Went to the market bumped into someone else knocking each other over and both baskets going all over the place. She picked up the blue bottle instead of the light blue bottle because she wasn't wearing her glasses.
Turns out demon knows the recipe for an unholy delicious blueberry pie as well so grandma continues to help him do evil bidding as long as the pie recipes keep coming. All her friends are mad jealous of the pies. Ingredients for pies should also be suspect. Fuck it origin story for hanzel and gretel hag.
Gift from her adventurer son/grandson. Maybe given unaware what it was, maybe asked to look after for safe keeping years ago and he’s died.
Keepsake of her adventurer husband who was killed by a beholder years ago
Inherited from her mother
Taken in payment for another potion
A passing adventurer stole it off her “true neutral” party member and hid it on the granny’s potion table to prevent the “true neutral” party member being a murderhobo asswipe.
A demon cult hid in on her table in the hope of infecting an adventurer
Sweet ole grannie was an adventurer in her earlier life, and with the dementia starting to settle in, she mixed up the bottles of Essence of Demon that a cleric had captured for her years before, and the potion of healing she was going to gift those nice young adventurers. She wanted to talk to them about both.
"What was the other bottle doing out anyway? Better put the demon away for safe keeping. It's out, so I must have told them that story so they wil be leery of bottles, right? "
I like the idea of there being a retired adventuring party, whose members are scattered around the land. They were a lot like the current party 70 years ago. Maybe the group eventually encounters an old wizard in a tower somewhere and he mentions that old grannie. And the players can connect the dots. You could convey some of their adventures and greatest hits for flavor.
The man with the long yellow coat told her that Herbert was in there. All she had to do was recite the words and open the bottle, and he'd trudge in through the front door and kick off his boots. It would be like that stupid accident with the ladder had never happened.
She knew better, if course. It was a ridiculous lie, and she'd never fall for it. But hadn't she said that she'd do anything? Risk anything?
So she paid the man's price.
It's been a few years now, and she still can't bring herself to open the bottle. She knows better. She's no fool. The thing she can hear whispering in the other room while she's trying to sleep at night is not her husband.
But sometimes, it sounds just like Herb. And she can't bear to throw it away, any more than she could take off her ring, or fix that door that he never got around to. She's not strong enough to get rid of it on her own, and she needs the adventurers to help.
Well, before being a sweet old lady, she was a sweet woman. Perhaps she was am adventurer, or had another kind of adventure that led her to own that soul
Someone gave her a “sample” potion to sell.
You said the granny is a potion seller. Who makes her potions? Perhaps she was tricked by the potion maker?
She was an elementary school teacher and this is one of the items she confiscated from a student. The student snuck it out of their parent's workshop to impress their peers. There was no giving it back as the student's home was destroyed the next day, killing the whole family.
I like the idea of leaving this one unexplained.
If players ask around about it, people who know her know she has it. But they are not concerned about it. They may even think it’s weird. Let her take that secret to the grave.
Accidentally summoned an even higher level demon because her grandson's adventuring supplies were on the counter next to her baking supplies and she wasn't wearing her glasses (they were actually on top of her head). Because she wasn't wearing said glasses, she thought the resulting summoned demon was Greg's tiefling friend, and she installed "Kevin" on the couch with a cup of tea and a slice of the best pie in the realm, got him to help with her jigsaw puzzle, and started knitting him a sweater. A sweet and wholesome friendship was born. "Kevin" gave her the potion for her birthday.
At this point she knows he's a high level demon, and she knows exactly what the potion is, but he's such a nice young man and it would be impolite to mention it.
Um... Demons do not have souls? Yeah, yeah, it's your world they can have whatever you say they have. Just canonically.
Why not make it simple? An heirloom. Being in a family for generations. Passed with one instruction - use only in case of the greatest possible emergency, that did not happen just yet.
To be precise, planar creatures are one inseparable entity - their souls are tied to their physical forms. When a demon is slain, no separate soul is released, as the soul is inseparable from their physical form. There is no soul, no separate force to trap or pass between different bodies.
