Last Monday we played some more Orchard on the Greyhawk channel.

Here's the group:

• (Tommy) Ciaran: He's a barbarian, a pretty dark character. So far in the campaign, he turned into a wendigo and lost an eye.
• (Bree) Caeli: A rogue who is linked to the Suel empire. She grew up as a slave and is also a pretty dark character.
• (Heavenleigh) Seraphina: A cleric who is sort of the "mom" of the group.
• (Me) Neil Zarkanen: A paladin who is super-nice. 

High Level: Not sure if I mentioned this last time, but we are 16th level! I've run a fair amount of high level 5e stuff, but as a player I don't think I've run a character this high.

What's weird about it is that I don't feel that powerful. The paladin spell list is very weird. It's a lot of utility stuff. I can do a bit of damage with melee, but it doesn't feel that big.

I can see how some people might have a hard time juggling all the weird powers you accrue, but I've found that the best way to keep track of it all is just to list it on a piece of paper. Here's the stuff that I like the most:

• (Reaction) Protection: When a creature attacks an adjacent ally, I can use my shield to pose disadvantage. 
• Aura of Protection: When an ally within 10 feet of me makes a saving throw, they get +4 to the roll.
• (4/day) Cleansing Touch: I can end one spell on myself or on a willing creature that I touch. I actually haven't successfully used this once, but I really like it.
• (Reaction) Rebuke the Violent: When an attacked within 30 feet deals damage with an attack against a creature other than me, They must make a Charisma save. Fail: They take radiant damage equal to the damage they dealt. Success: They take half damage. This one is the most effective. The monsters hit hard at this level, and them having to take it makes a big difference.
• Protective Spirit: Once I drop below half my hit points, a spirit appears and heals me for d6+7 HP every round until I am above half my hit point max!

Having them all right there in front of me, with reactions and bonus actions clearly noted and easily spotted, makes it much easier to run the character without missing things.

Sharing a Bed


My character, Caeli and Seraphina shared a room to rest in. I figured that I'd be sleeping on the floor, but it was decided that all three of us slept in the bed together. My character is a weird, innocent man-thing, so he was wearing his newly purchased Lolth pajamas adorned with cartoon spiders.

Seraphina was wearing "the clothes you wear when you're about to start making your character in an MMO", which amused me greatly. I picture this scene like in the movie Three Amigos.

This got me thinking about that movie. I used to watch it all the time when I was little. We used to sing the "My Little Buttercup" song when I worked at the movie theater. I sang some of it for Kelli (@TheOperaGeek) and she was quite surprised/alarmed to hear my warbling.

Drow Intrigue: From there, we learned a number of things. Ciaran has this secret backstory involving his mom. Apparently, his mom somehow made her way down into the drow city, and she brought along Ciaran's sort-of ex-girlfriend!

We were given a mission, more or less. House Eilservs is supposedly planning a coup. They've aligned themselves with the evil deity Tharizdun, and are looking to overthrow the Lolth-worshiping houses. Our job was to prevent this.

We mulled over two options:

1. Go meet with Eclavdra (a pretty famous D&D NPC) at a gallery.
2. Meet Niverma at a playhouse.

We discussed our options for a good bit. Somewhere in here, Seraphina's new sword started messing with her. It forced her to toss her ring of mind-shielding and she ended up alone in the city fighting a slaver.

Slaves: Toward the end of the session, Seraphina and I were in the city rescuing a kid who was a slave. We were bringing him back to our place, when he spotted his family in a cage. He begged us to free them.

Seraphina pointed out that there was no way to do this in public without being noticed. My character insisted on trying to figure something out. We're good guys, right? It was made clear to us that they were sick and dying. Their "owner" had been killed and they were rotting away in a cage.

Seraphina surprisingly insisted that we leave them, and I got into a spot where I realized we were about to fight about it. As in, character vs. character.

I started looking over my sheet for spells to use. I really didn't want to go into a big thing where we rolled initiative, as it felt like a waste of time and I didn't think anything good would come out of it. It was quickly decided we'd resolve it with one contested grappling check, which seemed like a great idea to me. I lost!

So we left the kid's family to die! My character angrily told Seraphina that she's not who I thought she was, and she sadly agreed.

It was good stuff, but I'm a bit worried about how I should handle it next week. I really don't like running my character as angry, but I feel like there should be some kind of lingering tension.

I guess I'll focus on trying to keep the slave kid alive!

You can watch this episode right here:

Watch Orchard episode 12 What we think is best from thegreyhawkchannel on www.twitch.tv

The character art in the above image is by my dude turtlestance.

On Wednesday, we played some more of our plane-hopping campaign! Currently, we are in Barovia, stuck in the middle of a struggle between Strahd and Vecna!

The Party

• (Kelli) Bruilinde - A sassy bard who has a thing for Strahd. In real life, Kelli is an opera singer, so she actually sings her bardic powers on the stream! 
• (Zippy) Shallot - A gnome wizard who is obsessed with defeating a planar threat named Morandagana. Shallot is a bit of a wild card. 
• (Me) Odos - A githzerai monk. Basically, this character was an excuse for me to use all the cool lore from my guide to the githzerai. Odos walks the planes and tries to understand the teachings of Zerthimon.

Say Hello to the Bad Guys: Last time, we had ended with each of us playing different characters. I actually got to play Strahd! I wrote a big guide to Strahd a few years ago, so before we started playing, I read through it again to help me get a handle on this dude I was playing.

Elly couldn't make it this week. She was slated to play a drow aligned with Vecna - Vocara, "the heart of Vecna". I'm not sure if Vocara is from a published product - I suspect she is. All I know is that in 4e, a woman named Osterneth has the heart of Vecna, and that she is an NPC from Chris Perkins's real-life Iomandra campaign (which is a setting I'd like to see wizards of the coast actually publish).

Zippy played Kas the Betrayer (!), and Kelly played Madame Eva!

I couldn't tell what was "meant" to happen here. Vocara wanted us to go and meet with Vecna. We didn't like her tone, so we attacked her and her pet dracolich!

Kas kept rolling criticals and did massive piles of damage with the legendary Sword of Kas.

I bit Vocara's neck, drank her blood and did a bunch of "mu-hu-hahahaaaa" kind of things. Basically, we killed Elly's character. Sorry Elly!

I think the dracolich flew away in fear.

I was surprised that, throughout the session, we kept jumping back to our normal characters. I figured that Shane (the DM) would run the whole session with us playing the evil people, but we ended up switching back and forth, which I've never seen done before. I liked it.

Meanwhile: Our normal characters got on a flying carpet. Kasimir, an NPC from Curse of Strahd, wanted to take us to Mordenkainen. This whole campaign is about how Mordenkainen shattered into "pieces" - different versions of himself - that are scattered throughout the planes. Our job is to find all of them and smoosh them back together.

Shallot, Zippy's character, is trying to snatch away this magic knife we found in the Amber Temple. We kept it away from him. I definitely feel like we're walking a thin line here as far as whether or not PVP is going to take place. I'd really like to avoid it if possible, but it's a distinct possibility. Zippy is aware that his character is selfish, but I still would feel bad if we got into a battle and somebody's character died.

Shallot killed Kasimir when we got to our destination over a dispute that happened a number of sessions back. It was another instance of the dude going rogue. Not good!

We met Mordenkainen and got to talk to him a bit before flashing back to our villains.

As Strahd, I decided it was time to summon all of the "creatures of the night": Bats, wolves, Strahd zombies, even the ghostly procession that rises every midnight in the village of Barovia's graveyard.

I forgot to specifically mention my favorite 5e monster of all from the Curse of Strahd book: The Barovian Witches! Hopefully Shane will let them come, too.

So we're leading an army to Citadel Cavitius, Vecna's lair in Barovia. The next episode should be epic!

You can watch this episode here:

Watch Mordenkainen's Path of the Planes - Ep 24: Clashes & Questions from thegreyhawkchannel on www.twitch.tv

On every other Wednesday, I play in a game on the Laughing Dragon Inn channel. It is run by Andy Hatton, who has helped me write a few of my DMs Guild products, including some that will be out soon. I'm wayyyy behind on my DMs Guild stuff. Sorry about that, everybody.

The Party

• (@MCHenley) Chidara - Human Fighter
• (@Zombolouge) Autumn - Human Rogue
• (@TimothyMagick) Corporal Katra - Hobgoblin Warlord
• (@Soupsuka) Amfyra - Eladrin Paladin
•  (Me) Bram Rahss - Human Cleric

Right now, we are in the Forgotten Realms. We ended up in an ice dungeon, and we're on our way out. There was another adventuring group in here. On of those adventurers was the ex of Autumn's character, which peaked the interest of many members of the party.

The Tension: From almost the start, we noticed quite a bit of romantic tension between Chidara and Autumn. The rest of us have been watching their interactions with great interest. Almost every time we play, they end up talking and we sneak around, eavesdropping and reporting to each other what was said.

