Input/Advice for Infernal Pact Warlock Patrons

[lkj]

Hey folks,
Short bit of background-- I'm running a campaign where a previous world shattering calamity has brought the Feywild and the Shadowfell closer to the mortal world. This is characterized by a high frequency of shadow and fey crossings, as well as the mortal world being used as a battlefield in a war between shadow and fey.

By and large, therefore, most warlocks tend to be fey pact. However, a player in my campaign is running an infernal pact warlock. Up to now the details of his patron/s have been kept sketchy (disturbing dreams and whatnot). His basic backstory is that he is an angst-ridden teenager who was horribly mistreated through most of his childhood and signed on with an infernal power as a way of escaping his dreadful circumstances. In short, he was angry at the world, and he didn't hesitate when offered supernatural power. Nor did he ask any questions. Not a bad kid. But definitely troubled.

We're getting to the point in the campaign where I want to flesh out his patrons and incorporate them more fully into the campaign story arc. I've talked with the player, and he made a single request: He'd prefer it be a cadre of patrons rather than a single one. For various reasons, he'd like their to be eight of them. He left the rest of the details to me.

In the old days, when I was younger and fancy free, I'd have spent many hours developing the backstory, detailing each customized patron and their motivations, and weaved in a complex set of threads into my campaign. In the end, I may end up doing that anyway. But I have a lot less time these days, and so I thought I'd tap the lore and expertise that is so plentiful here on the board.

Basic criteria:

1) Eight infernal patrons.

2) Motivation: When the fey and shadow realms were brought crashing into the mortal world, a side effect was to make it even harder for other parts of the planes (elemental chaos, astral realms) to touch the mortal realm. This of course has not gone over well with fiendish potentates who found the mortal world a wonderful resource. These eight fiends therefore have banded together to make pacts with mortals who show great potential in an attempt to bring their own fiendish influence back into the world. Because of the difficulty in contacting the mortal realm, they only have relatively few warlocks in their 'employ' and their ability to communicate is limited. Their ultimate goal is to use their mortal agents to undo the 'Concordance' (the fey and shadow crash).

At any rate, I was wondering if I could tap into some existing lore. Some group of eight devils or devil-like individuals. Not only would that provide inspiration, it might save me some work. I have no need to slavishly follow any existing canon, obviously, but I'd love to mine existing lore.

Any input and advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,
AD

 

[FreeXenon]

In pre-4E there were a council of, I think it was, 8 Balors as rulers....

That could be scary for the PC and the party.... A thrall to balors is in their midst


...perhaps something called the Iron OR Blood Council... 8 secretive demons who scheme together and their plots have been significantly delayed by the planar crashing. There may be one or two innocuous thing that need to be finished in order to complete one of their basic plans whose direct ramifications cannot be seen, but a while afterwards horrible things would come of it. Once the PC has proven himself they can set him on the quest of correcting things.

just a quick thought

 

[Mentat55]

Bel, archdevil and ruler of Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells, has an alliance of sorts with eight powerful pit fiends called the Dark Eight.

You could also probably scrounge up the names of eight former archdevils or perhaps dukes, since there is a lot of volatility in the Nine Hells, and have some sort of story about them plotting against Asmodeus or the current archdukes.

 

[Mentat55]

To follow up, there are two excellent articles in Dragon and Dungeon that deal with creating unique warlock patrons for all types of pacts:

Performing the Pact
Sealing the Pact

"Performing the Pact" is more player-oriented and even has an example infernal warlock patron called The Prisoner in Iron. "Sealing the Pact" is meant to help the DM craft motivations for the patron.

 

[Kinneus]

Check the link in my sig. Feel free to steal.

 

[lkj]

Folks,
Thanks much for the input. I really do appreciate it.

FreeXenon: I like the Balor idea, except-- for campaign reasons-- it needs to be devils. Demons have their own special place in the backstory. Though I like the Blood Council or Iron Council idea. And you're thinking about them trying to complete an opening after the character has proved himself is much in line with my thinking. I'll be very interested to see whether the character turns on his patrons when he understands who and what they are. Or if he'll embrace them, since their goal (at least to start with) is not incompatible with the intentions of the party (who also wish to reduce the fey and shadow influence in their world and perhaps undo the calamity).

Mentat55: Ah! Bel and his Dark Eight. Thank you! I knew that the player's mention of wanting 8 had twigged a memory of some existing group. It's a shame that Bel seems to have a more martial character, since the group I'm envisioning would be more arcane in nature. I could of course alter it. Something to think on.

A group of archdukes that have allied to push their way back into the mortal world is perhaps the direction I'll go. The motivation for a group is high since I an assume they are individually too weak to maintain a link in the current cosmological condition. I'll have to think about whether I should just scrounge up existing names or start from scratch and fill out the members as the campaign calls for it.

I have seen those pact articles, though thanks for the link. Those articles are in fact what started this discussion with the player.

Kinneus: Good stuff in that thread. I might not steal wholesale, but I may well pull bits and pieces.

Thank you again, everyone.

AD

 

[DracoSuave]

Im going to offer a different idea.

Tailor a patron to the player. Have its goals mostly compatible with the pc. The warlock is a pawn in a diabolic takeover bid while Baator's major players are distracted with the fey and shadow problems. Include 'helpful npcs' aligned with this power.

Then reveal its real, horrifying goal.

 

[lkj]

Im going to offer a different idea.

Tailor a patron to the player. Have its goals mostly compatible with the pc. The warlock is a pawn in a diabolic takeover bid while Baator's major players are distracted with the fey and shadow problems. Include 'helpful npcs' aligned with this power.

Then reveal its real, horrifying goal.

This isn't far from my actual thinking, except that the power play is in the mortal world. For much of the campaign, the patrons want exactly what the character wants-- a world which isn't dominated by fey and shadow. The hard part will come at the end when he realizes his actions might be opening the way for a diabolical force to step into the vacuum.

I am thinking about going with tailored made patrons though. Was just trying to be a little lazy (or, more kindly, trying to maximize my very limited prep time). I just had a small hope that there was existing material that I could adapt quickly.

At any rate, I've got a lot of campaign before the details will be necessary.

AD