"Osirion, like most places, fines people for publishing false material on religious questions, which in Osirion means material out of line with the teachings of the Church of Abadar and churches allied with it, and Osirion bans evangelism for Chaotic and Evil gods.

If you want to get a sense of what people get up to in places that don't have any such laws, I'd check out Holomog, which doesn't, or have someone send you books from there. There are many genuine benefits to less restrictive laws, but also Holomog has an active cult of Asmodeus that teaches that he is unfairly maligned, is actually Chaotic Good, Hell is awesome, and devils just like trolling people to make their lives more interesting. Balancing the different public interests here strikes me as genuinely hard. Absalom is freer than Osirion, I like that better, and if you like that better too we'd certainly be delighted to host you."

"Am I liable to get in trouble or burn a lot of political capital by asking people to explain the rules?  Even if I ask in some incredibly naive and alien fashion that, I don't know, takes for granted that men and women sometimes pay each other for sex?"

"No. You're an alien, they know it, and I'd be very surprised if they took offense about it. They will meticulously make sure you're never alone in a room with a woman, and be offended if you circumvent them about that, but they'll be happy to explain why if you ask."

"I'll be asking, yes."

"Good skill in Absalom, and if a weird girl with cookies appears to you there and tells you to do something nonsensical, I would strongly advise doing it."

"I'll keep that in mind, though whatever Cayden Cailean's doing, I can't say I am on his side. When Cheliax came to me looking for help deceiving you, I told the man I'd pay him 80,000gold and extend the Church's protection if he wanted to defect. Playing along more than that does, to speak bluntly, feel complicit, to me."

"Consider me to have been told that, and to have nonetheless repeated my advice about the cookie thing."

Day 91 / Ostenso region

"I would like to propose opening a prediction market on whether, if I get my own thirty useful idiots to train, I get farther than Asmodia on producing ilani. To be judged by Sevar, if she comes back, or Subirachs, if she doesn't."

Obvious things not being said aloud:  That if Avaricia wins that contest, or if Sevar can be lured into judging it unfairly, the obvious next step will be to see whether Avaricia got further than Sevar in producing ilani of a more Asmodean bent.  As would naturally be judged by the Most High.  Who might tend to disagree with the Queen of Cheliax on the subject of whether Avaricia's ilani were in fact more useful than the ilani trained by the Queen's favorite.  A disagreement like that, under these circumstances, would naturally tend to be resolved by giving Avaricia her own project section independent of Sevar.

Maillol has very little patience for the part where he first has to decide on this terribly reasonable-sounding appeal to merely open a prediction market which act then seems to put him on Avaricia's side in having fired the opening spells of the battle, or alternatively makes him look unreasonable for denying such a small request blah blah blah why can't he just fight demons.

"Don't bother with the prediction market, Avaricia.  Just go ahead and try it.  You write up the specs on the useful idiots and Cheliax will see about getting you some.  I've also been given to understand that our primary desideratum is producing more Asmodean ilani, and if you feel up to that challenge, the Most High would be the natural one to judge the results, if you end up with any results worth presenting.  Shall I just go ahead and set that all up directly?"

"I'm quite certain that's what Sevar would tell me to do, you see."

"Oh, I actually wrote up the specs earlier, in the course of writing up some thoughts on chemistry instruction. I'll pass them along now, in that case. I commend your alacrity." She hands over a sheaf of papers.

"Here's your already-approved budget, Avaricia."

"I wish you exactly enough fortune to get your own Project section not under myself or Sevar, and no more fortune than that."

Day 91 / Osirion

Keltham's first priority in investigating this library is going to be mind-reading magic, mind-controlling magic, mental disciplines or spells or magic items that defend against mind-reading, disciplines or spells or items that defend against mind-controlling.  Also known side effects of using headbands, how do people actually check that their headbands aren't cursed, that sort of thing.

Headbands being cursed: not really a thing. Of course, any magic item can be made to look like a different magic item, so you could make a headband that was a disguised Necklace of Strangulation or something, but there's no references in any of these books to subtle curses where the headbands alter your cognition slightly but undetectably, and it's not in anyone's threat model in fiction or nonfiction.

Mindreading magic: Detect Thoughts, second circle. A Will save protects against it. There are magic items of it; they're not even that expensive, though they also wouldn't read anyone powerful who was trying not to be read. 

