One may now see Asmodia approaching the Rope Trick.

He'll get out the rod of Curse of Magic Negation, which, yes, he's got with him along with all of his platinum pieces.

Asmodia pokes her head into the Rope Trick and -

"Sorry I'm late, had to get my spellbook and my money first for obvious reasons."

"Sure.  Whatever.  Come on in."  He'll lend Asmodia a hand to pull her up.

He's glad he doesn't have to hurt Asmodia, in this skit.  They didn't have that kind of relationship.  Well.  If they had any kind of relationship, it wasn't that one.

"Keltham -"

"Asmodia, why would you actually be defecting just like that, Hell owns your soul."

"Not even slightly the kind of problem that'd stop an ilani.  Worst case, I get a Plane Shift to Abaddon at the end of my life, and gamble on ending up somewhere else just like Keltham did."

"The part where we're still in Cheliax surrounded by Security is more of a problem.  Is there a plan for that?"

"All of us against one Security.  Sevar uses his Teleport scroll."

"I'll admit, I was hoping there would be a better plan."

"Is there a reason that plan can't work, because we are short on time here, Asmodia -"

At this moment a tiny glowing circle appears on the wall of the Rope Trick, and then grows abruptly into a much larger portal, through which an elderly woman is visible. She's sitting in an armchair with a thick book open on her lap. "Were you looking for a scroll of Teleport? I sell those."

"Cost?" Keltham says.

Chance this is real... possibly higher, he'd go to 20% because it feels more like Snack Service and less like the usual Conspiracy.

"For each scroll of Teleport, you must promise to entertain an old woman for one minute while she tries to persuade you that your plans for it are a terrible idea."

"Right, so, okay, creating common knowledge, the previous escape plan was fake, this was not part of it, I hate Cheliax, for all the obvious reasons that's why, Ione likely hates Cheliax too, do not free Sevar she's complicated, there's very few people in the Inner Sea who can cast Gate and only one who'd look like that, who's also the one who'd plausibly know where we are, that's Nefreti Clepati, high priestess of Nethys hence why Ione is kneeling to her, she's plausibly one of the relatively better mysterious figures to make a weird deal with, you should not do that with an Asmodean."

"Creating more common knowledge, Gate is actually a spell for transportation, not for talking! You can just walk through it!"

She stands up, sets the book down, and does so. Then, for some reason, she frowns at the floor of the Rope Trick and -

Steps on a housefly. 

"I hate to be pushy, but Gate's duration is two rounds per caster circle, so if you want to buy a Teleport scroll, or escape to freedom, you should probably do that promptly."

"I'll ask, briefly, what's on the other side of that Gate and why I shouldn't Teleport."

"You shouldn't Teleport because there are, in fact, nine different gods that will descend on you as soon as you leave the interdiction zone and some of them eat people. On the other side of this Gate is a temple of Nethys in Andoran, near the border with Ostenso, and therefore in the interdiction zone, but outside Cheliax. It is possible Cheliax will start a war with Andoran about this, but probably not because they didn't risk the actual Crown of Infernal Majesty in their last-ditch deception. Which is too bad. In some nearby worlds I get to steal it and wear it around now, and I'd like that very much."

Asmodia's just going to walk through that Gate, actually.

Ione will glance there, glance at Keltham, and say "Please."

"Andoran's border does not look that close to Ostenso -"

"Faked all the maps you saw because you'd want to visit if you knew."

"Would you happen to want to swear to me that the destination of this Gate is still within the interdiction zone?  No is fine."