He's in literally god-damned biblical Sodom. The city itself has been cursed with a horrible painful death that gets you if you aren't sufficiently piously optimistic about it not to be scared, or already divinely blessed, and especially if you try to run away, because how dare you. And for what? Building a beautiful oasis of human flourishing out of the ice? 

Oh, he hates that. He hates it. He hasn't done a cold-blooded murder(*) since the second Great War but this -- this is -- yeah, someone's going to die for it. If it's a half-dozen local gods, well, he hasn't sworn them any oaths, now has he. 

(Hob considers himself to be already forsworn of basically everything he's ever formally promised in front of a priest, but in 1856 in the middle of a drunk history debate in a bar with an antitheist friend, he'd said, if God's irreedemably evil what hope is there for the rest of us? I think He's trying to be good and as long as He keeps trying I will too, and he'd meant that one.) 

Well. No time like the present to get started on that. He's on a deadline. 

"Is there a known enemy that is probably to blame even if they're not publically taking credit, or is it just that it's an obviously hostile phenomenon? If it's the second thing are there candidate enemies?" 

(*) editor's note: extremely load-bearing adjective

"Neverwinter has enemies aplenty. An old favorite is Luskan, an unusually well-organized pirate haven to the north watched over by a circle of cutthroat archmagi. The question remains of how they could possibly do this, but it's less urgent right now than how we can fix it.

"As soon as the clerics' initiative failed, the city naturally sent for aid from every source we could. I personally was sent to the tower of Khelben 'Blackstaff' Arunsun, one of the most powerful wizards on the continent - the kind of man to whom laws of reality need not apply. He investigated the matter and concluded that we could create a cure, with some alchemical reagents whose donors had a chance to acclimate to the curse's magical influence. Those alchemical reagents are the hair of a dryad -" (gesture to Desyyra, who waves ironically) "- the feather of a cockatrice -" (gesture to the green chickenlizard) "- some spinal fluid from an intellect devourer -" (gesture at the horrid brain-thing) "- and the blood of a yuan-ti. The first three were more or less willing to cooperate; the yuan-ti, on the other hand, are generally hostile to anyone who isn't also a yuan-ti, and after efforts to negotiate with individual members of the species fell through, with the death toll mounting daily, we kidnapped one, with the intent of freeing her once the cure was complete. She did not appreciate this. However, we only had to keep her for a week."

She gestures to the goblin corpses. "Due to enemy action, we did not successfully keep her for a week. But her acclimation was nearly complete, and she will have no more luck fleeing the city than any other resident. If you can find where she has gone to ground, we may yet have our cure."

"Well that's a horrible way for magic to work." Sigh. "I am not... thrilled... about the prospect of kidnapping an arguably innocent person to do blood magic to her? I have found historically that every time someone explains to me in a very convincing manner why this time it's necessary and good to do some horrible thing, it turns out later that actually I am the worst." He is maybe not trying to stop doing that for maximally ethical reasons (it is admittedly mostly that he doesn't like being scolded in the middle of an otherwise successful dinner date like a child who hasn't learned to chew with his mouth closed) but he is trying to stop doing that. "That said I do understand that you're under a lot of constraints right now. Does she need to be hauled in unwilling and alive for this magic spell or can I just kill her and bring you a jar?" 

His understanding is that people often prefer death to being kidnapped by their enemies, women especially. He is not totally sure why, it is very difficult for him to imagine wanting anything less than dying, but it's their life. 

"I am not - my city is not - in a position to demand her in any particular state, unless you find her before sunset of this day, which is unlikely. If killing her is more in line with your code of conduct than delivering her to captivity, or if it has less chance of allowing her to escape again, do it. If you somehow convince her to donate her blood in exchange for her life and freedom, I will personally guarantee it. This is a matter of gravest urgency, and I will not dictate your methods."

Jojo speaks up, looking somewhat agonized. "Lady Aribeth," he stammers, "this- this isn't what a paladin is supposed to do. You can't just delegate sins."

"I know perfectly well that I will be responsible for any sins Robert commits," she says flatly. "If I must Fall to save my city, I will Fall."

Oh, that word definitely had a capital letter. 

Oh.

Oh no. 

Note to self, the unfamiliar word paladin in this language means angel.

That's. That's fine. 

