"Oh no! What happened?"

"We were in the Palace trying to steal the Heartstone - a sort of magical construct and reservoir of power, Abadar wanted it and we wanted the Star-Eyed not to have a foothold in Valdemar's capital anymore - and I had to be there, in rapport with Vanyel, so that Abadar could work through me. Fortunately I did not need to do anything other than be there, because - She spent the entire time giving me horrible hallucinations, I think trying to frighten me into calling a Final Strike, while Abadar was fighting with Her in my head. Then She collapsed the building on us. Vanyel was only moderately injured and fished me out, but for a day or so they were worried I would have permanent brain damage from it. It was very scary." 

"It sounds very scary!"

"It was terrifying. The Star-Eyed Goddess does not like me at all, and apparently does not believe in following agreements or keeping promises. Abadar was so angry about it." 

"Is this related to him owing you a sex dungeon in Aktun?"

"...Yes. Abadar had not expected it to be dangerous in that way and He felt a little bad about it. I had not seen it coming, to be fair." 

She has a very very hard time not laughing but she manages it with a lot of effort. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I would not just be getting it as a sex dungeon! It would be very useful to have a space there at all. The other reward He offered was to give me more cleric levels, but it is not as though I have a shortage of magical capabilities." 

"You should at some point give me that demonstration. I know you have Detect Thoughts all the time and mage-sight which is different from that and I've seen Gates and I saw a little fighting during the war but I don't feel like I've seen a tenth of it."

"Of course. We have a busy day today, though, so maybe a different day." 

"Of course. - I am not laughing about your multipurpose dungeon, it seems like a very reasonable use of resources, I was just - no wonder none of you flinched at Iomedae showing up in your conference room - Abadar owes you an apology sex dungeon -"

“Our lives are full of strange adventures. I suppose we make it that way. Anyway.” He lifts his hand and starts casting the Gate on the door to his bedroom; a glowing outline appears around it.

And they can go through to Absalom!

She loves it. She wants to stop at all of the magic shops and peek in the window and study the spells and scrolls and wondrous items. She wants to gape at people walking down the streets wearing same. The illusion-theatre is showing a romantic comedy about a powerful sorceress and a bumbling King trying to win or otherwise acquire her hand, while his handsome younger brother (who turns out to be the king himself, in disguise) tries to win her heart. 

"We should get it in Cheliax."

"That would be amazing." Leareth is also very impressed with Absalom. It's not quite as much a case study in everything that delights him as Aktun, but it's lovely. 

He takes her for breakfast, and afterward they can go to the illusion-theatre and see the show. Leareth is intensely curious; Velgarth illusion-magic has never to his knowledge been used in quite this way. 

The show is cute. The illusions aren't amazing, but they're good enough to hold the story together, and it's only a first level spell (there's a separate actor doing voices). 

When they leave Carissa looks dazed. "We have to get it in Cheliax now. We should try to hire them off from here, maybe - at least let's go ask where they trained and who does the scripts and scene designs -"

Sure, they can go ask. Leareth is also impressed, and it makes him happy, seeing her so awed and pleased by it. 

They get a location of the school where they're being trained, which also provides the scripts and scene-books the illusionists use for reference, apparently. It's not too far. "Do you want to go over now or come back tomorrow when we have a proposal for them - we're going to need, what, ballpark ten thousand..."

"We could maybe go over quickly now and have more information to prepare a proposal, if you know what questions you would want to ask them. Ten thousand - wizards trained to do this?" 

"I think so, right, if each of them can do enough shows a week for a thousand people to see it." She starts walking in that direction. 

"...Right, I am still not calibrated on how many first-level wizards your world has, there would not be nearly enough mages in Velgarth to make this feasible as entertainment. Probably we cannot get that many all at once, we could start with it in some of the big cities." Leareth enjoyed the show a lot but is very slightly confused why Carissa has picked it to be this level of enthusiastic about. 

She looks confusedly back at him. "Not as - I guess it's all right as entertainment. It's perfect as propaganda."

"- That makes more sense now. I wonder if it is even better than Valdemar's Bardic system, they have shockingly good propaganda, but it would at least scale better if we could in fact bring shows to literally everyone in Cheliax, it seems hard for the lower-density farming areas but doable eventually..." 

"Most people are walking distance of a temple for the healing when there's babies born, if absolutely nothing else. Ideally you wouldn't do it in the temples because - ideally part of the audience here is people who haven't set foot in a temple because they're still not sure that's not dangerous enough to ruin their life all by itself, but maybe they'd go if everyone was doing it, to see a funny romantic story - anyway I think people in the cities got a much more concentrated dose of Asmodeanism so they're much more important to target."

"That makes sense. Easier for Asmodeus to reach for the same reason it is easier for us to reach them." He smiles at her. "That is a very good idea, though. It would hopefully have occurred to me eventually but it is not where my mind went right away, so - thank you." 

They reach the school. 

Then they can ask some questions about how the school trains illusionists and what share of them can get the hang of it and how many they've trained so far and how the business model works, and promise to come back the next day with a proposal.