Asmodia: "The Queen or Most High, whichever comes here, will, obviously, punish me.  I have been insubordinate."

"I hope that being able to say under truthspell that we were headed for disaster and something had to be done, will count for something with Lawful entities who recognize the existence of timeless bargains, and incentives."

"If they don't come here to punish me, and only send back an order regarding my excruciation, then I've failed.  That's the last stakes I can offer, and the last gamble I can make, before this Project folds in on itself and Sevar comes back to find only wreckage of what she left as a smoothly functioning organization."

Ferrer Maillol: ASMODIA WHY.

She cannot possibly be - she cannot possibly imagine that she'll be punished less, down this path - nobody out of Cheliax could possibly, possibly be that stupid -

A bluff?  Why would she?  What could she gain from it?

And Maillol realizes with horror that what Asmodia's set up can only possibly, possibly work in any sense whatsoever if she believes everything she's saying and is actually, as she sees it, trying to save the Project from disaster.

Possibly involving something with god-fucked tropes that, yes, he wouldn't have understood.

Ferrer Maillol: All they can do, now, is wait for the Queen and the Most High to come and pass judgment, or send back an order that will be Asmodia's end.

Maillol doesn't particularly consider trying to punish Asmodia himself, before that happens; there is not the certainty of the Queen or Most High approving.

Though Maillol will obviously order somebody in Security to have a look at Asmodia's thoughts, and inform him if she's planning anything else, or if anything about her thoughts doesn't match what she's said.

Security: No thoughts Detected in Asmodia that fail to match her presentation, sir.

(It's one of the Securities that has seen Asmodia's Gorthoklek authorization; a number of them have, at this point.  He mostly couldn't Detect Asmodia's thoughts at all; but he knows this fact is under the seal of Hell, that he must give no sign of it, that he is to answer as if he was able to read Asmodia's mind with no problems.  He wavers on whether to try to warn Maillol somehow that he can't confirm Asmodia's presentation, either; but decides against it.  If you know about Gorthoklek's authorization, then Asmodia's claim to have a direct line to Church and Crown is much more plausible as a gambit that ends well for her, and maybe not for Maillol.)

Abrogail Thrune II: "...and then Asmodia, so far as anyone could tell at first, disappeared.  Her spellbook was left behind in her bedroom, in its usual place.  Her one-use item of Modify Memory*, given to her in case of Peranza Syndrome or anything similar, could not be found.  Locate Object could not find it either."

"After a great search, it was determined that a vat of sulfuric acid had a low fire lit below it with no logged experiment in progress there, then that the acid was contaminated in a way consistent with a body and clothing having been thrown into it.  Asmodia's Wisdom headband was found at the bottom - thankfully intact.  The Modify Memory item was also there, discharged, shielded by the vat walls from the Locate Object spell."

"The area containing the acid vat was outdoors, but shielded from sunlight during the day by an awning that also blocked direct Security vision from fortress overwatch.  Greater Detect Magic shows the Modify Memory effect discharged there, and no other unusual magics cast in that place; many, including Asmodia, had used Prestidigitations and Mage Hands there within the time limit of the spell, and Securities had cast Invisibility and Detect Thoughts and the like."

"No alarm spells tripped to show an attempted exit from the Forbiddance volume, nor were any other personnel missing."

"On the surface it seemed a strangely futile attempt at either murder or suicide.  But then scries could not detect Asmodia, nor Asmodia's soul."

"After the next dawn, Aspexia Rugatonn tried a Discern Location.  Even that did not find Asmodia, which implies Mind Blank, or the intervention of divinity, or that she was wholly destroyed, or that she traveled to strange places beyond known planes."

"Aspexia essayed a True Resurrection."

"It failed."

"We cannot attempt even a Commune, let alone a Miracle, unless we make a decision to move all Project Lawful out of the Ostenso nonintervention zone, as a Miracle would certainly be intended to affect events there."

"We have sent urgent queries to Hell of the matter, and have yet to receive any response."

"Truthspells and Detect Thoughts upon all Project Lawful have failed to turn up anybody who remembers themselves to have decided to target Asmodia or help her; nor to have had any unusual means about them that could aid Asmodia's escape or kidnapping; nor any means to destroy, trap, or hide Asmodia's soul.”

(*) Bards are rare in Golarion, those that make and sell items are rarer.  The single-use Modify Memory items issued to at-risk Project members are repurposed Chelish spy tools, based on a 6th-circle spellform derived from the Memory subdomain of a Mephistopheles cleric.  The resulting spell effects are 'instantaneous', rather than the more versatile standard 'permanent' form of Modify Memory, and permit erasing memories but not modifying them.  The standard form would require the caster to concentrate for an equivalent time to the original memory modified, making them useless for erasing or modifying infohazards, since the caster would just form new memories of the hazardous info as the old info was being erased.  This implies that nobody on the Project was given complicated false memories, or at least, not by Asmodia’s issued item; and that the spell effect from it can’t be Detected, Dispelled, or Break-Enchantment-ed after the fact.

Carissa Sevar: Carissa stares dumbfounded at Abrogail for a moment, torn between being baffled and being sad.

So either Asmodia figured out how to arrange her escape to Osirion - likely with Clepati's help - or she committed suicide, plausibly still to be Raised by Osirion - or she committed suicide and successfully, somehow, got herself eaten -

Carissa Sevar: (no)

Carissa Sevar: - and there's another feeling, rapidly catching up with and then outpacing the bafflement. 

