangerous dissident activity that continues to this day. Can you explain how you came to be at the site of a violent incident?"

Literally speaking, no, he can't, not with his hands cuffed. He shakes his head.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't speak your language and am only understanding you with Comprehend Languages," he replies in Chelish.

"Are you capable of understanding but not speaking English?"

Oh, he's quick on the uptake, convenient. Nod nod.

"I'm not trained for this kind of interrogation. Is there a way, accessible quickly, and reasonable, to allow you to communicate effectively? Such as writing materials or a translator to another major language?"

"Mm -" He rattles his handcuffs.

"Uncuff his arms, then return to guard position." He barks out in that other language, to the black-armored trooper lurking ominously behind him. 'Return to guard position' is one syllable.

Black trooper does so, silently.

Will Red Cape take his hand?

This is far outside of normal operational parameters. He has only guesses. And guesses do not make good policy decisions.

After a few long moments of consideration, a few facts reign supreme. One. He is but one unit of many. Far less replaceable than the troopers, but still not unique. Two. Information on the dissidents, their capabilities, their activities, their motivations, is very valuable to ADVENT. Three. Training emphasizes gestures of confidence, cooperation, concession, and sympathy when interacting with the public in order to reduce willingness to rebel against ADVENT.

He will grasp the offered hand.

"Share Language."

"Unexpected."

"I apologize, I couldn't think of a way to explain in advance. That will last twenty-four hours. I have another one if there is someone else I should preferentially speak to, and several of the one that only lets me understand, which lasts almost an hour each time."

"I am capable of and willing to communicate on behalf of the ADVENT* organization. While my superiors confer, my original question: Why were you present at the site of a violent incident?"

*Spoken phonetically as 'advent', not translated.

(And the officer's mental implant tells him: Delay. Psionic unit has been dispatched to evaluate the person of interest.)

"To see if I could help. I didn't find the situation clearly legible so I didn't intervene in the fight, I just stabilized downed combatants and put some water on the fire."

"Are you unfamiliar with ADVENT?"

"It's new to me, yes."

"Truly? ADVENT has been undertaking operations on the whole of this planet for over fifteen years and we are not aware of any other organization operating with interplanetary travel."

"I am not from such an organization; I think that I was teleported here when attacked by a monster of a kind I didn't recognize on the road. My planet is called Golarion."

"When did you arrive on this planet? Why did you not find the situation legible?"

"I arrived last night. I didn't know who any of the participants in the struggle were so I could not readily guess which cause if either my goddess would have me join."

...Pause. Consider. This is a close fit for one of the public relations scenarios.

"I understand. I likely would have refrained from violence without clear instruction or pre-established knowledge as well."

"I'm a cleric of Iomedae," Blai elaborates, "the Lawful Good goddess of triage and victory over evil."

"I am not familiar with an entity named 'Iomedae'. This goddess is central to your decisions? ADVENT follows a race of powerful beings known as the Ethereals or Elders, who came to this planet, Earth, in hopes of trade and to share many technological advancements. Sadly, it was not so simple."

The psionic power he has been subjected to is insisting that Iomedae is a 'god', an entity more powerful than the Elders. This is uncomfortable. His discomfort is irrelevant, though.

"Yes, She is central to my decisions, that's a good way to put it."

Instructions hum at the back of his mind: Keep stalling, a Sectoid patrol is almost there. A Field Commander, more experienced, more trusted, is riding his senses and feeding him lines, now, even as the cleanup operation continues outside the truck.

"I see. This seems important for evaluating your arrest. What would Iomedae have you do, then? Triage and defeating evil. Are you bid to seek and defeat evil- The worst and most urgent evils first?"

"Yes. With some consideration for what I can hope to make progress on, of course, and within the constraints of Good and Law."

"We have found that people can be very firmly mistaken in what is good, and quite chaotic and disruptive about their conclusions. The commitment to lawfulness is reassuring on that front. All residents are encouraged to report dissident activity directly to ADVENT so we may better curtail violence, but as you arrived yesterday- Perhaps you did not know that. You said you wanted to see if you could help. Were you there when the fighting broke out?"

At this point the ADVENT Officer will patiently walk through an incident report, lingering over details such as when the smoke grenade was thrown and what the dissident who held him at gunpoint looked like. He's doing the thing with leading questions and tricky phrasing to try and make you mix up the details a bit.

