Iomedaean forts have the least discipline problems of any fort she's ever been despite being staffed mostly by Normal People, so she's sure that they have effective systems for keeping people in line, she's just not sure on the details there.

You do absolutely have to pay the whores, yes, and also make sure that the money in exchange for the sex is a thing they want. 

That is an extremely valid thing to be alarmed about! She is going to be sympathetic and do her best to offer advice without platitudes. (They should definitely take some time to, in these new circumstances, think long and hard about whether or not they regret the evils they've done in their lives and want to commit to themselves to do better in the future, that matters sometimes!)

...they're whores, the point of them is that they exchange sex for money. If they stop doing it that's like, desertion except for whores.

A surprising number of people think they have no real rap sheet and just should expect to go to Hell because you have to be some ridiculous exhausting amount saintly to get anywhere north of that. Some of them were quietly hoping to get sent home from the wound and farm a lot since Erastil likes that in case it helped.

She makes an argument by analogy about how soldiers are not expected to go fight demons 24/7.

Yeah no she is very sure that this is a thing that Infernal Cheliax lied to them about. Every non-Chelish cleric she's talked to (and she's talked to a lot of clerics) about this says that alignment distribution is basically equal among most human nations - you don't have to be a saint to avoid an Evil afterlife.

Erastil does like farming, yes.

Only the whores who are on shift, duh.

Equal among most human nations? Does that mean that even in like, Lastwall or whatever, people are going to Hell? That's more disheartening, not less.

...she does not have a comprehensive account of how whoring work in the Mendevian forts, she's only been to one once. Lastwall's forts do not have whorehouses and punish rape very severely. 

No, places strongly affiliated with one God lean in that God's direction. She's pretty sure almost nobody in Lastwall goes to hell? Places like Taldor are where you see basically equal splits, she thinks.

What are the Taldans doing that get them sent to Hell?

She's not sure, she's never been, but probably - 

And then her body language changes all at once, and she holds up a hand and closes her eyes.

Mango Skyscape. Northern forts hit hard by major demonic assault, doing damage control along the line. Status of #11? Are you ok there?

Crustacean. Stable; assault repelled, eighty dead. need sending scroll. Artigas now Iomedaean cleric, wants Acts, handbook. Want to stay through transitional period - will take patrols.

He puts his head in his hands. What. What. How.

    Marit puts a hand on his shoulder, misreading his body language. "How bad is it? Is she alive?"

He sighs. "Oh, no, Urdina seems fine and fort #11 is doing much better than expected! Because Commander Artigas is now a cleric of Iomedae."

    "...may Hell be denied another soldier," Marit says solemnly, and then continues, in a higher-pitched voice, "but also. What? Was that man not, less than a week ago, Asmodeus's cleric?"

"He was, yes. I can only presume Urdina had something to do with this, especially because she wants to stay there longer, but I cannot for the life of me imagine what."

"Holy shit. Is she actually fucking him? I was joking - hey Stef, do bards have magical sex powers?"

Stef flips her off. She cackles.

Why is his life like this. "Demonscourge, cut it out," he says mostly on autopilot. (She glares at him. He ignore this.)

"Marit, I need to borrow your copy of the Acts of Iomedae and also the Lastwall handbook, Select Artigas wants a copy of both and I have the time to Scriveners one out before we make our reinforcement decision tonight." Marit nods and stands up to go grab them. "If you can bring me some paper too, that'd be great." Thumbs-up.

He sighs again. "I need to think for a bit before I reply to Urdina, but given how bad things are along that stretch of the Wound, I suspect having her and Artigas stationed at #11 in the medium term and providing healing to neighboring forts regularly could save a lot of lives, so we might be down our backup song-sorceress for a while." Which is a shame - he'll miss having her around. In addition to how valuable song-sorcery is, she's just very good to have around for morale, even with the prickly types like Demonscourge.

Select Artigas is out on patrol to provide channels to #15, so she can't report the Sending right away. This turns out to be good, because in a few hours she gets a Sending telling her to report to #8 (which is in the other direction) tomorrow night to pick up some supplies, copies of the books and confirm what her responsibilities are going to be. (She replies with an acknowledgement and a request for some of her stuff to be brought along.) She finds a time to tell Select Artigas this, once he gets back.

"Please convey my appreciation for the books. - and whatever they're worth in money, I can pay for them."

She nods. "I suspect these are going to be scrivened copies, so it's the cost of the paper plus however you want to value Rowen's time."

...does he want to play chess and tell her about how #15 is doing?

"Well, I only have to have fun once a month, but one can never be too sure when one is about to have a very eventful few weeks back to back."

(He's! Funny!!) She nods happily. "Exactly! It's very important to leave yourself some wiggle room." (She wiggles.)

She helps him prestidigitate a set of pieces. "So what was it like over there?"

"As it ever is but without the clerics. I've been before, I don't accompany a patrol on a daily basis but I take one every couple of weeks to stay in practice. They were... glad of the healing, for all that they're suspicious of Good gods in general."

She nods, developing a bishop. (She seems like she's getting better at openings, at least a bit.)

"I would love to hear your summary of the Chelish suspicion of the Good gods."

"Well, it's just that it's very conspicuous that their people hate us, whenever we cross paths, or else they radiate pity, and this impedes - more sophisticated contemplation about why that might be and what it means. It doesn't look very different from one's classmate or neighbor glaring daggers, or - there isn't a lot of pity to be had in Cheliax but that doesn't make it hard to recognize or particularly palatable."

She nods thoughtfully. "Yeah, pity is... really hard to not come off as condescending, I think, unless it's someone you know well? I try and avoid expressing it in most circumstances." Knight move. "...Another thing that often trips us up is the difference in expressiveness. It took me a while to pick up on and adjust for."

"You remain notably exuberant in the local context," he says, castling.

She shrugs. "I do it less in the mess hall, but it hasn't seemed like it bothers you. And..." She also castles. "I am enjoying myself, here. It's - I know there's a lot of misery that I could find if I looked closer, but... Hell exists, there's always more misery you can find if you go looking. Doesn't mean it's right to make yourself miserable about it, too. Just means you should help, if you can." 

"At any rate, while I have met paladins before and spoken to them enough to know things like the once a month fun requirement and the no lying protocol, my principal exposure to non-Asmodean religious practice is the insurance adjuster, Fiducia Boian, who comes around about once a year and has never related to me in that way."