A player wants to befriend a psychopomp?


Advice


One of my players wants to go off into a prestige class later down the line in my campaign (Mortal Usher I believe it's called) Thing is part of getting it requires them to befriend a Psychopomp, Now that sounds like it could be cool and interesting but the problem is I'm not even sure how I could give them the chance to be face to face with one let alone befriend one.

Anyone out there have any ideas on how I can try and make this happen?


Player uses Summon Planar Ally or other similar bargaining spell. Summons a psychopomp. Bargains in good faith. Gives favorable terms. Avoids doing anything that would break the psychopomp's ethos. Chides companions that do break that ethos. Supports Pharasma's activities.

This could take multiple summons. Psychopomps should start indifferent. Keep a tally of positive and negative actions and events. Give each a score of 1 to 10. When you feel there is enough positive, they could be friends. Or give the player a 'quest' and if it is successful they become friends. Honestly, the quest thing is lame. Friendship shouldn't depend on getting the PC to go kill or gather something.


It's a matter of how much you feel like hand-waving the process.

I'd say the most straightforward approach is to partake in an activity that Pharasma approves of, namely protecting the sanctity of the "souls should be brought for swift judgement" concept. The Ahmuuth Psychopomp is one that specifically teams up with mortals to destroy undead. Even better, the PC may help by preventing the creation of more undead. "Alas, I am restricted in my actions to merely dispatching of the undead, but the necromancer who raises them is outside my jurisdiction". PC kills the necromancer or breaks his staff, and the Psychopomp is grateful for that intervention that he himself was not allowed to take. That's the more intricate option. The hand-wave one is just to have the players encounter some undead in the campaign, and when they go to battle them, an Ahmuuth is also there in his quest to slay them. They find themselves allies for the fight, and the psychopomp expresses his appreciation with "you have proven yourself an ally and friend to Pharasma. Thanks, bye." and the requirement is met. But that general concept is what I'd go with. If you want to avoid throwing in more combat, maybe there was a fight with a demon years back, and he unhallowed a graveyard in the process. Demon is long gone, as are the heros who vanquished him, but now over the years of subtle unholy energy permeating the graves, some of the bodies have begun to rise as completely mindless zombies, and the PCs need to hunt down a priest who can provide a scroll of Permanent Consecrate that needs to be placed on the central tombstone. Just some various ideas.

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