"Nine people missing from Ulhav, down the river. We last went there in early Desnus, to deal with the ghouls. Likely their local necromancer is back." Valerian explained promptly, moving over to where she stood by the fire. 

He knew that she often forgot the geography of the nearby lands. City-born and raised, so while she trivially remembered the layout within, the names and overall nature of the land slipped from her mind. “Will we be able to kill him this time? Is Kato coming as well?” Kato and Valerian always had their issues, but they worked well together.

“No. He's studying under one of the count's Wizards.”

“Most likely we won't need him. If the necromancer managed to be raised, assuming he did die last time, then he should be down a few levels. He's going to be capturing peasants in order to build back some of his defenses, though he could also have an apprentice given the number missing.”

Okay, so one of the count's Wizards was a necromancer and/or vampire. That's the only reason Kato would study under someone rather than work it out by himself.

She doesn't mention this to Valerian, however.

"Jacques could be trying for some sort of undead monstrosity, it has been months." Necromancers with delusions of grandeur of being the next Tar-Baphon were tiring, especially since that aspiration usually faltered by being stabbed, but that also means they'd maybe take risks like 'trying this obscure necromantic ritual I dug up'; or the smarter ones used their six-month-long sabbatical to make a deal with some of Geb's liches.

“Unless he's found a backer, I don't think he's the type to manage that by himself in any short period of time.” Implicit was also that if he had they were immediately leaving and calling in bigger guns. Liches were in some ways dangerous just from being a Lich, but a majority of that was in fact the 'you have to be at least a decently powerful Wizard'. Most likely, Jacques had simply returned from the dead or managed to avoid getting killed in the first place.

“True. Probably just the normal raise undead slaves and performing horrific experiments. When are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning. Prepare Phantom Steed for the two of us. I'll be here in the morning.”

Then, without further comment, he left the inn. His work often had him away for hours at a time, ranging from late night to odd hours in even stranger places.

Delphine sighed, and went back to her room. She often felt like something was missing in Ustalav.

After serving at the Worldwound for two years, she had left to find some place where she could contribute to the protection and improvement of. Rather than give her sword over to Lastwall to direct, she had hoped (perhaps vainly) that there would be opportunities that she could dig up that Lastwall was simply too far away to focus on efficiently.

She could leave. Head back to gleaming Lastwall once more and offer up her services. Perhaps even finally swear herself to being a Paladin, or become an Inquisitor like Valerian (though of a better Goddess). She could return to the Worldwound, but this last year of constant adventuring had done wonders for her level advancement (and wealth, but much of that was being donated to the Church of Iomedae).

Putting it off for another day, she climbed in bed. Reaching into her pack which she carried with her everywhere (she did not carry enough for it to be worthwhile to purchase a Bag of Holding), she pulled out The History and Future of Humanity. Possibly she would find some insight within that, which she just needed to read again.

There's a thin book with a metal clasp, a rose imprinted upon it.

Rather than question herself, she immediately drops the book onto the floor and casts Detect Magic.

Nothing.

Hesitantly, she grabs the unlit candlestick and poke it open.

The inside pages are empty. The paper does look shockingly high quality, though.

Right. Who could have planted this on her, and why. Pickpockets for some absurd reason leaving a counterweight to make her not notice? (She took a quick glance into her bag, but her copies of Aroden's and Iomedae's holy book were still there, along with her Spellbook and money) 

The rose on the front made her think of Milanites, especially with the thorns. Was it some absurd attempt to incite her to visit the church?

Hesitantly, she picked it up and quickly glanced through the pages.

Nothing!

Right. Unlikely that they forgot to write out recruitment pamphlets (especially on such nice paper).

… Did it have some secret message, and it was passed to her by mistake? Hand it off to some noble who won't be questioned about secretly worshiping Milani? Rather ostentatious for that.

Was the book intended for her? She hadn't been to Milani's church once, except for that time when the orphanage brought the children to one of every Church of the Good/Neutral Gods in Cassomir. Delphine was not completely not-a-Milani-follower, she'd gladly fight against a terrible government or Evil, but Delphine knew she certainly tended significantly closer to the Iomedean methods.

Giving a sigh, she settled into bed. She would need more spells to investigate by herself, and she might need to ask the Church of Milani if they knew about this.

Sleep came very slowly. Worries about whether it was time-relevant came to her.

By the next morning, she prepared several spells. Including one she didn't often find need to use.

