First, a bit of context. The group I am playing with just finished Descent into Avernus, and due to the players wanting some downtime between adventure arcs for shenanigans, and campaign fatigue from DoA, it was decided that the players would go off and do their own thing for an unspecified amount of time. However, the DM who ran the DoA campaign also set up a transition into a modified Tomb of Annihilation campaign. To my knowledge, none of the players were very enthused about ToA. Thus, while I (Grungni Blackhammer, Dwarf Order Cleric of Moradin, heavily styled after Judge Dredd) was figuring out what he would do in that time, I got into discussions with the other players. I write and world build on the side, and my Dwarf has no shortage of lore and background information relating to his homeland in Osraun Mountains of Faerun. While reviewing my notes of the campaign, I noticed that several times when my Cleric attempted to get some sort of divine inspiration on what to do next in Avernus, he received no information. Now, I fully understand this was the result of bad rolls, fudged or otherwise. Roleplay wise however, Grungni was stunned by the sudden silence from his deity, and this led to some very out of character moments of mercy towards Fiend NPCs, such as Mad Maggie, Krickendolt the Bearded Devil, the Succubus in Mahadhi's Emporium, and so on. During one of these encounters, the party befriended Krickendolt, and our resident Human Rogue fell in love with the Succubus under the employ of Mahadhi. The idea came up that we could potentially redeem the devils, which was insisted upon by Lulu in game. And my distraught cleric latched onto the idea, thinking he had angered Moradin by slaying instead of trying to redeem.
And here is the important part. My cleric, Grungni, swore oaths upon his soul that he would and I quote, "Drag the devils Krickendolt and (the succubus) to the very Heavens themselves for redemption or destruction." As a player and as a character, I take such a thing seriously, and make every effort to stand by them. However, the campaign has ended, and both Krickendolt (who was evidently healed following the collapse of the Bleeding Citadel and is now Lawful Evil again) and the Succubus are far beyond the reach of the party, who are now in the Astral Plane with Elturel, being slowly put back where it belongs. The party successfully redeemed Zariel, and Grungni was chosen as worthy to wield the Sword of Zariel (admittedly for a very short time, as we retrieved the sword and then immediately went to Elturel.) Now, due to a number of players being interested in the side adventure I originally wrote for Grungni and another player, we are journeying to the Celestial Heavens, in the attempt to 1: Redeem some (absent) devils. 2: Destroy the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which we retained control of through the entirety of the Avernus Campaign, which if my RP timekeeping was correct, lasted approximately 7 days in Avernus, from the moment we stepped onto Elturel,) and 3: retrieve any kind of valuable loot appropriate for a party of 7 Level 9 characters, as the entirety of DoA for us was incredibly bare of any kind of loot or rewards.
Thus, I am the temporary Dungeon Master for a short term campaign that takes the party from the Material Plane to the Fourth Layer of Heaven at least, where the party hopes to destroy the Shield of the Hidden Lord. The DM who ran DoA has agreed to play Grungni for the time being, as he remains the second most knowledgeable about the character and his quirks/flaws. However, he has said he does not plan to push the issue of redeeming devils at all, and seems very disinterested or otherwise passive.
Am I the problem for wanting my own character played appropriately, or how can I approach this? Any and all critiques and ideas are welcome, and I will happily provide further details on lore or campaign notes or worldbuilding, as well as potential spoilers for the upcoming "Heaven Expedition" the party will undertake.
I really need context on what the problem may be because this sounds like the oppurtunity of a life time if the old dm is good and knows a bit about the character (which they most likely will).
Okay so here is a breakdown on Grungni: Dwarf Cleric of Moradin. Styled heavily off of Judge Dredd (at least originally, his character has developed a bit since the beginning in the campaign.) Understandably, I intended to play this character as extremely confined to Law, much like the Devils of Baator. He was meant to be the no-nonsense lawkeeper, enforcing the laws of any particular land he found himself in. His background has him exiled from his homeland due to a lapse of his duties that saw tombs of wealthy dwarven families plundered, for which the sentence in his homeland would be death. Instead, his mentor, a very high ranking Paladin, was merciful and chose to exile him "until the end of his living days or until all things stolen from the honored dead are returned and this wrong be set right."
