Does she have a. Fucking. Shadow Divination? Vavana remembers the mapping spell, she totally does.

"So long as you have a safe place to rest and don't expect any emergencies, you may as well try," she says with a sweetness to mask her furious envy.

She appears a half dozen balls of light in her hands and starts moving them around, changing colors and glowing and dimming as she tries to work out the logic of it. And more importantly, of not wasting too much energy on it. Sipping on her cider occasionally.

"Oh hells, here's trouble," Oriana swears, setting down the Anytool as a new group of guards enter. She takes her feet off the table and fixes a challenging glare on the squad's leader.

-Oh boy. Seems like it's time to be invisible, and flanking, and leave an illusion of herself watching in her seat. Her seat-neighbors probably feel her brushing past them to escape the table.

She might not want to be involved in whatever this is, but sitting still for it won't help.

"Oriana."

"Jacinto."

The two of them stare daggers at each other.

"Deserters aren't welcome here," he says.

"Oh, I gave my badge back. You can go crying to daddy to check. If he's got a problem with that, he can take it up with the queen."

Jacinto thinks for a moment, then gives a derisive snort. "Makes sense, the skirts you'd go hiding behind. Does our noble queen remind you of your mother?"

His voice is cold, but Oriana is immediately on her feet and swinging her fist.

...Big distracting thunderclap and kaleidoscope! On Oriana and the bunch of newcomers. (And a much muffled version on the room at large, just so everyone has a cue as to what's happening. She also has her fake still sitting at the table stand up, and speaks from that perspective, tail bristling.)

"Woah woah just a second- Low fucking blow, dude- But also, swinging first does not help!"

(Look, it's not that she's unsympathetic to - insults to a dead mother? It's just. Throwing the first punch is a stupid move unless you know it's going to be a fight, and Oriana just said 'trouble', not 'they're gonna try to beat me up' or something.)

At the thunderclap everyone jumps to their feet, but the interruption does give Oriana a chance to reconsider. 

"Tch. You're right, he's not worth it. Can you use one of your illusions to blot him out for me, mute whatever he says?"

"If that's the way you wanna take it, sure! Better than a pointless fight where nobody wins."

It's a teensy bit complicated to set it up how she wants- She has to hook it to both that guy and Oriana, and make it follow their relative positions, and she wants the illusion to break if he makes an aggressive move on her- And invisible to everyone else, aaaand- There. (This kind of complicated illusion work is fun, though!)

He looks like a vague person-shaped blob of ghostly distortion, and any words he says will be muffled and echoed far into incomprehensibility.

"How's that?"

""How childish -"

Ignorant of his latest barb, Oriana sits back down with a sigh. "That's better, thanks. Where were we?"

"Booze, I think? It's not that I can't appreciate getting drunk, it's just... I dunno. We should get someone to price out all the loot, it's gonna bug me 'till it's done. Oh, we should maybe report back to the castle... But that sounds like work, bleh."

"Yeah, I'm not in the mood for getting wasted any more."

The total sale value of the loot works out at 6180gp, with most of that coming from the derro necromancer's wand and the ring. Subtracting how much they'd get from selling the ring, Weiss' share comes out as the +1 Ring of Protection and 236gp, or 86gp if she wants the contents of the library as a gift for making a good impression on the queen's new wizard as well.

"You want us to handle making the report to the queen? You've already contributed plenty, and Vavana can fill in what the two of you saw clearing up."

No, see, 150 gp will go so much further as, like, medicine, or rent relief- And now she's slightly tipsy (she's a lightweight even with the near nil alcohol content of cider), and muttering about how peasants make coppers and she can buy a house with a couple hours' adventuring and-

-Ugh, a bar is so not her scene, so she may as well go back to the Doom Castle and peer at its magic a bit more while giving a report, sure.