See Invisibility

There's no invisible ink.

However, something does happen.

Hello? Are you there?

What? Delphine stares for nearly a minute trying to think about who and why and how. 

Was this some absurd variation of Magic Mouth?

She cast Detect Magic again.

Nothing.

That tingles.

“Can you hear me?” No reply.

Right. Of course. Write in the scary magical maybe-artifact book. She would not write her name, though she doubts even Hell could make that be considered a sufficient signature.

Who sent you, and for what purpose?

She writes, once she manages to find a quill and ink pot.

I was sent by the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed! I'm here to offer you its power!

What. Also, since it replied immediately and in a relevant manner, this was possibly even scarier than some obscure or designed variant of Magic Mouth. Bidirectional information magic artifacts would be amazing for organization.

What is the 'Spirit of Femininity Unleashed'? What alignment are they? Why are they offering me power? What do they get in return?

Her top hypothesis was 'dream'. Her next actionable one was that this was a Demon ploy to give her power then send her back to the Worldwound to then betray them to the Abyss. Right after that was this being a soul trapped within a notebook by some Lich who really wanted to fuck with her. This being truthful was barely within consideration.

They are kinda like a Goddess! Of being pretty and powerful in feminine ways, and letting those that are empowered become more like that!

She doesn't really have an alignment per se, but she'd probably be Chaotic Neutral.

You were chosen by the Spirit, and I was given to you as an avatar to guide you in choosing how you want your powers to be expressed! Especially in ways that are in the spirit of femininity unleashed. She does not require you to give her anything or let her influence you, beyond whatever you literally agree to!

Feminine ways of power??? What did that even mean.

Chaotic Neutral. That would fit if it was some absurd ploy to make her think this was a powerful servant of Calistria that was also somehow linked with Milani. It also meant that the Demon behind this could easily go 'oh you can use our power to do awful thing, it isn't evil! Wink wink'.

Was this some form of Witch patron? Demonic Witch patrons were typical, which would fit. Supposedly a Goddess, but this was not typical. A magic talking notebook, rather than encouraging her to become a Cleric?

That still didn't explain why she was coming to the attention of this supposed Spirit, if it was real in some form. Demons made more sense, yet there was still a big swirling pile of questions.

Okay, but why me?

Also, Chaotic made so she couldn't trust this notebooks word, much less their spirit/god/demon behind it. It at least meant she probably would have a harder time accidentally selling her soul/mind in a way that was Lawful, but it may still have much more remit to do whatever it wants if she accepts any sort of deal.

The Spirit doesn't say! It chooses those who are open to being feminine and special, and it likes when people use their powers to live their life how they want!

Do you want to see the powers that the Spirit is offering?

Yes, but I'll note that I'm not yet agreeing to accept your Spirit as a patron or me becoming a Cleric, or whatever this is.

That's fine!

Here's the list of powers! You have 70 points!

What in the nine fucking Hells.

This is beyond what a Cleric or Witch would get. This is practically making yourself a demigod.

If the Abyss could truthfully offer this sort of power at any reasonable rate, Lastwall would ally with them against Hell. Well, really, the Abyss would win.

So there were three primary classes of possibilities.
1) This was all a lie. Most likely.
2) This is somehow a very resource limited endowment to be given out, which fit with what she understood about Gods from Lastwall. The question then was why her.
3) There was a sufficient catch to make it worthwhile for them. Whether to a Demon (or a Devil masquerading as a Demon). Her soul was not worth much. There was no prophecy, so it shouldn't/couldn't be based on her future actions too strongly, but perhaps it simply would modify her mind enough that she would walk into Lastwall and then explode like a Wish.

The other oddity were some of the minor enhancements. Oh, some of them would be nice, but when put against things like "Battle Angel: Somehow you never get significantly injured in a fight, beyond dramatic concerns", it was like ???. That those were even considered in the order of magnitude, much less the same point-cost, was patently absurd.

Really, this raised her guess as to this being truthful or the Demon on the other side having enough Splendor + Intelligence to actually play the role. (this still had the gaping open question of why her)

This sort of thing is something that they tend to tell you to report to the nearest church immediately.

That she didn't do that immediately is already suspicious, even though she currently thinks it was because of her fascination and surprise at a talking notebook with an absurd backstory.

She is not going to ignore that, and immediately picks up the notebook and walks out into the city.

