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a Lucy is born in Geb
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"I'll see if I can find you someone with it before dawn, then."

Or rather delegate finding it, but still. Fortunately she's pretty sure that's one of the more common ones in Kenabres, since the inquisition gives it out to any wizard willing to do an interview under truthspell. If nothing else Aravashnial probably has it, and as difficult as the elf is to work with he does genuinely hate demons.

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"Thanks!" 

It occurs to her, suddenly, that if she accomplishes her goal of becoming a legendary archmage, she could just open such a library herself. She's never really thought before about what she'd do in the interim between achieving "legendary archmage" status and a century or two passing before she was ready to check in on the "can I challenge Geb" front, but--

Well, it's, uh, a lot more likely for Luzai Seshka than it was for just Luzai. So. 

Of course she's still getting well ahead of herself! Right now she is still bargaining for new cantrips. 

Okay, making the Horgus Gwerm trip today could work. Lann's out, Wenduag's in. Seelah...hm. She's giving some thought to how to approach Seelah. Meanwhile, Camellia. 

"Camellia! Horgus Gwerm offered us another escort mission."

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"Wherever to?"

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"His mansion. It is, like, objectively less important than getting him to the surface to not die, but he's offering us a whole bunch of money again, and I'm at loose ends for the rest of the day." 

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"Sure, that sounds like it could be an interesting way to spend an afternoon."

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"Cool." 

Camellia does do melee but Luzai would really rather have Seelah along. 

Hm. How to approach her. 

"Hey, Seelah, Horgus Gwerm offered us an escort mission to his townhouse so he can make sure looters don't get his stuff. I realize paladins aren't motivated by money, but a bunch of us not-paladins are going and if we run into any demons it would be really cool to have you along." 

There! It's accurate, it's not slanting the facts in a manipulative way, and it stands a chance of working! 

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Seelah doesn't think that's how it's supposed to work, especially with how everyone else is also in danger, but she doesn't really want them to get stabbed because she wasn't there. She thinks about it for a bit.

"I'm willing to come with you, but I can't promise I'll stick around if I see other people who need rescuing."

 

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"--I mean obviously if we see someone who needs rescuing that comes first! I'm only doing this at all because I didn't have anything better to do until tomorrow anyway." 

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Oh good, she's happy to come along then.

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Cool. She will let Horgus Gwerm know they're ready to leave. 

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Wonderful, Horgus Gwerm knew hiring them was a good decision.

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Once past the gates of the defender's heart, the streets of Kenabres are all but deserted. Occasionally they'll catch what might be movement inside one of the houses, but for the most part anyone alive and not a cultist is doing their best not to advertise this fact. Judging by the corpses occasionally on the street, though, some of them never got the chance to learn this from experience.

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Nngh. These poor guys. 

Luzai has detect magic up. It's not detect fiendish presence, but it'll probably catch, like, invisible quasits or something. 

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Despite the devastation, the northeast of the city is at least moderately peaceful. As they progress south, however, plumes of smoke from burning buildings become visible, and large insects like the ones they encountered in the caves can be seen rooting through the alleyways and scavenging on corpses. They might become hostile once the easy sources of food dry up, but for the moment none of them seem interested in picking a fight with a group of people still capable of moving on their own. 

The first living humans Luzai spots consist of a trio of men pulling a cart. They could pass for ordinary citizens, sensibly armed for the duration of the crisis and nervously looking around for danger, if it weren't for the valuables piled up in their transport.

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What. 

What. 

"Guys. Guys what the fuck." 

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"Looters.

Horgus Gwerm injects enough venom into his words to make it sound like a pejorative.

"Opportunists and scoundrels, the worst sort of scum. Nearly as bad as the demon cultists, if you ask me."

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"No, no, sorry, I got that part, the party I'm confused by is why they thought it was a good idea to stay in the demon-infested city stealing junk instead of, you know, leaving. Like, a cart full of valuables is going to slow you down if you have to run away from demons, if you abandon the cart you're back to square zero with a bunch of risk taken and nothing to show for it...I guess they could be cultists? Hey, are you guys cultists?" 

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That actually takes a moment to answer, since saying no to cultists and yes to crusaders are similarly dangerous outcomes, but Seelah is pretty obviously a paladin.

"No, of course not," one of them replies, doing their best to look offended by the assumption.

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"Well, then you're being stupid, because with a heavily laden cart like that you're not going to be able to avoid the cultists, or the demons. May I suggest you find a couple of items apiece with a high value-to-weight ratio and then get out of town? Like, seriously, if you die while looting a demon-infested city, you probably won't get a good afterlife! Nobody here wants that!" 

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"You shouldn't encourage them!"

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"I mean, I don't think they should steal things! But talking them out of stealing anything at all would take longer, and, uh, 'do this less-harmful thing that is still at least as much in your selfish interests, if not more so' is uh...a position I...got used to arguing, growing up in Geb...I should probably practice talking people out of things who aren't undead, while also not being observed by any undead. Hey you guys, quit stealing!" 

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If they were ever inclined to listen to her, doing it after the first bit was not the most compelling argument, but they are watching Luzai's group rather nervously what with how they're outnumbered and out armed.

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Luzai folds her arms and gives them an unimpressed look. 

"I'm serious. I spent, like, so much of my childhood going to temples to Urgathoa? It didn't sound nice!" 

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"If you're an Urgathoan, where do you get off judging us?"

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"Well, I'm a paladin of Iomedae, and I'm telling you this is illegal and immoral! I can't believe you're trying to use this as an excuse to rob people."

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