In general, which deity, if any, responds to a miracle cast from a scroll, or a staff?
The spell's description says it's "your deity (or the power you pray to for spells)". In the case of a magic item, does "you" mean the creator or the user? Even if it's normally the user, I can imagine clerics, especially evil and chaotic ones, selling mostly scrolls of miracle that are cursed so as to always make the request of their deity. Lawful and good clerics in particular may generally refuse to sell such (non-cursed) scrolls at all, in case they are used for chaotic/evil purposes.
What if you get divine spells but aren't devoted to any particular power and don't pray to them for spells, e.g. you're a druid of the Green Faith (a non-theistic religion), or an oracle or paladin of no particular deity? What if you're an atheist who doesn't cast spells?
Here are a few specific scenarios to consider. Assume that non-clerics have ranks in Use Magic Device and pass their UMD check to use the scroll. Try also with "staff is crafted" instead of "scroll is written", etc.
- The scroll is written by a cleric of one deity and used by a cleric of an allied deity (e.g. Sarenrae and Cayden Cailean).
- The scroll is written by a cleric of one deity and used by a cleric of a hostile deity (e.g. Asmodeus and Cayden Cailean).
- The scroll is written by a cleric of one deity and used by a non-cleric (e.g. a rogue) who worships the same deity.
- The scroll is written by a cleric of one deity and used by a non-cleric who worships a hostile deity.
- The scroll is used by an atheist non-cleric.
- The scroll is used by a druid of the Green Faith.
As near as I can tell it would be the GM's call.
I personally would go with it being the creator's diety/highter power. As for how it will respond to the miracle that depends on what miracle is being requested and what the diety/power's goals are.
If the diety wants to see it happen then it will happen.
If the diety/power doesn't care but thinks it could get some followers out of it then it probably will happen.
If the diety/power doesn't care and doesn't think it will get anything out of it then it will probably require a charisma check.
If the diety/power doesn't want it to happen or doesn't want it to happen then it's not going to happen and the person trying to use the miracle may get reamed.
Of course that's how I'd handle a miracle spell regardless of the source (cleric, oracle, scroll, etc.).
Part of the creation process for a scroll is "casting the spell into the scroll" (you loose the prepared spell). Thus one could argue that the cleric that originally made scroll got the divine power needed to grant a miracle from his god and stored it away. One can further argue that the god trusts his servant enough that he gives the power away under the complete control of the creator. If the creator of the scroll loses the scroll, the power infused in it is also lost and goes to whoever has/uses the scroll thereafter. The god might be mad at the cleric for losing the scroll, but he can't take back the power he gave away.
Miracle is unique among spells, because the power of the spell doesn't do anything directly. The spell itself is just the ability to ask your god to do something.
So, I agree with the interpretation that a scroll of miracle is like a cell phone with the god of the cleric who crafted it on speed dial. You still have to come up with something that that diety will let you do.
One thing about Miracle... it isn't just a high level cleric spell. If a scroll that intensive is created than it was done with a purpose. The diety in this case would be that of the cleric who created the original scroll.
Such scrolls including similar spells like Wish should never be placed as random treasure, but be there for a reason.
For the curious, here's how this question came about. An aasimar rogue/cavalier who worships Sarenrae and was posing as a paladin got eaten by some bears. His friends bought a scroll of reincarnate that happened to be available and the party druid cast it over what was left of his body. He came back as a goblin. While it amuses said player to play a civilised goblin who goes adventuring with a hat of disguise making it look like he's wearing a top and tails, or look like a gnome so random people in town won't try to kill him, he'd like to go back to being an aasimar one day, which would probably involve a wish or miracle. There are no high level clerics around so it would have to come from a scroll (at high enough levels that (a) he can afford it and (b) someone has a decent chance of passing the CL check to use it).
The trouble is, if it's his deity Sarenrae responding to the miracle request, it will probably be denied since she's the goddess of honesty and he's an habitual liar. So I was wondering what would happen if he got hold of (and probably used himself via UMD) a scroll of miracle written by a cleric of some other deity (say, Gorum).