The first time he deviated from what I wrote down was session 1 when another player arrived in the tavern as a Goblin Druid. I literally flipped a coin to determine how Grungni/The Cleric would respond. Heads, he would attack the goblin, as it is a hated enemy of all dwarven kind. Tails, he would not. Clearly a goblin would be attacked in any city, but this particular goblin made it inside a major human city, in broad day light, and was not slain by guards. Perhaps then, the laws of this land protect goblins too? I landed on Tails, and did not attack the goblin/fellow player.
The second, through sixth times he deviated from what is exactly demanded from his very exact code of conduct and became more "merciful" was in Baldur's Gate docks, where he intimidated the remaining crew of the Uncivil Servant into becoming merchantmen and fishermen, instead of pirates, making it extremely clear he would be required to hang any Pirates he found. In the Dungeon of the Dead Three, where he chose to spar Mortlock Vanathampur, heal his wounds, and demanded the disfigured man abandon his evil ways, and seek a humble life with the now hopefully reformed Uncivil Servant Crew. Then when Thavius Kreeg was discovered to be the traitor of Elturel, he emphatically made it clear that such damning crimes fully merit the most painful of punishments. But still stayed his (at this point in time, unused executioner greatsword). Then, in Elturel, he spared the necromancer at the full request of the party. I will stress this one, as we debated it for some time. Necromancy, as far as I have written it and understand it for dwarves, is absolutely heretical. I made the comment to the party and to the DM, that Grungni would refuse to let such a vile thing remain, especially since there were survivors in Elturel who would be threatened by the gathering horde of undead this Necromancer was building. I made it very clear that Grungni would leave the party and fight the necromancer and the undead to the death, and I would create a new character. I was eventually convinced by the Paladin of our party (who is chaotic good and tries to take a "Long Term" view of what is good), that seeking a bold and heroic death was admirable, but merely slaying the necromancer would not fix the situation. Instead we should focus on destroying Zariel. I yielded to this logic, and we left the city.
The two devils I speak of in the OP was a bearded devil that sustained a head wound and became a pacifisitic chaotic good entity. How a head wound changes a devil's alignment I don't pretend to understand, but I digress. By the time we meet him, Grungni is questioning if such a creature could possibly be redeemed. He even goes onto invite the devil to pray with him, which the devil accepts happily. Lulu's repeated insistence that the party "redeem, not destroy" Zariel is what gave the Cleric the idea that perhaps his scripture might be incorrect. After all, a literal angelic being was professing to him that not everyone who winds up in Hell was irredeemable. Thus, Grungni swore upon his soul to the Bearded Devil that he would drag him to redemption or die trying.
The succubus was another matter. As the party was leaving Mahadhi's Emporium, the Rogue, being a famous womanizer according to Roleplay by this point, found himself smitten with a succubus mechanic under Mahadi's thrall. He was being rather difficult to remove from the premises of the Emporium and delaying the party, so I made an agreement with the player and with the Succubus. (In hindsight, probably a bad choice.) And thus again, Grungni swore upon his soul that he would redeem the Devil, or die trying.
As the campaign progressed, I found that the cleric, who I originally intended to be gruff, dwarf clone of Judge Dredd, was being very merciful. This.... was not what I intended, but it occured in such a way that his mindset changing was reasonable. Further, repeated prayers to Moradin, from which the Cleric draws his power, were met with silence. Every single time. I realize the DM has a great deal of latitude in how he deals with such matters, but a dozen instances of no response left me rather unamused. Throughout the campaign, Grungni has made it clear that oaths and curses and contracts are not only extremely important to him as a character, but to his Temple, and indeed to all dwarves.
And now the old DM is set to play as said cleric, and seems to disregard what was established as extremely important to his character. I will also point out for consideration. While the exact text of the Sword of Zariel indicates that attunement effectively mind-wipes the wielder and replaces him or her with an entirely new personality, It seems that the DM at the time either did not consider this text, did not read it, or chose to ignore it. Thus, the Cleric is now permeneantly lawful good, and at least to me, contractually bound to redeem or destroy at least two known Devils. And the old DM, who is now playing this Cleric, seems to be ignoring what we established are very important rules for a Cleric (essentially) devoted to Oaths, Laws, Good, and now apparently Redemption.