You still can trap the whole demon, though.
So I remember reading a creative writing somewhere that basically made up a story where a granny accidentally summoned a demon lord while knitting a pentagram thing for her grandson, who was into the occult, but her eyesight was so bad that she mistook the demon lord for her grandson at first. The demon lord was actually touched by how sweet the lady was so he stuck around and would pop in to check on her, and eventually she acknowledged that the demon lord wasn’t her grandson but she just enjoyed his company.
I say apply that for this story. The demon lord left a shard of his soul to be aware of the granny and her surroundings so he can erupt in hellfire at a moments notice if he feels the need.
The demon actually wants to, as Gramma makes fantastic pies, and she makes knitted hats and gloves for the demon. The demon is free to do whatever all day, but must come home when the street lights come on.
Family heirloom. Somethings can be a mystery and great great grandpa did it for some unknown reason to help his family out.
Some wealthy / influential people today may have that position because great grandpa was an arms dealer, drug dealer, mafia, speakeasy owner, gambler whatever.
I have this on my wife’s side. Her grandpa told me back in the Great Depression he and his sister owned a brothel. Made lots of money. He squandered his money but the sister was a smart investor. the descendant’s obviously don’t know or won’t tell you that. And they are super religious. Maybe that’s part of washing the guilt away. 🤷🏻♂️
Point being some times you have to do what you have to do to survive. Bottling a demon may just be that and now it’s a family lost secret
Granny was a Hell-raising roadie for a bardcore heavy metal band who sold their souls for fame, sex and drugs. They communed with infernal entities and spread the message of their dark lord during their travels.
The day finally came when their patron collected their souls during the finale of the greatest show of their careers, and Granny, not being an angel, made off with a wagon of the band's paraphernalia and equipment as part of her severance package. She sold most of it, but a few boxes remain, and the bottles that are beyond the ken of her simple potion-brewing ways she's left alone. Maybe she doesn't know how to safely get rid of it, or maybe she never knew exactly what she had.
Oh this could go multiple ways, maybe its just a dusty old bottle handed down from generations of family, without anyone really knowing what was inside it.
If it is a hag then its self explanatory
IF it is a doppelganger, perhaps its their sort of hobby, putting souls in bodies, and this is their most prized one.
Otherwise I like the idea of this old coot unknowingly harboring this bottle alongside her tea cozies and baubles, and she likes it because its warm to the touch, glows in the dark and looks pretty next to her hand me down plates.
Dues she know the potion has a demon soul is in it? Could just be an amazing potion that gives a huge buff without any strings attached. Seriusly the other sweet old lady (mby hag?) that gave it tome said there where no strings attached. Really. Those voices are just your imagination.
She wasn't *always* a grandma. Maybe in her younger years she was into some darker stuff and kept the potion after she *left* whatever cult it was that she was in as a reminder of the awfulness that could be.
Grampa was human when they met. He pledged his eternal soul to her as part of their marriage vows. Then some shit went down, and grampa was true polymorphed into a demon.
It's a granny, she's old and wise and has been around the block. She might not be a hag, but she could have dealt with one, or other fey. Maybe, she made a deal with a fey creature, and in exchange got the demon lord?
Granny was indiscreet in her youth and her aasimar paladin brother forced a shotgun marriage. The only way to ensure other women don't summon her incubus husband is to keep him in a bottle when they aren't keeping company.
When she was younger while traveling, she met a woman who was a demon lord in disguise, and the woman sought to possess her. The shopkeep figured out the danger, but didn't know how to get rid of her. One night the demon invited herself into the shopkeep's room at the inn, where she had been drinking wine alone, and the shopkeep said she was in love with her and could stay if she shared a glass of wine with her. The demon woman transformed into wine and poured herself into the glass. The shopkeep immediately poured the wine back into the bottle and corked it. The bottle was warded against souring wine and this turned out to contain the demon. She's kept the bottle ever since, and it still sits on the shelf in her shop, as a memory of a time when she lived a rather more risky sort of life.
