What do you have against the Church of Asmodeus?

Well, their Archbishop did attack me with a mace earlier today. That happened.

But I'm mostly keeping tabs on the anti-Asmodeans because someone ought to and Ornelos washed his hands of it.

Maybe nothing happens, maybe something does, but if it does, maybe there aren't any shadows loosed in the first combat round, eh? We'll see how this plays out.

Commotion in the Vault: another empowered priest recanted Asmodeus. They swear up and down that they didn't even want it, that they're sickened and horrified that it was even possible, and they're begging Arbiter Zenobia Zenderholm to atone them to LG and wash the taint of sin off their soul.

You don't need a spell for that, just erase your N or E and write in a G.

Zenobia is explaining that she she a) doesn't have the spell prepared and probably won't be able to prepare it for a very long time, and that b) atonement is a spell which asks a god to look closely at you and vouch for their prediction of your true alignment that you'll receive at judgement, and update your alignment aura if the automated system fucked up. You mostly only need it if the automated system is messing with your class features. 

...Can they do that without the spell?

Presumably?

I think atonement is one of those spells like commune where we spend power on our end of things to save Them power on Theirs. 

Oh crud.

Crud?

Well, I had a character arc planned where I'd learn the true value of friendship and become LG and dip Paladin for saves.

But if any old god is allowed to gainsay my alignment just by squinting at me, that seems like a wee bit of a vulnerability!

Or what if Rovagug atones you both to CE at just the wrong moment and you lose your spells!

Don't give the GM ideas! 

Is that allowed?

Giving the GM ideas? Of course it isn't!

Zenderhelm, is it allowed?

Uhhhhhhhhh she doesn't think so, no. You have to accept the atonement, she's pretty sure, same as a god can't make you a cleric against your will...

So this guy was lying about being made a cleric against his will?

I think that Hell is clearly skirting as close to breaking the rules as they can or dare, and will probably be fined for it.

I wouldn't advise holding someone's temporary - and immediately renounced - empowerment against them.

Okay, but Rovagug doesn't care about the rules, right?

You can probably avoid the Rough Beast atoning you against your will with sufficient moral purity.

Abadar can atone you to LN, because Abadar is Judged LN: if you do the things and only the things which a mortal Abadar would have in your shoes, Pharasma's court will send you to Axis regardless of what you pinged as in life. Abadar is the best to know whether you're an Abadaran, so He can manually update your detectable alignment to match your eventual Judgement. Abadar can also atone you to an alignment within a step of LN (otherwise Abadaran paladins would have to find a cleric from outside their church to cast the atonements), but for the God of Walls and Ditches to be the authority here you'd have to be an Abadaran kind of LG. (But again, atonement isn't necessary unless you need it for your divine casting class, because again, an atonement doesn't change your alignment - only what you read as. If you can atone to LG, you already were LG.)

If you're not particularly the Worldendingy kind of Chaos or Evil, I don't think you have to worry... or rather, I don't think you should worry about it before you worry about, like, lightning. When the Rough Beast smites you, He'll probably use lightning. Atonement is kind of weaksauce as a weapon, I think?

What if I get a god to atone me to LG out of cynical self-interest? I'd be judged something else when I die, but I could get a lot of paladinning in before I die.

The god who vouched for you would face sanctions if the court decided that They abused their power, but sure, technically it's possible, I guess. 

You'll have to find a different 5th-circle cleric to cast the spell, though, because I certainly won't.

Technically I don't even need the spell, though, right? A god could just "look closely at me" and decide to do it.

I think you're more likely to find success with the character arc thing.

Sure, sure, but it's cheap to test.

Hey, Abadar, I hear that you take bribes, do you want to lie to Pharasma for me?

?