(My/Antilla Player(s) Stay Out) Short Term Role to Long Term Character-- suggestions?

I am running a quasi-historical fantasy campaign set in the 13th century. Historical Europeans have shown up in an alternate North America on a quest for the Holy Grail. Of my seven characters, six are Europeans and one is a local.

So, while six of the characters are part of a clear quest that makes sense to them culturally, one is not. The local became part of the adventuring party because she was asked by the chief of her village to serve as their guide; the characters had agreed to help rescue the chief's daughter from a city in the South and, in exchange, they were promised an ancient artifact of the village.

Well, the rescue has now been mostly achieved and so I am looking for in-game justifications for the guide to stay with the group and not just return home. Normally I'm pretty good at this but for some reason I'm suffering from GM's block. I'm reluctant to do the two obvious things: (a) destroy her home and (b) have the powerful respected NPC-prophet of her people ask her to continue in the mission. The solutions seem rather cliched.

So, what would you do to turn a guide who doesn't really understand these alien people she's been helping into a permanent member of the party?

I know that I've just provided the most skeletal information about my campaign but I find that I can never anticipate what kind of information people need to answer questions like this. So, I'm happy to provide more details in response to any questions.

I guess you could have the europeans try to convert the "heathen".

You could have the local character have some kind of "vision", although that's pretty cheesy.

You could have the legend of the grail be part of the local character's mythological background, so venturing on the same quest would make sense.

You could just have the euro-trash ask the guide to come along as a paid retainer, because how else are they going to survive in an alien world?

Just a few thoughts.

It's a grail quest, huh?

How would the player of the guide feel about recieving a Christian vision?

Patryn of Elvenshae said:

How would the player of the guide feel about recieving a Christian vision?

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The game is Mormon-inspired in part so there are Christian elements to her belief system. I would imagine she would be friendly to visions that were compatible with her pre-existing beliefs.

LostSoul said:

I guess you could have the europeans try to convert the "heathen".

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They're working on that but it's not going to happen overnight.

You could have the legend of the grail be part of the local character's mythological background, so venturing on the same quest would make sense.

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Something like this could work. But part of the problem is that nobody is very sure what form the grail is taking in this world. The party was informed by Judas Iscariot that it was carved from an emerald that broke from Lucifer's crown when he was cast down from heaven. But also, one of them recently had a dream about it being the Black Cauldron of Annwfn.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. This is helping. Keep 'em coming if possible.