Outsider interested in souls...what would their big plan look like?

[Gundark]

IMC an outsider (actually an Infernal from IK) is going to be the BBEG of the campaign. Infernals are intersted in harvesting souls, these souls give them power in comaprison to other infernals, etc. Infernals gather souls through contracts they make with mortals (ie. I'll place you as mayor of the town and you do X task for me or I have your soul). Infernals are not inetersted in "tempting" mortals to gain their souls, it only happens thru these contracts. The infernal BBEG is using a group of mortals as his pawns to further his ends. What would a creature like this want? I'm thinkng that the Infernal has figured out a way to harvest souls on a mass scale (and without the mortals' consent). However this I have to admit that this idea is inspired from the STAP. I would like something different. Suggestions?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

1. Make bargain with unsuspecting mortals for souls.
2. ???
3. Profit!

Actually, I'm a little confused by your post. Is it:

(A) The infernal makes a deal with a mortal (I give you power in exchange for you doing me this small favor, but if you fail, I get your soul) but then renegs on the deal and harvests the soul anyway ("without the mortals' consent")

(B) The infernal makes a deal with the mortal but the nature of the deal is hidden (I give you power in exchange for this small favor) but the mortal doesn't know that this endangers his soul, or that he's dealing with an infernal, etc.

 

[Chimera]

I'm sure that this is entirely unhelpful, but...

I just couldn't help but think of the Underpants Gnomes on South Park.

Step 1: Gather Souls
Step 2: ? (shrug shoulders and raise hands. Don't know!)
Step 3: Make Money!

Maybe this being is absolutely certain that there will be a market for these souls somewhere and is, at the present time, unconcerned with aspects of the mission other than to accumulate as many as possible right now.

As a GMing tool, I have found this very useful. It gives me time to think of the "real reason", or to see what happens and how I can later connect the initial actions to something that occurs or develops later.

 

[Agamemnon]

I think the night hags buy souls and turn them into larvae, or somesuch thing. So there is an economy for them.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Depends on the nature of your outsider. Could be they plan on getting lots of people to take part in a "religious" ceremony that will bind them to the Infernal. Maybe they induce a war just so they can get one side's soldiers to swear to the pacts en masse to defeat their enemy.

As to the reason they want the souls, maybe the souls are turned into Infernal minions. Maybe each soul give the Infernal 1,000XP, grants them 0.1HD per HD of the soul. Alternately the souls are crafted into permanent spells, acting as 1 spell level/HD. Could be if they get 10x their HD in souls they can buy their freedom from a senior Infernal or for 100x their HD they evolve to a greater form of Infernal.

 

[Slife]

1) Abduct an entire city/small country/other sufficiently large but relatively defenseless place. Land them on a demiplane with no exits

2) Wait a while for panic to set in. Send in a few shocktroops to add to the terror.

3) Offer to protect them, in exchange for a small favor

4) Protect them, but keep them in the demiplane. For centuries. Harvest the souls of the children born in the demiplane as well with personal contracts

5)????

6) Profit.

 

[green slime]

Stap?!?

Got no idea what STAP is.

Still, when it comes to infernals harvesting souls...

See, it takes a lot of work and bribery to get these foolish mortals to sell/condem their souls. And then they have this irritating tendancy to not want to die, or at least not soon enough.

So ideally the infernal nasties would want two things:

1) Speed up the selling/fooling process that gets those pesky mortals to sign away what they shouldn't really ever have had anyway. Preferably in a fashion that requires less work for the Infernal.

2) Ensure the masses accumulated in step 1 don't have time to recant before shuffling off the mortal coil. In other words, mass death.

In order to acheive step 1, the infernals need to have converted/recruited wordly powerful beings to their cause. An archbishop, a King, a Queen, a Knight of high standing, a wizard, if that's your thing. OF course, when you are working on a completely different time scale, you can afford to put extra effort into those beings for a few decades, aiding them to the top of their field through various, erhm, "accidents" while nurturing their inevitable corruption. As a final coup-de-grace you have a jealous love pact going on as well.

Finally, you put into a place a conversion to a new faith, rendering the large plebarian masses of corrupt and wayward.

Then you start a civil war, and provoke the neighbouring kingdoms into backing various factions. Death and Mayhem, are assured, as well as brother vs brother, suicide and madness.

Revel in the torture of a million souls.

 

[Gundark]

Actually, I'm a little confused by your post. Is it:

(A) The infernal makes a deal with a mortal (I give you power in exchange for you doing me this small favor, but if you fail, I get your soul) but then renegs on the deal and harvests the soul anyway ("without the mortals' consent")

Sorry for the confusion, The answer is that it's closer to A. The infernal makes a deal "I'll give you power and you will have to do _____ , and if you fail I own your soul". The contract is a lawyers nightmare (imagine the infernal opening the scroll and it rolls to the floor), and is set up and worded in a way that makes it very hard for the mortal to fullfill their end (for example the task is too much given the time). So thus most of the time the infernal gets the mortals soul. Now infernals are not stupid, the first couple of contracts are easy for the mortal to do, this lulls them in for the big one, which is very hard for the mortal to fulfill. Also the higher level the mortal the more their soul is worth.

 

[Kafkonia]

STAP = Savage Tide Adventure Path

Subterfugre. Many more people will swear their souls to something good (a good cause, a good deity, a loved one) than to something obviously evil. So if the outsider can set up under one (or several) of these guises, it will make the job easier.

Think of all the paladins who will dedicate their lives, and by extension their souls, to their Just and Holy God.

Think of all the aspiring Romeos and Juliets who will pledge undying love (and their souls) to someone with a fair face.

 

[Twinswords]

Diguise yourself as a wandering priest. Use a luiteant to act as bad guy. "capture" him in a magical looking crystal. Build a shrine around it with an altar. Say to the townspeople that you bound with lifeforce and if they want to keep the baddy captured they need to sarcifice themselves when they reach a certain old age. As long as they do that the baddy remains captured. Rinse repeat process a couple of time in different places in the world. Check up in different diguise. And then you have a couple of selfsustaining sources of souls.