So, I'm taking over from my partys usual DM after the next session, and I thought I'd post and hopefully get help on rewriting Descent into Avernus to fit the characters and the current events of the setting. It certainly needs a fair amount of tweaking since the characters themselves are level four, and obviously, I have the task of carrying on with their story.
So, we've already established that the aasimar paladin of the party is niece to the king of a holy city in our setting, so I decided that might as well be Elturel. I've also decided that it is this king who forged the pact with Zariel in his mid-twenties when the realm was under siege by a demon incursion. Zariel swooped down and offered to provide a platoon of erinyes to help fight off the demons and close the portal, in return for the turning over of his soul, and his city after thirty years. Now the time of collection is close at hand, and the party arrive in Elturel after a long journey.
I plan to have the party present when Zariel claims what is owed, within the throne room of Elturel. The king will drop dead, soul absent, and a portal to the Hells open above as the city is dragged inside.
Here are the problems.
The party are will have just reached level four, that doesn't provide much opportunity for an overarching narrative like the Dead Three or anything from the Baldur's Gate section of DiA. They'll arrive back just shortly before the pack is claimed, by the time they reach level 5, the city will be claimed. What can I do to get them to level 5 while also meaningfully set up the descent to Avernus? I suppose they have to meet Gargoth and Lulu somehow right? Or can I cut out the latter? I think Gargoth would provide a cool Anakin Skywalker fall for the Aasimar paladin into an oathbreaker (which she's been nudging the DM over since level 1) so keeping him would be great, but I'm not sure I really need Lulu?? What quest can I give them that is a good setup for the descent?
They will be at the epicentre of the Elturel, while it is being dragged down. Since they are family, I feel I need to really need to hammer home the impact of the pact and the descent for my paladin player, being there when Zariel swoops down from the hellish portal, flanked by spined devil minions to claim the kings soul. After which Zariel will return to Avernus, setting the spined devils upon the PC's, and imps upon any other nobles in the chamber. All this would render the Elturel part of DiA irrelevant again right? There is no siege to the castle yet, no undead in the streets. Most, if not all, the people are still alive, but maybe being swooped by flying devils? There are no demons here either. I'm not sure the Helm of Torm will fit either, or the catacombs beneath the cathedral. I suppose I can have the players try to escort people inside the castle gates? I don't know, it's difficult having them start in a yet unscathed castle in an unscathed Elturel. Any advice on how I can proceed with this?
After Elturel, I'm sure it's fairly easy to run Avernus as written, or maybe just as an open sandbox if I'm brave enough. I have the idea that Zariel will convert the paladin to her cause at some point, which I'm sure she'll OOC be very eager for. She could sponsor the paladin as an oathbreaker paladin. That might, of course, make the quest to redeem Zariel and get her sword irrelevant too? I suppose there is no companion, so there is no planetar to free, in that way they may have to be more creative or make a deal in order to save the city, if they wish to save it that is
Last of all, I was also thinking maybe I could flesh out Arkhan by perhaps having him send the party temporarily back to the Material Plane on a side quest, just to give the party a breath of fresh air. They would go to Baldur's Gate or somewhere where they may perform a heist to obtain the Eye of Vecna to return it to Arkhan, increasing his power. Does this sound interesting and/or practical?
Anywho, thanks for reading! Sorry it was so long. I'm probably over complicating things, especially since I'm still fairly inexperienced as a DM, especially at homebrew, but I'm fairly determined to run Avernus. I think the opportunity is too good to miss. I'd be very pleased to hear any thoughts you all have!
I'm also currently running Descent into Avernus for two different gaming groups. The first group is playing through the book mostly as it is written. The second group is playing through most of the book but with significant variations to fit with their campaign (biggest change being that Elturel was drawn into the Abyss and all the devil and demon entries are flipped). The latter situation is a lot more work for me, since I'm spending the time to switch things around. However, it isn't terribly hard to change or even omit pieces as needed.
In an attempt to provide some constructive suggestions to the questions that you've asked:
While you don't need to have Lulu included in the adventure, there are many parts of DiA that revolve around having her with the group. You can omit or change these sections, but the party might lose a lot of those informational opportunities if Lulu isn't with them. Perhaps, a good set-up for the eventual descent into Avernus would be a dungeon crawl where the party ultimately finds Lulu (and possibly even Gargauth). The king, who knows that his time has just about run out, knows that there is a old temple with catacombs in the nearby mountains (i.e., the "dungeon") that holds a piece of Zariel's past within it (i.e., Lulu). Hoping that he might be able to circumvent the fate of his pact with Zariel, the king sends the adventurers to explore the dungeon for a "holy relic" that would benefit the kingdom. King doesn't necessarily explain the details of what the relic is (because he might not know that it's actually Lulu) and doesn't explain what the relic is specifically for (since he doesn't want to admit to the devilish pact). Fill you dungeon as needed, but you can give them enough encounters to warrant their 5th-level, and they can rescue and retrieve Lulu before everything is pulled into Avernus.
