Fae bargain: my bard promised to keep a secret
During one negotiation with faes, one of them asked the bard in my party if they can keep a secret. She said yes and in fae logic that is something binding. I dumped on her (through the fairy) a bunch of information, including that a place that another PC wants to travel to is a trap that might get him killed. Right after she learnt this secret, the other PC traded for a map of this place.
So now she's torn. She can't tell him, and she can't act in a way that is too obvious that she knows a secret related to this place, but she wants to protect the other PC.
For now I'm ruling that she can do things because of what she knows. But if her actions lead to someone working out the secret, that counts as breaking the promise to the fairy.
My questions:
- What should I do if she breaks it?
One option is that she loses the ability to deceive, automatically failing all her deception checks, but she's the bard and the face of the party so that might be brutal. The other option is that she won't be able to outright lie anymore, but can use deception through misdirection and technically true statements.
- She now wants to secretly try and steal the map. She asked me in private if she could steal it herself (but that would risk giving away the secret) or if she could bargain once more with a fairy borrower who could steal it for her, but at the risk of being outed by the fairy.
How would you handle this situation?
Just to be clear: I'm not taking away players' agency, the PC can still travel to that place and survive, but he will be honey trapped and the deck is stacked against him. Mine was more of a warning trying to give the bard a moral dilemma.