"The idiots. All of them. The fate of Cheliax at stake and it took them a matter of weeks to break Asmodia's remaining loyalty, which was based on our competence and potential for achievement, because - what were they thinking -"

Abrogail Thrune II: "People's remembered thoughts do twist and change, under such circumstances.  Maillol now believes himself to have been thinking that Asmodia was a promising young lady whose coddling by the Project's earlier circumstances was threatening to entirely ruin her, that Asmodia had been led on with far too much mercy, making her believe herself to have a far stronger negotiating position than she did, to lose her necessary and protective fear of her superiors, to engage in openly traitorous speech and finally outright insubordination; and that he was applying a carefully measured correction based on a previous punishment in Ostenso which had not then broken her."

"I expect that what Maillol was actually thinking was that Asmodia had no way out even in death and no choice but to serve well or suffer worse, that she was being unbearably insolent, and that she needed to be put back in her place.  This in fact would have been a completely unexceptionable belief in a world where tropes did not exist."

Carissa Sevar: "And, of course, it did not occur to these idiots that possibly, if Asmodia was acting like she had a strong bargaining position, she was pretty sure she did?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "I'm not sure that would have occurred even to me," especially if Abrogail herself had not known about Asmodia's sealed thoughts or Gorthoklek's authorization.  "I don't like thinking about tropes either, and the possibility that Asmodia had made herself their mistress and could deliberately invoke her own character jeopardy to arrange a murder mystery around herself would have taken me absolutely by surprise - Carissa, you can't just treat everyone who acts like they have a strong negotiating position as if they do."

Carissa Sevar: "Your majesty, Asmodia is not of a character suited to Hell, and yet she came back from it happier, more alive, more driven, stronger. This was of interest to me, because I want to know why Hell can't do that reliably. She refused to tell me anything, and Hell shared nothing, and so I imagined I wasn't supposed to look further, but -

- but there was more than usual cause, to wonder if she wasn't bluffing. Her first owner died, in the mere few days he held her. Maybe from ilanism it can be derived how wizards can keep their powers in Hell. Maybe she made arrangements with her next owner to let Keltham raise her. Maybe there's something afoot in Hell beyond our imaginations. I doubt she was murdered, or at least not without her cooperation. It's a stupid move, from people who expected Crown and Church attention on whatever came next, and she had more reason to think there was a next step to her plan than anyone else on site would have had to think she couldn't simply be resurrected. 

Anyway. The idiots let the whole project go to the Abyss, then tried to call her bluff, and she wasn't bluffing. Why did they let the whole project go to the Abyss in the first place."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Because the Project was twisted up in a strange shape around Keltham and he wanted to see what a normal shape was before he began to fuck with it, said Maillol, because the slaves needed to be allowed to exercise their natural impulses after so long and your subordinates' failures would give you a stronger psychological position in their minds to come back and tell them how you wanted it, said Subirachs, because when I briefly looked in from Nidal I didn't have time to run everything myself and I was hoping a strong natural leader would emerge from among the half-formed ilani if their former leader and protector was removed and they were threatened a tiny little bit, says Abrogail, and because she was busy in Nidal and did not herself understand what must be done to create Keepers but it would not involve shielding them from adversity, says Aspexia."

"To be clear, we were not correct."

Carissa Sevar: "A wise assessment, your majesty."

Abrogail Thrune II: Careful, Sevar, Abrogail does not say, because she has in fact failed, and if this is the start of Carissa Sevar deciding to remove her from her throne then so be it.

"If you wished something else to happen you should have commanded it so, Sevar," she says instead.

Carissa Sevar: "Your majesty, I would like to return to my project, that it may serve you better in building ilani and outpacing Osirion and resembling the Abyss a little less."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Then I will finish out this debriefing.  You have heard the worst that there is to hear, and it's the worst thing that happened in a month of your being away from Project Lawful, which is not very far above the Project's 'base rate'."

"At least one good thing came of the affair.  Possibly.  It's hard to be sure..."

Pilar : If Snack Service knows anything about this -

Why is Pilar even asking.  Of course Snack Service knows exactly what happened.

Curse of Laughter: Obviously!  And Snack Service isn't telling!

Pilar : Pilar is in fact seethingly angry about this.  The Project is confused, paranoid, distracted, and this does not benefit Asmodeus.  Is there a good reason Snack Service isn't telling?

Curse of Laughter: Resolving that uncertainty would benefit Asmodeus, sure, but it wouldn't benefit Cayden Cailean!

It's just like why Snack Service let the whole thing happen in the first place!  Asmodia being gone hurts Asmodeus, but hugely benefits Cayden Cailean, so Snack Service did nothing.  Snack Service only acts when the interests are aligned.

Pilar : There would be a very noticeable *twitch*, at this point, if you were watching Pilar and had a reasonably high Sense Motive.

Is Snack Service willing to say how Asmodia being gone benefits Cayden Cailean?

Curse of Laughter: If the thing with Asmodia hadn't happened - say, if Pilar had invoked the curse's power herself to bring order to Project Lawful, or even just agreed with Asmodia to protect the Sevar loyalists - and Cayden Cailean had successfully managed the consequences of that as best He could - the best-case outcome from that would have been a few tens of thousands of Asmodeus-worshippers surviving who would otherwise have died within the next year, thanks to things Asmodia would have done.