Jarlaxle: So we're trying to find our way out of this ice dungeon and back up to the surface. We fail our checks and get lost. Who do we run into? Jarlaxle and a bunch of drow. Jarlaxle knows we have a box full of gold on us (part of another quest) and wants us to hand it over.

Chidara is our leader. Our group is something of a military-style strike team. Chidara decides that we can't take on Jarlaxle (true) and hands it over. Chidara is bummed about this, and once the drow move on, Autumn has a quiet conversation with Chidara about this which, of course, I excitedly eavesdrop on. They didn't touch each other, but they came pretty close.

The Unsinkable: My character was the only survivor of a horrible shipwreck. Every time we play, I try to tell another tragic tale of someone on the ship that died. The shipwreck haunts my character, and at this point, nobody's really sure if any of these stories are actually true, because they are so ridiculous. The crew of the Unsinkable:

• Captain Tide: I keep getting Chidara mixed up with Captain Tide, to the point that I call Chidara "Captain" most of the time.
• Opie: The cabin boy. He drowned.
• Happiness: There was a dog on the ship named Happiness. He sunk under the sea and I never saw Happiness again.
• "Mo" Tivation: I lost motivation.
• Inner Peese: I am endlessly seeking signs of Inner Piece.
• Hope: We lost Hope, a halfling sailor, long ago.
• Bai Curious: Bai Curious was a handsome man that I was fascinated with. Rumor had it that he had killed a cat.
• Old Man Moistfinger: He kept himself dry, save for one wet finger. I tried to save him as he was drowning, but a shark pulled him away. All I held onto was his moist finger, which I carry to this day (It's actually a baby carrot).

The DM threw me a heck of a curveball. Guess what we stumbled on in this icy lair?! A shipwreck! My character failed a save and was sure that this was the unsinkable. The zombies on board looked to me like my fallen shipmates!

Someone dropped a fireball on them. Two burning zombies looked, to me, like Opie and captain Tide. I put the fire out on Opie and yelled the Captain Tide had to live! "What you and autumn have is special! You can't let it go!"

At the same time, two remorhazes popped up and attacked! The group dropped them pretty quick, though a few heroes took a lot of damage.

There was a ballista on the burning ship and I was able to fire on a remorhaz with it.

We survived and My character came to his senses. Next time, we should emerge near the Sea of Moving Ice! Hopefully we'll run into another ship.

You can check this episode out right here:

Details are out on the new adventure, which is called Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

The Descent

This is the yearly event where they announce the new D&D products. This year's show is bigger than last year's event, resembling a small con, complete with a D&D epic event and everything.

Relics and Rarities


DM: Deborah Ann Woll    
           
(Jasmine Bhullar) Barrel - Half-orc Barbarian                
(Julia Dennis) Annabella - Bard                
(Janina Gavankar) Mumee - Half-elf Rogue                
(Xander Jeanneret) Ricky Huckster - Gnome Druid               
(Matthew Lillard) Alaster Goldfang - Dragonborn Sorcerer                
(Tommy Walker) Veros - Human Warrior

This pics up from episode 6 of the Relics show on geek and sundry. The group has returned from Livingstone, having defeated two sisters. The group is asked to retrieve a draught from King Sena’s tomb. They’ve been there once before.

Before leaving, the heroes get to pick a trinket from the magic shop that they work for.

• Picture Frame - Disguise self.
• Knit Blanket - You can place images on it.
• Pocket Watch - Slows down time just for the wielder.
• Sheet Music - When you sing to the tune on the shet, get +5 to CHA checks.
• Dark Glasses - Grants darkvision
• Compass with a Missing Crystal - The compass always points to the crystal, which is buried at the entrance of the tomb.

The adventurers arrive at the tomb and see that the doors have been torn open. The last time the group was here, the doors were intact. The heroes look around a bit and the place is trashed, including a false tomb.

As the group begins to check out the interior, Alaster is hit with a scythe trap for 14 damage.
They find a long passage that they follow for 20 minutes. They come to a door with a message in the kektesh language. “Brave the tests of our throne to prove your worth.”

There is a lotus flower attached to the note. The lotus represents healing and rejuvenation, royalty, and the care of royalty.  In the room beyond, there are gold, jewels and all kinds of treasures. Also, on 8 pedestals, are oil lamps. Two have fallen over on their sides.

The creature says it offers no boon, and the group must bow before it. Many members of the group immediately bow. It wants to destroy the one who spoke its name.

Examining the lamps, the group sees different words. They speak a few aloud, and one summons a creature with magma skin. The group fights it, and it turns to smoke and re-enters the lamp, defeated.

They enter another room and come upon the tomb of a queen. There is a vase with a living lotus flower in it, preserved by magic. There is a mural with a branching diagram.

The group finds a cylindrical puzzle with hieroglyphic symbols on it. Deborah actually made it in real life. She says it took 9 hours to make.

After a bit of thinking, the group solves the puzzle. The prop actually unlocks and has a vial inside!

The heroes head outside and their lotus begins to melt. They dig up the buried crystal. They realize that they've failed to secure the draught.

They return to the curio shop and find the place is trashed. That's where we stop!

The Descent: Opening Ceremonies

MC: Anna Prosser                
Jeremy Crawford                
Shelly Mazzanoble                
Chris Perkins                
Nathan Stewart                
Kate Welch                
Jim Zub

The team gives details on the new products coming out. I tried to organize them categorically.

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus


This adventure is about “D&D goes to Hell.” A combination of Mad Max and Dante’s Inferno.
It involves the Blood War, the battle between the lawful devils and the chaotic demons.

Baldur’s Gate

• The adventure begins in Baldur’s Gate, the “Gotham City” of D&D. The city is detailed in the book.
• One chapter a gazetteer of Baldur’s Gate. There are options for creating a native of Baldur’s Gate. The entire group can have dark secrets.
• You can become an ally of the Flaming Fist, and go on murder sprees to help them out.
• There is an infernal infiltration in the city. A tease of the hell storyline. The group will have to choose whether or not to go to Avernus.
• There are mysteries and crimes to solve in Baldur’s Gate.

Avernus

• Avernus is the top layer of hell, the place where demons and devils battle. It is a plane of wreckage, a vast desert where destroyed cities partially pulled in from other d&d settings.
• Swarms of insects from other infernal regions.
• There are rules for resting in Avernus (it’s hard).
• Death saves work differently. We might see these rules in some of the games this weekend.
• The lakes have ichor which are damaging, but can also be useful.
• It is home to more creatures than demons and devils.
• Avernus is a humongous playground. A large section of the book details Avernus itself. There is a huge map full of cool locations.

The Warlords of Avernus

• Creatures who eke out a living outside of the eye of the demons and devils. They have gangs of marauders looking for scrap metal. They command fleets of infernal war machines. You can boost them by pouring ichor in them.
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh has ship rules. In Avernus, there are mechanics similar to use for the war machines.
• You can become a Warlord of Avernus.
• Because there is so much wreckage. You can go scrape the parts you need to assemble and customize your vehicles (there are rules for this). There is a bit of a catch to this. You might wrestle with moral quandaries - the machines are powered by souls. They are powered by furnaces.

Hell

• There is a section in the book involving the devils trying to use your dark secrets to make bargains with you. What the devils want the most: Your soul.
• Avernus is the “front porch” of hell. There’s refugees from other planes trying to escape. There are other adventuring groups. Because hell corrupts, many of them have been morally compromised. The longer your character is there, the better the chance you can become corrupted.
• It is harder to get out of hell than to get in.
• Your character could be warped beyond recognition. Some characters will be more resplendent than ever. Paladins and cleric will have their cosmic enemies are right in front of them.

Zariel

• The ruler of Avernus is Zariel. She is a fallen angel, once a being of pure good. She was able to see that the demons and the devils were a problem. She decided to try to deal with them, even though her fellow angels refused to go with her.
• Zariel is on the front lines. The closer you get to the River Styx, the more intense the conflict.
• There is a chance you might be able to redeem Zariel and save her. Though then there will be a power vacuum.
• You can become one of her vassals.
• When you encounter Zariel, your previous choices will affect what happens next.
• This is the devils’ home turf. If you kill a devil in the Nine Hells, the devil is dead forever. This is the place they are most vulnerable, so they are more likely to cut deals.

Other Notes

• This adventure is written for new DMs. It is user friendly so that new DMs can get their feet wet in the Baldur’s Gate section. Then it gracefully slides into Avernus, and gives tips on how to bring it to life.
• You can make the Hell section can be as long or as short as the DM likes.
• There are a bunch of new monster stat blocks and new magic items.
• They developed a new infernal font for this adventure.
• Abyssal chickens can be familiars.
• The art is different from the other books. If you are in Avernus, and you see a giant wound creeping out of the earth, go check it out.
• The Infernal Tide: A massive entity made of bone and blood that washes over you.
• Jim Zub has a physical item - a soul coin. If a good character has more than one, it weighs them down.
• Abyssal chickens are disgusting, horrifying and powerful.
• D&D Infernal Tide: A comic where heroes including Minsc & Boo go to the Nine Hells. There is a combat in Candlekeep, in the grand library.