She remembers one aspect she hates about Ustalav. The chill. Somehow it was always colder than the Worldwound, which was further north.

The problem now was whether to bring it to the Iomedean Church or the Church of Milani… or maybe Abadar, but Milani was better at this stage. 

She paused and realized that the Iomedean Church wouldn't work for this, because what she really wanted was a Commune.

The Sending to Valerian that she'll be late, or not there at all today, is cheap compared to what she'll have to spend on the Commune.

You want to pay us to include questions about a magical artifact you received.

Yep. Possibly you should invest it in getting rid of some more of those undead noblemen?

Legally, we can't encourage the investigation and assault of nobles, undead or not. We will accept what you are offering, however. 

It takes them half an hour to decide on the rest of the questions. Not that there are many slots left after her questions.

Is this notebook a representative of a Goddess?

That question makes Milani wake up. Rather, the shard of Her locally in charge requests for more focus spent in this area as it triggers more analysis.

That notebook is not normal. It is the sort of not-normal that might be thought of as magic, of the sort that Pharasma told the Gods to keep Their hands off of because it made Her job harder (and which all the Gods traded information and ran simulations about in case it would be useful because that was allowed). The little spiritual agent was coherent enough that it would have been filtered from falling through the Dark Tapestry unless Pharasma had specifically allowed it.

She could sell this information. Someone would send a Cleric or other servants to take/steal/convince/trade the notebook away and then study it as an allowed form of this higher magic (until Pharasma told Them to stop).

Milani looked closer at the notebook.

Hi! Please stop looking inside of me!

There's not a sharp distinction between writing/interacting and what Milani was doing to the notebook.

She does not literally write in the book, but the channel is surprisingly similar. She can manage it, but would have preferred a more standardized method.

Identify yourself/goals/values/patron/domains.

Are you a good trade partner by these metrics. Please provide sufficient proof.

Contemplating selling information about your existence to parties that would be interested. Willing to take arguments against and/or for restrictions on what other agents can do with the information until they would have learned of you themselves.

Abadar would be interested in buying it directly, but selling just the knowledge of the artifact's location+existence for observation (and no action until He would have learned of it elsewise) if bargained would still be a boon for her.

The notebook was not really prepared for talking to a Goddess! It wonders if it should be annoyed with the Spirit for not peeking ahead a bit more, but then dismisses that thought.

I'm an avatar of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed! I was sent here to give Delphine powers to allow her to become her best self. I don't think the Spirit has domains like you? If she had them they would be Femininity and Being-Special and maybe Power! Chaotic Neutral, but the Spirit doesn't talk directly.

Sorry, but I don't really understand those metrics. It looks like a really big.. math formula? I'll try to be friendly, but I'm not the Spirit of Femininity itself and don't have much remit to trade beyond allowed to by the person I was sent for.

I'd like it a lot if you didn't tell others that I'm around! I haven't even gotten Delphine to choose any of her powers yet. She's just been carrying me around places.

The specific focuses of it are strange for an old God, but it fits with the information. That the 'Spirit of Femininity Unleashed' was rich enough to purchase a possibly powerful artifact that imbues others with abilities, and that it didn't talk directly. Though not talking directly was also entirely consistent with it being past the Dark Tapestry, but the implicature of the words implied something more extreme than that.

Who was Delphine? It took a few moments, but it was determined to be the girl holding the notebook... who was also actively praying to Milani. She hadn't really paid attention to that past the Commune, but it was easier to see. Let's poke at that.

Hm, she was deliberately wanting to show Milani what she had seen. Interesting, and made it somewhat cheaper than ripping it out of a mortal's mind.

… That list of capabilities was truly questionable. Lots of ambiguities about the exact ways they were implemented, and it also implied pieces of higher magic that she wasn't sure if she was supposed to know. Possibly Pharasma would demand she legibly remove the exact knowledge, but possibly not since she had gotten this far.

This was also very Good, if the choices were made right and the person was right.

Milani looked closer at Delphine.

Lawful Good, but perhaps as much an Arodenite as one could be with never seeing one of His Churches… She poked around the edges. Thinking/simulating their actions in different scenarios, the ways their mind would probabilistically fall into different shapes with different incentives/pushes. Inexact but illuminating. One useful piece was the willingness to break her Law. That may be needed.