The worst-case outcome, if Pilar had intervened herself, would have been that it ruined Cayden Cailean's entire master plan!  And left Asmodeus holding all of the benefits from all of the sacrifices that Cayden Cailean made!  Cayden Cailean would have been left with nothing, and all Snack Service's hard work would have greatly benefited only Lawful Evil and not Chaotic Good at all, and Asmodeus would have gloated.

Pilar : *Twitch.*

Curse of Laughter: Don't feel too bad!  If there'd been any significant possibility of Pilar doing that, Cayden Cailean would've made different plans in the first place!

So it's not that Pilar could've changed things much by being a different sort of person, even if it would've changed things if she'd suddenly acted differently without any gods being able to predict that.

Cayden Cailean only steered events this way in the first place because it was a very reliable fact that Pilar was too much of a subby sub to want to do anything without orders, even when that would've obviously benefited Asmodeus.

Pilar : *Twitch.*

Curse of Laughter: Obviously, that this all provides a valuable lesson for Pilar is part of Cayden Cailean's plan too!

To be clear, in the future, when Pilar tries to do things that seem to her like they should benefit Asmodeus, they'll sometimes hurt Asmodeus and benefit Cayden Cailean!

But on average, on the whole, on net, and in probabilistic expectation, for Pilar to be the sort of person who goes down that course will benefit Asmodeus!  You can't actually become a true ilani and then a Power of Hell if you just wait for orders your whole life, you know!  Pilars who stay just subby subs definitely don't get to see their mother and sister again!  Of course, Snack Service won't say what the probabilities are if you do try.

Pilar : *Twitch.*

Curse of Laughter: Snack Service apologizes for being mean, but it's the only way to snap Pilar out of it!

Pilar : *SNAP*

Pilar : "Hey, Paxti.  Here's a cookie from me to celebrate being rescued from the dumbest ass in Security who hasn't worked out the reason that all the other Securities have gone very still and well-behaved, without any explicit order changes that would require their superiors to admit they made a mistake."

"And you.  You get one warning.  Fuck off, behave yourself, and don't bother anyone or pull any shit until Sevar gets back with explicit orders about what to do next."

Security: "Oh.  You.  You're the Caydenite who likes being raped, aren't you?  I'll get around to you, don't worry."

Pilar : "When you get to Hell shortly, let your owner see within your mind that Pilar Pineda, trusted of Aspexia Rugatonn, did instruct them in Asmodeus's name and as HER OWN incentive that you spend every minute until you get Raised being kicked repeatedly in the testicles."

Security: "Oh, now this I have to see.  You think you can -"

Pilar : "In the name of friendship, DIE."

Pilar : "I am the most proven Asmodean in Project Lawful.  I am the sanest person in Project Lawful.  I am the scariest person in Project Lawful.  And right now, I AM THE MOST ANNOYED PERSON IN PROJECT LAWFUL.  THIS DOMINANCE CONTEST IS OVER.  I WIN.  NOW BEHAVE LIKE FUCKING SANE PEOPLE UNTIL SEVAR GETS BACK OR I WILL FUCKING MAKE YOU BEHAVE."

Pilar : Pilar then promptly turns herself in to higher authority with a complete and slightly less than fully professional report, including the fact that Snack Service said that she needed to think and act on her own before seeking orders from the Most High for maximum benefit to Asmodeus.

Carissa Sevar: " - good for her. Does she formally have the command right now or is she just, uh, doing that independently."

Abrogail Thrune II: "It was not deemed wise to recognize the resulting informal arrangement formally, but it was made clear to Maillol and to Subirachs's replacement that they were to seek Pilar's counsel on matters related to ilanism or tropes."

Carissa Sevar: ...Subirachs's replacement. So Abrogail is as angry as Carissa, then, even if she's not showing it. Good. 

Abrogail Thrune II: "Progress on chemistry is accelerating under Avaricia, and if there's any difference between before and after Pilar imposed her order, I know not the mathematics to detect it.  Neither I nor Aspexia feel impressed by Avaricia's attempts at training her own ilani, but Asmodia's own attempts in that direction seemed to scarcely fare better, nor have the smartest wizards exposed to Project transcripts seemed to change even as much as I would detect in perhaps Gregoria.  It seems almost as though there is some magic in direct exposure to Project Lawful's secret power source which transformed them towards ilani, and the transcripts alone do not carry it... which, to be clear, I very much hope is not the case, or that you have absorbed it as well."

"We do have twenty very promising candidates for your next attempts at training, obtained by somewhat unusual means..."

Iarwain: Rosal Monserrat can cast Light, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Prestidigitation, Comprehend Languages, Endure Elements.  That is how outstanding her mathematical talents are, how good with numbers she was as a child and delighted in them; that as a successful merchant's sixth daughter, sired on his third wife, she was given that much of a wizarding education.  Not taught in a wizard academy, of course, but permitted to hang about the magic lessons in which his third son was being tutored.

A year or so after those lessons ended, the house's fifth daughter was due to be married off to an older man, rich and successful, strong-looking and with the appearance of a short temper; to Rosal, he seemed rather like the sort who might hit her sister.  Surely, she had thought, a Good person would do something about that - though she obviously had little to no power, in her household, and the alliance was not one her father could afford to lose -

Rosal Monserrat, who was not as pretty but did have that wizardry going for her, put forth her best effort at seduction and managed to get herself inserted in her sister's stead.

It is a year later now, and Rosal Monserrat is reading in her bedroom by the glow of her Light spell, feeling miserable, with fresh bruises yellowing about her face, her eyes, her thighs.

