Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6465865" data-attributes="member: 6669384">In game terms?  If it was a class, prestige class or feat-tree, it wouldn't be unique, and this guy is.The situation was something that developed in game.  I kind of told the story in the "Curse of Darkness" story I accidentally posted  here, instead of the Story Hour forum.The not-so-short form:  In our game there was a tacit truce between Heaven and Hell, in that they had a common interest.  The campaign was more of Law v Chaos than Good v Evil, and Hell is Lawful Evil, while most of Heaven is Lawful Good.The PCs were champions of the Law's cause.  One PC made a deal to save the life of a thief who had stolen a fancy spiked chain weapon from a Chain Devil.  He offered 10% of his soul to have the man spared.As the deal was being formalized, he asked for an addendum:  He could call on the Devil for occasional aid, at a cost of 10% per service.  The Devil agreed.The first time the PC made the call, a 2nd PC asked if he could get in on the deal.  The first PC spent 20% that day to save the party.  The second paid to save himself.By the time the campaign had ended, the second PC had made more deals, and owed the Devil a full 50%, plus a service, and the deals were always to beneifit himself and himself alone.Foor some reason, Heaven took an interest in him, more than in the other PC who was in far worse trouble.  Go figure.  An Angel offered to "buy" the other half of the PC's soul, with the price being that he would have a Guardian Angel assigned.  The Angel would be there to guard his soul, not his life.  In essence, he got a slap on the back of his head every time he started to do something evil.  He hated that.One of the very last scenes in the campaign was an attempt by the party to maneuver themselves out of these debts.  Simply killing the Devil wouldn't do, since it's nearly impossible to permanently kill such a being, and even if they did, he had "heirs" ho would still collect.  But they researched and realized that if he was dead, even temporarily, at the time when the final deal was to be completed, he'd default and be unable to collect.  They formulated a plan and then, at just the right moment, forgot all the key elements and blew it.The player was very unhappy to have his PC's fate left in the balance when the campaign ended.  He wanted the matter resolved.I offered to run a short scene, where he could influence (but not completely control) the role of his Guardian Angel, and I would of course play the Devil.The Angel received a bit of an education, learning what a self-serving charge she had been saddled with.  (He offered to trade his own first born child to Hell to avoid part of his debt.)The Devil was actually satisfied with the arrangement:  He'd have the PC's soul in Hell half the time, and as far as he was concerned they were simply meeting to discuss terms of the arrangement.  Day and night, winter and some, alternating weeks and split the holidays, almost like divorcing parents talking about a child.  But the Devil, not being completely satisfied with only half, and seeing an opportunity, made an offer.  He would bet that he knew this mortal better than the Angel who had been with him for months.The bet was simple:  The Devil would relinquish all claim to the PC's soul.  Even the service he owed would be forgiven.  Further, neither he nor any agent of Hell "by agent or agency", would torment, tempt, harm, or in any way influence him for the rest of his life, even if he called upon them and asked.  But Heaven had to make the same deal, and if either side ever violated the terms then they lost.  The Devil was betting that the PC, left to his own devices, would end up going to Hell anyway.  If he did, the Devil got him for his personal property (as opposed to going into the general population).  If, on the other hand, the PC managed to earn his way into Heaven, then the Guardian Angel would get all the credit, earned by her pure faith in the mortal's resolve.In our scenario, the player got to decide.  He finally smartened up though, and realized that it is never a good idea to make a deal with a Devil.  He didn't know what the Gotcha was, but he knew that there always was one.So our mythical protagonist, the one that neither Heaven nor Hell could touch, was my thought on what might have happened had the player taken the deal.  It didn't matter what class, race, alignment or feats the PC had, it was a unique conspiracy of circumstance, and the logical/dramatic results thereof.Like I said, there's a story there, waiting to be told.</blockquote>

Verification