"We should do to Vigil what we tried in Isarn," says Abrogail thoughtfully.

"It can't be done, your Majesty. I had forty people in Isarn for that, a dozen in the city government; in Vigil at great expense we have four, none of any rank to speak of. And the preparations take too long for it to be impactful in the war. And I bet Iomedae just intervenes directly, though everywhere we can force Iomedae to intervene directly that isn't here is a good thing…."

Abrogail smirks.

A few hours later they notice in Vigil that someone is remotely tampering with the seals that keep Tar-Baphon's prison shut.

Well that's not good. It's not terribly surprising that some of Tar-Baphon's remaining servants would take advantage of Lastwall's distraction. Cansellarion's busy, the worldwound is already stretched kind of thin right now and they probably shouldn't pull anyone off Crusader's Fort if they can afford it - they are actually somewhat short of high-level adventurers of their own right now.

What they're not particularly short of, courtesy of two young women and the church of Abadar, is money, which means they can hire mercenaries to back up some mid-level paladins. He'll also teleport to Absalom himself and see if he can can call in a favor and get support from Ahnkamen given her god's interests and the reasons behind the Iomedae's Church's shorthandedness.

She agrees to go, and comes back two days later, mildly battered and blazingly angry.  It must have been quite a weekend; more than half the group is dead and two of the mid-level paladins have third circle spells now. 

"As you expected there were some servants of the Tyrant trying to break the seal. But - this didn't start in Gallowspire. I know of some divinations broken since prophecy broke, not for divining the future but for divining the past, and I know of some recent work to get them working again, as prophecy really ought not to have been broken backwards; by the time we got there it was nearly too late, but I was able to closely examine the original disturbance.

Someone's interfering with the Great Seal through one of the lesser ones."

"Those lunatics - did the Great Seal look like it was holding up?"

"Yes. In principle it shouldn't be possible to destroy through one of the lesser seals. But - temporarily introducing a vulnerability - I don't know. You might be able to get a spell off through it, somehow. The Whispering Way committed to this like they expected it to work. Does Egorian claim to be in secure possession of theirs?"

"It's at Westcrown and not exactly movable…They certainly didn't give us any heads-up about Whispering Way cultists seizing the old temple."

"Well. I know Lastwall prefers not to intervene in other nation's internal affairs, lest it distract from your mission. But this does rather appear to touch immediately on your mission."

"I dare say it does. We'll go public about it all first. With luck other countries will see this reckless endangerment of the continent for what it is and we won't be alone in intervening."

“We did what?” says Lilia. 

“Hell approved it,” says Abrogail irritably. “Don’t be precious. We only come out ahead, if Tar-Baphon and Lastwall fight. It’s a shame they can’t both lose. …we’ve been assured it’ll be possible to cut a deal, if he wins.”

Half a dozen oddities, now coming together in her mind. The mystery of why Aspexia’s being so free with diamonds and miracles. The mystery of what Razmir was offered for his help. The mystery of how Isarn got to the point of nearly succeeding, if she hadn’t intervened. 

Asmodeus is willing to expend unfathomable sums, to hold his country. Greater than we imagined.

The good thing is that the forces of Good are less inept than Lilia thought. 

“That’s a good argument for succeeding at it, your majesty,” she says. “But not much of one for failing at it. Lastwall’s claiming to everyone who’ll listen - and they’re paladins, everyone believes them - in a day or two it’ll be on the radio - turning over northern Avistan to Tar-Baphon is not something to do halfheartedly - I would that I had known, so it could've either succeeded or not been noticed."

"One can't help but notice that plans I tell you about don't work as planned," says Abrogail, idly. "And plans I don't tell you about go notably better - remove her."

Lilia doesn’t resist. It wouldn't work; in that, at least, Abrogail's not an idiot. And this is a tantrum, not sure proof; even odds Abrogail will calm down in a few hours and Lilia will recover and they’ll never speak of it again, even odds Abrogail will have her horribly tortured to death. She’s pretty sure that whatever Myrabelle’s magic warped in her, to make her loyal, also makes her care about that much less than a person reasonably ought to, but she doesn’t actually wish she was a snivelling idiot about it either.

The foreign minister whose job it is to try to straighten this out sits miserably still, his face unreadable. 

Cheliax, obviously, denies having done anything to release Tar-Baphon, and notes that he hasn’t been released, and that the only thing that happened was that some preexisting enemies of Cheliax conducted an analysis of a phenomenon no one else has observed at all and surfaced with this wild allegation.

Beyond Lastwall, the phenomenon was also observed by the dwarves at Kraggodan and Grand Councilwoman and Envoy for the Dead Ahnkamen. Is Cheliax declaring Kraggodan, Absalom, and Pharasma’s church to be their preexisting enemies?

If either of them observed Cheliax to do something, that’d be one thing. But they observed some kind of mysterious phenomenon, and then Lastwall accused Cheliax of it. Lastwall has, in any event, been secretly conspiring to prolong the Chelish Civil War practically since it started. Cansellarion’s theirs. The girl styling herself ‘Freedom’ does her intrepid reporting from… Castle Overwatch in Vigil. They’re making the guns that are being fired in Cheliax. And now they’re making up rationalizations. No one in Cheliax had anything to do with the mysterious disturbance, whatever it was. Their seal remains secure despite Lastwall’s ongoing efforts to overthrow their government.

 Though they have removed their head of intelligence for failing to detect the interference sooner.

Cheliax is fighting for its existence and still finding the time for court intrigues? Well. Lastwall isn't going to wish them good luck with that, because that would be dishonest. The government of Lastwall sincerely hopes that that blows up in their faces.

As for recent events, it might just be a matter of Cheliax’ word against Lastwall’s whether Cheliax did in fact tamper with Tar-Baphon’s seals. In that case it’ll have to come down to who’s more trustworthy in the eyes of the world.

“Would even Abrogail Thrune dare to try to unleash the greatest horror in the history of Avistan just to distract one of her many, many enemies? Is it possible someone in Cheliax did it without her knowledge, and if so, what does that say about the state of her regime? Considering how much everyone in Cheliax lies all the time, wouldn’t you think they’d be better at it by now? For these questions and more, I wanted to turn to an expert on House Thrune’s baffling internal workings – but right now, regrettably, many of those are busy on the front lines. I do have the Grand Councilwoman and Envoy for the Dead Anhkamen, the world's only ninth circle priest of Pharasma, who witnessed the disruption firsthand. Thanks for joining us, Grand Councilwoman.”

“It is my pleasure.”

“You and a small team travelled last week to Gallowspire to investigate signs someone was trying to break out Tar-Baphon. What did you find?”

“Gallowspire is dangerous to approach and dangerous to operate in. The ancient crusaders posted eternal guards over Tar-Baphon’s tomb, but over time the accursed land has destroyed or warped them. Demiliches float through the rubble; shadows block out the light, which is in any event dim. Creatures born of despair and ruin, to despair and ruin, die in despair and ruin. Gallowspire should not be.”