Planar Bestiary
Even though a dealer fully intends to cheat their clients, there really is a lot of rare material available to be bought cheaply. It's just that all the loopholes in the contract make it unlikely a business partner can follow through on their end of the bargain, thus forfeiting their investment.
The first thing one notices when negotiating with a Minauran dealer is their gloves. Gauntlets, really, overlarge and vibrantly colored with red, yellow, and black rings. Contrast them to the drab clothing and sallow skin peeking out beneath the dealer's tall hat, and it almost seems like the gloves have sapped the vitality from everything else. That is, until the dealer begins to speak in dulcet tones, offering a rare deal for anyone willing to bargain.
Motive: Make deals, collect souls
Environment: Anywhere in the multiverse where business is conducted, usually alone
Health: 23
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Modifications: Deception and persuasion as level 8
Combat: If combat can't be avoided, the dealer strikes with their massive gauntlets in melee. However, a dealer prefers to use deceit as their weapon, allowing them to later call due a debt of someone who signed a contract with them.
At some later date, a signee failing to meet every contract stipulation in the indicated time frame is subject to the dealer's psychic assault. The dealer can launch this attack from anywhere in the same world as the signee, but often prefers to be close enough to watch the results. The signee must succeed on an Intellect defense task or descend one step on the damage track. This continues each round until the dealer is found and dealt with, or the signee dies from descending three steps on the damage track. If a signee survives, they are free and clear. Otherwise, their soul descends to the Lower Planes.
A Minauran dealer is immune to fire and poison attacks.
Interaction: Minauran dealers do not readily disclose that they hail from Minauros, a section of the Nine Hells. Rather, they describe themselves as agents improving their own profits as well as those of anyone smart enough to do business with them. Often, the deals offered involve buying a lot of some rare substance for resale—and profit!
Use: Loopholes mar any business opportunity offered by a Minauran dealer. For instance, if an abandoned lot of rare material is to be transferred, it must be picked up within a short window of time, usually too brief for the buyer to make for a variety of reasons (possibly including interference arranged by the dealer themself). The small print of whatever contract was entered into indicates that in such a case, the contract is in default. All monies already paid to the dealer are forfeit, and the dealer has discretion to seek further "repayment" (read: the signee's soul).
Loot: If a dealer is destroyed, their gloves usually survive. The gloves are a magical artifact, easing persuasion and deception tasks of anyone who wears them by 2 steps (level 5; depletion: —). However, the gloves are cursed. If worn, the wearer comes under their gradual influence. At first, the wearer experiences small periods of lost time. These episodes grow more frequent, and if the wearer isn't the recipient of curse-removing magic within about a month, they must attempt an Intellect defense task each day while they keep the gloves. On a failed task, the original Minauran dealer is reborn in the husk of the wearer's body.
Examples of a rare substance being offered for sale by the dealer include "iron ore from the fissures of Ramiah, a dimension curled inside a magical blade" or "tellectites, rare psionic crystals that mentalists across the multiverse would dearly love to possess."
A character must spend one hour studying documents provided by the dealer and succeed on a level 8 Intellect task to detect every loophole in a contract offered by a Minauran dealer.
GM Intrusion: A character who signs the contract realizes they misinterpreted a legalistic clause, putting their ability to complete the contract in serious jeopardy.