Worthy Core

House Highbranch's trip through Floors Two and Three went much as it had for the first floor, with the lower-ranking members of the party handling most of the combat while leaving the bosses to the twins. The two did an excellent job of dismantling Floor Three's traps however, with Silva determining their locations before reaching them, and Gilda disabling the various pitfalls and barriers with quickly inked runes. As was becoming standard, the party took a break for the day after clearing the third floor, making their way back down the mountain rather than choosing to celebrate their newly available menu options at the inn.

When Lollyp revived after their departure, the slime was quite irate about the 'cheating' the two had done - not only avoiding her ambush, but painting explosive runes on the floor while she was still busy taunting the pair. Not having had a good viewpoint on what exactly Gilda was doing, the slime had leapt from the ceiling, landed exactly on top of one of the magical traps, been bounced onto two more, and was barely able to put up a fight at all before being slain. An amused Xenia reminded her boss however that it'd taken the sisters several minutes of preparation to pull off that move, and so all told it was actually slower than some parties managed, particularly those at Expert level.

Xenia would find the visit waiting for her that afternoon to be rather less amusing, unfortunately. Not long after lunchtime Doorman looks down to find Bountiful Mother Hammerdown looking up at him, her normally pleasant expression replaced with a glare. Behind her follow the more common sights of Paladin Sable and Priestess Lilly, both of the pair looking rather embarrassed about something. Before the guardian can inquire as to their business, the dwarf woman reclaims his attention by stating it herself. "Door! Let us into that new inn of yours, and tell that daft fool of a dungeon spirit y'got runnin' the place that I need a word with her!"

Rather unused to this treatment, it takes the door a few moments to respond. "...I'm sorry? It's normally a delight to see you and your coworkers, Bountiful Mother, is something the matter?"

"Aye, something's the matter! I heard tell of how the dungeon was going to be converting Floor Five into a shrine to Kahlia of some sort, all well and good, I'm not one to tell the dungeon its business. But apparently the dungeon and I have very different concepts of what in the bloody blazes a shrine ought to be! So get her up there, and have that Deylia come along, too."

"I, ah..one moment. I'm afraid to report that the dungeon master's avatar spell will still be unavailable for at least another day or two, but another representative will be there to speak with you. You may take the first portal to your right there to enter the inn."

Elance hurries on through without saying another word, followed soon after by her colleagues, although the demonic Paladin does briefly halt to mouth an 'I'm sorry' in Doorman's direction as she goes.

The inn is fairly quiet when the group comes through, with only two tables in one corner being occupied by the mercenaries who were still waiting for another hour or two before deciding whether or not to do their own run on the dungeon for the day. A few rabbit-staff man the bar, keeping an eye on the new arrivals as they step inside, but it's Deylia who takes charge of their welcome. "Welcome to Worthy Inn! Good to see you again, Sable, Lilly. Bountiful Mother, I don't believe we've met before, but it's an honor to finally make your acquaintance. I'm told there's been some sort of issue?"

The Maid puts her full charm into the welcome, and to the surprise of her coworkers it actually does manage to soften the dwarf's mood a little. "Damn - darn yes there's a problem! And it involves you, but it's not your fault, lass. I thought that Xenia'd be smarter than this, is all."

That statement is responded to by Sincere, as the man walks up behind them from another portal ring. "Greetings, Bountiful Mother. Xenia is here with us, but I will have the honor of speaking for her, if that's alright. Shall we take a table and listen to your concerns?"

Elance turns her glare onto the demon, but it fades again under the guardian's professional demeanor. If anything, that only makes the cleric more upset - she'd worked herself into a good hot fury on her long hike up the frozen mountainside, and now the dungeon was being so damned polite about it all! Still, she returns the courtesy in kind. "Aye, let's do that, shall we? We've got much to discuss, apparently."

Deylia leads the group to a table for six, where one chair pulls itself out, apparently signifying the master of the dungeon taking her place. Deylia sits to the left of the empty spot while Sincere takes the right, and the trio from the Church of Bounty fill in the opposite side of the table. The staff begin putting together some drinks and snacks for the group, but once that's in order Sincere takes charge of seeing what the matter is. "So - are we right in assuming this is some sort of disapproval with the changes to Floor Five?"

Elance waves a hand. "That's part of it, aye. Look, Sable and Lilly here gave me the gist of what got discussed at your big anniversary party the other night, so forgive me if perhaps something got lost in the translation. It's my understanding that you took the young lass here to see Kahlia herself - heavens above, what a move - and discussed having her take on some grand title of the clergy and making a shrine of some sort to Kahlia on this floor? That about sum it up?"

Sincere nods. "That's about right, although I should point out that while Deylia here would be in service to Kahlia, she would not be part of the Church of Bounty. We're not attempting to force her into your hierarchy."

"Can't say if that's good or bad, but that's not the issue - or issues plural, I should say. To get to the first of them, I understand the goddess will be inspiring Deylia here in the use of divine blessings. All well and good. ...What about the rest of it?"

Deylia pauses before leaning forward with a question. "...The rest of what, Mother?"

