"- well, he's not a demon." 

        "Or he's a well-disguised demon. That headband's not magic."

"...and that proves he's a demon?" 

       "No! But it looks like a magic headband. So either he's got a headband that looks like a magic one, but isn't, which would be odd, or he's blocking my Detect Magic, and it follows he could also be blocking your Detect Evil."

"Oh..." Dimir shifts on his horse. You can't kill a man just for being suspiciously out alone next to the Worldwound, especially not if the words he said were about having had a Teleport accident (this is hotly disagreed on among the party). 

       "We could drive him back towards the barrier. That won't kill him if he's a man, and odds are he'll see what we're driving at and cooperate."

"And if he doesn't?"

       "Then it's probably because he's a demon."

That is certainly how Hulrun would see it but Dimir is not sure Hulrun is right about that. Hulrun is not a paladin.  

He casts Tongues as soon as the wizard stops Detecting Magic to argue with his party members. The illusion of him is still standing stock-still, of course, making a peaceful gesture. Iomedae has expressed a few times the opinion that possibly the spell he uses for that isn't Lawful, and Marit agrees in the sense that inventing it should it not previously have existed would be a philosophically complicated thing to do. He has no such qualms about using it, given that it exists.

Also, he would have invented it, if it didn't exist, and the means to do it struck him. He does not believe Law to be a luxury for peacetime but he thinks some of Iomedae's extensions of it are.

...he can't pretend to now suddenly speak their language, but now he can understand them, and now he can mindread them, which he immediately does.

"If he's from another fort and went off course we're obligated to render him aid."

       "If he's a demon, he would think of saying he's from another fort and went off course."

              "In whatever language that was?"

      "Like I said, it could be Irrisseni -"

"We shall bring him back to the gates of Kenabres," Dimir ventures. "Someone there will speak his tongue, if any of the forts speak it, and if he's a demon he doesn't get anything from getting to the outer gates where there's more people to shoot at him - Kenabres," he says loudly and clearly to Marit, with the condescension that comes naturally to almost everyone trying to communicate across a language barrier.

"Kenabres," he agrees, and starts walking in the direction the man gestured in. A city will have a temple and a library and an opportunity to shed this face, put on a new one, and determine where he is. 

He could probably have saved them. He does alert them of the ambush - cries out in nonspecific alarm, when he spots it - but he does not spellcast, and a swordsman has few avenues to save his party from an ambush by archers. By the time he reaches the attackers his escort are already all dead. 

He would not have let them die only to achieve this aim but it means there is no one bringing any news of him to Kenabres, and no need for him to enter through the gates. He goes invisible, and flies in, though as it happens it wouldn't have mattered because by the time he arrives in Kenabres the city has fallen.

He could probably personally kill most of the demons in this city. He tests this assumption occasionally when he catches one that is assuredly alone, in a building he has already swept for observers including invisible ones. He stabs them with his holy rapier, which is ordinarily silver but which he has the power to make cold iron instead, and they go down easily enough. But he does not run through the city killing all the demons that show themselves and rescuing all the innocents, nor is he particularly tempted to. This particular city's population being murdered by demons is his third priority here, behind 1) not being identified as a person of interest in any way and 2) figuring out what is going on. There was not a planar rift to the Abyss up on the Crown of the World last he checked, and he would in fact have expected to hear about it.

The obvious place to make for is the library. By the time he gets there there are Baphomet cultists trying to burn all the books. He kills all but the leader and leaves the leader on the brink of death to interrogate later once he's shuffled out the shellshocked wizard students and confused old man and consulted the books in case any of them are illuminating. 

They are. Slightly. 

"What year is it."

         The cultist leader is Dominated not to move except to answer the questions completely and accurately with the most important information first, but his eye twitches communicate that this is not the question he was expecting. "4711."

"Since Aroden ascended?"

       "I don't know. I think I heard someone say something about that once but I wasn't paying a lot of attention. It's definitely something to do with Aroden."

"When did the planar rift to the Abyss open."

       "About a hundred years ago."

He slits the man's throat and then, on consideration, decapitates him and tosses both head and body into the chasm that runs through the library, that no one may easily interrogate his corpse. He puts twenty books including the Acts of Iomedae into his Bag of Holding and he leaves.

Anevia would know to go to the Defender's Heart. Anevia does not arrive at the Defender's Heart. Therefore, Anevia is dead. She does not like this conclusion, but she does not intend to spend the rest of her life - which is probably not very long - having it sit in her heart like the sun sits in the sky, too bright to look at. She would rather stare into it until she goes blind than see its shadows everywhere. Anevia is dead, and soon the rest of them will follow her, but not today, if instead she can make it tomorrow. 

The man who stomps into the Defender's Heart in the middle of the night catches her attention because he is a stranger. There are not many people in Kenabres she doesn't recognize. She waves her guards over and goes to meet him. 

"Greetings, stranger,", she says evenly.

An orc paladin. It would make Iomedae happy, that there could be orc paladins. "Blood is complicated, when it comes to men," she would say, with satisfaction. Marit does not feel any satisfaction. 

"Sir," he says. "I heard that the city's defenders should come here, for shelter and rest." He is of course not intending to rest. He already cast Keep Watch from a scroll like a paladin and spent two hours in a rope trick reading the Acts of Iomedae. He is here to get an account of the situation. He is here, rather than at the headquarters of the Inquisition, because the Inquisitor might be hard to lie to and he might want to lie. "I am a stranger in Kenabres, but an ally of Iomedae's Church. A Teleport accident dropped me outside the Wound, not far from here; when I rode to Kenabres I discovered it had been overtaken."

