"Oh, definitely," said the Megapope, "that's the Archbishop of Asmodeus in Korvosa, he's my number one rival. Asmodeus, I mean. Reebs is just some guy, whatever."

What a hilarious thing for the man to say. Well, not really, but sure, spit your placid defiance, Mr. I Have No Fear Because No One Taught Me What Fear Is And I'm Too Dumb To Figure It Out Myself.

"So, follow up question. Does that mean that these Everybloom and Prince of Pain characters are the good guys?"

And that's where the first wheel falls off the cart.

What kind of logic is that?

And Altronus has never heard of Milani or Zon-Kuthon?

"Everbloom is, Prince of Pain isn't. The confusing thing here is that there are apparently Good gods and Evil gods on both sides of the conflict."

The pope thinks Altronus's question was a natural one to ask. Well... that's the impression she gets, but she should try asking him something stupid to see if he's just Like That.

"Stating the obvious here, but the ones who look like villains at first are going to wind up the heroes we side with."

What?

...

No, what??

Why would it be obvious that the ones who look like villains are secretly heroic? Most people who look like villains aren't secretly heroic??

And this battle is between the gods, why does Choryon think it matters who she "sides with"?

Monarchs and archmages will fight like dogs beneath the table for falling bones and scraps.

...Does Choryon think the world runs on story-book logic and that she's - no, does she think they, the four people who ostensibly met in the early hours of this morning - are the main characters?

"That's maybe too obvious. It could be a double bluff."

A double bluff by who?? Do you think the gods are... putting on a show for you??? Or, is Altronus just humoring Choryon? Running with the joke or running with the delusion? That would make more sense because it minimizes the number of crazy people... except Altronus started first...

"My silver against your copper says it's not."

Try this theory on for size. The cleric of Cayden Cailean is, like all clerics, a psychological outlier. He says funny things like that Asmodeus is his rival, and maybe believes them. The other three start adventuring with the cleric, and he says things like that, and they all learn to play along because they like how he responds if they do or don't like how he responds if they don't.

This is a good theory because it reduces the number of delusional people in the group to just the one.

Actually, now that she's thought of it, it's obviously correct. What a relief.

(Though isn't it a bit odd how realistically they pretend to defer to him in his areas of imagined expertise? If Ileosa squashes this misgiving, it happens too quickly for her to notice.)

Also, implied by the theory is that Lyvina likely disapproves of the way those two are winding the cleric up - the wizard is too kind and earnest for such shenanigans.

It's nice to be predicting things again instead of rolling bewildered with the punches, and Ileosa is going to look at Lyvina's face to confirm that the samsaran is upset.

"Do we know which side Cayden and Ragathiel are on?"

The samsaran looks grave, apparently she's got bigger things on her mind than her compatriot's tomfoolery. But that's not terribly off-model, her question is an important one for a cleric to ask, probably that's what was on her mind while the others were clowning around.

"You want to outsource your moral reasoning to someone outside our group?"

Says Altronus in tones of sheer incredulity and that is not an act.

"I'd at least hear Him out! He's 3 points smarter than I am, and 2 points more Wise. But mostly I'm just curious."

Zero reverence whatsoever. Lyvina used the godpronoun as a joke, to emphasize the inherent absurdity in caring what someone outside their group thinks. Even if that Someone is her god.

Also Lyvina thinks she knows Ragathiel's Intelligence score and Wisdom, and thinks her own within spitting distance.

"What are the gods doing, anyway? I'd sort of expect having gods on our side to look at least a little different from the conspicuous absence of any and all gods on our side. Surely they're not too busy to notice that the whole world is ending."

Ileosa has wondered that herself.

"The simplified version for mortals is that the gods are mostly in one big stalemate, because counterspelling each other's miracles takes a lower level spell with no material components. So if a god does something, that means that none of the other gods care enough to stop them and it was probably still hugely expensive to get through."

Eh? Is that how it works?

"So, followup question. How did the big bug gug and his shadow-siding compeers get away with whatever it is they got away with?"