He wasn't doubting his decision to defect enough in the first place to feel any different.

"I don't know exactly how you all plan to split up the loot, and long term I'm planning on selling spells and I don't really plan to need another combat spell... but this variant of Black Tentacles looks really interesting.  It has been squeezed down to third circle and I think the only trade-offs are a bit more randomness and a bit less forcefulness to them."

"And as for the Malediction scrolls... I heard it's possible to cast in reverse or something like that?  Has anyone heard more details?  I think reversing it sends a previously maledicted person to Pharasma's normal judgement?"  As opposed to sending them to the opposite afterlife, and thus you can't use it as a get-into-Heaven free card, even if Heaven would accept that and you had a malediction scroll to spare.

"I'm not sure of the exact limits... like if it works on anyone sent to the Abyss or if it has to be cast on someone maledicted to Baphomet's labyrinth in particular. my former group never bothered maledicting anyone, we didn't have the scrolls to spare or anyone high enough circle to cast it.  I assume your group had more higher circle people?"

He glances to Mateo.

Stupid bastard, you don't indicate you aren't sure about your share of the loot.  You should in fact imply you are owed at least an equal split (at a minimum) but leave enough ambiguity that someone stronger than you can take more than their share without either of you losing face or reputation.

Also, you shouldn't be reminding these Andorans about their former cult membership.  He's gonna have to ditch this guy once they get to Andoran if he keeps this up!

"If reversing it can only be used on people formerly maledicted by the same god and only sends them to Pharasma or whatever I don't think that would help anyone.  The only people I know of that got maledicted to Baphomet were priests of Asmodeus.  Tortured by Baphomet's demons or tortured by Asmodeus's devils, like same difference right?"  And if that is heresy it is hopefully only at face-punching levels of offense.

She knows this one! It came up once in a public sermon by some Sarenrite about how there are no mistakes that are truly irreversible. (She didn't think it was a very good sermon. Even if you fish someone back out of Hell, you haven't reversed the years they spent being tortured.)

"The person who cast a Malediction can undo it by casting the spell backwards. I don't know offhand whether it works to cast it from a scroll made by a different god's cleric—" She glances at Shakti.

"The spellform should be the same, so by my understanding of the likely mechanism I would expect it to, but I don't know for certain."

Nod. "The Sarenrites and the Shelynites would know for sure, and if there's someone who could make use of them they'd know where to find them — I don't know if there is, almost everyone capable of casting it was killed in the revolution or fled to Cheliax. That's if we're Teleporting back, if we're going overland I don't want to risk it falling into the wrong hands."

"—and you really really shouldn't Maledict people even if they're Asmodean priests, it'll almost never matter but — sorry, I know it wasn't you casting the spells, just — do you have the concept of there being some things that are wrong to do to anyone no matter how awful they were—"

Also if someone is going to be damned regardless it still feels kind of messed up to force them to be damned the opposite way of how they'd have chosen? But she's not sure how well that holds up for priests of Asmodeus, it's not like she wants Asmodeus to be more powerful either.

"I never really understood the evil theology anyone tried to teach me, so I definitely don't know any good theology or whatever it is you're trying to explain."

He thinks that should be an acceptable way to frame his ignorance.  And anyway, he's gotten the feeling this group isn't likely to hit him for not knowing something no matter how he frames it.

"I think I can sort of see what you're trying to say?"  Refusing to do some things no matter the circumstances seems to match with the criticisms he's heard of Good.

"But I don't see how an Asmodean priest being sent to the Abyss is more awful than them normally dying and going to Hell?  Like Asmodeus tortures even his loyal followers, right?"

He wants to change the subject to the question of whether they should be using the teleport scroll immediately or not, but this Good theology seems important... and he's not feeling quite ready to push the implicit claim to a share of the loot that asking for the teleport scroll to be used basically is.

"—So, there are a couple different parts to it. I agree that it's a lot worse to Maledict someone innocent. But — well, first of all, Asmodean priests almost always get sent to an Evil afterlife, but there's technically a chance that they won't be. I don't know if it's, uh, ever actually happened, but it could. And I think that chance matters, and it's wrong to take it away completely.

So then, second, I think there's a difference between... a bad thing happening, and making that bad thing happen on purpose? Like, if you're travelling, and you meet a traveler who's been attacked and left for dead, and you could save his life really easily, it's wrong to leave him to die. But it'd be worse to just go up to a random traveler, stab them, and leave them bleeding out, even though they end up dead either way. —That one's the sort of thing where people argue about how much it matters, pretty much everyone thinks it matters some but not everyone thinks it matters the same amount. And so — there's a difference between killing them, even if you know they'll be damned, and trying to make sure of it.

