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Alexeara Cansellarion is in his study when he gets the vision from his Goddess, which means he must have fucked up quite badly.
ridiculous premise #76
She reads it carefully and thoroughly. She is not, in fact, stupid, and she's not out of her mind. "Fine." She signs. Badly, because they've left her hands bound.
He hasn't, yet, specified what he'll do to check if she's telling the truth. In his place she'd instruct the prisoner to assent to a long variety of curses and then render them unconscious to place the Dominate because most ways to resist it which aren't the obvious one require either successfully resisting it or being conscious to activate your contingency. And then she'd do it three times, and then she'd still only be mostly sure it'd worked. But she knows about some of Myrabelle's tricks, plus some of her own tricks, and so she has more expectation than most people that it's hard to make sure someone's truly in your power. Maybe paladins don't worry too much about that.
third-of-that-name
He just spends five minutes repeatedly dispelling her, then asks a priest of Abadar to come in and tells her not to resist the truthtelling. Contemptible, really.
Does he somehow imagine that Lilia has gotten through her whole life while unable to beat an Abadar's Truthtelling. She can beat mindreading. She should tell some lies just to teach him a lesson.
She does not do that.
He did not even smile when he got confirmation that she was telling him the truth. Truly Iomedae possesses methods of making mortals uncomplicatedly obedient to her will and devoid of all normal human motivations which the forces of Evil can only aspire to.
"I didn't know in advance. Abrogail admitted it once Lastwall made the allegation. She claimed she had Hell's approval, and that they thought Asmodeus could make a deal with Tar-Baphon. I don't know if she intends to try again."
"No. I objected, when Abrogail said we'd done it, and was arrested. I don't know who was involved, though if she had Hell's permission she would also have had Lrilatha's supervision."
"I thought we had four, at the start of the war, but Aspexia hasn't been spending them that way. They're happy to spend one wherever you might have to match it. There was discussion of trying the kidnapping again, trying it four times back to back to see if that does it. More than six, I think."
third-of-that-name
"What do they think about our latest moves?" Cansellarion has been marching east, trying to get between the main body of Chelish forces and Egorian. He's still planning to take Westcrown first, but he wants to try to force a battle and defeat the rest of the Chelish army in the field by threatening the capital before going after either city.
"They can't beat you in the field and they know it. Abrogail wants to cut you off from supply by killing Morgethai. Razmir's helping us. The plans for that looked reasonable, to me. If Morgethai thought she was invincible she wouldn't have needed you to invent reliable guns to involve herself. If that works, the army's stranded, and Abrogail can figure out how to answer it. The soonest they'll try is Oathday; Razmir's preparing some things."
third-of-that-name
This will be after the second supply Teleportation Circle and before the third. Of course
"Alright. Tell me about their plans for that, and what conditions determine when they're going to try it."
"They intend to burn Almas to the ground and force her to show, and if she never does keep going and burn the rest of Andoran down too. - figure they're planning to join the war at the best moment, and if this isn't the best moment for them it might be for us. They'll time it for when she's asleep, but they expect she'll show anyway. Razmir's been preparing the gems to trap her soul, and claims if not interrupted he should have enough Oathday. He also wanted Cheliax to pay him for a bunch of Gates, through which he can have monsters he keeps in his demiplanes flood the city, and a bunch of ritual casting implements so he can have his church make him more powerful for the fight, and for some scrolls of Tsunami and Earthquake and so on - he didn't want to use any live magic for the provocation, doesn’t even intend to be there for it, he wanted to save it all for the actual fight. Lorthact - an exiled duke of Hell who has been teaching abjuration classes in Korvosa - will also be participating. If you showed up to help Andoran they meant to drop some incendiary clouds on the army, but that wasn't a significant component of planning. There'll also probably be simultaneous attacks on Vigil and Vellumis - have an allied dragon eat a bunch of peasants, whatever - but those are purely a distraction and might actually be dropped in favor of burning Azir to the ground now that the Rahadoumi have involved themselves."
third-of-that-name
Clepati said and then immediately denied that with the help of Alfirin she could defeat Lorthact. She also said she could kill Razmir, though presumably not permanently. He should probably follow up on that, now that Razmir and Lorthact are pressing strategic priorities. After this. For now, he'll ask for more details about what Cheliax is willing to buy from Razmir, what other powerful wizards they have and what their capabilities are, what Lorthact has revealed of his capabilities… and also whether they are planning anything else this big, or if Almas and associated diversions are going to be the bulk of their effort.
They might, especially if Almas doesn't end decisively in their favor, attempt mass kidnappings again. Abrogail really despises the girl on the radio, and while Abrogail is somewhat irrational about this it's hard to dispute that it'll be bad for the invading army's morale if they get to slowly torture her to death on air. There was also discussion of Razmir going after Lastwall directly, since they know that Freedom broadcasts out of Vigil and that they're producing the 'guns'. And there were efforts underway to get Arazni to help but she hadn't heard that those had gotten anywhere (and you'd really expect them not to). Manohar's working on some kind of speculative superweapon which could be dropped on the army, she doesn't know many details but he has some captured guns to work with and is, in fact, much smarter than he's generally credited for.
Probably Razmir, but she wasn't privy to the negotiations. They do have a few more pit fiends out now but that's more expensive for Asmodeus. …Lilia's pretty sure Asmodeus is spending much less elsewhere in order to win this fight. She doesn't know why.
third-of-that-name
Alright. In that case he's going to go back to waging his war, and leave Lilia with someone else who can get all the other details she has about Chelish spies and capabilities and deployments and intentions and the like. The truth spell won't last that long but they can get another one and confirm again that she's been honest with them later.
third-of-that-name
Cansellarion goes to warn Morgethai first, in case there are any preparations she can make in advance if she knows when and where the fight will be. Cheliax is presumably planning to monitor when she goes to sleep with a nightmare and trigger the attack then, but since they know when that's coming - he imagines she can rest with a keep watch spell, prepare her daily spells for combat, and then take a very brief nap to trigger the attack when she's ready.
third-of-that-name
"It could be, though she answered questions under a truthtelling with any contingencies or enchantment foils she might have had dispelled. And obviously between now and Oathday we'll check what we can check from other sources. If it is a trick… it's an expensive one. Montero was good at her job. And I don't see a way that preparing for an attack here on Oathday leaves us more vulnerable to something else - in any case, I'm planning to talk to Clepati next and it's possible she just…knows… in her way, whether it's a trick."
third-of-that-name
"It looks like you were right, and this will be largely decided before the third Teleportation Circle."