carissa meets a tyrant
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This is clearly not a very well-managed space colony, and not one who really wants to be a part of. "Fair enough. So what did you summon me for?" He doesn't actually have a medical degree, he keeps putting it off, and while he plays a mean recorder he kinda doubts that's what Bad Friend Space Nuts want to summon an unbound angel for.

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"Mostly I just wanted to check if the circle was a fake one before, you know, I really need it for anything, and I guess maybe get a better one, if it's lousy."

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... "Fair enough. I bet someone's got a better one on their computer, though," someone on this stupid colony's got to have decent circles, they wouldn't go without them, unless, like, this guy's some kinda detector from his screwed-up cult or something. They're on the internet! You can print them out, then trace over them!

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"Maybe so. Thanks for, uh, not murdering me or whatever."

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"Man, don't mention it."

Awkward pause. Is he going to dismiss him now?

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"....I've never done this before, how do I dismiss you?"

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"Oh, uh, just concentrate on it for like a minute."

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"...concentrate on what."

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"... On dismissing me?"

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.....sure! He'll do that. 

 

What a weird magic system. He doesn't even appear to have a spell up.

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And the angel disappears!

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"Why'd you address him in Taldane."

       "He addressed me in Taldane, sir, I'd just have been calling attention to it - he doesn't speak it, right, it was some form of truespeech -"

"Not truespeech, because it sounded like Taldane to Lrilatha as well."

       " - hmm. Something like Tongues which permits addressing the summoner in their native tongue, then - "

"Thoughts included that he'd 'gotten six new languages'."

       "...copies over the state of your mind when you summon them? But then bluffing wouldn't have worked."

"It's a bit of a sideshow anyway. What we need to know is how, other than volitionally dismissing them, one makes them go away; once we have that, we figure out the rest at our leisure."

        "What's wrong with just dragging the bitch to Hell and getting her to volitionally dismiss it."

"Oh, should I take the Wish diamond for that out of your paycheck? Because I'd sooner not have it coming out of mine, if it turns out there's some easier way."

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The cameras descend! He can have a Sevar-scried agent follow up on the most likely possibility (or go on a shopping trip), both for potential allies amongst the gods and for the vitally important question of who is most trustworthy who can cast Forbiddance. He assumes nobody is just... selling cleric spells, in a trustworthy manner?

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Oh, the church of Abadar totally does that! Their prices are posted outside their temple in eight different languages, including the added price for a rush order! (They only go up through seventh circle; apparently Abadar doesn't have an eighth or ninth circle cleric on call here.)

 

Abadar is, after all, the god of just selling and buying things in a trustworthy manner.

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The Church of Sarenrae is doing routine mass healings for free (everyone crowds around the cleric in a purpose-built room) and sorting out a lot of people anxious about the possible wizard war portended by the sky castle. Wizard wars sometimes have collateral damage. There is also a soup kitchen with very long lines. 

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The Church of Iomedae is gearing up to, if necessary, fight the sky castle. They have asked Iomedae if sky castle wizard is here to try to ascend and if so if sky castle wizard should be permitted to do that. Iomedae hasn't yet replied. As a result there's a lot of tense organized chaos, though they're still managing scheduled mass healings of their own. They do not have a soup kitchen but they have a training yard anyone can join. 

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... Oh, bullshit. 

Okay, the gods now know about him. In retrospect the FLYING SKY CASTLE idea was a poor one, he just did not really... consider... not showing up in a giant flying sky castle.

Why did he not consider not showing up in a flying sky castle.

He really didn't get that far.

WHY did he not get that far??? His superior Wisdom is mostly just saying things like "because you got in the habit of going places in a flying sky castle," what with that being how he normally travels, and "because at no point did you actually think." His superior Intelligence is suggesting better ways to carry out the plan in retrospect none of which are now viable.

So much for any advantage of surprise whatsoever.

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Right. So. His first priority is the Forbiddance. The gods presumably are not thinking en masse about him being a threat; they don't have prophecy. They may know what's happening in here anyway, but...

... He should ally with one of them or more than one of them they are handing out overwhelming magical power like candy he cannot fight more than one of them at once he needs more information.

No, actual first priority: Put his Angelic Theology Expert on determining whether Abadar is trustworthy or not. If he is a God Of Doing Stuff For Money he may be a mercenary or he may be willing to sell trustworthiness, and Sikandros can leverage one completely trustworthy source into all the information everyone on this world starts with.

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Lehali is, in an important sense, all right with Sikandros terrorizing people. Most people, she thinks, are made better, not worse, by being put into high-stakes situations; discovering that actually you can stand up to the evil overlord while not actually having stakes that put you under threat is real and good and important. 

Lehali is a lot less all right with him accidentally terrorizing a city. Especially since people are spending actually valuable resources on doing something about it!

What is Sikandros going to do about this?

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Look over the shoulder of his Angel Who Is Managing A Drone Spying On The Temple Of Sarenrae While Sarenrae Counsels People!

Information gathering first, Lehali.

(Also, tell Carissa that while she's on standby she can familiarize herself with the Work Room. It has an angel who can make whatever tools she needs and cerium of perfect purity in neat little canisters of a standardized weight.)

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The impending terror of death has inspired a lot of people to try to atone for their crimes! The priests of Sarenrae are a bit overwhelmed but they're doing their best to get everyone into a probably-adequate state of repentance before they move on to the next one! 

"I was just so tired of taking care of her, and I - stopped. She called out for water and I - pretended I couldn't hear her - and then by morning she was dead - and she would probably have died anyways, right -"

        "I don't know. But it would have been better, if she would have died, to have died loved and cared for, and not alone."

"- I know that. I just - I just couldn't do it, I knew I should and I - I was glad, when she was dead, because it meant it was over, it meant I could - leave the house - and I figured, she's a good person, she's in a better place -"

        "I think the thing you're doing right now isn't forgiving yourself. It's excusing yourself, and that's different. You've got to forgive yourself, but you haven't got to excuse yourself, and usually you shouldn't."

"I don't - understand what the difference is -"

          "Forgiving yourself is when you look on yourself with Sarenrae's eyes, and you see someone who is small, and scared, and in pain, and has done awful things, and suffered awful things, and lived surrounded by awful things, and you see the potential in them to be strong and great and generous and good, and you want to lift them up and show them how you see them, show them how much you want that for them, how much you grieve for them that they don't have it. Excusing yourself is when you look on yourself and try to claim that the awful things weren't very real, or very awful. So they can't go together, right, if you're excusing yourself you can't forgive yourself."

"- I don't know how. I was hoping you'd have - some verse to recite, or - some penance -"

        "And what will those do for you, if you don't believe that Sarenrae is right to forgive you, if you don't believe that you need Her forgiveness?"

 

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This is either Goodness of a form totally alien and incomprehensible to him, or a power play, and he's not really sure which. Iomedae?

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Not doing atonements presently! Doing preparations to evacuate civilians through the catacombs! They are in the ancient traditions of all catacombs everywhere full of undead, but they're still the safest way out of the city if the surface turns into a wizard sparring match. 

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What is wrong with this planet.

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