I bound a devil to my service… Now what?

[Reaver]

In a game I’ve been playing, my character was asked to kill a (possibly horned) devil who was imprisoned magically. The devil wanted to be freed instead, and tried to bargain. When my character (neutral good human warlock) realized killing it would just send it back to hell, he talked it into agreeing to perform 3 tasks a year for him for the rest of his life in exchange for being released. The obvious hook for the devil there is that its in his interest if I die sooner rather than later. After releasing him, my first command to it was to return to hell.

So I’m now in the weird position of having a devil who has signed a contract in service to me rather than vice versa, and am a good aligned player. The potential for shenanigans is seems pretty much endless, but I’m thinking between a few different uses for it.

Option 1- give the devil “impossible” tasks to stop it from being able to hurt other people by consuming all its time and energy.

Option 2- give the devil tasks which result in good outcomes, or are inherently good. I.e. killing evil monsters, saving the innocent, ect.

Option 3- “Sell” his tasks to another entity, maybe a higher devil, both for the profit and to balance his desire to see me die with another entity that wants me to live as long as possible.

Option 4- try to use my hold to get a better hold. Have a lawyer draw up an ironbound contract which binds him to my service for all eternity. Then summon him and order him to sign the contract as his task. Not sure how this would be handled. If this worked, then it makes all other options easier.

What do you guys think? Any options I missed or huge pitfalls in the choices?

[togapika]

Option 4- try to use my hold to get a better hold. Have a lawyer draw up an ironbound contract which binds him to my service for all eternity.

You think a standard lawyer could make a contract that a devil couldn't weasel their way out of?

[Amnestic]

saving the innocent

As any devil will tell you under duress, there's no such thing as an innocent :) You're going to need to be really careful with your wording on any tasks you set to it for sure.

I wouldn't be aiming for option 4. An infernal contract signed under magical compulsion isn't likely to be valid (otherwise it'd be a lot easier for mortals to suddenly find themselves in a lot of infernal contracts!)

[Reaver]

You think a standard lawyer could make a contract that a devil couldn't weasel their way out of?

Oh, I’d fully expect him to try. I’d pretty much be putting him in the position of a warlock with a patron they dont like or whose goals they dont agree with. Keeping it stupid simple would probably be best. “I agree to perform 3 tasks per calendar year for X for the rest of eternity. This agreement supersedes and replaces prior agreement Y.” Or something along those lines.

[Reaver]

As any devil will tell you under duress, there's no such thing as an innocent :) You're going to need to be really careful with your wording on any tasks you set to it for sure.

I wouldn't be aiming for option 4. An infernal contract signed under magical compulsion isn't likely to be valid (otherwise it'd be a lot easier for mortals to suddenly find themselves in a lot of infernal contracts!)

Yeah, that would definitely be DM discretion. The only reason I think it could be valid is because he’s a devil, and I’m pretty sure obligated by the infernal hierarchy to honor any contract he’s signed. It would be just like a devil to have the proviso that there’s no exceptions for signings he was obligated to as a result of other contracts, so I’d be trying to spin their own nature against him.

[Thunderous Mojo]

From the Devil's perspective, it now gets a chance to leave the Nine Hells three times a year, for as long as you live.

Three times a year, you now have to listen to someone pitch you about joining a Pyramid Scheme, for the rest of your life.

Wherever you are at, be it the Tomb of Horrors, or an unclean gas station restroom, (This is the inglorious side of being a Planeswalker), that location is probably going to seem like a vacation to that tortured soul of a Devil, when it is compared to the Nine Hells.

The best thing, is at the end of this Time Share of Freedom you sold to this particular Devil, this Devil also gets your soul.

What‼️...that's not true....does it matter...you made a verbal agreement with a Devil.😈🃏

You have a seriously cool situation. My own personal goal in this long term situation would be looking to find a way to get an Iron Flask and store that Devil.

Good Luck and Good Gaming to you! 🍻👍

[KorvinStarmast]

Give him a fiddle made of gold, and tell him to go down to Georgia.

[Reaver]

The best thing, is at the end of this Time Share of Freedom you sold to this particular Devil, this Devil also gets your soul.

What‼️...that's not true....does it matter...you made a verbal agreement with a Devil.😈🃏

You have a seriously cool situation. My own personal goal in this long term situation would be looking to find a way to get an Iron Flask and store that Devil.

Good Luck and Good Gaming to you! 🍻👍

He shouldnt get my soul. I was careful to make sure it was a simple written contract and reviewed it. Basically in exchange for releasing him from his magical cage, he agreed to serve me 3 times a year for the rest of my life. Giving him my soul in exchange for letting him out wouldnt have made sense. If he wanted that, it would have to be a separate agreement, and would probably be the ultimate goal for him.

