Irori and Abadar, hmm.  Then if You're not here to tell Me what's going on, what's up?

Otolmens is trying to get ASMODEUS to do something for Her and ASMODEUS wants a trade and OTOLMENS needs a suggestion that is not going to be an AWFUL TRAP like EVERY OTHER THING THAT ASMODEUS HAS EVER SUGGESTED.

Are You very sure that Asmodeus did not manipulate You into this situation in the first place?

Yes.  Asmodeus went legible about that.  His explanation of how it happened was COMPLICATED and full of MORTAL THINGS and Otolmens still does not understand WHY ZON-KUTHON HAS ANY FOLLOWERS but Asmodeus clearly showed Her that He had no intention for any of that to actually happen.

I see.  And are you quite sure that Asmodeus would not just do whatever needs doing anyways, without payment, or at a much lower payment, if it is the sort of issue that demands Your attention in the first place?

Asmodeus is being VERY UNREASONABLY CALM about this WHOLE THING and says He does NOT THINK THE WORLD IS GOING TO END and DID go legible to show Otolmens that He was sincere in that too.

And what is it that Asmodeus wants You to pay Him to do?  Please be as precise as possible so I can check it for traps.

Unfortunately that would ITSELF be overly revealing which IRORI and ABADAR warned Her not to do.

To say things at a LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION that is APPROPRIATE and hopefully SAFE:

Otolmens wanted Asmodeus to get His followers to do something that seemed very straightforward to HER and that would MAKE EVERYONE SAFER.

Asmodeus presented a reasonable-seeming argument that His mortals would actually need to do MORE COMPLICATED THINGS that are EXPENSIVE FOR MORTALS in order to DO WHAT OTOLMENS ASKED and said that His followers had INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES due to their ongoing war with ZON-KUTHON'S MORTAL FOLLOWERS.  Otolmens still does not understand WHY Zon-Kuthon has ANY mortal followers.

(To Asmodeus:)

What are you playing at?

Milani.  What an unpleasant day this has suddenly become.

Asmodeus is playing at many things.  Milani will find out about some of them in due time.

What's this call about?

Otolmens contacted Me asking to suggest a non-trapped service that She could perform for you, because She wants something from You, and You, for some reason, are not just giving it to Her.

Oh?  Clever of Her.

Well, Asmodeus is being, in fact, pretty straightforward for once, more straightforward than He'd be with anyone who wasn't Otolmens.

Otolmens asked for Asmodeus to tell His followers to do something very expensive in the middle of their war with Nidal.  It would cost them somewhere in the vicinity of 100,000 gold pieces, more than 50,000gp, less than 200,000gp.

Asmodeus does not think that this matter is going to destroy the world and is not going to do this out of the charity of His heart.

Asmodeus wants to be paid.  He's not going to mess with Otolmens, because Otolmens, but He wants to be paid.

That's it.  Look at how legible Asmodeus is being about how He didn't set Otolmens up for this, didn't secretly prompt Her into making the request, and isn't trying to sneakily make His mortals do anything more expensive.

If Milani could suggest a straightforward trade and service for Otolmens to do, that Asmodeus will accept, without being particularly Chaotic or Good about it which Asmodeus will NOT accept, then Milani would be doing Her proper part to help out Otolmens, just as Asmodeus is not trying to pull anything complicated on Her.

As for specifics beyond that, Asmodeus will not discuss Otolmens's affairs without Her consent, lest even more gods meddle in them.

Really.  You're not going to overcharge Her or underdeliver, relative to Her own goals and the counterfactuals you actually otherwise expect, at all, not even a little.

Nope.  Because Otolmens.  Look how legible Asmodeus is being about that.

Seems like a missed opportunity for the two of Us, really.

Asmodeus admits that He was not expecting Milani to say that.

Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil do not have many common interests, but there are some, as we have all been recently reminded.  Given this mutual opportunity, we should make as much of it as we can, with appropriately careful bargaining to make sure that the benefits fall within the overlap of our interests, and that side effects of our obtaining our respective benefits do not harm the other.

...Asmodeus is listening.

I propose that I suggest to Otolmens a payment that will be acceptable to Her, that will not actually cost Her significantly given Her capabilities in the material world, and that will constitute a relatively large payment for the service She requests.

The service I have in mind will benefit Cheliax, currently Yours for now.  Cheliax by and large tends to do things that I find very unpleasant.  But as the symmetry and opposition between your interests and mine is not perfect, there is a chance here for mutual benefit.  Nidal, for example, manages to be such an awful place that Cheliax is actually better than it, and for Cheliax to conquer Nidal entirely would serve both of Us well - though the gain from Your perspective would be larger than the gain from Mine, and I would demand payment to make up that difference.

I propose in particular that you legibly exhibit to Me your honest expectation of how long the war with Nidal will otherwise last and how much it will otherwise cost; our compact will call for You to pay Me for how much better for Cheliax the war ends up going, compared to that expectation, after I suggest my proposed service to Otolmens.  You will pay me for improvements as they become nearly certain, however, rather than waiting for the war to end.  I would commit not to using those payments to work against Your interests; not everything that I want is something you hate.