D&D Essentials Kit


Chris Perkins designed it.

• The Starter Set has the Lost Mine of Phandelver. This Essentials Set has another adventure set in the same place.
• There’s a 64 page booklet that helps people make new characters. There are sidekick rules in the back.
• Dragon of Icespire Peak: You can run it with one player and one DM, or a full group. In the solo mode, you can use the sidekicks to round out the group.
• It is very new-DM friendly. There are 14 quests.
• There is a poster map that has Phandelin on one side, and the adventure locale on the other.
• There is a box that contains 81 cards that have all of the magic items, quests, combat cheat sheet cards, and sidekick cards.
• Sidekicks come in three types: Expert (who has “all the skills”), Spellcaster (arcane or divine), and Warrior.
• A DM screen with all new art.
• A set of red dice. They are cherry lozenge red. There are two d20’s and four d6’s.
• It will be in target on June 24th.
• The product is a step between the starter set and the Player’s Handbook.
• There are some “delightfully evil” druids running around in the adventure.
• You can mix this with Phandelver in a number of different ways.

Baldur’s Gate Dice Set with Miscellany

• It comes with a map of Avernus.
• A cipher for the infernal language.
• Two d20’s, four d6’s. The dice are “brimstone” colored
• The box is lined with velvet, making it two dice trays.
• It will be available in August 2019.

The Descent: Game Session 1


DM: Jeremy Crawford
              
(Kelly D'Angelo) Tuesday - Forest Gnome Druid               
(Talisein Jaffe) Quintifel - Aasimar Warlock               
(Taran Killam) Halwyn Badanathis - High Elf Bard               
(Alex Lee) Filge - Half-Orc Barbarian               
(Joe Manganiello) Halfmat Arson - Dragonborn Sorcerer              
(Surena Marie) Yuri - 15-year old sad kid

Each hero wakes up. They feel damp and warm. The smell of brimstone is all around them. There are explosions going off. Each of them is lying on a riverbank next to greenish water, with whispers rising up from it.

Two massive armies are fighting under an amber sky, demons vs. devils.To their left is a crashed gondola, There’s a dead dwarf. Another dwarf is running toward a strange contraption - a motorcycle. Looming over the dead, red-capped dwarf, is a vrock. It pulls its beak out of the dwarf, looks at the group, and squawks in hunger.

The adventurers attack it. The vrock lets out a call, and more vrocks start flying toward them. The one dwarf who is still alive tells them they are going to die.

Tuesday hirs the dwarf with call lightning. It falls but is still alive. The dwarf says he was trying to help.

The dwarf says the group should pray that Mad Maggie comes to help them. Halwyn is dropped to 1 hit point.

A machine approaches, a horn plays (a car horn). It feels like an earthquake is coming. The vehicle has a crane on it dragging demons. Red-capped dwarves are on it firing ranged weapons on the demons. Mad Maggie has a raven on each shoulder. Her skin is very wrinkly and leather-y. She is a night hag.

She says, “Hey suckas!” and tells the group to get on board. The group gets on. A hoard of demons rush them. Mad Maggie drops a coin in a slot in the steering wheel. Fire erupts out of the back, and the caravan takes off.

She wants more speed. She opens a bottle of demon ichor. She opens a circular hole right next to the key slot and pours it in. The entire war machine shakes and green fire shoots out of the back of the bus. The redcaps pour them into their motorcycles and they all start speeding up.

On a bike, Halfmat wants to put some ichor into his bike. He feels a weird tempting urge of some kind, but he fights it off with a successful CON save.

Mad Maggie asks the heroes to go obtain for her the Tear of Zariel. Uri and Tuesday start talking about where they were before they woke up in Hell. Maggie slaps them, to “make sure they’re not ghosts.”

Maggie leads the caravan into a sandstorm in the hopes of losing the demon horde chasing them.

They ride into the sandstorm. The group needs to make CON saves. Uri and Halwyn fail. There’s something burning inside the sand. It dissolves into their skin and they take 8 acid damage. The face of one of the red caps melts and Mad Maggie cackles.

Maggie’s vehicles starts going over numerous bumps. It turns out that the bumps are actually lemures, low-level devils. Uri says that this is still better than the orphanage.

They come out the other side. Only one red cap survives the trip through. It looks like they shook off the demon horde.

Mad Maggie loves Zariel merchandise and exquisite despair. Zariel is a fallen angel. She cried a long time ago. A single tear fell off her cheek and when it hit the dark sand and blessed a whole area.

If the group gets her the tear, she’ll give them a war machine, some food, and maybe a way out of Hell.

They come to a lake of salt and a crater. Creatures clad like noble knights, each a ghostly figure, weeping. Each ghost’s tears turns to salt and tumbles into the rater. A light glimmers inside a canopy of salt crystals.

Mad Maggie explains those creatures came to Hell with Zariel. In that salt, there’s something moving. All that sorrow, all the grief over holiness lost gave something life.

The group gets out. Halwyn touches the salt and begins crying like a baby. Two sentries who were looking out to the horizon look at Halwyn. They ask whose tears join theirs.  They tell him to join them, and he can’t resist.

Halwyn kneels into the form of one of the spectral knights. He rolls a saving throw and gets a natural 20. Halwyn leans over and weeps. Halfmat uses a mage hand and catches the tears. It looks like the thing in the salt was going to come over, but it doesn’t.

Halfmat uses his cloak to absorb the tears. He throws it into the crater. As the tears on it touches the salt, there is movement. The salt ripples, and a large, crystalline mouth raises up from the salt, eats the cloak, and begins to descend.

Quintifel puts some tears on a paper airplane and throws it. He sees the mouth moving. Then he calls forth his wings and flies toward the creature. Quintifel flies into the chamber of salt crystals and sees a diamond in the shape of a tear. 7 ghostly figures are near.

Hallwyn sheds tears onto the diamond. One of the ghosts says, “Unworthy.” All 7 take a step toward him. One says in Celestial, “All your tears. Every tear you have cried, whether of sorrow or of joy, you must leave here.”

Halfmat pulls a coin that he stole from a red cap. The ghosts are offended and say, “We have no use for the souls of the damned.”

Quintifel, an aasimar, cries tears over the diamond. He feels his deepest sorrows and his deepest joys leave him. They say “It is done.” They all vanish. The light of the diamond continues to pulse. Outside, the others see the spectral knights vanish.

Mad Maggie yells out, “What happened?!”

Quintifel gets out with the tear. The group distracts the mouth with some conjured dogs. They meet with Maggie and offers the group 2 war machines.

Maggie demands the tear. Halfmat wants to find Arkhan’s tower (Arkhan is Joe’s character from Critical Role and other shows - he has a tower in hell near Tiamat’s lair).

The Descent: Game Session 2

DM: Kate Welch                

(Malik Forte) General Hovito - Genasi Fighter                
(Jerry Holkins) Omin Dran - Half-Elf Warpriest                
(Matthew Lillard) Gark - Tiefling Wizard, descendant of Asmodeus               
(Joe Manganiello) Halfmat Arson - Human Sorceror                
(Clint McElroy) Merle - Beach Dwarf           
(Travis McElroy) Magnus Burnsides - Human Fighter

Halfmat barely remembers what happened last session, but finds himself waking up again on the shores of the Styx with a new group of people. Kate explains that time and space are wobbly here.

They are being squirted in the face by a creature that is humanoid tiger. He has an infernal spray bottle. He sees that the group is waking up, and he begins to run.

Nearby, they see a war machine in the form of a giant metal boar. A creature steps out - a boar-headed humanoid (a wereboar). It is wearing a crown made of jagged pieces of metal.

The group explains that they don’t know how they got here. It turns out that the weretiger, named MacGuyver, sprayed them with Styx mist.

The wereboar wants them to bow. Omin and Halfmat refuse. The wereboar condemns them to death. Halfmat casts invisibility, and twins it so that Omin is invisible too. The rest of the group is now a part of the wereboar’s crew.

The wereboar, Ragadraga, wants a queen. He has an evening planned with a special lady - a night hag. Mad Maggie!

Ragadraga explains that he doesn’t know anything about night hags. He promises he won’t kill them if they help him.

He explains that Mad Maggie has a heartstone. Hers has gone missing. Halfmat suddenly remembers Mad Maggie driving an enormous war machine. He thinks he could craft something she might like.

Omin and Halfmat become visible. Halfmat explains that he knows Mad Maggie, and he can help. He thinks she would really like good food. Ragamaga knows of a unicorn near hear. Merle suggests using angels for stuffing.

Omin wants to teach Ragamaga to dance. He does so successfully.

The group then goes to find the heartstone. It is in the possession of a rakshasa. Omin tries to talk it into handing over the heartstone and rolls a natural 20. They further ask about obtaining “unicorn bait”. The rakshasa hands over the heartstone.