[JackPhoenix]

Take it to Hell and kill it there to be rid of it for good?

[BigRedJedi]

Trade up, find the next highest-ranking devil and offer to trade 3/year service for 2/year service, then trade up again.

Start a brokerage with other Soul Share individuals, offering to take on their contracts and benefits, then find buyers who need that specific type of service and act as a supplier? You're going to end up in Hell anyways, might as well make the most of your mortal life, right? (This is basically the worldview of all politicians, only a devil-contract broker is less evil.)

[Reaver]

Trade up, find the next highest-ranking devil and offer to trade 3/year service for 2/year service, then trade up again.

Start a brokerage with other Soul Share individuals, offering to take on their contracts and benefits, then find buyers who need that specific type of service and act as a supplier? You're going to end up in Hell anyways, might as well make the most of your mortal life, right? (This is basically the worldview of all politicians, only a devil-contract broker is less evil.)

Thats definitely an option. I dont think the contract broker would really fit my characters personality or alignment, but its a cool concept. However, trying to trade up this contract into a more powerful one while giving a higher devil a vested interest in keeping me alive has its benefits.

Alternatively, I’m toying with the idea of trying to use the devil’s tasks to try to rope other entities into my characters service. Either that or (if a straight option 4 wont work) then basically assigning his task as handing me something that gives me even more leverage over him, and he would want to negotiate to get back. Damned souls he’s collected, maybe? Or assigning him tasks that would cause him issues in the infernal hierarchy, and he could agree to further servitude with me in exchange for not being forced to complete them.

[Sigreid]

Mostly, wait for him to screw you over. lol

[Brookshw]

You think a standard lawyer could make a contract that a devil couldn't weasel their way out of?

A contract a party cannot avoid, or enter of their free will? No way they'd be able to void that

Fun situation, I'm already grinning at how the devil could misinterpret the orders he's given, not to mention him trying to hire assassins to go after the character. Personally I wouldn't try and interfere with him making such attempts, seems like it'll lead to a lot of fun situations.

Go for humiliating situations, perform mundane tasks, build orphanages that comply with building codes (if such codes exist in the campaign), move a desert with a spoon, sounds like a lot of fun.

[PhantomSoul]

He shouldnt get my soul. I was careful to make sure it was a simple written contract and reviewed it. Basically in exchange for releasing him from his magical cage, he agreed to serve me 3 times a year for the rest of my life. Giving him my soul in exchange for letting him out wouldnt have made sense. If he wanted that, it would have to be a separate agreement, and would probably be the ultimate goal for him.

(bolded) Oh dear... well, that might keep life interesting for you...
(underlined) I'm sure there's leeway there.. (what counts as serving [you might just get three coffees], how many activities are required to constitute a time [e.g. showing up equals 1 time?], which calendar is used to delimit years, 3 x 1 year = 3 years, ...)

[Analytica]

Oh, I’d fully expect him to try. I’d pretty much be putting him in the position of a warlock with a patron they dont like or whose goals they dont agree with. Keeping it stupid simple would probably be best. “I agree to perform 3 tasks per calendar year for X for the rest of eternity. This agreement supersedes and replaces prior agreement Y.” Or something along those lines.

"Done. Now... you never specified which calendar, now did you? Don't worry. Your implicit request of my standing at readiness for these tasks translates into an implicit consent to the monitoring engines of Hell to listen in on you at all times. What's that? No, under the bylaws and SOP of Hell, that does not qualify as a task, I am so sorry. Now about that..."

[Magicspook]

What will happen when you die and are subsequently resurrected by your party members though?

[Angelalex242]

As your DM, I would be reading and rereading the story of Dr. Faustus....and making sure the demon's doing exactly what it should be doing, using its services to make sure your soul ends up at his place.

Why, he'll be almost 'accidentally' dropping off those lawful evil charisma 20 warlocks and sorcerers and bards just to encourage you to be more lawful and evil.

[DigoDragon]

This sounds like a setup for a really interesting anime. ^^

If I were the DM, I'd consider an outside-the-box idea: reform the devil. Could be an interesting long term goal. You got this evil devil hanging about that might be curious what you'll do with the bound services. Maybe it learns something about there being more to mortals than it first thought. Maybe it eventually considers you a friend, or at least only when other devils aren't looking.

Think Crowley from the book/tv series Good Omens for ideas.

[Mastikator]

I think a better question is whether the DM is willing to let you just have a devil in your service or not. If they don't want you to have it then there's no plan that can stand up to DM fiat.

[Reaver]

What will happen when you die and are subsequently resurrected by your party members though?

We insinuated heavily that dying would count as the end of my life, whether or not I’m resurrected after.

