… Miko's fond of both Dyra and Seelah. Dyra, for her desire to meaningfully provide, and Seelah, for… something. She's not sure she has the words for what it is about what Seelah did just now that touched her cold undead heart, but it seems—good. Odd, that something so small would seem so meaningful.

Something she does have the words for is: what in the world is an Abadaran? She makes a Knowledge check and, when that turns up nothing:

"What is an Abadaran?"

Seelah looks to Dyra. "You want to field this one?"

    Dyra still looks slightly dazed, but she nods. "Abadar is the god of trade and commerce. He delights in the free exchange of wealth between peoples, that grows the wealth of both - if you have chosen to trade, you wanted something, and someone else wanted something you had, and now you both have something you value more than what you had. I... don't know much about Him. He chose me, five years ago, when I set up an exchange post to trade fresh fish to other tribes, and I received a vision of Him, but it was... heavy on glory and light on details."

Miko's starting to feel embarrassed about all the gaps in her knowledge about the Western continent!

Still, she nods at Dyra approvingly.

"Well, congratulations. Being chosen by the gods is an immense honor."

"It is," confirms the other person present chosen by the gods.

"Yeah, woo, gods," Anevia says before Camellia can say a godsdamn word. "Let's all rest up, though? The city's still burning, and the sooner we can tackle the Shieldmaze the better."

Seelah nods her assent. They've come to the lodging, anyway; it's a set of bone-and-leather tent-huts, one apiece.

     Dyra looks a bit disappointed that storytime is over. "Sleep well, uplanders!" she says, chipper regardless.

Miko's also somewhat disappointed!

… Well, there's nothing stopping her from catching Dyra's eye.

"I don't need to sleep." She can almost manage a conspiratorial tone, right up until she clarifies: "I'll still need to rest mentally to prepare spells, I think, and I don't have any convenient mementos, but if you're interested I can tell you about how I took down a party of criminals all near my own level. Twice."

Dyra bounces!

"The mementos aren't strictly necessary! I would love to hear your story!"

"That's convenient; all my equipment is brand-new anyway.

"A few months ago, the head of my paladin order at the time sent me to the Northern Continent to apprehend an adventuring party. A member of this party had destroyed a magical gate and thereby weakened the fabric of the universe. I spent some time tracking them down. When I found them I was able to inspect half the party with Detect Evil and discovered that the leader was strongly Evil. Because of this, I decided that it would be better to subdue the entire party immediately than to check the other half. I offered them the opportunity to surrender; they declined and I attacked."

Her first impulse is to say that her surprise round allowed her to make short work of the Order, but… she's supposed to include details, she thinks.

"In the party was a wizard; I restrained them with a tanglefoot bag. I also had my mount run interference and protect me from one of the warriors of the party, a halfling that I would come to learn is one of the most odious men on the planet. The gods were favoring me with fortune, as well: it was rainy enough that their thief could not shoot me and their bard had broken his sword arm. Their cleric noticed this and surrendered.

"The leader, however, was stubborn. He insisted on fighting even when his own wizard hit him with a Fireball intended for me. Eventually, I damaged him enough that I could strike a fatal blow using Smite Evil.

"Imagine my surprise when Smite Evil seemingly had no effect."

Dyra looks very engaged!

"Then - the aura was an enchantment of some kind? Or he was just that powerful, but if you hadn't been Smiting him in the first place..."

Dyra's got a quick wit! Miko smiles.

"It was an enchantment. He was wearing a crown around his neck that had once been worn by an extremely evil lich. Once he handed it over to his cleric, I used Detect Evil on them again. Sure enough, the cleric now seemed strongly Evil and the leader no longer read as Evil at all. The leader realized that, as a paladin, I was acting legally and agreed to answer the charges against him back in the city-state from which I had come."

Miko sighs.