The dwarf gestures in the Maid's direction. "You see? That this is even a question is a serious issue. Lass, being a Priestess is more than just tossing around blessings all willy-nilly! Lilly, you tell the girl!"

A bit surprised to suddenly be put on the spot, the elf Priestess stammers for a bit before recovering. "Oh! Ah, well, yes, of course. Currently my job description is a little non-standard as the Church isn't fully established yet here in Grassbrook...and also, winter is a very slow time for clerics of Palain in general, of course. But typically my day involves traveling about the region, assisting the local farmers with troubles involving their crops or livestock. On other days I work at the chapel and worshipers visit us, to ask for advice and assistance of various kinds."

The Rabbit Priestess considers that for a bit before shrugging. "But...I can't leave the dungeon. Or, to be technically correct I suppose I could, but it's hardly a simple matter. I think Xenia and I are satisfied with the idea that adherents would be coming to visit us."

Elance sighs. "The location isn't the point. The point is that there's a lot more to the job description than blessings! People will be coming to you with their problems, and it's not all the sort of thing magic can fix! Did...did the goddess not mention anything of the sort to you?"

Deylia trades a look with the empty space before shaking her head. "...No? Perhaps her inspirations will include something of the sort, but she merely mentioned Blessings in any specific way, as far as I recall..."

Whatever Elance is about to say, it's muffled as Sable suddenly claps a hand over her friend's mouth. "Easy now, Elly - I got a pretty good feeling that cursing out your patron deity's bad for the job security, y'know?"

Finally pushing away the armored hand with another glare, the cleric takes a few deep breaths before responding. "...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, perhaps, that a goddess might be focused on the...bigger picture things. You promised her a shrine and followers and your fancy new bunny body, and she leapt for it like a fish on a line, didn't she? Don't get me wrong, I worship her wonderfulness, but gods will be gods. Anyhow, my point is, there's so much more you need to do! And I imagine as a Maid, your training in service was to, what - be polite and do what you're told, more or less?"

The Maid bites her lip with one of her over-sized teeth. "...At higher levels of trust and authority we may do more on our own initiative, but we are servants, yes. Is that not true for priests as well?"

"Not if you're skipping right ahead to runnin' a damn shrine, it ain't. You need to know how to talk to people! To listen, to help, to...connect them with the resources they need! And every problem is a whole other thing, all of its own! For instance...say a lass has issues with a painful cycle, for example. There ain't no blessing that will fix that. Magical healing will lessen the pain for the moment, but what about the next day? The next month? If you don't know the remedy for such a thing yourself, or have a supply on hand, the least a priestess of Kahlia can do is get her in touch with the proper expert who can help her out." Narrowing her eyes, she points a finger at Deylia. "Believe you me, the last thing you want to do is find yourself in a position where someone comes to you for aid and you have no idea what to do for them. Even worse if you're running this operation all on your lonesome."

Sincere interjects. "I think I understand your point, and while Xenia has confidence that Deylia here will rise to the occasion, we take it you could provide some assistance with this?"

"If I must. But first, the other thing. This shrine of yours." Elance waves a hand around at the inn. "Obviously, this ain't it. Or the rooms for rent. What else do you have, that 'Fiver's Lounge' of yours? Greenie here's given me a fairly detailed description of the place, and it sure as hells doesn't sound like any sort of shrine either."

Sincere listens for a moment before translating Xenia's words. "While the Lounge is admittedly not decorated in the traditional manner of a religious shrine, it does, in its own way, worship certain ideals of fertility..." The demon trails off as Elance picks up a biscuit from a tray recently set out for them and lifts it in a threatening manner.

"Xenia, so help me, you better let me know when you have that avatar of yours so I can throw this at you! You're as bad as the worst of the applicants we get at the Church of Bounty! The worship of fertility ain't all about the pumpin' and the mess part of the equation! The results of it all matter even more! Take those noble idiots who came back down to town the other day - word ain't gotten around yet, but one of their retainers came by to see me for advice this morning. You know the kind of scandal that business might have started?"

Raising a hand, Sable speaks up in the dungeon's defense. "To be fair, Elly, the dungeon didn't do anything any innkeeper wouldn't have done. It's not exactly their fault a couple of young nobles got drunk and horny. Though it is an example of, uh...consequences, I'll give you that."

"Right, well, a dungeon workin' in the name of Kahlia ought to at least have a little more foresight than young fools. But anyways, this shrine! If you want a place for young Deylia here to do her job, to properly do her work, you need a place for more'n dancin' an' drinkin'! You need a place of quiet contemplation, where people can have a good, quiet, private conversation. To speak to the goddess and ask for her blessings. To have their troubles eased. It's a responsibility to the community, and if you're saying this is a thing you're goin' to be doin', you need to take it seriously."

There's another moment of silence, as the dungeon spirit presumably digests that and responds, but eventually Deylia turns back towards Elance. "You make excellent points, Bountiful Mother. While many of us here are at least superficially familiar with various shrines and other places of worship, the dungeon would like to know...would you help us with the design of a proper place of worship?"

The dwarf woman sighs, but nods. "If that's how it's got to be done, to be sure this is done properly. So - how do we get started?"