"Will you remove your magic items, that we may confirm none of our enemies have taken such a disguise?"

"No." But he respects her for asking. "I'll step in a Forbiddance, if you have one up."

"Wouldn't that be nice. Where are you from?"

"Recently, Caliphas."

"And you follow Iomedae?"

"I consider myself to be allied with Iomedae's church."

"Well, we need all the help we can get." She studies him carefully. "Get some rest."

....seriously??

All right, what share of the civilians huddled in this tavern seeking shelter are demons and cultists because the paladins are too nice to turn anybody away who doesn't detect Evil?

He takes Irabeth aside at dawn. "That man's a Baphomet cultist. That one's a wanted serial killer."

"I am aware of the serial killer. I have more urgent priorities right now. On what grounds did you conclude that the other is a Baphomet cultist?"

"I'm not going to answer that. You have an inquisitor, yes?"

Several things flash through Irabeth's eyes in short succession. "...I do, and he'll hang whoever I hand him, so if you don't care to answer that then I suppose we'll wait and see what the fellow does." 

The paladin of Iomedae... does not trust the Inquisitor of Iomedae... to have access to truth spells?

"He will scout the place out and then return to the Tower of Estrod to report to his buddies on the extent of its defenses. ...the Abadaran's got to have truth spells."

"Oh, I'm sure he does, for the right price," she responds, more bitingly than she intended. If he's not lying he's being helpful and she should remain courteous and also Anevia is dead.

" - I have money. Arrest the man and I'll cover the truth spell. ...two, if you want to ask me anything."

"I don't know why you offered to pay for a truth spell if you're going to decline to answer every question I have."

"I have never served Baphomet, or Deskari, or any other power of the lower planes. I do not understand my priorities to diverge from Iomedae's in any important way."

"..thank you. All right. ...they're doing something to the wardstone. I don't know how to get word out of the city to anyone who might be able to do anything about it." 

"They? Do you know what we're up against?"

"A lilitu. Minagho. The one who engineered the fall of Drezen. I tried to lead the Watch into the garrison, and -"

"I've never heard of a lilitu. What team would you ideally have, to fight one?"

Irabeth laughs. It is a sharp terrible sound like she swallowed glass. "The Queen, I suppose, and whoever she travels with. Or - there's an emergency response team based at one of the southern forts. But we did a Sending for them, when Deskari arrived, and they didn't show. Or didn't matter."

Would you rather fight a lilitu or an ancient dragon, he wants to ask, but he increasingly suspects that Irabeth will fight either not expecting or even particularly hoping not to die of it. "I'll go scout the place. Who can you spare me?"

The man draws his dagger to slit her throat and then his head rolls off his shoulders and down the lane. 

"I don't think you needed to do that," she says. "He was scared, and confused."

"Everyone's scared and confused sometimes, kid. Good men don't become murderers over it. - the crow is yours?"

"That's Soot. He's my friend. My grandmother sent him to me." 

He glares suspiciously at the crow.

"Everybody's scared and confused," Ember says placidly, "but good men don't become murderers over it."

"It's not a very useful experimental result if you kill all my experimental subjects!"

"Indeed. You'll have to write it up as a complete failure. Who're you working for?"

From mindreading one of the guards in the Defender's Heart he caught that Irabeth was grieving a dead wife. He'd taken Irabeth for a woman but maybe he can't guess orc sex very well. He had Irabeth's permission to ransack his house; he grabs the clothes that aren't orc-sized and runs a scry. Look at that. Alive wife, huddled belowground with some other survivors. He makes a note to address that when Minagho is dead.

If you don't know how dangerous something is, and you really really cannot afford to lose a fight to it, one obvious strategy is to make a plan that would kill the most dangerous thing you know.

The most dangerous thing he knows is Tar Baphon. He doesn't kill Tar Baphon very often but he is in the not-very-large set of people who has done it. He'll be burning a Time Stop, a Bestow Grace of the Champion, and a scroll of a song-sorcerer spell that to his knowledge only Caseta can make and that has no name. But with those - he likes his chances.

"It was a miracle. When all was lost Iomedae must have seen how - hard we were trying - and - saved us."

"Praised be the goddess. ...how?"

"We were all exhausted, of course, and entirely out of spells, but several spells went off at once, around her escort, like fireballs but ice instead of fire, and from the floor at Minagho's feet the shards of ice picked themselves up off the ground and attacked her, every one of them glowing with divine power, and she screamed and tried to Teleport but it didn't work, and the daggers kept whirling all around her and then Aspex stabbed her through the heart, or where I suppose the heart would be, I don't know if she had a heart really, and that was that."

"I see." 

And then she turns around and sees something else and any doubts she had about the man flee her mind and heart forever.

"I figured you were -"

"I figured you were -"

"So you didn't send him for me, hmm? Stroke of luck, that."

Irabeth might have considered the implications of that sentence if she hadn't been far too full of joy to even hear it. 

The Teleport is cast, and an adventuring party worth of people appear in front of the temple of Iomedae in Kenabres, laden with Bags of Holding.

Ettore Castelloni (quiver in hand, first arrow already set to the string) Detects Evil as soon as he arrives. Is that brick evil? Is that empty patch of air? That scorch mark?

