"I will check my records to make sure they can all be spared, but I don't immediately know them to have any indispensable assignments."

Nod nod.  "I ought pack, and I left spells open- which are customary for patrols? -but I may be ready to leave in a third of an hour."

"Half hour," Omar interjects, "unless you tell me you remember to eat before?"

"You want Detect Fiendish Presence, and -" There are totally standard spells for this which are all good time-tested ideas. "I will make sure the packet of mail and the emergency scrolls are ready, don't leave without it."

She doesn't actually have all of those, but can totally figure out which of hers are the closest equivalents in effective usage.  "I'll return as soon as I may."

They're just going to hand her their emergency scrolls.  Okay.  Wow.

"Um, and I ought get an Endure Elements from someone, I gave mine this morning."

"Yes, don't leave without that either, we have occasionally had to send un-abjured patrols but they'd be better acclimated than you to the weather."

She gives him a rueful nod, gesturing at her pants (loose and lightweight and eminently practical for the desert, although wearing two pairs at once has helped with the chill a surprising amount while safely indoors.)  "It would be hard to be less so."  And unless he's got any more instructions or warnings or whatever she'll head upstairs and get her oh-shit spells prepped.

Her squad as requested forms up in the entryway. Lloris is in command - Khalida's too green to be formally in charge even if she's got lots of privileges for being able to channel - and has the emergency scrolls inventoried while she watches so she can get a look at them and Read Magic them in advance. It's not a lot of emergency scrolls, but there is a Sending in there.

Oh holy shit that's a Sending.  That is a fifth circle scroll.  What the fuck.

Well they're only supposed to use it if they find a really mega bad demon situation. This Sending scroll has been on lots and lots of patrols.

Okay that's actually pretty reassuring.  And Lloris is in charge of knowing where the line is to actually use it, not her.  She's still never touched a fifth-circle scroll before, let alone cast from one.  what if she fucks it up and then they're dead and she wasted the scroll

"Does one among us have the mail, or do we await it?"

"I've got it," says another guy, patting a satchel.

She nods, stuffs her hands in her pockets, glances at Lloris.  "I'm ready."

And out they go.

One of the non-Lloris guys is curious about Osirion. He hears everyone there is gay. He hears there is so much sand it gets in the food even if you cook indoors. He hears the Pharaoh can marry anybody he wants even if he just picks a random person off the street or a foreign visitor or his own sister. He hears it's still poor despite Abadar's blessing because it is also under a curse from Sarenrae for breaking away from the Keleshites. He hears that camels are like horses but you can't ride them, just tie stuff to them, because of the humps, and that there is a variant Mount that makes camels. He hears that there's a really big river there.

Okay that is a lot of questions in a row and she's going to need vocabulary clarifications on some of them.  The Pharaoh wouldn't marry his own sister, that's gross, the ancient Pharaohs did sometimes but that was thousands of years ago and also probably just for legal reasons.  You can so ride camels, but yeah they're basically horses that live in the desert and can go for a month or so without drinking, and also why would Mount make something you can't ride?  It's not poor, Sothis is like the richest port on the Inner Sea if you don't count Absalom because seriously Absalom shouldn't count.  Sand only gets in your food if you're lazy about washing it or there's a really bad sandstorm.

It can't be that rich, Cheliax is richest.

Theyyyyy probably should not have that argument out here in the snow where nobody can look anything up.  Anyway there's definitely not a curse of Sarenrae on them, she's super popular, most of the- places where people aid the poor or sick- are Sarenrite.

But the Keleshites are Sarenrite, right? Why wouldn't She be mad about Osirion breaking away and becoming Abadar's? Did He buy it?

How's she supposed to know why the gods do what They do.  Her church supported independence?  And She didn't smite anyone about it, so probably they knew what they were doing?

Anyway, it's not like Sarenrae directly rules the Kelesh Empire?  They were doing a bunch of internal wars and- quiet wars that the nobility do with words instead of swords, what's the word for that? -so even if the people were individually Sarenrite, it's not like the empire was doing Her work in the world.

Six different Chelish words are volunteered for "that".

She'll repeat them carefully, only mangling the pronunciation a bit, and if they feel like clarifying the definitions, why not, they've got a long walk ahead of them. 

Otherwise, she didn't get to all the first batch of questions, did she, what were they- the river, right, there's actually two, the Sphinx is probably the one he's thinking of, Sothis is where it goes into the Inner Sea and it's enormous, the other one is the Junira and it's snaller than the Sphinx but still, uh, river sized.

If the river Sphinx is that big, then is Sothis only on one side of it?

There's bridges and barges and canals and stuff.  More of it's on one side than the other?  

He hears that dire crocodiles come in bright nongreen colors. He hears that there are druids in Osirion but they are completely normal and reasonable people who are satisfied with quite small amounts of desert since there's not much in it anyway. He hears that there are free halflings there. He hears that there are slaves in the government and wants to know who owns those slaves. He hears that they have to import all their food, because, desert. He hears that the Abadarans there go by a different title than the Fiducia who comes by for insurance. He hears that you can have two wives but not three there.

Yeah, Abadaran priests are called Cicerone there unless they've got some weird specific title.  Three wives is legal, it's just rarer than two (which is rarer than one) and some people will kind of judge you, but if you can keep three wives you're probably rich enough to not care.  It's only desert in between the rivers, the land along the rivers is all canaled and farmed and- good land for farming?  All two of the dire crocodiles she's seen were green, but she's usually trying to avoid them or run away from them.  She's never personally met a druid or a halfling but she's heard of them being around- Sothis is mostly human because humans tolerate the heat best.