"...I - wonder how much it is the case that Good - the element of what I care about that is not Lawful - is...an ideology meant for the world after we have built all of the gods?" 

"...I don't think that's what - Good, the axis - is at all, really, because people keep making orphanages and soup kitchens and dying to defend the innocent or whatever here in this world. But - but maybe the reason you are kind of sane for a Good person is that you're powerful enough it's not pathetic to think about how you'd make a god, and so you don't have to just reflexively do things that feel nice, you can actually try to figure out your priorities and then proceed towards them. And the priorities happen to be Good but you still - make sense, you're still basically a person who'll do things if they serve your interests and not if they don't. Most Good people aren't that."

"...I do think it is easier to be sane, if one is powerful. In particular, if one has - the ability to assess whether or not the powerful people around you are - telling the truth. And...I think Vanyel does not want to be powerful, has never wanted that, and so - is in denial around it. Does that make sense?" 

"Good people don't want power because if you're powerless it's not very hard to be Good, you can just run a soup kitchen. But if you're powerful, and you have goals, then accomplishing the goals will involve doing Evil things. And Good people build their entire personalities around how they don't do Evil things so I sure bet they're in denial about something along that chain of logic."

This is giving Leareth the same slippery, confused feeling as MANY of his previous conversations with Carissa. 

"I want to register that I - think I disagree with that?" he says tonelessly. "I am not sure what more to say, at this point."

Focus. They have some decision-relevant priorities, here.

Leareth takes a breath. Lets it out. "...What do you think of Aroden, at this point?" 

"...I think we're in his custody and I don't want to be statuary?"

"- You know that is not the aspect I find relevant? And - he is not here, right now, he cannot read either of our minds." 

"He might be. He was reading your mind earlier, he got backlash when Iomedae contacted you. That's supposed to be impossible in an antimagic demiplane but if you're Aroden I guess you can do some impossible things. And I know you are willing to lose everything rather than work with people you dislike but I'm not, so I'll thank you not to mess up my continued existence. He's fine! He's not worth dying to thwart!"

Sigh. 

"...I also have the impression, from that book, that he is...at least 'fine'? But - I would like to know more about his reasoning, about - how to coordinate with him - how to reach him - what exactly we have in common. And I am still not sure." 

A long pause. 

"...I think that I still want to try to reach Abadar. It will probably not work? But - it seems worth the attempt." Leareth smiles, tight and bitter. "And if I have a seizure or something, I am sure you will make sure that I am all right." 

"Knock yourself out."

Leareth tries to relax, leaning against Carissa. 

- and thinks of what he knows of Abadar.

In a way, he has much less of a handle than he did with Iomedae, where he could focus on 'everything Leareth respects in Vanyel'. But in a different way, Leareth is fairly sure that he has much more in common with Abadar - that the difference in alignment between them is much less... 

Leareth holds up his memories of Tantara. Urtho's Tower - a shining city against the stars - progress, science, research. And Leareth's vague implicit sense, not remembered exactly but something he can infer, of how that must have rippled out to the rest of the kingdom. Permanent Gates to move goods from one place to another - literacy, spreading the ability to coordinate by words on paper, across an entire world - 

Leareth wants that. Leareth recognizes that value. Leareth thinks that he recognizes the same value that Abadar does. 

...And he has a desperate question. 

Aroden is alive - as a human - and Leareth wants to know if he can trust him. 

Nothing happens for a while.

Carissa flips through the books about magic and finds a good one and settles down to read it.

Well, it was worth a try. 

Leareth is going to keep up the same mental litany for a long time, just in case Abadar is distracted and hasn't noticed him yet.  

Malduoni sits and stares into his crystal ball. 

He doesn't know what to do. 

- or, no, that isn't right - it's not that he has any factual uncertainty around the relevant concerns, here. He, just... he's afraid. In an oddly helpless-feeling way. 

(It's probably relevant, here, how helpless he felt in those half-conveyed memories of his death, of the other gods tearing him apart - and of how much more helpless he felt in the years and decades after that, as a frail human, barely capable of touching magic at all, trying to survive in a world torn apart -) 

He watches the Worldwound. Do the troops onsite seem to be winning, or losing...? 

They're not going to lose a second wardstone in this rush but they're not going to successfully get people out from the first one they lost. (They usually don't, when a wardstone falls).

Malduoni considers this. 

...He is - kind of not all right with that. It...does feel different, actually, now that he knows that Iomedae knows. 

But he has other commitments to respond to, first. 