Oh, that's familiar and... not reassuring, but given that he's going to be screamingly anxious the entire time this conversation is happening anyway there is a sense in which it is a relief to find that he has something navigable and achievable to be anxious about. Blai is going to get a good grade in reporting his observations consistently and accurately which is normal to want and possible to achieve. He was at prayer when he heard a loud sound. He concluded his prayers, which are what give him magic, and proceeded towards the loud sound. He found cover, in the same place where the ADVENT guy picked him up, and there cast this many Stabilizes and this many Create Waters. He remembers these limited details and cannot vouch for any others suggested to him but what he recalls is consistent with this interpretation and less so with that one, bearing in mind of course that he may misunderstand context about what he sees on a strange new planet and it's always possible he's been enchanted to misremember things.

During this, a pair of Sectoids standing outside the truck each attempt to read his mind.

What if he miscounted the Stabilizes. He did that once only four years ago and it didn't turn out to be strategically relevant then but it sure sounds like they think it matters now. It's not like he has expended spell slots to count. He would really like to cast Guidance but it does not seem to be within the scope of this conversation to ask permission to do so and they've already extended quite a lot of benefit of the doubt letting his hands free to cast anything. He sure hopes Share Language isn't giving Red Cape Guy #2 any misleading impressions about what any of these words mean such that he'll feel misled later, he's really really trying at the honesty and openness thing as She commands but a language from another planet might be wildly different and maybe Chelish or whatever the local language is just can't stretch to accommodate something important. He's very tired from sitting up all night and might make a mistake, it's only been the one night and it wasn't nighttime yet in Menador when he was teleported here but it was still a substantial vigil and he's not as young as he used to be. Yes, he is actually sure that he only cast Create Water and Stabilize on the scene, he doesn't spend Guidances in situations with tight timing like that which can benefit from other cantrips because he knows he's mostly only doing it to feel better and that's only worth doing when it's otherwise free and his fourth orison for the day is Detect Magic which the situation didn't call for at all, because it seems like they have more than enough light on this planet. But what if he shouldn't be sure - Iomedae be with us in our times of - should he be modifying that, it sounds like he's the only Iomedaean on the planet. That's awful, he's never getting catechized now. That sentence was designed to sound like the obvious answer is "yes" but in fact the answer is "no" and he is almost-fondly reminded of Vicar Rey. He will say "no". He's quite thirsty but the alley people were so upset about Create Water, which is why he practiced Prestidigitation cleaning instead of making a chess set which would have been more visually obvious, and anyway he's not casting spells now because it was already more than generous of them to let his hands free without him taking extraneous actions. He had a whole mugful last night, he's not going to start having flashbacks right away. He's also pretty hungry and he's got a Create Food in pocket which he'd been going to share with the alley people except they were so alarmed and hopefully he didn't bring any of them to harm. Iomedae, be with... me and whoever else it is correct for You to be with which might or might not include those people from the alley? - She wrote the Acts in poetry and she probably has a reason but he's lousy at it - no, he does not recall seeing the described figure, though again he could have been enchanted or they could have been invisible or any number of things, it isn't necessarily just that Red Cape Guy #2 seeks to trip him up but that'd be the way to bet, is what Fiducia Boian would say...

...This is not as helpful as expected. It's still fairly helpful. They're learning some background expectations and facts while he seems to be thinking of it as a pretty standard interrogation.

A decision has been reached from above. He's an anomaly, and that calls for significant... Evaluation. Instructions: Try not to immediately alienate this person. Keep reading his mind if practical. Try not to reveal that you are reading his mind. Standard information control protocols, otherwise.

"...Okay. That covers the incident itself. Thank you for your patience. Now I just need to get biographic information- That's your name, gender, age, occupation, place of residence if any. Then I believe we should be able to release you within twenty-four hours if other sources and information corroborate everything. Do you have any questions for me at this time?"

What he chooses to ask and what he's thinking about during it might be clues.

He can't imagine what other sources they could possibly use to corroborate anything because he did not list any of those things to any persons on this planet but if they have divinations about it or have surreptitiously landed a truth spell on him that's their business to not tell him, so he doesn't ask. "Select Blai Artigas - Select is the title for clerics of Iomedae. Male. Thirty-eight. Cleric. I was between residences at the time I was teleported but was most recently installed at fort #11 on the border of a portal to the Abyss on my home continent." Time to wildly speculate about the prison conditions. Maybe they just have a no-amenity box somewhere he can create food and play chess and pray and get a little sleep and wait out their followup procedures, that sounds nice right now, they don't seem to have the attitude of intending to torture him, though of course the best disguised torturers are all the more effective for it. Should he have any questions - like, obviously "are you planning to torture me" is not worth the breath it takes to utter but there are questions that don't have that property, probably. He could ask for permission to cast more spells? They're being very generous and it would be more information about whether they're planning to torture him than the answer to "are you planning to torture me" would be, actually - "Is it all right if I cast Create Water again to have something to drink?" He gestures a little bit toward the mug on his belt.

