Five wrote: Do you have any ideas on who this "broker" is, or should be? I'm not a fan of Exethanter. At all. Even his name sounds too...wizardly (in a classic D&D sense). That being said, it could be a being of many names, each domain potentially even knowing it by multiple names throughout the Amber Temple's "collection periods". It needs to be a being that can keep these soul traders in check (never do you piss off the debt collector!), or possess abilities (levels, CR, etc) that can do as much. Or maybe the broker plays more the aristocrat and has creatures that do such "dirty work"? For if it is the DPs then it can do as it pleases, whenever it pleases (through their "avatar"). If it's not, then I'm sure whoever/whatever it is ultimately feeding these souls and soul fragments to would be more than happy to lend some authority...for a price.
Hell, this broker could even be a no-level unique undead. If people want to toss it around and abuse it, burn it, dismember it, etc, then they do so with little/no resistance. But it comes back, fully "healed" a round later: "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Now that wasn't very pleasant. Quite rude in fact. Moving forward, as I was saying, under the terms of this negotiation you would have to..."
Personally, I picture the broker being more like a Cenobite than this, maybe even the Tall Man (for an arguably even creepier appearance - normalish), but I couldn't help but offer the gag. haha
I like the idea overall (the temple that is) as a place where those dark desires can come true. I like the idea of the 'dark lord' or broker of some sort being something other than the Dark Powers themselves. If I had a concept of a steward of the Amber Temple, it would be someone who bargained and lost everything and not a straight up Dark Lord. Some one who desired something so dark and sinister that it's conclusion cemented their soul into the fabric of the place. I look at something like the end of Aladdin
Something like that. A normal person who is cursed with the task of dealing with people until someone makes a similarly dumb deal that places them in the same role. What the specifics are and who the person is would need to be fleshed out. I see a person like the surviving knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Not everything has to be undead (hell, he doesn't have to be evil), just a person who has now realized the foolishness of their ways and even tie it in with the lich (who is now freed from before) from CoS (if I am reading this right, I am assuming it takes place long ago in the Barovian calendar). A good aligned person who made a foolish deal now has to try to get others to make their darkest wishes come true and have them word it in such a way to finally free him/her from this servitude. Do they keep searching hoping to find a replacement? Do they do anything that could eventually end their existence?
"One does not stop playing when they get old, they grow old when they stop playing" George Bernard Shaw
"If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?" Chuck Palahniuk
