TL;DR: Is there any precedent in canon for Fey, Hags and Devils to have ever interacted with each other - either on friendly or unfriendly terms? Also, if you could include Gods into that as well then that would be great as I have four more expanded backstories to work on.
There is a lot more content below that asks this question is greater detail and explains the context of the situation.
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Guys and gals of the dndBeyond nethersphere,
I am continuing with writing the basic outline of the stories that we will be playing through in my community groups 2019 campaign. I have already written a basic outline for the Druid and I am now moving on to writing up my thoughts on the Wizard's request for his expanded backstory.
When he originally wrote his character backstory, he wrote into it that he had been trapped in The City of Dis as a teenager and that was where he spent his teenage years. It is also where he learned fire, illusion and shadow magic.
For his expanded backstory he wants to delve deeper into that and has written me a more detailed backstory.
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Basic outline of the wizards expanded backstory
He is a half elf wizard. Originally he asked me and I allowed for him to be a Half Eladrin / Human Wizard. So he is essentially this mystical half elf who discovered as an older preteen that he had a love of knowledge and how that knowledge could be used to manipulate the world - essentially, how he could learn and then perform magic.
He came from quite a well respected family and they had a small library in their home. One day; while perusing the library, he came across a book that he had not seen before. It appeared to be a book of ancient magical secrets but when he took the book down and opened it, he soon discovered that it was in fact a disguised one way portal into hell and that opening the book, opened the portal - through which he was pulled and deposited in the City of Dis.
He remained trapped in Dis throughout his teenage years - a small weak fragile being, surrounded by creatures greater and far more powerful than him. To survive he had to learn and learn quickly. Thanks to his high intelligence, this was not a problem and he soon learned that he could strike deals; in the form of contracts, with some of the lesser and minor devils that inhabited this layer of hell.
He made several of these contracts, bartering his soul each time and in return he received the power to perform great fire magic, illusion magic and shadow magic. He used these abilities to either be or make himself appear a much greater threat than he would have otherwise been or actually was and that was how he survived - by making deals with ever increasingly greater devils for ever increasing scales of power.
Eventually though, he was able to escape from hell and make his way back to the prime material plane. After spending so long amongst devils though, he found returning home as a young adult hard. Not least because his time in Dis had changed him - he was not the same person he was as a child and those who knew him then - his parents, his old friends, his extended family, didn't really recognise the man he had become as being the boy he once was.
Finding a poor welcome in his old home, he stayed for only a short time before heading out into the world on a quest for more knowledge.
Eventually he fell in with a band of adventurers (the party.) They now travel together, each protecting the other - which suits the Wizard just fine, as this makes acquiring the knowledge that he seeks a far less lonely and dangerous task.
------
What I plan on doing with this expanded backstory
Per his request to delve deeper into his backstory and taking what he has written for me, I decided that would make hisstory all based around hell, devils and the contracts he made with them in exchange for the knowledge that gave him his fire, illusion and shadow magic powers.
I plan on having him specifically and the party more generally be confronted by devils or agents of those devils, all claiming that the Wizard made a contract with them or their masters, that they or their masters have fulfilled their part of the contract and now it is time for him to pay his dues.
So essentially, he must now face these devils who are all trying to claim his soul.
This story will be a fairly political one, in contrast to the dungeon delving of the Druids story. There will still be puzzles to solve, battles to fight and so on but the main focus of the story will be around the politics of hell and the deals the Wizard has made with these devils.
I also want to somehow link this story to the Druids story about Baba Yaga, the Fey, Pixies and the deal she made to become a human and this brings me to my question.
Reading and interpreting what my players are giving me for their expanded backstories and then turning that into a story that they will enjoy playing through is taking up a lot of time, so I don't really have a lot of time to start getting into custom world histories and things and would much prefer to just take what is already canon in the D&D universe and edit/adapt it to fit my world and my players stories.
So, is there any precedent in canon for Fey, Hags and Devils to have ever interacted with each other - either on friendly or unfriendly terms?
Also, if you could include Gods into that as well then that would be great as I have four more expanded backstories to work on.
Essentially, I have decided that fate and destiny would be the common threads that binds all my players together. They are basically being manipulated by greater beings - placed into situations where they would acquire knowledge, skills and power that they will need in the future if they (the party) are going face the dark world that is to come.
In a future campaign, I am planing on having them face the denizens of the abyss. I only have a basic idea of that for now as this is something that will happen in the future - but the basic idea is, the abyss has broken through into the prime material plane and is spreading across the world, bring with it monstrous agents of chaos and only our heroes (who have been brought together by fate and destiny - the favoured of the Gods) can save the world because; well, they are the heroes of the story.
Interesting. Others have mentioned night hags as well. I see that I am going to brush up on my d&d monster lore as night hags are not something that I had thought about.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Aside from Night Hags I'd also add that maybe looking into Sigil and the Outlands (there is some info in the DMG and PHB I think). If there was a place where extra-planar beings such Fey, Celestials, and Fiends of all kinds would meet and parley it would be there :)
Even outside of Night Hags, its possible that Hags or certain demons might interact while both looking for something, or if they had planned to plot together in some way. I think there couple be a couple different justifications for this, so really depends on how you want them to interact IMO.
