A few sessions ago the party fought a small time boss in the crime ridden part of a city they have long forgotten they traveled to. For them, this was just another day as an adventurer, slaying foes, getting paid, leaving before the consequences catch up to them or become readily apparent.
They left their foe alive after he surrendered, they expected that to be the end of it. They would leave the area and he wouldn't be able to reach them, even if he could somehow rebuild his empire. While in his darkest moment, when he swears revenge on the party, a voice comes to him from the darkest corner of the alley they left him in. It offers the power to get revenge, the cost is his soul... but if he gets his revenge? His soul is free and clear, the demon in the shadow will take the party's souls instead. To keep things interesting, and because demons just love being bastards, there are rules, no harm can come to those who aren't directly connected to the party.
Most people would turn away, even the angriest among us would surely value our own soul and autonomy more than revenge, right? Every now and then someone takes that deal, someone who has something darker in them than most of us. This is when a Red Promise is born.
The way I recommend using this monster, and the way I have, is to make the PC's past come back to haunt them in some way. They leave behind a trail of bodies and an absolute mess in the last settlement they stop by and someone is going to be left alive to blame them. PCs don't always stay in the same place, the nature of being an adventurer usually means seeking out new horizons and traveling further from home than anyone else in your village. They make enemies as they do this, leave loose ends. These are the sources of the Red Promise at my table.
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