"- I think it's way above my paygrade, which is why we took it to Abadar, once all this came out. Leareth says that Abadar offered to make him a cleric, though he can't accept at this time since he would then not be allowed in Rahadoum, and they want to investigate the theory that Aroden's there. If that happens -

- if that happens then I trust him, same way I imagine you would if a Companion chose him. 

Otherwise - I think he's going to leave your world alone. He has a bigger advantage in ours, maybe enough of one to take Cheliax on. No one knows how to fight your kind of sorcerer and your magic enables some things that are very hard and costly with ours. Even if he's just a very ambitious person who has noticed an opportunity to take something much bigger than Valdemar and to do it with the enthusiastic support of all his soon-to-be-neighbors...

...Heaven doesn't always work through worthy hands. There aren't enough of them."

Randi makes a dubious face when Fazil mentions the hypothetical of a Companion Choosing Leareth. And a sympathetic one when he describes Heaven not having enough worthy hands. 

At the end, he nods. He doesn't look happy, exactly, but there's something like resignation in his eyes. 

"That makes sense." Sigh. "I - guess there's very little we can do about it, either way, if he's over there and has the cooperation of your people. Er, what - criteria, I guess, does Abadar generally use to pick clerics? What would it actually say about Leareth as a person if that happened - more specifically than 'trustworthy'?" 

"Abadar is a god of trade and commerce. The thing he values is peacetime societies where the laws are enforced, investments in the future are worth making, civilization can flourish and people can prosper from their hard work. If he picks Leareth - then I think he expects Leareth to establish that in Cheliax if he wins. And to get everyone to Axis, not to Hell. And it's already true that - Leareth is Lawful Evil, right now, to our alignment system, Evil means in his case I think that he murdered a lot of people and Law means - that he is possible to cooperate with, that he keeps his word and doesn't give it lightly, that he tries to be someone other people can predict well enough to work with him even when they disagree with him."

"Hmm. I'm not surprised he reads as Evil in your alignment setup - I am a little surprised that your people are willing to trust him, knowing that. Especially the pharaoh. Is it just that the Lawful part is more important to Abadar than the Evil part? I...guess Abadar is neutral, not Good, so...maybe that makes sense."

Randi still looks confused, and somewhat uneasy. 

"I haven't discussed this very much with the pharaoh or with Abadar and I have not been present for their conversations with Leareth but - I would not actually say that they are trusting him very far, right now. Law is more important to Abadar than Good, yes. With Law things improve over time not because of anyone's personal virtue, which isn't necessarily a stable foundation for anything that has to work for most people, but because of their self-interest. It's - important that people are Good, obviously, because there are innocents who need defending and evils who need fighting - but to burden Good on top of that with the work of making functioning civilizations is a bad idea, the way we think about it. Things need to be basically okay even if most people are never going to make big sacrifices for the sake of strangers to keep them that way. 

Some other countries are trying different things. I imagine it'll be clearer who is right, in a couple hundred years."

Based on the glances around the table, the Heralds are very unsure how to feel about this! 

Shavri, however, is nodding. She exchanges a thoughtful look with Vanyel. 

"...I think that's most of it," Randi says finally. "We're going to need to go off and discuss this, I think. And - Vanyel, sorry, but we want to check you for compulsions. Just in case Leareth–"

"No, I understand. That's a good idea." 

Katha is the one who lifts her hand. "I don't think we're done, actually? We're still pretty confused about what went wrong yesterday, when you landed in - Iftel, no?" 

"Oh right." Savil brings a hand to her forehead. "Somehow I completely forgot about that." 

:Fazil can you explain? I'm really out of explaining energy: 

"Plane Shift, the spell I'm capable of casting that allows interplanar transit, doesn't land you precisely where you wanted to go in the plane you arrive in. In the Material Plane you usually make it within five hundred miles. It seems the margin of error is even wider here. We were not expecting this to be a problem because I can block pain temporarily and when I do so Van can Gate fine, so we figured we'd land wherever and then he'd Gate us here. But when he tried it didn't work. We went to talk to a local and were given some place names I didn't recognize at all - Van inferred we were in Iftel, and the shield wall was why the Gate and communications spell didn't work...some gryphons flew in to talk to us, and were quite twitchy and angry, and then we were set on fire. The gryphons didn't even do it, as far as I can tell."

"Iftel has gryphons? I wasn't even sure if they were real. Huh." 

"Iftel is Vkandis' country," Vanyel says flatly. "Vkandis is responsible for the shield-wall - I think everyone knows it must be a god, but Leareth told me a while back it was Him in particular, and I think that's right, one of the gryphons was wearing a symbol that looks a lot like the Sun-in-Glory standard in Karse. And - well, there are legends of Vkandis and miraculous fire, right. I did not think of this as something that could go wrong, at all, but I think Vkandis got very alarmed that Golarion's magic can bypass His shield-wall. And we were, er, not managing to communicate well with the gryphons, I guess. I'm pretty sure that Vkandis is responsible for the setting-us-on-fire part, maybe working through the priest there. He may or may not have known that it'd barely inconvenience Fazil. 'Fandes and I were badly hurt but Golarion has very good Healing magic." 

Sigh. "I'm not sure how much trouble this caused for Abadar's relations with the gods in our world, but I think it caused some. The pharaoh took away Fazil's magic rod attuned to Velgarth, so he can't Plane Shift here anymore. I wasn't there when Fazil and Yfandes spoke to the pharaoh about it, though." 

"I got the sense that Abadar was angry but did not ask for details. Abadar - invested in the pharaoh enough power to do the Gate spell that got us here instead, which is a substantial resource expenditure for Him and possibly the sort of thing He'll owe other gods favors about, so I think He still wanted us to get back here and explain all of this. But I think He was frustrated."

"I certainly would be in his place," Shavri says under her breath. 

"I was, um, worried this might cause some sort of diplomatic crisis with Karse. If it hasn't so far that's good, I guess." 

"Karis doesn't know yet that it happened. At least, not from us. We - should probably Gate her over here again and brief her on your situation; she knows about your disappearance, Vanyel, and - some of our earlier guesses about the cause, since we needed an explanation for pulling all the Heralds out of Karse - but this is a major turn of events and we were waiting for things to, er, be somewhat less baffling before hauling her here to explain it." 

"I apologize for the situation being so confusing. We're confused too." 

Silence. 

"I think we're actually done now?" Randi says finally. "I'm sure there are more details to cover, but I think we should do that later. Van, we're going to ask Melody to check if you're under any compulsions or were in the past." 

"Makes sense." 

"Shavri, love, can you show them to the guest wing?" 

"Yes, of course." Shavri stands. "Er, follow me." 

He will do that! This seems to have gone about as well as it possibly could have, really!