"Why'd they let you go? I thought they ransomed prisoners off."
"Ransom's not common when it's at the state level. If Tulia wants money, they'll write up some kind of ultimatum and make a big demand. Then the Isle Perilous can accept it or not. If they don't, I expect every trader out of that country is gonna be hit up for cash about forever. Pretty much all their goods and buildings will probably be forfeit too."
"Yeah, but that doesn't cover you."
"They don't really want to hold on to too many prisoners. I'm fairly high level, but not someone really important. Plus Sessha bailed me out.. she hauled me off to this local temple of Klamati, verified my story, and they agreed to let me go so long as I agreed to leave with you. I gave up my armour and most of my equipment, too."
"And I can't go back, not really. The Concordat is usually pretty forgiving, but I don't think they'll forgive this. I'll have to get some godly protection from someone else if we're going to the island."
(What's the dogma?)
"So the current organization was founded by a man known commonly as Brazen Charlie, who refounded the order on the mainland.."
Outside of being significantly more salacious of a founding myth than you thought, with a lot of rather questionable characters around the early church, it isn't anything that special. There's several sub organizations handling commerce, negotiations, judges, protections, etcetera. The gist of it, though, is that the Concordat is headed up by the "Lords of the Concordat", instead of any one god. So more like some kinda collective of 12 demigods or strong spirits or something. And apparently they're supposed to be around in some kind of physical form, but they aren't normally seen by most members. Direct communications comes though the usual temple spells and prayer messages. Alice hasn't actually seen them herself.
Also, it's pretty old. The current organization was supposedly re-founded in the post Trisamore period, when the current records start. There are older rumors, but no hard information.
"Do you know why they're after me?"
"I was down in Tulia when all this started, and never got to find out directly. No, I don't know the exact details. Conway, the head of the order of paladins, told me that we were after the most dangerous thing in the world and you absolutely had to be killed. Conway wouldn't give me a straight answer beyond that, but there was a lot of fear there.
I'm sure there's some reason there, just.. I don't see it, and this invasion.. it's like a dream in some ways, an alternate universe. The Concordat shouldn't be doing this. You seem pretty dangerous but not that dangerous. I've fought a Greater Stoneshifter once, and that looked a lot worse."
(How experienced are you?)
"I made level 12, just like you. I've done dozens of combat missions around Valterre. And I spent years down in lowland Tulia, and although that wasn't all hot fighting, it wasn't just an invitation to sit around and sip tea."
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Topic: Extinction (Read 222291 times)