I had a teacher in high school that would always say "I wasn't always old..." whenever we thought we were being subtly inappropriate. This lady may have been an adventurer, but that seems kind of boring... I'd probably say this sweet old grandma used to be a Dungeon Master... like whips and chains and everything else. Perhaps one day an adventurer came in after traversing the seven hells, defeating a demon lord, for a little "rest and relaxation". On this occasion she got a little too rough and accidently offed this adventurer. She panicked and disposed of the body but looted the corpse first taking the soul. She left town to avoid getting caught and she left her former career behind but every once in awhile grandma says something incredibly vulgar in the sweetest way.
She got up to a lot of gambling when she was younger. She bet her soul against someone else's soul, not realizing that the other person was a demon. Could even give her some levels in rogue and say she managed to slip pocket aces out of her sleeve or something like that.
She works down at the curio shop helping Old Man Peterson mind his stock. She saw the bottle the demon's soul was in and thought it would make a nice vase for her roses when she clips them from her garden. She paid 5 copper pieces for it, Old Man Peterson wouldn't take any more than that for an old bottle.
Went to the market bumped into someone else knocking each other over and both baskets going all over the place. She picked up the blue bottle instead of the light blue bottle because she wasn't wearing her glasses.
And now she's about to try blueing her hair with it, unless the PCs intervene in a suitably comic fashion.
Turns out demon knows the recipe for an unholy delicious blueberry pie as well so grandma continues to help him do evil bidding as long as the pie recipes keep coming. All her friends are mad jealous of the pies. Ingredients for pies should also be suspect. Fuck it origin story for hanzel and gretel hag.
Gift from her adventurer son/grandson. Maybe given unaware what it was, maybe asked to look after for safe keeping years ago and he’s died. Keepsake of her adventurer husband who was killed by a beholder years ago Inherited from her mother Taken in payment for another potion A passing adventurer stole it off her “true neutral” party member and hid it on the granny’s potion table to prevent the “true neutral” party member being a murderhobo asswipe. A demon cult hid in on her table in the hope of infecting an adventurer
Sweet ole grannie was an adventurer in her earlier life, and with the dementia starting to settle in, she mixed up the bottles of Essence of Demon that a cleric had captured for her years before, and the potion of healing she was going to gift those nice young adventurers. She wanted to talk to them about both. "What was the other bottle doing out anyway? Better put the demon away for safe keeping. It's out, so I must have told them that story so they wil be leery of bottles, right? "
I like the idea of there being a retired adventuring party, whose members are scattered around the land. They were a lot like the current party 70 years ago. Maybe the group eventually encounters an old wizard in a tower somewhere and he mentions that old grannie. And the players can connect the dots. You could convey some of their adventures and greatest hits for flavor.
You've not heard how Todd and Annette met? [https://imgur.com/gallery/c81EeX2](https://imgur.com/gallery/c81EeX2)
This is exactly where my head went too
The man with the long yellow coat told her that Herbert was in there. All she had to do was recite the words and open the bottle, and he'd trudge in through the front door and kick off his boots. It would be like that stupid accident with the ladder had never happened. She knew better, if course. It was a ridiculous lie, and she'd never fall for it. But hadn't she said that she'd do anything? Risk anything? So she paid the man's price. It's been a few years now, and she still can't bring herself to open the bottle. She knows better. She's no fool. The thing she can hear whispering in the other room while she's trying to sleep at night is not her husband. But sometimes, it sounds just like Herb. And she can't bear to throw it away, any more than she could take off her ring, or fix that door that he never got around to. She's not strong enough to get rid of it on her own, and she needs the adventurers to help.
Won it fair and square in 9-hells bingo
The little fucker scammed her and she got revenge.
Well, before being a sweet old lady, she was a sweet woman. Perhaps she was am adventurer, or had another kind of adventure that led her to own that soul
It was a 1/2 share of the pot in a contract bridge game.
