| johstas |
Short description of the conflict background:
We are playing Curse of the Crimson Throne. My character started at Lvl 1 as battle oracle, LN very loyal bodyguard - guardian was the story concept. She was the bodyguard of another PC, a Lvl 1 paladin with very clear to the public's eye, good moral principles. They bonded very well during the first 3 adventures of the adventure path. During the 3rd book, we were feeling my character had gotten as loyal to the moral code of the paladin, as she was to the paladin himself, so we decided to turn my character's AL to LG. The two characters consequently started developing a master to student relationship as my character wanted to understand the code of conduct more thoroughly. During book 4, my character also took two lvls in the paladin class.
Just before we were to begin playing book 5, the player playing the paladin told us he could not participate in our gaming sessions for a couple of months due to work problems. He came up with the aid of the DM with a hook that would take his character out of our story (the hook was based on his background). When the paladin confronted my character saying he is leaving, me character said she was going with him (her loyalty was still more to her master than her principles). The paladin then told her that she should not follow him anymore, but follow the code (thus following paladinhood). So, my character started following the code more than her master. We finished book 5 and my character got Serithtial.
Just before we were to begin book 6, the player with the paladin returned to our gaming sessions. He had a missed 1 adventure and a couple of levels and he came up with the following idea (with the DM's approval and collaboration) to catch up: his character had been corrupted during the last few months (we were not told how but it does not really matter), the paladin was now an anti-paladin with the half-fiend template. It was a true shock for my character and we had some great on the role playing level few gaming session. The original problem was that my character had to work with a devil in book 6. The rest of the party had no real problem (they were all CN with tight background bonds with city Korvosa but no real tendency towards moral principles - thus they all said "if the paladin is ok with it, i 'm ok with it too"). My character was feeling guilty for not going with the turned paladin to help him avoid corruption - hence feeling to some degree responsible for his master's fall. She was also hoping that she will somehow find a way to turn her back into the paladin she used to be. So, she accepted the devil as long as 1) he didnot go against the party's wishes, 2) didnot hurt anyone from city Korvosa 3) didnot take action to corrupt anyone
The devil agreed and we went through book 6, having several small conflicts throughout the adventure, but nevertheless finishing it.
After the final battle with Ileosa, my character got Crown of Fangs. We soon found out that even though it was broken into pieces, to ensure its destruction, it had to be hit by a holy sword forged by a once mortal God. We thought it was rather unaccepted to come up with such a sword and started considering where we should hide it. Meanwhile, my character discussed with the party wizard and some other NPCs about the possibility that her former master could be restored and realized it was not possible.
After a dead end situation (as we did not want to give Crown of Fangs to anyone - it might corrupt him, we did not want to give to some powerful organization to guard it as we have no such ties but also did not want to leave it somewhere unattended as someone might find it), the devil made a suggestion: he would take the artifact with him in Hell, he would always keep it on him and he would never return to Prime Material Plane unless he was summoned. My character at first said he would never give up a major evil artifact to a devil. Then, the other party members said that if we could somehow ensure his promises were real, we might be better off.
To sum up, my questions are the following:
1) In your eyes, does our story have a natural flow up until the adventure path finale or maybe we were not objective and we only got here because we wanted to play our characters (thus making the conflict theoretical as a paladin might have never agreed to work with a devil in the first place)?
2) Would a paladin ever even consider giving up such an artifact to a devil (under some dramatic circumstances of course that lie on the small evil to prevent a greater evil concept)?
3) If she did it, would she risk losing paladinhood?
4) Is there a way make sure a devil will keep his promises? What about infernal contracts? They are supposed to trick humans but can they also be used to bind a devil? And how could that happen? Would he sign a contract with another devil? And if so, can a devil break a contract and what happens if he does not deliver his part of the contract?