???: "You're corrupting him, you know."

Iarwain: Rosal is whirled about, standing, holding in her hands the letter-opener from her desk as if it were a real weapon.  "Who goes?  Who dares?"

???: "Your husband was a Good man, before you thrust yourself into his life."

Iarwain: Rosal stares at the shadowy figure who's stepped out of the corner of her bedroom, her heart hammering in her ears, not quite loudly enough that she doesn't realize that the rest of the household is far, far too silent; this is a mage, a real one, not her miserable imitation, and if they want her death or her hostagehood she will have very little say about the matter.

"What do you want?" Rosal says, because it's possible that if she asks she'll be told.

???: "To trade your soul for your husband's."

Iarwain: "I - do not understand -"  Apart from how it's even scarier.

???: "He was a man of charitable works until he met you, and now you ply him with drink and try to maneuver him into beating you.  He'd go to the Maelstrom instead of Elysium, at this rate, maybe even the Abyss.  And at the end of your own life, Pharasma would judge you for Axis, for your other attempts at Good deeds and charity to ease the guilt you feel."

"You belong in Hell.  Both Elysium and Hell would be better off, if he and you went there."

Iarwain: "I d-don't belong in Hell - who are you?!"

???: "Someone who belongs a little less to Hell than you do.  I've loved other people.  You never have.  I've wanted to do Good deeds out of the kindness in my own heart.  You've never felt any impulse to Goodness that wasn't about guilt and rules and what the authorities in your life raised you to believe you ought to do.  You don't want to do Good, you don't want Good things to happen, you want to be obedient and clean and not defy what your priests and parents and teachers told you was right.  I want pain in part because it's in my sexuality, you want pain only because you know you deserve it."

"You need someone to correct you, set you right, hurt you the way you deserve, let you pay for your mistakes, keep you in your place and sear away all the wretchedness inside you, and the problem, you see, is that your husband isn't a devil and can't give that to you.  You belong to Hell.  You've always belonged to Hell.  If you'd grown up in Cheliax you would have been a powerful wizard and a faithful Asmodean, and if you'd been assigned to corrupt a man like your husband you would have gloried in the pure service of it."

Iarwain: "What do you want from me?"

???: "Your soul for your husband's.  He's no angel for all his charity, or he wouldn't go along with you, but he can pull himself together if his wife doesn't pour out drinks for him.  You're such terribly bad people for each other, and someone else might call that lovely, but Good and Evil both have better uses for you two."

"Come with me to where you belong, freely and of your own will, setting aside that halfhearted attempt to be Good and assuaging your guilt with the knowledge that your husband's soul will be saved by the last decision you ever make in Goodness's name.  I'll leave behind a magic item that repays your brideprice and then some, and he won't try marrying again."

Iarwain: "And - if I say no?"

???: "If you were going to say no, I wouldn't be here."

"Don't worry, Rosal.  It's the last decision you'll ever have to make as this person.  It's no kindness, to somebody like you, to make them choose and not just tell them how it's to be.  I'm only offering you the choice so that you never try to tell yourself, afterwards, that you didn't choose it, or that Goodness didn't receive what you acknowledged as fair payment for giving yourself wholly to Evil."

Iarwain: "I - I could, change, do better -"

???: "You'd be even more miserable than you always have been, and not in a useful way where you're learning from the pain."

"But you're not really saying that to protest, are you?  You're saying it in hopes I'll hurt you.  You don't have to taunt me, Rosal.  All the pain in the world is there for you, whether you want it or not."

The figure clad in shadows steps forward -

Iarwain: Rosal freezes in her place, so many thoughts colliding inside her, her mind tells herself that she can't escape, protest won't help, all she can do is - pay for her sins that have finally returned to her -

???: Her arm is taken, in a grasp that seems both gentle and inescapable, her sleeve rolled back.

A small amount of liquid, hardly more than a few drops, splashes onto her hand.

Iarwain: It's like a wasp sting, the worst pain she's known previously in her sheltered life full of light spanks for children and her husband's petulant blows, like a wasp sting but huger and wider, getting worse and worse past the first round as her skin reddens, bubbles, and Rosal stares at it in horror and open-mouthed fascination.

???: "Do you think everyone is shaped like this?  They're not.  It's just you.  Asmodeus has always been your god, you just need to acknowledge it."

Iarwain: "My husband - ah! - will be - safe?"

???: "When is any mortal ever safe?  His soul will be bound for Elysium, so far as such a thing can be known in a world of shattered prophecy."

"My time is valuable.  You know me now for your superior, because I've hurt you and that's how Asmodeans are.  I won't order your last decision but I am ordering you to make your choice."

Iarwain: "I'll - ah! - make the trade -"

Rosal Monserrat is still staring at her hand and wondering how much more pain it will take to make her scream, hardly hearing the words from her own mouth.  She hardly sees the shadowy figure as it tosses down, onto her desk WAIT IS THAT A HEADBAND OF VAST INTELLIGENCE -

- but a colder hand grabs her other arm, then, and for the first time in her life, Rosal Monserrat feels the sensation of a Teleport.

Iarwain: And Rosal Monserrat is standing on the shore of a beach in an unknown land, in the night and the moonlight, with ocean sounds all around her, and a dull low stony fortress rising up before her.  The kind of unornamented fortress that you put up when it's expected to have only military uses somewhere that it needs to impress nobody.

Pain still radiates up from her hand.

