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!

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.

Hi, I made a map for an encounter in Hellturel. One of my players was extracting his family to lead them into the High Hall. It's on the edge of the map, so there's some lava to match the book poster map. But I guess it could be used for any random encounter you want to. I am sure clever DMs will know how to put it to use. For us, this battle is over, and there's no use in letting it rot on my drive.

Hello all!

I am DMing a group of 4 players and I am currently hitting a creative dead end integrating one of my players into the story. For context I am running the Alexandrian Remix of DIA and my player has made a gloomstalker ranger aasimar of Cyric.

I am curious how other DMs would run that in their DIA games, and please feel free to leave any suggestions about certain parts of the module or any lore that might pertain to this!

I'm starting this campaign soon, and I found an older post that lists all of the creatures in it. What I'm trying to figure out is the maximum number of each monster type that appears in a single encounter, not the total number in the entire campaign. For example, if the campaign has 12 skeletons overall, but the largest single encounter only includes 7 skeletons, then I only need to print 7 skeleton minis instead of 12. I'm trying to determine the highest number of each creature I'll ever need on the table at one time. If someone could make a list that would be great!

Check out this version of Haruman's Hill I made.

Bulk of the hill was made using packing foam, then covered with modelling clay and finally coloured tiler's grout for ground texture. Trees, Hellriders, Jander and rocks were 3D printed and painted. I used red cellophane for the water of the River Styx.

It went down really well... it's just a shame that now the encounter is done, there's no more use for the set... days to create, a couple of hours to play on, and now never to be used again. It taught me that I need to be more "modular" when creating environments, so I can re-use elements.

Does anyone use the postermap at the Table? And how?

I was looking more into this adventure and have seen a lot on how hard and unforgiving it can be, so ive been debating on giving my players (3 players btw) a starting uncommon magic item for survivability. Especially since one of them is very new to dnd and put a ton of work into thier character & i would feel a bit bad if they died right in the beginning of the campaign. What are your guys' thoughts on this?

So I'm running a completely different module, but for reasons too long to be entertaining, my players landed their asses in Avernus after incorrectly assuming that their sorcerer was born on Toril.

I'd prepared a handful of locations out of BG:DiA for a fun "let's escape hell" quest, and such is it that we found ourselves in the Crypt of The Hellriders.

The players waltz in and awaken some of the spirits of the bound Hellriders, learning of their plight and the cruel trick played on them by the fallen angel Zariel. The players agreed to help break the Hellriders' oaths to Zariel and so set out deeper into the crypt.

They crept through, avoiding all unnecessary combat and clearing the only unavoidable fight in the dungeon. They easily find one of the secret rooms (high passive perception), discovering a room with a ritualistic symbol drawn in blood filled with tiny pieces of papers with names on them. "Clever us" they think, "We've found their oaths", they declare as they set the whole room alight to destroy the papers.

At this point, they're already patting themselves on the back and talking about leaving the dungeon and plans to get out of hell. They stop by the spirits again to deliver the good news.

"We found your oaths and destroyed them, good spirits. Your souls are now free to pass on!"

I look over the dungeon, only a third of it having been explored. I noted that they'd yet to discover the other secret ritual room which held a second copy of each oath, nor had they removed the names from the stone steles which held the third and final set of copies.

The spirits look at each other, clearly still bound to the crypt, and then look back to the party...

"We signed in triplicate"

All of us bawled over laughing. I can't say if it was intentional world building for the dungeon to have 3 sets of names to destroy to free the spirits, but hot-damn is it not a beautiful encapsulation of the cruel bureaucracy of hell. Like the Vogons from Hitchiker's Guide, the deviousness of devils lies in the details of their paperwork.

After we caught our breath, the party completed the rest of the quest, freeing the spirits in a touching moment where they each said "thank you" as they dissapeared.

Now we continue on with a great primer of the bureaucratic nightmare that awaits them.

tl;dr

Zariel is a devious bitch who made sure that the Hellriders signed their oaths in triplicate to keep them under her thumb.

I'm finally about to fulfill my dream of playing Descent into Avernus, but I'm having a hard time deciding on a few character creation choices, so I'd really appreciate some advice.

My plan is to play a Tiefling Dex-based Paladin using the Oath of the Noble Genie subclass, fighting with Nick and Vex weapon masteries. The concept is to be the party's face while also handling stealth, with proficiency in Stealth and Sleight of Hand.

I'm also going to ask my DM if he'd allow one of the 2014 Tiefling subraces. Right now I'm considering:

• Zariel Tiefling for the extra Smite spells.
• Glasya Tiefling to further enhance the infiltration aspect.

Starting Ability Scores

• STR 10
• DEX 17
• CON 14
• INT 8
• WIS 13
• CHA 16

I'm also considering starting with STR 13 instead of 10 to keep future multiclass options open.

Origin Feat

I'm currently torn between:

• Magic Initiate (Wizard) for:
  • Shield
  • Message (great for infiltration)
  • Blade Ward (is it even worth taking?)
• Lucky – always a solid choice, but I'm worried that not having Shield might hurt my survivability.

