"When? For how long exactly? How dangerous will it be?"

"The night of 10 Desnus. Between 3 and 6 hours. There might be trouble, but not the kind of trouble that would threaten a third-circle wizard."

She does some figuring... if Alieta is busy during the night, they should let her sleep in the following day and prepare spells and make a second-circle scroll, rather than spend the day on wand crafting and nothing else. "We'll want you to buy all her spells for the 10th, and compensate us for losing her crafting labor on the 11th. There's a small fee for the danger" - they might need to confirm that he's telling the truth about how dangerous it is - "and for additional spells she uses from items. That comes to 1700gp. We would prefer that she not be alone, but we'll add a skilled fighter of ours for only 300gp, which brings the total to 2000gp." She's expecting him to haggle a bit.

He does haggle a bit, but the deal is soon sealed, almost, pending his confirmation that he did not mislead them about he danger at the next morning's casting of Zone of Truth.

"Do you have a scroll of Riversight available, or is your cleric for hire to cast it?"

"That's third-circle, she's only second. In general, Marran clerics above second circle are rare."

Hm, what circle is Felicia?

"I'll ask around and let you know at the Zone of Truth tomorrow if we can arrange a Riversight."

Tos checks the inns in Bellis. Can any of them pass a message to their guests, an aasimar with armor and a greatsword, and a half-elf woman?

All of them say they don't have any guests of that description, except for one of them says that they don't give out information on their guests. They would be happy to convey a message for a couple of coppers, though.

He tries to appreciate their Lawful commitment to their principles - he needs the practice - and pays to tell the dubiously-existent guests that he might have a small cleric job for them. Ideally they should come by before tomorrow's morning spellcasting, that is, while the circus tent is still partially shaded.

Then he stands by the shop where he met Elias for a few hours.

She and Elias receive the message slipped under their door. She reads it when she wakes up.

What!? That sounds like a horrible trap. Before she can prepare spells? Although, if this is meant to be a trap, she won't be walking into it defenseless. She hadn't used any of her combat spells since she got here, and they've still been sitting there unused. The same goes for Elias. The message said to meet at the Marran camp just before dawn.

She's hoping it's not the Marrans looking to pick a fight, but it might come to that.

The two of them mull it over for a few minutes and decide to go anyway. It's highly likely to be related to their mission here, which they still haven't gotten extra information on. Perhaps it will become apparent once they go.

They prepare quickly and ready their weapons, but don't pray for spells just yet.

When they reach the Marran camp, the sun has only barely risen above the horizon.

What is the state of the Marran encampment like? Are they busy?

There are guards around as before. A thin stream of smoke comes from the hidden inner courtyard. The magic tent is closed.

Someone is giving a speech in the circus tent.

"...might say that obviously you're the same person, since you have the same soul. I disagree. There exists magic that can change a person's alignment, edit their memories, write them a whole new personality. Are they the same person afterward? They don't behave the same way. They themselves might not even think they're the same person, if that question could be posed to them.

Consider outsiders made of multiple souls, or fragments of souls. Are they not people? They have thoughts, feelings, goals, well, most of them. Do they have continuity of consciousness with their - raw materials? I don't know... But we were just talking about how mortals don't have continuity of consciousness within a single life!

Arguing from the other direction, when a single soul becomes an outsider, clearly this is sometimes capable of preserving the person. Those of us who hope for a better afterlife are clearly imagining that it will be us experiencing that afterlife! Yet the soul is significantly transformed in the process, filled with the essence of its plane.

By arguing that souls are not the same as people, and that we are constantly creating a new person to take our place, I hope to render the Question of the Autophage irrelevant. As Marra did planned, she did, as we all do, all the time. We say that vanity is liking yourself, and that may be accurate as applied to the emotion, but what is it that we like, if we ourselves are constantly changing? If I may speculate on the feelings of a god, always a foolish proposition, what is Marra's vanity? Does She feel vain about each momentary version of Herself? Is She vain about Her overall pattern of change? Does She have a false sense of Herself, as we mortals do, which She treasures?"

The two of them enter the circus tent, since it's the only thing that seems to be open. The guards don't stop them as they enter. She might as well listen in on the speech.

Her position on the problem of continuity of consciousness is that it doesn't matter, really. Whether one's shape is similar from one moment to the next is unimportant, so long as there is a consciousness. She's not interested in litigating whether, say, she's still 'the same person' as she was yesterday before she slept compared to today. Although people do vary on this axis: many people care about their souls still being in a roughly similar shape when they reach the Silver Garden. Damian and Conrad do seem to care about it, though, and they maintain a one-to-one ratio of mortal soul to outsider when creating half-fiends.

They don't sit, but stand at the edge of the tent, near the exits. 

It's very important that his soul occupies a single outsider body and that his soul is not mixed with others!! He would like to retain as much of himself – the strong parts of himself – when he dies, shedding only the parts of him which are weak. He would like to have continuity with his old self, thank you very much. Being able to survive and overcome is like, the other half of Conrad's thing. That's why he was ordained.

"Or perhaps She does not have vanity Herself, but only desires it of Her mortals and marrenai.

