Screwtape Fiends

[Scribble]

I'd like to put more evil into my [Evil] Outsiders.

Specifically, temptation. I'd like some help coming up with concrete proposals fiends can use to tempt PCs or NPCs into actions that are terribly wrong.

Adultery is easy -- that kind of indecent proposal has been around forever, and there's lots of literature describing the proposing of it.

Theft is fairly easy -- people have been convincing each other to aid and abet such operations for a long, long time. Embezzlement comes along for the ride.

But how do you talk someone into gluttony?
How do you tempt someone with suicide?
Other than flattery, what breeds pride?

Thank you for your darkest thoughts, -- N

I'd think several of them rely on the others... So with Pride comes greed and gluttony, and theft... (gluttony doesn't have to be food does it? I was under the impression it was just a need for things... like I NEED a bigger tv.. I NEED the best sports car...)

Maybe take a tip from all the Epic Tragedies...

Have a demon/devil begin to boost the characters ego... He's the greatest, warrior ever... He can do no wrong, without him the world is doomed!!! So yes... great warrior, you DO deserve that extra bit of treasure... You DO deserve a better magic item... in fact why not just take it? After all they'd probably just give it to someone of you're awesome abilites and statue... why not save them the trouble... Yes... you certainly do look marvelous in that new magic coat... but you know... magic shoes would be the clincher don't you! so on and so forth.

Then... just when he's at the height of his "glory" the fiend begins to take away the things that really matter... friends, family... health... and begins to slowly take away the things the character thinks are great... opening the characters eyes to his true, horrible nature, and inability to save the things that mattered at the most important time...

then... suicide...

just an idea.

 

[Set]

But how do you talk someone into gluttony?

Gluttony isn't just food, it could also be drugs, and, most commonly, the 'demon rum!'

Still, a poorer person, or even one who grew up with limited resources, could easily become addicted to the sensation of a full belly, and a hoard of food socked away, in case of emergency, so that he never need fear being hungry again. Food shortages could also be engineered by the fiend, perhaps through contagion. Other people derive very real psychological 'comfort' from eating, using food and drink (particularly booze, again) to avoid thinking about the things about themselves that really do make them feel insecure or unhappy.

How do you tempt someone with suicide?

The higher you go, the further you have to fall. Convince someone that a certain quality they possess (or think they possess) is *the* defining characteristic that makes them as wonderful as they are. The killer in Se7en targets a vain model, cutting up her face and then offering her the choice to OD on sleeping pills or call 911 to be rescued. Since she's convinced that she's nothing more than a 'pretty face,' that she has nothing else to live for, she takes the pills. A nobleman who is convinced that his noble bloodline or family ranking is all that makes him the specialest dude in all of Specialdonia, is going to suffer a crushing depression when he is framed for some deed that causes his noble family to disown him (or 'evidence' surfaces that he is a bastard child, and not really of the royal blood). A merchant who is convinced that his wealth is what makes him better-er than everybody else is going to suffer despair when that wealth is stripped from him.

People gripped in romantic 'true love' are the easist to crush. The fiend just has to convince them that their one true love is cheating on them, and the heartbroken lover might do the rest, going so far as to attack and slay his 'treacherous' beloved, only to discover too late that she was meeting with her long-lost brother to arrange a wonderful gift for their wedding day! Oh, the angst! He had true love, and in a moment of doubt, he killed her! (Or, in Romeo & Juliet fashion, *thinks* that she's dead, and kills himself only to have her wander in and wonder what his mental trauma is...)

It's the standard 'Gypsy curse.' Build them up and up and up, and just when everything seems wonderful, and their lives truly blessed, tear it all away and make it look like the cursee's fault that he threw away this wonderful life in a moment of rage or ignorance or lust.

Other than flattery, what breeds pride?

Nothing breeds pride like success!

The knightly rivals of Sir Justin suffer humilating defeats when he's up to joust. Their horses panic at the wrong moment or their lances split upon his shield or their saddle-straps break. *Of course* they claim malfeasance, the courtier whispers, *of course* they attribute Sir Justins streak of unvarnished victory to mere chance. They simply can't admit that Sir Justin is their better, he suggests, and they dishonor themselves by refusing to show him the proper respect. Surely, with all of the hard work and training that Sir Justin has put in, it wouldn't be inappropriate for him to attend the ball with the maiden that Sir Drake's father is attempting to arrange a marriage with? If Sir Drake considers it a ghastly breach of protocol, perhaps he would be willing to back up his words on the dueling field? Fair Jessica can choose for herself whom she would rather dance with, don't you think? As for fair Jessica, it's completely unseemly for her to dress so wantonly and dance so closely, and then refuse her charms later in the evening, so perhaps steps will have to be taken to remind her of her place...

