Keltham spends a few minutes, then, thinking of his best strategy and writing it down in a simple cipher that he trusts the Osirians not to try to break without asking him; they would treat an Asmodean the same, Keltham thinks, if that Asmodean were here as part of a bargain with Abadar to teach them, so he is not taking advantage there.

He would, mainly, be gathering resources to use in augmenting himself, is what he'd be doing without the Osirians help, along that pathway.

What goods does Keltham have to sell, that he can definitely think of to sell right now, before being augmented?

There's Major Images of dath ilan, things like zoomouts and music and music videos, those are luxury entertainment goods but one where you can easily imagine some eighth-circle casters dropping by for a day to see, and some of those would be Lawful Evil.  Hopefully.

Keltham spends some time listing things out...

(One of those items is that he can Major Image himself a spectroscope and burn a 'diamond' to check its chemical composition, just in case it's something that Keltham can figure out how to easily synthesize all on his own without Osirian aid... although literally the only clear hard crystals that Keltham already knows synthesis pathways for are 'industrial Al2O3' and 'literally just the tetrahedral crystal of Element 6', neither of which seem like particularly plausible candidates for something as expensive as 'diamond'.  Those crystals should appear as ordinary mining byproducts even if you can't synthesize them, if Keltham recalls correctly, and the synthesis pathways for both chemicals are easy enough that even Golarion's alchemists should've worked them out, it's objectively much simpler than refining spellsilver.

Still worth checking with a spectroscope, in case it's like 'Al2O3 plus a spellsilver contaminant' or something like that...

Arguably Keltham should've tried that earlier too, there's just so many possible things like that to check.  This case is distinguished for his current attention only as being something where Keltham might reserve it to fund his supervillainy, instead of, like metallurgy and most other knowledge Keltham has, being something that only yields profits when shared with Osirion.

If 'diamond' the critical expensive spell component is literally just Element-6 crystals, and also Element-6 crystals are unnaturally rare in mining operations on this planet, and also Golarion's alchemists have never tried just growing seed diamond crystals in an atmosphere of 1% methane / 99% hydrogen at 800C and 3.9psi - as is objectively a much simpler chemical pathway than spellsilver refining - then Keltham will have no explanation for this state of affairs, except the story authors deciding to drop in a blatant plot device, so that there's a not-actually-plausible story about how Keltham could figure out how to synthesize something very compact and valuable all on his own in less than 2 months.)

And Keltham moves on to the next item, and the next, on his brief ciphered list of ideas that he definitely thought of before he augmented himself using an Osirian-loaned item and an Abadar-given spell.

In time he doesn't have any good ideas, and then he knows he's just delaying the decision itself.

Keltham spends a few minutes, then, thinking of his best strategy and writing it down in a simple cipher that he trusts the Osirians not to try to break without asking him; they would treat an Asmodean the same, Keltham thinks, if that Asmodean were here as part of a bargain with Abadar to teach them, so he is not taking advantage there.

He would, mainly, be gathering resources to use in augmenting himself, is what he'd be doing without the Osirians help, along that pathway.

What goods does Keltham have to sell, that he can definitely think of to sell right now, before being augmented?

There's Major Images of dath ilan, things like zoomouts and music and music videos, those are luxury entertainment goods but one where you can easily imagine some eighth-circle casters dropping by for a day to see, and some of those would be Lawful Evil.  Hopefully.

Keltham spends some time listing things out...

(One of those items is that he can Major Image himself a spectroscope and burn a 'diamond' to check its chemical composition, just in case it's something that Keltham can figure out how to easily synthesize all on his own without Osirian aid... although literally the only clear hard crystals that Keltham already knows synthesis pathways for are 'industrial Al2O3' and 'literally just the tetrahedral crystal of Element 6', neither of which seem like particularly plausible candidates for something as expensive as 'diamond'.  Those crystals should appear as ordinary mining byproducts even if you can't synthesize them, if Keltham recalls correctly, and the synthesis pathways for both chemicals are easy enough that even Golarion's alchemists should've worked them out, it's objectively much simpler than refining spellsilver.

Still worth checking with a spectroscope, in case it's like 'Al2O3 plus a spellsilver contaminant' or something like that...

Arguably Keltham should've tried that earlier too, there's just so many possible things like that to check.  This case is distinguished for his current attention only as being something where Keltham might reserve it to fund his supervillainy, instead of, like metallurgy and most other knowledge Keltham has, being something that only yields profits when shared with Osirion.

