So i was a little disappointed about the redemption resolution ending and am trying to expand on it for my players. My players are heavily invested into trying to redeem Zariel (to the point that the paladin is Oath of Redemption and has been extremely ative trying to give things a chance or convince them the error of their sins...). I felt that everything all wrapped up in chr check was a litle cheeky to say the least.
So I have decided to try to greatly enhance that ending, while also giving the players a chance to be truly heroic in the final fight to save Elturel from Hell. My basic idea is borrowing from several movies (and somewhat cheesily LOL). When Zariel grasps the sword, instead of being convinced, becomes enraged and gives a speech about sacrifice and what would the players know about it blah blah blah. She summons an army made up of all the corrupt/betrayer and fallen Hellknights led by Harumaan to crush the heroes. But is taken aback by an equal sized sized army that appears behind the player made up of all the loyal Hellknights that did not betray Zariel led by a ghostly image of Yael herself (insert her cheesy one liner speech). Basically describe the armies clashing (aka Theodon charge in Return of the King)... Meanwhile that leaves the players to deal with Zariel.
At this point it basically will be a fight of attrition and Zariel will down each of the heroes. But as she goes to stike down the last standing player, Lulu will swoop in and take the killing blow. Upon seeing what she has done, Zariel will becoe distraught about the carnage she has wrought and remoseful about killing Lulu.
Que cheesy scene shift as none of this really happened and everyone is right back at the point where she grasped the sword (think of it as like the final battle in Twilight: Breaking Dawn, it was all just a glimpse). Now she breaks down and repents and regains her former glory. Now the true race begins as her and the players now have to fight their way through Eltrel to the companion as the denizens of hell turn on her. Several epic fights later they free the companion and together they sever the chains to free the city...
Now I have started to flesh out the first part (the glimpse scene) - and this is basically what I sort of have (rough draft)
After approaching Zariel (or her approaching the characters), characters make the redeeming pitch, her reply (following chat), auto fail it and let combat begin. Zariel summons her allies of hell Harumann, and an army of undead fallen knights.
“WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF SACRIFICE! I HAVE GIVEN EVERYTHING TO PROTECTING FAERUN! WHO ARE YOU TO LECTURE ME, THE DIVINE, THE ABANDONED, AND THE DAMNED! I ALONE KEEP THE HORDES OF DEMONS AND DEVILS IN CHECK, PROTECTIONG THE REALMS FROM BEING OVERRUN. YOU THINK A FEW TRINKETS FROM THE PAST CAN DETER ME FROM MY GOALS? MY WILL IS RESOLUTE IN MY PURPOSE. THE SACRIFICE OF A FEW FOR THE GREATER GOOD IS NO MORE THEN THE SAME SACRIFICE I HAVE MADE. EVEN AFTER BEING ABANDONED, I SERVE AS GUARDIAN IN THIS ETERNAL UNENDING DAMNATION IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE PLANES ABOVE FROM THE HORDES OF HELL AND THE ABYSS. YOU HAVE UPSET THE BALANCE I HAVE MAINTAINED FOR CENTURIES IN KEEPING HELL IN CHECK. ALLOW ME TO RETURN THE FAVOR! YOU HAVE COME HERE AND YOU STAND ALONE!”
With a snap of her fingers, the very ground around you begins to shake and crack apart. Undead warriors, skeletal horses, and footmen, all clad in the broken and battered armor of the hellriders of Elturel clamor from the cracks along side a multitude of devils and other ilk. Hurumann the Death Knight appear upon his Nightmare steed to lead them.
As the chaos subsides and the ranks of hell form up, Zariel eyes grow wide in shock as she looks behind you. Turning around you see a ghostly army behind you also wearing the regalia of the Hellknights of Elturel led by an angleic looking woman with a scar on one side of her cheek (Yael). Upon further inspection you notice the colors and arrangement of the tabard she wear bear a striking resemblance to a scarf you once saw on a you girl you rescued outside of Elturel (Grace, who gave them a thread of scarf).
“They are NOT alone!” She shouts in a triumphant voice and a wink towards you. With a shout she commands the army to charge. From the opposite side you hear an Infernal shout as the undead and devils alike begin to charge.
Zariel screams in rage and plunges towards you.