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First, a bit of context.
The group I am playing with just finished Descent into Avernus, and due to the players wanting some downtime between adventure arcs for shenanigans, and campaign fatigue from DoA, it was decided that the players would go off and do their own thing for an unspecified amount of time. However, the DM who ran the DoA campaign also set up a transition into a modified Tomb of Annihilation campaign. To my knowledge, none of the players were very enthused about ToA. Thus, while I (Grungni Blackhammer, Dwarf Order Cleric of Moradin, heavily styled after Judge Dredd) was figuring out what he would do in that time, I got into discussions with the other players. I write and world build on the side, and my Dwarf has no shortage of lore and background information relating to his homeland in Osraun Mountains of Faerun. While reviewing my notes of the campaign, I noticed that several times when my Cleric attempted to get some sort of divine inspiration on what to do next in Avernus, he received no information. Now, I fully understand this was the result of bad rolls, fudged or otherwise. Roleplay wise however, Grungni was stunned by the sudden silence from his deity, and this led to some very out of character moments of mercy towards Fiend NPCs, such as Mad Maggie, Krickendolt the Bearded Devil, the Succubus in Mahadhi's Emporium, and so on. During one of these encounters, the party befriended Krickendolt, and our resident Human Rogue fell in love with the Succubus under the employ of Mahadhi. The idea came up that we could potentially redeem the devils, which was insisted upon by Lulu in game. And my distraught cleric latched onto the idea, thinking he had angered Moradin by slaying instead of trying to redeem.
And here is the important part. My cleric, Grungni, swore oaths upon his soul that he would and I quote, "Drag the devils Krickendolt and (the succubus) to the very Heavens themselves for redemption or destruction." As a player and as a character, I take such a thing seriously, and make every effort to stand by them. However, the campaign has ended, and both Krickendolt (who was evidently healed following the collapse of the Bleeding Citadel and is now Lawful Evil again) and the Succubus are far beyond the reach of the party, who are now in the Astral Plane with Elturel, being slowly put back where it belongs. The party successfully redeemed Zariel, and Grungni was chosen as worthy to wield the Sword of Zariel (admittedly for a very short time, as we retrieved the sword and then immediately went to Elturel.) Now, due to a number of players being interested in the side adventure I originally wrote for Grungni and another player, we are journeying to the Celestial Heavens, in the attempt to 1: Redeem some (absent) devils. 2: Destroy the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which we retained control of through the entirety of the Avernus Campaign, which if my RP timekeeping was correct, lasted approximately 7 days in Avernus, from the moment we stepped onto Elturel,) and 3: retrieve any kind of valuable loot appropriate for a party of 7 Level 9 characters, as the entirety of DoA for us was incredibly bare of any kind of loot or rewards.
Thus, I am the temporary Dungeon Master for a short term campaign that takes the party from the Material Plane to the Fourth Layer of Heaven at least, where the party hopes to destroy the Shield of the Hidden Lord. The DM who ran DoA has agreed to play Grungni for the time being, as he remains the second most knowledgeable about the character and his quirks/flaws. However, he has said he does not plan to push the issue of redeeming devils at all, and seems very disinterested or otherwise passive.
Am I the problem for wanting my own character played appropriately, or how can I approach this? Any and all critiques and ideas are welcome, and I will happily provide further details on lore or campaign notes or worldbuilding, as well as potential spoilers for the upcoming "Heaven Expedition" the party will undertake.
I really need context on what the problem may be because this sounds like the oppurtunity of a life time if the old dm is good and knows a bit about the character (which they most likely will).
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Okay so here is a breakdown on Grungni: Dwarf Cleric of Moradin. Styled heavily off of Judge Dredd (at least originally, his character has developed a bit since the beginning in the campaign.) Understandably, I intended to play this character as extremely confined to Law, much like the Devils of Baator. He was meant to be the no-nonsense lawkeeper, enforcing the laws of any particular land he found himself in. His background has him exiled from his homeland due to a lapse of his duties that saw tombs of wealthy dwarven families plundered, for which the sentence in his homeland would be death. Instead, his mentor, a very high ranking Paladin, was merciful and chose to exile him "until the end of his living days or until all things stolen from the honored dead are returned and this wrong be set right."
