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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1312094" data-attributes="member: 99">Well, as Enkhidu says (Hi, Enk!  Hope you had a blast with little Enk during the holidays!), the character is headed down the slippery slope.  But I'm finding (and I think the player is too) the whole thing to be deliciously rife with good roleplaying and tough choices.As I said before, the character was compelled to sign the contract, which, in our society, would render the whole arrangement invalid from the start.  But devils don't always play fair.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />   Ergo, I did not consign him to Evil at that point.I also did not turn him to Evil at the point where he agreed to take possession of the Black Dagger.  After all, he hasn't really sacrificed any souls until he uses it so there's still a chance to back out.I'm leaning toward the point of saying that he's Evil as soon as he uses the dagger the first time.  At that point, regardless of what the original destination of that soul was, he has materially aided a devil.  And, in fact, has furthered her ability to do to others precisely what she did to him.Some asked whether he had explored other options.  He knows of at least one but it is probably just as Evil as using the Dagger and more dangerous and impractical.  For the sake of completeness, I'll toss it into the mix and see what you think:In Hell, souls are a form of currency.  They are bought and sold by demons and devils for almost anything.  This is such common practice that it can be impractical to keep track of the souls you own directly.  So the devil lords have gone into the banking business.They keep a large stable of souls in their dungeons and issue currency against the value of these souls.  This currency comes in the form of "Soul Cents" (gold coins worth 1/100th of a soul) and "Skulls" (quartz carved into the likeness of skull worth 1 soul).  Any of the more powerful demons and devils may have some of this currency as part of their treasure.The PC in question could journey back to Hell and kill enough devils, confiscating their treasure, to pay off his soul-debt.  This removes the "sacrificial" aspect but it still has him supplying material aid to the she-devil in question.  Perhaps if he paid her off, thus freeing his soul and allowing her to finish her gate and THEN killed her and destroyed the gate, he could redeem himself somewhat.This option is impractical due to the present circumstances of the party (they're trying to avert global catastrophe and time is short).  He just doesn't have time for this side trek at the moment.As to the issue of souls being irredeemable, most are not.  In fact the party has just recently seen evidence of this when they encountered a group of Orc "freedom fighters" who had been turned away from Evil and were trying to get their brethren out from under the oppresive thumb of the Evil beings who were using them.  Most non-outsider beings can atone for what they have done wrong (though it may not be easy).  In fact, the PC in question is counting on this very thing.But the problem is that, according to my cosmology, if you are Evil (with a capital E), you're going to Hell.  That means that any time anybody kills a non-outsider Evil creature, they've robbed that creature of the free will to atone and thus, by the standard you're setting, committed an evil act.  I can't very well let that stand in a campaign where I expect the PC's to go forth and do battle with Evil.I view it this way:  If you have turned to Evil, you deserve to go to Hell up to the point where you atone for what you've done.  It is YOUR obligation to undertake that atonement as soon as possible because nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.  If somebody comes along and kills you before you get around to atoning, you've got nobody to blame but yourself.Therefore it is not an evil act to kill an Evil creature.  But showing mercy and giving a chance for them to atone, IF they genuinely seem to show remorse for what they've done, is an act of good.I'm sure others will disagree but this seems to work for me for purposes of this campaign at least.  Thanks for all the responses so far and I look forward to hearing others.  Oh, and for purposes of power level if you care to weigh in on the "growing power of the dagger" issue, the party is 10th level.</blockquote>

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