Swamped

"Our last high priestess," the priest says. "She kept the church together during trying times. She was already sick when I joined, so I did not have the good fortune to meet her myself. But the other priests told me many stories about her, and the church has grown more divided without her presence. Priests from the main temple get in arguments with priests from the smaller churches all the time."

"So if she comes from beyond the grave with a divine message, if you make a good enough show of it you can talk the priests into going anywhere," the woman muses. "Seems a good working theory as to how it was done - now we just need to work out where they've gone."

"Hold it," you interject. "You were just about to leave a minute ago. You're not just sticking around because you had an idea - you think it's relevant to what you're doing. Care to share why?"

"It's simple. I'm trying to track down a wizard who has a habit of doing this sort of creepy thing. It's actually my main goal here. So finding these priests is very likely to bring me closer to my quarry."

That was a more straightforward answer than you expected.

"Well, there's one thing I don't get," Arlene says, twirling the rainguard. "If this belongs to Brother Herbert, and he's always worried it might rain, why'd he leave it behind if they were following a dead high priestess? Does he think she'd keep the rain away?"

"Or did she guide them somewhere he wouldn't be able to bring it," you muse. You glance at the priest - he'd be the most likely to know something about this.