Swamped

It soon becomes a lot clearer as you hear the grebling at the head of the crowd shouting.

"Your heretic camp's days are numbered, Delfose! Recant now and Reth may show mercy on your soul!"

"Oh hells," Dominique mutters. "Jeremy's here to throw his weight around. That's just what we don't need."

It takes you a moment to realize she must mean the loudmouth grebling in front of you, and not the loudmouth bird you were chasing down earlier.

"I don't suppose you can just kick him out?"

"He's a priest. There'd be a lot of trouble if we did, even if he's not that high-ranking. Luckily he can't actually do anything to us on his own, so it's something of a stalemate."

"A very loud stalemate," you muse.

"We have proof at last, Delfose! Proof that you have been trespassing in forbidden lands! I offer you one last chance to surrender yourself peacefully, or I will have no choice but to report this to the Temple."

"What's that about?"

"One of his standard empty threats," Dominique explains. "Supposedly there's something sacred in the Jawbone Mountains, so if we go anywhere near there he says we're angering Reth. Thing is, the idea that the entire mountain range is off-limits is something that none of the top priests agree with, not even the ones who can't stand us. That's without getting into how most of the time, his so-called 'proof' is just 'Reth spoke to me in a dream' or some nonsense like that."

"What about the crowd?"

"He brings along anyone who'll actually listen to him. Mostly they just help him make noise. This is pretty typical, but it's really inconvenient."

You take a glance.

"This crowd seems pretty quiet, honestly. He's doing pretty much all the talking."

"Now that you mention it, these don't seem to be his regular crowd. Odd." Dominique shrugs. "Regardless, we're not going to be able to see the Director while they're making all this fuss."

So maybe you ought to do something about that.