"This - doesn't look like Hell?  And who's that?"

Pilar : "That's Olegario, my personal Security and Teleport monkey."

"Welcome to Cheliax.  Don't worry, it'll hurt plenty even before you get to Hell."

"Congratulations on that, by the way.  Have a fucking cookie.  On me."

Curse of Laughter: (Thiiiiiissss is not really how anything works, but Snack Service supposes that if you give an Asmodean a Chaotic Good curse, they're going to spend their first times wielding it on trying to lawyer a lot of rules that aren't really there.)

Carissa Sevar: "Do we, in fact, have a task force dedicated to figuring out what the fuck Cayden Cailean is playing at. It's derivable from what Keltham knows, therefore it's derivable from what we know, and I'm getting the sense the stakes are fairly extraordinary."

Abrogail Thrune II: "The task force is that I can't do it, Aspexia can't do it, and if you can't do it either then I don't know who the fuck in Cheliax is supposed to do it.  Why, do you?"

Carissa Sevar: " - well, maybe we can simply ask Pilar to go around finding girls like me instead of girls like Pilar."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Eleven of the twenty are men.  Regardless, I'll leave that to you, to discuss with Pilar and command her accordingly."

"That is all I had to say of Project Lawful and Project Chemistry that I thought you should hear from my own lips."

Carissa Sevar: If you're good at reading people it's obvious Carissa has many more questions but she's planning to ask them of someone it's not dangerous to yell at. 

Abrogail Thrune II: "A full report of what we know of the Scientific Revolution has been prepared for you, and the Osirion analyst who prepared it has been assigned you.  I - would hear your own guesses about what it all means, piece by piece, in the most important parts."

"First, Keltham ceased to be a cleric of Abadar within four days of arriving in Osirion, we do not know exactly when, and nothing about why.  Secondhand rumor says that he was dissatisfied with Osirion's treatment of women, based on some pointed questions he asked in Sothis and a woman he sponsored for wizard lessons in the Temple of the All-Seeing-Eye, but - I don't think - that can actually have been what did it?"

Carissa Sevar: " - I don't think so. Not - if they're handling him at all competently they could manage that, I'd think - and Abadar doesn't even know what a woman is - maybe if he drew the exact right kinds of distrust of authority out of his time in Cheliax?

It doesn't feel - right by the tropes, for it to be that. We never get anything because we're lucky.

And sponsoring a woman for wizard lessons in the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye doesn't seem very - I guess it's Good but it's an awfully Abadaran kind of Good."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Then why?  Tell me your first thoughts, they need not be your last ones."

Carissa Sevar: "A lie, put out to deceive us, or a truth arranged mutually for the same reason. He's worked up about Hell and is picking Iomedae instead. He - feels that Abadar mishandled his arrival in Golarion, didn't follow dath ilan's ideal of Cooperation, so he doesn't want to work with him anymore. He and Abadar disagree about whether he should preemptively destroy Cheliax - I'd suspect it was that one, if not for how undestroyed we remain."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Him having a disagreement with Abadar about that, sufficient to uncleric him, need not imply that his Osirian hosts would back him on it after, or the many countries party to the Scientific Revolution."

"Next.  Keltham has taken up a succession of headbands, the first we don't know, then a +4 Cunning headband, then about a week ago a +4 Cunning / +4 Splendour headband.  He is said to be drinking of Nefreti's wine.  It's dismaying news; I'd dared to hope he'd keep his fear of such even after leaving Cheliax."

Carissa Sevar: " - yes, that's bad. I'm ... not sure I can predict 'Keltham with +4 intelligence'. Did we send him Meritxell?'

Abrogail Thrune II: "Keltham's conditions were that we'd hear nothing back from Meritxell, and that if we demanded her back she'd return as a statue until ten years passed or he gave consent to un-statue her.  I pondered it for a time and finally refused him; I'd wondered if he would negotiate down, if the alternative was leaving Meritxell to Cheliax, but it seems not."

Carissa Sevar: " - huh.

Do we have good spies in Osirion's project?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "We have just about all the information that they don't guard too closely, and know little of what they do guard.  Medicine, metallurgy, they can't hide those technologies if they mean to use them, and so they let all the signatory countries know.  Of Osirian weapons development we know nothing."

Carissa Sevar: "Let's skip the barony. I think I'm going to be very busy."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Some might consider it a little rude, to tell your Queen you want a Barony and then go back on it four days later.  What if I'd already done all the paperwork?"

Carissa Sevar: "But being wiser than me, your Majesty, and greater than me in every way, you knew I'd say this, and so saved yourself the paperwork."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Still rude."

"Keltham has been buying a few magic items and an unreasonable quantity of low-level scrolls from Razmiran, Geb, and a number of less savory merchant houses from around Golarion.  He's been focusing particularly on items that would proof a user against detection, mindreading, scrying.  He's said to be eager for a supplier that can deliver to him high-level scrolls, custom-made scrolls of seventh or eighth circle, custom magic items.  He has flatly turned down an offer from the Kelesh Padishate to meet all his needs without asking questions.  He has a standing offer of 200,000gp for a Wish scroll, and a further price schedule for further Wishes, and will only buy from sellers who detect Lawful Evil."

Carissa Sevar: " - well, I don't like that at all."

Abrogail Thrune II: "If you don't have smart ideas, tell me stupid ones."  It's a saying out of dath ilan.