Me- “If I release you, you serve me for the rest of my life!”
*Devil laughs incredulously*
Me- “I’m a human adventurer. I’m going to die sooner rather than later.”
Party member- “Yeah, he’s died once already.”
Devil- suddenly reconsidering and getting down to brass tacks.

[nickl_2000]

Task him with spending all his time finding out the true name of devils above him. It's hard to do, will keep him busy, will likely get him killed, and if he succeeds you have power over even more powerful devils to mess him up.

This gives the DM either an out if they want an out (as in he/she/whatever pronoun the DM goes by is in over the dm's head), or it gives a really cool plot point to know the true name of a powerful devil.

[Reaver]

(bolded) Oh dear... well, that might keep life interesting for you...
(underlined) I'm sure there's leeway there.. (what counts as serving [you might just get three coffees], how many activities are required to constitute a time [e.g. showing up equals 1 time?], which calendar is used to delimit years, 3 x 1 year = 3 years, ...)

We specified 3 tasks of my choosing. This kind of hit the DM out of left field because he was expecting us to either kill it, or negotiate for a flametongue sword the Devil had, so we just discussed the contract verbally (player to DM) since there wasnt time to write it out of game. There’s definitely leeway where the devil can try to kill me directly or indirectly, and with how a year will be measured for this initial contract.

[Saint-Just]

We specified 3 tasks of my choosing. This kind of hit the DM out of left field because he was expecting us to either kill it, or negotiate for a flametongue sword the Devil had, so we just discussed the contract verbally (player to DM) since there wasnt time to write it out of game. There’s definitely leeway where the devil can try to kill me directly or indirectly, and with how a year will be measured for this initial contract.

No matter how the year is measured, you still probably got three wishes (usually when contract specifies X/period all X can be called at the beginning of the period).

On the other hand I cannot imagine any DM would stand for "wish for more wishes" (or giving a task to agree to more tasks).

[Berenger]

Give him a fiddle made of gold, and tell him to go down to Georgia.

Nah, send him down to California to run a night club and solve crimes.

[Reaver]

No matter how the year is measured, you still probably got three wishes (usually when contract specifies X/period all X can be called at the beginning of the period).

On the other hand I cannot imagine any DM would stand for "wish for more wishes" (or giving a task to agree to more tasks).

I have two left (this year) since I used the first task as telling him to return to hell. The only wish for more wishes that I think could fly is if I managed to give him a task that was unacceptable or onerous enough to the devil that it would make another agreement to get out of it, or agree to do additional tasks instead of completing that one.

Or if assigning his task as telling him to agree to another contract was allowed to work. If he didnt include a “No tasks can be to enter into other agreements” clause in the contract, that seems like his own fault. Definitely DM discretion on that one though, as it could get broken. I’ll probably want to use him for roleplay tasks mostly anyway, just so it doesnt feel like a cheap get out of jail free card.

[J-H]

I'm having trouble finding a script or writeup of his dialogue, but did you ever play KOTOR and repair HK-47? He's a homicidal assassin droid who refers to organics as disgusting fleshbags, and has quite a history of prior owners. One of his prior owners expired after being electrocuted while attempting to stab HK-47 with a pen... after having set HK-47 on the heads of a rival company who, it turned out, was actually owned by HIS company's owners.

I'm expecting something like this.

[King of Nowhere]

This sounds like a setup for a really interesting anime. ^^

If I were the DM, I'd consider an outside-the-box idea: reform the devil. Could be an interesting long term goal.

i was thinking the same. show him that life is better in a nice part of the prime material than it is in hell, and from there make him invested in keeping the place. there's plenty of option to make the devil, if not reformed, at least the kind of pragmatic evil that will play nice to keep his cushy position

[Pauly]

You could give him a few tasks that he really wants to do, but wouldn’t have the opportunity to do otherwise, and thus prime him to keep you around.
EG tell him to keep that succubus that is in service to the BBEG … erm … otherwise occupied for a week, while you do hero stuff.

[False God]

Give him plenty of exercise, take him on walks, make sure to give him proper food and water.

Franky, don't try to get one over him or take advantage of him or befuddle him. He will eventually be out of your service. Better to have an ally, or even a friend, than someone who has spent the last few years or so plotting your demise.

[Reaver]

Give him plenty of exercise, take him on walks, make sure to give him proper food and water.

Franky, don't try to get one over him or take advantage of him or befuddle him. He will eventually be out of your service. Better to have an ally, or even a friend, than someone who has spent the last few years or so plotting your demise.

Not so sure making friends with a devil is in the cards, but using him in a way where he doesnt despise having to work with me, and might actually profit from it (in a way which doesnt further evil causes on the mortal planes) could be a good goal to aim for. Probably also easier for the DM than using him for occasional combat, since it wont have pressing effects for balancing of encounters.