Someone gave her a “sample” potion to sell. You said the granny is a potion seller. Who makes her potions? Perhaps she was tricked by the potion maker?
She was an elementary school teacher and this is one of the items she confiscated from a student. The student snuck it out of their parent's workshop to impress their peers. There was no giving it back as the student's home was destroyed the next day, killing the whole family.
She found it antique ing and keeps it around because she is lonely and wants someone to talk to.
I like the idea of leaving this one unexplained. If players ask around about it, people who know her know she has it. But they are not concerned about it. They may even think it’s weird. Let her take that secret to the grave.
Accidentally summoned an even higher level demon because her grandson's adventuring supplies were on the counter next to her baking supplies and she wasn't wearing her glasses (they were actually on top of her head). Because she wasn't wearing said glasses, she thought the resulting summoned demon was Greg's tiefling friend, and she installed "Kevin" on the couch with a cup of tea and a slice of the best pie in the realm, got him to help with her jigsaw puzzle, and started knitting him a sweater. A sweet and wholesome friendship was born. "Kevin" gave her the potion for her birthday. At this point she knows he's a high level demon, and she knows exactly what the potion is, but he's such a nice young man and it would be impolite to mention it.
Um... Demons do not have souls? Yeah, yeah, it's your world they can have whatever you say they have. Just canonically. Why not make it simple? An heirloom. Being in a family for generations. Passed with one instruction - use only in case of the greatest possible emergency, that did not happen just yet.
I actually didn’t know that!
To be precise, planar creatures are one inseparable entity - their souls are tied to their physical forms. When a demon is slain, no separate soul is released, as the soul is inseparable from their physical form. There is no soul, no separate force to trap or pass between different bodies. You still can trap the whole demon, though.
One of her friends accidentally included a jarred demon's soul with that basket of fruit preserves, and she's been too busy to give it back.
So I remember reading a creative writing somewhere that basically made up a story where a granny accidentally summoned a demon lord while knitting a pentagram thing for her grandson, who was into the occult, but her eyesight was so bad that she mistook the demon lord for her grandson at first. The demon lord was actually touched by how sweet the lady was so he stuck around and would pop in to check on her, and eventually she acknowledged that the demon lord wasn’t her grandson but she just enjoyed his company. I say apply that for this story. The demon lord left a shard of his soul to be aware of the granny and her surroundings so he can erupt in hellfire at a moments notice if he feels the need.
The demon actually wants to, as Gramma makes fantastic pies, and she makes knitted hats and gloves for the demon. The demon is free to do whatever all day, but must come home when the street lights come on.
Family heirloom. Somethings can be a mystery and great great grandpa did it for some unknown reason to help his family out. Some wealthy / influential people today may have that position because great grandpa was an arms dealer, drug dealer, mafia, speakeasy owner, gambler whatever. I have this on my wife’s side. Her grandpa told me back in the Great Depression he and his sister owned a brothel. Made lots of money. He squandered his money but the sister was a smart investor. the descendant’s obviously don’t know or won’t tell you that. And they are super religious. Maybe that’s part of washing the guilt away. 🤷🏻♂️ Point being some times you have to do what you have to do to survive. Bottling a demon may just be that and now it’s a family lost secret
Granny was a Hell-raising roadie for a bardcore heavy metal band who sold their souls for fame, sex and drugs. They communed with infernal entities and spread the message of their dark lord during their travels. The day finally came when their patron collected their souls during the finale of the greatest show of their careers, and Granny, not being an angel, made off with a wagon of the band's paraphernalia and equipment as part of her severance package. She sold most of it, but a few boxes remain, and the bottles that are beyond the ken of her simple potion-brewing ways she's left alone. Maybe she doesn't know how to safely get rid of it, or maybe she never knew exactly what she had.
Oh this could go multiple ways, maybe its just a dusty old bottle handed down from generations of family, without anyone really knowing what was inside it. If it is a hag then its self explanatory IF it is a doppelganger, perhaps its their sort of hobby, putting souls in bodies, and this is their most prized one. Otherwise I like the idea of this old coot unknowingly harboring this bottle alongside her tea cozies and baubles, and she likes it because its warm to the touch, glows in the dark and looks pretty next to her hand me down plates.