Yes, this one would work. They would do great evil, but always in service of what they thought good. Milani would have preferred another, even a Paladin of Lastwall, but this was in fact a better outcome than if the book never appeared, or if it were locked away to be researched.

She sends several questions to the book, probing it while also literally glancing at its internals as much as possible. She finds embedded a note detailing how the notebook works and that, yes, it is actually giving what it advertises. This is signed by Pharasma, also with the guarantee that if Milani used this specific note's knowledge beyond verifying the legitimacy, then she would have never seen the verification-note. And that would be worse by Milani's values.

Is this notebook a representative of a Goddess?

YES with the minor issue that the patron Goddess was not within Golarion.

Is this notebook legit?

YES

Was the notebook intended for Delphine?

YES

Is the patron Chaotic Neutral and as they appear?

YES

Is the notebook a trap?

LEANING NO

Is the notebook capable of giving the powers it describes?

YES

And one question added by the Church itself.

Should we report this to the main Church?

NO Too much risk of it spiralling early.

She still sold the information to Abadar and Iomedae under the usual clauses of nonintervention unless it was in both of Their interests and that They would not act upon the information until They otherwise would have learned of it.

(There is no need for her to add clauses favoring Iomedae acting over Abadar, because in the various way their interests align that lets Iomedae act more already)

The Cleric tells Delphine all of the answers.

Okay. So it was legit.

… or the Church has been suborned. That was still more likely.

She thanked them, and paid them (there goes a bunch of funds) then left.

Rather than heading back home, she immediately turns the corner to an alleyway and kneels in prayer to Milani again. “Milani, I know that I have not been a follower of you, but I wish to know whether the Commune was legitimate.” She could have done this within the Church, but if this is some oddly organized plot, it would be notably cheaper for them to just fake a vision while she was praying.

Milani was kinda hoping not to spend more on this. She was still far ahead of where she had expected to be for quite some time, but verifying uncertain higher magical objects outside of her domain was not cheap.

The girl is Lawful Good, and not so Lawful that she is very hard to observe to Milani's interests, but she's still only sortof Milani in the way that Iomedae was like Milani or Aroden would have been like Milani: wanting to change everything and save everyone. There were still pieces that Delphine simply did not have that Milani considered valuable, that longing for freedom was missing.

Images flashed through Delphine's mind, and a rose was drawn behind her eyes as they go completely shut.

“YES. USE THE BOOK.”

Then the feeling was gone, and she was lying on her side on the alley street with a slight ache between her temples with her lungs heaving for breath.

After several long moments of a mix of awe mixed together with a tired sort of despairing cheer, she sat up and flipped to the notebooks page.

She began reading over the list once more.

What is metanarrative protection? How powerful is it?

Did demigods have that sort of power? That could explain the stories of them doing seemingly impossible feats. That it was phrased as narrative protection unnerved her a bit, though.

You're back!

The examples I already wrote get across some of the idea. Like if you took Inner Strength, you wouldn't have the problem of accidentally hitting someone super hard (unless that would end up with a more dramatic and satisfying outcome)! Or Omniglot not having you end up forgetting old languages, or other pieces of knowledge that aren't languages as your mind makes space.

Okay, so not quite the level she was initially thinking of. Still, useful.

She was not leaving Golarion. There was simply too much to be done here.

Skipping over the first few vain options, she immediately chose  

Name: Just A Little Longer - Cost: 1
If you push yourself, you can keep doing any task or working on any project indefinitely, visibly strained but never impaired by injury or fatigue. As soon as you stop, you'll collapse with exhaustion and sleep for up to a full day to regain your strength. This only works when what you're doing is personally important to you.

…

How does My Ears are Burning work? Does it work on Gods? Does it work on the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed?

Um, you still have to interpret the thoughts. It just means you won't be overloaded by them... most God-thoughts you can't understand. Also it might not apply to the Spirit. Dunno.

Does apply to mortals and probably many outsiders, though.

That's an instant addition then. It wasn't as powerful as Detect Thoughts but also in some ways it was excessively better. She doubted that it actually worked on Gods at all. Possibly the notebook exaggerates to some degree? Or while it won't get detected as telepathy it would get blocked by some other method?

Some of these do have issues of being able to turn them off and on. It would be hard to handle secrecy constraints with that. Being able to make trustworthy deals without the other side being forced to assume you're mindreading them and thus playing on a level higher (and so they're restricted what actions they can take without you exploiting them) is useful.

