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Iomedae in the Eastern Empire!
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"It's - you don't have Law as a detectable phenomenon, it's probably downstream of that -

Oaths are a very serious matter, and extracting an oath under mind control is - I won't say it's just not done, because there are always people who will break any particular taboo if they think it serves their interests, but - this one is particularly serious."

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"There are a lot of details that would be of - significant importance, in terms of what options she has, if she has any.

But I don't think there is any historical or current Golarion empire in which that would be a routine handling of a situation like being adjacent to someone who defected, and many in which it'd be a more serious offense than murder. It is unsurprising that without detectable Law things are different, but it's - interesting that they're not different such that you don't have oaths. It's a tactic that only works if people do think their oath means something."

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"Emperor Vittulus, 723 before the starstone. Deposed a year later, though. Not unrelatedly."

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Normally correcting Iomedae about a detail of history gets an admiring exasperated smile but today she's taking a temporary break from the admiring exasperated smiles. 

 

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- nod. 

(he's still not sure he understands, because he– ...what would it even mean, for 'Law' to be a detectable phenomenon - and if it was, that would - shift so many things -)

 

 

"For what it is worth, this was not a routine handling of a situation. I - can infer that Bastran was in a hurry, because under the standard protocol, Aritha would have been held and questioned for a week by the Office of Inquiry. He must have decided he could not afford that delay. 

 

"- The fact that he asked for her oath, when it was - understandably unfair to her to ask for any commitment - is my fault, I think."

 

There are some clarifications he could make but they're mostly in the vein of defending his...having made the right decisions...and he's not in the mood for that right now. 

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She is not, particularly, judging Altarrin for making decisions that made sense in the context he was living in.

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Iomedae spends very little of her time judging people. It rarely causes them to change their behavior. 

 

"It's - indicative, maybe, of some of the challenges of contact with another world. I'm not angry. It does pretty dramatically limit her options once we get her out, but there's a lot of that, in war."

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He feels like she maybe should be angry. 

"...I think I was trying to build the concept of - what your world means by Law. Even though we cannot see it directly, in Velgarth, and - I think it makes it much  harder, that as far as I can tell our gods are not Lawful, or - capable of understanding what that would mean.

...That is what I mean, when I said it was my fault, I - was trying to build a - civilization where oaths meant something. I suppose it was clearly never going to work, given all of the compulsions." 

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She is still not angry, because what Evil would turn tail and flee if she were? Human imperfection? That is one of the Evils least possible to combat with anger. 

"Have you - Aroden's holy books are largely for a general audience, I don't know how clearly they articulate what Law is, what we mean by it. If it's something you were trying for you might be interested in reading in more depth about it. Probably after your excursion, though, if you still intend one today."

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He nods, tiredly. "I think I would find it valuable to read more, but - later. I should take half a candlemark to finish writing a letter to the Emperor, even if I am am leaving out most of the - secrets - it seems valuable to send something. Once we are in Velgarth, it sounds like the order we have planned is - drop off the messages, test whether the shared-dream spell works between worlds and go shopping for diamonds while we give the Emperor a chance to receive and read them, and then have Alfirin kidnap Aritha. If the dream works between worlds we can bring her back here immediately and Alfirin can cast the spell once Bastran is asleep. If not, and we need to be in the same world, I - suspect it actually makes sense to go and return later, rather than waiting it out, I would prefer not to hold Aritha in one of my records caches for multiple candlemarks." 

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"Having Aritha arbitrarily incapacitated is cheaper than an interworld Gate - you could petrify her."

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They can do what.

"How does that work?" 

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"...I don't think you have the background, yet, to understand an explanation much more detailed than 'it's a sixth-circle spell that turns someone into a statue'"

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"- Reversibly, I assume? That would work, especially if it means that targeting her normally with Velgarth scrying would fail. It should fail anyway, my records caches are shielded with a type of shielding no one in the Empire should know how to route around, but I am not entirely confident that will hold up if they have many candlemarks, they will be trying very hard." 

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"Oh, of course. Reversing it is seventh circle, in theory it should also be compressible to sixth but I don't know anyone to have actually done so yet. We can also rearrange the timing, so even if the mindscape is same-planet range I could put you and the Emperor in it and then grab Aritha - "

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Nod. "If your hiding-magic spell works the same on me then it ought to make both of us unscryable even in theory, so there is not too much risk to spending longer in Velgarth. ...Though if we are visiting diamond merchants, and there are mages around, it will stand out to them, people are not usually invisible to mage-sight." 

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"Inconvenient. I suspect I'd draw some attention under mage-sight even without it, though - if it turns out to be a problem we can always drop it and try without in the next city, if that seems like a better plan. I have - substantial scrying protections even without mind blank. We might even prefer the Empire see them, it might help them realize we're not lying about Tar-Baphon."

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"You could also take a civilian to do your shopping and accompany them invisibly. You can take one of mine, even, for diamond shopping outside the Empire."

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Nod. "That would work. ...For what it is worth, I would prefer they not scry me, I - would somewhat rather no one know I am in Velgarth at all, and that they assume you transported yourself. But I suppose if they see you when you kidnap Aritha, they will likely attempt to scry you, and we can be separated or I can be invisible. ...What are your protections, do they bite?" 

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"They don't have to, but - I can cast some spells back through a scrying link, and perhaps the best way to demonstrate to them that sometimes scrying an archmage gets the scryer dominated is to let them scry an archmage who's not going to convert their empire into an enormous farm for mage-gifted corpses and see what happens."

"...Also, mind blank makes you invisible to scrying spells even if the spell was not targeted on you in particular and just happened to be looking at your surroundings, so if you keep yours up that shouldn't be a problem."

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"They will find that terrifying. I - suppose there is not actually very much they can do to us, in terms of - overreacting - and it is true and decision-relevant information for them to have.

 

- can the animated corpses be mage-gifted and use those Gifts? I would not have expected that to work." 

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"Not the most basic kind, but Tar-Baphon himself is an undead spellcaster, he is by no means limited to making only the most basic kind of undead servants."

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Nod. Sigh. 

"So we should bring the paladin volunteers, and another volunteer to take charge of the diamond shopping, and then one of us can drop off the volunteers with letters in a place where the Empire can quickly retrieve them. It would be slightly safer if it were Alfirin doing that, but - if the mind blank spell means they cannot cast compulsions on me, I think the risk to myself is minimal, as long as I scry the place where I am raising the Gate to make sure no one is in range to Final Strike it." 

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"Mind blank provides some protection against compulsions, but for outright immunity you want" - she rolls her eyes at this - "protection from evil, protection from good, protection from law, protection from chaos and then you'll still be susceptible to compulsions from truly neutral casters. Or you can be Iomedae."

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"...Huh. All right. In any case I am not planning to cross the Gate - and I trust you will prevent me from doing anything ill-advised even if they somehow find someone who is a neutral alignment and can cast it on me in five seconds through a Gate, I think your mind control spell would just override our kind of compulsions." 

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