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Good Day, guys.
I'm running a Rise of the Runelords AP for a party of 5-6 people (the bard seems to be in and out every once in a while).
We have a Drunken Dwarven Cleric of Cayden Cailean, Human Sorcerer of Orcish Bloodline, Ally Bonded Elven Ranger, Halfling Knife Thrower Rogue, and TWF Starknife wielding Half-Elven Fighter.
Throughout the game, my two most experienced players (Sorc and Clr), have gone with the flow and not overdone breaking the game with munchkin maneuvers; allowing the three newer players enjoy the game.
Each character has it's niche. The cleric is the source of entertainment, the sorcerer is the voice of reason (and mild amusement), the rogue acts as the information gatherer and kender (unfortunately), the ranger is involved with nobility and high class social events, and the fighter is the morality check.
Well, the fighter had to leave early to go to work once the Water Troll encounter was done underneath Skull Crossing's Dam. They encounter the dying Pit Fiend.
They all convene and decide to wait until the morning to conjure a summon and activate the dam, using the last of the Pit Fiend's life force. Kill two birds with one stone.
Well, without the Fighter's Morality compass around, the Ranger shoots me a text, she's really concerned for the being (she's lawful good, heard his pleas, he really is hurt and dying, and swears he will never harm the lot of them or their loved ones). She's going to free him.
Now, in the encounter, it's physically impossible for a Str 10 Ranger to pass the DC 28 Str Check to break the magic circle. I texted back and explained that to her. She simply said: "I will do this. I will save him and set him free." So I allowed it.
She approached the devil in the middle of the night, he pleaded his case once more. She asked it: "How can I trust you? We need to open the floodgates, and if we release you, we cannot."
"I shall conjure my own in my stead. Release me and I shall open the gates for you."
"But what about us? Will you come back and harm us?"
"No, I vow to never harm you or your loved ones."
"Your word means little to me, devil."
"...release me, and call on my name. I shall assist you once. I shall obey your command if you need me to. Once."
The ranger smiled, and proceeded to work on interrupting the magic circle.
It took her all night, and he was finally free. He approached her, and gave her its clawed hand to shake, which she did fervently.
She felt a burning sensation on her palm. The scent of seared flesh filled the air. The mark of Asmodeus glowing brightly in her palm.
"Avaraxian. You may use my power for your means once, and only once. Afterwards, I shall bring ruin to you and your kind if summoned once more."
She agreed.
tl;dr
I have shifted her alignment one step towards evil, from LG to LN.
Now, what else should happen?
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I wouldn't shift her alignment just yet. She was initially trying to free him out of goodness for the well-being of another...
Now many role-playing opportunities could abound from this.
The alignment shift, if there is any, should come depending on why/when/if she does call upon his aid.
NPCs with Knowledge (Planes) or Knowledge (Religion) could recognize the brand. (Possibly even the Cleric of the group...) They may even get turned away or assaulted by previously possible allies, because they think that the PCs are in league with a Devil!
I am sure that a certain ghost may not react favorably... and can possibly sense the pact.
I guess what I am saying is, run with it! There are a myriad of things you could do, and maybe it wasn't a grasp at power, but rather a naivete that the player has or wants the character to have.
Good luck!
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Ignorance isn't a reason for an alignment shift. Her intentions are good and she is displaying compassion for life, not greed or any kind of personal gain.
Now, as I remember it the devil was severely weakened and had permanently lost a ton of levels. Obviously its going to need something on the order of a wish or a miracle to bring it back in any short term.
What I would do? I'd leave a telepathic link open between the two so that they could converse. Devils do trade in souls and evil pacts and the best way to get one started is to have someone gullible think they are your friend and a high level PC would be a great ally. Now of course the devil itself may have other allies in the outer planes and news of its return could cause old pacts to reawaken ie. its servants and for all purposes its still looks like a pit fiend. So it could barter out its services to the PC in exchange for sacrifices or a binding contract.
Heck, you could even have it reversed and have the pit fiend call upon the PC for aid! I mean this of course could just be some kind of plot to get the PC believing that the pit fiend really needs help, but is actually a plot to get the pc deeper and deeper involved with it.
Take a look at the Succubus, its got the profane gift it gives its minions, you say some of these players aren't power gamers? Try that out, give the PC the profance benefit in exchange for a future favor.
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You had one of your players willingly make a deal with a devil? I think there are a lot of GMs out there that are insanely jealous of your position right now.
I also think there should be no alignment shift. The player was acting out of sincere compassion, not releasing the devil to slaughter innocent children.
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I think that if there is any alignment shift going on, it should probably be along the law-chaos axis. After all, she acted out of kindness, not selfishness. However, she went behind the back of the group to do so, which is not something that a lawful character should do. But in the end, one act should not cause an alignment shift. I'd leave her as LG for the time being and remember it for later. Perhaps this could count towards a sin of pride in Sins of the Saviors - she thought she knew better than everyone else and thus acted alone.
As to your question of what should happen next, that depends on the situation in which the fiend is called upon. When he is called, he should be a true devil and try to twist the situation to his advantage. A pit fiend would certainly follow the letter of his contract but would try to cause suffering in the process. Whatever he does, it should cause some negative consequences that the players did not anticipate. If called to deal with a threat, perhaps the fiend summons a group of lesser devils who run free while their boss fulfills his word. Perhaps the devil intentionally allows himself to die, leaving the PC's to deal with the situation anyway while at the same time leaving behind a nice magic item that turns out to be cursed. Whatever you decide, dealing with a pit fiend should be hazardous and rarely result in anything remotely pleasant.
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In my game, I had redesigned Skull's Crossing Dam so that it was not necessary to open the floodgates to save the dam. (Stroval Deep is so big that reducing the water level by as little as a foot would flood out Turtleback Ferry. My players would have seen that flaw in the floodgate plan, even though the module writer overlooked it.) After my players saved the dam through some clever engineering--better than the solution I intended--the Pit Fiend was still alive.
And their worry was that if they left the Pit Fiend there, eventually someone would come along and use its powers for evil. Months later, after they had returned to Magnimar and leveled up more, they returned with a Scroll of Dismissal and sent the Pit Fiend home, on the promise that he would never return to Golarion again.
I made clear to the players that if they released it in Golarion, it would try to remove its negative levels, probably through rituals involving mass sacrifices of intelligent beings. I see nothing in the Pit Fiend's promises in theMexican's campaign to prevent that.
I agree with Obirandiath: the ranger's actions were chaotic rather than evil. But the ranger's actions have consequences and you can bring those consequences back to the party. How about them hearing of a weak Pit Fiend committing atrocities somewhere in Varisia? Perhaps it is doing them somewhere on the road to the Fortress of the Stone Giants in the next module. Or you could even have the Pit Fiend learn that Karzoug is still alive and start following the party to take revenge on the wizard who had trapped it for ten thousand years.
We GMs have a duty to the players to show them the evil outsiders acting horrendously evil. Evil cannot simply be a label assigned by the Bestiary or a Detect Evil spell. Otherwise, it is too easy to mistake a Pit Fiend for a misunderstood street youth, as Helaman said. My Pit Fiend, while trapped helpless in the magic circle, kept making slips of the tongue, suggesting evil acts that it forgot would gross out the player characters. TheMexican's Pit Fiend appears to have kept its wits and give a friendlier face to the party. Show that party that it had fooled the kindhearted and gullible ranger by leaving too big a hole in its promise.