That's all I have to say."

"Okay! Ponder that if you will.

Anara, Tos, Alieta, Lekie, Barid, Jefarri: come to me now to talk about scheduling.

Morgan: come to me sometime today. I have a new experiment for our rations!

Dismissed!"

About a third of the people stay and talk among themselves. Many stream out, mostly by the gaps in the internal walls, but a small group leaves through the main entrance and heads toward the magic tent.

Ellin notices Elias and Felicia and splits off to approach them. "You're here, excellent. Did you get our message? There are two job prospects. The first is for a casting or scroll of Riversight. Are you able to cast that spell, Felicia? The second is a guard job tomorrow night. I don't know if the customer is looking for additional guards beyond those already engaged, but he seems willing to pay well, so if you're interested, we might as well ask. He should be here within an hour."

"Good morning." She bows slightly. Elias follows.

"Yes, we did." Riversight? What an obscure spell. She has only cast it once, during training, after she first received third-circle spells.

"I can cast Riversight, yes. Is the person asking for it the same one as the one giving the guard job? I'm tentatively interested, but would like to talk to him first before we accept."

"Yes, it's the same customer.

Ah, here he is!" She greets the man and explains.

"The main job is to guard us as we carry some goods from Bellis to an unknown location somewhere to the south along the Sellen river, where a ship will be waiting for us. The Riversight is for finding the ship."

"What are the goods?"

    "None of your business, as far as I know."

"Is your operation legal?"

    He smirks. "No."

"Then be advised that our guards will primarily be there to protect you and your collaborators. We will protect the cargo as well as we can without breaking the law, but we will not directly assist your illegal operation. We will not interfere with the Bellis city watch. If you attack someone unprovoked, you forfeit our protection from actions they take against you."

    "That's acceptable."

"Please describe the dangers the guards will face."

    "People unhappy with the operation might try to stop us or destroy the cargo. I do not expect them to want to attract attention by starting a fight. I do not believe I am likely to have been misled about that."

"Any other dangers?"

    "You might trip moving along the river at night. People you meet might be suspicious of you and take a more aggressive stance than they would during the day in a less unusual situation. You might get lost. You might -"

"What danger is the worst, in expected amount of damage, of dangers you have not mentioned? Consider that we would want our wizard resurrected immediately, we would want intact corpses of our other followers, and please value the loss of Marran bodies as if we intended to resurrect them."

    "...Someone might try to rob us. I think it's extremely unlikely that they would proceed with the attempt after discovering that we have a third-circle wizard with us."

"Would you be interested in hiring this cleric to cast your Riversight? Would you be interested in hiring either of the cleric or the antipaladin to guard you? For any of those contracts, we would charge a 1% fee for introducing them to you."

    "Hm, what are their prices?"

Ellin looks around and addresses Elias and Felicia. "The Zone of Truth customers are not all here yet. Do you have other questions for this gentleman?"

The two of them bow upon meeting the man. The two of them listen to Ellin and the man talk.

Would this quest lead them to what they're supposed to do here? Is this what they're supposed to do here? She's honestly getting a little annoyed Damian hasn't sent her another clarifying vision yet. The best she can do is to try and expose herself to as many opportunities as possible, and hope that the reason Damian hasn't sent her a vision is because she's been on the right path.

"Please give us a few moments to discuss." She takes a few steps back and whispers to Elias in Abyssal.

Prices? The church pays her 15gp a week. What price would be fair? She has no idea. It's not like she's an adventurer. She knows that wizards and Abadaran clerics use the same formula for prices of single castings of spells. She could tally up all the prices of the spells she would have been able to sell today (i.e. all of her spell slots), and then charge for those. But that's not all her value: she can channel negative energy selectively, she has domain abilities, and she has weapons training. 

She's just going to make up a number. But first, she has to sound appealing, so she can charge a higher price.

"I will be able to cast both Riversight and guard the boat and cargo for you. I have low-light vision from my elven heritage: I'll be able to navigate on a moonlit night just as if it were day. It also works through Riversight. Even if the boat were concealed, I believe I'd still be able to find it. I think it would be a good idea for you to take me and my coworker on. I am a third-circle cleric, he is a first-circle antipaladin.

And he has darkvision, so navigating at night will be even easier for him.

We are no strangers to combat. You can see for yourself, with our enchanted arms and armor."

"Buying the two of us for a twenty-four hour period would cost 3000gp in total. However, we prefer to work together, so we would only accept if you decide to hire the both of us. To help you make your decision, we will discount it by a tenth to 2700gp. This price is inclusive of the casting of Riversight."

He normally doesn't bother to pop open his visor to let them see his face. You give off a more formidable appearance that way. He has to give evidence to his claim to darkvision, though. He opens it to show his face and his bronze-colored eyes. Hopefully he'll know what aasimars look like.

The man scowls. "The Marran wizard was only 1700gp. I'll take the cleric for 2000, which includes the Riversight if you're going to cast it directly and won't be able to use that slot for something else, and I'll take the antipaladin for 500, almost twice the price of the Marran fighter."