Do not say 'if you can say that it's too late' -  

Do NOT SAY 'if it'll make you feel better we can do some more fun sins first, ease you into it', for fuck's sake, she is so small and so exhausted and so good, it would be a damn war crime to try to teach her to cheat at cards or something even though it would be really funny -  

"Uh, I don't know what a yuan-ti is," is what he lands on, instead of saying anything about the ethics situation because unholy fuck is he ever not qualified to counsel an angel regarding lesser evils. "How rubber forehead alien are we - sorry, idiom - are they obviously not human on sight?"

(Jojo is also visibly freaking out!)

"She has the scales of a snake all over her body, and her eyes are serpentine. She may be able to use illusions to hide this, but we caught her in the first place because she was not disguised thus; I'm not sure if this was a limitation on her abilities, or a philosophical objection to hiding her nature."

"So probably recognizable on cursory inspection but possibly not on sight from an appreciable distance, got it. Do we have any theories about where to start looking? Are there known tells for disguised yuan-ti, like common street foods they can't have? For example can they digest cheese or are they obligate carnivores -- or, hang on, does your civilization even have cheese or for that matter any other food commonly consumed by mammals? It's suddenly occurring to me that I have not actually met anyone of my own species here." 

"We have cheese. Also, I'm half human. Most of the communal races of Toril share the general shape of their diet; humans do enjoy some seasonings that most races find disgusting or toxic, but if you desperately want garlic and pepper stew, you can just find a human tavern. - I am getting badly distracted from the point. She's an obligate carnivore, and if she fails to disguise herself she'll be quite memorable, and if she does disguise herself she'll be visible to magic sight. We can give you something to track her, but it needs twelve hours to attune and it won't be perfectly reliable, just give you a compass heading."

A sensible person, he thinks, would at this time be drawing useful conclusions about how nephilim work in this world (he was under the impression they could not Fall, that being sort of a done deal?) but actually Hob is quite distracted from that question by the sharp flood of relief at the reassurance that human food exists here. For a moment there he could feel a very old fear yawning under his feet like a dark pit and he has to take a couple deep breaths to stop feeling like he's still about to be swallowed whole by it. It's fine, he's fine, he had plenty of breakfast this morning and he's not even hungry yet. 

Right. The point. 

"A compass heading does sound dramatically more useful than nothing and I'd appreciate it. Do I have to do something active to attune it, or could I for example turn it on and then start orienting myself to your street layout while it warms up? Also, is there a way to get 'magic sight', I don't have that." 

"I'll requisition you a pair of goggles of arcane sight with your basic equipment. They'll be worth more than some houses, so do try to return them afterwards. Unless you want them as the reward for your help, which we should probably negotiate."

"Extremely noted on the goggles. Short term all I need as compensation goes is enough money to eat and somewhere to sleep without getting rained on, neither of which I currently have as my house and bank accounts seem to be in a different," what's the term the reaper used, "plane? Medium term I am plausibly very interested in magic vision goggles but what I actually want is a way to go home. Under normal circumstances I'd be thrilled to solve the immediate problem and then spend several decades exploring your planet but I have an appointment in about six months that I really badly don't want to miss."

"I can get the Cloaktower mages on it, if you succeed. Until then obviously we'll house and feed you, or grant a line of credit that'll let you eat anywhere outside the Blacklake district, which is closed anyway. If you need anything else don't hesitate to-"

"I'm going with him," Jojo interrupts.

"Are you."

"If your honor depends on his, then I'll make sure he behaves honorably even if you think you can't afford to. I took an oath, just like you did. And I took it seriously, just like you did."

He seems to be done stammering; his voice is quiet, steady, and very intense.

"Great, thanks, I'll - "

Oh no, Jojo. He is going to make sure Hob behaves honorably, is he. ... No, let's be real, he probably actually is. Hob is in fact not going to do anything that displeases the painfully earnest tiny priest of the god of other people not being in pain unless he really has to.

"Can't promise I won't do anything in contravention of an oath I did not myself swear but I'd welcome your help navigating the city and if you'll give me a rundown of the rules you're following I'll try not to break any of them?"

"You don't need to conduct yourself as strictly as a paladin, but I will certainly warn you if you're doing anything that might be morally or ethically dangerous. And we did fight well as a team."

"We did at that. All right. What's the deal with the magic compass?" 

"I'll have it and the arcane goggles ready for you by sunup tomorrow. If you wish to spend the rest of the day familiarizing yourself with the city... however much you can, in its current condition... you certainly may. I will grant you a pass to be outfitted at the paladin armory at the Temple of Tyr, which can at least get you fitting armor and a sword that wasn't made by goblins, even if our stock of enchanted materiel is currently limited."

She also tosses him a small, heavy pouch. "For lunch and sundries. Jojo, I assume you'll go with him?"