Norgorber had a really convincing argument about how Your budget is worth more to Good than His involvement here is a harm to it. The pirates are mostly attacking Cheliax, and Asmodeus seems to be doubling down so they'll potentially steal far more of Evil's resources than We could've predicted, mostly stealing from a greater Evil to support a lesser one. We're legitimately better off in My estimation than I'd have expected to happen otherwise.

Also, come on, wizard pirates on speedboats.

This is still the kind of decision-process that ends up in You getting exploited by Norgorber, next time it seems like a good deal to bargain with Him and it turns out He knew something You didn't and can take You for a ride.

Well then I'll just have to stay on top of things and keep knowing stuff He doesn't too, mustn't I? And then We'll see who gets to exploit the insufficiently low-trust behaviour of the other.

Just because you might lose is no reason not to Play.

Vinstis is shackled inside a wooden box, barely larger than himself, somewhere below the deck.

He has been in it for 30 hours. He wishes he could throw up, but he has not eaten or drunk and you cannot throw up on an empty belly. He is waiting for it to be over, even though he has been promised it will get worse when it does.

Cheliax, in it's benevolence, provides a free community service to all other slaver's in the Inner Sea. No matter how cruel you are already, you can still threaten worse, by claiming that they'll send you to Cheliax. For it to work best though, you do have to sometimes follow through, and now Vinstis is in a box with only a promise that it'll be worse soon.

There's shouting now, on the deck above, although he can't make out the words.

They don't look armed enough to be a problem, and they're raising a white flag.
He doesn't want to waste his bombs or kill any innocents.
He'll have the engine wizard give him Fly, and board first.
They'll hang back until he gives a signal, to keep out of danger.
If a fight happens he can't win he'll jump into the sea, and they'll take that as cue to have the elementals sink them.

Once on board, he'll continue encouraging the crew to surrender peacefully, and explain that they just want to search the vessel for any slaves because slavery is illegal in the Inner Sea, Andoran has unilaterally decided.

If there aren't any they'll be free to go and if there are they'll have to take them to freedom in Andoran as well as any other cargo, half of which will be turned over to the liberated slave fund.

What is the bullshit.

If you're a pirate you're a pirate, we don't think we can take you on given how fast your boat approached us and the fact you flew aboard, and that's fine we surrender.

But if you're here to talk about laws, I have licenses from Cheliax, Absalom, Osirion, and Rahadoum. Piracy is illegal and when the navy catches you you'll hang if you're lucky, and then your soul will go to the Abyss where it belongs.

Actually this isn't illegal according to Andoran law, which is the only law I've explicitly agreed to follow, and if some other warship wants to claim otherwise they're welcome to fight us about it and lose. My boss is a Paladin of Iomedae so if what he's been telling me to do is illegal you can take up your complaints with Her.

No sorry this is bullshit you can't just unilaterally decide something isn't allowed in the middle of the ocean.

Why should Andoran law matter we aren't anywhere near there.

I actually have a piece of paper right here called a "letter of mark" that says I can stop and search you.

It is physically possible for you to decide to fight us about it but it really wouldn't go well.

If you don't and there's noone aboard you'll be free to go in a few minutes, you don't even need to slow down we can do the search while you're still sailing. If there are such persons aboard you'll likely be let off with a warning once the galley reaches Augastana if it's your first time, although we will still conviscate the goods and vessel.

Footnote: This. Is. All. Paizocanon.

We're not bound for Augastana, we're bound for Ostenso.

This is my ship. I don't have to put up with some nonsense like this from a foreigner who thinks he's out here being a hero, if you care about the law at all how about I tell you to get off my property and take your friends and go bother someone else.

I politely decline. Just to confirm, there are in fact slaves on this ship?

The yelling above deck gets louder and then abruptly stops.

It takes about 12 seconds.

Most of the galley's crew didn't even move, just watched.

He'll signal to the rest of his boat that a few more should board, and that it won't be opposed.

This will be a fun one.

Axis: He obeyed what he understood to be the rules, even when it wouldn't work out well for him personally, and even when he knew it would cost him his life. He tried neither to bend the law in his own favour, nor towards any greater Good or Evil. Lawful Neutral.

Hell: He died trying to traffic humans into Cheliax, which is morally Evil, and which he thought was okay only because a higher authority told him he was allowed to. Lawful Evil.

Maelstrom: He totally wasn't going to resist if they were pirates though. He only fought back because they were calling themselves the Law. That's pretty Chaotic.

Nirvana: Actually he's Neutral Good see he was only doing this because he was trying to help people and was just extremely misguided as to how best to do that.

