Maillol is INCREDIBLY NOT COMFORTABLE with the concept that his installation's ACTUAL security rests ENTIRELY on Pilar's curse and, you know what, sure, let's get the Keltham impersonator and see how they do it, Maillol's vote is on that.  Because if the Rovagug cultists can pull it off, Maillol apparently needs to have WORDS with SEVERAL PEOPLE.  WORDS and FIRE.

Don't feel too bad!  It wasn't all Snack Service!  Stopping this actually involved a direct intervention by Cayden Cailean that Broom's god authorized!

"How do the cultists know I'm here?"

"How were they going to get past all the Security?"

"I have a lot of additional questions at this point."

"Is Cheliax planning to capture the cultists and hurt them until they answer your versions of those questions, if that's how interrogations work here?"

Rovagug cultists tend to be Neutral Evil. If they don't Maledict the Rovagug cultists they'll presumably go to Abaddon and get eaten. Carissa is - actually not sure she can order that, not in front of Keltham - even if it actually serves Asmodeus better in this instance to let a soul be devoured, you just - can't - what are you even doing, if you're willing to do that -

She is thankfully saved from having to consider this by Keltham's lots of questions, which are directed at Maillol not her but she's the Keltham expert. 

She thinks that alter-Cheliax does not have a principled objection to hurting people until they answer your questions, if those people were trying to hurt you and the answers are important, but Keltham said ages ago early on the Project that he wanted people to not do that so they have told everyone associated with the Project to, if it comes up, ask first. Also they're probably not going to take the Rovagug cultists alive because Rovagug cultists famously tend suicidal.

"We don't have principled objections to that, in a case like this one, but standing orders on the Project are to ask your permission before doing that in the Project's defense, you seemed to have qualms."

"In this case, I wasn't rushing to ask you because it is not at all likely that any will be taken alive.  Rovagug cultists prefer dying and are famous for doing so successfully."

"Stop me if this is a stupid idea but I imagine that I would, if I was an experienced Security running things, let them get into my bedroom, if they could, to see how they were planning to do that."

"Already the plan.  We're getting your possessions out of there now."

"I am not especially happy about the implied point that my existence, my location, and those general facts about me implying that I am a good choice of person to kidnap if you want to unseal Rovagug, have spread to the point where Rovagug cultists have heard of it.  The last Security reports I got, about who's known to know about me, did not imply the information had spread that far."

"I'm not happy either but mostly because I feel like I, or somebody, should have considered this possibility in advance of it actually happening.  Broom's god prevents most other gods from messing with this place, but that relies on agreements between gods and Rovagug does not give a shit about those."

"Good... point."

It occurs to Keltham that, if somebody had thought through this conversation, this far, then him suddenly needing to be extracted from his bedroom for some non-revealable reason, might have an assault by Rovagug cultists as a pre-planned excuse.

...he hasn't thought about Conspiracy possibilities in a while.  The thought feels sad, and tired, and he wants it to go away and leave him alone to be with his Carissa and his Project.

Keltham consciously notes that part.

"If I said that I was feeling suspicious, not as much as when the Asmodia thing happened, but a little, and I'm kind of tired of feeling suspicious, and I asked if there's anything obvious to do that makes me be less suspicious, somehow, would you have an answer for that?  I know it's not really Security thinking, but better that than just feeling too tired about it to figure out anything."

Deeply unfair how things they don't even do count against them.

"- I don't think this is very likely to work, but it's cheap and it'd be informative - Cayden Cailean, can we get ...some balloons in here celebrating people in Chelish governance or Chelish Security who deliberately cooperated with the Rovagug cultists or tried to help them get into the fortress?"

It isn't going in reality because Sevar isn't trying to help those people, and if anybody wants sudden balloons apparently from the curse, they're going to have to generate those themselves.

She doesn't want that; she doubts the Rovagug cultists in fact have allies in Chelish governance, so there shouldn't be balloons.

Nothing, which is evidence against naive Conspiracy, because naive Conspiracy sets Carissa up to ask that only if they've got some startling revelation planned.  Competent Conspiracy knows how Keltham will evaluate it.  Though you would think the Conspiracy would be competent, they've got a Probability-aware Carissa and Asmodia now, even if they didn't have them before.

"Not... actually the kind of suspicion I had in mind, though I guess it could help on having context for where this came from.  More like, there's some other reason you had to get me out of my bedroom, couldn't tell me why, 'Rovagug cultists' are the excuse because that's what squares with the story about how this place is protected from gods..."

"If it's half an hour until the cultists are expected to show up we could go back now?"

"No," says Elias Abarco flatly. And then, with a sigh, " - if ordered to let you go into the room that the Rovagug cultists are going to arrive in soon of course I will do so but my strong professional recommendation is that you stay here. If a place is known dangerous you can simply be nowhere near it."

"Snack Service."

Totally safe in reality - does she say that -

Yes, there's no reason it'd be different in alter Cheliax.

"Here's a jellychip to celebrate how totally safe that would be."

"Okay, let's run over right now to take a look, run back, I just don't want to fight my brain about this."  It would've been better if he thought of it, instead of Carissa, but he probably wouldn't have.

"Do it, Abarco."  And get Keltham's things out of his bedroom, very quickly, though they'll have to put them back afterwards.

With visible irritation Elias Abarco opens the door of the safe room and stands aside. 

Keltham's bedroom has several Security in it who've cleared it of his possessions and are double-checking they didn't miss anything. Nothing else is up.

He'll trudge on back to the saferoom, moving quickly.  He feels a little better, but not very much.  It's probably the combination of being woken up before dawn, and having to fight what seems like an impossible-to-actually-win battle about the possibility that nothing around him is real, where even if that were true, he wouldn't know where to look, to make it all fall apart, to have it be revealed that none of the happiness he thinks he's winning is really his, or that this isn't what happens to Lost Dead people after all.

He'll probably feel better after he makes up for lost sleep, if he can.

PL-timestamp:  Day 82-83