It says it will be telling Asmodeus about this transaction.

The heroes head to a store run by a tentacled creature. Grak tries to pay for stuff with Hovito’s soul. It comes for his soul. Magnus attacks. After a few attacks, Omin is able to intimidate the entity and the group gets what they need.

Once the group leaves, Hovito punches Gark. Omin gives the creature a card good for one free quest from Acquisitions, Inc.

They head to the infernal gate powered by the unicorn. They’re not sure where the gate opens to. The gate has infernal script: It says, “The one who enters here, shall be the only one who leaves Avernus.”

Magnus is able to pull the unicorn free. It thanks them, and says that all that it wants is to return home. It will take a very long time to get home. They ask the unicorn if it is good. It says it likes to help children and animals. Merle asks if that includes boars.

Merle and Omin try to sell the unicorn on the idea to let the group cut out some flanks. Omin says, “You’ll have two handsome men healing you from both sides.”

Halfmat says, “They call it the Avernus tower.”

The heroes cut a chunk of meat off of the unicorn and quickly heal it. Hovito says he can’t wait to lose his memory again.

The adventurers return to Ragamaga and his gang. Jeremy Crawford comes out. Apparently he’s going to play Mad Maggie. The group dresses up Ragamaga. Merle calls it “Dwarf Eye for the Boar Guy.”

The group drops a zone of truth and Ragamaga confesses his feelings. Mad Maggie is into it and asks about Zariel collectibles. Gark decides he likes Mad Maggie and wants to run away with her. Gark creates a minor illusion to make it look like Ragamaga is in an iron maiden.

On this day, fans at the live event were able to play in an epic event centered around a massive war machine battle.


The power went out in the building for a short time during the Chris Perkins game.

The Descent: Game Session 3

DM: Marisha Ray    
           
(Krystina Arielle) Ariza - Aasimar Cleric/Bard                
(Matthew Lillard) Gark - Tiefling Wizard                
(Satine Phoenix) Vadia - Bard/Wizard Band manager of the sirens                
(Patrick Rothfuss) Viari - Rogue                 
(Kate Welch) Rosie Beestinger - Halfling Monk                
(Deborah Ann Woll) Twiggy - Gnome Arcane Trickster

Gark awakens, barely remembering what happened last session. All he knows is that he wants to get out of this place. He sees a hole in the sky and spots the remains of a city in the distance. It seems to have chains connected to it.

Nearby there is a small canoe half-buried in the sand. A river is nearby.

Gark finds the other heroes lying unconscious in the sand nearby. There’s also a corpse of a barbed devil. Introductions are made. Rosie spots a war machine in the distance and says that it could be a useful shelter.

The group approaches, carefully avoiding the many puddles of black ichor that dot the area.. Vadia spots a creature skittering about. It looks a bit like a rat.

Viari gets some gunk on him and his ear begins to mutate. He panics and runs toward Rosie. He trips and falls into a puddle of black ichor. His ear becomes deformed and he grows twisted wings.

Gark realizes that this stuff is demon ichor, the remains of rotting demon corpses that have liquified and congealed over time.

The group meets a creature called Rusty, who explains that the war machine needs to be powered. The vehicle is like a heavy metal dune buggy with blades welded on at random.There are 4 seats and a cabin.

Viari sneezes and realizes he suddenly has the ability to fly.

The group checks out one warmachine half-submerged in a pool. Twiggy picks open a lockbox and finds inside it is a shimmering coin. When she touches the coin, a voice whispers to her, asking for help. Twiggy immediately says she will, and offers to tell it a joke.

Also in the lockbox is a fingerbone.

Twiggy bites the coin and it screams.

Ariza examines Viari’s weird infection and sees that it could be healed with restorative magic. She casts lesser restoration on his ear. Viari is healed, the swelling on his face goes down, and his wings diminish.

Viari studies the coin, and has heard rumors of souls being bound to coins. He’s not sure if there is any way to free the soul.

The group gets in the vehicle with Rusty, and Twiggy puts the coin in the coin slot in the war machine. The vehicle begins to rumble. Black and green smoke shoots out of smokestacks. A high-pitched whistle screams in seemingly endless cycles.

Take an action to steer, full speed, stop/halt. If you don’t steer, it will go straight until you take another action.

Ariza tries to drive it, but rolls a one. The vehicle clips a pole. Viari is on the back of the vehicle and is able to avoid colliding with it.

The vehicle drives out of the ruins into salt flats - fields of glass and white salt. Heat rises up from the service.

They spot a floating island tethered to the ground by huge chains. They spot a flying war machine. Pointing to the big hole in the sky, Rusty points out that chunks of land spew out it every once in a while.

Up ahead, they spot a massive dust cloud. The vehicle rides into it, and the group feels cold and alone. They can’t see each other. They feel trapped and stuck in the white haze. Viari sings.

Other vehicles give chase. There is a dune buggy and a motorcycle, apparently driven by barbed devils. Gark mans the acid sprayer and his the motorcycle with it.

A lithe elven figure on a motorcycle jumps the bike over a dune. The elf teleports onto the dune buggy, kills the driver with a blade. The group takes out the devils and come to a stop. The elf removes a bag from the dune buggy. The bag is full of soul coins.

Gark attacks the elf and rolls a critical, doing 48 points of damage with a witchbolt. The elf’s cheek tears open.  The elf says that teamwork is over-rated, more or less. He snaps his fingers, and all of Gark’s allies save for Twiggy vanish.

The elf reveals that this was all a ruse so that he could get his hands on the soul coins.

He grabs Gark and Twiggy tries to stop him...

The Descent: Game Session 4

 DM: Chris Perkins    
           
(Mica Burton) Remyria - Tiefling Sorcerer                
(Matthew Mercer) Boo - Miniature Giant Space Hamster                
(Anna Prosser) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander               
(B. Dave Walters) Nosia - Human Bard                
(Deborah Ann Woll) Twiggy - Gnome                
(Jim Zub) Minsc - Human Ranger

Chris makes the group start by rolling a d20. The result is how many hit points they currently have. Here is what they rolled:

• Evelyn 14
• Nosia 1
• Twiggy 11
• Minsc 20
• Boo 1
• Ramyria 16

Chris hands each player a soul coin. The player can cash it in to get the DM to show them mercy.

Adventurers from all over the multiverse have been drawn to Avernus. They found a way to get home - a war machine with the power of flight. This group of heroes is trying to do just that. They’ve been jumping from war machine to war machine.

Twiggy lost track of her previous crew. She made friends with a guy named Manfrensengen. His head was chopped off. She felt the sting of regret for having even known him. As her vehicle crossed the expanse, she found herself in a dust storm. Her vehicle fell into a crack in the earth and burst into flames.

They find themselves hanging from the vehicle above a crevasse full of jagged obsidian teeth. The rest of the group is in the wreckage. They can see each other through the flames and smoke.

Evelyn has a beam impaled through her thigh. Minsc tries to pull himself out of the wreckage. He pulls himself out and sees a raging dust storm.

As the group struggles to get free, Evelyn and Twiggy become friends. Twiggy tries to introduce her squirrel to Evelyn, but Chris points out that the squirrel is not there. The live crowd is outraged!

Evelyn falls into the crevasse, taking 70 points of damage. She is about to start making death saves. Most of the group makes their way down to help her.

Up at the top, Nosia sees through the dust storm. He spots creatures tearing into each other. In the distance, he sees Twiggy’s squirrel. It is not moving, terrified that it might attract the attention of a fiend.

Twiggy is able to stabilize Evelyn.

Nosia uses minor illusion to imitate Twiggy’s voice to call the squirrel over. The squirrel happily begins to dart toward Nosia. The squirrel avoids the attention of a vrock and makes it to Nosia.

Minsc tries an incredible feat of strength, climbing up out while pulling the other heroes along with him. Chris gives him “double disadvantage”, and makes him roll twice, and he still succeeds!

The entire group exits the crevasse. Remyria is wearing Evelyn’s winged boots. She attunes to them (because time is strange here).

A vrock swoops down and snatches Twiggy.

Minsc throws Boo, who lands on the vrock’s beak. Boo bites one of the vrock’s eye, but it is supernaturally hard. Boo jumps off and activates a parachute. Remyria flies up and catches him.

Twiggy gives Evelyn mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and she wakes up. Evelyn “melts” into the kiss. Remyria comes over and puts Evelyn’s boots back on.

The group spots something in the distance. They approach it and see that is a batlike war machine that is damaged but mostly intact. They don’t see any creatures around.

The heroes realize that there is some kind of humanoid creature inside. A mace falls from the sky and hits Remyria, which allows her to remember her spells. The group calls it the “Mace of Spell Granting.”

The Power went out in the building so there is a long break.

Remyria made a bargain with the DM. Mercy and sunshine for the rest of the session.