This young woman isn't! At least not detectably so! She is refilling the fountain out in front of the church and she jumps a bit at the Teleport, before identifying those people as not demons.

Francesca is scanning the air with Detect Magic and she nods.

"Clear," says Ettore, slackening the draw.

Meanwhile, a large half-orc man will give a couple more people a hand getting out of the sacks.

He'll half-bow to Stasia. "Select?"

Aspex said that when reinforcements from Lastwall (he says Lastwall with a different twist in his voice than Hulrun, but still with a twist in his voice) arrived she should escort them directly to Irabeth. But she wasn't sure quite how to tell which were renforcements from Lastwall. She bows back. "Sir?"

"I am Ettore Castelloni, Inquisitor of Iomedae on assignment from Lastwall," he says, raising his holy symbol. "This is Guistina Agliana de Caserta, teleporter," who is going to be heading back as soon as she gets her load of corpses and information, "her bodyguard, Corporal Arnisant Gouveia," big guy with a big sword, "my assistants, Francesca de Ybarra," woman who is obviously a wizard, complete with the glowing Mage Armor, "Silvio Zavala," the aforementioned large half-orc, "Enric Madeiros." The last couple people being pulled from bags he doesn't introduce. The temple doesn't look too destroyed...

(Meanwhile, he's sure none of the 'empty space' surrounding him is Evil, Chaotic, Lawful, Good or magic, right?)

Someone actually came through a couple nights ago killing every Evil thing around including the invisible quasits!

Well, of course that would be how you'd know someone's from Lastwall, they'd announce it immediately. "Welcome to Kenabres," she says. "If you don't mind, sir, I've instructions to introduce you to Irabeth, when you get here. Irabeth runs the Eagle Watch, which is also just the only Watch, now."

... She's Lawful, Good, and has no illusion or abjuration magic active?

That sure appears to be the case!

"Lead the way."

(He's Lawful, Good, and has no apparent illusion or abjuration magic active?)

(Asking on behalf of an Arcane Eye as they pass through the city, naturally.)

He's Lawful, Good and has no illusion auras.

... He's got three faint Abjuration auras, though, two on his gear and one on his person.

Irabeth says she is honored to meet the new Inquisitor and so grateful that he has come to the aid of Kenabres. If someone is good at discerning if they're being lied to they'll get the sense that they are not being lied to but that this is maybe about as close to lying as paladins are allowed to get.

Castelloni is very good at this, but assumes that this is probably this is just because everyone who isn't from Lastwall hates inquisitors. In the interest of basic security precautions he'll make sure she's glowing properly Lawful and Good first but really he's doing that with everyone who is supposed to be a paladin.

Does she have a status report on what happened?

"Six days ago Deskari showed up in person to kill Terendelev, throw the wardstone halfway across the city, carve a rift in the ground, and then leave. Demons and local cults then tried to kill everyone. We got word they had some plan to corrupt and destroy the wardstone. We attacked the grey garrison, where it had landed, to try to drive them off. Against all odds, we won. When Her Majesty's army arrived to our aid, the city was already safe. She took it as a sign of the gods' favor and appointed Sir Aspex, who led the city's defenders, to the position of the Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade."

"What?"

And here he thought it was just that nobody told him anything.

He nods. "Acknowledged. Sir Aspex?" Is he in the room?

"A veteran adventurer who happened to arrive in Kenabres shortly after we were attacked. He is Lawful Good. He told me under a truth spell that he served Iomedae...no, not quite. That he did not believe his priorities diverged from Hers in any important way." Though he said that before he met Hulrun, and something tells her he might've given a different answer after. "I don't know if he was known already to Galfrey." That would make sense of the very swift appointment. Neither of them said anything about it but she's getting the sense that Sir Aspex isn't big on saying things. 

Aspex is the most common name in the western Taldane regions. Therefore he is either:

- Genuinely named Aspex, and did not give himself any famous or dramatic nickname to distinguish him from all the other Aspexes out there. This means he is an adventurer who is not completely driven by his ego, was strong enough to be capable of saving Kenabres from whoever Deskari left behind, and who has not picked up enough of a reputation to have someone else bestow a name on him. The odds seem negligible.

- Taldane and picking the most obvious fake name possible.

- Wants people to think he is Taldane and unimaginative.

Castelloni finds all of these either distasteful or improbable.

"Acknowledged. Thank you." It's good to say that on a regular basis. "Do you have information on the events leading to the Fall and death of Prelate Hulrun?" That is probably the second-most-important thing.

Irabeth freezes up slightly. "He Fell?"

"As was confirmed following his resurrection. He is cooperating fully and we expect him to return to the faith, but it is unlikely he will return to Kenabres."

"It was a very difficult situation that I expect he can speak to more fully than I can. There were a great many people in the city who did turn out to be followers of Baphomet, or of Deskari. I think Hulrun often found his suspicions of - everyone - validated. I also think that he - well, I think he would have agreed that sometimes he was killing innocent people, or people not guilty of important crimes, when with slightly more care he could have given them the opportunity to distinguish themselves as innocent, and I think he would have said that he could not afford the care to distinguish them thereby. It was not obvious to me, whether one should expect an inquisitor to fall for that."

Ettore has exactly enough tact to not say that Hulrun probably had no idea what he was doing because he was Mendevian and had never had a class on ethics in his life.

