He's available! Talking to evil Chelish people about Iomedaeanism is what he does all day every day! He can absolutely find half an hour more for it, albeit mostly by skipping dinner. 

"Delegate Lebanel? I'm Marit. I'm a lay representative of the Church of Iomedae, here as an advisor to Archduke Narikopolos."

"Pleased to meet you, Marit. I'd like to ask you some theological questions, if you don't mind. Did you hear about the spectacle this morning at the convention?"

He heard that it featured a lot of yelling but no murders, which is in his vague impression the best that Republicanism gets. "I'm afraid not."

"It was about me," he says, and pulls his holy symbol out of his pouch, "I'm the High Priest of Erecura, a Lawful Neutral goddess residing in Hell, and while I consider the former part of that description the important part, some others did not. The second to object was Select Valia Wain of Pezzack, who I have no doubt was utterly sincere in her denunciation but is, to put it mildly, inexperienced. The first was a resurrected duchess whose political proposals I was in the process of interfering with, because I have the heart of a republican and she does not, and for her I do doubt her sincerity. It left me with a strong desire to find an Iomedan who is both sincere and well-informed. And so here I am."

"...I see. It makes a lot of sense that, under the old regime, Erecura may have been the best of the permitted gods. I do think that the difference between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil of course matters a great deal.

Iomedae's Church does not recommend the worship or veneration of Erecura or any entity that resides in Hell, including those that are purported to be independent of or even opposed to Asmodeus. The problem is that it is nearly impossible - even for the Goddess - to confidently know their true intentions and true alliances. Most Lawful Neutral entities are willing to act for Asmodeus at one remove for the right price, and with such an entity that is in Hell itself it is impossible to verify any given plan is not Asmodeus's, and significant reason to believe that it is."

"It certainly isn't the most Good I could be doing, as is, I understand, your way. Do you think it is likely actively Evil? I know I am Lawful Neutral and that this was difficult to maintain five years ago and significantly easier in the last year, but I do not know how you would judge, or attempt to judge."

"When I say that the church does not recommend the worship or veneration of Erecura, I do not mean 'because you could worship some better god instead'. I know that that is unrealistic, and that people form the attachments and religious communities they do for reasons, and that those are not goods easily substituted.

The reason for the recommendation is not because Erecura is perhaps not the best possible god, but because her worship is usually actively Evil, and it seems very hard to be confident it is not. There exist Lawful Neutral clerics even of Asmodeus, but I would still assume that they are doing Asmodeus a great deal of service, or He'd stop empowering them. It would be surprising to me if the remaining Church of Erecura in Cheliax were not being employed by Hell in some way, though it's difficult to guess towards what end."

"The church, such as it is, is two people. I have a single acolyte, first circle, who's already been considering setting down her symbol for good purely for self-protection. ...That's not really important, I suppose. You would expect it to empower Hell, and not merely the fragment she's made her own? I have always understood that she dislikes Hell herself, and serves it only as much as she must, more or less like myself under the Thrunes."

"It would surprise me if any power outside Hell could speak to the true attitudes and motivations of a god of secrecy. ...I do observe, though, that a god is rarely in a position where they must serve Hell. Heaven would certainly take Her, were she seeking refuge somewhere."

"That's certainly true, about secrecy; no one short of an archmage can scry on her Gardens, and maybe not all of them. My understanding is she is unable to take that refuge, by decree of Pharasma. That Pharasma could not judge her Evil upon her ascension, but was so angry at the betrayal that she condemned her to Hell for eternity as punishment. Do you believe differently?"

"I am not sure Pharasma has the power to condemn gods to Hell, and I'm much less sure than that that the stories for mortals of disputes among the gods get told right. Certainly it is a convenient story for Erecura, and Pharasma does not tend to bother confirming or disconfirming mortal myths."

"That... is a good point. If she is in Hell by choice, then I would surely think much worse of her. And if the rest of the story is equally false, then the thing that brought me to her is also false; the ascendant who tried hubris and succeeded."

He's thinking out loud, and not quickly.

"It is possible that some other god might know the answer to whether that original myth is true, or approximately true, and whether She could leave Hell. I would not trust anyone short of a god to know."

"Yes. Pharasma might answer, some of it, and I suspect I could work out a chain of questions for a scroll of commune she sold. That's expensive, and I'd rather spend it freeing slaves, but within my means. And... I think even if I renounce her preemptively, I will still have the same burning urge to know. Even if it does nothing but tell me whether my last five years were, in a great sense, a lie."

"I'm not sure whether to suspect I was steered away from considering it. I tend to put considerably more weight on myths of the former-mortals, and as far as I know that's not disputed like it is with Nethys."

It's so weird that other churches just sell scrolls of Commune. "I would expect facts about whether Erecura was a mortal to be more verifiable than facts about her motives as a god, at least. I admire that you're contemplating the costs of verifying all of this, but if you are the High Priest of a church, even a small church, it seems quite important to have a better guess as to whether your goddess serves Hell's other interests."

"To take apart the church entirely, shut the doors on the single temple and tell Sarakaske to renounce her, is easy. I can be done this week, probably tomorrow. Cuts off an income stream but that's the only part that will hurt at all. I think, on balance, your argument is relatively strong that I ought to. Stepping back and assuming myths are just myths, it doesn't look good."

"The personal part is harder. I think...", he trails off.

I think I could not stand to renounce Erecura myself unless, and until, my investigation shows that she really does have the choice of Heaven or Axis, or that the origin I'm familiar with is false, he thinks, and he's unsure whether to say it.

"I think entirely as a personal matter I could not bend myself to reject her until I was convinced she is substantially worse in character than I thought."

"I do not regard it as among my duties here to tell anyone that they ought to renounce those the people important to them, even when those people are Evil, certainly when they might be."

"I appreciate it. Well, I at least know to plan to leave Westcrown. Either I stay with her, and am banned, and leave for Absalom, or I renounce her and I'll be back to Rahadoum like before She met me."

He has no idea where the convention looks likely to land on gods that are ambiguously in the service of Hell. "Do you have further questions for me, Delegate?"

"No, though if there's any other advice you'd like to give me, I'll take it. Thank you for hearing me out."

"Of course. I hope the convention inspires lots of - thought about important questions there was previously not space for."

"May that be true for everyone here. Good evening, Marit."