Aasimar
2013-03-21, 06:39 AM
This is a low powered game (at first), which was limited to level one for the longest time due to an ingame artifact (since destroyed)
In this game, my CG character died, helping the dwarves fight off a hag that was plaguing them. Her LE sorcerer friend had a storytelling/RP ability to summon a contract devil that might do a lot of stuff, in exchange for a soul.
He summoned the devil on her behalf while she was dying (from a hag's curse) and he offered to save her in exchange for her soul once she died.
The problem is that because this is a fallen world with almost no schools, high level characters or deities, nobody really knows what a soul is. (and we consistently fail all our religion/planes checks to find any information on the subject) OR what a devil is (or angel or anything really)
The contract did spell out that she would belong to him in perpetuity, and so she declined on general (chaotic) principle, and then failed her save and died.
While she's dead, her friends continue, break the curse on the world, open the ancient city of the dwarves, find all sorts of neat stuff.
While this is happening, the sorcerer is talking to the devil, who explains to him that the more souls he gathers, particularly from powerful good individuals, but anyone really, the more power he'll have.
He convinces the dwarven queen to give up her soul to speak to her dead husband (a former party member who also died) one last time, and then, while the rest of the group is busy (we were manipulated into being busy, by him) he convinces her that the devils he is in contact with are actually gods, to be worshipped. (he's got a crazy diplomacy score)
While we are away, the queen has all her dwarves sign a contract of his design (both the sorcerer and the GM are pre-law students), that basically signs over all the 300+ dwarven souls to the devils, with the sorcerer acting as intermediary, their voice on earth and prophet. The contract basically forms a new religion, spelling out the 'Lawful Evil' precepts of the faith. (which is a harsh, medieval sort of 'non-believers can be tolerated as guests, but every effort should be made to convert them to the faith and sign the contract' religion)
So when we return, all the dwarves are bowing to the sorcerer, calling him prophet, and the queen is eating out of his hand (non literally, but you know)
At about the same time this is all happening, my bard had an adventure in Elysium, which ended with her bonding with an angel, acquiring the half-celestial template and retraining her bard levels into levels of a CG paladin variant (Paladin of Freedom) that is basically in all mechanical aspects the same as a paladin.
She returns to the city, on actual silvery wings to rejoin her friends just as the whole thing is going down. (the half celestial idea was my GMs, as was bringing her back, I didn't actually push for it at all). She's a renegade from heaven and probably shouldn't come too close to any angelic types.
She doesn't really 'know' what devils are either, but she knows nobody in Elysium spoke of any 'gods' and she got a definite 'evil' reading from both a ring that the sorcerer gave the queen, as well as the room in which the sorcerer summoned and spoke to the devils. (the sorcerer isn't high level enough to register as evil by himself). She also found the contract remarkably explicit and precise on the requirements of the subjects (the dwarves) and everything the gods (the devils) promised in return was vague and open to interpretation, so naturally, she tried to convince everyone to not sign. (the dwarves all had, but at this point, the sorcerer was pushing for the party to sign also)
To complicate this, she and the sorcerer are childhood friends.
Hardly anyone really listened to her, and at least one of the remaining party members signed (LN cleric, though she's probably trying to see if she can do more good by infiltrating the religion) and another got a 'special deal' for himself.
Anyway, it occurs to me that, if this religion comes to be a major thing in the next hundreds or thousands of years, what role is the Fallen angel who tried to tempt people away from the Gods and spoke against their will likely to have in the mythology?
I've decided to try to make this playable, the world is a greyscale morality and now that my character has tried and failed to persuade people against this, she's mostly going to try to watch over her friends and keep them safe, while waiting for her Ray Patterson moment.
(The sanitation Commissioner from the Simpsons, who Homer replaced, and after Homer had screwed up and filled the city with garbage and the people wanted to reinstate Ray, he got up on stage and said: "I ain't much on speeches, but I can't tell you how gratifying it is to leave you wallowing in the mess you've made, you're screwed, bye!")