If 'diamond' the critical expensive spell component is literally just Element-6 crystals, and also Element-6 crystals are unnaturally rare in mining operations on this planet, and also Golarion's alchemists have never tried just growing seed diamond crystals in an atmosphere of 1% methane / 99% hydrogen at 800C and 3.9psi - as is objectively a much simpler chemical pathway than spellsilver refining - then Keltham will have no explanation for this state of affairs, except the story authors deciding to drop in a blatant plot device, so that there's a not-actually-plausible story about how Keltham could figure out how to synthesize something very compact and valuable all on his own in less than 2 months.)

And Keltham moves on to the next item, and the next, on his brief ciphered list of ideas that he definitely thought of before he augmented himself using an Osirian-loaned item and an Abadar-given spell.

In time he doesn't have any good ideas left, and then he knows he's just delaying the decision itself.

Keltham spends a few minutes, then, thinking of his best strategy and writing it down in a simple cipher that he trusts the Osirians not to try to break without asking him; they would treat an Asmodean the same, Keltham thinks, if that Asmodean were here as part of a bargain with Abadar to teach them, so he is not taking advantage there.

He would, mainly, be gathering resources to use in augmenting himself, is what he'd be doing without the Osirians help, along that pathway.

What goods does Keltham have to sell, that he can definitely think of to sell right now, before being augmented?

There's Major Images of dath ilan, things like zoomouts and music and music videos, those are luxury entertainment goods but one where you can easily imagine some eighth-circle casters dropping by for a day to see, and some of those would be Lawful Evil.  Hopefully.

Keltham spends some time listing things out...

(One of those items is that he can Major Image himself a spectroscope and burn a 'diamond' to check its chemical composition, just in case it's something that Keltham can figure out how to easily synthesize all on his own without Osirian aid... although literally the only clear hard crystals that Keltham already knows synthesis pathways for are 'industrial Al2O3' and 'literally just the tetrahedral crystal of Element 6', neither of which seem like particularly plausible candidates for something as expensive as 'diamond'.  Those crystals should appear as ordinary mining byproducts even if you can't synthesize them, if Keltham recalls correctly, and the synthesis pathways for both chemicals are easy enough that even Golarion's alchemists should've worked them out, it's objectively much simpler than refining spellsilver.

Still worth checking with a spectroscope, in case it's like 'Al2O3 plus a spellsilver contaminant' or something like that...

Arguably Keltham should've tried that earlier too, there's just so many possible things like that to check.  This case is distinguished for his current attention only as being something where Keltham might reserve it to fund his supervillainy, instead of, like metallurgy and most other knowledge Keltham has, being something that only yields profits when shared with Osirion.

If 'diamond' the critical expensive spell component is literally just Element-6 crystals, and also Element-6 crystals are expensively rare in mining operations on this planet, and also Golarion's alchemists have never tried just growing seed diamond crystals in an atmosphere of 1% methane / 99% hydrogen at 800C and 3.9psi - as is objectively a much simpler chemical pathway than spellsilver refining - then Keltham will have no explanation for this state of affairs, except the story authors deciding to drop in a blatant plot device, so that there's a not-actually-plausible story about how Keltham could figure out how to synthesize something very compact and valuable all on his own in less than 2 months.)

And Keltham moves on to the next item, and the next, on his brief ciphered list of ideas that he definitely thought of before he augmented himself using an Osirian-loaned item and an Abadar-given spell.

In time he doesn't have any good ideas left, and then he knows he's just delaying the decision itself.

Keltham spends a few minutes, then, thinking of his best strategy and writing it down in a simple cipher that he trusts the Osirians not to try to break without asking him; they would treat an Asmodean the same, Keltham thinks, if that Asmodean were here as part of a bargain with Abadar to teach them, so he is not taking advantage there.

He would, mainly, be gathering resources to use in augmenting himself, is what he'd be doing without the Osirians help, along that pathway.

What goods does Keltham have to sell, that he can definitely think of to sell right now, before being augmented?

There's Major Images of dath ilan, things like zoomouts and music and music videos, those are luxury entertainment goods but one where you can easily imagine some eighth-circle casters dropping by for a day to see, and some of those would be Lawful Evil.  Hopefully.

Keltham spends some time listing things out...

