"Don't Screw This Up."

[Ionathus]

But TDO has another issue:

Interacting on the mortal plane costs divine energy.

As a new deity, TDO must dole out spells to all his clerics so they can increase the amount of belief and worship he gets, with the goal of earning devotion and souls. This costs divine energy, and the largest single consumer of this energy is our buddy Redcloak. Granting a single 9th level spell consumes the energy of 81 first level spells, and we know RC isn't frugal with his casting.

Commune is not free. How much more does it cost for a diety to actually converse with a mortal?

Aside from the devotion granted by each goblinoid who was slain in RC's quest, has Redcloak actually spread the worship of or belief in TDO? Has he brought in a single new soul?

It seems to me that RC is not the only one investing heavily in a sunk cost fallacy.

It may be that, having spent so much already, there would need to be a really good reason for TDO to pay the roaming charges to talk to Redcloak.

Interesting proposal! I hadn't considered the possibility that TDO simply doesn't have the juice to do some of these God Things.

My personal intuition is that talking to your direct worshippers wouldn't take more energy than granting even a 1st-level spell. Though maybe there's something else going on there.

Edit: "Spelk" being, of course, a subspecies of elk with limited spellcasting abilities. They were made by the same wizard who came up with the owlbears in a vain attempt to recreate that success and re-ignite his carreer.

The Sophomore Slump is particularly brutal for wizard schools...maybe you're on to something.