My players want too much help from Eligos

[Viconus]

They want to appeal to him for money, weapons, and magic items for help in the tournament. I've presented him as someone rich as well as concerned about the Age of Worms, although opposed to the vulgar games. If they get a reasonably good diplomacy role, how could he conceivably say no?

[Joshua Goudreau]

You could just rule that he is opposed to the idea and no amount of rolling Diplomacy will change his mind.

Alternatively, you could have him adopt an attitude of making the party let go of his apron strings. If they don't utilize their own resources and do things on their own they will never learn how life works... or in this case a life and death struggle to stop the rise of an ancient evil.

[Are]

Won't the PCs be wealthier than Eligos at that point in the campaign? Just have him tell them that :)

[Kimera757]

Look up the Giant in the Playground Diplomacy rules about deal-making.

Every time they request something from him, they need to offer him something. And maybe he doesn't want anything from them at the moment. Which means they're asking him for something but giving nothing in return. (The GitP Diplomacy system would inflict a -10 penalty for that.)