Does He want a commitment to the effect that no plans like that are in the works. Because they're not. Though if Axis keeps getting in His way that would make those paths more appealing.

He tolerated Cheliax. He was angry about the currency trick, but He tolerated it, because maybe it would be true, that humans could build valuable things under Hell's guidance. And because maybe it would be true, that humans had fallen under Asmodeus's sway as their own choice, as free as human choices can be, that they'd chosen not to fight and chosen to live in Cheliax and chosen to worship Asmodeus. But if Asmodeus sends his legions to crush Aroden today, that won't be true at all. They will have chosen otherwise and been overridden. Not persuaded, just slaughtered. 

Asmodeus cares about that. He can - extend for a handshake the part of Him that shares this value, they can have recognition. Asmodeus prefers to be chosen. It's how He did this, the first time around. But the people of Cheliax aren't choosing Aroden, now.

A prediction: when closer to fully informed the people of Cheliax will choose Aroden. 

This seems to depend on whether the information they get includes that the Lords of Hell will ride forth to destroy Him. Also, if they did do that, the people of Cheliax would choose that over the destruction of the world, so that decision criteria can't be really the one in use here.

The fact people don't want the destruction of the world did feature in the considerations that led him to commit himself to the destruction of the world. He expects they were weighed appropriately but Asmodeus can see, if He wants.

Asmodeus feels like it is very uncharacteristic even in light of all these concerns for Abadar to have committed Himself to interference in this fashion and the main thing He wants is the information that would make it unsurprising!

Unfortunately some of it is secret. Abadar thinks Asmodeus is maybe running into a little bit of - a mistake of weighing things in hand more highly? He's not going to be worse off than He was a hundred years ago, when this is over. He will still retain the option of having human kingdoms puppetted by Hell, so long as the forces of Good aren't organized and powerful enough to destroy them with limited and symmetric help from the Good gods. He will not retain the option of doing whatever He wants on the Material Plane in violation of all norms, and that is an option He cannot retain, so -

Is there some shape that would let Him retain that option. 

Well, Aroden tried doing whatever He wants on the Material Plane in violation of all norms and it would've worked if it hadn't also been an opportunity to destroy prophecy so - that's the shape you have to be, apparently, that and four thousand years of accumulated favors and stored power, to have the option of doing whatever you want on the Material Plane. Almost. Abadar suspects it's not the only shape but it was a remarkably good one, and Aroden had been willing to bend remarkably far for it, and there's not likely to be one closer to where Asmodeus is standing. 

That seems right.

Abadar thinks maybe they're done here? And can leave the humans to blunder through the rest?

Why are the Velgarth gods so incredibly frustrating and hard to negotiate with.

I know right?? They're such assholes!

They move from city to city, Taver announcing terms, Leareth's mages Gating in parcelled-out divisions of Leareth and Aroden's combined armies to occupy them, quite peacefully if they surrender when Taver makes the announcement, with a little more violence otherwise. They pass word on to Aroden's new allies in other countries, of which cities are now pacified and could use help. 

And then he returns to Egorian, drops Taver off, and writes a letter for the diplomats in Axis, though of course he's had it in his mind for years, one of the concessions he predicted Asmodeus would ask for, and that under certain circumstances he would be willing to grant. 

Aroden will allow voluntary evacuations to Hell, and can personally make sure every single citizen of Cheliax is aware of this offer, with an announcement that includes whatever additional promises Asmodeus wishes to add on. Asmodeus is also welcome to send his own agents to spread word, on the condition that they be supervised by one of Aroden's people, so he knows they aren't just kidnapping or mind-controlling people. (He will of course undo any mind control he used for the invasion, once things are properly under control here.) He'll give the citizens of Cheliax time to make a considered decision; a fortnight window should be enough. He would like the evacuations to operate out of a small number of designated locations, well away from any major cities, though of course he and his allies will offer transport to anyone who requests it. He's not trying to make it insurmountably inconvenient, just a little inconvenient, make it require planning, because really something like this shouldn't be an impulse decision. But, if with full information the citizens of Cheliax would rather go to Hell than live under Aroden, he doesn't consider it his place to coerce them into not doing that. 

(Aroden will, of course, be spreading his own announcements in addition to whatever propaganda Asmodeus wants to broadcast to the nation, and he thinks he has a few offers that will make staying in Cheliax seem more appealing. He thinks this is fairly obvious to anyone considering it, and doesn't include it as an official term, because it's not like Asmodeus can stop him from transporting Taver around to inform people of his own offers and promises if they stay.)

He sends the letter off with another diplomat. 

The government of Cheliax will agree to this. Can people also take their personal property with them when leaving for Hell if that's what they're doing. Including if they're the royal family whose personal property Aroden has kind of stolen right now.

Letters and Sendings go back and forth between Axis and the material plane.

Aroden will let people take their stuff, if they decide to go, it is theirs. Within reason. Hell is very wealthy and he suspects Asmodeus will promise additional luxuries as part of his offer, and also he's providing transport and it's an unreasonable strain on his allies to let every noble evacuating bring a dozen wagons of possessions with them. One wagon per person, hard maximum, that includes the royal family unless they want to negotiate directly for some special exception. 

Also, Chelish slavery is kind of illegal by Rahadoum's laws - Rahadoum has some amount of slavery-like institutions remaining, selling oneself into indentured labour is legal, but it's not hereditary and slaves have significant legal rights. Slaves do not count as personal property for purposes of the evacuation. Slaves are of course also Chelish people, and can opt to accompany their owners to Hell if they want, but he'll arrange for them to make their own un-coerced decisions.