"To execute an innocent person is an injury not only to the victim but to the Goddess, since it reduces Her ability to deal honestly," he says, which is rote but is also true, "and disobedience to Her commands. I would have expected an inquisitor to fall for sufficient negligence. If the Goddess permitted this," the Goddess was engaged in particularly extreme triage, "the situation must have been exceptionally dire." Castelloni does not like this at all.

Irabeth will dutifully attend to which things are presently understood by the Inquisition to be disobedience to the Goddess. 'executing innocent people' is a pretty appealing sounding thing to declare injurious to the Goddess but the problem is that 'being a Baphomet cultist' was also a pretty reasonable thing to declare to be disobedience to the Goddess and look how well that went. "The situation was indeed exceptionally dire," she says. "We're using truth spells before executions, now. Sir Aspex bought a dozen wands off the Church of Abadar." 

"... The Church of Abadar in Kenabres had a dozen wands of truthtelling?"

"No. After the Queen's army arrived and before the Crusade was announced Sir Aspex left for Absalom to make a great many purchases from a better supplied church of Abadar. I think he is independently wealthy but I'm sure Minagho was also in possession of some very valuable things."

There's a proper way to carry out a report but he is currently confused about fundamental things. "Is he a wizard?" Absalom was two teleports away from his fort, he remembers...

"No. He's a swordsman, heavy armor and everything. He hired a Teleport wizard, or knew one. An elf. I asked if she was joining the Crusade and he said that we should be on our best behavior just in case but he doubted he could bring her around on it."

Aspex sounds like a very unusual person. Hopefully he's a known ally of the Church of Iomedae who Ettore just doesn't know about. Hopefully he is not one of Deskari's generals under an Alter Self spell.

Ettore is not a very hopeful person.

"The combination of Detect Thoughts and Zone of Truth is normally sufficient for trials," he says, "should there be insufficient wands." People think that Abadar's truthtelling is perfect, but it's merely good. He's seen a succubus tell people their eyes were malfunctioning and the symbol was still there and have them swear later she'd passed a truthtelling.

"Other than yourself and the new Knight-Commander, who else of importance in the city's defense or governance is presently alive and in Kenabres?" He wants to know who to talk to next.

"Count Daeran Arendae is alive and in Kenabres. He does not usually involve himself very much with the city's governance or with the defense against the Worldwound but I believe since the crisis began he has been...helping. The Inquisition has in the past benefitted from the advice and assistance of the noblemen Horgus Gwerm and Orin Chetts, who have been participating in efforts to restore order and rebuild. Her Majesty is, I believe, with the Crusade right now, and will see them off before she departs Kenabres. She brought some adventurers with her who I believe will be participating in the Crusade. ...There were a few survivors among Hulrun's men. They are serving with the Eagle Watch right now while we awaited Hulrun's return or replacement."

Ettore nods. He'll need them to shadow one of his assistants. He does not trust any of them.

"I will wish to speak with the noblemen, should they have time for the inquisition," he says drily. He does not have a high opinion of Mendevian noblemen. He doubts he will be able to call on the Queen. He is second circle and she is a queen. It is not inconceivable he can speak to the Knight-Commander, though he should only do so in circumstances where Suggestion spells would not be disastrous. "Where in the city can they, Her Majesty and the Knight-Commander be found?"

... Why did Galfrey appoint anyone to run the Crusade. Galfrey ran the rest of them. Is there anyone who can get a Suggestion spell through a royal fourth-circle paladin's defenses, or was this her own decision?

The Inquisitor wanting to go talk to a bunch of people who he can't summarily execute and who aren't Irabeth is the best possible outcome of having an Inquisitor back, really. Irabeth will delightedly set him up some meetings.

"Some of us who were attending the festival fell down into the chasm. Nasty business, that, with lots of underground vermin, but I, Horgus Gwerm, and a few others made our way to a village of some underground savages and waited there for rescue. And on the second day, there came the fellow - Aspex - looking for survivors, and we were mighty pleased to see him. I offered him a very generous reward to get me to safety, but you know, it didn't escape me that he would've got us out regardless. Then the folks were able-bodied went off to help him rescue more people."

Ettore thinks it is highly suspicious that this rich person's alibi is "I was hiding underground with some illiterate savages" and not anything more plausible. How do they know he's not an Asmodean cultist?

(He doesn't detect evil. He doesn't detect anything. How, other than that, do they know.)

"I told the Prelate Hulrun, you've just got to march the whole city through a Zone of Truth. And hang all the tieflings. Then none of this would've happened. But we're on the right track now. You know the funniest thing is that we didn't even have to use all the truth spells, catching the cultists among the guard. As soon as they saw we were ready to do it, a bunch of them split and ran. I think things are under control now. It's just a shame it couldn't've happened sooner. They're sending Prelate Hulrun back, surely? The city wouldn't be standing without him."

The number of people Ettore wants to hang has certainly gone up by one as a result of this conversation.

"The Prelate Fell on the day of his death," he says, "and is expected to be reassigned following his repentance and recovery. It is of utmost importance that Iomedaean Law be enforced without violations for fear or favor. Violations of proper Lawful procedure" such as hanging all the tieflings "cannot be permitted by a Lawful organization." 

Oh, great, they've been sent one of those "but did you fill out all of the proper paperwork?" inquisitors. Chetts makes at least a polite attempt to conceal his contempt.  "We will eagerly await his return."