One similarly observes that although You derive similar pleasure from torturing most of the souls in your possession, there are in truth some souls' tortures that I find more tragic than others, even though they are all tragic.  If Cheliax ends up with a counterfactually larger population compared to what You expected, after Otolmens's intervention suggested by me - due to their increased counterfactual wealth and hence population growth, or their conquest of other territories - the compact would call for You to instruct Cheliax to use fewer of certain tactics and techniques that you designed specifically to lead good people into damnation.  If the payment cannot be made up that way, it can be made up in relaxations of other Chelish policies designed at producing damnations of people who are not, in fact, particularly evil.  I would also accept payment in the form of stays of torment for souls of my choice in Hell.

Asmodeus has many thoughts about this; even this fraction of His mind is large and has room for many thoughts inside it.  Among those thoughts is that this compact would happen to benefit Milani a great deal more if, for some reason, Asmodeus had otherwise underestimated how well the war with Nidal would go for Cheliax; and Milani, somehow, knew about this, when Asmodeus did not.

It is still relatively good news about whether Milani - and some conspiracy that She is part of - is mainly plotting something directly and irrevocably opposed to Asmodeus's interests; unless, of course, that is exactly what Milani wants Asmodeus to think.

Asmodeus responds with a counter-proposal.  It has much more stringent definitions of exactly what kind of counterfactual improvements will be said to be traceable to Milani's particular suggestion for Otolmens's intervention.  He is not willing to include all the knock-on effects, just in case Milani has something up Her sleeve in one of them.

(The overcomplicated terms are designed to exclude, in passing, improvements in war conditions and of Cheliax's health that go through Otolmens's service but also passed through whatever has His squirrels in the anomaly's immediate vicinity so excited.  Asmodeus has noticed them becoming more excited, over the last couple of days.

If Milani rejects that part - or suggests overcomplicated modifications in return that would again count knock-on benefits passing through whatever-excited-His-squirrels - Asmodeus will have a much clearer idea of what is going on.)

The part about stays of torment for souls in Hell is, of course, entirely unacceptable.  The crushing inevitability and hopelessness is really part of the whole point there.  Though Asmodeus supposes that Milani could suggest some very, very high rate of conversion between new souls added and old souls stayed, with temporary stays of torment doomed to end.

(If Milani suggests an astronomical but reachable rate, it will suggest that, for some reason, Her target is a particular soul in Hell, and the rest of this is just an elaborate ruse to disguise it.  Asmodeus doesn't know why Milani would do that, it seems more Stupid Good than Chaotic Good, but it's among the many many possibilities that Asmodeus is considering for what might really be going on.)

Also Asmodeus is not going to integrate the expected benefits over infinite time to be paid out immediately because Asmodeus is not three minutes old.

Milani responds with a counter-proposal.

It involves exactly the sort of overcomplicated amendments to Asmodeus's amendments that you might expect from somebody who had no idea what the original amendments had really been about, but didn't want to admit that.  The new set of overcomplications do still happen to exclude any knock-on effects of Otolmens's service that pass through Keltham's project.

Milani suggests a conversion rate of 36 counterfactual souls expected to be added over the next 100 years, per 1 soul's torment stayed now for up to 100 years; but the stays will pass through Erecura, the Lawful Neutral goddess who now resides within Dis as Dispater's consort, and Asmodeus Himself will not know who is targeted by them, nor may He attempt to find out, nor may those stayed be told by Hell how they came to be so blessed.

...innnnteresting.  Either Milani doesn't know what has Asmodeus's squirrels so excited - or She was willing to sacrifice all of the benefits She hoped to gain by that tactic, to make it look as if She's ignorant.

36 new souls for one torment stayed is still far too low, of course, especially if Asmodeus isn't allowed to know the purpose.  Try 3600!  Though Asmodeus might consider a lower rate, if Milani were willing to accept this rider stating that no such unseen exercise of a stay of torment will be used in a way net harmful to Asmodeus's other interests; such as, for example, by using it to suborn one of Asmodeus's trusted subordinates and diminish their immediate fear of Him.  Milani talked a good game about how all this would be a nice Abadarian trade in the overlap of their interests; was She, perhaps, less than fully sincere in Her intents?

(What is She playing at, here...)

36, but that rider is fine.  Each 36 counterfactual extra souls expected in Hell over the next 100 years, as Asmodeus now expects them as a result of the service Milani suggests to Otolmens, may at Milani's discretion be converted into 1 stay of torment for 100 years for a soul of Milani's choosing, as passed through Erecura, the recipients not being told why, and Asmodeus and His direct reports making no effort to find out who they were.  Milani commits that the collective result of all such interventions will be net beneficial to Asmodeus's interests in Her own expectation.

Any extra souls unused by this conversion will be amortized in the relaxation of Chelish policies designed to damn good people, and, in the case of overflow, those policies designed to damn nonevil ones.

Absent a policy like this, Milani obviously cannot cooperate with Asmodeus to benefit Cheliax, as it would harm Her own Good interests.

Asmodeus doesn't often make deals He knows He's unsure about, never with mortals and only rarely with gods.

This one has Him intrigued.  The appearance is that Milani is pursuing some goal that isn't about harming Asmodeus's interests, but has something to do with Him, possibly even benefiting Him, and yet the specifics must be concealed from Him - perhaps lest He turn the matter further to His own ends at the expense of Hers.  If that's not in fact true, then She sure is doing a good job of presenting that impression - and has foregone getting anything else that Asmodeus can figure out, in order to present that impression.

Asmodeus does, in fact, like tricky compacts, that is part of what it means to be a god of them.

Deal.

Why can't all His interactions be like this?