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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7938593" data-attributes="member: 16814">If it were me... Orcus lied.&nbsp; He made the deal long ago and maybe instilled some power or nudged it along, but the deal is now entirely in his benefit.&nbsp; He grants nothing to the family, but shows up for every first born.&nbsp; These he turns into hideous abominations who's only remaining coherent thought is hatred for the family that sold them for nothing.&nbsp; All the PC has to do is stop his family from presenting more firstborn sons and everything's right as rain, except Orcus would gleefully release generations of monsters on the family because of what a nice guy he is.This &quot;truth&quot; is something that can occur at much lower levels, and provides a faster storyline that having to weave in a powerful enough ally that comes to the PC at a low level only to be relevant at a higher.&nbsp; It also plays to the manipulation of the demon lord, and the horror of having your ancestors twisted into abominations that seethe with hatred of their family is a nice, horrible touch.As an aside, I really hate the bait and switch suggested above where you give the player his victory only to snatch it away.&nbsp; That should only be done if the PC fails.&nbsp; It's a great way to make people very upset and it's rather a jerk move.&nbsp; It might be &quot;cool twist&quot; storytelling from a writing standpoint, but it's awful from a RPG standpoint.&nbsp; If you absolutely need a twist in RPGs, do it at the beginning or in the middle, not at the end, and never to reverse a win.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 7938593, member: 16814"] If it were me... Orcus lied. He made the deal long ago and maybe instilled some power or nudged it along, but the deal is now entirely in his benefit. He grants nothing to the family, but shows up for every first born. These he turns into hideous abominations who's only remaining coherent thought is hatred for the family that sold them for nothing. All the PC has to do is stop his family from presenting more firstborn sons and everything's right as rain, except Orcus would gleefully release generations of monsters on the family because of what a nice guy he is. This "truth" is something that can occur at much lower levels, and provides a faster storyline that having to weave in a powerful enough ally that comes to the PC at a low level only to be relevant at a higher. It also plays to the manipulation of the demon lord, and the horror of having your ancestors twisted into abominations that seethe with hatred of their family is a nice, horrible touch. As an aside, I really hate the bait and switch suggested above where you give the player his victory only to snatch it away. That should only be done if the PC fails. It's a great way to make people very upset and it's rather a jerk move. It might be "cool twist" storytelling from a writing standpoint, but it's awful from a RPG standpoint. If you absolutely need a twist in RPGs, do it at the beginning or in the middle, not at the end, and never to reverse a win. [/QUOTE]

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