Carissa Sevar: "He's - trying to draw out Razmir in particular, as, presumably, the literal only person who can meet that request unless Hell wants to sell to him. He's...accepted the Kelesh offer but is pretending he didn't so we'll underestimate him. He's - does Abadar ever refuse to trade with anybody?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "That's a good question and the only answer that comes to mind is - I can't think of any case where it's said that the god Abadar refused a trade, but of course if Asmodeus offered Him a gold piece for Aktun, He wouldn't take it.  Of Abadarans, unfair prices, untrusted partners, cases where they're not confident of the quality of their own goods... my imagination of Keltham says that for an Abadaran to refuse an honestly proffered trade that you believe is fair, they must believe that they know something you don't that makes it not be fair."

Carissa Sevar: "But then why trade with Lawful Evil people? Because we were unfair to him so it's - meta-fair - to be unfair back? No - Cheliax did that, maybe, but Razmir didn't - though I guess he probably would -

Is Keltham allowing random Lawful Evil people to purchase goods from other vendors and then sell them to Keltham and pocket the difference?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "I have not heard that he isn't, and it seems like the sort of thing somebody would've tried."

"...what would be the obvious thought, were it not so absurd, is that Keltham is planning to do something with his scrolls and items which benefits Lawful Evil at the expense of other alignments, and this sounds like the most extreme wishful thinking, but - if we don't think Snack Service is completely lying, there's a vast overhanging question of some unknown benefit Asmodeus is to derive - one that, by tropes, we somehow won't like, once we see it, or Snack Service could just tell us -"

"I still feel that can't possibly be right."

Carissa Sevar: "Well, if Keltham were to obliterate Cheliax and also hand Asmodeus some kind of great victory in.... other worlds, or something.... that'd be too bad for us but good for Asmodeus. It doesn't feel right, though. If Keltham became Lawful Evil it'd be through his - not wanting to deal with everyone else's problems, and wanting to have slaves..."

Abrogail Thrune II: "We do not have any experience with Keltham playing games against us knowingly and with a +4 intelligence headband.  Suppose he can only trade with Evil, and restricts it to Lawful Evil so it doesn't give too much away.  Perhaps he only dares trade with the Lawful.  Perhaps he's going to screw over Chaotic Neutral in particular.  Perhaps it's a complete red herring.  Perhaps he's rolled a die to decide how many layers to put into his deception so that we can't predict the exact number, it seems like the sort of thing dath ilan would do."

Carissa Sevar: "It's too costly a handicap to be a complete red herring, I think, but all the rest of those - yes, absolutely. He could - be planning to overthrow a bunch of governments, and think refusing to trade with governments is most of the handicap anyway, and a dead giveaway..."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Moving on.  Keltham initially poured knowledge into the Scientific Revolution at a much higher rate than he offered it to Cheliax.  He used magical memory aids, chained enhancement spells, Nefreti's wine, repeated Lesser Restorations and Restorations, rarely stopped to eat.  He is not visibly-to-us trying to train new ilani to replace those he left behind, he is focusing on engineering details, working with existing experts rather than young minds.  If we were not proving able to copy most of what he taught, I'd have dim hopes of the coming war.  If we didn't have an army of wizards formerly unthinkable in Golarion, I'd have dim hopes even then."

"Three days ago, he announced that he'd spent one month at that and needed to do something different for a while, and hasn't been seen in public since."

Carissa Sevar: "How does that timing line up with Asmodia's disappearance?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "Four days later than that.  I came to retrieve you from your challenge shortly after the news."

Carissa Sevar: "Then my best guess is that she escaped to Osirion, somehow, possibly with help from Hell, and they're doing - something - together. Possibly preparing to conquer Cheliax."

Abrogail Thrune II: "I liked your suicide theory better.  I'm trying to think if it's because of how much I hate this theory's implications, or if it's because, if Hell helped, why, or without a Hell-bargain, Hell should've been willing to tell us Asmodia is not there.  I tried it with Meritxell, Hell is happy to tell us Meritxell's not there."

Carissa Sevar: "New theory, just as unsatisfying as the old theories: If he's sure his superweapons are real and he's really willing to use them I don't see why he wouldn't have sent terms over already. So either they're not real or he's not really willing to use them. If he's unwilling to use them it might be because of - me and Asmodia and Yaisa and Meritxell - I don't know if he cares about any of the others - so he got Asmodia, and he'll try to get us - or just Yaisa and Meritxell, Ione knows I didn't sell my soul..."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Keltham could still be thinking in dath ilani terms, just the same as when he left: he doesn't want to destroy Cheliax, and won't threaten to destroy Cheliax.  All that's true is that he'd want to clean up after himself if we misbehaved."

"Keltham... did rather famously warn the world that any country anywhere misusing dath ilani knowledge to make the people within itself more miserable, or to threaten other countries, might find itself conquered or destroyed, and that Keltham didn't particularly care whether or not they'd signed the Scientific Revolution conventions or stolen the knowledge off somebody else.  He declined to say anything about how he would, or even if he could, explaining that he was just trying to make his ethical positions clear about what he considered permissible to do in principle, and other people's estimates of his capabilities were up to them.  He also stated that his list of reasons he'd destroy countries wasn't meant to be an exhaustive one, he just wanted to make those particular ones clear in advance."

"Cheliax is for the moment not particularly using any dath ilani knowledge to make our own people unhappier."  For a few more weeks.

Carissa Sevar: " - well, doing a lot of conquest and destruction will get him Lawful Evil, so there's that."

