devils in the details

[Ghost0]

So i'm running a campaign where the focus is gravitating towards infernal forces. I like that. But it's mostly a game anchored in the Natural World. Right now we're midway through the paragon tier, and if things continue I'm thinking I might take the little hopeless heroes to hell. The nine hells of course. I'm thinking though that that might be a good early epic venture however.

But to start planting seeds for this sojourn to Baator, I want to begin introducing some of those lower level devils in the natural world and I'm having a hard time coming up with believable (as far as fantasy goes) means for those devils to get to the Natural World. Does anyone have ideas about HOW cultists in the Natural World would bring these devils to the world? Or how these devils got here in the first place?

I know they are usually more surreptitious than, say, the chaotic forces of the abyss. Where would devils hole up? What are they doing? I'm looking for plot seeds and brainstorms on why devils would be in the World, and how they got here--so that our fearless heroes can stop them (and probably eventually be lead to Baator).

Thanks!

 

[Rechan]

I know they are usually more surreptitious than, say, the chaotic forces of the abyss. Where would devils hole up? What are they doing? I'm looking for plot seeds and brainstorms on why devils would be in the World, and how they got here--so that our fearless heroes can stop them (and probably eventually be lead to Baator).

Depends on the devil.

But more than likely, you're going to have a lot of higher powered devils in positions of power. Either hiding among mortals (disguised as advisers, spouses of nobles, concubines or rulers themselves), or in positions of power (the real power behind the throne of an enormous Thieves Guild, Mercenary company or Merchantile Guild, or Dictatorship).

You'll also likely have a good amount in the Underdark, where they can carve out their own territory without fear of invasion from goodly nations, and probably in the Shadowfell. In fact, IIRC, Duergar are big on the Infernal, so you'll likely have some higher powered devils working with/in charge of Duergar.

 

[Ghost0]

Great suggestions!

The target devil I've laid out for them to come face to face with is Mephistopheles. I've given him the secondary name of Lord of the Frozen Heart, and I like a lot of stuff they wrote in the Fiendish Codex in 3.5, am interested in bringing the "hell fire" and his eternal digging in the ice an item to play with. But that is so far down the line it doesn't have to be that way, those were just ideas.

 

[DarkLord Of DForce]

Maybe this infiltration came from a cataclysmic earthquake, rare alignment of the stars, (or something like that), that opened up a portal or rift in an obscure place. Now the forces of Hell are taking advantage of this easier access to the Natural world to further their devious plans.

Storyline could run that after discovering this infiltration, and dealing with those creatures in a running series of lower powered encounters, your Hero's discover the truth about the portal/rift and its location.

Their job would then be to go to it, and possibly even enter it, to find a means or ways to seal it off...in a truly epic battle (and always tell them when this battle opens up, something like, "I'll be honest with you - some of you may not survive this")

Lots of stuff you can do with this - let your imagination go crazy!

 

[the Jester]

Another thing to consider is rituals with unusual components.

A ritual that requires 500 gp in components and the sacrifice of a baby may be unpalatable for pcs, but evil cults are more likely to be fine with it.

So a cult may be able to pull off summonings and the like through sufficient depravity rather than being high level.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Another thing to consider is rituals with unusual components.

A ritual that requires 500 gp in components and the sacrifice of a baby may be unpalatable for pcs, but evil cults are more likely to be fine with it.

So a cult may be able to pull off summonings and the like through sufficient depravity rather than being high level.

You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to the Jester again.

Evil cultists devote their entire (short, due to the PC's arrival) lives to summoning a devil to the Natural World. Perhaps they screw it up and the devil isn't restrained. It eats most of the cultists, and the few who escape run as far away as possible... leaving clues for the PC's to find.

Or the PC's could come across a ruined former cultist hideout, largely destroyed by fire. But diligent searching uncovers a magic circle in the basement and an Arcana check reveals that it was faulty.

 

[fba827]

i am making this particular suggestion in 4e terms since this question was posted in the 4e discussion. however , it could apply in some varient form to other editions...

warlocks, infernal warlocks to be exact. When they make their pact for power, while this aspect is generally glossed over for PCs, for NPCs the warlock had to agree to something.

