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Friday Night Pathfinder: The Contract Devil

The shadowrunners, down 1 cleric, were discussing contract options with a contract devil when last we left them.  The bard, Don the Magnificent, attempted to outwit the devil, but instead simply scared the group away from making a deal.  Under need to meet his quota for his god Asmodeus, the devil decide to kill the party.  The party, outmatched and fearful for their lives, stopped the devil, and Ally, the gnome sorceress, offered her soul up in trade for the 3 wishes.  Her wishes were written down to ensure clarity, reviewed by the group, and then reviewed and granted by the devil:

  • I wish all negative opinions and bounties were lifted from my friends and I, and were not replaced by any bounty ever.
  • I wish all red wizards and Shardosferin the dragon, and only them, to be dead and never to be risen.
The devil interpreted the second wish as two wishes (one for red wizards and one for Shardosferin, and granted it and with completion of the wishes, sealed the deal.
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Wish interpretation in this case is carried out by the devil who then casts the spells.  

SPOILERS ALERT:  In this case the following things happened:
  • Since the word 'negative' is subject to interpretation, the devil assumed all opinions were included in the first wish.  Bounty can be interpreted as money offered for capture or money paid for capture, so the party lost not only the money offered for their capture, but also all future ability to gain a bounty.  
    • If they are paid a bounty, it will float away from their hands and pockets equivalent to "were lifted and not be replaced".
    • Since all opinions of them are gone, no one will remember them and they do not remember each other.
    • Their friends fall in the same category and similarly they will not remember them.  The list of friends was interpreted loosely by the devil and is quite long.
    • All wanted posters of them are gone.
    • Poor Don the Magnificent, however, is still wanted since he was mistaken as Lord Rutherford (or was he?) and the wish did not affect Lord Rutherford's bounty?
  • Red is a color, a very exact color.  Shardosferin the dragon (not all dragons named Shardosferin) implies a single dragon named Shardosferin.
    • As a result, the party finds two dead exactly-red colored tiefling wizards in the next room in addition to a small wyrmling with a collar with the name Shardosferin.
    • This wish obviously did not affect the Red Wizards of Thay nor the Great Quake Wyrm of the Shadowplane Shardosferin that they intended it to. 
END SPOILERS
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So the party gets to know each other again.  Luckily Ally is able to calm the tiger and the party moves forward into the next room, rogue in front, searching for traps.  They find a tomb which finally gives away the purpose of the area they are in -- it is an old 'funeral home / mortuary'.  They find the bodies of two red wizards and a small wyrmling in addition to 6 tombs.

Each tomb is searched and gives the searcher a good stack of gold. 

The party continues into the next room, climbing up to meet a Bebelith -- a giant spider-like devil that likes chewing on flesh.

At this point, I award XP (3000 for the city, and 10000 for the contract demon) and end our adventure to prevent a TPK.  The party has an APL of 7 with a +2 for being a party of 6 and can take the bebelith.  However, the party has a bard that can't really fight, they have no cleric this week, leaving their CR level closer to 7 or even 6.  A CR 10 Bebelith will likely peel the armor off the fighter, their only tank, and kill her quickly, leaving the party either to 1) fight and die or 2) retreat and lose the fighter to true death.  Neither are fun, and the 10000 XP associated with the Bebelith combined with the need to get past it make this a pivotal fight and plot point.  Next week the party with the extra XP will be APL 8, which should allow them to have a good fighter versus the bebeilith with or without the cleric.  Someone still could die, but at least it will be a 'fairish' fight.

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UPDATE:

Something about this bothered me a bit, and it took me a while to realized it.  Awarding 10,000 XP to each player for the Contract Devil wouldn't be the norm.  Typically defeating a creature results in the XP being split between the players.  However, in this case, the wishes represented a grave danger that affected all of the players.  Each individual player will have to overcome the outcome of the wish, and so I stand by my decision to award the XP to all of them individually.

SPOILER ALERT:

The biggest impact to all of the group is that they have effectively lost all of their contacts.  This is a huge problem for the group as they progress through the campaign with allies and enemies aligning for some serious battles.  Will their families remember them?  Will Elminster remember them?  Will Shardosferin remember them?  Will the Shadow Thieves remember the rogue and his mission?  Will the druid get his animal companion back?  There are a lot of issues to play out, and not even I know what it will ultimately result in.


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