D&D 5E Bargaining with the Fates

[Shiroiken]

Exactly! Does that book offer any good suggestions? (I've only ever skimmed my copy because it reeks of glue from the binding and I end up with a headache if I try to read more than a page or two at a time.)

As I'm a player, I don't know all of them, only the ones we've been offered. Twice we were offered the ability to move about Avernus magically concealed, which was really important given the fact we're pissing everyone off. Both times we needed to slay a powerful fiend, and each time we considered the probability of needing to slay this fiend anyway. Both times we declined, but we really wanted to (the last one we didn't do because it would take us too far out of our way).

There was a "fiend" of Tiamat (I don't know if he's actually a fiend) who's offered my character two deals, both of which I've taken. The first was on the Prime, he was trapped in a summoning circle while we fought a bunch of devils. I was in the back dealing with lesser devils, but the rest of my party was getting slaughtered. I made a deal with him that I'd free him in exchange for helping us defeat the devils (plus depart without harming any of us), and he saved our bacon. The second time we negotiated for thousands of days of food to be delivered to a city in need of help in exchange for destroying a rival devil warlord that we were going to pass anyway.

That same "fiend" offered a particularly nice deal to one of the PCs, as he'd already show great disdain for making deals with fiends. It could only be taken by him (I tried), as it was an attempt to disrupt his "pure" ideals. There's a celestial being trapped somewhere on Avernus, and he'd tell us where if we slew a band of demon worshipers that were traveling the River Styx. The PC refused, because he's been trying to shenanigan his way into finding the celestial without making the bargain (we've gotten a basic idea, but not enough to act on).

 

[pukunui]

Thanks! Maybe I'll put a clothes peg on my nose and crack open my copy of the Avernus book to see what's there.

 

[aco175]

Generally the memories of Greek myth have something to do with the River Styx. You could tie some sort of quest to going to the river and fetching something from some hydra monster.

 

[pukunui]

Generally the memories of Greek myth have something to do with the River Styx. You could tie some sort of quest to going to the river and fetching something from some hydra monster.

Yeah, maybe. The Odyssey of the Dragonlords world hasn't got a River Styx specifically, but it has got the Nether Sea, which has reality warping effects (primarily of the polymorph variety). And the PCs do need to go there at some point, as one of the BBEGs lives on a boat that sails the Nether Sea.

 

[cbwjm]

Maybe to win back their memories they must give the hags other memories in return, not necessarily theirs. Perhaps they have to capture memories of a king's first love or a grieving child's memory of their parents. Things they shouldn't want to do but might depending on how desperate they are to restore their lost memories.

 

[pukunui]

Maybe to win back their memories they must give the hags other memories in return, not necessarily theirs. Perhaps they have to capture memories of a king's first love or a grieving child's memory of their parents. Things they shouldn't want to do but might depending on how desperate they are to restore their lost memories.

Yeah, this is more or less what I was thinking of.

 

[jayoungr]

Then have it turn out later that the one whose fate has been upset is the BBEG, and the "powerful and chaotic beings" responsible are the PCs themselves. If they go ahead and try to stop him anyway, their deal with the Fates will be broken, and all the benefits they gained from it will unravel in that moment.

Ooh, that's very true-to-genre. Oedipus-like.

 

[Eltab]

"The cost for you to regain your memories is that somebody else loses theirs! "

Hey, guys, remember that mother grief-stricken and suicidal because her house burned down with her little kids inside ? Maybe we can help her out from under that cloud of despair ...

The hags may never forgive you when they learn you used them to ease somebody else's pain.

 

[Richards]

What if having the PCs regain their memories results in a reversal where now nobody else in the world remembers them? While that might actually be a good thing when it comes to their (still living) enemies no longer remembering them, it would be problematic not having their friends and family remember who they were any more.

Johnathan

 

[pukunui]

What if having the PCs regain their memories results in a reversal where now nobody else in the world remembers them? While that might actually be a good thing when it comes to their (still living) enemies no longer remembering them, it would be problematic not having their friends and family remember who they were any more.

Johnathan

Yeah, it would also cause a lot of problems, because they're the famous Heroes of the Prophecy. People fight to give them free stuff. If everyone suddenly forgot who they were, that would be ... interesting.

We're playing tonight, although they may not find the Fates this session. If they do, I may just make it so they have to agree that someone somewhere in the world will lose their memories in order for them to regain theirs. No big impacts on the story, but it does present a moral dilemma: "Are you willing to put someone else in the situation you're trying to get out of?"