Leadership, to work by the rules.

Working outside the rules can be done with a variety of Skills, including Deceit, Sleight of Hand, Contacting, or Burglary, depending on exactly which rules you're ignoring and what you're doing.

Endlessly convenient that Sir Ulath was there, and that nothing Arkady just said can't be attested to by him...I'm sorry, Mr. Patriarch sir, but your boss has already decided that our trucks are off limits to summary impressment.

Well do we want to do social combat or do we want to discard a Knight and draw a Servant?

Legally we don't have much ground to stand on so unless we think there is knavery afoot we might want to walk away glad we didn't get conscripted ourselves. Maybe take the time to appeal to another authority.

This wouldn't so much be us pulling rank (which isn't social combat) as making the case that what we're doing is actually important/urgent and that Sir Ulath is needed for it. And quite aside from him having been useful before (we never would have found the Blue Rose if he couldn't demand shelter from the Count), he's the only one in the party who's familiar with trolls.

edit: and now it occurs to me that we can raise another patriarch on the radio...just not Sir Ulath's actual preceptor.

I need a quick refresher on what Zemoch and Rendor are. (We were abroad in Rendor, right?)

edit: Oh I thought Zemoch was a religion, possibly the faith of Azash, but from context it seems like Zemoch and Rendor are both just regions across the sea?

Zemoch is the country headed up by the insane god Azash. Raven, Martel, and the Seeker work for Azash.

Rendor is the magic hating desert country that Martel was associating with. Gave their religious leader counsel.

Ahhh ok. Thank you.

edit: Do the Rendor(i?) have any gods?

Funnily enough they worship the Elene god. They just hate the Elene church and it's bureaucracy. Except the rules and regulations are the only thing the Elene god seems to care about.

Right. I forget that the Elene church is strictly anti-magic, especially now with the brand new Arch Prelate.

Nah, the Rendor people are the sect that's explicitly anti magic. The main church disapproves of it but turns a blind eye in the name of national defense. Ortzel, who we helped get elected, was seemingly convinced to not try and stamp it out.

Rendor you have visited. It is a desert country across the sea, and there are a certain number of fanatics in the desert who tend to be violently against the Elene church (they all theoretically worship the same god, who, as Kajin points out, is mainly interested in the rules and regulations). A close look at the Rendorish fanatics shows that they're mostly the followers of one or the other charismatic leader, and they eagerly do as said leader asks (there's one story circulating among the Church Knights about a Rendorish faction leader with a poor command of the language - he meant to say "Fall on your foes" but due to his language difficulties he said "Fall on your swords" instead, and then spent all day trying to figure out why his followers had committed suicide). There's always a new group of Rendorish fanatics following a new charismatic leader, for some reason.

Zemoch is actually not across the sea; it has a land border with the Elene kingdoms, and that land border is rigorously patrolled. On both sides. It's the kingdom where the state religion is the worship of Azash, and everyone in that kingdom follows the state religion, mainly because Azash likes human sacrifices and anyone who is not an Azash worshipper gets sacrificed. They regularly manage to slip the odd magic-wielder over the border, where he then goes on to Cause Trouble - dealing with these guys is one of the functions of the Church Knights (the average Zemoch sorcerer still dies to a sword through the guts; the tricky part is usually finding the guys). About five hundred years ago, Otha, leader of Zemoch, tried to invade the Elene kingdoms and there was a massive war along the border; technically Zemoch lost, but there was not enough left of the Elene army to pursue (in fact, even after they went home, there were not enough men left to properly work the fields, and there was a years-long famine as a result). Relations between Zemoch and the Elene kingdoms have been... strained... ever since.

The Church Knights have special dispensation to use magic in the name of national defence - they are all very well aware that this special dispensation is the major reason why there still are Elene kingdoms and Zemoch hasn't overrun everything.

Unless, as Ortzel didn't, they don't believe in magic. That seems to be the conservative wing of the Elene clergy view these days.

Now I'm idly wondering if it's worth dropping a point to get a clear radio connection to Vanire to let him explain just how urgent it is...

It might be a good idea to try and contact him regardless. I'm harboring doubts as to the legitimacy of this campaign. Even if it is legit we can have Vanire send a letter giving Ulath permanent standing orders to accompany us (I also rather doubt our new friend will believe the magic talking box is really Vanire).