D&D 5E Idea that I'm not sure where to go with

[FesterJester]

So I've DMed before, but not in a long time (10yrs+). I found myself running a homebrew and I'm kinda making it up a week at a time and seeing what happens. I was making this wizards tower dungeon that the PC's are on the verge of entering and in the summoning room I decided it'd be cool if there was a creature in there that was summoned and has been trapped since the death of the resident wizard a few hundred years ago. Then I thought that it'd be more cool if there were 2 creatures trapped, a demon and an angel. For centuries the demon has been wearing at the sanity of the angel, and the isolation has been wearing at the demons sanity as well, but who can really tell the difference?

Now both of these creatures are way beyond the APL (cr 13 and 10 respectively while the APL is 3) but i felt like this was too cool a situation to just throw away. The problem is, I'm not sure where to go with it. I'm going to give the players the option to free them I think but i'm just struggling with where to go from there.

Suggestions?

Thx in advance

-FJ

 

[Oofta]

Well, if they are insane, they don't have to use good tactics.

They could be greatly weakened by their captivity. Use a low level demon or other monster stats.

The demon could attack (distributing damage evenly) while the angel heals. I can see it now

- Demon: I will eat your souls!
- Angel: Good grief Bob, always making a mess. I'm always cleaning up after you
- Demon: Me? I've been trapped for millenia and I can't have some fun?
- Angel: Aack! Look at this blood! Do you know how hard blood is to get out of celestial garments?​

Something along the line of a bickering married couple

They just ignore the group, other than to smack them around a little bit on the way out.

The angel does a special blessing for the group, giving them all +5 to hit and +10 to damage. Give them 50 temp HP.

And so on. You don't have to run monsters as written, you can also just kind of go with one of the above and kill the group ... only to have the angel show up later and apologize as he's raising them from the dead.

Of course I'd also consider letting them make a deal with the devil (or the angel) either of which they'd regret in the long term.

If you do this right, the two could be recurring characters which could be a lot of fun.

 

[cooperjer]

As opposed to a combat consider using it as a social interaction that leads to some exploration. Maybe the demon is a devil instead and takes a sly approach to convince the PCs to escort him around and stretch it's legs. Maybe the angel is fallen and the PCs find the story of why it's fallen and help it on the first steps to ascension. The net result may be a short term deal with a devil followed by an angel ally far into the future.

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[Mort]

Interesting setup.

First question, do you (or should you) provide any motivation to free the devil and angel?
- does anything the group is currently up to influence the decision.
- do they have any conceivable reason to do so:
- even a trivial arcana check would let the party know that the beings trapped inside (assuming the beings can be seen) are way above the groups paygrade and as such they'd need at least some reason to free them.

Considering the encounter I would probably do it this way :

1. Have freeing them be accidental: the group accidentally disrupts the summoning circle fleeing from something on an adjacent room etc. If you make it a choice, chances are they won't do it.

2. Have the escaped beings scare the pants off the party but not attack them: growling, insane muttering, dire predictions - maybe have some hints as to the purpose of the original summoning in between the nonsense, something like that. Instead, have them continue their struggle by having one of them shoot straight up and the other following - right through the top of the tower. Make sure the PCs have to dodge falling debris (nothing too drastic maybe dex save or 1d6-1d10 damage). And then have that be the end of it for now.

The party is left wondering what the heck just happened but there's no immediate payoff. Then, well after they've gotten out of the tower, the group starts getting information on the two beings. Maybe they went after the leader of an adjacent city, maybe they destroyed a town with their struggle? Lots of avenues to turn this into a future hook for the party to pursue and possibly confront when they are more up to the challenge.

Just some musings.

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[cthulhu42]

You could have the two beings latch onto either a single party member or the entire party in a game of "Win The Soul(s)". They might disappear only to return later whenever the player or players are facing a moral dilemma and try to convince them one way or another. They would become the actual devil/angel on the shoulder.

 

[FesterJester]

These are some great ideas guys thanks! I think I'm going to end up stealing a bit from everybody, but I haven't figured out how to attach quotes from you guys yet (i'm not forum savy I guess). So this is where I'm at so far:

-Switching the Nalfeshnee for an Erinyes for that fallen angel flavor plus the 'deal with the devil' aspect.

-I'm going to allow the PCs to release them via 2 (unlabeled) levers in the room. The angel says the to pull one, the devil says to pull the other, the angel says the devil is lying, the devil says the angel doesn't know which one is which. That's the gist of it, i'll have to work out the details. For the RP part of that tho, I'm totally going with the bickering married couple! It's too hilarious not to! I see it going something like this:

Devil- Why do you think that l think that I'm always lying to you?!
Angel- After 700 years I think I managed to figure out that demons lie.
D- It's been 800 years and I am NOT demon! How do you not know the difference?!
A- There isn't a difference in the eyes of Pelor!
D- There you go, bringing daddy back into it. It's always "purify this" and "cleanse that". Why don't you grow a pair?!
A- You're evil incarnate!!!
D- But that doesn't mean I don't have feelings!!!! (then the devil starts crying)
A- *turning to the PCs* See what I have to put up with?!

-I do want this to be more of a social interaction than combat (hence why the extra-planar beings are so much more powerful to convince the PC's to RP through this one instead of swinging swords). I like the idea of them being the 'devil and angel on the shoulder' of the PC's and them battle for their souls. I'm kinda thinking that their essences should be put into 1 or 2 items that the PCs are bound to (like a cursed item) that offers the boon of the associated entity and talks to the PCs. It might be one of those "if the PC uses fireball, it strengthens the demon portion, if they use bless, it strengthens the angel (or something like that). Once one can overpower the other X happens". Thoughts?

-I hadn't thought about the fact that they might just turn around and leave an angel in bondage with a devil for eternity! Luckily, I had put an Imp (the former wizards familiar) in the main tower portion, initially as someone who interferes annoyingly with the PCs till they kill him, but now I think he'll just stalk them and if they decide not to release the Erinyes, he will.


-While I was writing this reply to y'all I thought it'd be cool if the levers don't work the way the D&A think they do (they didn't design the system after all, they're trapped by it). 1 releases both of them and the other turns them into a magical device, like the one I mentioned above. I was thinking that if they release them, both the Angel and the Demon offer a boom to the PC's and each person must choose 1, which imparts a portion of the entity into the PC that influences their alignment and decisions every time they use the power. Then they fly off (through the ceiling of course cause I like that idea too) and become re-occurring characters!


Thanks again everybody for the input! I knew the idea had promise, I just didn't know where to take it. None of this is final yet so I'm still taking input if you have any more suggestions.

 

[Quartz]

Then I thought that it'd be more cool if there were 2 creatures trapped, a demon and an angel. For centuries the demon has been wearing at the sanity of the angel, and the isolation has been wearing at the demons sanity as well, but who can really tell the difference?

I think there may be an old (print edition) Dungeon adventure along those lines, though I think it was an angel and a devil and they were willing guardians of something.

 

[cbwjm]

This is all pretty cool. I'll have to try using some of these ideas at a later date.

 

[FesterJester]

This is all pretty cool. I'll have to try using some of these ideas at a later date.

Go for it! As my favorite DM used to say, plagiarism is the highest compliment!