Yes, if the players are there as Elturel is being pulled into Avernus, then some of Chapter 2 isn't as relevant because the city hasn't had several days of attacks to wear everybody and everything down. However, the physical descent into the hells should still cause massive damage to the city. I would probably look at the various Elturel encounters that make sense to you and include them as the players are rescuing citizens. The other encounters can be saved until later when it makes more sense that those particular encounters would be present. This concept works well, especially if the players leave and return to Elturel a few times within the course of the adventure. My second group has dealt with random Elturel encounters as they've returned to "home base" between running other missions to save the city.
If your altered set-up removes the Companion from the game, then you can always just have the planetar being held prisoner in Avernus (like how the unicorn is being trapped and used). Players can still go through the motions of obtaining the "keys" and releasing the trapped planetar, who can then help with Elturel's rescue. You'll just have to change it up slightly to fit with your variation.
This is strictly up to you, but it could make for a fun side quest. It would get them out of Avernus for a while, which might be a nice break if the hellish landscape is getting redundant...and it would add some potential conflict if some characters don't want to return to the hells. Additional moral conflict over whether to give the Eye of Vecna to Arkhan, who already possesses the Hang of Vecna (i.e., What trouble do they release if they allow him to have both?).
There's some DMs Guild products about the Fall of Elturel, I want to say the Adventurer's League even set some material in it.
1. I don't think Lulu is essential. I've got one party with her. I got another party in Avernus too who's hooked up with a fallen angel who was Zariel's weapon smith (outfitted the Hellriders with their arsenal in the namesake incursion into Avernus). He's disguised as Bone Devil, is basically what in war zones is sometimes called a "displaced person." In my world work up, there are a lot of displaced persons and agents of factions who aren't directly involved in the Blood War wandering the battleground. More on one is a moment.
2. You don't have a Ulder Ravengard, maybe your characters are the Ravengard, with the King down, how is the leadership vacuum filled that allows Elturel to survive in siege mode? I see the broken Elturel happening largely as a consequence of the descent rather than the Infernal/Abyssal raids. Have one of the chains go wild (maybe it's handlers were overwhelmed by the Demonic incursion occurring below the city) and that's why Elturel is broken the way it looks. If you it to play that accident out with the characters present unleash effects equivalent of multiple Blades of Disaster. You could forgo the cemetery and the Demon portal, maybe use it instead for getting the city into siege mode, have the characters active with that, and maybe researching Zariel lore on their own or guided to possible answers to liberating Elturel.
3. If Zariel knows her sword still exists, she'll want it back (to destroy it ... or not) so could send the characters questing for it against minions of other devils (Mephistopheles, Levistus, maybe Bel?) who want the sword as a power play against Zariel. The book then gives hooks on how to quest the components needed to forge an infernal sword for Zariel, which would likely put the characters into further planescape style adventuring. No Planatar? Maybe the city has to be rafted along the Styx through the lower planes to be returned. Maybe it never does return and becomes a literal lost city among the planes.
4. If your group's bent on a career of evil, sure league up with Arkhan. If you want them to be good guys, don't forget about Burney. My Lulu group had a few brushes with Burney in Baldur's Gate prior to going to Candlekeep. Her loyalties are "good dragonkind" and she was dispatched to Avernus in the first place because she's a spymaster who's very comfortable with moral ambiguity. Side quest instead of helping Arkhan, help Burney gather resources to thwart of take down Arkhan. In my game she's also got part of a set of books the Yugoloths might be interested in, not sure if anythings going to come of that in the DitA proper. I gave her Barbershop access to the Infinite Staircase, though she's got Dragon colleagues guarding her landing, so trips to other planes on her behalf are an option, but don't try to sneak up on her via the staircase because spymaster takes care of her security.
Hi all!
So, I'm taking over from my partys usual DM after the next session, and I thought I'd post and hopefully get help on rewriting Descent into Avernus to fit the characters and the current events of the setting. It certainly needs a fair amount of tweaking since the characters themselves are level four, and obviously, I have the task of carrying on with their story.