The other Wizards have always had advantages, coming from families that threw good gold after bad arranging schooling for their insipid second children. Now that your secret tutor has helped you to perform feats that should be beyond your training, and whispered secrets into your ear during exams before the high magi, they whisper behind your back. Oh, you hear them. Laughing and talking, and then your round the corner and they silence themselves, as if you could not tell they were speaking about you! You'll show them all, with the secrets that your tutor has assured you their feeble minds couldn't possibly master, and the rituals that their squeamish and soft sentiments would balk at performing, you'll outpace even that doddering headmaster, who has been holding you back and trying to advance his own rich apprentices over hard-working commonborn such as yourself!

 

[Piratecat]

The one time I did this, I had a fiend who frequented gambling dens. When people were losing money, she'd offer them a sizable loan in exchange for signing a contract. There were enough desperate people that she ended up with contracts for quite a few souls by the time the PCs tracked her down.

 

[robertliguori]

Nothing breeds pride like success!

The knightly rivals of Sir Justin suffer humilating defeats when he's up to joust. Their horses panic at the wrong moment or their lances split upon his shield or their saddle-straps break. *Of course* they claim malfeasance, the courtier whispers, *of course* they attribute Sir Justins streak of unvarnished victory to mere chance. They simply can't admit that Sir Justin is their better, he suggests, and they dishonor themselves by refusing to show him the proper respect. Surely, with all of the hard work and training that Sir Justin has put in, it wouldn't be inappropriate for him to attend the ball with the maiden that Sir Drake's father is attempting to arrange a marriage with? If Sir Drake considers it a ghastly breach of protocol, perhaps he would be willing to back up his words on the dueling field? Fair Jessica can choose for herself whom she would rather dance with, don't you think? As for fair Jessica, it's completely unseemly for her to dress so wantonly and dance so closely, and then refuse her charms later in the evening, so perhaps steps will have to be taken to remind her of her place...

The other Wizards have always had advantages, coming from families that threw good gold after bad arranging schooling for their insipid second children. Now that your secret tutor has helped you to perform feats that should be beyond your training, and whispered secrets into your ear during exams before the high magi, they whisper behind your back. Oh, you hear them. Laughing and talking, and then your round the corner and they silence themselves, as if you could not tell they were speaking about you! You'll show them all, with the secrets that your tutor has assured you their feeble minds couldn't possibly master, and the rituals that their squeamish and soft sentiments would balk at performing, you'll outpace even that doddering headmaster, who has been holding you back and trying to advance his own rich apprentices over hard-working commonborn such as yourself!

One other point that bears consideration: Are your demons servitors of infernal powers, or of Evil itself?

Let's say that a fiend tempting a lord to Pride hears the lord's loyal fool castigate the lord openly in front of his court, and, horror of horrors, the lord admits fault for his recent actions and strives to rule with more temperance in the future. The smart thing to do is to back the hell off, let the lord think that he has defeated his own sinful nature, and only strike again when the time is ripe. However, the prideful thing to do would be to immediately start working to have the lord end up killing the fool, regardless of the fact that such direct temptation could lead to genuine self-awareness (and accompanying paying for a Planar Binding array and stabbing of the fiend) on the part of the lord.

My personal preference is to emphasize that the celestial/fiendish hierarchies are force-based, not effect based; devils aren't evil and lawful because it works, but because they are devils. Devils will brutalize underlings to show their strength (and turn on superiors that are insufficiently brutal) not because it achieves their goals, but because it is part of who and what they are. The moment an exemplar outsider realizes that they can turn away from their heritage and form a genuine partnership with a lesser / murder an innocent, they have risen (or fallen).

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Create a mechanical benefit to excessive eating. Hero's Feast, for instance provides enough food for every recipient for one day but its benefits only last 12 hours. Thus people are tempted to eat two hero's feasts per day--twice as much as they need or is healthy. At lower levels, goodberries offer a similar temptation. (I've always figured that the Tordek, Dwarf Champion mini is so much more chunky than the ordinary Tordek mini for exactly this reason).

Now there are practical arguments that it's a good thing to be immune to poison and fear all day rather than half of it or to get those extra points of healing, but it wouldn't be very tempting if there weren't ready rationalizations.

Gluttony. Now this one has me stumped. Eating to compensate. But to compensate for what? Short of putting addictive substances in the food or some sort of curse I'm not sure what to do. Would certainly work best with a good role player who was happy to go along. Just generally describe the delicous food that keeps coming the character's way.

 

[Terraism]

A little off the path here, but on the subject of devils tempting folk on the traditional sin axis...