She composes it in her head as she goes and is acknowledged by guards and etc. Lectured by Pharasmins; Careful exploration; Ambushed the necromancer; Rescued a bunch of prisoners; Trapped skull hallway; Some Derro runaways; They told the Pharasmins everything; There's maybe still an annoyed Otyugh and an ogre prisoner down there somewhere; Probable human necromancer accomplice; Possible serial killer connection; Loot has been claimed and distributed by the party already and she'll just state that as fact and hope nobody objects.

She thinks that covers the important bits?

Vavana has already delivered her report via imp, so Ileosa has forewarning of those important bits.

She reviews what else her minions have told her of Weiss: Showed herself to be a gourmand; Went to a tavern and sold a merchant an illusory telescope for information; Visited temples of Sarenrae and Abadar, activity inside unknown; Caught one of the imps with the blindsense she apparently has, but assumed it was a thief over a spy; Bought a Splendour headband; Flagrantly disregarded Ileosa's chair-based power-play; Gave the queen's hand-picked party some details of her abilities; Cavorted nude in the woods.

That last one could be a daily obedience to at least three different Good gods... but Ashava seems like a very close fit now that her attention has been drawn to Her. Born from marsh-fires, patron of Good lycanthropes, calling on her followers to dance naked under moonlight and put the undead to rest...

The only reason Ileosa knows of Ashava is because the Empyreal Lady is popular out in the backwater to this backwater, among the yokels of the Lost Coast. Does that mean her fox-girl's supposed origin on the planet of 'Tirra' is a lie? But then why the Comprehend Languages? 

No, that has an explanation too, some oracles are cursed to lose their native language in times of stress. This supposed alien is in fact a marsh-born girl from the Mushfens or Brinestump Marsh, got experience fighting monsters out in the sticks, and now she's come to what she thinks of as the 'big city' to reinvent herself, like the social version of a lycanthrope transformation. Weiss is a fifth-circle Tongues-cursed Oracle and obedient of Ashava's Lunar mysteries, and Ileosa is a genius⁵.

 ⁵ Current Intelligence score: 9

She's not certain, but she's certain enough to send some royal agents investigating. The Mushfens can be ruled out, Togomor would have probably run into her on the adventuring scene there otherwise.

Message. "Go to the Lost Coast and track down any rumors resembling this Weiss. Make some discreet enquiries to the local Ashava-cultists. Locate any family you can find - I doubt they'll share the ears or tail - but don't alert or harm them, not yet."

"Your majesty, the fox-girl is outside," an imp messenger grovels telepathically.

"Keep her waiting."

Somebody ought to tell her how rude it is to conjure your own furniture, an insult to the hospitality of your gracious host. Preferably when Ileosa can watch. One thing she'll miss on her glorious return to Cheliax is how the people here show their anguish on their faces so openly. 

Focus. She needs to decide the direction for this conversation.

As Queen of Korvosa, Ileosa is of course still in mourning. The performance of grief is tedious, and she has to keep it up for at least a week by the rules of Korvosan public opinion. But in private she can use her more determined, purposeful cast to her face.

Remember what she stands to lose. Power, freedom, eternal life and all its pleasures. Almost everyone would gladly see her deposed as queen of Korvosa, her reign hangs by a thread. If she can bind this little party together, use them as exemplars for everyone who wants Korvosa to have a strong ruler, they could be a lifeline for her.

(They'll need a name. The Silver Maidens? Imagine them all outfitted in shining armor and shimmering cloaks, lined up neatly like dolls, her personal knights devoted to serving her alone - focus.)

Oriana and Tisharue are blunt instruments, Vavana a kindred spirit, Caron shattered and ready to be reshaped should she hold herself together, but Weiss...

She sees Ileosa as a monarch instead of a person. Normally that would be no cause for complaint. Desirable in a subject. But from her words and expressions Weiss seems to invert the importance of the two, as though monarchs are the replaceable hollow objects to pay lip service to, and ordinary people the ones worthy of respect and service! 

To secure control over her, Ileosa will need to do something drastic. Either indebt her with protection and payments to her family, wherever in Varisia they are, or somehow convince her to see her as both a monarch and a person.

