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HMS Invincible
2009-04-18, 06:47 PM
One of my players recently made a contract to get an imp servant. What should I do with the contract to **** with him? What should I charge for services? What kind of services should I offer?

Right now I offer him the chance to ask the imp's god in exchange for 100 gp or a healing surge.

Tiki Snakes
2009-04-18, 06:53 PM
Deeds, acts and services in return, that would further the agenda of the God in some way. Obscure and tricky ones preferably, as payment for the same, or some other benefit?

The way I see it, directly furthering a plot will be more useful to the God or Devil than mere cash, and allows you to make up all manner of diabolically amusing side-quests.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-04-18, 07:01 PM
There was a Dragon article about this awhile ago. Basically it said that the Hell Lords distributed specific Rituals to summon minor Devils to perform specific tasks - and that hidden within the Rituals are mystic contracts that slowly corrupt the summoner.

A fine one (inspired by OotS) is to require a service in exchange - "Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me" :smallbiggrin:

Keep this Plot Hook in your back pocket for a long time - several sessions at the minimum - and then have your party run into cultists who knew the PCs were coming to get them. One cultist reveals a talisman and says "Wizard, by the Infernal Contract you signed, you may not harm us nor hinder our plans." Suddenly the party is down a member, and everyone gets to see why you don't make Infernal Contracts.

Best of all, you can give all kinds of guarantees - "you won't have to kill anyone" or "you will not have to perform an illegal action" - to give the PC a false sense of security.

HMS Invincible
2009-04-21, 03:08 PM
There was a Dragon article about this awhile ago. Basically it said that the Hell Lords distributed specific Rituals to summon minor Devils to perform specific tasks - and that hidden within the Rituals are mystic contracts that slowly corrupt the summoner.

A fine one (inspired by OotS) is to require a service in exchange - "Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me" :smallbiggrin:

Keep this Plot Hook in your back pocket for a long time - several sessions at the minimum - and then have your party run into cultists who knew the PCs were coming to get them. One cultist reveals a talisman and says "Wizard, by the Infernal Contract you signed, you may not harm us nor hinder our plans." Suddenly the party is down a member, and everyone gets to see why you don't make Infernal Contracts.

Best of all, you can give all kinds of guarantees - "you won't have to kill anyone" or "you will not have to perform an illegal action" - to give the PC a false sense of security.
That is a good one. But now the player who made the contract is pissing me off. He just made me do all this research for an imp servant, and then the next day, he's like "All I wanted was for something to scout and take the hit for the traps in the dungeon. Once I get out of here(which they nearly are) he plans to ditch the imp.

Now that makes me want to curb stomp him. I think I'll be using the assassin imp to crit him while he is sleeping. That ought to teach the arrogant little lvl 5 fighter.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-04-21, 03:24 PM
That is a good one. But now the player who made the contract is pissing me off. He just made me do all this research for an imp servant, and then the next day, he's like "All I wanted was for something to scout and take the hit for the traps in the dungeon. Once I get out of here(which they nearly are) he plans to ditch the imp.

Now that makes me want to curb stomp him. I think I'll be using the assassin imp to crit him while he is sleeping. That ought to teach the arrogant little lvl 5 fighter.Have you drawn up the contract yet? If not, the Imp can do all sorts of cruel things to him without being blatant about it. After all, he was essentially summoned from the lower levels of hell because a trained monkey is too expensive, for a series of tasks that qualify as psychological and physical torture. I'd recommend using a trap that boosts the enemies and hurts the players(not sure what that would be in 4.x, think neg energy in a room of PCs and undead for 3.5) that, because the Imp's contract says only 'detect and set off traps', the Imp sets off repeatedly during the battle, making the player's lives considerably harder. Maybe because the Imp's supposed to 'strengthen the party', he pulls down an AoE buff that benefits everyone in the room except the Fighter(bonus to a stat everyone but him uses or something). And then the Imp, because he's smaller than a Halfling, doesn't set off some traps that only affect the full-plated Fighter.

And then the Fighter has to pay up, in the form of a service to be named later or something else fun. And as the Imp walks away after the deal is done, saying "Our business is concluded, you malicious bastard, good luck summoning anything ever again"(which is the case, after that mistreatment, any summoning the party makes will be seriously worried about being a trapmonkey), he tosses the Fighter's coinpurse a couple times and vanishes.

Thajocoth
2009-04-21, 03:37 PM
Making a deal with the imp is still making a deal with him. Even if the player double-crosses the imp, he should still have to face the consequences with the imp's boss.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-04-21, 05:44 PM
That is a good one. But now the player who made the contract is pissing me off. He just made me do all this research for an imp servant, and then the next day, he's like "All I wanted was for something to scout and take the hit for the traps in the dungeon. Once I get out of here(which they nearly are) he plans to ditch the imp.

Now that makes me want to curb stomp him. I think I'll be using the assassin imp to crit him while he is sleeping. That ought to teach the arrogant little lvl 5 fighter.
Um, it is never a good idea to "teach someone a lesson" in game when you are a DM. Trust me on this one - it always ends poorly.

That said, you can totally work with the PC's stupidity here. Once he makes a contract, it magically binds him to serve it's terms - perhaps a "Mark of Justice" is imposed to enforce compliance. And the contract isn't with the imp, it's with the imp's Master - someone it is considerably harder to dodge.

EDIT:
Y'know what is a fun Mark effect? Until it is removed (by fulfilling the contract) anyone who knows the command word can order the PC to do whatever he wants. It'd be like: "Hastur says - drop your pants."

Of course the PC won't know about this clause - put it in the text as "If the undersigned refuses to comply with the terms of the contract, he will be subject to standard enforcement methods." If the PC doesn't wonder what the "standard enforcement methods" mean, then he deserves what he gets. If he asks, the imp can say "oh, you know, physical intimidation, night terrors - you know, the usual" without lying.

Next, when the PCs run upon a cultist who recognizes the effect (successful Trained Arcana Check to detect, Religion to identify) the cultist can start ordering the PC around. Good times :smallamused:

HMS Invincible
2009-04-23, 08:07 PM
Tell me if this will be proper roleplaying for the imp:
1. The imp gets angry for having his time wasted, and then attacks the fighter who summons him in the middle of the night. He then vanishes after stealing some of the players stuff. (Possible use of assassin imp monster manual)

2. I have the player fulfill his part of the contract by forcing him to not interfere with one encounter sometime in the distant future. (This was gonna happen anyway, but it's gonna happen sooner because he wasted my time.)

Is this reasonable? Is it proper roleplaying? Will the player understand his mistake?

Mystic Muse
2009-04-23, 08:28 PM
if you go into a deal with a demon thinkin there won't be consequences your player is the one who made the mistake. even moreso because this is dungeons and dragons and DMs exist in it:smallbiggrin:

I'm not sure about proper roleplaying but i'd go with #2. and only use it sooner if you don't think your players are gonna make it to level thirrty. if they are and you KNOW this then make it so he has to bow out of the fight with somebody like orcus:smallamused: however I think it would be TOTALLY within the nature of a devil/demon/daemon to screw you over majorly like this so yeah good roleplaying