Caldwell the Clever has entered into a pact with a devil: in exchange for magical powers in life, he has agreed to give ownership over his soul to the devil after his death. Caldwell is now dead, but the contract has a bit of a hiccup for the devil. Caldwell died in a vault warded with powerful magic that prevents the devil from entering. The devil has ownership over Caldwell’s soul, but is unable to take possession, of it. The players come upon the scene and are asked to resolve the situation.
In a world of Amazon and Grubhub, the ownership vs possession distinction might not be obvious, but consider how these purchases have two steps: one is buying the thing, and then there’s a separate step with its own fees, delivery estimates, etc, for actually getting the thing. But, devils are old school; they order their pizzas for carryout rather than delivery. In this case, a storm has hit and a tree has fallen, blocking the road to the pizza joint, making it impossible for the devil to collect his double pepperoni and pineapple.
If there’s nothing more to the situation, my inclination would be to side with Caldwell. If he hasn’t explicitly agreed to deliver his soul to the devil, then it was up to the devil to arrange to collect it. And despite how these narratives tend to go where the more legally sophisticated party finds some loophole to let them win, a good principle in contract law is to resolve ambiguities in favor of the less sophisticated party. The devil makes pacts like this all the time and should be more aware of the potential pitfalls. Caldwell wasn’t even Caldwell the Clever before the pact, just Caldwell the Colorless. If someone has to bear the risk of the contract being frustrated, it’s the more legally adept devil.
But of course there’s more to it! Suppose Caldwell, becoming so very clever, created this vault and its anti-devil wards himself, and nearing the end of his life, arranged to die there. He prefers an eternity confined to the vault to whatever hell the devil has planned.
In that case, I think the players ought to rule in favor of the devil. A contract being frustrated by a third party or a natural disaster is quite different from a party to the contract intentionally setting out to frustrate its purpose. Papa Johns doesn’t get to lock the door to prevent you from picking up your carryout order.
But wait, there’s more!
If I were presenting this scenario to players, I’d have the vault created by a third party — Caldwell will claim as much, and the devil will know Caldwell was not powerful enough to create it himself, so this fact is not in dispute. However, Caldwell did not die there by accident; he knew of its magic and picked the spot to try to thwart the devil.
At this point (and every point, really) the players should be free to apply their own reasoning to the facts involved. I think Caldwell going to off to die in a place where the devil can’t reach him is a legally ambiguous situation.
But let’s make it even more tricky. It sure is convenient a person who sold his soul to a devil found a place to die where the devil can’t come collect his soul. With thorough enough investigation, the players can discover that Caldwell hired a more powerful wizard to create the warded vault for him. Now what should the players do?
For me, I’d treat hiring someone to make the vault as no different from making it himself and side with the devil, but I don’t think players need to reach the same conclusion. In a fantasy setting and dealing with pacts with a devil, the rules can be quite different.
We can make it even more complicated yet though by asking how the players plan to enforce whatever decision they reach.
If they side with the devil, how do they compel Caldwell’s soul to leave the vault and deliver itself? Caldwell may hear their decision, even agree that they’re right, and still refuse to leave.
If they side with Caldwell, they risk making an enemy of a devil — especially if the devil had the stronger case. That won’t be the end of it, either. Depending on how agreements to sell your soul work, the devil may be able to sell Caldwell’s soul to some other being that isn’t warded from entering the vault. Some other demon may be coming for him before long. And it’s gonna get that pizza.