Advice?
In this game, my CG character died, helping the dwarves fight off a hag that was plaguing them. Her LE sorcerer friend had a storytelling/RP ability to summon a contract devil that might do a lot of stuff, in exchange for a soul.
He summoned the devil on her behalf while she was dying (from a hag's curse) and he offered to save her in exchange for her soul once she died.
The problem is that because this is a fallen world with almost no schools, high level characters or deities, nobody really knows what a soul is. (and we consistently fail all our religion/planes checks to find any information on the subject) OR what a devil is (or angel or anything really)
The contract did spell out that she would belong to him in perpetuity, and so she declined on general (chaotic) principle, and then failed her save and died.
While she's dead, her friends continue, break the curse on the world, open the ancient city of the dwarves, find all sorts of neat stuff.
While this is happening, the sorcerer is talking to the devil, who explains to him that the more souls he gathers, particularly from powerful good individuals, but anyone really, the more power he'll have.
He convinces the dwarven queen to give up her soul to speak to her dead husband (a former party member who also died) one last time, and then, while the rest of the group is busy (we were manipulated into being busy, by him) he convinces her that the devils he is in contact with are actually gods, to be worshipped. (he's got a crazy diplomacy score)
While we are away, the queen has all her dwarves sign a contract of his design (both the sorcerer and the GM are pre-law students), that basically signs over all the 300+ dwarven souls to the devils, with the sorcerer acting as intermediary, their voice on earth and prophet. The contract basically forms a new religion, spelling out the 'Lawful Evil' precepts of the faith. (which is a harsh, medieval sort of 'non-believers can be tolerated as guests, but every effort should be made to convert them to the faith and sign the contract' religion)
So when we return, all the dwarves are bowing to the sorcerer, calling him prophet, and the queen is eating out of his hand (non literally, but you know)
At about the same time this is all happening, my bard had an adventure in Elysium, which ended with her bonding with an angel, acquiring the half-celestial template and retraining her bard levels into levels of a CG paladin variant (Paladin of Freedom) that is basically in all mechanical aspects the same as a paladin.
She returns to the city, on actual silvery wings to rejoin her friends just as the whole thing is going down. (the half celestial idea was my GMs, as was bringing her back, I didn't actually push for it at all). She's a renegade from heaven and probably shouldn't come too close to any angelic types.
She doesn't really 'know' what devils are either, but she knows nobody in Elysium spoke of any 'gods' and she got a definite 'evil' reading from both a ring that the sorcerer gave the queen, as well as the room in which the sorcerer summoned and spoke to the devils. (the sorcerer isn't high level enough to register as evil by himself). She also found the contract remarkably explicit and precise on the requirements of the subjects (the dwarves) and everything the gods (the devils) promised in return was vague and open to interpretation, so naturally, she tried to convince everyone to not sign. (the dwarves all had, but at this point, the sorcerer was pushing for the party to sign also)
To complicate this, she and the sorcerer are childhood friends.
Hardly anyone really listened to her, and at least one of the remaining party members signed (LN cleric, though she's probably trying to see if she can do more good by infiltrating the religion) and another got a 'special deal' for himself.
Anyway, it occurs to me that, if this religion comes to be a major thing in the next hundreds or thousands of years, what role is the Fallen angel who tried to tempt people away from the Gods and spoke against their will likely to have in the mythology?
I've decided to try to make this playable, the world is a greyscale morality and now that my character has tried and failed to persuade people against this, she's mostly going to try to watch over her friends and keep them safe, while waiting for her Ray Patterson moment.
(The sanitation Commissioner from the Simpsons, who Homer replaced, and after Homer had screwed up and filled the city with garbage and the people wanted to reinstate Ray, he got up on stage and said: "I ain't much on speeches, but I can't tell you how gratifying it is to leave you wallowing in the mess you've made, you're screwed, bye!")
Advice?