1. Warlock communes with devils, seeking power
2. Powerful devil agrees to it in exchange for favor
3. Favor ranges from a) do x, y, and z which will let Powerful Devil's lesser underling come to the mortal plane (be it through summoning or some other type of ritual, or letting the devil possess someone that the person has to get/restrain/etc.
4. warlock does his part and gets powers from the devil, but has to keep doing things in order to keep getting power

Repeat on separate individual levels with several warlocks (each not necessarily knowing about the other) and you have many lesser devils all working for a bigger devil running around on the mortal plane.

Some of these lesser devils have cults formed around them (again, these cults do not necessarily know about the other devils or other cults, just the one lesser devil they worship) and they help their devil do its plans

Thus, the cultists are more worship and obey oriented, the warlocks are more transport method. (or you could mix some warlocks in with the cults and so on, or use a mixture)


Anyway, just rambling thoughts off the top of my head.

 

[Kinneus]

Here are some ideas. Feel free to poach.

-Bael Turath. It's just sitting there, a glittering gem of devilish fluff in 4e's basic Points of Light setting. A campaign focused on devils should definitely end up in the ruins of Bael Turath at some point. Maybe the tieflings started the whole prevalance of devils in your campaign world? Or maybe history had it wrong: instead of making deals with devils, perhaps Bael Turath was invaded by devils. Maybe imps and other weaker devils are just tieflings that didn't escape in time?

-Duergar. Duergar, according to MM2, have a definite connection to Asmodeus. They could make good high-Heroic to Paragon antagonists for your party. Or maybe you could allow the party to witness the creation of the duergar? Perhaps some particularly powerful dwarven wizard completes a ritual to gain boons from devilish entities... and accidentally creates the duergar race in the process. Maybe duergar are simply dwarves who have been fallen into despicable evil? Or that have been infected by some rampant devilish curse (that the PCs must, naturally, find a way to lift)?

-An earlier poster mentioned this: evil rituals. As to the question of: "How do I bring lesser devils into the material world?", rituals that are inherently evil are excellent way. They can powerful, but because they're super-evil, you won't have to worry about your party using them by stealing an enemy spellbook. What about a ritual that requires the blood of dozen clerics of Pelor as a focus? Or the heart of a deva? Or the souls of an entire village?

-Infernal warlocks. Use them. Use them as antagonists (bonus points if you have a PC infernal warlock in your party! What a great way to make it "personal"). Imagine for a moment a desperate man. A starving farmer, desperate to provide for his family. Maybe there's an external danger: an orc raiding party on the horizon, a pack of ravenous wolves threatening his livestock. A devilish emissary offers him a deal: "Give us the soul of your first born son, and we will empower you with enough magic to defend the rest of your family." And then imagine that he does it... and the party is hired to investigate the disappearance of a local peasant child. Hello, moral gray area. Chaos ensues.

 

[sev]

If you'd rather have the PCs heading directly after the devil instead of first dealing with an NPC warlock, you might instead have a former-warlock NPC, who broke the pact and is now having to deal with the consequences of a pissed-off former patron.

 

[Rechan]

Also, you are putting a lot of effort on the humans pulling the devils over. What about the devils here now?

If a cult manages to summon a devil, some devils wouldn't just slaughter them all - they'd actually use this. Some might kill all these cultists as blood sacrifices to pull in more devils, others might form a cult around themselves so they can get enough juice to summon someone bigger (or maybe someone smaller, so they can have infernal henchmen).

Imps. Wizards (and other spellcasters) have Imp familiars all the time. And the Imps usually have an agenda. Normally it's to corrupt/cajole the mortal into doing evil to get them hell bound. But other imps could have other agendas. Teaching a mortal wizard a spell that, every time it is cast, is slowly leading up towards freeing a devil. You get enough mages, casting this spell unbenounced, and you get yourself a freed fiend.

Portals, MacGuffins, and other Effects can offer non-cult related means to get Devils across. Any sort of inactive portal created during Bael Turoth or some sort of device linked to Certain Devils.

Bound/trapped Devils: These guys have all ready been here for a long time. It's just that they're stuck. THey could be bound guardians of soem ancient tomb, they could be sealed inside an inanimate object, looking to free themselves, they could be unable to leave the body they are possessing.

Possession: Don't forget it. Some devils may need resources to create a corporeal form, otherwise they're stuck in this meatsuit.

Woo! 10,000th post!