Deals with Devils

[Utarga]

Hey all,

So, I'm going to be doing a homebrew campaign set in Cheliax. Devils are going to be a big theme, and I had the idea of having public "contract houses" where anybody can freely and legally take part, provided they have something of value to a devil to trade.

Anyone want to help me come up with some interesting deals? I would ideally like to have a list to draw from for my campaign that would cover people from all walks of life. Political deals of the elite, deals for commoners, even slaves would have the rights to make these deals.

Looking forward to the creativity of the community.

[Dukeh555]

First off, classic, your soul. However, certain devils may ask for certain things, for example, an Erinyes might ask for a woman's virginity(yeah they are pretty sick), imps ask for the dealer to give some show of evil, a popular one is the tear the beating heart out of a living, Snow white dove. The crueler ones might ask for a humanoid to torture and torment to their hearts content, while more powerful ones often ask for something hard to get, like a holy weapon for them to corrupt, or an angel for them to turn. Could think of a few others, but I'll see what you think of these for now.

[The NPC]

Your marriage?

No that's a terrible idea now as then.

[Myrryr]

How about an Imp that's more cunning than something like that? I always liked the idea of an Imp mastermind because no one would see it coming, but there's no reason an Imp with class levels wouldn't be an utterly terrifying BBEG.

Imagine an Imp wizard 20 who pretends to be a familiar and pulls the strings behind most of Cheliax's legal system.

And then offers the GOOD deals at this contract house. Small, simple things that always lead to more important things for the mastermind. For example he needs something taken care of in Westover and so grants a high lvl spell to the contractee from his 'master'. It's all of 6 seconds for him and he just got some schmuck to go deal with that particular rebel site in Westover that's cutting into his machine.

All kinds of things, and since it's an imp people will be far more willing to bargain with it because 'it's just an imp.'

[Dukeh555]

I have a imp, a cacodaemon, and a quasit serving me in my game, it's hilarious, because they are always squabbling over which underworld I'm gonna end up in. XD

[Dukeh555]

Sounds a bit like a goblin I remember hearing about, he runs the intelligence network in some city or other, I think his name was grimble...? I can't be sure. He had a few levels in rogue.

[karlprosek]

It's an interesting question since people of different strata would probably be desperate for different things. A slave might want freedom, but if they don't word the contract right they'd end up an indentured servant instead. Or a craftsman might want to be the best woodworker in the city, wanting great skill at woodworking, but instead he might get run out of town and end up the best woodworker in some flyspeck village somewhere. Or a wizard who asks for greater Intelligence having his Wisdom drained in return. Those are just your average 'twist the Wish' items, though.

For things a devil might want beyond one's soul, there's always the tried and true 'a favor to be defined at some future time'. Having an infernal debt collector out there with some undefined request you have to fulfill at some undefined point in the future would really suck.

Devils aren't as playful and capricious as the fey, or I'd direct you to the Witchmarket, which has lots of bargains listed. I'll have to think of good ones that aren't variations on 'one's firstborn' or contract assassinations.

[Imnotbob]

The first deals should be simple, easy and hardly Evil at all, and come with great (but not long lasting) rewards.
Maybe the first gift is free..

[Dukeh555]

Drawing you into it as they slowly get more costly.

[Artemis Moonstar]

Dukeh555 wrote:

I have a imp, a cacodaemon, and a quasit serving me in my game, it's hilarious, because they are always squabbling over which underworld I'm gonna end up in. XD

How'd you do this? I seriously wanna know. I've been dying to figure out how to do that in game outside of getting it through RP. I'm assuming it's RP rather than Mechanics, or GM fiat, but still.

Still trying to find a GM to let me play a character that multi-prestiges with Soul Drinker, Demoniac, and Diabolist.... Now that I think about it.

[Dukeh555]

Nadda, got it through mechanics, I used planar binding to bring them in, and formed a servitude contract with them. I offered the cacodaemon three people for him to torment to his hearts content, then after I had amassed a decent amount of soul gems using cacodaemons soul lock power, I summoned the quasit, and offered him the soul gems in exchange for a similar contract(quasits require soul gems to advance in the abyss). Finally, I offered the imp a holy object(some blessed object of Sarenrae or other) to corrupt and 3 or 4 soul gems for an identical contract. And voila! All three under my command.

[Dukeh555]

Quasits are originally created when a wizard requests a familiar of the abyss. It then creates a quasit. A quasit advances in demon society by, when its master eventually dies, transforming their soul into a soul larvae, then taking it into the abyss to trade it to a powerful demon in exchange for assisting the quasit in evolving into a stronger, more demon. I found they covet soul gems because they function as a stand-in for their masters soul. Plus it keeps them from stealing your soul if you die near it.

[Paladin of Baha-who?]

What makes you think it would refrain from trying to take your soul if you died near it, unless you made it impossible though other means? Gratitude?

[Dukeh555]

Because, I'm providing it with other souls to pursue, for them to capture a soul and transform it, they must perform a planes shift to get it. If its using its plane shift to catch those souls, it will be unable to capture mine.