He gets out another scroll, and prepares a Sending, to Parmida. 

...

My prisoner from the other world prayed to Iomedae and reported my identity. I am going to help Her at the Worldwound now. Will say more later. 

...

And then he Teleports to the general area near the lost wardstone. Immediately pays attention through all of his permanent-spell senses. 

Orient. What seems to be happening? 

The destruction of the stone blew a hole in the side of the fortress; it's swarming with demons. The defenders are mostly hiding out in narrow hallways, making the demons fight for every inch of territory, but there are a lot of demons and it's only a matter of time. 

All right. Assess the situation. Malduoni is currently invisible, and the demons aren't paying him any mind. That will play in his favour. 

The battle is an unwinnable one as long as the demons can keep getting in. First priority: deal with that. He needs to shield the hole in the fortress wall.

And get the demons out of the way, first, because all the spells he has available for this need a clear space. 

Malduoni mostly hasn't prepared combat spells, today, for the obvious reason that he had been preparing to sneak around and spy instead. Fortunately, he has a focus that lets him cast one spell that's in his spellbook but that he hasn't prepared, and he's very comfortable with using it. 

He casts Sirocco, aiming it at the demons swarming on the outside of the focus. It is, as usual, a stupidly specific spell - a metaphorical cross-section through a metaphorical multi-dimensional forest - but it lets him blast all of the demons flat to the ground, out of his way. And when cast by a ninth-circle wizard, it'll hurt them quite badly as well. 

Good. He has an unobstructed space, now, to cast a spell that will shield the hole in the fortress wall. 

He does have Wall of Force prepared. It's not ideal - even for him, it only lasts about two minutes - but it's broadly useful enough that he prepares it as a matter of course. Unlike Prismatic Wall, which is what he actually wants, here - it'll hold up much better against continued attacks, and at baseline it will last over three hours. It's eighth-circle, though. Malduoni did leave a spell slot open, and - unlike almost all wizards - he's at this point fast enough at preparing spells that it's at all feasible to do it on the spot. Two minutes is enough. 

He casts Wall of Force.

Surveys the battlefield - clear enough of demons for the moment that he can afford to just stand here (invisible) and prepare a spell? 

The surviving demons are scattering, surprised that their enemies have that kind of firepower, seeking a way around the whirling furnace of hot air rather than through it. It, like the Wall of Force, will last long enough for him to prepare something else.

Malduoni prepares Prismatic Wall. Dismisses his Wall of Force and casts the replacement. 

Then he Dimension Doors into the fortress itself. His permanent Detect Thoughts and various other senses, so expensively acquired, let him orient first and pick a place that doesn't have too many demons swarming, and he's still invisible.

How bad is the situation in here? 

Pretty bad - normally, the defenders could handle demons in these numbers, but they've been fighting for a long time, and they're exhausted, and the demons aren't.

Malduoni spends about fifteen seconds considering his options. He's not very well equipped for fighting the demons directly, with his current set of prepared spells.

He has Symbols of Death, but they can't be targeted to hit only the demons - not without extensive preparation time that he very much doesn't have. He could - get Iomedae's people out first? But he would need them in one place, for a mass Teleport, and the defenders are scattered and pinned down. Even if he communicates with them telepathically, they won't actually be able to gather in one spot for him.

He spends another ten seconds considering how many resources he's willing to invest in this. He does have contingencies, some of them appropriate here, but they're expensive contingencies, and there's almost certainly a war coming very soon - 

...Well, he owes Iomedae an apology, that much is clear. 

Among the many other items in his Bag of Holding, Malduoni has a scroll of Mass Hold Monster - a modified version of the spell, one he dedicated a truly appalling amount of research toward. (Magic the way humans have to do it is so stupidly specific.) But, after vast effort, he managed to find a stable version of the spell that would let him target by alignment. The scroll is set to target Evil creatures only. 

A scroll for a ninth-circle spell is very expensive. He has more, but not with him, and not many... 

He gets out the scroll and casts the spell from it. 

Some of the demons make their saves. But not many. Malduoni is very very good at enchantment. 

The very confused paladins hack their way through paralyzed demons, looking around for the presumed rescue party.

Malduoni makes himself visible again, though he's only in view of a handful of the paladins. 

He has a magic item for permanent Telepathy, though, and can use this to address them all before they're actually in earshot. 

This will only hold them for two minutes and I do not have a way to selectively kill them without harming your personnel. I would like to help evacuate all of your people so that I can use Symbols of Death.