A PC has summoned a demon in a Sword and Sorcery setting.
For its servitude, it requires some sort of a price to seal the pact.
Could be something paid up front, an ongoing cost, or a debt to be paid sometime in the future.
What are some interesting deals to be made?
No, this is not a Succubus or ERP situation so fuck off.
They have to fuck.
Har har, thanks for nothing jackass
No problem, homie.
Blood is always good.
Servitude in return.
Classically, the deal requires that you sacrifice something, either upfront or at a predetermined date. You could give up an eye to gain knowledge, or the demon will trade you a unique service for the price of your firstborn.
Or maybe they require the simple sacrifice of time or effort, or of your humanity. "Bring me the still-beating heart of a virgin" and so on.
As for the specific deal, it really depends on the situation. Power over enemies, or social attractiveness, or even luck, are typical.
Mhm, we know the general flavour and idea, but wanted some specific ideas.
Like something that won't give him a mechanical disadvantage, has interesting flavour and won't take the spotlight in the middle of an outing
The wizard needs to banish/force into servitude another demon that's a rival of the first.
Alternatively, the wizard is required to murder/humiliate/otherwise fuck up the day of another diabolist, because he's contracted to a different demon that this demon dislikes and wants to show up.
Best answer is to pay in gold. Basicaly the demon gets 40% of your gold up front and half of what you get from then on. If he doesn't like the deal say you will just go looking for the services of another demon.
I like this idea a lot
Ooh, I like this one.
The Wizard should definitely destroy something valuable to them. Or to their community. Maybe desecrate an altar of a good deity by spilling the blood of an innocent onto it.
It's a price set by the demon itself, who wouldnt really care about gold.
This is also a game where you do not track coinage in specific so it would be pretty meaningless to the player, too
What exactly does a demon do with gold, though? Is it accepting your gold as payment, and then giving it to someone else in return for, say, jewels? Is this how the Hellish economy works? I thought they bartered in souls.
They could use it to bribe other mortals.
They could want it for its own sake.
Perhaps Gold is useful for binding the souls of the damned to a physical object.
Claw the truename of a soul onto a coin to bind it. Then the coin will have the ever-screaming face of the damned on it. You can hear the pain if you bite the coin and then put it to your ear.
Your soul...but not all at once, more of an ongoing cost. Like giving blood - as long as you don't give too much, and have some food afterwards, you should be fine.
Alternatively, things that the demon may need to make use of in the future with other summoners. Knowledge, magical artifacts, that sort of thing.
Greed demons are a thing. Unless by Sword and Sorcery you mean a very specific setting called just like that.
Gold is said to be the only thing thay can seal demons away for all eternity.
Is also useful for magic, literally casting using gold is possible in some settings, like Dungeon Keeper were you sacrifice treasure to cast spells.
Dragons love gold and gold tends to be an universal currency in any medieval fantasy setting.
Plus if the PC is that stupid as to sell their firstborn or their soul, things would just go downhill from there.
I will say again that gold will definitely not work for the setting or concepts that we want to play with. No gold.
Something more esoteric than just the typical stuff. ESPECIALLY something the demon could use to fuck with the player.
In exchange for creating an item the party desperately needs to complete their quest: one of the party must give the demon their voice. For the rest of their life, they are mute and cannot make any vocal noise whatsoever. The demon can now, at any time, speak with the character's voice.
The demon takes away a character's memories. Not all of their memories, and they know the memories are gone (because how could they feel the loss if they didn't know they was something missing?) But memories that were fundimental to the character's identity are no longer there. They feel the gaping hole where once was something important.
The first idea is cool, but won't work. The second could be interesting. Thanks for the suggestions
I missed these at first, they're ideas we came up with too
I think we'll go with
Cause it's like a built in plothook
>What are some interesting deals to be made?
Figure out what the player wants from the demon. That will let us make fitting and proportional service.s Until then we're flying blind.
Some common ones could be:
>Sacrifices of livestock and other life, the market prices of which should sum up to at least a certain value each month depending on the value of any ongoing, revokeable services. Treat human life value as the market price for the person if they were a reasonably-obedient slave, or their ransom value, whichever is higher.
>Construct an altar/monument/statue to the ruinous powers, or upgrade an existing one.
>Summon one or more of the demon's friends, allies, or minions
>Create a stable portal between hell and the mortal realm
>Participate in acts of worhsip for the demon, such as reciting blasphemous scriptures or putting in hours at the local demon cult
>Convince others to perform acts of worship for the demon
>Work subtly against any local persons or groups that would oppose the demon
>Convince others to make similar pacts with the demon
>Provide shelter or aid to servants of the demon, such as cultists fleeing from inquisitors
The player is basically going to employ the demon as a librarian/sanctuary guardian. He's like the lowest tier demon you can summon.
A lot of your ideas were pretty good, I especially liked having to summon one of the demons relatives