Please be so kind as to ignore the game running failiures I have committed as DM in order to have reached the following point. I would not trouble you, my esteemed peers, were I not in a mild conundrum (partly of my own making, but no matter).
In essence, my situation breaks down as follows:
A player of mine, running a human half-celestial paladin is slain by servants of the Devil, Mammon whilst attempting to free a clutch of celestial pegasi from a diabolical strnghold on the prime material plane. THe rest of the party are able to escape, but are not able to claim said PC's mortal remains. Mammon's underling, Bael, resurrects the PC in order to ascertain the rest of the PC's intentions and corrupt the celestial for his master. I let the player know that agreeing to be 'brought back' by such a terrible creature, was tantamount to surrendering his paladinhood, which he duly did upon returning to life. Indeed, since the PC's and Mammons goals were not incompatible, the paladin became a Blackguard whom remained with the party whilst serving his devil masters needs. Trust me when I say this all made good narrative sense, though I am well aware of the DM's out there who would have converted the PC to an NPC. At any rate I chose not to, envisaging a rich seam of adventure ideas for the future.
At any rate, after notching up 6 levels of blackguard atop his 5 Fallen Paladin levels, the player unexpectedly threw himself upon the mercy of Athena (a major deity in my worlds pantheon) and I accepted his desire for redemption, setting him a quest which would require him to bring the guiding light of Athena's religion to a savage and inhospitable wasteland. All very well and good....and now I realise I'm pontificating, since my question is relatively simple:
What the heck becomes of Blackguard levels if one abandons ones patron outsider? Is this merely a roleplaying problem? I found no guidance in either The Book of Vile Darkness or The Book of Exalted Deeds...would returning to paladinhood require a rebuild quest as described in the Players Handbook 2? I told the player that either way, his soul belonged to Mammon since he had signed it away, and such contracts were divinely mandated...he accepted the tragedy of this with enthusiasm (which secretly relieved me).
So...fallen Blackguard levels....any takers? What precisley are the details, if any? I remain in the debt of any who step up to answer my silly question.
In essence, my situation breaks down as follows:
A player of mine, running a human half-celestial paladin is slain by servants of the Devil, Mammon whilst attempting to free a clutch of celestial pegasi from a diabolical strnghold on the prime material plane. THe rest of the party are able to escape, but are not able to claim said PC's mortal remains. Mammon's underling, Bael, resurrects the PC in order to ascertain the rest of the PC's intentions and corrupt the celestial for his master. I let the player know that agreeing to be 'brought back' by such a terrible creature, was tantamount to surrendering his paladinhood, which he duly did upon returning to life. Indeed, since the PC's and Mammons goals were not incompatible, the paladin became a Blackguard whom remained with the party whilst serving his devil masters needs. Trust me when I say this all made good narrative sense, though I am well aware of the DM's out there who would have converted the PC to an NPC. At any rate I chose not to, envisaging a rich seam of adventure ideas for the future.
At any rate, after notching up 6 levels of blackguard atop his 5 Fallen Paladin levels, the player unexpectedly threw himself upon the mercy of Athena (a major deity in my worlds pantheon) and I accepted his desire for redemption, setting him a quest which would require him to bring the guiding light of Athena's religion to a savage and inhospitable wasteland. All very well and good....and now I realise I'm pontificating, since my question is relatively simple:
What the heck becomes of Blackguard levels if one abandons ones patron outsider? Is this merely a roleplaying problem? I found no guidance in either The Book of Vile Darkness or The Book of Exalted Deeds...would returning to paladinhood require a rebuild quest as described in the Players Handbook 2? I told the player that either way, his soul belonged to Mammon since he had signed it away, and such contracts were divinely mandated...he accepted the tragedy of this with enthusiasm (which secretly relieved me).
So...fallen Blackguard levels....any takers? What precisley are the details, if any? I remain in the debt of any who step up to answer my silly question.
