"I have heard about the afterlives, but not much, and it was confusing. How do people know things about them?"

“Well… there are a lot of spells that can get information.  Scrying is 4th circle for wizards, 5th for clerics, and can let you see someone in the afterlife.  4th circle clerics can call outsiders from the afterlives for an extended period of time… at 3rd they can do it briefly for a single thorough question and answer.  5th circle wizards can bind outsiders.  5th circle clerics can outright go to the afterlives.  I’m 3rd circle, so the best I could do is a very temporary (uh… like 9 rounds) summoning of outsiders specifically shaped to be weak enough to be summonable by someone like me.”

“And powerful wizards and clerics are rare, so there is probably a lot of deliberate lies and willful misunderstandings mixed in to what’s been passed on to me…”

"It seems like something people would lie about to get other people to do the things they want. I would like to know what is actually true about them someday."

The ratling hasn't actually made many observations of Asmodean clergy, but he is aware of the concept of manipulative lies, and this seems like a fairly obvious thing to lie about, if you wanted to manipulate people.

“Oh yeah the Asmodean priests lie a ton, like they don’t bother to hide the fact the Asmodeus considers everyone else his slave and tortures them for hundreds of years, but they try to make you think if you’re an obedient enough slave to him you get tortured less.  Like he isn’t just arbitrarily cruel.  And they try to direct attention away from the fact that it’s really easy to get a non-Lawful alignment to avoid his afterlife.  Like Chaos is easy and Good is really hard but probably not as impossible as they make it sound?”

He’s rambling a bit but at least he’s not stuttering and his Protean is coming out smoothly.

He does have an offer he could make…

“I could summon a lantern archon for over half a minute if you have a concise question?  Lanterns archons are pretty weak, as far as outsiders go, and not very smart, but that means they can’t do any tricky deceptions and they are Lawful Good so they can’t directly lie either.”

"Later, perhaps. I would need time to formulate a question. Lantern archons come from..?"

“Heaven, that’s the Lawful Good afterlife.”

"...What is a circle of a wizard or cleric?"

Right, he needs to remember this is a magical creature they may not know common sense stuff.

“Uh well, spells have a shape and structure to them you can kind of see with detect magic, and the shapes are really obvious if you put the spell into a scroll and look at the scroll with read magic.  One hole in the shape is a first circle spell, two is second circle, and so on. And it takes more power for shapes with more holes.  Laundry magic and mending is no holes, endure elements and mount and infernal healing is one hole.  Tongues is three holes for wizards, four for clerics… I guess even Gods can’t do everything perfectly so there are some spells that are more efficient and thus less holes for wizards.”

“Your teleportation is four holes I think?  It’s kind of hard to tell, sometimes innate magical abilities look like proper spells and sometimes not.  It’s aura was about the right strength for four holes?  Do you have to speak or make motions to use your teleport or is it more innate than that?”

He’a really curious but he doesn’t want to look like he’s collecting information to use against White-face.

"I do not. I concentrate on using the magic for a few seconds and then it puts me where I want to be."

He doesn't really consider this an important secret or anything, so he might as well tell Fernando. It's... refreshing, to be able to have a conversation with a human like this.

So it probably isn’t general purpose sorcery and that means White-face might only have one or two other abilities.  Which is good if it turns into a fight, bad for getting as strong a familiar as possible.

“How many spell like abilities do you have?  Uh, if you don’t mind me asking.  Most magical creatures just have one or two critical ones…  actually do you mind if I look at you with detect magic?”

"You may. I have... detect magic, spider climb, which helps me climb things, tongues, dimension door, invisibility, and I can talk to rats."

Plus a few more he isn't mentioning, and he doesn't even know he can read magic.

That is a lot… and each one accounts for things Fernando has already seen or can at least infer… which makes him suspicious that the rat-thing has more abilities it hasn’t given any sign of yet that it is holding in reserve.

