"...Morris does have some additional help to fetch from Kenabres, first, speaking of Sarenrans.  Regardless of whether that blemish upon the Inheritor's grace Hulrun will cooperate with a plan to take Drezen that's not sponsored by someone who would condone and apply his nigh-Kuthonite zeal for torturing what he calls heretics and I call 'people who are desperate to avoid being tortured and thusly decide they'll be hung for the sheep as well, because why not, there's no upside otherwise', there are a few allies Lastwall can count upon who live there - and while to my understanding Terendelev herself does not usually range far, to better protect her city, her hoard...If the target is critical enough, and the plan solid enough - her loyalty is to Iomedae, not Nerosyan.

"-- That's where Mendev holds court, madam Herald; my apologies for the implicit unclarity.  Regardless, the Watch-Commander is the one who will determine that, primarily, not I nor he.  I believe we're due a conference call soon, actually, between the border's commanders.  If you feel it worthwhile to attend, instead of merely await results, I've a mirror for it."

And she will get to see how this woman politics, if she does - or if she doesn't, even.

How lovely, a conference of Lawful commanders, and they won't invite him because he doesn't have an army. He needs to convince them he's as useful as an army - audacity, always audacity! 

He inhales a bit of the lingering cloud of, supposedly, Tongues. Clears his throat. "Kar thuvim movat, viret omni surr ka. That's tongues all right, I never was any good with Draconic." A little bow towards Genevieve. "Breathable spells are a delightful idea and I can't wait to see them used in action - can you make someone inhale a fireball?"

"...But I get ahead of myself. If we're being formal, I'm the senior cleric of Gorum in the Worldwound" - ever since Gorum helped him kill the last one - "and so represent the ancestral faith of Sarkoris. I've worked with all the armies of the Worldwound" - including the demons, who were rather more welcoming than Lastwall - "and talked to freedom-loving people from all nations. Retaking Drezen would be splendid news for armies and governments, no doubt, but I already look to the world after that, when Deskari's horde could join us in the cause of building something better."

"To complete the round of introductions, this is Brizzz, who can't speak for himself. Unfortunately so, because he styles himself an ambassador and diplomat." And how he would love to see him invited to their precious conference, Lawful diplomatic immunity and all. "He works for Deskari and probably knows what they were trying to summon, since I suspect it wasn't a better swarm-mistress."

"And our guest of honor - Herald Weaver, would you like to introduce yourself?"

Mira's voice lashes out like a knife as she cuts in before Weaver has a chance to say anything.  "...Gord, if you are styling yourself the representative of free Sarkoris -

"Absolutely fucking not.  We actually know who that is, and that person is not you.  For that matter, the time is not now.  We have not won, to discuss what to do with our victory.

"You are a member of the Herald's party right now, no more and no less.  And if you believe pretty words are going to change that - you are wrong.

"What will change you, and change how you are perceived, is your actions.  So - and I realize that this might be a radical thing to ask of you, given your whole shtick - pick your course, pick your cause, and stick with it.

"You could be doing quite a lot of good in Cheliax.  You could be fighting Nidal.  What the hells are you still doing here?"

...Yes, she really wants nothing to do with that.  She'll...busy herself going over the equipment.  Let them fight it out, intervene if it gets messy.  (Which it will, she's pretty sure.)

"I never claimed to represent Sarkoris. Sarkoris had no leader, for we were a free and diverse people, and now we are not a people at all."

"What I do represent is a cause which is dear to many people, whether from Sarkoris or elsewhere. The will to freedom, the denial of oppression, and the striving for power to see it done. And it is the people who should be your concern, not Gorum, though he serves to unite many of us, and gives me wisdom to understand them."

"I have spent my life in service of that Way. I have not always picked the best course, or the surest. But if you think I ever abandoned my cause, you don't understand me, or it, so do not place yourself in judgement, Lastwaller."

"Why am I not in Cheliax, you ask? There is no need, for Cheliax has come to my home instead."

"I've done more to fight them than you ever did. I rescued slave-soldiers from the Hellknights, who cut them down when they are wounded and of no use. Your ally Mendev, ruled by your paladin, enslaved their own poor to send the Hellknights fresh fodder! Lastwall sent paladins to help Kenabres, but they didn't help the poor folk who fled the city and were conscripted for the crime of being unable to feed themselves!"

"You too could be fighting Cheliax, Iomedaean. So what the hells are you doing here, signing a treaty with them instead? Is the anarchy of the Abyss a bigger threat than Hell's war-machine? Is selfish slaughter a greater evil than torture, perfected and eternal? Or is it just that you prefer the Lawful evil to the Chaotic?"

"The point of the treaty with Cheliax, Gord, is to bind their fate to whether Golarion continues being habitable.

"Because, you see, otherwise Cheliax would not care.  Asmodeus would protect his investment, probably, for whatever reasons he made his bargain with the Twice-Damned House in the first place - but the northern forts, unmanned, would have demons swarming the polar ice from here to Tian Xia!