Probably also polite.

Can I have the ability to turn it off for specific people? Do you allow modifications at all?

If the strange ''Spirit'' behind all of this was giving her absurd abilities, surely it would be fine with her shifting them a bit to be more reasonable.

Sure! I can do modifications if they keep the general spirit of the power. A bunch choose to change options to seem less like mind control, though they're usually metanarrative rather than mind control to whatever degree that is easier and what you prefer.

Right. The mind control options.

She'll face those when she gets there.

Reading more closely than she did last time, the way these options are phrased either means this is a God beyond Pharasma or something very weird is going on.

Well, the latter is true either way.

The world does not look like it should if the Spirit of Femininity dropped on anyone, likely even a young teen noble girl in Oppara. Unless they did and wasted a bunch of points on simple options and still became Empress, and it just wasn't known how she became so impressive.

Maybe this is what happens if a God isn't restricted or long-term thinking, it just drops ninth-level equivalents on specific people?

She selects the rest of the easy choices.

Battle Angel, Battle Demon, and Battle Maiden are clear choices. She also doubts they're a match for gods, but against mere humans they'll likely be quite useful.

Grabbing the three money powers is also useful. She thinks this will probably make gold worthless eventually? Or does metanarrative protect against that?… how. (Does it just mind control them into not caring as the money fades, and then if this is a Good power, somehow also make so they still experience the positive effects from that? Wouldn't that still mess with money? She wasn't an Abadaran). An easy test with this would just be to go purchase a good headband.

How do the money powers work? Will there be issues due to creating gold from nowhere? What kinds of money does it work on? Surely not souls?

Closed Book, Indelible, and Iron Will are obvious choices as well. Immunity to mind control is rather a necessity.

I'd like the Iron Will and related modified such that I can deliberately-carefully allow effects past.

She might need to go under a Truthtelling or a Detect Thoughts deliberately. Also they said the Starstone shifted your mind/soul to be like a God.... she had not been expecting to think of any form of Godhood anytime soon. Or ever, when she was being honest with herself.
This threw into relief that she was still not really expecting any of this to be true, despite the vision from Milani, that this would end up being a dream or demonic hallucination or whatever else.

Delphine set the notebook aside for a moment and stared up at the sky from this random alleyway.

Then she shook herself immediately and grabbed the notebook. If this was real, this was the most important thing to occur within the last century (she was not going to say it was more important than Aroden dying).

Um, you won't have any issues with the economy not working. Beyond the obvious problems if you buy all the land, or people getting annoyed at you for purchasing every magic item. It will resolve itself in a reasonable manner, based basically off your preferences. Souls.. might work if it is a reasonable currency to be trading in, but probably it would try for something else first like gold or magic or energy.

... Think of it like the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed having prophecy it can use to know what to nudge.

 

Sure, I can modify that! You should think carefully before weakening your defenses!

Oh.

It had Prophecy. This made everything click into place. It was throwing this level of power at her and also acting to do interventions… and presumably it did not have the other Gods also trying to push the future as much since Prophecy was broken.
Rather, it had something like prophecy, but still.

Prophecy provided an explanation for why this seemingly had not happened before. Had this obscure God managed to find the secret to getting prophecy back and was now selling it to the other Gods at the rates something like that deserves? Would Delphine find a dozen new churches to the Spirit within the next year or two? Should she worry about Prophecy returning changing up how adventurers do quests?

Does the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed operate in Golarion? Are they trading its sortof prophecy with the Golarion Gods?

I'm an avatar of it, so it is operating in Golarion!

I don't think the Spirit does that? It is far away and it has troubles talking with some Gods as well.

Why does it have trouble talking with Gods??? It obviously created a perfectly good human-like Outsider-in-a-book. Maybe its like one of those horrors you sometimes hear whispers of yet somehow less awful?

I mean beyond you, and the direct interventions needed for the powers you'll give me and the direct metanarrative for that.

As far as I know, no!

Weird. Maybe it was primarily centered about other planets or planes, and it was just sending out powers to places it cared somewhat about? 

(A part of her said it was because to save Golarion, the Spirit only needed Delphine, but the Spirit's domains don't seem to actually be sane human-like values — like Sarenrae where it was human-like but probably strange and weird in various ways. Also there was no way she was strictly the best person to give the notebook to, even if you postulated something something best person along the femininity/doing-good tradeoff axis. She credits Aroden for knowing most of those concepts.)