"An inquisitor! Why, that's precisely what this city was missing. I'm so glad the powers that be have seen free to correct the deficiency."

"The Iomedaean Inquisition intends to correct the errors Prelate Hulrun made, with the intention of remedying his deficits in proper execution of his duties," he says. He knows there is not any chance at all that this will help.

No, see, that's worse. 

"Well, if the Iomedaen Inquisition intends it, it will be so."

He wishes.

Maybe a paladin will be better?

"We were discussing whether to try to fight our way up to the surface through the maze, when the Knight-Commander came. I thought he was a paladin, at first, because he's brave and honorable and good and I've never seen him scared of anything. He said he'd take us up to the surface so we could help save the city, and then we could go back and clear the Shield Maze of cultists once Minagho'd been defeated - which was wise, I think, even though it turned out to be too late for the children. We attacked the Grey Garrison, and fought our way past the demons and the cultists to the wardstone, and then there was Minagho with - more demons than I've ever seen in my life, that's for sure, and with all the vrocks screeching you could hardly move at all. I thought we would probably all die, and then the miracle happened. They were all swallowed up in shards of ice, and then the Knight Commander stabbed Minagho straight through and that was that."

Don't demons resist cold? At least they resist Frost arrows. "Extraordinary," he says. 

He is not sure he believes in miracles that look like very powerful spells, especially not people who have an elven teleport wizard doing them favors.

"With a single blow?"

"Well, it was all very fast, I certainly wouldn't swear to it that he didn't also stab her some more times. But the thing I remember seeing is deadly ice shards swirling everywhere and the Knight-Commander stabbing the horrible demon and her collapsing to the ground. Probably you should ask the Knight-Commander, if you want to know more than that."

He nods. "Thank you. I intend to."

"He's a brave crusader. Just what I suppose all our crusader ancestors were like. He'd be a good hunter, too - very careful that every fight starts when we pick it. ...he told Wenduag, if you choose the demons I will kill you personally, and then she did, so he did, can hardly say that's anyone's fault but her own. She shouldn't have betrayed us."

He nods. "Wenduag?" Executing someone for siding with demons isn't any of his business. Executing people on suspicion...

"A...friend of mine. From underground - we're undergrounders," as if that were not completely obvious. "She offered to show us through the Shield Maze, and then when we reached the cult leader who'd stolen the children, it turned out she'd been working with them. She thought it was fine, turning our children into monsters, so long as they were strong. Of course she said that she saw now that the Knight-Commander was stronger and she should really be serving him, but he didn't think much of that. Nor should he have."

"No," Ettore agrees. Some people you have to kill.

"I think the Knight-Commander is sad, and angry, and lonely. A lot of people who spend all their time killing demons start to think that they do not have time to be kind, that if they are more terrible then maybe their problems will be less terrible. I do not think the Knight-Commander is doing that, not exactly. But I think he has not noticed that being sad and angry and lonely are injuries, and so he is not getting them bandaged up like he would a bite. That is what I think of the Knight-Commander."

She smiles vaguely at Ettore. "I think you are sad, and angry, and lonely, too. Maybe you will be friends!"

"It is natural to be sad when a great many people have died," Ettore says.

"It is very sad that so many people have died," Ember agrees. "I don't think that's what the Knight-Commander is sad about, though."

He sends multiple copies of his preliminary report, ciphered, as usual. One is going back with the teleporter, one the long way, one will be read the next time they Scry him. 

A short summary of his report:

- He does not know who Aspex is. He claims that his goals do not differ from Iomedae's in 'any significant way.' He is clearly a powerful adventurer in disguise; hopefully they know who. Ettore's got a physical description, not that it helps. (Hats of disguise are very cheap, as magic items go.)

- Ettore also doesn't know who Aspex's teleport wizard ally is. Hopefully his superiors do. 

- Ettore is extremely skeptical about the "miracle" narrative. Everything can be explained by an invisible wizard with some powerful cold-based spell he's never heard of following Aspex around helping him out with his problems. This is sufficiently obvious he isn't sure why anyone is talking about a miracle at all.

- The theory that this is all complicated illusions, demonic lies and that Aspex is a powerful demon or cultist in disguise also needs to be considered. Right now it looks like Kenabres was saved by the lucky coincidence of a few powerful unexpected adventurers, one of whom happens to be unnaturally charming. Prophecy's broken, and so this shouldn't happen any more. It seems likely (though not the most likely possibility) that the purpose of this was a plot to get a cultist in charge of the Crusade.

- ... On which topic, he is is confused about why Queen Galfrey is declaring a crusade and why she put Aspex in charge of it. Possibly she is just making bad decisions because she's Mendevian, or possibly she has some reason he doesn't know about.

- Also, they should absolutely not send Hulrun back. Everyone hates, fears and distrusts the Iomedaean inquisition. He's not sure how many, if any, of Hulrun's people he can keep on; he needs local experts but the people who are willing to work with him and the people who will obey the law seem to be two completely disjoint sets.

He'll also write another report after he's talked to Aspex, but he's writing this one first, just in case of Suggestion.

Report sent. Time to talk to the Knight-Commander, if he can spare the time.

But naturally he can spare the time for Iomedae’s church, Mendev’s greatest ally.