Mindcontrolling magic: oh boy is there a horrifying variety. There's Suggestion, and Triggered Suggestion which you don't remember until you hit the cue for it, and Demand which is Sending with a concealed Suggestion, and Lesser Geas for binding someone to obey your orders for days at a time, and Geas which works on more powerful people, and Dominate Person which lets you puppet someone else at unlimited range as long as you're on the same plane as they are, and see through their eyes, and spells that cause permanent disorientation and the inability to reliably act on your intentions, and Euphoric Tranquility which does what it sounds like, and Overwhelming Presence which makes everyone who enters your presence prostrate themselves on the floor convinced they're in the presence of a god.

Baleful Polymorph renders you permanently a mindless animal.

There's memory modification.

There's a reference to a ninth circle spell that turns you into a book of all of the thoughts you've ever had, and lets people read and edit them, though it's in a work of fiction and it's not clear if the spell is a real thing or not. 

The best protection against mind control, outside an artifact helmet like the Crown of Infernal Majesty, is the spell Mind Blank, which is eighth circle so good luck if you're not an eighth circle caster and don't have one to make you scrolls or cast it for you. Protection from Evil helps against mind control from Evil creatures and casters. Enchantment Foil helps in general, as does Spell Immunity. Nondetection, which also comes in an amulet, is useful against divinations unless the person casting them is very powerful.

A lot of adventurers at least in these works of historical fiction seem to deliberately pass through an antimagic area routinely just so they can notice if any spells fucking with them are active, though that won't detect past memory modification and requires there being one around. (Some wizarding academies have them for research reasons, and there's apparently several hundred square miles of wasteland where magic doesn't work as a consequence of an ancient war.)

No such thing as cursed headbands, according to this layer of reality!  Lovely.

That amulet sounds like a priority, yes.  Any such thing as items for Protection from Evil?  Also does anybody know whether Protection from Law on top of that would interfere with the Abadar link?

It shouldn't; gods aren't really affected by mortals throwing on lots of mortal protective magic. There aren't items of Protection from Evil or Protection from Law, though it's possible if they post a request some wizard who has figured out how to do it will reveal themself. He also might just want Spell Resistance, which protects against any magic being cast on him that he'd rather wasn't; there are items for that, though they're very, very expensive. 

They can get him an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location. He's also unscryable inside the Dome; magic generally doesn't work across the Dome.

When Iomedae drops a vision on him, does she just get all the contents of his mind?  Does Abadar get all the contents of his mind every morning when Keltham prays?  People here may take it for granted but Keltham comes from a world where people are used to more mental privacy than that.

Gods do not learn everything their clerics know when their clerics pray to them, though it's unclear if this is impossible or just outlandishly expensive. Visions like the one he got are very rare, but - probably Iomedae could've in fact learned the contents of his mind, when she was doing that?

The person pointing him around the library volunteers that Abadar would, presumably, have told Her not to do that, even if She doesn't not do that for Good reasons, which she probably does but he would want to ask a representative of Her church about that.

Sounds like, say, Urgathoa, can decide to drop a vision on Keltham, read his mind, and there's nothing anybody can do about that.  Or Asmodeus.  Is he wrong?

.....Abadar might be able to stop them doing that but there sure is not mortal magic that could stop that, yeah. The vision part might not even be necessary.

Cheliax at one point claimed to Keltham, apparently with Snack Service involvement though that would be easy enough to fake, that Rovagug cultists were coming to kidnap him and would have the info to make it to his bedroom.  Maillol - a fifth-circle priest of Asmodeus - supposedly, that is - said that Rovagug wasn't party to noninterference agreements.

How smart is Rovagug.  Is It known to suddenly mind-control people.

....not very smart, and yyyes but only when they lived in the scar created in the world by its imprisonment.

There is a puzzle here that Keltham doesn't get about why Rovagug-release cultists still exist - if even the existence of Rovagug cultists is known true, never mind that particular case.

Presumably, nearly all gods are opposed to Rovagug cultists, and ought to be able to coordinate on some sort of exception on their usual nonintervention rules to squish Rovagug cultists, and gods can read minds.

...gods can't meaningfully read minds. Keltham is such a deeply unusual case that it's conceivable a god would burn the astonishing amount of resources and share of permitted-intervention required to read his mind and make sense of what they found, but that's not, like, a feature of the world that can be extrapolated to any case that occurs more than once in a thousand years.

Detect Thoughts is a 2nd-circle wizard spell!  Snack Service seemed to practically be reading everybody's mind all the time!  And isn't Nethys supposed to know everything, why don't the other gods just pay Nethys for the information?

...you know, never mind, new library investigation topic.  How did Nethys, Irori, and Erecura become gods?