"We will provide you with food and water as part of ADVENT's standards for humane treatment of prisoners. Water will arrive momentarily. Please refrain from casting additional things at this time, as we are unfamiliar with this style of casting."

He hates that but that doesn't matter. It's good they have standards that include feeding and watering prisoners though. Like Lastwall. He folds his hands in his lap. "Understood." Does that mean they have no clerics at all? Possibly no wizards either, depending how broadly you interpret - style of casting, he said, not of magic, maybe they have wizards but they do weird ritual magic or only make wands or something? The idea of a planet with no casters as he understands them is maybe less weird than the idea of a planet with wizards who don't cast cantrips all the time, though, wizards are showoffs. What if Grec is failing at holding down the fort, they don't have remotely adequate clerical support, no one on their side of the border does and the Wound is bleeding adventurers harder than it ever leaked demons... What if he's allergic to something they feed him and swells up and dies. Weird for that to happen at third circle but mostly just because by that level of power you'll have been weeded out by the trials that got you there if there's anything too physically wrong with you so if the ingredient is just on this planet only it could still totally kill him. He will die that way if that's the thing he's got to do to operate as She commands but he was sort of hoping to find a more useful way to die than "refraining from unauthorized Create Food casting in custody on another planet". He's being stupid, probably they have completely edible food and it will even have salt in it. What if there isn't enough room in his cell to lie down and he can't sleep, that'll be pushing his functionality by the end of the advertised 24 hour period. Which might or might not be real. They seem plausibly Lawful though so maybe it is. He has absolutely no plan for what to do after that but having the Comprehends in pocket should at least help with finding an inn to mime at.

"You will be moved to a holding area shortly, in this vehicle. I will remain on standby for communication as necessary."

Someone opens the back door of the truck a bit and passes in a plastic convenience store bottle of water. The officer then hands it to Blai.

"I don't know how to open this."

"Grip the white part at the top and twist counter-clockwise. It will break off slightly. Then keep turning, there's a small screw."

It's supposed to break? Why is it supposed to break. Who's spending ten minutes with Mending putting it back to- they're not even doing that, they're doing Space Mending or something, presumably. Well. He twists it open as instructed and drinks.

"I'm going to go check on the cleanup operation briefly. Then we'll leave. If you require more water, more will be provided. Food can be provided at the holding area. Questions?"

"Do I need to do anything to cooperate with transport?"

"Do not attempt to remove your seat restraints." He points to the corresponding belt on another empty seat and pulls it demonstratively. "These devices keep you safely seated while the vehicle is in motion. They are a safety standard, and required in most cases when travelling in any motor vehicle. If there is an emergency such as a crash, fire, or similar, you can remove them by depressing this lever."

He does not need to actually say they'll cuff him again if he's disruptive. Blai Artigas is disinclined to be disruptive right now, and making obvious threats is not always productive.

"Understood." How often do these things crash. Carriages don't have restraints like this, so probably more often than carriages.

Red Cape vanishes outside for about a minute. The black-armored grunt is still there. Silent and hardly moving except to breathe and fidget slightly with the huge weapon. (The Sectoid who landed his probe is still reading his mind.)

What if they are just pretending not to know who Iomedae is and actually they're all Baphomet cultists and are about to blow this conveyance up complete with their soldier. He's a very disciplined soldier, though probably the fact that he shares no languages with Blai is helping, the negative examples he's comparing against in his head would mostly have started their ventures to the boundaries of rank-and-file behavior with verbal prodding, and while Blai could understand him he probably doesn't know that. What if the conveyance crashes and everybody dies except Blai because he can't reach his holy symbol to heal them. Maybe he should just hold it the entire way. They had surprisingly few questions about Iomedae. They didn't take his armor, should they have - should he volunteer it when the guy comes back? - they're really being very nice about all this which means they are probably very genuinely unfamiliar with magic as he does it, maybe no gods have ever touched this planet at all. What if he is somehow violating a god treaty just by being here. Iomedae he didn't mean to please strike him dead on the spot if that would be more in line with Your obligations - okay he's still alive which either means he should be alive or it would be expensive in either expended resources or in the lost cleric to strike him dead on the spot. That means he has to figure out what to do here. If they have no magic on the planet at all he can probably install himself in a hospital and do channels and cure blindness and do Lesser Restorations. He's pretty sure if you have exactly one cleric it doesn't make sense to send him into combat in hopes of more circles so he should assume he will go to his grave third circle. He should learn the language. What if they have a bunch of languages in circulation and he has to learn six of them, that would be a lot even with Comprehend Languages helping. This is all assuming that no archmages show up three weeks demanding to know where the fuck their Iomedaean delegate is, but he can't just go around counting on archmages to do anything about him, he can't even assume that they hear him when he thinks at them and choose not to do anything about it the way he can assume that about Iomedae. So he should probably not pick up any obligations that would be hard to discharge Lawfully should such an archmage appear but otherwise conduct himself like he will be living out his life on this planet. Probably he should translate the Acts once he knows the language. Is there any writing in this conveyance that he could study while he waits.