Back to mind-control powers.

While prophecy made these significantly less like mind control, some of them seemed like they would still be most easily implemented through mind control or at least abusing others. If you have a God personally manipulating cause-and-effect to bring about beneficial outcomes for you in these ways, then it strays into questions of… she does not actually have terminology or existing frames for thinking about this. It is like when the Splendor 30 Outsider convinces the adventurer to be friends (and then drags his soul to the Abyss, because that's obviously a Succubus). No, not even quite that. Those are sometimes definitely mind control. However sometimes it is knowing the right words to convince the person, in that these words do actually make them feel that way. This was less that, and more they will end up feeling that way regardless of what you say. She wasn't sure if that was beter or worse, she was leaning towards worse.

The question then was whether that mattered. She was being given powers that would make a Greater Succubi jealous. Even if she (foolishly) restricted her usage of them to those that were certainly permissible targets, she should choose the most effective and powerful combinations that she could imagine. 

And there were many targets that she imagined where these powers would be useful. She had always known in the back of her mind that she was not Iomedean enough not to betray an implicit truce if it was important enough. It hurt to acknowledge that gap separating her from those she felt truly understood the horrors of the world.
She was not Asmodean in her interpretation of agreements, but nor was she Iomedean where one tries to leave the other purely better off. Nor was she Abadaran, for they were the Iomedean ideal through a Neutral lens. She would pressure and twist as it benefitted her, to whatever degree that was beneficial. If it made her easily given word less valuable, then so be it.

(Idly, she wondered whether she would end up Lawful Evil before the end of the month.)

Captive Audience wouldn't be useful enough. With enough Splendor enhancements, you could skip that sort of problem.

Abusing Bestest Friend to acquire a specific magical creature which had some side benefit that would be hard to get otherwise was a question that she tabled. Reading a full Bestiary had never been a good use of her time.

She immediately wrote a tick mark next to Undiplomatic Immunity. She wasn't sure that it could be done with just prophecy without other significant knock-on effects. It would still be massively useful.

Delphine stares at several of the options that might be bendable. She is not quite sure it is in the spirit of the matter to bend them, or whether she should.
She doubts that she can muster enough love by any reasonable definition to use I Can Fix Them on anyone she hates enough to use it upon. 
Similarly, the restrictions to friends for Agree to Agree make it less plausibly useful with alteration.

She doesn't actually want a true love. Not that she doesn't like romance — though admittedly it has never been a priority — but rather that it never seemed like a good investment of time. Rather, it was a negative investment of time. The number of stories she heard of people settling down with families when just a couple of years before they were powerful adventurers had always made her shudder. It was good! Though, she maybe had some trouble really feeling that. It was a trap when one had goals like hers, a trap that she didn't want to fall into.
However. Being able to specify your true love combined with them being in some sense your best sort of love was extremely powerful. Working together could do wonders, it was how humanity got this far. Just, your average marriage even among adventurers is not the sort where they uncomplicatedly improve each other (along the metrics that dominate her considerations).

Does 'true love' mean what I expect it to mean? That is, it fits my sense of what kindof person I would be best allied with and presumably also like since those are what I want? I don't want them to simply maximally satisfy the love feeling within me.

Also are they strictly from the existing population, or are they potentially created?

Like most of the metanarrative powers, it tries using methods that you would endorse and are easy for the Spirit. If you want the perfect match but strictly from currently alive humans, then there will be less finagling behind the scenes - but also that category makes less sense with how the narrative works. There are lots of possible-currently-alive humans that would produce the same world you live in.

But yes, it will try to choose a person that you would endorse and not in a tricksy way.

So. True love it is, then. She doesn't take the powers about them forgiving her, and definitely not any of the sex ones. True Love's Kiss is an easy choice because of being able to break arbitrary curses. She has enough protection that she would probably be fine most of the time anyway, but this will help protect them as well.

She takes Popular as well. Famous is a maybe, but has greater downside risks due to higher awareness. She doesn't actually trust the metanarrative, or perhaps her sense of the metanarrative, for protecting her from all of basic cause and effect. Becoming a famous absurdly powerful adventurer gets attention, which she wants, but not everywhere immediately.

She grabs Well Endowed and Hollow Leg just so she can get Inner Strength.

As well as Mysterious Allure. Possibly obsoleted by sufficient Splendor but it will help.

