A Deal with the Devil

 

“The Devil went down to Georgia (or wherever your player’s adventures have taken them)
he was lookin' for a soul to steal
he was in a bind
'cause he was way behind
and he was willin' to make a deal
When he came upon this young man
sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
and the devil jumped
up on a hickory stump
and said boy let me tell you what
I guess you didn't know it
but I'm a fiddle player too
and if you'd care to take a dare I'll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
but give the devil his due
I'll bet a fiddle of gold
against your soul
'cause I think I'm better than you.” 

                                                              - The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels)

My mind wanders from time to time.  This weekend, while binge watching Arrow, I saw the episode that Billy Joel appeared in.  That got me to thinking about “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and more specifically the lyrics.  I thought that “Rock and Roller Cola War” would make a really good title for an adventure, especially as a follow-up to the Battle of the Bands idea I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  But, try as I might, I couldn’t figure out where I wanted to go with it but my train of thought did carry me to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and I said…”Hey, now there’s an adventure (or at least an awesome encounter) if ever I heard one.

A devil approaches one of your players’ party members and challenges him to a musical duel.  The stakes, you ask?  One instrument made of gold versus one soul.  A search through assorted Monster Manuals and other sourcebooks revealed to me that only one devil in any of my books has Perform as a skill.  That is the Archdevil Levistus.  The Book of Vile Darkness lists his Perform skill at +42.  That is damn near insurmountable for all but the most accomplished player characters.  Then again, Perform isn’t a single skill; it’s a group of skills like Craft and Knowledge so ranks in one type of performance don’t carry over to another.  I divided by three (one for Percussion, another for Stringed, and the last for Wind Instruments) gave him a score of 11 ranks (plus his hefty Charisma bonus) in each.  We’ll assume, for sake of the story that this encounter happens after the events surrounding the death of the Hag Countess and Levistus’ release from his icy imprisonment.

Ok.  That’s a bit more reasonable.

The Lord of the Fifth, Levistus, rules over the layer of Stygia. He appears as a six-foot-tall humanoid with very pale skin, dark hair, and a goatee. Were it not for his entirely black eyes and pointed teeth, he could pass for a human.  Hmmm… that sounds familiar…

Everett: What'd the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?

Tommy Johnson: Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.

Delmar: Oh son. For that you sold your everlasting soul?

Tommy Johnson: [shrugs] Well, I wasn't usin' it.

Pete: I've always wondered, what's the devil look like?

Everett: Well, of course there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan hisself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork.

Tommy Johnson: Oh, no. No, sir. He's white, as white as you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He loves to travel around with a mean old hound. That's right.

                                                              - O Brother, Where Art Thou?

How you decide to handle the contest between the devil and the bard is entirely up to you.  If you want, the other PCs can join in, sing back-up or provide musical accompaniment and you may want to arrange things so it is a series of contests spread out over the course of the night since the fate of a soul is a lot to let ride on a single die roll.  But, I digress.  After bouncing the idea around throughout the course of this evening, I think that I’m going to insert this encounter into the 1920s chapter of the campaign I am currently running.  The players’ find their characters gathered in the dimly-lit, smoky taproom of a Chicago speakeasy when a man calling himself “Levi” appears and challenges one of the PCs or a close ally of theirs.  I just like the mental image this gives me.  Plus, if I use the ‘20s, then it sets up a possible encounter with another Archdevil – Mephostopheles who the party’s family members may have met back during the Old West.