There's one of those telltale terrain-discontinuities. It's all grassland ahead, with a few clusters of trees, or individual trees.

Usually at this point Ruel would ask Kiraavi for his impression of the place; he often picks up on different details than his mortal priesthood. That seems rude, today, though; he's presumably stretched much too thin for that kind of thing.

Ruel continues up the road, keeping an eye out for settlements or likely-looking locals to talk to.

The road is just as well-maintained on this side as on Kiraavi's. There's a little outpost town by a spring some half a mile from the edge.

He heads that way. It's probably not big enough for a temple - though there's always a chance - but he'd rather know the basics of whose domain he's in sooner rather than later.

Is there anyone around to talk to?

Yup. Farmers, working to bring in and dry out a bunch of hay in a kind of assembly-line process and singing some kind of hymn about assembly-line processes.

That's pretty neat. He spends a moment sussing out the various tasks and then steps up to join one of the groups where he's pretty sure he can help without interfering. "Want a hand?"

"You know what you're doing?" asks somebody with a scythe.

"Well enough, I think. I haven't seen this method used before, it's interesting."

"You can relieve Jinda." Point.

He'll do that, then, and join in on the chorus of the hymn.

Eventually they have all the hay in and baled; persons who have been relieved in the work cycle spent the intervening time fixing a lunch for everybody and Ruel can get some since he helped.

It's much appreciated.

"That assembly line technique works pretty well! Was it your idea, or...?"

"It was the priest's."

He nods. "Did they say what it has to do with your god's interests? I'm on a bit of a diplomatic mission, but I don't know anything about them yet."

"Oh, She's a god of efficiency," someone else pipes up. "She likes it when things get done just as well in less time, or nearly as well with much less work, or in advance so you're not playing catchup later, stuff like that."

"That sounds like a nice thing to have a god of. And useful for our current situation, too, if she wants to help - do you know how she feels about other gods, at all?"

"Well, that depends, doesn't it, on what they're like."

"That's fair enough. My god does roads and travel; he's busy with a refugee crisis right now and could use the help figuring out where to send everyone. I think there's some overlap in interests even without that, though - you definitely have to think about efficiency when everything you have needs to fit in a pack you can carry."

"Oh, yeah, I think She'd like that kind - she thinks a lot about moving people to where they're most useful."

"Sounds like I'm in the right place, then. Do you know where the nearest temple is, from here?"

"Yup, it's that way straight down this road, there's a market hub."

"Sounds good, thank you. Any tips on what she likes for offerings?"

"She likes leftovers, offcuts. You could take a handful of hay that wasn't enough to make a bale along, if you like."

"Huh! I think I'll take you up on that, that's one kind of thing I don't carry."

"Yeah, I think it's something about, like, you bale the hay, and that's because you want it in bales, and bringing her what wouldn't make another whole bale is about how you're being efficient and not fretting about the little spare bits."