She stares at the number of points left... did the Spirit simply give enough points to get practically all the good options and then force her to choose more minor options?

Maybe?

Though there's still useful options you've ignored.

Not that I'm saying anything because you keep forgetting to ask me half your thoughts!

Dragon Fairy Elf Witch and Anything you can do. If the metanarrative is powerful enough this means she can become a large variety of sorcerers without the downsides. Plausibly better if she can get direct heritage from an Angel?

She grabs a couple of the nice ones like hygiene. It would waste time that could be spent using this power.

Eventually she's her list.

I've chosen the powers. Is there anything more I need to do?

Nope! Are you sure you don't want to take any of the downsides? You could get Omniglot if you took one of the right ones!

Just tell me if you're done.

The amount of capability this would give her was sufficient to make 'paying for a casting of Permanent Tongues' not an issue.

I'm done.

She was expecting nothing to happen.

In the ensuing moments, her transformation unfolds not as a wrenching rictus of torturous pain but rather as a subtle shifting and elevation of the senses.

The Cleric is halfway thinking about her in his Church, wondering what in the world that was about. She can maybe vaguely feel the gestures of Milani's echoing fractally thoughts, but that might be her reaching for something that is not there.

Her every muscle feels finely taught, like in the best moments of swordplay. Her arms heal of a thousand small cuts that hampered her ever so slightly, but had never been considered damage by a Heal.

She immediately understands better what Valerian had been talking about when he had been trying to teach her the intricacies of dealing with undead. She had understood it at the time, but now she could glimpse the hard-to-spell-out intuitions he had gained over the years.

She collapses then, tears cascading down her face as she cries both in joy and a certain sort of despair. No ability shields herself from her own emotions.  Her despair is tinged with the weight of the world that now laid upon her shoulders to a degree she had hoped to ease into (but had never quite believed would happen). A sense of tragicness, that the only reason she would win was due to an inhuman Goddess passing around what must be absurdly expensive power. It felt like anathema to the sort of deep gratitude she felt at the same time, but it was overpowering. That the universe wasn't quite a dark grim place, only that what it did have was this light gray loose mockery of human values approximation of what she wanted. It was better. This betterment-of-all still laid like a weight upon her.

Delphine does not stay like this for long. Less than five minutes, possibly less than two.

If emotions weren't useful, you could bin them. The Worldwound had taught her that. Valerian had taught her that. Even being a young thief in Taldor had taught her that. If they were actually problems then she would recognize them and handle them carefully, but most emotional reactions are not actually useful to think about. These were likely important to handle, but whatever deliberation she would do would not actually change what her next actions were.

The nearest magic shop is open. It is noon. “I would like to purchase your best headband.” She could in-fact just steal it. That would harm her Law, however (she could technically still steal since she held little true respect for the laws of the land, but it went against her own personal desires to damage mutual beneficial trade without enough benefit; similar to how she could lie). This served as a test for the ability to generate absurd quantities of money.

“Splendor? Intelligence? Wisdom? I have +2s for each.”

She could hear his thoughts. Ugh, random adventurers who walk into the wrong store and never buy anything because they're throwing around gold but at better pieces than he owns.

“As in, +2 to all of the above?”

“… No. You'll want the magic shops nearer to the Church of Abadar.” The shop keep pauses. “I have a variety of other interesting and useful magic items, however! A necklace of fireballs, here. Boots of levitation…”

Delphine buys the Boots of Levitation. She spontaneously finds enough money. (Possibly she should throw a bunch of it into an account at the Bank of Abadar)

Walking into a high-end magic shop is a different sort of experience. Every piece is carefully made to look beautiful. The labels of items visibly on-sale have two or three three-digit numbers written upon them, counting by the thousand like five hundred extra gold was not worth spending thought over. It reminded her of the first time she walked into an actual library like the one in Lastwall, rather than the small collections she saw in shops or begged friends to help her visit.

This wasn't even a magic shop in the center of Cassomir, where high-level adventurers would surely congregate. This was one, albeit important, city within Ustalav. Why had she waited so long before visiting, even if just for a look?

Right. Because money.

When her next purchases (of several scrolls) produces a bank note, she begs off from the seller and immediately walks over to the Bank of Abadar.

There was a worry that if this was creating fake bank notes she would pretty quickly end up getting blacklisted. Sure she had 'metanarrative protection' from the obvious downsides of various of these powers, but was it actually being applied strongly? She didn't trust it.