(One of those items is that he can Major Image himself a spectroscope and burn a 'diamond' to check its chemical composition, just in case it's something that Keltham can figure out how to easily synthesize all on his own without Osirian aid... although the only clear hard crystals that Keltham already knows synthesis pathways for are 'industrial Al2O3' and 'literally just the tetrahedral crystal of Element 6', neither of which seem like particularly plausible candidates for something as expensive as 'diamond'.  Those crystals should appear as ordinary mining byproducts even if you can't synthesize them, if Keltham recalls correctly, and the synthesis pathways for both chemicals are easy enough that even Golarion's alchemists should've worked them out, they're objectively much simpler than refining spellsilver.

Still worth checking with a spectroscope, in case it's like 'Al2O3 plus a spellsilver contaminant' or something like that...

Arguably Keltham should've tried that earlier too, there's just so many possible things like that to check.  This case is distinguished for his current attention only as being something where Keltham might reserve it to fund his supervillainy, instead of, like metallurgy and most other knowledge Keltham has, being something that only yields profits when shared with Osirion.

If 'diamond' the critical expensive spell component is literally just Element-6 crystals, and also Element-6 crystals are expensively rare in mining operations on this planet, and also Golarion's alchemists have never tried just growing seed diamond crystals in an atmosphere of 1% methane / 99% hydrogen at 800C and 3.9psi - as is objectively a much simpler chemical pathway than spellsilver refining - then Keltham will have no explanation for this state of affairs, except the story authors deciding to drop in a blatant plot device, so that there's a not-actually-plausible story about how Keltham could figure out how to synthesize something very compact and valuable all on his own in less than 2 months.)

And Keltham moves on to the next item, and the next, on his brief ciphered list of ideas that he definitely thought of before he augmented himself using an Osirian-loaned item and an Abadar-given spell.

In time he doesn't have any good ideas left, and then he knows he's just delaying the decision itself.

Keltham spends a few minutes, then, thinking of his best strategy and writing it down in a simple cipher that he trusts the Osirians not to try to break without asking him; they would treat an Asmodean the same, Keltham thinks, if that Asmodean were here as part of a bargain with Abadar to teach them, so he is not taking advantage there.

He would, mainly, be gathering resources to use in augmenting himself, is what he'd be doing without Osirian help, along that pathway.

What goods does Keltham have to sell, that he can definitely think of to sell right now, before being augmented?

There's Major Images of dath ilan, things like zoomouts and music and music videos, those are luxury entertainment goods but one where you can easily imagine some eighth-circle casters dropping by for a day to see, and some of those would be Lawful Evil.  Hopefully.

Keltham spends some time listing things out...

(One of those items is that he can Major Image himself a spectroscope and burn a 'diamond' to check its chemical composition, just in case it's something that Keltham can figure out how to easily synthesize all on his own without Osirian aid... although the only clear hard crystals that Keltham already knows synthesis pathways for are 'industrial Al2O3' and 'literally just the tetrahedral crystal of Element 6', neither of which seem like particularly plausible candidates for something as expensive as 'diamond'.  Those crystals should appear as ordinary mining byproducts even if you can't synthesize them, if Keltham recalls correctly, and the synthesis pathways for both chemicals are easy enough that even Golarion's alchemists should've worked them out, they're objectively much simpler than refining spellsilver.

Still worth checking with a spectroscope, in case it's like 'Al2O3 plus a spellsilver contaminant' or something like that...

Arguably Keltham should've tried that earlier too, there's just so many possible things like that to check.  This case is distinguished for his current attention only as being something where Keltham might reserve it to fund his supervillainy, instead of, like metallurgy and most other knowledge Keltham has, being something that only yields profits when shared with Osirion.

If 'diamond' the critical expensive spell component is literally just Element-6 crystals, and also Element-6 crystals are expensively rare in mining operations on this planet, and also Golarion's alchemists have never tried just growing seed diamond crystals in an atmosphere of 1% methane / 99% hydrogen at 800C and 3.9psi - as is objectively a much simpler chemical pathway than spellsilver refining - then Keltham will have no explanation for this state of affairs, except the story authors deciding to drop in a blatant plot device, so that there's a not-actually-plausible story about how Keltham could figure out how to synthesize something very compact and valuable all on his own in less than 2 months.)

And Keltham moves on to the next item, and the next, on his brief ciphered list of ideas that he definitely thought of before he augmented himself using an Osirian-loaned item and an Abadar-given spell.

In time he doesn't have any good ideas left, and then he knows he's just delaying the decision itself.