“How good are Andoran ships about keeping a spare priest?  The goblet can create a few gallons of water a day, but I think that would usually be redundant with even a novice empowered priest.”

"Any pirates that're worth working with are definitely going to have enough priests. I think some of the, uh, worse ones have a harder time finding priests who'll work with them, but that's not the sort of people we'd be setting you up with anyways." And even the pretty bad sort can usually find some sort of priest, just not the kind that channels positive.

"You'll definitely want one of the cloaks — they're useful for almost any kind of adventuring, and piracy isn't an exception. I'd normally recommend strength over constitution for your belt but for ship-to-ship combat you might want the opposite, so it's harder for them to pick you off with arrows before you can even get a hit in. I'm less sure of that, though — what do people usually wear at sea?"

"Last time I was on a boat mission I think I saw the most of the one that's like a weaker Cat's Grace? But people say it doesn't work right with the sorts of armor you'd probably be wearing. The, uh, bar thingy is probably more useful for people doing things on land, boats can carry a lot more."

Nod. "And then the Wisdom headbands wouldn't be useless for you, but once we're back home you'd probably want to trade them for something that's more directly applicable — I think most of the rest of them are like that. —And if you want to carry a suicide method and you're sure you can be careful with it, the paper of Explosive Runes is better than nothing."

He nods along, their advice sounds sensible.

“Cloaks like that are a really common choice of gear from what I’ve seen.  More resistance against hostile spells is always good.”

“I thought suicide was always Evil?  Or is that Asmodean propaganda?”

Oh wait, maybe they just take the hit to alignment in order to avoid malediction?  Better Axis or Maelstrom than Hell even if they would prefer a Good afterlife.

"The full answer's a little complicated but the shorter answer is, it's usually Evil but it's not always Evil. —Uh, and it's not just Asmodean propaganda, lots of places have propaganda about it. I think the Asmodeans might push it even harder, since they really don't want people to think they can just get out of living in Cheliax that way and be fine?

What the Good churches back home say is that — if a man abandons his whole family and they starve, that's Evil, and it doesn't really matter whether he's abandoning them to go adventuring in the River Kingdoms or whether he's abandoning them to be dead, and that lots of people have some sort of responsibility like that, that it wouldn't be okay to completely abandon, especially not without telling anyone beforehand. And that most people who think killing themself will make things better for other people are wrong, and that if you have a reason to think you're different you can talk to a priest and they'll set you straight — that's not exactly how they phrase it, they make it sound like they won't go in with their minds made up. And that even if it wouldn't be Evil for you to commit suicide, you might still have been Evil to start with, and in that case you're better off staying alive and trying to make up for what you've done.

But they don't say it's always Evil no matter what. There's a story in the Acts of Iomedae, the Eighth Act, where there was this undead guy called the Black Prince, and he was definitely Evil, and rather than just killing him right away, she stays up all night talking to him about all the Evil things he'd done. And somehow she convinced him that it was wrong to do those things, and even though he was undead he still felt really guilty about them, and he wanted to repent. Only because he was undead he couldn't just stop, the way a human could — that part's kind of confusing but the Iomedaeans get really mad if people try to leave it out, they're so picky about how people talk about that Act — and so he killed himself so that he could never hurt anyone again. And even though he'd been Evil beforehand he still went to Axis, because his suicide had actually been Good, the same way it would've been Good for an adventurer to kill him.

And — if Cheliax is going to Maledict you, and the only way to stop them is by killing yourself first, then — you're not abandoning anyone who needs you, because you'd be dead anyways. You've got a good reason to think it'll make things better, because they won't be able to get information out of you, and they won't be able to send you to Hell and try to force you into being Asmodeus's slave. But even if Pharasma decided that she'd damn anyone who killed themself, I'd still rather kill myself than get captured by Cheliax, because I don't want them reading my alive friends' names and faces and plans that I know of out of my head, and I don't want my soul to be doing anything useful for Asmodeus, even just being a paving stone, and I'm sure the Abyss'd suck too but I'd take it over that."

"Codwin's family killed themselves during the war. What people say is, after the Battle of Olfden, his wife heard that he had been leading the forces, and they knew that Cheliax would come for them, and so she and her children all killed themselves so that they couldn't be used against him, and went to Heaven for it. People leave a plate out for them on Martyr's Day. I don't know if that's all true, but I think people would know if they were in Hell."

He understands why that story is popular but it's kind of disconcerting to think about the ages of the children involved.

They were talking about splitting the loot, why does this guy keep derailing them with theological discussions!  How to get them back on topic…

“Can I try on one of the headbands while you explain theology stuff?”

“Thanks for the explanation.”

So it’s an option if he’s ever in danger of being maledicted or something.  Good to know, but hopefully unnecessary.

“Two of the headbands are doing weird complicated stuff, I think with nasty side effects?  Maybe cursed or maybe it was just a tradeoff of the design.  The other headband from the bag is just a standard wisdom headband, and then we got a standard wisdom headband off the other person’s body.”

“I’m going for it.”

He reaches for one of the wisdom headbands.

“Try explaining some more theology, something confusing or that people disagree on!”

He’s tried Owl’s Wisdom before without much effect, he really just wants an excuse to play with the loot.

"Any specific requests for topics, or did you want me to just pick something?"

She’s not complaining about him trying out the loot, so that part is a success!

“Hmmm…”

He takes a dramatic pause as he thinks.  He recalls an interesting claim that seems to fits with how these Andorans talk about the Gods.

“So I’ve heard the Good Gods are supposed to all be working together, right?  Well, why haven’t they beaten the Evil Gods if that’s really true?  Or is Asmodeus really that much stronger?”

-and/or Good really is pathetic, and/or Baphomet really that much better at outwitting everyone.  He would have had the sense not to say those parts out loud even without the headband.  Actually… he probably should have sounded less skeptical with the parts he did say out loud!

"Well, that's definitely something people disagree about — uh, before I get into a longer answer, how much do you know about what it, uh, means, for a god to be stronger or less strong?"

“I have no idea!”

“As a general rule, more clerics (and other empowered), higher circle empowered, more empowered raises up through direct divine fiat and not typical adventurer leveling, more outsiders in their service, more miracles?  But that doesn’t account for a God hoarding power within their domain, they would seem weak to mortals even if they theoretically had more power.”