r/DescentintoAvernus

I have a question related to the Remix:

When the PCs are investigating the murders in Insight Park, it lays out the victims' names, a bit about them, their recent histories, and close relations. But... I don't understand how the players (or anybody) would come by this information?

Random dead bodies pop up, how would one identify them at all? There's no DNA or fingerprint database. And most of these people should have been "new to town", so they wouldn't have had concerned family that reported them missing.

The Remix makes it seem as if the players might get the info from Torimesh the druid OR from Candulhollow Mortuary... but how would they have learned it?

I have a PC who I think would be extremely likely to take Mahadi up on one of his offers, but I feel like I'm either completely missing something or don't quite understand the deal being made.

The book seems to be saying there isn't much consequence for getting something as crazy as bringing back someone long dead, seeing as the draw back of being permanently dead doesn't count until you're lvl 17... when the PC's aren't meant to get past lvl 15, this feels extremely cheap and easy...? Am I just misinterpreting how this deal is meant to work?

Hi all, I have been running DiA with heavy modifications including Alexandrian remix (BG only), Avernus as a Sandbox, other sources as well as some homebrew. One such personal change is that instead of having an archdevil make an offer on a failed death save, I have them do it upon actual death- my players seem to be downed a LOT so it would be super overdone if I did it on failed saves. I have rolled a d8 to determine which layer’s arch devil has contacted a dying player. The first time, I got Glasya, and had her demand the player to give up his most prized possession. It was a Bag of Tricks- nothing game breaking, but it meant a lot to the character roleplay-wise, and was an intense moment. I chose this because she is known for her cruelty & enjoyment of the anticipation of loss- he didn’t have to hand over his bag of tricks for a good 8 or so sessions, so he had to live with the knowledge that it was Coming the whole time.

This worked really well for that player- but now I have rolled Mephistopheles for the second player that has died and took a bargain. We ended the session immediately after (the rest of the group doesn’t know that she’s agreed to the deal yet), so I have a week to decide on what her “quest” would be. I think the player is expecting to have to give up an item since that is what the last one was- but that was purely because of me rolling Glasya, who has no interest in the quest to dethrone Zariel due to their history.

In the book as written, Mephistopheles’ only involvement is in getting the party to free Shummrath from the pit- my players haven’t come across anything to do with him before, so we haven’t hit the pit or Mirror of Mephistar or anything like that. Reading the book & supplementary material, I haven’t found a concrete idea of what Mephistopheles’ stake is in this conflict, which is making it difficult to determine what “quest” he would give the character he saved.

Part of me sees the easy route of getting the character to insist on freeing Shummrath, but it seems kind of obvious, and derailing from their current plot (they are currently on their way to meet Arkhan the Cruel to get his vial of Tiamat’s blood).

Sorry for the long post, just keen to see if anyone has any other ideas for what Mephistopheles could gain from the party.

TL;DR: I need a “quest” for Mephistopheles to give my player after saving her life that lines up with his goals but doesn’t fully derail the plot.

Am open to all kinds of ideas, and if you’ve run death save bargains- what kinds of quests have you given your players?

My players have reached D10. After a bad encounter with Yellow Mold they have blocked the door and are resting. Since they killed the guards at the entrance I am wondering what would be some appropriate changes for the Denizens behavior?

For example the two Bane cultists may not idling their time with a prisoner.

The Master of Souls has time to complete her zombie and maybe a few more weak undead.

Thoughts on changes?

Thank you.

Hi all!

I’ve been working on fleshing out Zariel and her forces for my campaign, and one idea that kept coming back to me is the idea of surrounding her with a bunch of erinyes. I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between the archdevil herself and the furies of Hell, and think it’d be a great way to give her some consistent minions that could also become their own NPC’s too!

some thoughts I had about this idea:

- she prefers the company of Erinyes because they’re receptive to her aggressive tactics and remind her much of herself; whether that’s because she hates seeing other kinds of devils or because the reminder of what she is serves to fuel her self-loathing even more, she’ll likely never confess
- she employs several across the campaign: one to spy on the party/act as a messenger, one to captain her Flying Fortress, and several that fly around her in an infernal host as she enters battle; there’ll also be another one later on fighting in a gladiator-style arena, hoping to gain Tiamat’s favour in order to take her revenge on Zariel, who exiled her for unknown reasons
- there’ll certainly be rumours floating around that Zariel utilizes primarily erinyes for…romantic purposes, let’s say, given they are devils of seduction. certainly one or two of that host — who also tend to Zariel’s wounds and adorn her in her armour before battle — would even admit to desiring the attention and favour of the archdevil; however, Zariel herself is far too focused on fighting and winning the Blood War to even heed their desperate attempts at earning her favour

what do y’all think of this?

