alhoon wrote:
"Certainly sounds like home... " Raen whispers.
When the Banites are mentioned, Raen looks at the governor (to avoid looking at Klofuff).
"To be open here, if we go there chances are we will get in a fight with this evil cult. From where I am standing the church of Bane sounds like the bad guys. The way for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
In the not-small chance we will come to blows with these Slavers and cannibals, How powerful are they?" Then he remembers something.
"Does this symbol remind you of anything?" he says and points to the inverted holy symbol of the Lawgiver.
''Yes, the Banites are wicked men and if I caught them doing ritual murders or slave-trading, I'd execute justice on them. But I haven't found proof linking them to such crimes
in my jurisdiction. And... Sembia enjoys trade relations and a nonaggression pact with Zhentil Keep, one of the main centers of the Black Lord's cult. I owe the Council my loyalty as a citizen of the Sembian Republic and it was the Council that appointed me Governor here. You understand? My personal feelings don't really matter."
She shrugs.
"As far as strength goes, well...the Banite cult is unpopular here, as I'd said. Sometimes traders from Zhentil Keep pass through, and they all at least pay the Black Lord lip service. I suspect there are also some Zhentarim agents abroad in the land, but I don't have proof, just suspicions."
She looks at the symbol on Raen's robes.
''Hmm...well, spears aren't an uncommon sight and some militias and guilds and such no doubt use them in their sigils. But I can't say that particular image reminds of of anything important. What's it got to do with what we are talking about? What, or whom, does it represent? Your patron god?"
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.
-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)