...Ignoring that and moving on. Cressida's first confusion is how the Team Shadow coalition is able to afford it - her understanding was previously that divine intervention is rare because deities can cheaply veto expensive interventions, unilaterally or nearly unilaterally.

The handful of gods and demon lords in favor of yellow fever must be wildly outnumbered by the ones who aren't, but we still have yellow fever. If the Pallid Princess - acting more or less alone - can't preserve the status quo even against the combined powers of Nirvana, Heaven, Axis, and Hell(?), Kroft must admit she doesn't understand why pox and ague still exist.

Oh!

Oh!

Did you know that ague is caused by mosquitos and we could eliminate them with something called a gene drive?

Wolves, too, and gob -

uh -

...only mosquitos and wolves, though.

Is something I read.

In a book.

....................i have NEVER heard of a GENE DRIVE and i DON'T BELIEVE YOU HAVE

Sounds like made up nonsense to me.

And just when I thought our outlook couldn't be any rosier.

Can you please one-to-ten how concerned about "gene drives" I should be for my own person and for the human race.

....Two, maybe three? No higher than four.

That's FANTASTIC. No worries THERE at ALL, then!

It's not an urgent problem.

It had better keep for today!

So, being as it is that Urgathoa can keep ague around when it's apparently so easy to cure, and presuming that - as Reebs said - Abadar, Asmodeus, Iomedae, and Pharasma are all anti-shadowpocalypse - well, really, Cressida would have expected any one of them to be able to prevent such a thing.

And a further followup question is why, if the rash of shadow outbreaks - fewer than a hundred, per the Judge of the Gods - were precipitated by visions or possessions, why fewer than a hundred? Commune says there'll be more attacks every night, but wouldn't it be easier to just do them all in one night before anyone has time to react?

If the shadows eat everyone in Cheliax, who's going to guard the Worldwound?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA okay okay okay okay okay, I'll just

QUICKLY ADD "solve the WORLDWOUND or safeguard Korvosa's holdings against INFINITE DEMONS" to the godsdamn DOCKET.

...We'll pull through. All my best people are dead and damned but we can still do this if we work together.

Right?

Infernal Cheliax doesn't help at the Worldwound, that's just propaganda. Lastwall, though, if they fall we're really screwed.

Cheliax does too help at the Worldwound but if Lastwall falls Tar-Baphon gets loose.

You're thinking of Zon-Kuthon.

...No, I'm thinking of Tar-Baphon.

Ar-Pharazôn?

Let's add "Lastwall must survive" to our list of constraints.

Speaking of undead necromancers, if the shadows eat everyone outside Geb, Geb could wage a war of expansion.