I am considering incorporating an auction of unusual items for a now-deceased collector in an upcoming session. I thought about making one of these valuable rarities a gem containing the soul of an unknown being (though the creature's name is known, it means nothing to the party.)
This brought up the issue of what happens if the PCs get the gem in question and break it, releasing the creature. As per the spell, the creature (from another plane) can be required to perform a service, but how grudgingly would it do so? Would it have gratitude for being freed?
And this made me ask: do creatures whose souls are trapped inside such a gem have any awareness of what has happened to them? They do not appear to age or suffer any sort of harm while imprisoned (this one may have been in the gem for decades), but does that also place them into a mental stasis? Are they aware of who originally imprisoned them, or would they assume that whoever releases them are responsible for their situation?
I looked through a lot of threads and the FAQs on the site, but couldn't find anything to indicate if there is a ruling one way or another on this. The closest I can come is the Mirror of Life Trapping, in which victims are conscious and can speak to the controller of the Mirror, but it's obviously a different form of imprisonment.
The only thing I've found is this excerpt from Reign of Winter 4: The Frozen Stars
entrepreneur, inquires whether they are interested in doing business.
It looks like he knows he was a prisoner, and of course he is grateful for freeing him but it also says that he is not compelled to perform a service.
Honestly go with whichever option best fits the story and the tone you want to set? Should they have no memory of their imprisonment in the gem? Should they have been conscious and unaging in either pain or simply pure maddening boredom for a century or more? Whichever works for the game and the story.