"Sure, loads of them. Some of them are crusaders and soldiers, but plenty of them are preachers, or adventurers, or have some other job that's got something to do with their god."

"Are you lot interested in continuing to be an adventuring party going forward?"

"Depends, what's the loot situation like?"

Seelah looks unimpressed.

"Look, I'm just saying! I've got a mouth to feed at home. ...My mouth, but still."

"I'm happy to stick around for as long as you're fighting the demons. If you decide to run off to... some faraway surfacer country... then no promises."

"It'd be Worldwound-focused. I do not expect to have income problems on the level of not being able to eat, if that is really your concern, Mr. Jefto, but loot is unpredictable and any given demon might or might not drop much."

"I get that most demons are pretty broke, but I'm a wizard, I've got to be getting magic items from somewhere, right? If some of them have stuff I can keep or sell we're probably good, but if they're all going to be like that I'll pass." He thinks for a second. "...Is this the kind of party where I can come along for a bit and split if we're not finding anything, or the kind where everyone'd be really mad at me?"

"I... don't actually know what your legal status is. Perhaps you've formally worked off the suspicion you'd accrued, in which case if you prefer an at-will arrangement I'd rather have notice but hardly feel authorized to conscript you."

"What Anevia said was that if I helped out 'till the city was safe, they'd let me off the hook. 'Course, we all knew there was a good chance I'd die trying, but a deal's a deal."

Lann is so confused about surfacer laws. Sometimes it sounds like they've got a system set up that's ten times more organized than anything downstairs, and then other times it sounds like they just... decide not to have laws?

"If you'd like to go confirm that the city presently qualifies as safe then I'll have you as an uncommitted adventuring party member provided you can give me at least a week's notice before absconding and noting that if we are in some particularly involved logistical situation I may not be able to offer escort to wherever you'd rather be."

"You got it, Chief. You want me to send the others your way while I'm up?"

"Thank you, yes."

He darts off to find Anevia, detouring briefly to point the others in Blai's direction.

"Thief boy informed me that you had a request!"

"I am asking everyone who's been in the party - which, uh, includes you - if they would like to carry on in that vein."

"Hmmm. What will that entail? Will I have opportunities to continue carrying out the research for my encyclopedia?"

"I do not intend to prevent you from asking questions of random people we encounter except in situations where interrupting improves the long run odds of your encyclopedia's publication."

"Do you expect we will encounter research subjects from whom I will be able to learn new information? My survey of theological knowledge among individuals in Kenabres is nearly finished, though regrettably I was able to interview fewer cultists than I had hoped."

"Is the populace's theological education your principal interest?"

"I intend for my encyclopedia to be a comprehensive resource on a wide variety of topics! Theology and Mendevian society are among those topics, but they are far from the only thing I am interested in."

"I expect adventuring around the Worldwound to involve opportunities to observe demons, historical sites, Taldane dialects and other languages, Asmodeans, and assorted magic."

She perks up. "Excellent! I will be happy to accompany you."

"I appreciate that."