The Knight Commander is a man whose place of birth could be practically anywhere along the Inner Sea, with a little grey in his beard and a tightly controlled manner. He is wearing a weak Wisdom headband and rings of sustenance and deflection; he has a cloak of resistance; there is no other magic about him, though the plate armor in the corner of the room shines brightly with several overlapping enchantments. He is writing notes on the state of his army, in a nearly unreadable hand. 

(Obviously when he is writing real notes on the state of his army they're not in Taldane at all). 

His Hallit is seriously accented, but improving. (You don't want Tongues, to learn a language quickly; you want Comprehend Languages, so you know if your words came out right, and to be obliged to practice all the time. He knew some Hallit from his own time but it was barely better than useless.) "Lord Inquisitor. My condolences on the death of the Prelate. Many in the city credit him with Kenabres having endured as long as it did."

"Thank you, Knight-Commander. Prelate Hulrun Fell before his death," Ettore says. "He is expected to recover, following his resurrection." 

Ettore is quietly cycling between Evil, Good, Chaos, Law and Magic.

"Congratulations are due, I believe. For your success and for your appointment."

Marit wishes he could be doing that but he's not supposed to be a spellcaster so he did it earlier through an arcane eye when the Inquisitor first arrived.

He appears to be Lawful, Good, powerful, and wearing precisely the magic items that it looks like he's wearing.  

It's not that he doesn't know what Iomedae would say here. She would lean forwards and pull out a map and start chattering with blazing conviction about the next objective until you caught yourself believing that the army would be there in a month or two. It wasn't lying, of course, since armies that are sure they can achieve a thing usually can. Marit knows the next objective. The only thing stopping him from doing that is that - well, he doesn't want to, and he isn't sure it did work, in the long run. Or maybe it only works while you have her.

In any event the thing he wants to do with the Iomedaen inquisition is keep them at as much distance as he can without being suspected of heresy. It's not personal. He'd feel the same way about the Arodenite inquisition, really. "I am honored by the responsibility that Her Majesty has invested in me," he says blandly. "No one could fail to be moved by the courage and conviction of the people of Mendev, nor by their plight." The great thing about politics is that it's acceptable to say things like that, which aren't literally true, and then no one can later ask you if everything you said was true and expect the answer to be 'yes'.

Oh no, Aspex is a politician. 

... No, that doesn't make sense. He's been a paladin to Seelah, a hunter to Lann... Who is he really?

"The bravery of the Mendevian people is unquestionable," he says. 

"But victory in a crusade takes more than bravery, and there is a great deal of work ahead of us - some of which you caught me in the middle of." He taps the papers, tiredly. "May I be of assistance to the Iomedaen inquisition?"

"I am afraid so," he says. "What can you tell me about the events leading to the death of my predecessor, Prelate Hulrun?"

"I spoke to him briefly what must have been a few hours before his death. It is hardly my place to speak ill of a man I did not know, much less a dead hero, but it is perhaps relevant to your investigation that by the time we spoke his judgment seemed considerably impaired. He had tangled with a nabasu, earlier in the day, so that was probably part of it, but also he was fixated on bringing to justice the Church of Desna in the city, and he took the undergrounders for demons - they do look monstrous, but it's not a mistake I'd expect an experienced man to make. He did not recognize Ember, but when she identified him as the man who had ordered her execution he said that she'd probably deserved it if he did, which struck me as an attitude that might lead a man to error."

Ettore is trying to avoid looking unprofessional but cannot disguise the Very Low Opinion of Hulrun this is giving him. Aspex might be lying, of course, because anyone might be lying, but Hulrun did Fall and this is the sort of thing that would explain why. 

"This is not the Goddess's way," he agrees. He would really like to interrogate Aspex in more detail with the standard list of careful questions but the man can tell him the appointment is over any time he pleases.

Is it not, though. ...it is somewhat reassuring that Hulrun did fall eventually, or that the church feels the need to claim he did.

"In the interests of understanding the recent events, the Church would like to know more about the events leading your intervention in Kenabres," he says. "Why did you travel here?"

"My intended destination was different. A Teleport accident brought me here, along with the adventuring party I had been travelling with. - the timing is of course suggestive. Has the Church asked Iomedae if She redirected our transit?"

"You are not presently cleared for that information," Ettore says blandly. "From where were you traveling?"

"I'm afraid I must reply in kind."

"And your home country?"

"I have lived too many places to call any one of them home, I think."

Aspex is enjoying himself. "How would you describe the events since your arrival at Kenabres, as you saw them?"

He pulls out a small notebook. "- this is written after the fact, I was busy at the time. ...when I arrived to the city the guardposts at the gates had been abandoned or overrun, and the city had fallen to demons. There were cultists of Baphomet and Deskari travelling in groups through the city, along with demons, going house to house to loot buildings and kill people. I interrupted some cultists in looting the library, interrupted some demons in burning down the western quarter of the city, and after night had fallen followed a group of soldiers to the Defender's Heart, where the Eagle Knights under Irabeth's command were trying to shelter the city's surviving civilians. I rested there for the night.

Present were about seventy civilians, including one I'd seen earlier among a group of cultists and one I'd seen earlier with the body of a woman not dead at the demons' hands; I pointed them out to Irabeth. She declined to refer the matter to Hulrun on only my evidence. I bought truth spells off the priest of Abadar by which to persuade her about the cultist - the murderer we agreed could wait, though he was arrested after we retook the city. I also permitted a truth spell and reassured Irabeth that I believed my aims in the city to not depart from those of her Goddess. She asked me to scout out a location where the cultists were gathering for an attack on the tavern, and to travel to the Church of Iomedae. Near there I encountered Prelate Hulrun, and we spoke briefly. He asked me to find some Desnans who had had advance warning of the attack and had snuck into the fortress to try to tamper with the Wardstone, he believed acting on instructions from the demons. I'd seen them, and told him where. He went and killed them.