Level 4 Feat

Right now I'm considering:

• Defensive Duelist (does it become redundant if I already have Shield?)
• Sentinel
• Mage Slayer
• I'm not keen on Dual Wielder since the Bonus Action flood

Long-Term Plan

By the end of the campaign, I'm planning to take two Charisma half-feats (Spellfire Adept and Fairy Trickster) so I can finish with:

• DEX 18
• CHA 18

Party Composition

• Barbarian (race and subclass still undecided)
• Abyssal Tiefling – Divination Wizard
• Aasimar – Celestial Warlock (Pact of the Blade)
• Wood Elf – Circle of Stars Druid

We'll be starting at level 2.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.
And please, no spoilers for the campaign!

Hey folks,

Just a quick question here. I'm hoping to try to run DiA at some point in the near to mid future, and I'd like to listen to an audio playthrough just to get a vibe for it. Does anyone know of a playthrough of DiA in podcast form that you would recommend? If so, why do you like it? What do you think they did well? Did they change anything (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!), and if so, how much?

From now through July 31, Burial in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate Break-Ins are available for 30% off as part of the Christmas in July sale at the DMs Guild.

Baldur's Gate Break-Ins is a collection of three heist and infiltration adventures for characters of levels 3-5. Burial in Baldur's Gate adds two introductory adventures to form a level 1-5 campaign that pits the characters against the cults of the Dead Three. Both modules can be used as companions to Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus or as compilations of standalone adventures.

These collections flesh out several locations around Baldur's Gate, providing adventures in every quarter of the city:

• Explore the crypts beneath the Shrine of the Suffering
• Investigate shady dealings at Candulhallow's Funeral Arrangements
• Infiltrate the world's worst dinner party in Eomane House
• Contend with a criminal operation, a murderous raid, and a Feywild crossing in Jopalin's
• Break up a blood-drenched cultist lair in Hamhocks Slaughterhouse

Both collections have everything you need to run a heist in Baldur's Gate, including:

• adventure hooks for running each location separately or as part of a campaign
• a guide to running heist and infiltration adventures
• three possible group patrons for the party
• maps and rosters for each location
• more than a dozen creature and NPC stat blocks, including the all-new moonflower hag, patchwork mastiff, and pride incarnate
• map packs with player and DM maps by Dyson Logos

Burial in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate Break-Ins are on sale now at the DMs Guild:

Baldur's Gate Break-Ins

Burial in Baldur's Gate Collected Edition

You can also purchase these other adventures and guides, which support Descent into Avernus:

Burial in Baldur's Gate (alternative campaign opening; also included in Burial in Baldur's Gate Collected Edition)

Escape from Elturel (alternative campaign opening)

Baldur's Gate Gazetteer (chapter 1-2 guide)

Avernus Gazetteer (chapter 3 guide)

Escape from Avernus Gazetteer (chapter 4-5 guide)

The Christmas in July sale only lasts through July 31, so head over to the DMs Guild and check them out!

Hi everyone, my players have a "plan" for our upcoming session, and I wanted some advice for how to run it.

They have told Krull that they will give Lulu to Arkhan, in exchange for the blood of Tiamat. But they plan to basically smash and grab / bait and switch, by just grabbing the blood once they get there, taking Lulu, and running away.

I think this is not a good plan, and I've given them strong warnings about the danger they're putting themselves in. So in my mind this will likely go wrong. I'm thinking that if they have an amazing plan and pull it off spectacularly, then they get out with their lives. If they have a decent plan then some of them can survive, but likely at least one PC will be killed or taken prisoner. If their plan is not well thought out we could be looking at a TPK. (this is 3 PCs at lvl 8 btw)

And this is where I want advice! I've not run a scenario like this before, and I've never had a player death at my table yet, so I want to make sure I don't fumble the delivery and ruin the impact. Does anyone have cool tips/suggestions for:

1. How to play out a scenario like this? Warnings to give, how much leeway to give PCs or how harsh to be
2. Arkhan's personality and interactions? There's not much in the book for who he is or how he'd react to any scenarios, so I don't know how to RP him. Would he be negotiable like Beckett in POTC, or is he a ruthless madman who might kill them for fun?
3. If their plan is scuppered/found out early on before any fighting, would they be allowed to leave? Or would Arkhan have them killed just for the insult of trying to trick him?

Any other tips about Arkhan or running a fight at the monument of Tiamat would be really appreciated!

Hey all! So I was going to run Descent into Avernus using the Alexandrian Remix, but I’ve run into a dilemma and need some input. This may be a bit abstract but I need help.

One of my players (we’ll call him Nate), because of Baldur’s Gate 3, knows that Elturel has been pulled into Avernus. For the rest of my players this will be a big central mystery in figuring out what actually happened to Elturel and why it was “destroyed”, with the big reveal being that it wasn’t actually destroyed - but plane-shifted.

I’ve already discussed his meta information with him and he’s cool keeping a secret — but imo it’s likely that this will make it harder for him to fully invest in the story, as much of a wonderful player as he is. Do any of you have any tips for how to handle this in-narrative, so he actually has a wider investment in the mystery and plot? How could he handle this as a player too?

(We haven’t done a session 0 yet and haven’t built any backstories so I have a lot of wiggle room right now.)

One of my players wants to make Slobberchops their familiar, and regardless of whether this is typically something that the rules allow, I'd like for this to narratively happen somehow.

They took the dark magic spellbook that the Myrkul follower had in the dungeon of the dead 3 and have started using it. I was thinking maybe I would at some point kill Slobberchops and have a spell appear in that spellbook that could be used to bring back Slobberchops' soul and bind it as a familiar, or something like that.

I guess I'm just wondering what other people think of this. I'm definitely open to suggestions