How did you handle the vehicle combat? Theater of the mind or with a battle map? We had our first encounter yesterday and realized that the battle map was far too small for the speed of the vehicles.

I would like to introduce my players to Zariel at some point soon during the campaign rather than waiting until the very end. I am curious what ideas or ways others may have used.

Currently I am thinking they see her fighting below as they descend from Elturel, but that would be from a distance. Looking for some way to establish her as a powerful force they are working up to.

Currently my players just crossed the bridge on thier way to the High Hall in Elturel.

I'm not sure how strong it actually is, but some of the PCs in the group got a strength stat of around 8, so worst case scenario it could be reduced to zero in two turns. That seems very dangerous if there are no death saves, which the description of the attack makes it sound like. That, paired with their tons of resistances, seems like a very challenging fight.

Imagine describing the identity of the setting without relying on Drizzt, Elminster, Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, or another famous character or location.

What is the essential ingredient that makes a campaign feel like it belongs in the Forgotten Realms rather than in a generic fantasy world?

Is it the way the gods are woven into daily life? The layers of fallen civilizations beneath every kingdom? The countless competing factions? The mixture of enormous magical events and very local problems? The sense that history continues to move even when the player characters are elsewhere?

For me, it is the layered history. Almost every road, ruin, border, and political conflict seems connected to several older civilizations and grudges.

What one element would you preserve above everything else?

Alexandrian Remix

So my players got into a bit of trouble with the hell Knights and got captured by them.

They are now in the crypt with all their gear stolen.

There's about 100 people in there that the devils use for bargaining with the other factions. They're starved, angry and with all hope lost.

Among them there's a beaten and tortured Onthar Frume and Surkana (the druid oracle wife) who got her eyes ripped and tortured into compliance.

So I've got a few questions, what's some situation I can put them in in the prison, like events with the guards or the other prisoners.

For now I've got

Day 1 they ask for volunteers to disarm some anti-devil traps in the fortress, if no one volunteers they start whipping random prisoners (old people and kids also) until someone volunteers or someone dies.

Day 2 Baer (see below for the characters) enters to torture Onthar and Surkana, the first for fun the second to get some new prophetic visions

The Sorcerer is used as a test dummy for a torture lesson

Day 3 the party members that are Hellriders get called and can speak with Gideon Lightward (he was they're mentor, and first time they meet him in hell) and he tries to get them on his side (just exposition and roleplay)

Day 4 the Barbarian gets taken to a match with a demon for betting and fun, him with no weapons vs a balrgura.

Baer tortures the prisoners again

A kid snitches on whatever the characters are trying to do to get more food

Day 5 private meeting between all the Hellriders and Gideon, he tries to get them against each other.

The Paladin gets freed by Ikaia in a bargain with the Hell Knights and he discovers Ikaia is organizing an attack to free them with Liashandra

Day 6 the warlock gets a private letter from his Patron (Bel)

Ikaia and Liashandra start their plan and everyone gets freed

The day 6 event is like a countdown if they can't escape in 5 days

Characters

Ikaia: the vampire lord that is the main ally of the characters, he was a piece of shit but is now trying to get better and help elturel people to become their new leader when all is done.

The Paladin hates him cause he witnessed his attack that slaughtered Chauntea's church in the city (the Paladin is a champion of Chauntea), he's the only one that doesn't trust him one bit.

Liashandra: a demonic general of yeenoghu, she's the main demon force in the city and recently the characters made an alliance with her to help the city in exchange for devil blood and other demonic favours (it'll bite them back in some time but alas now she's helpful)

Baer: the devil that captured them, he's a lazy and sadistic piece of shit. His main job is guarding the fortress.

He's one of the two leaders remaining in the Hell Knights.

Veer: never nominated here but she's the other leader of the Hell Knights, a violent and temperamental devil that kills without esitation, she's a real zariel fan and tries to be like her. Basically a mini Zariel.

(If you'd like some more information on other characters just ask)

So now that the prison part is done the second question is: the hell Knights got the Shield of the Hidden Lord. What would they do with it?

