Just promies not to do it again....

[Ranting Fool]

One of my players needs/wants to gain Atonement (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/atonement.htm)for something naughty that they have done by the God Olidammara (The Laughing Rogue) what sort of penance (if any) might be required by the priest in order to cast the spell?

Quick review of what the CN character did.
In the last encounter between two warring brother princes Brother 1 tried to cast mass suggestion on the party to get them to help kill Brother 2 (which some of the party kinda wanted to do anyway, but the majority were just trying to disarm/knock out brother 2 then talk brother 1 out of harming him) the CN player passed his save but then bluffed to act like he was under the spells power... The party manage to knock out brother 2 when CN player ran up to brother 2 used a belt of battle to gain a bonus full round action then coup de grace'd brother 2 using and then using bluff again to fake remorse over the killing.
Brother 1 rewarded the players for helping him (even if he tried to force the help) but the majority of the part refused the cash apart from CN player and another who "Would only take the cash to give it to a good cause"

That's not the reason CN player needs to atone.... he killed Brother 2 using a Cursed Sacrificial Dagger he got given freely by a Devil (The rest of the party didn't know he had this dagger, and when they found out how he got it and didn't bother to Identify it they all face palmed) the dagger is rather cursed and the act of killing a person who is helpless has tainted his soul putting part of it into the dagger and continued use would destroy him he's sure... So now he wants to brake the enchantment and get atonement so his soul is untainted.

Suggestions Welcome :smallbiggrin:

[Illarion]

I'm guessing a spanking isn't going to be enough.

[nedz]

This is a Priest of Olidammara right ?

Now Olidammara is CN, so he probably doesn't care overly much — and most likely the Priest would take a similar view ?

So the Priest is meant to sacrifice 500 XP for this ?

I'd say that the Priest would take the money, cast Guidance or some such spell and hope that his Bluff roll is better than the PC's Sense Motive — and just wink knowingly if it isn't.

[Kornaki]

Well seeing how he profited from this act a first step would be to give up the money he gained (donate it to a good cause or just pay off the priest if he's really CN lol)

A good atonement quest for Olidammara should be something invoking irony I think. Maybe he has to go save someone who is going to be sacrificed by an evil cult, or he has to spare every opponent he faces for a week. If you want to roleplay Olidammara as a more uncaring CN god, the priest might demand something that helps him personally - like go steal a rival temple's holy incense and bring it back to his temple or something

[Flickerdart]

Good ol' Ollie loves a good joke, but since he's Chaotic, he doesn't really care about the karmic scales of balance, so he's not likely to want an ironic punishment, because he frankly doesn't terribly care if the character repents. What he would want, though, is for the CN player (let's call him Charlie) to prove that he is worthy of Olidammara's favour by playing a joke on someone else. If Charlie wants to receive an atonement from a cleric of Olidammara (one would think a Remove Curse or Break Enchantment would be more appropriate), the cleric might ask Charlie to find the demon who gave him the dagger in the first place, and then trick it into killing itself with the dagger. Alternatively, he may ask the player to disguise and plant the dagger on someone else who Olidammara disapproves of, and when that someone kills using the dagger, now they're the one who are cursed.

[Kelb_Panthera]

How about just destroying the dagger? If it looses its magical properties then it can't very well affect his soul when he dies, can it?

If an atonement is necessary (and I agree with Flickerdart, that it sounds more like a break enchantment or remove curse situation) then just forking over the cash for the spell is probably enough, since he hasn't actually transgressed against his faith.

[Nettlekid]

I third the break enchantment/remove curse suggestion. Atonement is for moral transgressions, really, and that changes from god to god. For Pelor, killing the helpless and righteous might warrant one. For Hextor, sparing an enemy's life could warrant one. For Olidammara, if the player had made a promise, kept that promise at personal loss, and followed through lawfully the whole time, I'd say THAT deserves an atonement. If anything, I'd say that Olidammara should smile on this player for being so clever as to fake an enchantment and use potential debilitation as an edge to achieve his own goal. Maybe in view of that, the Cleric of Olidammara would assist with a Remove Curse in that regard.

[Ranting Fool]

Brake enchantment will work fine though if item is sundered while still cursing him he has a (small) chance of death.