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TL;DR: Is there any precedent in canon for Fey, Hags and Devils to have ever interacted with each other - either on friendly or unfriendly terms? Also, if you could include Gods into that as well then that would be great as I have four more expanded backstories to work on.
There is a lot more content below that asks this question is greater detail and explains the context of the situation.
------
Guys and gals of the dndBeyond nethersphere,
I am continuing with writing the basic outline of the stories that we will be playing through in my community groups 2019 campaign. I have already written a basic outline for the Druid and I am now moving on to writing up my thoughts on the Wizard's request for his expanded backstory.
When he originally wrote his character backstory, he wrote into it that he had been trapped in The City of Dis as a teenager and that was where he spent his teenage years. It is also where he learned fire, illusion and shadow magic.
For his expanded backstory he wants to delve deeper into that and has written me a more detailed backstory.
------
Basic outline of the wizards expanded backstory
He is a half elf wizard. Originally he asked me and I allowed for him to be a Half Eladrin / Human Wizard. So he is essentially this mystical half elf who discovered as an older preteen that he had a love of knowledge and how that knowledge could be used to manipulate the world - essentially, how he could learn and then perform magic.
He came from quite a well respected family and they had a small library in their home. One day; while perusing the library, he came across a book that he had not seen before. It appeared to be a book of ancient magical secrets but when he took the book down and opened it, he soon discovered that it was in fact a disguised one way portal into hell and that opening the book, opened the portal - through which he was pulled and deposited in the City of Dis.
He remained trapped in Dis throughout his teenage years - a small weak fragile being, surrounded by creatures greater and far more powerful than him. To survive he had to learn and learn quickly. Thanks to his high intelligence, this was not a problem and he soon learned that he could strike deals; in the form of contracts, with some of the lesser and minor devils that inhabited this layer of hell.
He made several of these contracts, bartering his soul each time and in return he received the power to perform great fire magic, illusion magic and shadow magic. He used these abilities to either be or make himself appear a much greater threat than he would have otherwise been or actually was and that was how he survived - by making deals with ever increasingly greater devils for ever increasing scales of power.
Eventually though, he was able to escape from hell and make his way back to the prime material plane. After spending so long amongst devils though, he found returning home as a young adult hard. Not least because his time in Dis had changed him - he was not the same person he was as a child and those who knew him then - his parents, his old friends, his extended family, didn't really recognise the man he had become as being the boy he once was.
Finding a poor welcome in his old home, he stayed for only a short time before heading out into the world on a quest for more knowledge.
Eventually he fell in with a band of adventurers (the party.) They now travel together, each protecting the other - which suits the Wizard just fine, as this makes acquiring the knowledge that he seeks a far less lonely and dangerous task.
------
What I plan on doing with this expanded backstory
Per his request to delve deeper into his backstory and taking what he has written for me, I decided that would make hisstory all based around hell, devils and the contracts he made with them in exchange for the knowledge that gave him his fire, illusion and shadow magic powers.
I plan on having him specifically and the party more generally be confronted by devils or agents of those devils, all claiming that the Wizard made a contract with them or their masters, that they or their masters have fulfilled their part of the contract and now it is time for him to pay his dues.
So essentially, he must now face these devils who are all trying to claim his soul.
This story will be a fairly political one, in contrast to the dungeon delving of the Druids story. There will still be puzzles to solve, battles to fight and so on but the main focus of the story will be around the politics of hell and the deals the Wizard has made with these devils.
I also want to somehow link this story to the Druids story about Baba Yaga, the Fey, Pixies and the deal she made to become a human and this brings me to my question.
Reading and interpreting what my players are giving me for their expanded backstories and then turning that into a story that they will enjoy playing through is taking up a lot of time, so I don't really have a lot of time to start getting into custom world histories and things and would much prefer to just take what is already canon in the D&D universe and edit/adapt it to fit my world and my players stories.
So, is there any precedent in canon for Fey, Hags and Devils to have ever interacted with each other - either on friendly or unfriendly terms?
Also, if you could include Gods into that as well then that would be great as I have four more expanded backstories to work on.
Essentially, I have decided that fate and destiny would be the common threads that binds all my players together. They are basically being manipulated by greater beings - placed into situations where they would acquire knowledge, skills and power that they will need in the future if they (the party) are going face the dark world that is to come.
In a future campaign, I am planing on having them face the denizens of the abyss. I only have a basic idea of that for now as this is something that will happen in the future - but the basic idea is, the abyss has broken through into the prime material plane and is spreading across the world, bring with it monstrous agents of chaos and only our heroes (who have been brought together by fate and destiny - the favoured of the Gods) can save the world because; well, they are the heroes of the story.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Two words: night hag.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Interesting. Others have mentioned night hags as well. I see that I am going to brush up on my d&d monster lore as night hags are not something that I had thought about.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Aside from Night Hags I'd also add that maybe looking into Sigil and the Outlands (there is some info in the DMG and PHB I think). If there was a place where extra-planar beings such Fey, Celestials, and Fiends of all kinds would meet and parley it would be there :)
Asmodeus made a deal with a coven of night hags, and they made him a backup army. The Yugoloths. They make three tomes called the "Books of Keeping".
Even outside of Night Hags, its possible that Hags or certain demons might interact while both looking for something, or if they had planned to plot together in some way. I think there couple be a couple different justifications for this, so really depends on how you want them to interact IMO.