—Uh, that's a little bit sideways from what I was starting to say, which is that — so, there's plenty of things that are usually wrong, but that'd be okay to do to some people, or in some circumstances. Like, it'd usually be wrong to kill people, but it's not like we don't kill Asmodean priests sometimes. But there's other things where there's never something that makes it okay, like if we'd taken an Asmodean priestess captive for some reason we wouldn't rape her. And with Malediction — it can be easy to feel like what Asmodean priests have done is so horrible that they'll deserve what happens to them in the Evil afterlives. But — Hell is really really really awful. I don't know if you've ever seen a Scry of Hell but it's worse than almost anyone imagines, if they haven't seen for themselves. Almost none of them deserve that, and — people say that with the Abyss it depends a bit more on where they end up, but I'd be shocked if Baphomet's gentler with Asmodean priests in particular. And unlike when they go to Hell, you can't even say — it'd be better if it didn't happen to them but they kind of brought in on themselves, we can't just let them keep doing all the awful things they're doing just because they're so committed to being awful that they're willing to suffer forever for it, if they don't want to go to Hell they should make different choices — because if you Maledict them you're taking it out of their hands."

"I think it also matters that they'd have chosen Hell over the Abyss if they'd had the chance. That's not the main reason Maledicting people is generally wrong, but it is a reason, and it applies just as much to them as to people who'd have preferred an afterlife that isn't terrible."

She glances around the group. "—I'm happy to keep talking about this but we should maybe figure out if we're using the Teleport right away first, if we are then there's not really a reason to stick around."

"How much is a Teleport scroll worth in Andoran, and is there anyone besides the six of us that would get a cut?"

"And as a point of comparison... in comparable missions, how often do you or similar adventuring groups run into extreme danger on your way out of Cheliax?  Not like the giant beetles we ran into the other day, like a real threat, like a prepared Chelish team closing in on you."

The price fluctuates somewhat with the seasons, but Teleport is the single fifth-circle arcane spell for which scrolls are in the greatest demand. They are slightly cheaper in Andoran than in countries where wizards are rarer, though not very much cheaper; as trade goods go, it's relatively straightforward to transport in a Teleport. (If they happened to have convenient access to the black market in urban Cheliax,  they could likely get an excellent price, but they almost certainly can't do so without being arrested.

He quotes the most recent price he remembers in Andoran (around a thousand Absalom pounds), "split between the six of us, potentially with adjustments to ensure no one gets an unfairly low portion if there are fewer items they can use." (Plenty of adventurers donate some of what they get back to the Eagle Knights as a whole, but in this context it wouldn't be required.) "But if it's money you're worried about, your share of the remainder should be more than enough to cover your needs — my concern with using it here is that it would most likely mean that whoever we would otherwise have sold it to won't have access to it in an emergency, and is more likely to be captured themself."

"I think — it depends on what exactly you count, probably? Like, we get into some sort of fight with Cheliax pretty much every time, but that's, uh, counting fights that we started ourselves, on purpose, which are less dangerous, relatively speaking. Accidentally getting into a fight with Cheliax that we really didn't want, with a patrol or something... definitely less than half the time for us, when we're travelling alone. More than half the time for people who can be tracked, or who can't spend all night in a Rope Trick, or who're trying to do some sort of complicated spying thing where they have to lie a lot instead of sneaking through the woods, and more than that if we've got a group of people with us. But it's usually just a patrol, and it's not that hard to fight off a patrol, if you're third circle. The hardest part is — if they retreat and any of them manage to lose you, or if you do it anywhere where anyone was watching, now you're at risk of being scried, and if you've got the scroll you can just Teleport out. —There's places where we'd use masks or disguises or things like that, so they can't get a good description but it's not worth it for just travelling through the woods. Running into some sort of monster in the forest happens almost every time even if you only count things that are more dangerous than those bugs, and it hasn't killed us yet but..." She looks confused for a moment. "...I don't know if that means anything, since if it had we'd be dead...? And we, uh, don't worry that much about getting killed by forest monsters, if we're alone, like, we'd rather it not happen but it's a lot better than getting captured by Cheliax."

(Presumably he's a lot more worried than they are about getting killed by forest monsters, though.)

"Half the people I met when I joined up are dead."

"—wow, okay. I forgot, how long exactly's it been for you?"

"Five years."

Nod. "And mostly that'd be people who've got at least some adventuring experience already, not people who're just, uh, really bad at adventuring." 

It was kind of hard to spend money in Cheliax as a bandit or cultist, but he managed, and he is pretty sure he can spend even more money in Andoran.

"I'm favor of not using it, I bet we make it out of Cheliax no problem!"

"Uh, I guess the same for me.  If it looks like we are about to run into a more serious problem I'm in favor of using it right away, though."

Huh, she hadn't been expecting that. She's proud of them but it'd probably come across wrong to say so.

"Makes sense to me. Uh, probably it makes sense for each of you to carry one of them for now, even if that's not how we end up splitting the money?"

"We should probably split up the rest of it now as well, some of it could be useful for the journey back." Nod to Mateo. "I know you had your eye on the glaive, was there anything else you were especially interested in? I'm assuming the wizards can figure out how to split up the wizard stuff themselves."

"I know a Bellflower who could really use the rope. One of the wizards should probably have it for the trip back but I want it once we're home."

The Calistrian seems happy (if he’s reading her right)!  She must be looking forward to the payday from the scroll also.

“Do you think any of those items would be particularly useful to a pirate?”

He loves the fact that piracy is socially approved in Andoran!