The interior of the bat is full of crawling severed hands. Evelyn uses divine sense and determines that the hands are evil. The group starts destroying the hands.
There is a woman inside. She tears open her chest to reveal a skeletal snake. Evelyn cuts the snake in half. She tries to cast a spell, but Nosia counterspells it.

She begs for her life, but the group cuts her head off. She’s still alive.They question her and she reveals how to drive the war machine. It turns out that Boo can fly it.

Boo takes the seat, activates the ship, and they take off through space tunnels that only a miniature space hamster can navigate. Suddenly, they emerge from the tunnel and a planet is below them.

They rocket toward a city. Matt uses his soul coin to save the group, crashing the ship into Baldur’s Gate, destroying the statue of Minsc in the process. All of the heroes survive.

There is a big announcement at the very, very end of the stream. There will indeed be a fourth book, but I don't think it is what anyone was expecting.

Death Race

DM: Adam Lee

(Clint McElroy) Merle - Beach Dwarf Cleric
(Travis McElroy) Magnus Burnsides - Human Fighter
(James Haeck) Orellius Wreck - Tiefling of Mammon
(Dael Kingsmill) Carapace Tomahawk - Halfling Fighter
(Ari Levich) The Madcaps of the Scavenger

This game is a PVP situation. The players are divided into groups situated in competing war machines. 

• The Tormenter: In this war machine are Merle & Magnus, who serve a warlord named Bitterbreath, who was once a very powerful devil and hopes to regain lost status.
  Demon Grinder: Orellius and Carapace serve Faeonor. She wants them to recover as many soul coins as they can.
• The Scavenger: The Madcaps serve Mad Maggie. They have stolen a pile of soul coins from Mammon. The other two vehicles are trying to get the soul coins.

Mad Maggie has stolen a cache of soul coins from Mammon, and she has them in her machine, the Scavenger.  Maggie’s war machine heads into a chasm.

A madcap is a new monster - Mad Maggie’s brand of redcap. These creatures were once redcaps who have rolled around in demon ichor. Their hats melted into their face and they are crazy. 

The heroes pursue and their vehicles begin to collide. The players roll initiative.

Merle is driving Demon Grinder. He has demon ichor that can make the vehicle go faster. This stresses out the machine. If he uses the ichor, he will need to roll a d20 every round. Rolling a 1 means that a mishap will occur.

Orellius mans the wrecking ball, and hits the Tormenter with it. He does 39 points. The war machine has a mishap threshold of 20 - since the wrecking ball exceeded this, they roll a mishap. The tormenter’s axle is hit. The vehicle has disadvantage on Dexterity checks.

It can be repaired with a Dex save. The Tormenter has “juke”, which gives Magnus advantage on Dex saves. He is successful and fixes the issue.

The Tormenter has raking scythes. The madcap driver of the Scavenger makes a check and avoids the scythes. Carapace climbs up onto the harpoon station. She only does 6 points, which is below the Tormenter’s damage threshold of 10, and so it does no damage.

The madcaps on the Scavenger look back at the two other vehicles fighting and do nothing.

The Tormenter uses the scythes again and do enough damage to hit the mishap threshold. The tires shred and the vehicle flips over, falls prone, and comes to a dead stop. Any creature on the outside must make a DC 20 DEX save or be thrown from the vehicle. Creatures inside the vehicle must make a DC 15 STR save or take 13 points of bludgeoning. Scurve, the driver, falls unconscious.

Carapace jumps on to the Demon Grinder, Magnus spots her. Magnus punches her with his magic gauntlet, phantom fist. Phantom fist has a special power that knocks you back. She makes her safe.

The Scavenger turns around and drives toward the Demon Grinder. The redcaps on board fire a harpoon, but miss.

Orellius tries to jump onto the Demon Grinder, but James rolls a 2. He misses the vehicle.

Merle casts fireball at Carapace. She fails her save and takes a total of 22 fire damage. Hell warps the fireball, and places devil faces in the flames.

Carapace is on the side of the Tormenter. She moves down the side and is struck by Magnus again.

Orellius casts command on Merle, and tells him to “reverse”. Merle makes his save. Then he dumps some demon ichor into the fuel tube. Then he yells out, “Ramming speed!” and guns it toward the Scavenger. Merle casts shield of faith.

Are there airbags? No. But Adam says if there were, it would be a Hell airbag, possibly full of the screams of the damned.

Carapace shoots a banishing arrow at a madcap. She hits the driver, who is shunted to the feywild for a round.

The Tormenter and the Scavenger are about to collide. Magnus jumps off the Tormenter for safety. He goes flying over the Scavenger, and hits the ground, taking 17 damage. He succeeds on a DEX check to roll to his feet.

The madcaps in the Scavenger shoot harpoons (they do 2d8+1 dmg each) at the Tormenter.

The Tormenter and the Scavenger collide. The Scavenger takes 55 points of damage. The Tormenter is totaled. Merle’s shield of faith protects him somewhat. He take 50 points of damage. Merle is dying!

Carapace is on the roof as the vehicles collide. She makes an Athletics check to hold on, and rolls an 8. She goes flying through the air and takes 35 points of damage. She crashes to the ground and is dying.

Each madcap takes 50 points of damage and they all die.

The Tormenter flips through the air, burning. The soul coins are everywhere.

Orellius trudges over toward the cockpit of the Scavenger and tries to start it with a soul coin. The vehicle is upside down. He needs to get out and try to push it back to the upright position. The DC is a 20, and he rolls a natural 20!

Merle fails his first death save.

Magnus grabs a sack of soul coins. Because he has made a bargain with Bitterbreath, a massive cloud splits above his head. A pit fiend flies down and tells Magnus that he has won. His name is Bel (!). Bel wants to make a deal with Bel to procure his services in the future.

Magnus makes a deal. Bel heals Merle. In exchange, Magnus and Merle will serve Bel for 6 months.

Bel offers to heal Carapace, too. She will have to serve him for one year. Carapace takes the deal.

That was awesome.

End of Stream Announcement

At the end of the convert, Nathan Stewart gets on stage with Anna Prosser and Kate Welch. He's a little buzzed.

Time to make the announcement, as teased on Spoilers and Swag. Kate points out that this product is not linked to Spelljammer. It is a hardcover Eberron book. There's a warforged on the cover. Nathan says Greg Tito doesn't want him to say anything further.

This thing is a work in progress, and it will be ugly until it is done. Right now, this guide is a pile of loose notes that will slowly be organized as I read through the whole book and sort out what you need to know to run this effectively.

In certain cases, I’ve moved information around to keep it all in one spot. For example, I put all the Elfsong info in the same spot when running down the Elfsong Tavern scenario.

For now, this document should serve as a nice way to get a head start on preparing the book or a glimpse to see if it is something you want to run.

Links

Infernal War Machine Rules pdf
Vehicle Chase Rules pdf
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Zariel pdf
Dragon+ Issue 26
WebDM discusses Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus

Summary

1. Elturel has been pulled out of the Realms and into Avernus
2. Zariel is targeting Baldur’s Gate next
3. The heroes are trapped in Baldur’s Gate, as the city is trying to keep out refugees
4. Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard has gone missing - was on a diplomatic mission to Elturel
5. The Flaming Fist drafts the heroes. They must root out followers of Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul.
6. The group learns that the cultists are financed by Thalamra Vanthampur, one of the three dukes of Baldur’s Gate (and secret disciple of Zariel). She’s using money that she stole from Tiamat!
7. Thalamra’s plan is to sabotage the Flaming Fist and take over the city, so that it can be pulled into Avernus.
8. Thalamra has the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which is corrupting the city.
9. Thavius Kreeg, evil former ruler of Elturel, is hiding in the city. If slain, the group will run into him again in devil form (pg 132).
10. The heroes might liberate a spy linked to Sylvira Savikas, an expert on the Nine Hells.
11. Sylvira lives in Candlekeep. Her spies are trying to find the infernal contract Thavius signed, that doomed Elturel.
12. Sylvira can get the group to Avernus. Her friend, Traxigor, can cast plane shift.
13. In Avernus, the group gains a guide - a hollyphant named Lulu (who seems to have some kind of connection to Zariel)..
14. In elturel, the group can ally with Ulder Ravengard.
15. To free Elturel, the group must either destroy “the Companion” or break the chains. Doing either will involve searching Avernus for the means to do so.
16. Lulu begins to remember things about the sword of Zariel. The sword can destroy the Companion.
17. The adventurers might cut a deal with Bel, former ruler of Avernus. They might also run afoul of Yeenoghu’s pet or meet Arkhan the Cruel.

Summary by Character Level

Level 1: The heroes join the Flaming Fist, find Tarina at the Elfsong Tavern, and defeat the pirates hunting her.

Level 2: The group explores the dungeon under the bath house.

Background  (page 7)

Long ago, the angel Zariel led a band of angelic soldiers into Avernus, wading into the Blood War (the eternal war between demons and devils). Some angels fled and went back to Mount Celestia. They are known as the Hellriders.

