"Ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog"

[rln]

If your storyguide is named "Rolf", stop reading now

IMC, the party (lvl8) has adopted a small dog ("Spot"), which is faster and smarter than normal dogs. They were recently attacked by hell hounds trying to drag the dog through a gate. The dog has a 5th level necromancy spell on it.

In reality, the dog is a hound archon who was battling a devil. The devil cast a Magic jar-like spell on him, which went awry (wild magic zone). The devil's soul was imprisoned in the gem, and the hound archon's soul ended up in the devil's body. The hound archon body, being without a soul, turned into it's animal state, a small dog, which fled through a gate. (None of the players know this part of the story yet, so it's open for change). The dog must be returned to the gem for the casting to be undone.

Now, I need some ideas how to develop this into a long-term plot which will pop up every here and there.

Also, if anyone can come up with how the devil bypassed the archon's innate Magic circle against evil celestial quality, I'm interested. One of my little oversights.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

What happened to the devil in the gem? Perhaps it was lost in the ensuing chaos that occurred after the magical accident? It could have ended up on the same prime material world as the dog ended up? Somehow the devil has retained its awareness and spell-like abilities while trapped inside the gem. It could perform "miracles" for some clueless morons in order to get a cult to worship "The gem from the heavens" or the "God's Tear" or some such, pretending to be a holy relic. Meanwhile the archon in the devil's body is trying to locate the gem to destroy it, but the cultists think the archon (in the devil's body) is an evil demon (which it is, in a way) .

 

[estevans_lackey]

You said it yourself. A wild magic zone. The hound archon, instead of having its normal SR, has its SR reversed. At that instant (or through the whole battle, whichever) the archon becomes a magic sponge absorbing any and all magic within a certain range. The archon could have absorbed anything. Even some of the devil's powers (making it feasable for a lower level party to eventually go up against something like a pit fiend)

Just a thought.

 

[LostSoul]

You could use the dog as a vessel for all types of souls and messages from the "other side".

Every once in a while the dog will start talking in a strange language. Or in a normal language. Each time its voice may be different. Sometimes the dog might taunt them. Other times it might aid them. PCs will wonder what is going on.

Hopefully they won't just kill it when it speaks.

 

[rln]

Here's what I ended up using so far:

The archon in devil's form is looking for a way to permanently destroy the devil. He can't kill the body as that would kill himself and probably leave the devils
soul inside the gem, waiting for an accident to happen. He can't destroy the gem, as he's afraid that would let the
devils soul loose to come up with new mischief. The only solution he has come up with so far is to bring all three parts together and have the spell reversed, a solution he does not cherish all too much either.

The characters met this devil after being told in dreams to search out a certain inn which turned out to exist on its own demiplane ("World Serpent Inn" in Arabel, from Volo's Guide to Cormyr). He pretty much explained what had happened and told them he was trying to impersonate the devil back on it's own plane (as he cannot leave it for longer periods of time).

So, now the characters have to find out a way to help this poor devil... err, I mean archon. Of course, they could
just go there put all elements together and battle it out (these players tend to use the violent approach if there is one), but apparently they have decided the odds are against them this time

Instead, they are looking for other solutions to the problem, so if anyone can help me with what hints to enter
into the equation, feel free to enter the podium!

(Oh, and the gem with the devil's soul inside? It rests in goldfish bowl full of holy water in the devil/archon's quarter )

 

[Angelsboi]

it might help to have it all written out (what you have so far) like this:

Blah blah blah

[insert help here]

blah blah blah

blah blah blah

[insert help here]

That way we can see what needs to be filled in