"Legally."

"The gods adhere strictly to the letter of their own compacts," the Reaper nods. "Even the gods of chaos are bound by the fundamental laws of divinity laid down by the Overgod Ao."

"This is stupid!"

"I am not permitted to agree aloud," the Reaper says dully. "I can give you value-neutral information and reiterate things that I have already told you, such as the fact that Cania is the home of the Knower of Names, who possesses the knowledge of the True Name of every being in this universe, and can under extraordinary circumstances be induced to distribute them."

"Extraordinary circumstances like what?"

"I speculate baselessly that the presence of an Archdevil on the Material Plane, taking advantage of divine law in ways that were never intended, might be one such case."

"How exciting. Does being legally Mephistopheles or whatever have any advantages?"

"You will not be subject to the same restrictions as a standard petitioner, such as the loss of mortal magic, and you may extend this benefit over a limited number of companions. Unrelatedly, I will note that due to Mephistopheles' liberal use of Malediction, the souls you have traveled with for the past several weeks were all additionally consigned to Cania, and I could in theory instantiate them in your company before releasing you all to enter the Hells."

Sigh. "Thanks, you're a pal. You know what should be illegal, Malediction should be illegal. What's it like in Cania? Is it one of the Hell-bits that's on fire?"

"It is a glacial wasteland broken up by rivers of lava. You will emerge in the City of Lost Souls, a settlement built around the point at which petitioners enter the plane."

"Is it mostly just the recently dead in there and without their magic or is it also crawling with devils."

"It is, as you say, crawling with devils - but the devils which inhabit the City of Lost Souls are selected for being less hostile than their brethren. They are mostly members of a sort of cabal, which mines the ice of Cania for lost treasures and exports them - and the ice - elsewhere in the Planes. As long as you do not interfere in their business, they are unlikely to harm you."

"That's cool, I guess. Can you give me directions to the Knower?"

"Would that I had directions to give you, Sojourner. All I can tell you is that the Sleeping Man once undertook the same quest - if you seek him out, he may be of assistance. His temple is in the north of the city."

"'Kay. Will I have my stuff? I had accumulated some nice stuff."

"Yes. The true material form of your possessions will continue to exist on the Prime Material, but you will have effective simulacra of them with you in Cania."

"Is Mephistopheles Maledicting more people?"

"He has mostly been doing so to drow who would otherwise go to the Abyss, but yes. He is also using the souls thus claimed to fuel a massive army of the damned with which he intends to conquer Toril."

"I assume that means you can't drop them with me and my party as bonus backup."

"Unfortunately, that is the case."

Sigh. "What mechanism is going to supply the simulacra magic items? Can I get simulacra of stuff I did not have?"

"The mechanism does not work like that. I would have a significant amount of trouble describing in any level of real detail how it does work, but it does not work like that."

"Stuff I used to have?"

"If an item of great personal significance to you was lost at some time before your death, you may be able to retrieve it from the Well of Lost Things, near the exit. The retention of your personal possessions is based on what you had in your possession when you died, with some leeway for storage containers and the like."

"There goes my plan to score a free crystal ball and that Staff of Power and also my friend Hagan who I pretended to own for several hours!" Sigh. "Do you have any other, uh, related or unrelated, remarks that you would care to make - I'm assuming I can still catch sleep here and prep spells -"