I came across this art series a while ago, and it seems like it might be useful for this front. Marta Dahlig painted a gorgeous series of the [female] embodiments of the seven deadly sins. Her gallery is linked above, but you can get a good look of them all on one page here (http://funtasticus.com/20071206/the-seven-deadly-sins/).

I know I've been wanting to use those images in my game since I came across 'em, but I've had no luck. Hopefully someone else might find them handy!

 

[CharlesRyan]

Suicide: Laying on the despair is a good starting point, but despair alone isn't a very reliable temptation into suicide. In fact, if you're talking about tempting PCs, all you get from despair is a great roleplaying opportunity.

Instead, use despair to set the mood, then present the despairing character with the very believable notion that they are more useful dead than alive. If the player honestly believes that removing his or her character from the game world is the best way to advance the party's key goals, he'll be tempted.

 

[heirodule]

You don't want the suicide to seem too noble though, like Seneca killing himself because old Rome was no more, or Samson taking out his enemies in one final blow.

Feeling ignored and like nobody cares, but if you take your own life you'll MAKE everyone notice is more of a diabolical temptation.

 

[Tinner]

It's hard to have a fiend directly tempt someone to suicide.
If your goal is to tempt Sir Render the Noble Knight to suicide, you can't just wander up to him and start with the "Hey, you should kill yourself." comments right off the bat.
If you want to break the man, first you have to break everything he holds dear. Have the fiend start with the knight's family, entice his wife into the arms of another. Have his sons killed, and his daughters violated. Borrow from Hamlet and turn one of Sir Render's girls into Ophelia. Put a plague on his kingdom, and incite a peasant revolt. Be sure tho have every one of the above mentioned plot points be thrown at the heroes feet. ie. His wife left him for his rival, because he's too busy adventuring to take care of her needs. His son died, because the father's enemies wanted revenge. His kingdom is in a shambles directly because of his decisions, etc.
Essentially, have the fiend do everything possible to convince this noble night that he has nothing left to live for, and that the world would be better off without him. Now that the seeds of doubt have been sown, the fiend comes back in a tempting guise and offers a way to make the hurting stop. The disguise is VERY important. PC's don't generally take advice from horned red men with forked tails. They might take advice from a kindly, mother figure surrounded by a golden glow though. Be careful in your descriptions. Don't ever actually call this glowing woman an angel, or archon. Just give the PC the description, tell him that she's making an offer to help end his pain. She can even hand him the bottle of poison. Just be sure that the PC makes the decision without being "tricked" or you'll anger the player.

 

[Set]

Essentially, have the fiend do everything possible to convince this noble night that he has nothing left to live for, and that the world would be better off without him.

Convince the character that he's cursed, arranging for some pronouncements at a particular time (encountering a mummy, for instance, or killing an evil priest, defacing an evil shrine, etc.), and then arrange for people around him to start dying of symptoms that appear related to the 'curse' that he supposedly bears (suffering from plague and being found wrapped in shrouds, as if mummified, stabbed the same way he stabbed the evil priest, etc). He 'finds out' (through information fed to him by the Fiend, who plants documents or possesses bystanders to relate as 'visions') that the curse is insidious, and unless he (joins the evil priest in death, lays down forever in the mummy's crypt, etc) it will continue to afflict random people he comes in contact with, killing every night until he satisfies the curses requirements. Naturally, attempts to remove the curse fail, since it's the demon doing the killing. If he's a good guy, he accepts that he must (return to the mummy crypt, join the evil priest in death) and kills himself.

Depending on the strength of the fiend, the exact effects may vary. If it has Contagion, the 'mummy curse' thing could be doable. If it's fairly weak (such as an Imp), the 'curse' will manifest as the mysterious deaths of commoners (whom the fairly weak fiend can still kill with impunity, and then 'arrange' in whatever messy ritualistic fashion is required to appear to be the work of 'the curse').

Other 'signs' could appear to lead the character to think he's tainted with evil, such as crop failures (the Imp poisons the local fields at night), a shrine to good being defiled by his presence (the Imp sneaks in and defiles the altar at night, with Unholy Water, if he can get it, or perhaps makes the statue of the local god of goodness appear to be crying blood, by smearing actual blood down the face of the statue), etc. Animals in the area might balk at his presence, with the invisible demon tormenting them, for example. Even if the fiend gets outed, it could state that the presence of the character's curse has summoned it, and that as long as he bears the curse, new fiends will continue being called to his presence to fulfill the requirements of the curse. If the fiend escapes, it can return to continue. If not, the plan is bollixed since it can't come back soon anyway, so it doesn't matter so much...