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I have no idea where I'm going with this: Part 2
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Robaldo is hoping to treat this as a 3rd circle higher-bandwidth Commune and get as much as he can about his god out of it.

"I offer you this payment for any information you possess and can convey about my god, Tet, who I believe to be your god as well, particularly His divine domain if He has one, His servants if He has any, His values, and His nature."

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It's not a higher-bandwidth Commune, there's plenty of things she either doesn't know or is forbidden from answering in ways a Commune wouldn't be, and if it isn't a question she would anticipate and prepare for she's much less able than Tet to just figure out the correct answer on the spot.

Still, that's approximately what she was expecting. She's got the official prepared answer ready to go. She'll embellish it anyway, with her own concerns, because they explained to her that that's allowed and somewhat cheaper anyway.

She tells him what Tet wants: That people should have Fun and Play Together. 

She tells him how Tet wants it: That people should pursue goals carefully, consider their choices, and try to find the path to the goals they have set, out of all the possible paths they could travel. That Tet is not god of Games, though He sees the world as a Game, but rather god of Play, for He sees himself as a Player, trying always to make the right move to reach the goal He desires, which is to have Fun and that all others have Fun as well as they try to make their best choices in reply.

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She continues with the story of The Great War, where powerful deities fought over Disboard for the title of One True God, and how Tet outwitted them all and stole victory at the last moment without ever participating in the conflict.

She explains the Covenant He put in place, by which all violence and robbery is forbidden, that any conflicts are to be resolved by games, that bets placed upon games agreed by the players to be of comparable value will be upheld by divine force, and that cheating is an instant loss but it's only cheating if you get caught.

She says that Tet wove this Covenant into the fabric of space itself such that it was fundamentally impossible to disobey, in a way that is impossible to understand if you aren't yourself as intelligent as a god.

She explains the Great Game of Disboard, the most important thing about it, that if one is able to gather up enough of its denizens, their wealth and their wills, they may claim a fair stake to wager against Tet for His divinity itself, and if they win against Him can ascend into the new One True God of Disboard.

That hasn't actually happened yet, people have gathered up a stake to wager and then lost it, nobody has actually won, but she's in one of many such factions that is trying and if he's planning on going there when he dies he can join and if he wins the internal-leadership tournament he can make the challenge and if he wins that too he'd be a god.

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She explains that Disboard had existed in this manner for millennia, with no suffering or death, no hunger or disease, that the 16 races created by the other now-dead gods for their failed war have remained and played games with each other, and tried to gather the strength to challenge Tet and the cleverness to win when they do.

She explains how, after thousands of years of Disboard being ruled like this, Tet suddenly announced that He had found in the distant cosmos others of comparable skill, with stakes they could offer of comparable value, and that He had decided to play a game with Them.

Tet had announced that He could use their help, those races who had lived so long under His rule, that while He would not force anyone to change their preferences at all from what they already desired, those who shared any of His values and nature could volunteer and He would induct them as His team-members in this incomprehensible grand game He had decided to play, against gods of elsewhere across the distant cosmos.

She tells him of a few years ago, when the new Game had started. That the stars in the sky over Disboard had blinked out, and a new colourful cosmos been put above it. That great sections of Disboard had been sealed off from the rest to be "visitor areas". That portals to the domains of Tet's new play-mates in Elysium and the Maelstrom had been raised in the centres of cities.

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She tells him how Tet's followers had begun appearing in Disboard as petitioners, and that they are generally happy about this, but they can always cross back and forth to Elysium or the Maelstrom if they prefer.

She remembers to tell him her name, at the last second.

She runs out of the 10 minute time limit and disappears.

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He will spend the entire time diligently copying it all down, in shorthand, that he can later edit a bit and submit to the writing contest.

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How exactly does Robaldo feel about this? How does he imagine other people will feel about this?

That Tet is from outside Pharasma's Creation?
Sounds Desnan, almost, like the kind of thing that is probably true of Desna, if it can be true of gods.

That Tet will let people challenge Him for Divinity?
Even though He could easily just take their stuff by force and not take any risk about it?
Sounds Arodenite, almost. The desire and hope that His followers will surpass Him, will beat Him at His Own game, it rhymes with leaving the Starstone in place with a test that valiant mortals can pass, in the hope that others will ascend, because He wants more and not less, because He doesn't want to be afraid of His own followers, or treat them as true enemies that must be crushed before they can grow.
Either that or Irorian, the hope that He'll learn He isn't perfect, that He'll find one day something greater than Himself, that he can hope to surpass. That even His divinity He does not know to be great enough, and hopes to be proven wrong about so that He might learn to improve Himself even further than He already had.

That Tet came to Creation by choice?
Because He's trying to defeat the other gods about something?
Because He wanted a challenge?
Because He just wants other gods to Play with?
Sounds, ... Irorian? Iomedaen? Asmodean? Gorumite?
Is He ... Proud about it? Optimistic? Is He doing it to stop all the Evil in the universe, or just because He wants to take over for the sake of it?
Did He just notice that conquering Creation is the kind of thing nearly impossibly difficult to do even if you are a god, and took on the challenge for that sake alone?
Or has Robaldo completely failed to understand what the Game here even is, and it's just about winning souls or something?

