Need help creating an Infernal Contract

[solamon77]

So recently my players lost a really big and important battle. They made a bunch of bad choices and then on top of that had a couple really bad rolls causing them to fail a battle they had been working up to for months now. They got out mostly alive (the Ranger's animal companion died saving his master) via a combination of betraying an NPC and begging for their lives.

So here's what I'm thinking: I'm going to send a devil to meet with them. He's going to offer them the chance to fight the battle again and come out on top... for a price. So that's my question. What would be a good "price" for the devil to charge? It's important that the contract is something they later come to regret. It would be even better if they didn't understand how terrible a "price" they paid until way later on.

I was thinking maybe something along the lines of: "They owe the devil a favor. Later on, long after they forget about the contract, the devil pops up and demands they do something horrible." That ol' Vito Corleone type of contract.

Does anyone else have any better ideas? Or maybe something interesting to add into the mix to make the scene or the devil more memorable?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Devils tend to like souls. In my campaigns, the general deal is that their soul is only forfeit upon death. I make clear to the player that this means that if their character fails their death saves, the soul gets hoovered up and they cannot be brought back to life.

Another option would be just conscripting them into an agreed-upon number of skirmishes in the Blood War, sending them to the Nine Hells/Abyss to fight. This way, the deal opens up more adventure possibilities.

An undisclosed favor can be good, too, but one has to make sure it comes due, and due soon. In the past, I’ve had campaigns end with other favors owed being still in the balance. But some players might be adverse to being indebted for an unknown favor to a devil.

As far as making it more interesting, I think that comes to how much you want them to take this hook. Do you want to give them more of an impetus to take this deal? What are the complications of losing the battle? Can they be leveraged to make winning it despite the cost more attractive?

 

[Umbran]

I find it hard to believe that they players, knowing anything about the genre, would make an agreement for an unspecified favor in the future, and not think that they're going to come to regret it. And what happens if the team refuses to do that later favor? Do you then retcon the entire campaign between the fight and the favor, as the devil undoes their win again? That gets ugly.

Also, if the devil *appears* in devil or demonic form, all bets are probably off. Even if the PCs are kinda skeezy, they are unlikely to make pacts with known very evil powers.

You're more likely to get them to bite if the payment is in a known form, of which they don't realize the import. A wizard (the devil in disguise) shows up and makes them an offer - acquire for me the FrozzKnob of Korkly, and I can help you win that fight, which the wizard kind of wants them to win anyway, if push comes to shove, but he needs teh FrozzKnob to make it happen! There's an adventure to recover the McGuffin, and the party then wins its fight... Little do they know that on top of being a notable magic item, the FrozzKnob is also a relic of a long-lost royal house, and the devil will use it to give legitimacy to a claim that will put an entirely inappropriate figurehead on a throne (or start a civil war) at a later date.

This still fits a typical basic modus operandi for deals with devils that they don't actually contain any overt lies.

 

[dariusknight777]

I've seen this done many ways, though my favorite was a character who had obscene levels of law just to spot loopholes. I also saw a guy at a Larp offering 'business contracts' that seemed to really not be in his favor. The angle? The 'Sign Here' line? Was 1pt font promising the soul of the signer to the contract holder. Brilliant - he must have suckered 20 people.

 

[Eltab]

The real devil is in disguise. (Aren't they always?) His lieutenant is not, and meets the PCs quietly to tell them that their foe is in bad odor with The Fell Powers. (No he won't explain further.) If the PCs want a re-match some time in the future, they can have "help." He gives them his 'business card with contact information' and invites them to use it at their convenience.

Meanwhile, their foe turns out to be vindictive and vengeful, he just won't leave the PCs alone to get anything done. This is actually the boss devil impersonating the PCs' foe, hiring cannon fodder to pester the PCs and make them think that a re-match should be done sooner rather than later, and some "help" would be a good idea.

 

[Richards]

I also saw a guy at a Larp offering 'business contracts' that seemed to really not be in his favor. The angle? The 'Sign Here' line? Was 1pt font promising the soul of the signer to the contract holder. Brilliant - he must have suckered 20 people.

I did something similar - I wrote up and printed out legal contracts that the PCs had to each sign before being allowed to enter Hell to retrieve a powerful artifact that had been used to slay a powerful fiend centuries ago. It was all legitimate stuff - the PCs will not interfere with the due punishment of the petitioners, nor will they stray away from their designated escort while in the confines of Hell, and so on - and then, in the space above the line where they would sign their name, there was an additional clause written in invisible ink that turned the soul of the signer over to the Archduke of Hell upon their death.

Fortunately, one of the PCs opted to cast a see invisibility spell before anyone signed, and they got that clause removed before signing.

Johnathan

 

[Umbran]

I think you have to be careful of crossing the line between outwitting the players, and cheating them.

Invisible ink? That's cheating. Just as you cannot hold a person to a contract in a language they cannot read, you can't hold them to a contract written in ink they cannot see. Outwitting the players will make them angry with your devil. Outright cheating them will make them angry with *you*, which probably isn't the desired result.

Consider that the "you couldn't read this, because it was hidden" could be applied to *any* document the PC signed, at any time in their lives, retroactively. That's profoundly unfair. It is the "rocks fall, everyone dies" of the soul.

In terms of fictional themes, the devil's power comes from following rules - he can't do whatever he wants, but within the restrictions, they have great power. The contract has power not just because it was signed - anyone can write words on paper. It has power because the character *agrees to terms*, and puts their will on the paper. If the character does not know the terms, they cannot agree to them.

You want a really good example of a deal with the devil? Disney's "The Little Mermaid". Ursula the Sea Witch makes a deal with Ariel. There is nothing in the terms of the agreement that is hidden. It is only the fact that the customer is desperate, and does not fully understand the value of what they are agreeing to pay that screws them over.

 

[Richards]

Sure, invisible ink is pretty much cheating - but it seemed something that particular devil would likely do (the party had had dealings with him before - they were stuck with diabolic allies in an attempt to bring down the Demon Lord Orcus in a sort of "the enemy of my enemy is my untrustworthy friend" deal), and I had the advantage of knowing the paranoia level of my players: I was pretty confident they would catch the attempt. And the devils had no regrets after having been caught at the attempt, shrugging it off as "Well, it was worth a try."

Johnathan