So, we've already established that the aasimar paladin of the party is niece to the king of a holy city in our setting, so I decided that might as well be Elturel. I've also decided that it is this king who forged the pact with Zariel in his mid-twenties when the realm was under siege by a demon incursion. Zariel swooped down and offered to provide a platoon of erinyes to help fight off the demons and close the portal, in return for the turning over of his soul, and his city after thirty years. Now the time of collection is close at hand, and the party arrive in Elturel after a long journey.
I plan to have the party present when Zariel claims what is owed, within the throne room of Elturel. The king will drop dead, soul absent, and a portal to the Hells open above as the city is dragged inside.
Here are the problems.
All this would render the Elturel part of DiA irrelevant again right? There is no siege to the castle yet, no undead in the streets. Most, if not all, the people are still alive, but maybe being swooped by flying devils? There are no demons here either. I'm not sure the Helm of Torm will fit either, or the catacombs beneath the cathedral. I suppose I can have the players try to escort people inside the castle gates? I don't know, it's difficult having them start in a yet unscathed castle in an unscathed Elturel. Any advice on how I can proceed with this?
Anywho, thanks for reading! Sorry it was so long. I'm probably over complicating things, especially since I'm still fairly inexperienced as a DM, especially at homebrew, but I'm fairly determined to run Avernus. I think the opportunity is too good to miss. I'd be very pleased to hear any thoughts you all have!
Thanks, and have a great day!
I'm also currently running Descent into Avernus for two different gaming groups. The first group is playing through the book mostly as it is written. The second group is playing through most of the book but with significant variations to fit with their campaign (biggest change being that Elturel was drawn into the Abyss and all the devil and demon entries are flipped). The latter situation is a lot more work for me, since I'm spending the time to switch things around. However, it isn't terribly hard to change or even omit pieces as needed.
In an attempt to provide some constructive suggestions to the questions that you've asked:
Hope that this helps!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-only/69013-everything-about-baldurs-gate-descent-into-avernus
My post a while ago. Hopeful it can help.
There's some DMs Guild products about the Fall of Elturel, I want to say the Adventurer's League even set some material in it.
1. I don't think Lulu is essential. I've got one party with her. I got another party in Avernus too who's hooked up with a fallen angel who was Zariel's weapon smith (outfitted the Hellriders with their arsenal in the namesake incursion into Avernus). He's disguised as Bone Devil, is basically what in war zones is sometimes called a "displaced person." In my world work up, there are a lot of displaced persons and agents of factions who aren't directly involved in the Blood War wandering the battleground. More on one is a moment.
2. You don't have a Ulder Ravengard, maybe your characters are the Ravengard, with the King down, how is the leadership vacuum filled that allows Elturel to survive in siege mode? I see the broken Elturel happening largely as a consequence of the descent rather than the Infernal/Abyssal raids. Have one of the chains go wild (maybe it's handlers were overwhelmed by the Demonic incursion occurring below the city) and that's why Elturel is broken the way it looks. If you it to play that accident out with the characters present unleash effects equivalent of multiple Blades of Disaster. You could forgo the cemetery and the Demon portal, maybe use it instead for getting the city into siege mode, have the characters active with that, and maybe researching Zariel lore on their own or guided to possible answers to liberating Elturel.
3. If Zariel knows her sword still exists, she'll want it back (to destroy it ... or not) so could send the characters questing for it against minions of other devils (Mephistopheles, Levistus, maybe Bel?) who want the sword as a power play against Zariel. The book then gives hooks on how to quest the components needed to forge an infernal sword for Zariel, which would likely put the characters into further planescape style adventuring. No Planatar? Maybe the city has to be rafted along the Styx through the lower planes to be returned. Maybe it never does return and becomes a literal lost city among the planes.
4. If your group's bent on a career of evil, sure league up with Arkhan. If you want them to be good guys, don't forget about Burney. My Lulu group had a few brushes with Burney in Baldur's Gate prior to going to Candlekeep. Her loyalties are "good dragonkind" and she was dispatched to Avernus in the first place because she's a spymaster who's very comfortable with moral ambiguity. Side quest instead of helping Arkhan, help Burney gather resources to thwart of take down Arkhan. In my game she's also got part of a set of books the Yugoloths might be interested in, not sure if anythings going to come of that in the DitA proper. I gave her Barbershop access to the Infinite Staircase, though she's got Dragon colleagues guarding her landing, so trips to other planes on her behalf are an option, but don't try to sneak up on her via the staircase because spymaster takes care of her security.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Fantastic, thanks for your advice guys! I really appreciate it :)