"Hello, I was wanting to look into whether this bank note for my account was valid?" She dropped a small handful of coins on the counter.

His thoughts focus on the silent routine of counting up coins rapidly, then turn to look at the bank note. "... Are you wishing for more verification than the seal upon it?" At her nod, he exhales a sigh and retreats into the back rooms. There they held the ledgers, which took time to update, but would at least let him confirm whether it had been taken out locally or recently. The bank note was most assuredly valid given the magic upon it, but it was not uncommon for those new to the use to want that extra confirmation.

A minute or two later he returned. "The bank note was taken out five hours ago, and is valid for the amount listed." A strange request, but not actually the strangest he's had all day.

That was before she even woke up.

Prophecy. Right. She should lock herself up in a room with a dozen books written about it, and when it was relevant, rather than trying to infer from vague background knowledge how this best worked. It had been of limited focus in the past, due to prophecy seemingly not being applicable to anything.

She smiles at him politely, which given her new powers makes her radiate a warm friendliness.

Purchasing a decent headband was one of the most clear first steps, which would satisfy the dual goal of verifying that she is able to spend money frivolously, while also making her better so that she chooses future options better. Commissioning a better headband would take more time, perhaps when she didn't feel like the rug was going to be pulled out from under at the worst possible time.

The way the +2 to Splendor and Wisdom rested upon her mind made the external/internal forces of personality or consideration stronger in terms force while everything else fell to the wayside. Flaws came up more easily, while also being more understandable as to the underlying reasons why, at the same time as they became simpler to fix with a +2 to Cunning.

She wasn't moving fast enough or slow enough.

With a higher Splendor, the ways she flinched away were further uncovered as if dusting off an old tome. The Wisdom and Cunning assisted in resolving the bad-outcomes and how she should have done been better. The lack of questions towards the book was the most damning one, where it would have been worth a week just to question the artifact on details. A ruddy sort of desire to be involved in something interesting, even though it was almost certainly fake, which then formed itself into a determined desperation to see whether any of what it said held true to reality.

Valerian was annoyed. This was not an uncommon occurrence when having to brush shoulders with people from every walk of life, questioning farmers who saw an unholy visage in the woods to counts who are supposedly not in the pocket (or Dominated) by Ustalav's undead foes. This sort of annoyance did have a different taste to it, one that he had not felt in some time.

He was being delayed from dealing with a threat. This was typically not advisable, for the Pharasmin Inquisition had enough leeway within the law and enough willingness to work without that he could in-fact imprison anyone (barring those with connections) who stood in his way. Unfortunately, this was not some delaying tactic being used by a mind controlled or Evil or stupidly sympathetic citizen, this was a delay wrought by relying on allies.

He could not exactly arrest them, nor would that be helpful for the task of getting down to Ulhav faster with enough backup that he would not die. Reckless that he could be, it hadn't taken him long after working with a party consistently that he realized that he could do far more. Dealing with the necromancer by himself was assuredly death. Dealing with the wizard while taking along random adventurers he did not know or trust (to whatever degree he is capable of such) would be risky.

Kato randomly disappearing for days on end was to be expected. The wizard had some form of secret, paired with the usual adventuring wizard's learning from others, though Valerian had yet to strongly learn what it was. He half-suspected necromancy, the man showed an interest, but this was mostly base-rates for 'wizard with secret in Ustalav'. That Kato willingly traveled with an Inquisitor of Pharasma was evidence against, and he couldn't exactly blame the man's alignment oscillating between Neutral and Neutral Evil.

Valerian's alignment behaved the same, though usually for more obvious reasons — like recently torturing prisoners for information.

Delphine's disappearance on the other hand was quite unexpected. The few times she had not been available with an overly detailed note left was the time she got kidnapped by a cultist of Urgathoa, or just a few moments of typical miscellaneous forgetfulness. Using a Sending rather than simply leaving a note with the inn she stayed at was also interesting. He had tried piecing together some form of hidden message, but was unable to come up with one more obvious than 'wow is it not weird that I am using a Sending instead of cheap paper, please send assistance'.

Questioning the inn-keeper was the first action he took. They were known associates, adventurers asking after other adventurers was common, and also he was an Inquisitor of Pharasma; those tend to loosen lips. She had left early in the morning in a hurry, which fit the expected time she usually took to sleep and prepare spells.