[fantasy] breaking a færie vow

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Suppose the wording was to take the life of a companion.

"You owe me the life of a companion," perhaps.

Originally Posted by finn

I will not punish the PC for not immediately killing a companion. After a couple of sessions and the PC actually meets his beloved, and if the PC has not yet killed any "companion" or tried to exploit a loophole, the PC should be led into killing a companion, on night the character reunites with the beloved.

The traditional time to pay is a year and a day, though that might be too long for game purposes.
By the next moon, by the first Spring rain, or by Midsummer's Eve all work too.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

By the trope, the faerie spirit should undo its part of the bargain. It can't take back the character's knowledge of the beloved's whereabouts, so it'll do the next best thing. The faerie spirit, or its agents, will kidnap, and carry off to Faerie, the beloved.

That, or you accidentally kill your beloved (who presumably is a companion after being recovered), seem like the most traditional tropes for this sort of thing.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by muduri

One of the characters in the campaign I'm GMing made that old fantasy trope, the rash vow, to a powerful færie spirit - in return for the whereabouts of his beloved he's now required to kill one of his companions. I do feel a bit guilty - obviously everyone else is fond of their characters, and if I was thinking on my feet it would have been "the first member of your household you meet" so there'd be the old chance to send out one of the hounds or something.

The most obvious example of the "kill one of the hounds" trick would be the story of The Lambton Worm - failing to pull it off lead to a curse by which nine generations of the family suffered premature, usually violent, death.

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by Randover

Me being too benevolent GM I would introduce a plot that allows for the character to fulfill the Vow.

Me being a lazy GM I would let the players riff on what could possibly defeat this problem and then go with the more entertaining one. Or more than one.

(If the person with the problem hasn't the wits to ask for help from his friends I'd be a lot less kindly.)

[starslayer]

Have the fæ make the beloved no longer beloved.

Tempt away the hero with a fæ lover.

Have the fæ reveal, engineer, or manufacture, some great betrayal by the beloved that would cause the relationship to sour.

Be sure that after the relationship has been irreperably damaged the fæ comes to visit and mentioned that it has removed the rescue of beloved because the PC failed to hold up its end of the bargain.

[hal]

If I might?

What does the Fae have at its disposal? For example, are we using GURPS MAGIC? A long term "Permanent Forget" on either of the character who made the vow, or the beloved who was rescued might be worth the while.

Then again, there may also be those who dislike the fae who will aid the oath breaker - perhaps a rivalry within the fae itself might produce such an individual.

Then there is the other approach that comes to mind. What if the Fae could somehow make it such that the character is now cursed in that they can't touch a weapon? Perhaps the Fae use magic to make it seem as though the original character commits the crime of murder against the local Lord's family (illusion disguise combined with mass sleep might do the trick).

Of course, there can be another alterative...

"Your beloved now carries your burden. You missed your payment, and now you owe us, your beloved owes us, and even your unborn generations owe us. The only way you will have made your payment in full, is if you undertake the recovery of something we deem to be worthy payment in kind. Secure for us what we can't secure ourselves..."

For example? Maybe the powers of the Fae are limited by the distance from the local church bell's range of audible ringing (treat Fae's mana levels as low or very low). The destruction of the Church would have consequences for the character in question no?

In short? GURPS always seems to like a balancing act where the cost of a disadvantage be replaced by an equal disadvantage in its place. Make the life of the beloved "Charmed" to where no harm can befall the beloved (thus removing the presumed dependent status?) and then substitute a new disadvantage equal to that. Becoming possessed once per time period could maybe do that? Having a new "Destiny" might also do that.

While this is not "typical" of the wording of the blessing and curses - in my campaign worlds, you can direct the curse or blessing such that it only affects a given set of dice rolls (ie, it doesn't affect ALL rolls, but affects only a subset of rolls). The reason for this is so that blessings and curses last longer. Imagine being cursed in any politics rolls, or any combat rolls, or any rolls required to sire an heir.

Without knowing the extent of your game world, it is hard to offer you any specifics...

[Hide]

I believe you should have thought of the "contract" or at least the basic clauses of the vow: "When, Where and How" (and if your PC had mentioned it, exceptions, limitations and consequences on failure).

Since it seems there aren't any of these, everything depends completely on the faerie. IMO, a will roll is unnecessary... Since he made a rough vow, he's the faerie’s new toy and he shouldn't be able to resist anything (lest the faerie wills it OR if something stronger joins this game).

The issue here is that your PC put the life of his companions at stake. I think he had no qualms in choosing this path, so he must oblige. Even if he was desperate, he ultimately decided to scarify one of his companions' life, and that is all.

As far as I can tell, the power of his "curse" is weighted by his vow and the faerie's nature. I can think of the following results:

Player-wise

I would give him -9 on all of his rolls for not fulfilling the vow. And just for fun, +3 on all his rolls specifically to take down his companion and commit to his word. My reasons:

1. His deal was far from equivalent exchange: He offered a life for plain information
2. He offered something not his but someone else's
3. A -9 won't kill him, but…
4. It should teach him not taking (deliberately) bad turns involving the death of his companions

Setting-wise

I would also deny him access to magical realms, grant him bad reactions among magic sensitive beings, deny him the ability to feel/see/etc. his loved one, grant him an enemy "faerie kingdom", etc. But IMO all of this adds spice to the setting and doesn't make it clear he made a really bad decision.

If you want a "cheap" way-out, he could buy a terminally ill ally and have the terminally ill ally offer their life (considering this as amicably parting); I would price this as high as the rewards from "saving the loved one" sessions.

Sometimes, faeries are similar to demons…

"You opened the box, now you must come with us".
- Hellriser.

Take care!
Hide

[tanksoldier]

He offered something not his but someone else's

Good point. The fey probably wouldn't have made this deal since it requires the character to make payment with something not his to give.

[GodBeastX]

There are a lot of great answers in this thread. I doubt mine will be better, but I'll throw in 2 cents.

I tend to like to go with a very alien view of fey. They don't see the world like we do, they can't understand how we tick or why we hold certain ideas in high regard and others as worthless. In a lot of settings deep passions, attachments, emotions, ironies and other concepts are wonderful things to a fey, positive or negative.

So why would the fey ask the guy to kill his companion?

I think that tends to be the question of what he would do if he can't. A fey likely knew already he wasn't going to kill his friend. I mean, fey of any importance don't tend to be stupid.

So what's the point? I see this as typical fey experimentation. Trying to pick apart the psyche of a person in their own twisted way. Who is more important, the friend who helps along the goal or the goal itself?

If one can't decide one deserves neither or the fey choses for them. So I think some combinations of the above suggestions works best.

Absolutely the beloved is wide open to having to be kidnapped and what not. To mortals the fey has no right to mess with the girl since it was the guy who made the bargain, but that's just more of the fey alien thinking.

But I'd take it a step further, I think the fey might make a bargain with the beloved in order to twist the game further... and boy do I like to twist the game. How interesting would it be to find a beloved who wants nothing to do with you or is bound not to run off to happily ever after with you because of fey meddling. The fey could have taken away the player's desire but then how much more interesting is it to see if he could keep his attachments to a beloved that wants nothing to do with him!

Of course, true love is a potent thing in many fey stories. It can break curses and undo pacts and has a deep power, so maybe some way of showing this attachment would undo the whole scenario.

Lots of things to work with though, and many good ideas.