Abyss: You're all being dumb. He tried to do a crime, got stopped by the cops, tried pointlessly to fight them and then died for it. Chaotic Evil.

Abaddon: Whatever Hell and Abyss said about Moral alignment add together, and whatever they said about Systemic alignment cancel out, therefore Neutral Evil.

Final Ruling: Neutral Evil. He gets a choice, which terrible afterlife would he like?

Galley Captain: If you'd asked me any other day I'd have picked Hell, but if that bullshit that killed me is supposed to count as "Lawful" somehow than fuck you and the abstract metaphysical bullshit you rode in on and send me to the Abyss so I can come back as a demon and take my sweet revenge.

They'll take him to where the slaves are being held.
He'll untie them and ... they don't all speak Taldane.
Can anyone translate, please?
There's no need for anyone to be down here, there's enough room on deck.
He just needs everyone to understand what's going on, it's much harder when they don't.

The official next part of the standard operating procedure is to teach the former slaves how to sail a boat straight, give them enough swords that the crew can't take it back by force and tie up any who seem likely to try, leave two of their own men to make sure they stay on track to Andoran, make sure they've got enough supplies to get there, and then leave in the speedboat so they can capture someone else too.

Is that going to work?

Vinstis is no longer in a box and they took off his bindings but he's still at sea and still feels sick and there's someone trying to say something to him but he doesn't understand more than a few words of it.

Another person is saying in a more comprehensible dialect of Osiriani that they need him to help pull some ropes. They're all holding swords, he'll pull the ropes where he's told to.

when does he get to have food they're still at sea obviously he can't eat he'd just throw up.

They bring out fresh bread and water. He tries some and then quickly throws it up. What was the point of that?

He can maybe keep down just water.

It was supposed to be a 2 day trip, he was told. Everyone always lies to Vinstis.

It's almost 6 days from when they left when they pull into dry land again.

The guy Vinstis can't understand points them to which bay they need to stop at, and Vinstis manages to be helpful enough that they probably won't be mad at him specifically.

We obviously don't want people reaching freedom completely empty handed. We'll set up a fund that should be enough for, say, a dozen silvers each? That's around two weeks wages, should be enough that they can start getting their lives together. 

If they're underage, there's an orphanage in the Copperdown District that won't turn anybody away, can we ask the kid if he wants to go there?

If it was a more organised Good country, like Lastwall maybe, they'd probably have a better plan here.

They've put a dozen silver coins in his hands and he has no idea why.

They're telling him he's "free". What does that mean?

They're asking if he wants to go to a home, but that of course he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to.

They'll point him in a direction and he'll wander off in it.

Another job well done. Hop on the next speedboat and we'll catch another batch in no time.

Yeah alright if they can do it that quickly our prices are off.

Trafficking over the waters just isn't cost effective, you lose your boats too fast and nobody wants to move supplies with you for fear it'll all get looted.

Merchants are selfish and profit-motivated, and they all know math.

They'll all do the same calculation and independently reach the same answer:
No more slave trading in the Inner Sea.

Robaldo is a 4th circle wizard and 3rd circle cleric. There are many new and interesting spell-casting opportunities this opens up.

Like any sensible wizard, he's already got strong opinions about which of his new spell slots are best spent on which of his new spells.

Unfortunately, the winning bid for his first day is a single, simple, 3rd circle cleric spell: Planar Inquiry.

Robaldo is tired of believing a guessed religion that he made up himself.
Robaldo is tired of having approximately zero actual knowledge of his god, of Tet's nature and values and afterlife opportunities.

He has prepared a number of offerings, that he hopes will be suitable.

He casts it on the first day he is ready, and asks for a talkative-but-cheap native of Tet's divine domain if He has one, or servant if He has one, or ally or at least someone with actual insider knowledge of who Tet is as a god.

Years Ago, when Tet first thought through the logical and strategic consequences of the divine intervention rules agreed to as price of existing in Pharasma's Creation:

Hmm. I don't really want to have servants in any capacity, not even allies. Players on the same team as Me would be best, but these rules really incentivise Me towards having an organisation of natives from my Divine Domain, who are minimally expensive under the rules and maximally usefuly at setting up situations for Me to exploit, and who can get My followers more informed in a way that doesn't waste my budget.

I guess Disboard will have to be different to the way I'd most prefer it to be.
That's fine, the tradeoff is worth it for a shot at winning more souls.

She's had a little over a year of training for this, since Tet announced that He'd be intervening in ordinary affairs in Disboard more and also setting up an "outsider deployment mechanism".

She manifests in the room in front of Robaldo. She's not scared or anything, Planar Inquiry guarantees that if she's attacked or damaged she'll just immediately respawn back in Disboard.