“That is quite impressive… you could probably make good money as an adventurer, if you know, Chelish society wasn’t so repressive towards non-humans”

He’s not sure he actually believes Absalom is that welcoming, but it’s probably at least not as stupid-Evil as Cheliax and can recognize blatantly obvious talent and power.

A question along that topic occurs to him.

“Do you talk to other humans much?  Or am I the first to approach you?”

"I have tried, a few times. It hasn't gone well. You are the first human to approach me, although that's probably because I stay hidden by habit."

Mother said that humans would always be hostile towards their kind because they were children of Lamashtu, and the humans hate all monsters, but he treats everything Mother told him with a fair degree of skepticism.

“Allegedly (I mean I trust my mentor but I’m not sure he knew what he was talking about) Chelish humans are unusually cruel, because Asmodeus and his priests are trying to get them all judged Lawful Evil so we can be his slaves for all eternity, so it might be worth giving it another try with humans outside Cheliax… which would be a point against getting off at our next stop.”

“I should list off the afterlives in more detail at some point, so you can figure out which one you want to aim for… do you know what alignment you are now?”

"Yes, leaving Cheliax is why I'm on this ship."

"Why would I know my alignment? How would I know it?"

“Your alignment is an indication of how you’re likely to be sorted to an afterlife, so knowing it is pretty important yeah.  Uh… you can kind of guess what alignment you are based on actions, but it’s easy to fool yourself.  Like I’ve been trying to break more of Cheliax’s stupid laws and occasionally healing people for stuff, and I’m still Neutral Evil, I’m not sure exactly why*, it’s kind of a dumb system but it determines your eternity.”

“There are spells for directly seeing alignments, but a cheaper way is inferring it indirectly by using lower circle spells that interact with alignment, like Protection from Evil, Protection from Law, and Protection from Chaos.  They aren’t currently in my spellbook, but I could afford them with a few days selling spells.”

* Fernando generally avoids thinking about the implications of the nine or so people he’s effectively sold into indentured servitude.

"Well, I have no idea what alignment I am. I don't really obey laws, though."

“So probably not Lawful, but just ignoring laws isn’t enough to make Chaotic, or at least I haven’t yet.  And you’re probably Neutral or Evil on the Good-Evil axis.  If you want the most straightforwardly pleasant afterlives… do you think you could manage to live the rest of life selflessly and constantly helping people?”

"Perhaps. I'm awaiting more reliable information about how the afterlives actually work before I change the entire way I live my life."

“Well long term I’m nearly 4th circle so if my life keeps being as interesting as it has been the past five years I could do some scries for you once I learn the spell… I could spare a lot of scries for a trusted familiar.  For the short term… why not think on concise questions and then sneak to my cabin tomorrow night for me to summon a lantern archon for you.”

“I do need to sleep myself… so unless you have anything pressing I’ll be on my way.  Oh, and I’ll get some meats for you for when you come by my cabin.”

Not exactly reassuring that he asked to meet in one place and then changed the meeting location with no explanation, but the ratling doesn't think he's at any greater risk of ambush meeting in Fernando's cabin.

"Very well."

And he departs, scurrying along the ceiling into the darkness.

He had actually forgotten what he said earlier, it was an exciting conversation!

He’ll get back to his room and get to sleep.

The next evening he is feeling ready.

He smoothed things over with the first mate, reading the first mate’s mind about it to make sure he wasn’t scheming against him or White-face.

He has a nice selection of meats he obtained from the first mate for a reasonable price (outrageous by normal prices on land, but easily affordable for a wizard like himself).  Even if White-face has voracious appetite the meats should last two weeks.

He has two *summon monster IIIs* and a few other spells likely to be helpful.

Eventually, he hears a quiet knock on the door of his cabin.

His door is thin enough that he can see any magic through it with detect magic.  If it is Whiteface, he should be able to see any magic Whiteface has active, which at minimum should mean a *tongues*, probably a *spider climb* also.

“Coming.” He says softly.

He takes his time enough to let the detect magic resolve.  Divination and transmutation, so probably his new friend.  He opens the door.