The reason the idea of Atonement was brought up (by the rest of the party) is twofold:

First "Charlie" used to be CG and his love of pranks has caused a lot of chaos but also a lot of collateral damage and suffering and death to innocents as well as putting the party in mortal danger and this last little escapade very nearly split the party since a bunch of LG and CG guys don't want to hang around with someone on the way to becoming CE (Though this is in part players not being able to keep Out of Character Knowledge from effecting in game issues)

Second part of the dagger's curse is to corrupt the user (Possibly turning them into a Lich but more likely giving them the Fiendish template, I hadn't decided because I honestly thought he would have Identified the Dagger before using it as it came from a Devil) and even if the dagger were un-cursed and sundered the damage to "Charlie's" soul would remain and he would be well under way to becoming Evil from such deeds as: Sacrificing a helpless non-evil person to the Devils of hell for personal gain, Making pacts with said Devil (though I can wave this one as it was purely for RP reasons to allow him to be a Hellfire Warlock) assassinating an NPC who irritated him (Though NPC HAD posed a danger in the past by spreading rumors that the PC's were evil and caused a bunch of knights to try and smight them, but then the PC's HAD just mugged him for his magic items (6 of them) because he had stolen 1 from another NPC) and while he HAS done Good it's mostly been because he got paid for it.

:smallbiggrin: Anyway, brake enchantment would work fine to de-curse him but without some sort of atonement (and he could fake it as long as the party thinks he has atoned) his CN alignment is getting rather close to CE.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Olidamara is a CN god. He'd be more concerned about a follower shifting away from chaos than toward evil. Unless the party are in the habit of scanning each other with alignment detecting spells none of them have any idea of one another's alignment in-character.

If he turns evil, so what? As long as he's still contributing to the party and he doesn't do anything that directly conflicts with their morals there shouldn't be a problem. If, on the other hand, he's acting in ways that -do- conflict directly with other characters then they should be inclined to eject him from the party regardless of alignment. The preceeding sentences were in reference to the characters not the players. If the players have a problem with the character's behavior then its an OOC issue and should be handled as such with a rational discussion rather than anything done in-game.

[ArcturusV]

Well, Devils are Lawful Evil right? So the fact that he accepted something from basically as far away Alignment wise as he could get from his patron God probably kinda ticked the god off. If he was in such a mood to care about such things at the moment. Which isn't necessarily certain. And moving towards Lawful Evil would definitely be worth an Atonement if the character has religious based powers. Or at least getting the stink of Lawful Evil Corruption off his soul. So it makes sense to me.

I do second the idea posted earlier that it should involve some sort of con, to fit the God's profile. Though I'd go a little deeper than just trying to get the Devil in question to kill himself with it. I'd break it down into multiple stages:

1) Find a way to "Cleanse" the dagger turning it from a soul devourer Lawful Evil item from Hell, to a Chaotic item in alignment with the God's will and sense of humor.

2) Find some way to get it back to the Devil in question.

3) Convince the devil that it's still cursed in the soul devourer way, and that it should be passed down to others, the damage is already done to you, etc, buyer's remorse. Just take it and never bother him again. Maybe challenge him to a rigged game as some sort of distraction from the fact you WANT him to take the dagger (After all, as a follower of the Laughing God he should be expecting SOME con from you) and free your soul. "I win, you take back the dagger and remove the taint on my soul! You win... you get the dagger back and my soul."

4) Laugh as you go back to the Priest to get your atonement and know for possibly untold centuries the Devil is going to be trying to "Corrupt" mortals with some +5 Dagger of Chaotic Goodness, without actually knowing any better.

[Gildedragon]

That character seems to be quite close to the CE side to begin with.
I agree with most other posters so far that atonement isn't necessary and break curse is a better suited spell

I can, however, see one way atonement can be needed: this fella has given his soul away to a fiend, and as such worship of Olidammara is moot and perhaps sacrilegious. Even if the curse is broken, the soul may be severed from Olidammara's realm. If the fella wishes to go to the Rogue's Realm then getting back in O's good graces may be in order.

Stealing something from an Archfiend's cult may be the way to go.
The diamond eyes from the idol of Mephistopheles, to be burnt to make the ink to scribe a scroll of "War-Spell Persisted Hideous Laughter" to be cast on a particularly dour city (by the offending party). The ensuing laughter and loss of decorum would please the god greatly.

[icefractal]

Well, pretending to be mind controlled and killing the brother actually seems like something Olidamarra might approve of, or at least not care about. The problem is that he signed a pact with a devil, and was made a fool of - and followers of Olidamarra are supposed to be the ones making fools of other people! The cure is obvious - make a fool of a devil, preferably the one who gave him the dagger, but another might be ok if the prank is sufficiently audacious.

This would work more to remove any lawful taint from his soul than evil though. But maybe if the method of devil-fooling benefited the cause of good, it would help that respect.

Edit: Ninja'd? Or maybe just not paying attention.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Making a deal with a devil is a lawful act, but unless he signed a faustian pact or something similar that's probably not enough to require an atonement spell; maybe a mild penance of some sort, but not more than that. As for him slipping toward evil, the laughing rogue doesn't care. Morality isn't his department.

Clerics aren't on nearly as tight a leash for transgressions as paladins or blackguards.