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Some Clerics say the only thing that really matters in the Material is getting souls to go to the right afterlive, usually their afterlife, maybe Tet's like that too.

If he is, should Robaldo be trying to optimise all his choices to make as many souls as he can be judged Tettian by Pharasma? That's more or less what a lot of other churches seem to do.

He can figure it out tomorrow, with more information.

 

Obvious Step 2:
Now that he knows a divine domain exists, and he knows its name, convince Morgethai to cast a gate for him, buy a bunch of untuned tuning forks, tune them, he'll also need a Plane Shift and Teleport to get back again, and then sell them to anyone who wants one at a profit.

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That's not a request she'll refuse. She gets to see a whole new Chaotic Good plane, and obviously keep a fork or two for herself. Things like that come in handy.

There'll be a few others who want to come with, we can form a party. There'll be a Desnan Cleric who thinks making a new plane more accessible is a great use of spell slots, he's happy to cast the Plane Shift to return.

They'll want to keep the party small though, say 9 people, to avoid spilling the information. She really hopes Cheliax doesn't invade today, she'd prefer to still have her 9th circle slot free for that, but you can't go through life never doing anything just because you want to keep the spell slots.

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When they're ready, she'll try to open it at the center of Tet's power in Disboard, to avoid getting some random unimportant local region that doesn't represent the rest of it, that they can't quickly find their way out of. That kind of stuff happens when you travel the planes.

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Denied.

The center of My power is atop the King Chess Piece, and you're only allowed to visit it for a challenge, which you can't afford to make. I'll pop you out somewhere more suitable.

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Important testing time! Robaldo was told that violence and theft are banned, not like in a legal sense of not allowed but in an incomprehensibly powerful divine magic sense of being physically impossible.

Robaldo tries to punch a party member in the face. Nothing happens.
Robaldo tries to pat a party member on the back. It works!
Robaldo tries to slap himself on the cheek. It hurts.

Robaldo attempts to take a party members coin purse out of their pocket. Nothing happens.
Robaldo tries asking nicely, gets a "sure if you give it back immediately", successfully takes it and then without actually deciding to do anything experiences himself giving it back immediately.

Wow. That's pretty scary stuff right there. It didn't even feel like there was a magical force stopping him, or like there was a compulsion in his mind restricting his will. It just didn't happen, like if he'd tried to do magic like a sorceror by just willing it to happen and he's not a sorceror so nothing happened. As if the set of possible actions just fundamentally doesn't include theft or violence.

 


Footnote: This effect isn't unique. Paizocanonically, Everlight, the domain of Sarenrae, has a similar effect: "No violent thoughts are possible within Everlight; those who seek violence cannot enter this realm, as it simply does not exist for them. Lies and deceit are also impossible within Everlight's borders." Tet's version is tuned a bit differently, forbidding deception would ruin most of the fun, He feels.

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They're not going to believe this until they've confirmed it themselves.
Yeah alright this place seems pretty safe then, meet back here in 6 hours?

Does anything nearby look like a powerful local outsider, artifact, or important planar feature?

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"The Crown of Elkia is pretty important? Would that work? If you just need to borrow it you could ask the tournament overseer."

He's had Outsider Training now, he knows it would work, but he's gotten so into roleplaying like he doesn't know any mortal magical secrets because he's not allowed to share any that he feels like just hinting at stuff that he already knows they'd know with what he's allowed to cheaply tell them is funnier.

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They'll just let us walk up and do magical stuff to their crown? Oh right of course theft is impossible you don't need any security. Where's that?

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It's in the palace, at the top of the hill. It's on display in preparation for the tournament next week to pick the new king.

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"What happened to the old king?" Always an important thing for an adventurer to find out early on.

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He lost a Game and legally died. Good for us too, he wasn't a great king, and still isn't that smart.

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...Legally died?

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Yeah, like, 'but if you lose, you legally die, and all your property including the crown of Elkia shall be divided according to the rules', and then he lost and now according to his will there's a tournament for the new king.

He's still living at the palace I think until the end of the tournament when he gets kicked out. You can just ignore him though, in fact you should, what with how he's dead and all.

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That's no more ridiculous than any other outer plane.

They'll head up the hill and ask if they can strike a hundred tuning forks from their Bag of Holding against the crown and no that won't damage it at all.

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He'll leave them to that and wonder how hard it'd be to find "Stephanie Dola" who he met before in a Planar Inquiry.

Does the first person he asks know who she is? Statistically they shouldn't.

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Oh the princess? She's probably at the palace, top of the hill, I think she's still trying that she'll win the tournament and succeed her father.

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Ah, of course, statistics doesn't matter because this is His gods domain and Tet will just rig it to have whatever outcome He finds funniest. He'll follow the party then.

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