Abrogail Thrune II: "One of my less pleasant concerns is that Keltham is trying to employ trope manipulation which is really a fight I do not want to be in.  I suspect Asmodia of having seen through somewhat there, and employed her own character jeopardy to force a murder mystery to be constructed about herself.  Keltham seems - I almost have the sense that he's setting himself up as the story's villain, as seen from Cheliax, possibly in a bid to deliberately make you the story's protagonist, which I would have thought was what I wanted, here."

Carissa Sevar: "What are dath ilan villain tropes. He's - trading only with Evil, that's definitely got some trope significance, but I doubt it's what dath ilani villains do."

Abrogail Thrune II: "If I knew some definite reason why dath ilani villains would do that, I feel like it'd almost make more sense than any other explanations so far."

Carissa Sevar: "I wonder if - in the tropes, in the story, I was supposed to go with him, and I wonder why the decision was made that I shouldn't."

Abrogail Thrune II: "It's among the hardest judgment calls I've had to make in my life, taking into account the speed with which I made it and the circumstances under which I made it, and Aspexia gave me an angry lecture about all the different reasons why you should've made that decision and not myself."

"By Keltham's methods, I should ask your reasoning before speaking mine.  In your own judgment, did I choose wrongly, there?  The Crown bids you answer and truly."

Carissa Sevar: "I don't know. If it'd been my decision I'd have gone with him, but that's because deciding not to would have been a much bigger break with him than- than not having it be my call. Maybe I'd have some influence over him in Osirion, though he isn't an idiot, and wouldn't have trusted me, and would've been angry with me and too damaged himself to hurt me about it. 

I don't think I would've defected to Abadar, in light of how Keltham abandoned Him almost immediately."

Abrogail Thrune II: "All I had at the time was - the visualization of the stories that would play out with Carissa and Keltham in Osirion, each trying to persuade the other to their point of view, the stories that could play out with Carissa in Cheliax and Keltham in Osirion, each yearning to be reunited but also to win - and the purely wordless sense that the story resolutions of the first story didn't look like Cheliax conquering Golarion or learning how to make great armies in Hell or, yes, Carissa rising to be a Power of Hell who could make those armies, and if there was any victory condition there for Asmodeus I wasn't seeing it."

"Aspexia was not satisfied when I told her that this logic didn't depend on whether or not you'd sold your soul, even without an option, that you having sold your soul would only create a challenge for Keltham to ravel Hell or bring Asmodeus to terms.  Apparently she thought that being told by Hell you ought to be allowed to travel, as if you'd sold your soul, and allowed access to your teacher, as if you sold your soul, ought to have led me to hesitate more before keeping you inside this country and not letting you access your teacher... I told her that Hell's words were no vision of Asmodeus and couldn't hold that much weight and, realistically, had probably been intended for circumstances now changed, for if they'd been meant to describe that situation they'd have been put differently.  She told me that decision should've been her call and not mine."

"She didn't actually say it was the wrong decision, or even the wrong reasoning, only that I shouldn't have stepped forth to make the call.  And - even in retrospect I can't honestly say I'd do it differently, if I did it over.  The story of you and Keltham in Osirion, trying to persuade each other - has a disturbing shape, one that couldn't end with a clear victory for either of you, or a compromise either, as best I can grasp tropes myself.  If you're apart, it at least holds out the possibility of you being reunited."

Carissa Sevar: - nod. She can imagine the Most High being furious about being told 'Hell's words were no vision of Asmodeus and couldn't hold that much weight', even if it was right. Especially if it was right. 

"Perhaps that'll be so," she says. "- even if allowed to travel, I would not travel, if you believe it does not serve Asmodeus for me to do so, and even if allowed to access my teacher, I would not go to him, if you believe it does not ultimately serve our ends."

Abrogail Thrune II: "For now - I do not.  I think that your separation is the - greatest tension, in this story, or at least the greatest tension that we plausibly understand, and the one over which we have the most control.  If you went back to him it would have to be under conditions exactly chosen.  There's a strong case to be made that if someone unleashes Rovagug and the two of you working together are required to stop It, even then we must only allow the two of you to reunite if it looks like - Keltham was sent in the first place to stop Rovagug, and not, Rovagug was unleashed because we had vulnerability to that cause of you coming together."

"Part of me is worried that reality itself just ends after the two of you are reconciled, like a book ends, but if that's so, it'll unavoidably happen at some point or another and so I've decided to ignore that possibility."

Carissa Sevar: "If I have any power over it at all, your majesty, this story will not end until I am a Power in Hell and satisfied with the whole place."

Abrogail Thrune II: "That's not a good time for it to end either!"

Carissa Sevar: "I will strive to do better than that, your majesty."

Abrogail Thrune II: "I'll be legitimately impressed if you figure out a plausible way how.  If I were an author I think I'd be pretty infuriated with a character who tried to stop the book from ever ending, and it wouldn't work either."

Ostenso nonintervention region

Carissa Sevar: Carissa Sevar marches into the fortress with her cloak billowing and her fingers sparking with lightning and her +6 headband of Intelligence about her forehead like a crown. She would give almost anything to have Teleported in under her own power but, alas, wishing intensely to be fifth circle does not make one so. Instead, she had to use a scroll. 

The first person she sees is a Security, one of the new ones now that the project no longer requires the highest security in all of Golarion. "Assemble the full staff of this project in the dining room in ten minutes," she tells him. "All researchers, all priests, all security, all slaves, am I understood?"

