And another soul from Golarion joins the River of Souls. There's always a lot of those. At least this one isn't a baby.

As is typical, there are astradaemons attempting to devour souls in the river. As is less typical, they seem to be aiming for a particular target.

They don't manage it, though.

And the soul arrives, and a trial is organized.

Abaddon would like to send a representative.

It's interesting that they're bothering to say that, but they're still banned from the Boneyard for posing an ongoing hazard to souls of indeterminate destination.

Come now, that was regarding the River. Has Abaddon done that at trials?

While Abaddon's activities at the River are more than sufficient justification for the present sanctions: Yes, Abaddon, your representatives have done that at trials. Have another copy of the relevant records.

Rogue cacodaemons shouldn't count.

Internal conflicts within an alignment are the responsibility of that alignment's representatives, not the Boneyard, Pharasma vs Minderhal.

Okay, okay. What if Abaddon agreed to their representative being under guard by psychopomps, despite the fact that this would have a prejudicial effect on observers and their representative is willing to commit under a truth effect to appropriate conduct?

What, so there can be marginally less force guarding the River of Souls from your astradaemons? No.

…we could cover the costs of you buying additional river-guarding support, as assessed by Abadar?

Acceptable. Your representative can meet security at the Devouring Court.

And the judge of In re Young will send out notices to the other alignments that, as of In re Young, there is now a provision that if Abaddon covers various costs as assessed by Abadar, they will be permitted to send a representative who will be closely monitored by a security detail.

Huh, interesting. Wonder why Abaddon cares. This is a case where the petitioner's auto-assessed alignment in life mostly varied between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil, so we were already planning to send a representative, but now we're marginally more interested. (Plus we're allowed to send one of the cheaper arbiter models, which is convenient.)

Nirvana always sends a trained representative! The argument for Good doesn't even seem like a massive stretch this time, though they're not strongly anticipating a non-lawful alignment. The long-term implications of the ruling re Abaddon are unclear, but they'll figure things out.

The petitioner made a strong and consistent effort to pursue Good aims often at personal cost, consistently acted in a Lawful manner, and acted reasonably given his state of knowledge. Heaven's sending a representative. The implications of Abaddon's presence can be discussed with Nirvana's team later.

The argument for chaos here isn't great, but one of the less busy junior angels is interested in attending and willing to familiarize emself with trial proceedings enough to not screw things up for Nirvana and future cases.

The argument for chaos isn't great, but the petitioner was pursuing some advances in physics that could be characterized as chaotic. Also, novel thing in court!

Blah blah argument re chaos he's going to agree with whatever Hell says about moral alignment and either go with the Maelstrom on systemic alignment or bullshit something when he arrives. The courtroom will be a nice place to take a break from all these other demons and he got to the representative area for this case first.

The petitioner devoted his life within Pharasma's jurisdiction to the service of a Chelish noble and died praying to Asmodeus. They're sending a representative, and they'd also really like more information on what Abaddon's up to. Plus it's always useful to prevent Hell's enemies from getting smart, persistent, devoted people who will probably be rather wise given a Break Enchantment or similar.

And thus, it is into this situation that the petitioner appears: A courtroom with a four-winged masked crow in the judge's position, and eight desks, each with a representative. All of whom may look rather strange to someone used to humans, but two may be especially notable due to their circumstances.

The representative with greyish skin and large teeth is asleep on his desk, snoring in a puddle of drool.

The skeletal representative in black robes is wearing some hefty-looking magical cuffs and surrounded by armed guards.

And the petitioner appears, looking highly confused and overwhelmed.