(He can't stop their owners from giving them propaganda or threats, so he suspects more slaves than he likes will feel trapped in it, but he can't win everything here.) 

There are lots of other terms to be negotiated, of course, but it won't take more than the rest of the day.

When it's done Queen Abrogail Thrune is curious - it's not relevant to the surrender, just, you know, as personal curiosity, what he even means that he is Aroden. A god can't be a human, that's not how gods work.

Well, he was human before he was a god, and he was still Aroden then, right, everyone agrees on that. He was an immortal human, too, and when he died as a god, his immortality magic brought him back again as a human.

(He's going to keep implying it's something like a very weird elaborate long-lasting Contingent True Resurrection, because he doesn't exactly want to spread what it really is.) 

She's not buying it but it doesn't really matter what she thinks about it. Her government signs the terms of surrender.

Then, at this point, there is mostly just a lot of logistics to do. A really, really, really absurd quantity of logistics, which will be ongoing for weeks if not months. Clerics are borrowed for healing, and for clean water in cities where this was disrupted, though Velgarth mages can also quite effectively sterilize contaminated water and make it safe to drink. Temples are re-consecrated to cut Asmodeus off from them. Donated food and supplies (including some from Velgarth, via inter-world Gate) are brought to the cities hit worst by the fighting, mostly Egorian. Aroden's commanders coordinate with local secular leadership in each city, who will ideally stay put if they seem willing to cooperate with Aroden's rule.

Asmodeus' priesthood, however, definitely can't stay. He's expecting more of them to take up Asmodeus' offer to evacuate, but if they don't want to go straight to Hell, he can also offer them transport to Absalom, where they're unlikely to make much trouble, or to one of the more nominally Chelish colonies that he intends to just make independent, where multiple gods are worshipped including Asmodeus. Or they can renounce their god and stay. Aroden expects most of them not to take up that offer.

The other Chelish colonies are a thorny problem, one he's thought about a lot with no clear right answer. Isger is next door to Cheliax, and he's decided he can govern it just as part of the country for a while, since the alternative seems likely to include Asmodeus keeping it and he really doesn't want Asmodeus as a neighbour; maybe he can make it independent in a few years. Sarcova is even worse, since it's south of the Sodden Lands and very inaccessible from Cheliax, making it difficult to govern, though Gates mitigate that issue a lot. He would just give it independence, but it's also kind of terrible. 

Rahadoum is about to have another election, though, since its elected leader just revealed himself to be Aroden of all people in hiding and then ran off to conquer Cheliax. He can ask if they want it as a colony, along with a dozen Velgarth mages who announce that they'd be delighted to retire to a cushy government job there.

And, announcements. Taver gets a day to rest, and then is back on an even more thorough tour, this time on foot with a couple of Heralds, informing everyone within his prodigious range of Asmodeus' offer and its terms, and the nearby transportation points where Gates can collect them and scheduled transportation days. No one will try to coerce them into not going, if they show up there, though they'll be checked for enchantments. 

Then he makes a separate announcement about Aroden's terms, among them, various plans to help most of Cheliax get to Neutral, if they want, and not go to Hell when they die. Most people are going to be Evil, mostly because of the currency, but there are already plans in place to replace that system, and many people won't be very evil and can counter it with good works, which there will be opportunities for. Also, Aroden commits to offering anyone who wants it the chance at Atonement; he'll arrange clerics to cast it and provide the costly material component. Taver gives some other info on what Aroden has planned, what living in his country will be like, and the fact that Aroden is considering whether to himself go for the Starstone and ascend to godhood again.

(It's mostly going to depend what the final casualty numbers end up being, once that's been tallied, but they seem to have been on the low end of the optimistic projections.) 

And Taver asks the city-folk to help the occupying forces retrieve bodies, and to list relatives who died in the fighting, because Aroden has allies who can provide diamonds to raise everyone who died in the invasion. Clerics will be available to cast the spell in every city starting in a day or two, and can cast Gentle Repose to buy more time for the cheaper Raise Dead to work, but even those who require True Resurrection will be returned to life if at all possible. But Aroden needs the locals' help to make the lists. 

(Things are going smoothly enough that Vanyel's ability to make very large fireballs is mostly unnecessary, and he would MUCH prefer sitting in a quiet workshop churning out diamond after diamond over patrolling a recently invaded city full of terrified civilians.) 

Clerics of Asmodeus leave. Mostly for Hell, where they've been promised comfortable lives in Asmodeus's service; most of the people who leave are clerics or their immediate families. It's about five percent of the population, all told. 

People get him lists of their dead. No civilization in all of history has had so many diamonds; they're very very surprised when he says it, and more surprised when he means it. 

Rahadoum can put whether to have some kind of relationship with Sargava on the ballot too. Rahadoum is kind of mad at Aroden.  There is a resolution on the ballot that is just denouncing him as kind of a jerk. 

People are wondering, if he goes for the Starstone, who will rule Cheliax. 

Aroden thinks it's very fair of Rahadoum to be angry with him. He's planning to return their army before whoever else is officially elected and takes their seat, since it will at that point definitely not be his army anymore. Leareth's able to bring another nearly ten thousand troops over from Velgarth, the ones he wasn't able to line up for logistics sooner, which will cover any gaps. Though, of course, he doesn't intend to keep occupying his own country with an army, or for very much longer at all if he can help it.

He's still considering the question of leadership, but if he does go for the Starstone it won't be for a little while.