For the former, she'll have to set up the right hints in advance, wait and see whether her agents succeed. For the latter, shows of emotion, less of the reserve, in the faint hope that Weiss' indiscriminate heartstrings will tug her to save her queen as readily as she would some random guard or petty noble. There is one more strongly persuasive option that comes to mind, but that will also require patience for it to grow to fruition. 

In the meantime, chasing down a cold case should keep her occupied. If the little fox does sniff out that serial killer, that could play into her plans as well.

Remember, Ileosa, not your people but the people, praise her service to the city not the crown. Ugh, talking Good is so painful to adjust to. 

"You may enter."

SrsBsns time again, yep. What was the right address? Can't go too far wrong with a curtsey and- "Your majesty."

She graces Weiss with a tired smile. 

"After all you have done for me, you may relax with the strict honorifics and etiquette when we are in private together. Please, tell me about this necromancer you have defeated, and his lair."

Her tail and ears do something in response. Surprise? Uncertainty?

"If you say so? So. The Pharasmin who told us what to expect was pretty peevey but we're all having a bad week around here so I don't really blame her. We went right to the statue and tracked the trail to a particular crypt, and fought through some gribbly guardians. I don't really get local casting- I've been reliably informed I'm cursed to never learn academic magic, regardless of any efforts or skill, so it hasn't been a priority- But he was pretty good. He saw my scouting trick with a magic sense and came to check us out. He was flying and turning bits of his robes to undead, probably relatively strong as these things go. I thought fast and led him out to us so we could ambush him- I had to burn a wand charge on a biggun dropped onto the squishy casters, annoying but obviously worth it, it's just I'm pretty sure nobody here knows Golden Chains to make me another wand- Downed him and confirmed kill, good riddance to those who fuck with souls."

Foot-tapping pause. 

"The rest of the place wasn't much trouble in comparison and we purged or chased off everything else except one prisoner and an otyugh. As for the necromancer, there was a pretty well appointed lab. The lab has - lots of books, trapped skulls, reagents, glassware, storerooms, experiments, a stirge-feeding operation... Vavana pointed out that the derromancer we fought is too little for the lab we saw, and it's obviously true in retrospect, probably there was a human-sized boss around. Or maybe he inherited or 'inherited' it. Looked like he'd been there a while. 'If there's trouble, we've been remiss in our duties', pfeh, maybe the cryptkeepers have some kind of infiltrator or leak, or aren't as on top of things as they wanna look like, that woudn't fly at home."

The queen leans in with unconcealed interest as she speaks, even giving a quiet huff of amusement when Weiss mentions the week everyone's been having. 

"I admit, not being an adventurer myself it's hard to imagine the back and forth of such a battle. Could you show me an illusion of what it was like?"

"The stirges are a persistent blight on the rooftops of the city, along with the chokers. If you ever find yourself wanting to do an afternoon's Good work, nobody will complain about you clearing out their nests."

"Do you think the Pharasmins have been negligent in their duties? That bears investigating. It's so hard for me to get faithful reports from anyone about any aspect of how the city is run, they all have their own interests to look out for. The Sable Company tell me there's no crime to trouble them with patrolling for, the Guard say there's so much crime that they need more funding to disappear into - but that's not something you need to concern yourself with." She sighs, sounding a little envious of Weiss.

(If the Pharasmins have been negligent, or at least can be credibility accused of it, that would make a convenient opportunity to redirect some of their crown-granted benefits towards churches more supportive of her.)

Ooh, an excuse to wow with her objectively impressive visual memory! Here's a dramatic Undead Owlbear fight in 3D-5K! (The other fights she didn't have a good view on blur into impressions of motion and noise). Mercifully, she does not deign to recreate the smell.

"A bit of pest extermination when I'm in the mood for some of the ol' ultraviolence wouldn't be bad... I think it'd take more investigation to say. I don't know what they have to work with or what's happened in the last year or if they're supposed to do regular patrols or what. This city seems pretty dangerous."