After briefly dealing with Alanka's remains and deciding to use things made from "him" as rewards for the players, Chris had no interest in looking at the "gold coins" the man had dropped.
Things from a dead man were best left unseen. They brought bad luck-not in any mystical sense, but in the sense that looking at them might sour Chris's mood.
Was Alanka evil?
No, he was not. He had simply spent so long among the Church's upper ranks that he only ever looked upward, never bending down to look at those at the bottom. Even back when he had been getting by in Bolas Fortress, he had never truly gone among the poor to understand their needs and suffering.
So even after Alanka stirred up trouble, "escaped," and returned to Votradnoi to resume his role as high priest of the Earth Mother Goddess, he remained somewhat out of touch, still behaving like someone born to privilege.
What did it mean to be born to privilege?
It meant being someone like Alanka, who instinctively believed that everything in the world would change according to his wishes and commands.
When Votradnoi faced an enemy like Prince Chris, and the local elites did nothing and even considered fleeing, Alanka summoned the Holy War Army without a second thought. It never occurred to him to coordinate with the local city defense apparatus or the councilors.
Nor did he think beyond how easy it was to assemble the Holy War Army. Ring a bell, and the prestige and influence the Earth Mother Goddess Church had built through years of work in Bagnia could rally a large number of devout believers in no time.
But getting the Holy War Army to repel the Prince's Army as Alanka envisioned required more than simply issuing orders.