Zariel lost a hand. She ordered Yael, an ally, to take her sword and hide it. Yael fled with the hollyphant, Lulu.

Zariel and two generals, Olanthius and Haruman, were captured and sent to Nessus, the 9th level of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus welcomed her and gave her control of Avernus, supplanting Bel. Haruman became a narzugon. Olanthius killed himself, and rose up a a death knight.

Zariel felt betrayed by Elturel, and when the city was being threatened by a vampire, she made a contract with Thavius Kreeg. This contract caused a radiant sphere to appear over the city. Inside of it was a trapped planetar. This sphere is known as the Companion.  The light of the Companion drove out the vampire.

Thavius knew that the Companion would eventually shift. He fled the city and hid in Baldur’s Gate. The Companion transformed into an orb of negative energy and pulled Elturel into the Nine Hells.

The Nine Hells is Awful: I really get a kick out of the idea that when a character does something selfish in the Nine Hells, they get inspiration (see pg 9). Make sure you’ve got the right players for something like that, though, as that one player will ruin it for everyone else.

Fireballs: In older editions, fireballs would fall from the sky and sometimes track and target mortal intruders. In this book, it is said that pieces of the lost paradise that once was Avernus fall from the sky as burning meteors (pg 9). Finding a relic of the former paradise gives a fleeting feeling of joy.

Travel in Avernus: The Dm just decides how long it takes to get from one place to another. The Wandering Emporium (pg 126) can show up almost anywhere, at any time.

Chapter 1: A Tale of Two Cities (pg 10)

The Flaming Fist: An army of mercenaries who work for Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard. Ravengard is an honorable man, but the Flaming Fist have been known to be cruel.

Ten days ago, Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard went to Elturel on a diplomatic mission. While he was there, Elturel was pulled into Avernus.

Thavius Kreeg, refugee from Elturel, is being sheltered by Duke Vanthampur. (pg 11)

The Vanthampur family is in debt to Zariel. She and her sons are trying to use the Shield of the Hidden Lord to doom Baldur’s Gate, and get it pulled into Avernus as well.

Gargauth, The 10th Lord of the Nine

The Shield of the Hidden Lord (pg 225) is apparently linked to an archdevil first described in older editions. When I made Emirikol’s Guide to Devils, I dug up all the lore on Gargauth that I could find. Here it is:

In the early days of the Nine Hells, Gargauth lived in Nessus and was one of Asmodeus’s closest advisors. Gargauth realized that a member of the court named Astaroth was actually a demon and a minor deity in disguise. Astaroth had achieved the title Treasurer of Hell, and fled after stealing a number of valuable secrets. The information he stole aids the demons in the Blood War to this day.

Asmodeus ordered Gargauth to hunt down Astaroth. Gargauth did so, defeating Astaroth and consuming his divine spark. Gargauth had acquired godly powers.

Gargauth spent time roaming the planes, utilizing his power to cast plane shift once every 9 days.

Appearance: Gargauth often appears as an 8-foot-tall human with a mustache. He always has a poisonous snake wrapped around his arm.

Weakness: He is vulnerable to silver. It is said that he was once almost killed by a mortal who threw a sack of silver pieces at him.

Current Whereabouts: Prior to Descent Into Avernus, Gargauth was said to be trapped in the Wells of Darkness, an Abyssal prison plane that holds a number of powerful entities.

The heroes should be level 5 when they get to Avernus.

The Basilisk Gate pg 12

Flaming Fist: Very bribeable. 10 gp is enough to be allowed through the gate.

Captain Darmin Zodge (veteran MM pg 350): Evil human trying to prove that he is worthy of running the Flaming Fist.

• Accompanied by 6 veterans (MM pg 350): Issio, Minaqua, Nelestree, Oliver, Soltus, and Thalkara.

Liara Portyr: She runs Fort Beluarian in Chult, and she is on her way to Baldur’s Gate. Her uncle is Duke Dillard Portyr.

Meeting Captain Zodge (pg 12): Zodge gives the heroes a badge and asks them to kill any members of the Dead Three that they can find. Pay: 200 gp. He asks the group to seek out Tarina at the Elfsong Tavern.

Elfsong Tavern (pg 16)

Zodge has spies watching the group. If the heroes don’t go to the Elfsong Tavern within 2 days, he sends 6 veterans (MM pg 350) and a flameskull (MM pg 134) after them.

Don’t Forget the Elfsong: The tavern is haunted by a spirit that sings a song in Elvish every once in a while. On pg 18, there is a section called “Elfsong”. Usually the spirit sings about a lost love, but this time it sings about Elturel.

The group can learn that the Companion is the name of the artificial sun that hovered over Elturel. They can also learn about the Hellriders, the knights of Elturel, and how some of them actually rode into the Nine Hells on horseback to fight devils.

Owner: Alan Alyth (commoner MM pg 345). 75-years old, half-elf. Runs a moneylending business on the side.

Patrons:

• Skrawldar Fane (commoner MM pg 345): No eyebrows.
• Lala Stout (spy MM pg 349): Evil halfling burglar.
• Oloric Witmirth (commoner MM pg 345):Impoverished playwright.
• Whaul Nightley (thug MM pg 350): Jovial half-orc.
• Rahima Sajiressa (acolyte MM pg 342): Astrologer, worships Savras.
• Willow Brownbug (druid MM pg 346): Snooty halfling apothecary.

Tavern Locations (pg 16)

E1. Taproom: Tables, private booths, 3 padded chairs near a fireplace, chest full of games.

• Foods: Fish cakes, crab cakes, cheese-and-potato soup, loaf pudding soaked in syrup and lightly salted almonds.
• Bartender: Alan Alyth
• Servers: Falten and Yimiur (commoners MM pg 345)
• Bouncers: Klank (animated armor MM pg 19) and Skoona (half-ogre MM pg 238)
• Patrons: Commoners MM pg 345 and thugs MM pg 350.

E2. Lounge: People smoke here.

E3. Private Dining Room: Has a mounted green dragon head.

E6. Kitchen: 3 cooks (commoners MM pg 345)

• Chenna Fatrabbit: Cheery halfling chef.
• Azar Valsheem: testy human sous chef.
• Klav Martilmur: Blind human pastry chef.

E7. Upstairs Dining Room: Tables where people are playing Baldur’s Bones, a dice game (see sidebar pg 16). This is where Tarina is.

Dealing With Tarina (pg 18)

• (Real name: Rhonda Thunderbell) Chaotic Evil human bandit (MM pg 343)
• She is cheating at Baldur’s Bones. The people she is playing with are too dumb to notice.,
• She ripped off her fellow pirates on the Uncivil Serpent and has been spending the loot.
• She sometimes works for Nine-Fingers, the local thieves’ guild.
• She will help the heroes if they agree to protect her if the pirates come looking for her (see “With Friends Like These” on pg 19).
• She doesn’t want to share what she knows until the pirates are taken care of (“What Tarina Knows” pg 19.

E8. Private Dining Room: Umber Hulk head mounted on the wall.

E9. Fancy Guest Suite: Canopied bed!

E10. Private Dining Room: Displacer Beast head mounted on the wall.

E11. Large Guest Room: Oshalla (sahuagin priestess MM pg 264) She was exiled from her kingdom and doesn’t really leave the room. Alan Alyth brings her meals.

E13. Alan’s Bedroom: Rug of smothering (MM pg 20) Alan’s got 91 gp, 176 sp and 288 cp in a chest.

With Friends Like These (pg 19): The pirates come to the Elfsong Tavern looking for (“Tarina”) Rhonda Thunderbell.

• Lekard “Dead-Eye” Cadavrus (bandit captain MM pg 344): Tries to kill Tarina on sight. He has a bit of money on him.
• 7 bandits (MM pg 343)
• The Uncivil Serpent: Some wacky groups will probably go check out the pirate ship. 11 bandits (MM pg 343) are on board.
• Sailing Ship (DMG pg 119) AC 15 HP 300 Damage Threshold 15 Crew 20 Cost: 10,000 gp Remember that damage threshold means that you need to do 15 points of damage in one shot to do any damage to the ship at all.

What Tarina Knows (pg 19)

There is a bathhouse nearby that links to a dungeon where the followers of Dead Three are.

Ding, the group hits level 2.

Dungeon of the Dead Three (pg 20)

Cultists of the Dead Three are detailed on pg 231.

The Dead Three are Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul, quasi-divine adventurer entities.

Bane: God of Tyranny

• Seeks to rule the world. Has a jet black right hand.
• His followers are warriors who seek to rule through martial strength.
• Types of agents )pg 232) Fist of Bane, Iron Consul, and Black Gauntlet of Bane.

Bhaal: God of Murder

• Likes to kill those who seem to be beyond the reach of death. Always wears a red handkerchief.
• Agents (pg 233): Night Blade, Reaper of Bhaal, and Death’s Head of Bhaal.

