Need plot help for Infernal Encounter.

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I want to put a little hook for later adventures in my current adventure. The group is making a 200+ mile treck to a town and on the way I want to waylay them with major unseasonal snowfall and force them to take cover in a small village on the weay. I was planning to have the Lord of the town charmed by a devil, I can't name it off hand it was from the Legions of Hell book. It has charmed the Lord and they now have a monthly lottery to see who is going to be fed to the beast to save the town from certain destruction. I am thinking of saying villagers were being abducted and slaughtered by unknown forces, and the people were helpless. Then a strange man arrived and was able to solve the problem for a price. When the Lord went back on his word to pay the price the man, actually a devil of some kind, summoned this other devil to be fed one person a month or it will eat everyone in the village. Now the charmed nobles have the terrified populace to the point where they only want to avoid the destruction of the town. What kind of price would a devil want? Maybe I could have had the devil make the deal with the local clerical leader and he was told to take this talisman and put it on the body of all the sick and dying to steal their souls and send them to hell? After realizing what he was probably dealing with the padre went back on his word and then incurred the wrath of the devil, leading to his charming. Any ideas?

 

[wolff96]

I am thinking of saying villagers were being abducted and slaughtered by unknown forces, and the people were helpless. Then a strange man arrived and was able to solve the problem for a price.

Which the demon was, of course, causing in the first place.

Either that, or he wants something that exists in the town -- an artifact, or something along those lines -- that some member of the town brought back at some point.

Maybe I could have had the devil make the deal with the local clerical leader and he was told to take this talisman and put it on the body of all the sick and dying to steal their souls and send them to hell? After realizing what he was probably dealing with the padre went back on his word and then incurred the wrath of the devil, leading to his charming.

The demon would offer the talisman as something to ease the suffering of the hurt, sick, or dying. The talisman WOULD ease their suffering -- but it would also rapidly use up whatever life they had left. So the victim would have an easier passage (the priest is happy) but the souls (and their power) would go to the demon. The priest probably wouldn't figure out anything was wrong until his deity tapped him on the shoulder and told him something was up...

There are any number of reasons that a demon would want souls or life energy -- my favorite would be something along the lines of waking up some kind of uber-demon that was long ago laid to rest... Then you've got lots of fun while your group tries to root out whoever is behind the attempt to release the main demon.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Thanks for the tips!

The talisman of "pain relief" is a good idea, I think I'll use that. I just want to set something up that will cause them to gain the anger of a devil in service of Dispater, or one of the other Lords of Hell.

Man I can't wait till Guide to Hell shows up!

 

[StalkingBlue]

If you want your PCs to make an enemy of one of the Lords of Hell right away, this may not be for you.

But here's a slight twist: what if the devil or demon has been banished to the Prime Material / is hiding on the Prime Material from its Lord. It has slowly developed a hold over the town by starting to terrorize people, then appearing as the "man with the solution" - I envisage an excellently groomed, courteous, always very slightly amused sort of "man".
It is in agony and desperately needs a continuous supply of souls to survive on this hostile plane - now if the PCs come along to spoil that, they may:

A. be in for a surprise if their foe turns out to be a match for them; (but you want a nemesis) or:

B. triumph when at the end of the adventure the foe disappears with a flash and a bang, leaving them to believe they've vanquished it and banished it back to its original plane, only to find hints later that the thing is still on the Prime and now on their tracks (or on its way to building a nest for itself in yet another town); (this gives you a nemesis to keep them busy for some time); or/and

C. later one of your Lords may come into play when its attention is drawn to its renegade on the Prime Material - the Lord might at first be pleased to see the renegade tormented by the PCs and attempt to enlist them for his own agenda; if you run this right they may accept at first ... only to wake up later to the realization that, err, something is up. (Nicely mirroring the experience that your town priest had had in the initial adventure, and here you have your big nemesis.)