Thoughts on this? ideas to add? I did add a connection to a DMguild module that was made as an alternate inro called Fall of Elturel (hence the connection to someone named Grace). As I said blatent cheesy rip offs from several movies :)
As long as your players are okay with the conceit of the first battle being "it was all a dream and none of it happened". That would annoy my players, but I know every table is different.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
So we finally wrapped up the adventure and thought I would share what I ended up doing. Did basically the above meet and greet with Zariel and the ensuing fight as she rebuffed their attempts to coerce her redemption. The ensuing fight happened and rather then a dream scene, I had lulu take one of the PC killing blows from zariel. This is the McGuffin that snaps Zariel and makes her reflect and redeemed (sorrow of striking down her faithful friend).
Now redeemed and turned back into a Solar celestial, she enlists the help of the PC's to help free Elturel. I placed her location away from Elturel so there could be a fight to the city. They all board her personal flying fortress and clear out the skeleton crew of devils and proceed to pilot it towards the city. Now that Zariel is a celestial in hell, she is a new target for all the eager denizens looking to curry favor or become the next ruler. Cue the improvised chase scene being attacked by the other 2 flying fortress. They spend their time repelling flying and climbing devils on the top, while the fortress takes fire from the pursuing ones. Nearing the city, the heavily damaged fortress crashes into the out skirts of the city.
While approaching the city they saw the cathedral and remains townsfolk and guards, led by Ravenguard, are in a pitched battle in the courtyard. Zariel asks them to assist the townsfolk while she makes her way to free the Companion. Cue the the big battle and heroics to save various townsfolk. Eventually Arkhan and crew show up, hoping to score points for Tiamat from Asmodius, by defeating the heroes who have wrought so much chaos. Epic fight. They eventually manage to force Arkhan to retreat around the same time Zariel frees the companion and together they free Elturel.
Thats the very short version. Otherwise this would take up a whole page to describe in detail...
I’m doing the same campaign now and I like the Zariel’s Hellrider army but instead of Yael I’m thinking of doing a Baldur’s Gate 3 where all the party’s Allies come back to assist them.
I've tried to put in a ton of hooks leading my party towards Atkhan/Tiamat and they haven't bitten on any of them... so I wouldn't try to prebake things too much, if your players take interest in Tiamat then you can build that part out more, but Avernus is big enough for your players to never interact with that part of the story/book... additionally the https://xender.vip/ book doesn't give you much useful material for that whole region so you're going to end up doing a bunch of homebrew.
So i was a little disappointed about the redemption resolution ending and am trying to expand on it for my players. My players are heavily invested into trying to redeem Zariel (to the point that the paladin is Oath of Redemption and has been extremely ative trying to give things a chance or convince them the error of their sins...). I felt that everything all wrapped up in chr check was a litle cheeky to say the least.
So I have decided to try to greatly enhance that ending, while also giving the players a chance to be truly heroic in the final fight to save Elturel from Hell. My basic idea is borrowing from several movies (and somewhat cheesily LOL). When Zariel grasps the sword, instead of being convinced, becomes enraged and gives a speech about sacrifice and what would the players know about it blah blah blah. She summons an army made up of all the corrupt/betrayer and fallen Hellknights led by Harumaan to crush the heroes. But is taken aback by an equal sized sized army that appears behind the player made up of all the loyal Hellknights that did not betray Zariel led by a ghostly image of Yael herself (insert her cheesy one liner speech). Basically describe the armies clashing (aka Theodon charge in Return of the King)... Meanwhile that leaves the players to deal with Zariel.
At this point it basically will be a fight of attrition and Zariel will down each of the heroes. But as she goes to stike down the last standing player, Lulu will swoop in and take the killing blow. Upon seeing what she has done, Zariel will becoe distraught about the carnage she has wrought and remoseful about killing Lulu.
Que cheesy scene shift as none of this really happened and everyone is right back at the point where she grasped the sword (think of it as like the final battle in Twilight: Breaking Dawn, it was all just a glimpse). Now she breaks down and repents and regains her former glory. Now the true race begins as her and the players now have to fight their way through Eltrel to the companion as the denizens of hell turn on her. Several epic fights later they free the companion and together they sever the chains to free the city...
Now I have started to flesh out the first part (the glimpse scene) - and this is basically what I sort of have (rough draft)
After approaching Zariel (or her approaching the characters), characters make the redeeming pitch, her reply (following chat), auto fail it and let combat begin. Zariel summons her allies of hell Harumann, and an army of undead fallen knights.
“WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF SACRIFICE! I HAVE GIVEN EVERYTHING TO PROTECTING FAERUN! WHO ARE YOU TO LECTURE ME, THE DIVINE, THE ABANDONED, AND THE DAMNED! I ALONE KEEP THE HORDES OF DEMONS AND DEVILS IN CHECK, PROTECTIONG THE REALMS FROM BEING OVERRUN. YOU THINK A FEW TRINKETS FROM THE PAST CAN DETER ME FROM MY GOALS? MY WILL IS RESOLUTE IN MY PURPOSE. THE SACRIFICE OF A FEW FOR THE GREATER GOOD IS NO MORE THEN THE SAME SACRIFICE I HAVE MADE. EVEN AFTER BEING ABANDONED, I SERVE AS GUARDIAN IN THIS ETERNAL UNENDING DAMNATION IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE PLANES ABOVE FROM THE HORDES OF HELL AND THE ABYSS. YOU HAVE UPSET THE BALANCE I HAVE MAINTAINED FOR CENTURIES IN KEEPING HELL IN CHECK. ALLOW ME TO RETURN THE FAVOR! YOU HAVE COME HERE AND YOU STAND ALONE!”
With a snap of her fingers, the very ground around you begins to shake and crack apart. Undead warriors, skeletal horses, and footmen, all clad in the broken and battered armor of the hellriders of Elturel clamor from the cracks along side a multitude of devils and other ilk. Hurumann the Death Knight appear upon his Nightmare steed to lead them.
As the chaos subsides and the ranks of hell form up, Zariel eyes grow wide in shock as she looks behind you. Turning around you see a ghostly army behind you also wearing the regalia of the Hellknights of Elturel led by an angleic looking woman with a scar on one side of her cheek (Yael). Upon further inspection you notice the colors and arrangement of the tabard she wear bear a striking resemblance to a scarf you once saw on a you girl you rescued outside of Elturel (Grace, who gave them a thread of scarf).
“They are NOT alone!” She shouts in a triumphant voice and a wink towards you. With a shout she commands the army to charge. From the opposite side you hear an Infernal shout as the undead and devils alike begin to charge.
Zariel screams in rage and plunges towards you.
Thoughts on this? ideas to add? I did add a connection to a DMguild module that was made as an alternate inro called Fall of Elturel (hence the connection to someone named Grace). As I said blatent cheesy rip offs from several movies :)
As long as your players are okay with the conceit of the first battle being "it was all a dream and none of it happened". That would annoy my players, but I know every table is different.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
So we finally wrapped up the adventure and thought I would share what I ended up doing. Did basically the above meet and greet with Zariel and the ensuing fight as she rebuffed their attempts to coerce her redemption. The ensuing fight happened and rather then a dream scene, I had lulu take one of the PC killing blows from zariel. This is the McGuffin that snaps Zariel and makes her reflect and redeemed (sorrow of striking down her faithful friend).
Now redeemed and turned back into a Solar celestial, she enlists the help of the PC's to help free Elturel. I placed her location away from Elturel so there could be a fight to the city. They all board her personal flying fortress and clear out the skeleton crew of devils and proceed to pilot it towards the city. Now that Zariel is a celestial in hell, she is a new target for all the eager denizens looking to curry favor or become the next ruler. Cue the improvised chase scene being attacked by the other 2 flying fortress. They spend their time repelling flying and climbing devils on the top, while the fortress takes fire from the pursuing ones. Nearing the city, the heavily damaged fortress crashes into the out skirts of the city.
While approaching the city they saw the cathedral and remains townsfolk and guards, led by Ravenguard, are in a pitched battle in the courtyard. Zariel asks them to assist the townsfolk while she makes her way to free the Companion. Cue the the big battle and heroics to save various townsfolk. Eventually Arkhan and crew show up, hoping to score points for Tiamat from Asmodius, by defeating the heroes who have wrought so much chaos. Epic fight. They eventually manage to force Arkhan to retreat around the same time Zariel frees the companion and together they free Elturel.
Thats the very short version. Otherwise this would take up a whole page to describe in detail...
I’m doing the same campaign now and I like the Zariel’s Hellrider army but instead of Yael I’m thinking of doing a Baldur’s Gate 3 where all the party’s Allies come back to assist them.
I've tried to put in a ton of hooks leading my party towards Atkhan/Tiamat and they haven't bitten on any of them... so I wouldn't try to prebake things too much, if your players take interest in Tiamat then you can build that part out more, but Avernus is big enough for your players to never interact with that part of the story/book... additionally the https://xender.vip/ book doesn't give you much useful material for that whole region so you're going to end up doing a bunch of homebrew.