Myrkul: Lord of Bones

• Can bind souls into wax skulls, which can be used to glean knowledge from the deceased.
• His followers are wizards and necromancers.
• Agents (pg 234): Necromite of Myrkul, Skull Lasher of Myrkul, and Master of Souls.

Arrival at the Bathhouse (pg 21): City residents come here during the day and evening.

D1. Courtyard: An imp (MM pg 76) is invisible, watching. It will fly away and alert Thurstwell, Duke Vanthampur’s oldest son, what is happening. Thurstwell is hoping the heroes will kill his brother, Mortlock.

D2. Baths: 1d6 commoners MM pg 345

• Night: 3 night blades (pg 233) guard the place. The necromite (pg 234) from D4 might come to help.

D3. South Massage Room: Jabaz (commoner MM pg 345) androgynous human masseuse. Knows that Duke Thalmra Vanthampur owns the place, fears Mortlock, and knows about secret door in D4 but won’t volunteer it out of fear.

D4. North Massage Room:

• Qurmilah (commoner MM pg 345): Female human masseuse, knows what Jabaz knows.
• Night: Necromite of Myrkul (pg 234)
• Secret Door: Spotted with DC 10 Perception. Beyond it is a staircase that leads down to D5.

D5. Welcome to the Dungeon: Limestone

• Ceilings: Rooms have wooden beams AC 15 10 HP. Destroy all beams: 25% roof collapse. DEX save DC 15, 22 dmg, half dmg on save. Are becomes difficult terrain.
• Doors: AC 15 HP 5
• Water: Certain areas of the map are flooded - difficult terrain.

D6. Bloated Corpse: Dead for 2 days. Was a Bhaal worshiper who failed in his duties.

D7. Bhaal’s Altar: Just a mask.

D8. Moldy Tapestry: Yellow Mold (DMG pg 105)

D9. The Dead Three Doors: Doors depicting Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul.

D10. Necromites’ Room: 3 Necromites of Myrkul (pg 234). They’re pretending to be dead.

D11. Partially Collapsed Crypt:

• Spellbook 1: Burning Hands (PH pg 220), Detect Magic (PH pg 231), Disguise Self (PH pg 233), fog cloud (PH pg 243), ray of sickness (PH pg 271), silent image (PH pg 276).
• Spellbook 2: Charm person (PH pg 221), find familiar (PH pg 240), identify (PH pg 252), magic missile (PH pg 257), sleep (PH pg 276).
• Spellbook 3: Cloud of daggers (PH pg 222), darkvision (PH pg 230), detect magic (PH pg 231), feather fall (PH pg 239), mage armor (PH pg 256), magic missile (PH pg 257), Tasha’s hideous laughter (PH pg 280).

All of these books were owned by necromites. You might want to stick some Myrkul lore in them.

D12. Bane’s Altar:

• Prisoner: Klim Jhasso (noble MM pg 348) He is claiming his family will pay a reward for his return (they won’t).
• Kazzira: Fist of Bane (pg 232)
• Yignath: Iron Consul (pg 232) Is torturing the prisoner. Has a kety on his belt that can be used in D22 and D30.
• Free Klim or touch freestanding suit of platemail: Gauntlets animate and attack as flying swords (MM pg 20)

D13. Morgue:

• Flennis: Master of Souls (pg 234)
• Skeletal Rats: swarm of rats (MM pg 339)
• She has a dusty spellbook. It’s locked (the key to it is in her hair. The first time it is opened, the opener must make a CON sv DC 14. Fail: You are vulnerable to necrotic damage for 24 hours.

D14. Hungry Rat: Rat (MM pg 335)

D15. Flooded Room: Difficult terrain.

D16. Flooded Crypt: Disturb sarcophagus: Ghostly Battleaxe: +5 to hit, 6 (1d8+2) dmg

• Can’t be hit.
• Can be dispelled.
• Acts in initiative count 20.
• Shuts off when all creatures leave the room.

D17. Myrkul’s Altar: It goes like this:

• Light black candles.
• Words appear on the wall: ”RISE AND BE COUNTED”
• Say the words out loud: 3 skeletons (MM pg 272) rise up and serve the speaker until they are destroyed or their new master dies.

D18. Gas Buildup:

I'll be adding more to this regularly. Check back often and thanks for reading!

This is a sort of companion article to my Guide to the Rod of Seven Parts.

I'm running a campaign called Dungeon Academy, where the heroes are trying to assemble the legendary Rod of Seven Parts. Each piece is in a different D&D campaign setting or adventure. They are about to go after the sixth piece. Here's the breakdown:

• 1st Piece (Ruat): Forgotten Realms (Halaster's Maze of Madness)
• 2nd Piece (Coelum): Eberron (Blades of Terror)
• 3rd Piece (Fiat): Barovia (Curse of Strahd)
• 4th Piece (Justitia): The Spelljammer (Legend of the Spelljammer)
• 5th Piece (Ecce): Sigil (homebrewed Planescape stuff)
• 6th Piece (Lex): Avernus (Descent Into Avernus)
• 7th Piece (Rex): Pandemonium (Rod of Seven Parts Boxed Set)

The group has just gotten the 5th piece. They stole it from Shemeshka the Marauder and almost got killed by the Lady of Pain.

Next session, I'm planning on having an NPC from the boxed set, a dude named Arquestan, show up and sort of hype the group up/reinforce the backstory. He's going to tell them about the ancient war between Law and Chaos.

The boxed set tells you the story, but I know that in 3rd edition, there are a ton of details added. The war, and specifically, the final battle of Pesh, has a lot of moving parts and each detail makes it more interesting.

I did a bunch of research and figured this might come in handy if you ever use the Rod of Seven Parts in your game. I'm sure I have missed details, but I gave it my best shot.

So first, let's go over the two sides.

Law

The side of "Law" began not as Lawful Good, just lawfulness in general.Chaotic Good creatures would not join up with the Wind Dukes.

• The Wind Dukes of Aaqa: Ancient wind people who had a vast empire that spread across multiple worlds and planes. They more or less ruled the Inner Planes at one time.
• Yan-C-Bin: The Princess of Evil Elemental Air!
• The Good Archomentals: Princes of Elemental Good: Chan, Ben-hadar, Sunnis, and Bristia Pel (princess of Fire).
• Chilimba: Evil Prince of Magma. Killed Bristia Pel and was ousted.
• Ehkahk: Evil Prince of Smok. Killed Bristia Pel and was ousted.
• Aarakocra: The bird-people from the 5e MM. 
• Wind Warriors: Suits of armor animated by wind.
• Salamanders
• Djinn
• Air Elementals 
• Elemental Weirds: It was their powers of prophecy who helped the Wind Dukes keep ahead of the Queen of Chaos. 
• Sionsiar: A snow weird who was close with the Wind Duke general, Icosiel. She was eventually assassinated by one of the Queen of Chaos's agents.
• Inevitables
• Mud Sorcerer Cults

Chaos

• The Queen of Chaos: An obyrith/demon lord of incredible power.
• Miska the Wolf Spider: Her creation and consort. Miska became the Prince of Demons, ruler of the Abyss. His blood can actually kill on contact and is what corrupted the Rod of Law at the Battle of Pesh.
• Demons: Many of which were created by the Queen of Law, including her spyder-fiends from the Rod boxed set.
• Princes of Elemental Evil: Ogremoch, Imix, Cryonax, and Olhydra.
• Cabiri: An ancient obyrith who was made up mostly of eyes. He had great powers of prophecy. He foresaw the Queen's defeat and abandoned her on the battlefield.
• Kizarvidexus: A demon lord whose remains eventually became trapped in the Wells of Darkness.
• Artophanx: An earth elemental described as a "lout" who fought at the side of Ogremoch. 
• Slaad: The Queen of Chaos "rallied" them. There is at least one reference that the Queen of Chaos came from Limbo, so she may be linked to the slaad in some fashion.
• Legions of Earh Elementals: Led by Ogremoch, who was very involved in the war.
• Reject: Astaroth/Diabolus, a demon who had successfully infiltrated the court of the archdevil Asmodeus, wanted to join the Queen of Chaos, was rejected. As a demon lord of prophecy, it can be assumed that the Queen trusted Cabiri over this known spy.

The Battle of Pesh

Here's a short summary of what happened at the decisive final battle of the war.

• White Plume Mountain: The volcanic field of Pesh is on the world of Oerth, right near White Plume Mountain.
• Evil Prince: Yan-C-Bin eventually left the Wind Dukes, due to increasing friction with the good elemental princes.
• Earth vs. Earth: Sunnis, Good Princess of Elemental Earth, and Ogremoch, Evil Prince of Elemental Earth, actually fought each other on the battlefield. By taking on Ogremoch, Sunnis cleared a path for the Wind Dukes to get to Miska.
• Death of Zosiel: A Wind Duke named Zosiel, who was using a sphere of annihilation in the battle, was killed by Kizarvidexus just before the Rod of Law was employed. It is also said he was killed by a beam of energy shot from Miska's eyes.
• Death of Kizarvidexus: The demon lord was killed by the Wind Duke general, Icosiol.
• The Rod of Law: It was a wind duke named Icosiel who plunged the Rod of Law into Miska. Miska's blood broke the rod into 7 pieces and tore a rift open in the multiverse.
• Miska Flees: The wind dukes chased the weakened Miska to Pandemonium and sealed him in the Citadel of Chaos. 
• The Queen of Chaos Hides: She retreated to the Steaming Fens, a deep Abyssal Layer.
• Eladrin Host: The Court of Stars sent in an "eladrin host" to the Abyss through a portal in Arborea, wiping out and chasing off most of the obyriths and their demonic servants.