"It was not to be nearly that simple. The party's discipline, as I'm sure you've gathered, was terrible. Half of them—the thief, halfling, and wizard—protested openly the entire time, the bard had the disposition of a hyperactive child, and the leader was infatuated with me. The halfling also taunted me with his Evil alignment and frequently talked about how much he wanted to kill my mount and me. After less than a week they demanded to rest at an inn. They also demanded that I pay for it, despite having two wagonsful of gold and jewelry taken from an Evil dragon. It didn't seem worth it at the time to try and force the issue, but…"

(Dyra doesn't look very horrified by the Order's antics, but she wasn't there, so she's not going to say anything about it. The halfling does sound like an asshole.)

"In the middle of the night, the bard and cleric came to my room and told me that there had been an attempted assassination on the party leader and we needed to evacuate the other patrons. We managed to do this without causing panic before the assassins set off an explosive and the inn caught fire. The wagons were destroyed; it was a disaster.

"As we prepared to set out in the morning, the party leader apologized for flirting with and using pet names for me. I accepted his apology, but it turned out that he had primarily wanted to berate me for being 'overbearing' and 'socially inept.' He said that his party was no longer going to peacefully accompany me and that I would have to drag them to Azure City in chains if I wanted to do my job.

"Naturally, I attacked. Despite having invited me to do so, nobody seemed to have expected this. I stunned the halfling with an unarmed Smite Evil attack; my mount occupied the thief. Nobody else had the reaction speed necessary to do anything before I incapacitated their wizard. They're an elf; it wasn't that hard. The cleric didn't surrender, but he also didn't fight me, and the bard was useless. I was able to focus on the party leader until the cleric healed the wizard and the wizard tried to Disintegrate me. Fortunately, I trained as a monk before I became a paladin and was able to dodge their spells.

"It didn't take long for me to knock out everyone except the leader and the cleric. Both the leader and I were badly injured; I think he was trying to weigh the odds of how likely he would be to succeed if he attacked me. Evidently the odds were against him; he surrendered and I chained the entire party except the cleric, who stabilized the others enough that they could walk under their own power. Except the halfling.

"Nobody talked much after that."

"Huh," Dyra says. "You know, if I wanted to escape from you I would have done it in the aftermath of the inn's destruction, rather than telling you to your face."

"In fairness to them, the thief was distraught enough by the dragon's treasure being lost that she didn't do anything for several hours and the others didn't want to leave her behind. I also think that the attempt to part ways was a spur-of-the-moment decision. But yes, they seemed to have an issue with underestimating my intelligence."

Dyra nods. "Well, I'm glad you beat them, because you're the one who came down here and got the sword and that means Chief Sull's going to bring us to the surface, and I don't know if the human would've done that but it certainly doesn't sound like the halfling would."

Miko grimaces. Clearly Dyra took the Craft: Disturbing Mental Image feat.

"If the halfling had woken up in the same situation I did, he likely would have taken the side of the demons when they revealed themselves."

She shakes her head.

"Best not to dwell on that possibility. I'm also glad that you get to go to the surface now."

(The Creepy Items Merchant archetype gets Craft: Disturbing Mental Image as a bonus feat replacing their enhanced alignment aura, actually. It's widely considered pretty cheesy.)

"Yes! I have heard such things about vegetables."

Miko imagines how O-Chul would react here. It's bittersweet.

Does she have a tent to herself? She can share, obviously, but if she's going to be doing that she'll want to find someplace else she can privately talk to the intelligent artifact she's apparently been carrying around all day.

She does! It's reasonably spacious, and retains heat well.

That's very good of the Iron Arrow clan! Even though she's not benefiting from the heat retention, she imagines the alive people are.

She removes the scabbards so she can try addressing them directly.

"Finnean?"

If nothing happens she's gonna feel really stupid.

"Hells' teeth, what a hangover," complain her scabbards, melting into one. The eye inscribed on the larger, now inscribed on the one, opens, though it doesn't move as such. "And... hmm. I'd make some quip about not recognizing you in the morning, but I don't see sunlight, and I try fairly hard not to have sex."

Well, at least it (?) isn't trying to mind-control her. Or command her, she supposes.

"I don't know what time it is on the surface either, but locally it's evening. Or close enough."

She's just going to let the sex comment pass.

"Hmm. Dragged me beneath the earth, have you? You're not secretly drow, I hope. I've had enough of them for a lifetime."