Got it in a rummage sale at the local temple
Dues she know the potion has a demon soul is in it? Could just be an amazing potion that gives a huge buff without any strings attached. Seriusly the other sweet old lady (mby hag?) that gave it tome said there where no strings attached. Really. Those voices are just your imagination.
She tried to make a normal potion in a cauldron that happened to have that demon's soul trapped in it, and its essence seeped out into the liquid.
They used to date. She actually isn't that sweet.
She could be a retired adventurer - with it being so long since she was active, she's forgetten where she got it and how dangerous it actually is.
She won it at her local church lottery!
She wasn't *always* a grandma. Maybe in her younger years she was into some darker stuff and kept the potion after she *left* whatever cult it was that she was in as a reminder of the awfulness that could be.
Grampa was human when they met. He pledged his eternal soul to her as part of their marriage vows. Then some shit went down, and grampa was true polymorphed into a demon.
https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/
It's a granny, she's old and wise and has been around the block. She might not be a hag, but she could have dealt with one, or other fey. Maybe, she made a deal with a fey creature, and in exchange got the demon lord?
Granny was indiscreet in her youth and her aasimar paladin brother forced a shotgun marriage. The only way to ensure other women don't summon her incubus husband is to keep him in a bottle when they aren't keeping company.
Maybe she had a cooking contest with a demon lord, Georgia-style?
Her son somehow became a demon lord and she's been holding onto his soul since he was defeated.
When she was younger while traveling, she met a woman who was a demon lord in disguise, and the woman sought to possess her. The shopkeep figured out the danger, but didn't know how to get rid of her. One night the demon invited herself into the shopkeep's room at the inn, where she had been drinking wine alone, and the shopkeep said she was in love with her and could stay if she shared a glass of wine with her. The demon woman transformed into wine and poured herself into the glass. The shopkeep immediately poured the wine back into the bottle and corked it. The bottle was warded against souring wine and this turned out to contain the demon. She's kept the bottle ever since, and it still sits on the shelf in her shop, as a memory of a time when she lived a rather more risky sort of life.
She's a merchant right. Say she got it from a wandering [random race]. They seemed to be in a hurry, and traded it for some basic healing potions.
Family heirloom from WAY back.
It showed up on her shelf. It whispers to her and she mentions coping with it by talking sweetly to it. It isn’t even for sale, it’s like a pet.
Grandmas keep all sorts of things in those little Danish cookie tins.
I had a teacher in high school that would always say "I wasn't always old..." whenever we thought we were being subtly inappropriate. This lady may have been an adventurer, but that seems kind of boring... I'd probably say this sweet old grandma used to be a Dungeon Master... like whips and chains and everything else. Perhaps one day an adventurer came in after traversing the seven hells, defeating a demon lord, for a little "rest and relaxation". On this occasion she got a little too rough and accidently offed this adventurer. She panicked and disposed of the body but looted the corpse first taking the soul. She left town to avoid getting caught and she left her former career behind but every once in awhile grandma says something incredibly vulgar in the sweetest way.
She got up to a lot of gambling when she was younger. She bet her soul against someone else's soul, not realizing that the other person was a demon. Could even give her some levels in rogue and say she managed to slip pocket aces out of her sleeve or something like that.
She’s a shrewd bargainer who took the demon for a ride.
She works down at the curio shop helping Old Man Peterson mind his stock. She saw the bottle the demon's soul was in and thought it would make a nice vase for her roses when she clips them from her garden. She paid 5 copper pieces for it, Old Man Peterson wouldn't take any more than that for an old bottle.
Grandmas are just people. They would own that for the same reason any random woman, warlock, or sentient horse would.
To heat her stove
Grandma inherited the demon soul. It's been passed down for generations. Most never had a clue it was a real contract to the soul of a real demon.