A gem, given as a reward by a Pit Fiend

[Pinjata]

So, finally, I've managed to insert a lovely mini-quest into my campaign, I've looted from Baldurs' gate 1 (https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Albert_and_His_Dog). In this case, the background story was, that Pit Fiend was in a magical battle in Hells and got banished to Material realm, where he took the form of a small male human child. Along with him, his faithful Hellhound was banished, and he too, took a form of, well - a husky.

PCs have talked to "little boy" and have taken "a chew toy" (metallic bone, radiating sickly red glow) from him to lure "the doggy" to them. "Little boy" had appeared next to them soon after, had thanked them, had opened portal to Hells and had departed home with his "doggy". As a reward, he has given the party a red gem with a very powerful, yet currently (they are lvl 4) undeciphrable aura.

I'd like to fluff out this stone. What does the gem do? In the spur of the moment, I've given it a funny shape (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/evil/images/3/3f/The_Behelit.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20151110185922) ... but I'd love it, if it has nothing to do with Berserk lore, but it is much more 5e FR fluff.

thanks :)

[Magicspook]

Right, so from the looks of the gem, it's got something to do with senses. I'm going to throw out some things that immediately come to mind based on its appearance.

dark conduit
The stone allows the pit fiend to scry the party's whereabouts and to communicate with the person holding the stone. The pit fiend will whisper to the bearer, perhaps via dreams, to manipulate the party into doing their bidding. This could provide a player to have an in-story reason to multiclass to warlock. If no-one wants to multiclass, perhaps a pact could be made to allow a player to become a sort of 'warlock-lite' with one invocation, one cantrip and one once-per-rest warlock spell.

speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil
This item makes the bearer immune to spells like lrotection from good and evil, detect good and evil, or alignment-based effects or alignment sensing. The wielder can also use any alignment-based magic item. This feature is mostly a ribbon but it would make for an awesome mcguffin that allows the players to transport some super-evil artifact. Also useful if you run into a band on sprites

stone of power
The stone allows the casting of arcane eye (eye), detect poison (nose) and sending (mouth) once a day each. Alternatively, blindness (eye), stinking cloud (nose), command (mouth) for a more offensive feel.

sculptor of flesh
The stone allows the wielder to morph themselves into a different form (like what the pit fiend itself did) ala alter self with the added benefit that the transformation is permanent and instantaneous and thus cannot be detected by detect magic.

[Spiritchaser]

I’ve done a couple of “gifts” from similar types of entities...

My standard guidelines for how these things work in my campaign are:

Grants one standard warlock invocation, pick something that would fit.

To work, the character must be attuned to the item, and must be touching it (held in hand, on chain against chest or clenched in teeth is fine. Held in a gauntlet, in a scabbard or similar is not.

While a character is attuned to the item, the creature who presented the “gift” is free to send them visions or dreams while they are resting. The nature of these will generally be to mislead or use the character or possibly to bind them to the service of the creature or its master

So far it’s worked quite well from a player interest point of view, but I actually have a poor record of recruiting new warlocks this way, as in none so far.

I think the issue is that it’s difficult to make dreams and visions corrupting if the player doesn’t want to buy into it. So far the best I’ve been able to do is deliver compromising information or suggestions that the players are keeping secret from one another. I guess that’s a start. It looks like a long process though.

Maybe I just need to up my game...

[Smoothjedi]

So, finally, I've managed to insert a lovely mini-quest into my campaign, I've looted from Baldurs' gate 1 (https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Albert_and_His_Dog). In this case, the background story was, that Pit Fiend was in a magical battle in Hells and got banished to Material realm, where he took the form of a small male human child. Along with him, his faithful Hellhound was banished, and he too, took a form of, well - a husky.

PCs have talked to "little boy" and have taken "a chew toy" (metallic bone, radiating sickly red glow) from him to lure "the doggy" to them. "Little boy" had appeared next to them soon after, had thanked them, had opened portal to Hells and had departed home with his "doggy". As a reward, he has given the party a red gem with a very powerful, yet currently (they are lvl 4) undeciphrable aura.

I'd like to fluff out this stone. What does the gem do? In the spur of the moment, I've given it a funny shape (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/evil/images/3/3f/The_Behelit.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20151110185922) ... but I'd love it, if it has nothing to do with Berserk lore, but it is much more 5e FR fluff.

thanks :)

Considering why he was stuck on the Prime Material plane, I think it would be cool if it could summon his rivals, or at least servants of them, to be forced into labor helping the party as revenge. Maybe the CR of what is summoned could scale with the party's level. Their disgust could be palpable and fun to play out. Alternatively they could summon his faithful hellhound to fight for them on a periodic basis, maybe more than one as they level up.

[Yakk]

So far it’s worked quite well from a player interest point of view, but I actually have a poor record of recruiting new warlocks this way, as in none so far.

I think the issue is that it’s difficult to make dreams and visions corrupting if the player doesn’t want to buy into it. So far the best I’ve been able to do is deliver compromising information or suggestions that the players are keeping secret from one another. I guess that’s a start. It looks like a long process though.

Maybe I just need to up my game...Offer loot. Offer boons. Have the price be modest.

"Give me a single level 1 (divine) spellslot, forever, and I will tell you where 4 artifact weapons are hiding; they are guarded by creatures you can reasonably dispatch."

"In exchange for a point of constitition, I will grant you 1 HP per level and feat X".

Make the bargains adtually good (on the surface), but each bargain gives the being more ability to do things like charm, suggest, etc the PC, or gives the being ... a connection and ability to manifest a bit more.