Red Cape comes back. He speaks through a small window at the front: "Driver, when we are secured proceed to Gate 7 Holding Area. Guard, sit and secure yourself."

"Acknowledged," two voices reply.

And then to Blai, as the officer himself also sits and puts on the seat harness: "Medical evaluation of the casualties that remained on-site support the version of events where Stabilize works as advertised and was cast as described. Our casualties are being taken to the Yangon Trauma Center for treatment now. It's time to go to the holding area. My superiors have many more questions for you, if you would be willing to answer them."

"What are the questions, or will they ask in person?"

"How do 'gods' generally operate and pursue their goals? Can they be contacted and negotiated with? What are your instructions from Iomedae, in more detail than 'defeat evil and triage'? Followup questions depending on answers."

The truck lurches into motion. It accelerates a lot faster than a wagon would.

"Gods do most of their work among mortals by empowering mortal followers, mostly clerics like myself but also if they are Lawful Good, Neutral Good, or Lawful Neutral, sometimes paladins. Iomedae in particular selects more paladins than clerics. They can also grant visions, adjust which spells they give their empowered servants instead of granting the specific ones we request, and perform ad-hoc miracles, but all things they can do which impinge upon the mortal world - as opposed to for example merely affecting their own domains in the Outer Planes, which are among other things afterlives for the mortals of the corresponding alignments - are 'expensive', not in currency but in a sort of treaty-limited budget. This is presumably a massive oversimplification because gods are complex and the details are not worth communicating.

"Gods can be communicated to through prayer, speaking or thinking in a manner that addresses them. This normally has no concrete effects at all because those effects would be interventions and therefore expensive. Communication from gods most paradigmatically takes the form of the spell Commune, which I am not powerful enough to cast, answering yes-or-no questions with some mild deviation from the format possible in extreme situations, but I surmise based on the fact that my" not superiors, he isn't qualified for such a luxury, "seniors in the Church told me not to cast it even if I could that it is itself costly for the communed god.

"I have two copies of Iomedae's holy book in my backpack. The language I gave you by spell is modern Chelish and the book is written in archaic, and also poetic, Taldane, but it may be moderately comprehensible to you now and I can aim for the correct dialect with my next casting if that is desirable. I have only read it all the way through once and had intended to meet a catechism instructor at the end of my interrupted journey. On Golarion there are many evils threatening people's well-being such as demons, the undead, unnecessary warfare, the forces of Hell," like him a few months ago, "and things like pirates, orc raids, and banditry, but I don't know what forms it may take here. The advice I had from the Church was to remain at my Worldwound post, which at first I did, but then my country was having a constitutional convention and wanted clerical representation, so my intention then was to attempt to vote with the Church at the convention in the hopes of steering the governance of the country in a more Lawful Good direction."

"We are willing to provide translators effort to translate the book into English, the de-facto world language of Earth humans, and Tacchin, the dominant language of ADVENT, if provided with Share Language casting. Is there a formal description or test for Lawful, Neutral, Good, and Evil?"

"Not a formal one. Broadly, Law - opposed to Chaos - is about abiding by one's agreements while Chaos admits of no such constraint, and Good is about helping people and Evil about harming them. There are many subphilosophies in each alignment, though."

"If you are willing to speculate, why would you guess that gods do not select any clerics on this planet?"

"It could be for all I know that the gods do not select clerics on most planets. Golarion has a Chaotic Evil destruction god imprisoned inside it and may accordingly be a relatively high-priority battleground for their several interests. Alternately this planet may be interdicted by divine treaty, perhaps one that predates Iomedae's ascension or that my irregular arrival circumvents; or it could be that it's difficult to reach with magic - I haven't noticed any impairment in preparation or casting but that doesn't mean there isn't one in a respect invisible to me." Iomedae, if it's expensive, he will cope with it if You can't grant more spells tomorrow, he knows it's a bad year... "Or they do, but it's all cults that operate in obscurity or secrecy."

"What other gods are you willing to tell us about?"

He'll start with the Good and Neutral ones in case these people think it would be a great idea to try to get Asmodeus's attention or pray to Deskari or something, but the mindreaders can pick up blurbs about those on top of the ones he's verbalizing more about Erastil, Abadar, Shelyn, Sarenrae, Desna, Pharasma, Nethys, Calistria, Gozreh, Cayden Cailean, and after a moment's thought Shizuru.