I climbed down into the crevasse in the city to check for survivors trapped down there, having thought I'd heard some shouting earlier. I found several, and found some among the mongrels to be interested in joining the defense of the city. We came under fire as we climbed out of the crevasse. We scouted out the Tower of Estrod on Irabeth's request, and killed a great many cultists who had been gathering to attack the tavern. We stopped by several houses in the city with the permission of their owners to take valuables and magic items they had volunteered for the city's defense or offered substantially discounted if I went and got them. I have a ledger, if you'd like to see it. Gwerm's, Irabeth's, Rathimus's, and the magic shop. 

At dawn the following morning we gathered our forces to storm the Grey Garrison, intending that we would clear it of most of the minor cultists and demons and then tempt Minagho out of hiding. This plan went as intended, with six dead of the thirty attackers. Minagho appeared to kill us before we reached the Wardstone and was killed herself. We spent the rest of the day clearing the city of demons and burying the dead, who had begun rising, and clearing out a labyrinth under the city that had been a cultist hideout. Spent the following day clearing the city more thoroughly and resuming the patrols of the Worldwound border that are the obligation of Kenabres. The following day Her Majesty arrived with the army."

Ettore is taking notes in shorthand. "The mongrels are...?"

"The undergrounders. Monstrous, but allied. Lann is in my retinue, you should speak with him for his account if you haven't already." He has already, but Marit doesn't know if the Inquisitor knows how closely he has been watched.

Oh, he has.

He glances at his notes. "What role did your adventuring party play in this?"

"They would prefer not to have it advertised that they played any. Obviously I did not kill a lilitu unassisted. I will testify, if it would ease the minds of my trusted allies in the Church, that to my knowledge none of their conduct in Kenabres was lawless, or evil, or in the service of any of our common enemies."

He nods and takes notes. "What occurred, then, with the reported miracle of Iomedae?"

"I called in some favors. A wizard Disintegrated the ceiling and a bunch of invisible archers shot her dead before she could Teleport away while her retinue was destroyed by powerful evocations. I also stabbed her, and I flatter myself it was even helpful, but it assuredly wouldn't have done on its own. - I have made no claim there was a miracle. Her Majesty's guidance was that, when the people of Mendev find a source of hope and inspiration, they should not be discouraged in it."

If Aspex is saying the truth, her Majesty is insulting Truth itself and the goddess Iomedae. Aspex could be lying. His explanation is the simplest and most plausible explanation, but Ettore instinctively distrusts it because someone who is carefully picking his words is offering it. On the other hand, Ettore can't think of a better one. Her Majesty the Queen of Mendev could have been so stupid as to not even do basic checks before appointing Aspex Knight-Commander of the Crusade, but he thinks this is unlikely.

"I see," he says. There are many ways to interpret that.

"Do you? I am glad to hear it." Iomedae would probably run out right into the nearest town square to explain that there was no miracle, but this is one of those plans that is only a good idea for Iomedae. "It would be unacceptable to me to mislead my men about whether we have sought and received Heaven's blessing in this endeavor, but presuming that we have I not only feel little urge to specify the form of Heaven's aid, but in fact actively prefer that there be as much confusion about it as possible."

Ettore will tell Lastwall that Aspex says there was no miracle, and then his superiors will tell him if he should tell everyone in Kenabres. Ettore is not in charge. Therefore, the fact that he disapproves of misleading people about what actions are a result of Iomedae intervening and what are a result of fallible humans acting is not particularly relevant.

He checks his notes. "I wish to read the ledger, if it is not classified."

"It's classified, but the Church may view, copy or reference it, and so may the Church of Abadar." He pulls out a different book and leafs to the right page.

The ledger's in Taldane. In neat handwriting there are sketches of the houses and then a detailed list of items taken from them (food as much as three men can carry. -- longsword.-- four leather coats. --two pair good boots. --six pair iron shackles, serrated. --enchanted breastplate. --cold iron poker.)

He is confused about why these people have serrated shackles in their private houses, but since they volunteered the loan of their resources to the Crusade he thinks it would be inappropriate to ask. (It is not inappropriate to take notes, pass them on to his superiors, then consult his handbook in more detail when not in a room with someone who might be reading and/or controlling his mind.)

"Knight-Commander," he says. "What relationship do you plan for the Crusade to have with the Inquisition?"

None at all, ideally! But he can't say that directly. He will have to say it very indirectly. 

"Many of the people I have spoken to since arriving in Mendev have made it very clear to me that Kenabres survived only through the dedication and commitment of the Inquisition, and that they are all very grateful for the noble work done by Hulrun and his staff in defense of their people. I am sure you will inspire similar conviction." Having the ability to execute people on the spot does that, he doesn't quite say, but he doesn't-say it far more visibly than he's previously not-said things. "My understanding is also that the Inquisition has very limited resources, and would not be able to do their noble work in Kenabres and in Drezen and alongside the army on the march with those resources presently available. I would of course be overjoyed to learn that we have more at our disposal than was feared."

