Corruption in Hell's Rebels

[Derry L. Zimeye]

I'm toying with the idea of giving my players a door out of death for their characters- in that should their character be slain, their souls will be interrupted by a devil (potentially Mephostiles himself) and offered a contract- do XYZ for me, and you'll get another shot at life, along with a few extra fun powers.
What could I do, story-wise, to make this work? I know at least 1 of my players is not keen on alignment shifting, and certainly having a rebel turn Lawful Evil would be unfortunate, even if they're allied with Mephostiles, who wants Thrune to fail.
Anyone have any tips on how this potential plot hook could pan out in a both mechanically and narratively interesting way?

[Lanathar]

Where does the alignment shift come in? Are you saying that accepting a contract from a devil is such a strong LE act that it shifts the alignment

In the Superbatural TV series all sorts of characters make those deals and don’t seem to become LE. Then there is a potential adventure hook to rescue them from Hell

Another option could be to do something with oracle levels or VMC . The idea of an oracle is power is just inflicted on a recipient by a powerful entity with the curse as a side effect.

Both of those points are high level

[roguerouge]

Derry L. Zimeye wrote:

What could I do, story-wise, to make this work? I know at least 1 of my players is not keen on alignment shifting, and certainly having a rebel turn Lawful Evil would be unfortunate, even if they're allied with Mephostiles, who wants Thrune to fail.

Get player buy-in and don't force it on them if even one objects.

I'm not sure what this storytelling stratagem gets you. Can you explain what you hope to achieve with it?

[Lanathar]

An extra life for a player if they like their character and want to continue their story?
It is better than fudging rolls but needs buy in

[Derry L. Zimeye]

The over the table reason is definitely because I know none of the players want to die, but I don't want to fudge obviously impossible rolls (esp since we use Roll 20, where they can see my rolls). Also, I was referencing the Hellbound Corruption, from I believe it's Horror Adventures, which gives players extra powers in exchange for corruptions to their characters, some of which involve shifting alignments in certain directions. I thought it'd give my players (or at least, the first to face death) a difficult choice- either die, or get a second chance at life with some dubious changes, in the form of a contract with a devil- in this case, probably Mephistopheles, unless someone can suggest something better.

[roguerouge]

You can have characters become indebted to the Church of Abadar or the Milanites. Those are the early sources of raise dead scrolls in the first two books. Certainly, you could use this system if, for some reason, the players went to the Asmodeans for their raise dead scroll.

[Trichotome]

Personally I'd be pretty iffy about pulling in corruption simply because a fairly modest chunk of the campaign is about getting rid of Asmodeus' influence in the area (or at least that of his worshipers). I'm not sure how well the party/npcs/rebellion/potential allies/general citizenry would respond to the party getting corrupted by the very Hell they're rebelling against. Of course, you could certainly play this notion up to your advantage. I would say it's a very difficult angle to pull off well given the tone of the campaign, but it's not outright impossible. That said I agree with roguerouge that Abadar and the Milanites might offer better comparatively mundane alternatives for revival within the city if that's all you're looking for.

That said a lot of this really depends on just what it is you're trying to achieve with this idea. Is it to add a consequence/boon for dying and being revived (and making a difficult choice in the process)? To include more links to the role of Hell and their plots in the AP? Some combination or something else entirely? Some or all of what I'm about to suggest might be completely irrelevant depending on what it is you're actually looking to do.

That said, I can think of a few options for post-death hooks you can play around with. Some of these work best at later stages of the campaign, but might serve to foreshadow events if you choose to set them up that way:

Option 1: The Anchor

Spoiler:

The Soul Anchor in Kintargo canonically has an effect of causing some souls to not properly make their way to the afterlife. Outsiders with memories, strange reincarnations, etc. Given this fact, you could pull something here with the character's soul leaving their body, but not fully moving on. There's a lot of stuff you could do with that: a simple revival might be easier than it should be, or have them end up in the body of some other random person (maybe another recently deceased in the city), have them pick up a "companion" on their way back (I did this to one of my player's who rebuilt themselves as an oracle and had them possessed with the spirit of one of the original Silver Ravens, who occasionally offered helpful guidance)...Depending on what it is exactly you want to achieve with, you could probably fudge the soul anchor's meddling into it, which could be a good way to give the players another hint as to the city's biggest mystery.

Option 2: A Helpful Devil

Spoiler:

There is exactly one devil I can think of in the campaign who would be a better choice than Mephistopheles himself to make a deal with the PCs, and that's Odexidie. He has a vested interest in having the Kintargo Contract being revealed, and depending on how far into the AP you are he could be hedging his bets, demonstrating a lack of confidence on his part of Barzillai's increasingly desperate antics, or he's acting under Mephistopheles' order. Any which way would allow you to introduce this character a bit earlier to give the PCs another hint at what's to come. This could also let you play around with the whole Hell's corruption angle a bit. You could say that Odexidie is clever enough to know that while binding you to the service of Hell is the long-term objective, manifesting that allegiance in a clear way isn't something that will serve the PCs' (and by extension Mephistopheles') goals in the short term, so he might offer a "watered down" proposal, or something with a few custom caveats of his own choosing to make the drawbacks a little more discrete and/or insidious.

Option 3: Divine Interference

Spoiler:

Another major angle I can think of you could play with is having a party-affiliated deity like Milani, Cayden Caylean, Desna, or Sarenrae meddle in things a bit to give you another chance. This is more of a GM fiat thing, but I played around with the idea that the gods were observing the story of the AP and have occasionally been subtly and indirectly meddling in things, skirting the laws of non-interference (credit goes to one of my players for the concept of "Pray Per View"). Milani is easily the best candidate for this considering she's both the poster god for this AP and the one probably most willing to bend the rules when it comes to divine interference, but you could probably swing it with the others depending on what you chose to do with it. Since the gods have an absurd amount of power, they can make up whatever you deem necessary for your purposes there. In my case, I did something as simple as have Cayden, posing as a bartender, giving the party a particularly strong wand, but there's room for plenty of shenanigans. At that point it's up to you.

Option 3: Mortal Interference

Spoiler:

There are a couple other people in the campaign who might be capable of reviving a player without making it a complete freebie. Mialari Docur has the means to revive someone given that she was willing to give the PCs such a scroll in book 2, and perhaps she'd be willing to revive a fallen PC if they did her some favours in return. Hetamon might be low level, but he might have some old emergency reserves for a revival that he might use only on someone he truly thinks is a worthy hero for the city. The nobles all certainly have the coin for it, but might demand something in return that ties into their private interests. Captain Sargaeta might have a scroll he's kept for his travels that he'd be willing to offer up for a teacup piece. The churches of Zon Kuthon and Asmodeus certainly have the means, but convincing them to revive someone might involve a disguise mission to convince them that the person in question is totally some valuable worshiper and not a rebel bent on putting an end to their tyranny (though a clever priest might use it as a way to spy on the PCs). And my personal favourite, if the party finds themselves in the good graces of the Queen of Delights, she might deign to have someone brought back, provided they could be of use to her in the future of course. Manticce offers a dubious, but still not outright evil way for the player to get a revival or a boon in exchange for their services or loyalty.

Just to note a few of these focused more on the revival aspect of what you mentioned, but you could certainly re-frame it as gaining some sort of grander boon instead, if that's more what you're looking at. Though frankly at that point you might as well be looking at magical items (which would be very valuable commodities in locked-down Kintargo, to be fair).