Infernal contract

Formerly contained within the infernal puzzlebox. This was written on platinum, with three smooth edges and one rough and jagged; the jagged edge indicates where the two copies of the contract -- one kept by the devil, one kept by the mortal -- were separated.

On this, the fifteenth day of Flamerule, in the one thousandth, four hundredth, and forty-fourth year of the Dale Reckoning, I, Naja Bellandi, by my authority as the High Watcher of Helm and the highest surviving mortal authority in the city of Elturel, do swear this Oath to pledge my soul and the entire city of Elturel unto the Archduchess Zariel, to be so passed into her custody at the end of fifty years, the latter to be transported to Avernus and the former to be taken into her service.

In exchange for which, Zariel, the Archduchess of Avernus and faithful representative of Asmodeus, the Archfiend, Lord of the Ninth and Nessus, Supreme Master of the Nine Hells, bestows the Gift of the Companion, a Solar Insidiator which shall be placed in the sky above Elturel for at least the term of this agreement and whose light will scourge the undead from the city. She further swears to render whatever aid may be necessary to end High Rider Klav Ikaia's reign if the Gift of the Companion prove insufficient to this task.

In consideration and honor of these mutual covenants, we sign in blood upon the day and year first written above,

Zariel, Archduchess of Avernus

High Watcher Naja Bellandi of Elturel

The nasty side effect of this is that anyone who swore to the Creed Resolute, or their descendants, is sent directly into Zariel's service upon their death. This is why the Dead Three and the Zarielites were working together to hunt down and kill Hellriders, Companions, and their direct descendants in Baldur's Gate.

The only way to annul the contract is to rejoin the two halves and then destroy it in some way -- the fire of an especially powerful dragon, immersion in the River Styx, and so on.