“About as well as can be expected, with the city as it is. You’ll be bringing some people I’ll be sorry to see go, but with the count going with you to do something useful I’m still inclined to see it as a positive. I trust your last few days have been similarly productive?”

"I've been catching up on local everything - and seem to have caught a bit of sorcery, which is very exciting for me. I'm of course still blindingly new at this, have you got any advice for me?"

“I’m no sorcerer, but I can recommend you try to learn See Invisibility if you can manage it. It’s incredibly valuable and you can’t even substitute for it without a the help of a good illusionist. As for the army, don’t trust anyone you haven’t recently verified too much.”

"Because of deficiencies of their own loyalty or because they could be magically suborned?"

“Both. You can somewhat substitute the former with alignment but most people aren’t that strong even in an army.”

He doesn’t look at Nurah while he’s saying this but it’s pretty obvious he’s thinking it.

"And I don't seem to have a spell to check it anyway. Is there anything to be done besides just not trusting people?"

“Regular zones of truth will get the incompetent and unlucky ones, irregular checks with enchantment sight and magic circles will make it riskier for succubi, and telling Tirabade to accept inquisitorial assistance would help with the rest. That won’t fully solve it - if rooting out demon cultists were an easy task we’d have solved it long ago - but it’d be hard to manage more without lots of gold or a permanent base.”

She nods seriously and writes all these down. "I'll have to see what Irabeth's stance on the matter might be, I'm going to lean on her pretty hard going forward."

Hulrun nods seriously.

"Speaking of gold for security, would you be more willing to support the crusade if the funds were earmarked for counterintelligence? We have paladins who could ensure the funds actually go there, if that's your concern."

Hulrun shakes his head.

"No. While that would indeed be a noble goal, the inquisition's funds are still spoken for."

"Who funds the inquisition, could we apply to them if they count this kind of thing among their interests?"

"We get funding from Nerosyan, the church of Abadar's contribution to the worldwound defense," he nods towards Rathimus, "and proceeds from the sale of of seized cultist property."

"And what have I missed from you on the topic?" Ky asks Rathimus.

"The Church of Abadar's chief priorities in this matter are that the world not be conquered by demons and that the worldwound treaty be upheld, with the latter result stemming from the former. To that end, we help fund the varying powers holding the wound, arbitrate disputes over treaty violations, and offer more favorable rates on loans corresponding to how much our actuaries estimate the money improves the security of Golarion and thereby reduces risk on our other investments. Unfortunately, as I was just explaining to your delegate here the Mendevian crusades are not traditionally seen as a very safe or effective investment; there's significant limits to the lines of credit you have available and absent additional information or a more reliable guaranteer I'd be pressed to give you a loan under 20%. More, for larger sums."

"Unfortunate. I think back home the advice I'd give to someone with this problem would be to take out small loans and pay them back in a timely fashion, so I'll probably do that when I have specific expenses I expect to pay for themselves. Are there other tidbits I ought to know here?"

"The church does offer a number of additional services from resurrection insurance to money changing, but probably the most relevant one to the crusade is that we act as a trustworthy vehicle for donations. If you would like, I could set up an account for the crusade that you could withdraw or add to at any sufficiently large temple of Abadar, but absent that we would set up a regular specie delivery, possibly via contracting whoever ends up doing your supplies."

"I don't know that the crusade will spend a lot of time visiting sufficiently large temples of Abadar, since I assume you have none established within the current circumference of the wardstones."

"None as of yet, though perhaps if your crusade is successful enough that will change. As things stand, I expect the bank here in Kenabres to remain the closest barring unforeseen circumstances or the city being abandoned."

"Okay. I'll keep an eye out for places we could use smallish loans to establish creditability. I appreciate your openmindedness about that."

He nods seriously.

"I expect we will see somewhat more in the near future as news of the fifth crusade spreads, but I'll deliver what I have so far to your quartermaster before you set out."

One of the nobles attending - one Baron Gradsky, from the paper Nurah taps underneath the table - wants to sound her out on her policies for officer commissions, since Dendiwhar had been dancing around the question earlier. He has a few cousins, all of them talented and trustworthy of course, who he thinks would be a great asset to the crusade if they had a chance to prove their leadership skills. And of course if he was more confident in the crusade's success, he'd be happy to increase his financial support and perhaps speak on its behalf in Nerosyan.

"I'd be happy to hear more about your cousins! How did they come to earn your confidence?"

Oh good, someone who understands how things are done.

"Well, naturally they're better than most simply by birth, but they're both exceptional candidates besides. Alex is a talented cavalier. My uncle has been having him riding the circuit for a few years now, so he knows what he's doing in a fight and how to lead men against all sorts of nasty creatures, and of course he'd also be bringing some of his mounted men at arms with him to stiffen up a charge. Ever since he's taken up the position I've heard scarcely a complaint from any of the peasantry in the region escalate to my ears, and only once have I needed to reinforce him with my household troops. Victor is a swordsman and a skilled duelist, though of course he's also got personal experience fighting demons in a stint at the wardstone forts. I fostered him myself, and he can keep up with the head of my guards without issue; even nearly a match for me, these days."

"They sound lovely! And what's the standard of commission to which they'll be accustomed, I'm afraid I'm drastically foreign."