Security: "Sir!"

Iarwain: The Project sure is larger than when Sevar left.  Over a hundred people are gathered into the dining room, within those ten minutes.  There's a number of halfling slaves for maintenance, the sort of personnel who would be camp followers if this was a mercenary band rather than a highly secured project... there's a seventh-circle wizard here to guard the Fortress, who can override Sevar in Security matters if need be, but isn't here to provide any spiritual oversight; the plan is that Aspexia Rugatonn will do that for Sevar on regular visits.

Only Subirachs and Ione and Asmodia are missing!

Well.  And Keltham, of course.

Peranza, one supposes, if you want to think about her.

A Security killed a halfling slave just last week, but those don't count.

Really, most Chelish secret projects that last this long have a lot more losses!

Carissa Sevar: "I will confess that my first thought, on hearing the idiocy to which you all immediately devoted yourselves in my absence, and the costs you brought down on Cheliax as a result, was that this fortress and everyone in it should be cast into the Abyss, so that you can see how you like it when everyone's running around with all Evil and no Law. Regrettably that is not in Cheliax's interests at this time.

Cheliax's interests at this time are in preparing for war. For researchers, that means discussing with each other the merits and demerits of various plans for war, betting on them, and then doing your jobs and seeing who wins the bets. For everyone else, that means enabling the researchers in conducting their research without inconveniences of any kind. If you are directed by one researcher to inconvenience another researcher, you will not do that. You will, instead, tell me, and I will personally ensure that research goes uninterrupted. 

You may be thinking, 'probably it is wiser not to go to Carissa Sevar in a remotely ambiguous case, because coming to the attention of powerful people is generally bad'. You should, of course, notice that I ordered it, and then obey, even if obeying is bad for you, because supposedly there are some Asmodeans here; but there are also a lot of very muddled people here, so I will say it more clearly. If you come into my office and say 'I am concerned that I was ambiguously ordered to inconvenience a researcher', and then recite a perfectly innocuous conversation, I will tell you I appreciate your time and send you on my way. 

If there are problems, and I learn you knew about them and didn't say anything, then you will die in pain. 

Furthermore, I intend to instruct some of the researchers and Security here to, with my permission, give out orders to inconvenience researchers. This is a test. You pass it by coming to me; you fail it not only by doing as ordered but also by not reporting it. 

That is how we will handle any issues of researchers being inconvenienced, going forwards. Are there questions."

Security: A Sevar-loyalist Security will Message to her, with considerable spiteful satisfaction, that a number of very silent people are thinking a question they're not voicing; they're wondering how they are to be punished.  Oh, and some Sevar loyalists are wondering about how various other people are going to be punished.

Carissa Sevar: "A good question! We'll get to it. At the end.

Next! You might be thinking, that is a lot of time Carissa Sevar will personally be wasting with our petty dramas. I have two observations. The first is that if you don't have petty dramas, then my time will be wasted only my the occasional mistake, and not very much of it. The second is that I am, in fact, in the market for a person who is capable of predicting, having heard various petty dramas, whether I'd have wanted to hear about them. You will sit in the corner of my office, write down your guesses, and then we'll see if you were good at guessing. This position is available to everyone who isn't a top-tier researcher; you have better things to do. The major job perk is that you'll be very valuable to me and I will not want to go through the hassle of finding another one. If you are interested, you may find me in my office after 2am; I expect to be busy until then. 

Next! I notice this project has something of a leaks problem; Osirion knew far too much about it, and still does, and there are some fascinating rumors spreading in Egorian. The same policy applies for this as for inconveniences to my researchers: if you learn something, even if you're not sure if it's something, tell me. Eventually you will tell my predictor-secretary, once I've trained one. You will not be punished for wasting my time. You will die in agony if you knew something and decided not to mention it to anyone. Fake attempts to recruit you for espionage, or just to get you to share juicy rumors, will be made."

Carissa Sevar: "Next. Regarding the fascinating rumors, I find myself in the fortunate position of being able to clarify some of them. 

The Church of Asmodeus has declared it a heresy to say that my followers will be granted mercy in Hell. Some heresies are tolerated on this Project, but that one, I think, might cause a great deal of drama, of which we have enough. The truth is this: I intend that my followers be granted power and glory in Hell. I intend that they become devils better than any existing devils.

No other details of their future are, as of yet, settled, and you should not recite heresies about it."

Carissa Sevar: "And finally. What punishment is warranted for those who, for their own reasons elaborate or simple, stupid or clever, wasted precious time in the fight for our nation's life on stupid infighting? Some of you I will speak to of this individually. But there is one punishment that I think ought to be meted out while we are all assembled. Researchers. Is there any Security whose presence on the Project - because of his conduct or because of his stupid face, I don't really care - is on an ongoing basis making it harder for you to do your best work?"

Pilar : Pilar waits a few seconds, to see if anyone will speak up on their own, and then flicks a small wrapped candy at one relatively younger lad (INT 18).  He's not the only one with an ongoing issue, but he's one who won't be unhappy about being prompted to speak.  "Rejoice, young man, for your wish shall be granted," Pilar says, in case she can get Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Points off that.

Iarwain: "Ah - I don't think it was particularly political, what happened, but - I do tend to still lose concentration whenever he," he points out one particular Security, "is on oversight."

Carissa Sevar: "And does any researcher say that that specific Security is particularly useful to them, and has actively aided them in hastening our important work?"