"And then we would all die and far more Good would be lost.

"And as regards 'slave-soldiers' and conscription -

"I ask you this - does Lastwall have an infinity of swords?

"Do you think we would remotely condone any of the forces we must work alongside here, whether they be the pit of vipers that is Mendev's nobility or the closet Kuthonites that infest its Inquisition, whether they be Baba fucking Yaga or Asmodeus' priesthood - if we had any choice which would not immediately result in all Golarion tearing itself apart into bite-sized chunks for the demonic invasion to digest?

"Most Hellknight orders are Evil, Gord, the sort Lastwall is sworn against, not just selfish but cruel - but Lastwall is one nation.  And while we do what we can to stanch the bleeding, for all the suppurating wounds across Golarion's body - did you know that conscripts must be paid no less than any other soldier, their deaths in the line of duty compensated twice over for the twice-taken life, by terms of the treaty Lastwall insisted upon? - there's still poisoned knives stabbed through its gut that need to be treated first, if we want the patient to survive long enough for blood loss to matter.

"So why am I not fighting Cheliax?  Your question is still based on a false premise.  I am immediately and presently undermining its long-term goals of damning souls as best I can, by holding the line upon which I stand.  You just don't think of it that way, because it's not a flashy battle, not resolved in a clashing of swords - but battle isn't war.

"War, you see, is a matter of strategy and logistics.  And ensuring that Chelish forces have somewhere to defect to, once they've seen through its propaganda, and that they're able enough, and exposed to good people and philosophy and sheer truth enough, that they think it's worth trying - that's what we're accomplishing, here.

"I think a good quarter of our mages, the ones still fighting here, defected from Egorian in the moments between learning they could teleport and Cheliax forcing them into soul-contracts.  Because Lastwall gave them better options.

"And all that we accomplish, in addition to the rather important objective," she hisses, "of making sure most of Golarion does not get eaten alive by demons!"

"So what are you doing, Gord, to make free people better off for it?  Serving as a mercenary to the people who'd eat them alive?"

"It's possible to escape the Chelish forts without a teleport, if you have help. You don't know how many make it every year. They don't go to the other armies for help - they're not looking for a new, kinder master."

"They turn to anyone who'll help them run - to cultists, to smugglers, and to me. I help them by setting them free, and if some demons eat a Hellknight slaver in the process, I only regret that he is sent to Hell!"

"So yes, I work with demons and cultists when I have no better allies! They've helped me free people! People who will live to see another day, and choose how they will meet it! Why are you less helpful than the demons?"

Deep breath. "Of course you feel you had no better choice." They always say that. "But here comes a new choice - dropped into your lap by people who don't care to eat you, because you taste nasty, as you'd know if you ever bothered talking to them" - what he's heard about strongly Lawful Good flesh doesn't bear repeating - "and all you can think of is how to better fight your old war!"

"What does it really matter if you take Drezen? Fewer soldiers will die, fewer will be needed to hold the line every year, that is all very well. Will you take over the northern border and tell Cheliax to go home, and use those extra soldiers to fight them?"

"They bought nonaggression at the low price of a training ground for their wizards - a devil's bargain if ever I heard one! As long as they're here, this line you're holding isn't undermining them, it's helping them damn all the captive souls they have back home!"

"The demons are not as big a threat as Cheliax and Nidal, everyone here is just too weak to stop them. Mendev can barely defend themselves and you're holding Ustalav's border. Cheliax only needs a fraction of their army to hold the north, with supplies brought in by teleport, and so could any other actually strong country, if any of them bothered to help! What do you think Geb can do to the demons, or Osirion, if they ever decide to dirty their hands? What could Morgethai do, all by herself, if she didn't have to stay at home to deter Cheliax?"

"Half the demons in the Worldwound are here on vacation from the Abyss, because the crusaders are less of a threat than their neighbors back home! They're not an army, just a horde of refugees too violent for their own good! Once you become an actual threat, they might just go back to the Abyss!"

"But even if the demons were a real threat to Golarion, I wouldn't care, because eating people isn't worse than killing them, slavery and damning them to Hell is!!"

"So take Drezen. Take Iz and put the wardstones all around the rift, and then sit there with the treaty binding your hands and hope Cheliax will decide to leave and free you from your nonaggression pact. But don't tell me not to think about the future, because once you're done, the real work can finally begin."

A glance at Weaver. "I was carried away. We are talking as if your force is ours to command. That was rude of me, and I apologize. So I ask again, Herald, would you care to tell us of yourself, and your aims and desires on Golarion?" 

He doesn't want to back down but if the conversation just... moves elsewhere... he'll accept it. This argument is going nowhere, everyone else is either convinced or Lawful already.