Ok, here is the thing. One of my players is very proactive, loves roleplaying his character and doing things I never would have expected (should have been a warning light). He is playing a were-raven fallen aasimar hexblade and follower of the raven queen. At the beginning he didn't know much about the forgotten realms and asked if he could play an amnesic. I said sure. As chapter 1 was coming to an end I struggled with Lulu and her role in the story, too silly for my groups tastes, and so I had the bright idea to swap her role with that of the player's aasimar hexblade. By this point I had also just discovered the Alexandrian Remix and started using some of that for Chapter 2 and beyond. Chapter 2 comes and goes and he loves the memory triggers and discovering he was a squire to Zariel, a trumpet archon to be exact. So all the memory stuff is about his character tweeked so that he was her companion and not a fluffy mount.

They explore Avernus hex style and in following of the Alexandrian Remix, the party went in search of 4 parts for Mad Maggie's memory machine. They have collected all the parts and were heading back to Fort Knucklebones. However I had the Bloodwar shift and the conflict engulfed 3 hexes, one of those is where Fort Knuckle Bone is. When they found out they were 1 hex away from The Bloody Cyst (Remix had the Citadel hidden instead of exposed and so was renamed tomthe Cyst). I had placed the Wandering Emporium there and the party had a magic ticket that would take them there but they didn't want to use it yet, no biggy. Well withntje war blocking their intended distination, they opt'd to go on a side quest to Purple City where a lost companion was. From their location was a straight line to the hex with Purple City, and it took them right through the Bloody Cyst / Wandering Emporium hex.

So here is where we are. The party, seeing as the Emporium is here (at the base of the 300 foot tall cyst), the party desides to make a pit stop. The Were-raven aasimar thoughout the campaign has always played the part of a scout in his small raven form and checked everything ahead to avoid un-necessary encounters as the rest of the party barreled along in their stolen warmachine.

Now i'm worried. The were-raven decides to scout the bloody cyst. Too soon for me to have him explore the cyst, especially when alone as the rest of his party has driven to and is about to enter the Emporium. So i discribe the lower 150 feet of the cyst like a hard black/red rock like scab. The middle 100 feet is softer red with many caves, where vrocks and other flying demons are, at this point he did notice a small demon army in the opposite side ofmthe cyst from the Emporium. The last 50 feet was a soft pink where a stirge queen and her hive/swarm of stirges have claim as their territory.

Were-raven got to close to the top 50 and got some stirge stings for his troubles. So he backs off out of their air space and investigates the middle 100 feet of caves and vrocks. I was hoping to discourage his solo exploration but at the same time I don't like to railroad or say no. Everything has been 'yes, but' situations. He has avoided vrocks flyers and made it into a cave. I then had him ambush by a trio of quasits in a small cave entrance.

Now up to this point I feel he should have memory triggers, especially now that he is physically touching and exploring the very space he was trapper with Zariel sword all those years ago. Being trapped in the cyst slowly diminished and stripped him of his tall trumpet archon form and reduced him down to a fallen aasimar. I have been resisting giving him a memory trigger as I feel he will make the connection given all the other memory info he has.

Do I give him a relevant, maybe vague, memory of the cyst which would most likely tip him off to the swords location? Doing so would cause them to drop the return to Fort Knucklebones, and this could end Chapter 3 before the payoff at the from the memory dives.

Any ideas on what I should do? Though I feel I know what I should do, I just would like some possible alternatives...

The concord of races entered a newly discovered dungeon with no hoping to do their dirty work in there but as so as they enter the door disappears and their bodies and personalities have changed.

My party needs to recover some phlegethosian sand from Bel's Forge (Alexandrian Remix) in the next couple of sessions, and they don't want to put themselves into debt with a powerful devil like Bel unless there's no other option. An alternative they came up with was a heist, and they've been getting really hyped to do it and have been taking steps over the last dozen sessions or so to make this happen.

Of course, with how into the idea they are, I want to make that an option. A super difficult option, but an option nonetheless.

The module obviously isn't set up for this, as it assumes it's impossible, and I'd rather not make a map for a massive complex like Bel's Forge completely from scratch if I don't have to. I've been thinking of using the Fire and Darkness chapter from Keys to the Golden Vault as a heavy influence, but I was just wondering if any other DMs have successfully done something like this before, or if anybody has any ideas or resources on how to make something like this happen!