Monster?

Picture a tanar’ri. Every planar knows what sort of creatures they are, impulsive and evil incarnate. They are destruction, raging fury, selfish passion and burning hatred. They are one half of the blood war. “You always know that a tanar’r will kill you” is the famous beginning of the planewalker’s mantra, which generalizes the behaviour of the fiends. But a creature of chaos isn’t something you can easily categorize. Minions of good try what they can to destroy these monsters whenever they appear on the upper planes.Now picture a metamorphosis, a rage spent. The creature, which was named a monster before, has become something entirely different. It’s fury over, it’s become it’s own opposite. The question is: does this change anything?

-The monster among us, the evil within-

In peaceful, pastoral Dothion, the first layer of Bytopia, honest and hard-working people make their living in the farmer’s paradise. Evil cannot thrive here; neither can the extremes of law and chaos. The lazy, and the hopeless won’t find themselves very welcome here. In one of the most remote areas of Dothion lies the village of Grownhill. It is as peaceful as any of Bytopia’s villages; it’s inhabitants’ mostly human petitioners whose love of farming brought them here when their mortal lives ended. The only thing that makes it any different from the nearby settlements is the ruined aasimon fortress it is built on, so old that even some of the gods don’t know who built it. Six days ago, a creature, an extremely rare true tanar’ri known as Nestling, wandered through an ancient, unguarded gate from the Abyss, located deep within the ruins of the ancient fortress. Immediately it begun to terrorize the area, destroying farms and attacking wayfarers. It even managed to kill a squad of guardian agathinion, who were the assigned protectors of the village. And then, three days ago, it suddenly disappeared.

-Community service-

If the PCs are wandering around Bytopia, they’ll probably have realized that slackers aren’t wanted there. If you don’t do honest work for a living, you are a slacker. Fortunately for them, the inhabitants of Grownhill need adventuring bashers, because the aasimon are slow to react to the situation (probably have better things to do, after all). Thus, when the PCs come to Grownhill, they have the opportunity to earn themselves respect throughout Dothion (as farmers tend to gossip)...if they fare well. It will be a sort of community service.

The princely sum of 8000 jinx has been offered for the body of the monster, described as a 9 ft. red-skinned giant, with four finger claws; a hunched, spine-covered back; and four horns, two of which protrude from the sides of it’s head. The jink has attracted a band of Mercykillers, which arrived only a day ago. When and if the Mercykillers learn of the PCs intention of bringing the beast down, they will redouble their efforts to find it. They’re after the money, so they won’t cooperate with the PCs, even if some of them are members of the Red Death. They think they are perfectly capable of killing it by themselves.

-Seek and Destroy-

A good tracker can easily figure out that the monster always seemed to return to the same lair after each attack: the ancient aasimon fortress. It would seem rather straight forward to find it’s lair, ambush it, and collect the prize. This is where experienced planewalkers will begin to worry.

It isn’t so simple, of course. Three days ago, the Nestling made it’s last kill. Having reached it’s required limit, it was now ready to enter the next stage of it’s growth. It returned to the fortress, shed it’s skin and made a cocoon out of it. It’s metamorphosis is just being completed. See, once the Nestling has done a certain amount of damage, caused a certain amount of evil and spread a certain amount of chaos, it’s behaviour changes dramatically. It becomes the gentlest and kindest of creatures, actually becoming both lawful and good at heart. Eventually, it’s appearance will change to fit it’s new inner character, as it forgets it’s former life, but unfortunately, that won’t happen nearly yet. The PCs are in danger of killing a creature of pure goodness. This raises a few tenative philosophical points: First of all, should the creature be held responsible for what it’s evil side did? The Mercykillers, for instance, would argue that it should. On the other hand, it really is a completely different being, so killing it would probably harm the cause of good. Shouldn’t it be allowed to make up for it’s former evils? Secondly, who knows if it’ll change back, return to evil? If the creature is still a tanar’ri, it can’t be trusted, can it? Finally, perhaps unimportantly for now, this raises a question about the relationship of the planar races. Are they the same type of creatures that have gone through a metamorphosis?

...And the greatest of these is mercy...

The players will know that something is amiss when they find the Nestling. As it leaves the cocoon, it’s smaller, has lost it’s horns and spines, and the beginning of white wings are growing out of it’s back. It is docile and unthreatening. There’s nothing to stop the PCs from slaying the Nestling now and simply claiming their money. They Mercykillers won’t bother them, since the PCs simply beat them to it. It should be made clear, though, that they failed miserably. A shining deva will arrive at the village at the same time as the PCs, looking very shocked indeed when it sees the carcass. She will cry bitter tears and explain to the dullard what the creature really was. They won’t be held accountable for anything, since they meant only well (probably...at least they were doing what they were told to do) but their presence won’t be wanted. Of course, those who do realize what the Nestling is and still kill it may not have failed as miserably, since they are holding true to their ideals (they probably won’t mind much that the deva is sad, either). The real challenge is to let the creature live. The Mercykillers will arrive at the fortress shortly after the PCs do, fully armed and looking to collect eight thousend jinx, or so. They have no troubles with getting rid of a few tanar’ri lovers. The trouble is, the Mercykillers are operating within the law, so the PCs better not kill them. Far better choices would be diplomacy (difficult), escape (preferably with the Nestling) or subdual (fighting the Red Death and pulling your punches...very difficult).

All is well

If the Nestling is alive when the PCs return, the welcome will be much warmer. The petitioners look like they’re almost ready to panic at first, but then the deva arrives and all will be well. Now she rewards the PC’s good judgement by not only giving them the jink, but also by spreading the word of their heroism throughout Dothion. The Mercykillers, who should preferably be alive, are coldly asked to leave, and never to bother the PCs again. Quite probably they won’t.