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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N'raac" data-source="post: 6699331" data-attributes="member: 6681948">I'll add one more below, but this is a great analysis.This, and the examples that precede it, are all great examples of the classic trope of the shrewd dealmaker exploiting loopholes, delivering only as much of the truth as needed, etc. that the folklore associates with Devils.  However, if one reads that folklore and fiction, one other matter comes through:  the Devil typically wins against the wicked, but loses against the righteous.  If his deal is ironclad in his own favour, with nothing the devil overlooks which might allow a PC win - that, too, is not true to the folklore.  The challenge also includes building the contract to be one that challenges, but does not guarantee defeat, for the PC's.Celebrim hits upon one - "We have brought you the dagger.  It is the exact , shattered fragments of metal which it was when we met, exactly one year ago.  Nothing in our contract specified it would be whole, just as your own promise did not commit that it would be.  We have honoured the terms of the bargain.  So, too, must you!"Ideally, the flaw in his plan will be a failure to contemplate the PC's doing something he would never contemplate - something they do because they are Good and Honourable, that no Devil would even consider a possibility.The Devil won't show up?  The Inn will be gone?  What Devil misses his chance to gloat over the failure of the Righteous?  Running the Devil as a perfectly rational being is no better than running a PC who always makes the perfect tactical decision, never showing a trace of personality.Besides, he must want the dagger.  Why?  Because there is nothing else in the bargain for him.  And a Devil will always have something in any bargain for him!  If the dagger is shattered and cannot be repaired, he has some other reason for wanting that dagger's remnants.</blockquote>

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