"The term Volunteer..." It was the Marquis who spoke up, her voice carrying with a slightly rough rasp to it. "Refers to you all being here of your free will. You have not been conscripted, or coerced. Whether you are here because you feel it is the right thing to do, to help other people, out of loyalty to your kingdom..." She pauses, turning her stony gaze towards Sera, "Or purely out of selfish desire for material wealth, is entirely irrelevant. You will be paid for your work here, but if you think this a simple way to acquire money, perhaps you should look elsewhere."<br/><br/>The Lady raises a hand, stalling anything further the Marquis might like to add, and turns towards the table. "If you'd approach? We're attempting to decide where to send you, currently. I'm uncertain how much you know of what's going on in the kingdom..."<br/><br/>"Cultists." One of the men in armor nearly spits, his face contorted with disgust. "Not even the typical religious fanatics, neither, some of those can be reasoned with. All that comes out of these lot is madness."<br/><br/>"Quite..." The Lady is silent for a moment, thoughtful, before continuing. "There hasn't been anything large, yet. No outward shows of force of violence, no towns lost to their madness. Not overtly, at least. But we have reason to believe the roots of this cult spread far and wide. A conspiracy, of sorts, that has taken in a disturbing portion of our population. It saddens me, but we must weed the garden."<br/><br/>"We can't go in hacking away indiscriminately, however." The Marquis continues, gesturing to the map. The markings on it are tough to decipher, but there's not a single city or town without some marking representing it. "We need to see how far this spreads, who the important ones are, and what their plan is. We need to know what they're going to do, before they do it, and where best to strike. You, while you have all passed our screening and are capable adventurers, are not assassins. We can respect that. But we haven't the manpower to deal with a kingdom wide conspiracy with just the military, especially given the rate of probable compromise."<br/><br/>"The job, such that it is, will be to accompany Marquis Elspeth. Search out any signs of this cult, find out what you can, and chase down any leads you can unearth. You'll be afforded some extra rights and privileges, as you will be working for the kingdom itself, though I hope you won't abuse them." The Lady explains. "The wage for this, will be 10,000 gold pieces for each of you. A ten percent deposit, really. At the end of the crisis, you will be paid an additional 90,000 gold pieces."<br/><br/>Turning, she gestures to the map once more. "We have a few leads in Hastow. It's a big city, a trade hub near the border of Valonde, so odds are any conspiracy will include travelling through there. There's nothing concrete yet, but that just means a bit more legwork for us." The Marquis explains.<br/><br/>"I'm not sure that's the best course of action." A larger man with an impeccable mustache points out, gesturing to one of the smaller cities. "Here, in Aves. A large population of our nobles, a large section of our governing power itself, as well as their families. We've seen no sign of any corruption, but any cult of this size must include them in their plans, no? We simply need to send more people, and search harder." He insists. It does seem as though the argument has been going on for a while.