"Osirion is already funding Lastwall's part of the line.  They don't have a military to speak of!  Their power is already being thrown!  And you'd endorse fucking Geb doing eternal slavery and torture not only in but beyond the afterlives because you don't like that Cheliax does it in them?  Maybe, maybe you'd get Nex to move, and counter the brand new demon zombie apocalypse, but one Mana Wastes is already two too many!  Have you learned no lesson whatsoever from who Geb the necromancer himself placed on his territory's throne, bound there against her will and cursed so deeply all she feels is Despair?!  You try to undermine Lastwall and are that blind to the things it and its predecessors did instead of the things you made up!?"

"As for the question of how much of a chilling effect Cheliax is exerting upon the ultimate cause of winning, as an agent of Lastwall I cannot confirm or deny that someone presently outside our command is rather considering what can be done to make that stop being a concern, to say nothing of the possibilities of Galt, but do you think Iomedae is stupid?  The goal, the one thing Good most wants as a means to its end goal of promoting sapient flourishing, is the liberation of Hell and the other Evil afterlives!  That is our cause!  We are not going to trade against that!"

She sighs, and the fervent energy that animated her roils down to a low simmer.  "Regardless, that is getting rather arcane, and touches on matters beyond my clearance to discuss.  Madam Herald, we should indeed heed what your preferences are."

...She's just going to stare at them for a minute.

"I just got here.  Why are you expecting me to know enough about your geopolitics to be able to have coherent opinions about them.  We are going to go to Drezen.  We are going to see if it's as horrible as I've been led to believe.  And then we are going to stop that."

"Eminently sensible."

It's a bit sad to hear the cosmic fight against Evil labelled geopolitics, as if morality is tied to nations and can be ignored by the powerful. This conversation can't be rescued, but she hopes the matter will come up again, sooner rather than later.

She hasn't missed the fact that the Herald did not say anything about herself. They don't even know her patron's name or their domains of interest! She won't push - in public - but they do need to know who they're working with, preferably before they help her amass a great demon-army. The demons are hostile, but at least they aren't organized.

She's glad to see that Gord and Mira are so passionate. The world absolutely needs people who approach Good from different angles. People from Lastwall sometimes fall into the trap of thinking all non-Lawful Good is somehow lesser, that it needs their leadership and organization to be maximally effective. A lot of Good works better outside of Law, though, besides the fact that it's not good for most people to be too Lawful, even if she thinks Gord is wrong about most of the details.

Mira seemed genuinely upset by Gord's words, though. She should talk to her later, check if that was partly an act or if she really has such a short trigger. A crucial part of Good is helping people work together harmoniously without, actually, making them agree with each other.

"Very well. Would you like to gather more insect-demons first, or to inspect Drezen itself?"

"While that is a good question to ask, Gord, I wish to posit that you are not the right person to ask it at the moment.  Regardless - Morris, I believe you are most likely to know whether there are any good targets of opportunity to sweep through on our way?"

"Probably not unless you spend a while doing it, in terms of miles and hours, and what's worse is that if I'm reading the stars right, we've no uncomplicated path through to Drezen; there's zombies down one greenhorn-traversable path and your project on the other.  Or the Kenabres wardline, which is right out.  And I think taking her through your project would probably mess something up, though I'm not read in on all the details of that beyond, well, you know."

Mira purses her lips.  Nods.  She does know the details of their tentative agreement with Jerribeth, as couriered by Ophelia, and taking a mind controller through Wintersun would...not be properly Lawful - maybe not even Good.

"Looks like it's zombies, then, unless you would like to make a wide loop around somewhere it would have a lot of people getting pissed off if you continued to sustain your radius of control.  Though, given we've time if we're striking with the dawn, perhaps it would be a reasonable idea - we'd more likely find a vescavor queen, if I've ever understood the maps his lot put together."

"...And do we expect to have trouble with these zombies."

"Wouldn't reckon so; Genevieve can just start throwing healing potions.  The problem will probably be cultists."

"Some of them have spell - and channeling - resistance on occasion, but Morris is correct that most undead just come apart when they're healed.  Positive energy vs. negative; they just - annihilate."

"Am I right in assuming we're riding there, to scout and gather more controllable demons on the way, instead of simply teleporting? And probably avoiding any demons that Weaver cannot control."

Control is a euphemism for dominate or, as Gord would probably call it, enslave. She doesn't want to ignore that they're fighting evil with evil, but since they are going to do that, euphemisms can frankly help. She wonders how Weaver thinks of what she does, or if she simply doesn't care.

"Most controllable demons will be accompanied by uncontrollable ones, or by cultists. What is our policy on engaging them? Will Weaver just make the demons she can control fly away to join us, and ignore anyone else?" Or will you want to kill any witnesses. "Especially if some of them might escape to alert others."

How strong a force are we aiming to assemble before we reach Drezen? Do we expect to carry the day using the demons already inside the city? Or will we approach to scout it first, even if we cannot assault it right away? 

She doesn't ask any of those reasonable questions, because Ophelia just slapped down Gord for doing the same. Tempers are high; she will approach Ophelia and Mira privately later. And she doesn't really have anything to contribute on strategy, she's just curious.

"...."

"I need to go think about that."