The first time he deviated from what I wrote down was session 1 when another player arrived in the tavern as a Goblin Druid. I literally flipped a coin to determine how Grungni/The Cleric would respond. Heads, he would attack the goblin, as it is a hated enemy of all dwarven kind. Tails, he would not. Clearly a goblin would be attacked in any city, but this particular goblin made it inside a major human city, in broad day light, and was not slain by guards. Perhaps then, the laws of this land protect goblins too? I landed on Tails, and did not attack the goblin/fellow player.
The second, through sixth times he deviated from what is exactly demanded from his very exact code of conduct and became more "merciful" was in Baldur's Gate docks, where he intimidated the remaining crew of the Uncivil Servant into becoming merchantmen and fishermen, instead of pirates, making it extremely clear he would be required to hang any Pirates he found. In the Dungeon of the Dead Three, where he chose to spar Mortlock Vanathampur, heal his wounds, and demanded the disfigured man abandon his evil ways, and seek a humble life with the now hopefully reformed Uncivil Servant Crew. Then when Thavius Kreeg was discovered to be the traitor of Elturel, he emphatically made it clear that such damning crimes fully merit the most painful of punishments. But still stayed his (at this point in time, unused executioner greatsword). Then, in Elturel, he spared the necromancer at the full request of the party. I will stress this one, as we debated it for some time. Necromancy, as far as I have written it and understand it for dwarves, is absolutely heretical. I made the comment to the party and to the DM, that Grungni would refuse to let such a vile thing remain, especially since there were survivors in Elturel who would be threatened by the gathering horde of undead this Necromancer was building. I made it very clear that Grungni would leave the party and fight the necromancer and the undead to the death, and I would create a new character. I was eventually convinced by the Paladin of our party (who is chaotic good and tries to take a "Long Term" view of what is good), that seeking a bold and heroic death was admirable, but merely slaying the necromancer would not fix the situation. Instead we should focus on destroying Zariel. I yielded to this logic, and we left the city.
The two devils I speak of in the OP was a bearded devil that sustained a head wound and became a pacifisitic chaotic good entity. How a head wound changes a devil's alignment I don't pretend to understand, but I digress. By the time we meet him, Grungni is questioning if such a creature could possibly be redeemed. He even goes onto invite the devil to pray with him, which the devil accepts happily. Lulu's repeated insistence that the party "redeem, not destroy" Zariel is what gave the Cleric the idea that perhaps his scripture might be incorrect. After all, a literal angelic being was professing to him that not everyone who winds up in Hell was irredeemable. Thus, Grungni swore upon his soul to the Bearded Devil that he would drag him to redemption or die trying.
The succubus was another matter. As the party was leaving Mahadhi's Emporium, the Rogue, being a famous womanizer according to Roleplay by this point, found himself smitten with a succubus mechanic under Mahadi's thrall. He was being rather difficult to remove from the premises of the Emporium and delaying the party, so I made an agreement with the player and with the Succubus. (In hindsight, probably a bad choice.) And thus again, Grungni swore upon his soul that he would redeem the Devil, or die trying.
As the campaign progressed, I found that the cleric, who I originally intended to be gruff, dwarf clone of Judge Dredd, was being very merciful. This.... was not what I intended, but it occured in such a way that his mindset changing was reasonable. Further, repeated prayers to Moradin, from which the Cleric draws his power, were met with silence. Every single time. I realize the DM has a great deal of latitude in how he deals with such matters, but a dozen instances of no response left me rather unamused. Throughout the campaign, Grungni has made it clear that oaths and curses and contracts are not only extremely important to him as a character, but to his Temple, and indeed to all dwarves.
And now the old DM is set to play as said cleric, and seems to disregard what was established as extremely important to his character. I will also point out for consideration. While the exact text of the Sword of Zariel indicates that attunement effectively mind-wipes the wielder and replaces him or her with an entirely new personality, It seems that the DM at the time either did not consider this text, did not read it, or chose to ignore it. Thus, the Cleric is now permeneantly lawful good, and at least to me, contractually bound to redeem or destroy at least two known Devils. And the old DM, who is now playing this Cleric, seems to be ignoring what we established are very important rules for a Cleric (essentially) devoted to Oaths, Laws, Good, and now apparently Redemption.