And now he's set himself up for trouble if the Inquisitor actually has tons of resources but the one universal claim he's encountered about the Church is that it's stretched very thin, so it seems a good gamble.

He is aware that this translates to 'pay me or go home.' Nonetheless.

"I do not command any members of the Inquisition outside Kenabres, and will need to consult my superiors regarding policy beyond it. Lastwall has found that the inquisition's ability to reduce demonic infiltration is more cost-effective than nonmagical or arcane alternatives." It could hardly not be. "It would be improbable if it was not the most effective use of the shared resources of the Iomedaean Church, the Crusade, the Mendevian state and those other forces devoted to preventing Worldwound outbreaks to provide inquisitorial support to the Fifth Crusade."

Marit is the kind of person who, in general, is inclined to be charmed by some organization having done a lot of work to check what tasks they are the most effective at.

Also he does not believe the Iomedaen inquisition. The people of Kenabres were not his responsibility and it was still unpleasant to stand by and watch while Hulrun had them executed in the streets. The people of his army are his responsibility. 

 "Certainly whatever resources the Iomedaen Church can make available to the Crusade will be welcome."

Translation, pay me or go home.

"Understood," he says. He'll take a last few notes. "Thank you for your time, Knight-Commander."

"Goddess go with you." Whatever She is and whatever She wants. 

Ettore's report, consisting of both information he gathered and information from his assistants, is not hugely positive. The good news is that the wardstone barrier is back up, the people are loyal to Iomedae and the Queen, and morale is high.

The bad news is everything else. The majority of the population of the city, including the Knight-Commander, considers the Iomedaean Inquisition an essentially hostile force opposed to the interests of the population. It is a source of tyranny; small numbers of people, chiefly powerful nobles, support it. The rest of the population fears and hates it. Hulrun is expected to be the model for all future inquisitors and he is respected, feared and avoided.

The Knight-Commander ("Aspex") is popular, highly intelligent and well-respected by the commons and the nobility. He is a capable diplomat and unusually meticulous. He is reported to be an experienced and capable tactician and a capable swordsman and party leader. He does not reveal the majority of his magic items; visible were a lesser Wisdom headband, cloak, armor and two rings (Sustenance and Deflection), but no magic boots, belt or amulet. (His superiors can, from this, infer exactly what he did - that Aspex wasn't wearing most of his equipment when he met Ettore.) He evaded Ettore's truthtelling but is reported to have said under truthtelling that he knows of no areas where his priorities differ from Iomedae's in any significant way. He is occasionally assisted by a teleport wizard who appears to be a female elf disinterested in a Worldwound career.

(The inquisitor will include a physical description, complete with a sketch. He's not very good, but he could be worse.)

Ettore has three theories. The first is that he's a demonic spy, possibly Minagho the lilitu general, and that this was all an elaborate plot to implant one of their own as crusader leadership. He detects as Lawful Good and not under any illusions, he is not himself magical, and Ettore has seen no particular evidence that this is true. 

The second is that he's a powerful Lawful Good adventurer here, probably with his party, by coincidence. He claims he came here through a teleport failure, but it is highly unlikely. His superiors are more likely to know who would be teleporting within common failure range of Kenabres than he is, but Ettore is aware of no sixth-circle or higher adventuring opportunities other than the Wound in Mendev. If this is true, Ettore thinks it is worth keeping in mind the possibility that a miracle of Desna or some other god caused his teleportation to go awry.

The third is that this is a plot, and he is genuinely a powerful adventurer, but is operating as part of a complicated plot. Ettore does not know what power wishes to gain control of the fifth crusade, but whoever wished to do so appears to have succeeded, and this would be worth spending significant resources on.

As to the reported miracle, Ettore does not believe it. (He'll include a few descriptions anyway.) Knight-Commander Aspex reports that secret allies of his ambushed Minagho when she arrived, Disintegrating the roof and shooting her from outside her truesight range. If he is a demonic agent, no miracle took place; if his story is accurate, no miracle took place. Ettore considers this story entirely plausible, though if it is true the Queen of Mendev is deliberately encouraging the spread of false information about a miracle of the goddess Iomedae.

He'll include everything else he knows, but overall he is tentatively positive about Aspex. (Should his superiors not recognize him from the description, a demonic infiltrator sounds more likely, but Ettore expects they'll recognize him. He acts like someone from Lastwall.)

Castelloni's immediate superiors in the Inquisition do not recognize Aspex by description. This isn't conclusive - the Inquisition does not keep files on every Iomedan adventurer in the world - so they'll pass the description along to the War College - 

No perfect matches in his files either. A couple adventuring parties containing an "Aspex" who have or could have the capabilities described. There'll be more if they assume it's a pseudonym, but it will take the clerks a while to assemble the full list and it may not be worth the time without anything identifying enough to narrow down the list again afterwards...

He's not one of mine.

We're going to ask the Goddess all the normal questions about this new Crusade regardless of what Keyron's people turn up. Let's do that first, and if those don't give us a reason to worry we can spare them the effort until we've got something else on the knight-commander.

Agreed.

The Knight-Commander is not to be treated as a demonic plot.

Inquisitor Castelloni is directed to complete his report on Prelate Shappok's fall and death, then hand off to Inquisitor Hawkblade everything he's learned about Knight-Commander Aspex.

Inquisitor Castelloni is directed to return to Vigil by the next available teleport, within one week. After completing his report and before his return he is to assist Inquisitor Hawkblade in whatever matters the latter should request.