Wind Dukes

Here's some collected Wind Duke Lore.

Glyphs: Each Wind Duke has a glyph as their personal symbol that represents their name.

The Guardian of the Vale: The Wind Dukes believe in this entity, who "stands between the lands of sleep and wakefulness".

Known Wind Dukes: These people have been named and/or detailed in official products:

• Icosiol: The Wind Duke General at the Battle of Pesh. Died in the battle. He is the Wind Duke who plunged the Rod of Law into Miska. Titles include Lord of Aaqa, Wandering Duke, Bearer of the Rod of Law. He had a winged helmet and wielded two swords - the Lightning Sword and the Sword of Aaqa. Icosiol could clang them together to create sonic shockwaves.
• Zosiel: Killed by a demon at the Battle of Pesh. He had a talisman of the sphere which controlled a sphere of annihilation.
• Nadrocs: A Wind Duke architect who built the Wind Duke Tombs nead the Fields of Pesh.
• Arquestan: A genderless Wind Duke who travels the Material Plane with hounds of law. Arquestan often goes in disguise as a female performer named Arquesta, who uses little trained rats as part of the act. In the boxed set, Arquestan guides the heroes through their quest.
• Qadeej: It is also said that Qadeej is the one who used the Rod of Law. (Wandering Duke) Qadeej would later become obsessed with re-starting the war, and actually turned evil. In the boxed set, Qadeej eventually shows up and tries to manipulate the heroes.
• (Wandering Duke) Amophar
• (Wandering Duke) Darbos
• (Wandering Duke) Emoniel
• (Wandering Duke) Penader
• (Wandering Duke) Uriel

Rod of Seven Parts Boxed Set


Aeons ago, the wind dukes (also known as the vaati) ruled a vast empire spread over several worlds on the Material Plane, with footholds throughout the planes. When war between Law and Chaos erupted, the vaati were nearly annihilated.

"In a time long ago, war raged across the cosmos between the forces of Law and Chaos. Though the armies of the Queen of Chaos won most battles, they were forced to withdraw after their great general, Miska the Wolf Spider, was defeated and imprisoned by the Wind Dukes of Aaqa."

The Rod of Law: The Wind Dukes created the Rod of Law to slay Miska. Unfortunately, the artifact merely wounded him and was itself shattered in the process. In the centuries since the final battle, the Queen of Chaos has scored the multiverse, looking for the rod. If assembled, the rod could slay Miska, but it also holds the key to healing him and releasing him from his eternal imprisonment.

The War occurred in the Age of Legends. The roots of the conflict are obscure, and warfare "raged on several worlds".

Guardians of Law: Wind Dukes of Aaqa were scions of an empire already ancient at the war's beginning.

• Stalemate: The war was a stalemate until the Queen of Chaos appointed a powerful demon as her new general, Miska the Wolf Spider.
• Chaos Dominant: Miska's chaos army conquered world after world.
• No Chaotic Good: The Wind Dukes started recruiting good creatures. Chaotic good creatures had abandoned the Queen of Chaos and would not join the wind dukes.
• The Captains of Law: "After a hurried council, the most powerful champions in the Wind Dukes' armies withdrew from the war, leaving their best troops, the Captains of Law, to resist Miska as best that they could."
• The Rod: The seven champions created the Rod of Law. "When the Rod was completed, the seven champions rejoined the conflict at the battle of Pesh, on the world of Oerth."

The Battle of Pesh: This is where Miska fought the wielder of the rod and their companion.

• Heroic Death: The companion perished in a selfless attack so that the rod bearer drove the weapon into Miska's body.
• Multiverse Fabric: Miska's blood covered the rod, Law and Chaos mixed together and the "fabric of the multiverse ripped asunder".
• Rift: The Rod shattered into seven pieces and Miska was sent through a planar rift.
• Hard to Kill: Miska survived, but a portion of his being remained in the rod.
• Retreat: Miska retreated to a Citadel of Chaos. The Wind Dukes intervened, imprisoning him in a cocoon of pure law and casting him into the depths of Pandemonium.
• Mystery Dude: The Wind Duke who followed Miska through the rift has disappeared from the chronicles.

Dungeon Magazine 124 - The Whispering Cairn

This issue contains the first adventure in the Age of Worms adventure path. This path combines all sorts of D&D concepts that, at the time, were somewhat overlooked, into one big storyline. This particular adventure involves a dungeon that is actually a crypt where one of the Wind Dukes who died at the Battle of Pesh is interred.

Miska and his demonic legions laid siege to the Wind Dukes' territory, routing the elemental armies and snuffing out the culture of Aaqa one world at a time.

The Wandering Dukes: A consortium of seven great Wind Duke warriors known as the "Wandering Dukes" created the Rod of Law.

Tombs: Hundreds of Wind Dukes remained at Pesh, many dead or dying from wounds sustained in the tumultuous final battle. Their tombs were bult in hills near Pesh. One smaller tomb contained the corpse of Zosiel, a warrior prince who fell to a demon's blow shortly before the Wandering Dukes employed the Rod of Law.

In ancient days, a grand ring of portals connected several Wind duke burial cairns.

The Whispering Cairn: Zosiel's tomb, built by a Wind Duke named Nadrox.

• Wind Duke Glyphs: Each Wind Duke had a glyph as their own personal symbol.
• The Chronicle of Chan: A book falsely attributed to a princess of elemental air, records a full roster of wind dukes present at Pesh
• Stone Egg: The dormant form of a hibernating earth elemental who served at Ogremoch's side at the Battle of Pesh. An evil lout named Artophanx.

The Guardian of the Vale: A mythical Wind Duke figure who stands between the lands of sleep and wakefulness. Wields a cylinder-headed great club.

The Wandering Dukes: Amophar, Darbos, Emoniel, Icosiol, Penader, Qadeej, and Uriel. Qadeej is the one who impaled Miska. Icosiol was struck by a beam from Miska's eyes and slumped to the ground, dead.

Wind Warriors: Ancient ceremonial armor animated by a fierce wind. Wind Warriors served the Wind dukes as shocktroopers in the war. Suits of ceramic ceremonial plate armor and swords were infused with minor air spirits. When slain, the armor and weapons crumble to dust. They cannot speak. They can clang their swords together to create a sonic blast.

The First Spheres of Annihilation: Zosiel had a talisman of the sphere that controlled a sphere of annihilation. "Many legends suggest that the deedly spheres were created during the great war between Law and Chaos."

Dungeon Magazine 129 - A Gathering of Winds


This adventure involves another Wind Duke tomb.

The Wind Duke Empire: The Wind dukes ruled a vast empire. Air and lightning powered their magic. The empire once included most of the elemental planes, the City of Brass. They ruled the Inner Planes and civilization thrived.

Dozens of other elemental and lawful races swore fealty to the Wind Dukes, including djinn, salamanders, inevitables, and mud sorcerer cults.

The Queen of Chaos rallied slaad, demons and others to her cause.

Icosiel: At the Battle of Pesh, the Wind Duke general Icosiel perished.

• Icosiel, Lord of Aaqa, Wandering Duke, Bearer of the Rod of Law, used the Rod of Law to defeat Miska and the Queen of Chaos.
• The dead wind dukes were buried in shrines on the Material Plane where they fell.
• Had a winged helmet and two swords
• Another Wind Duke who died was Zosiel, slayer of the demon Kisvidexus.

One of the greatest resources utilized by the Wind dukes were elemental weirds - they gave advice in exchange for gifts and offerings.

Sionsiar: A snow weird oracle that was friends with Icosiol. She was killed during an offensive against the weirds.

Items: There's some sweet Wind Duke magic items:

• Ring of the Wind Dukes: Cast charm monster once per day, turn into a 60 foot-long line of lightning.
• Lightning Sword: Cast fly three times per day. +2 shocking burst.
• Sword of Aaqa: +2 axiomatic mithril long sword. Critical hits cause gusts of wind. When wielded with the lightning sword, both blades can be struck together to create a sonic wave in a 30 foot cone.

Dragon Magazine 347 - Princes of Elemental Evil: The Archomentals


Several of the Princes fought in the ancient Wars between Law and Chaos that spanned several Material Plane worlds in the Age Before Ages. The good archomentals sided with the Wind Dukes The evil princes sided with the Queen of Chaos. ThT'S Cryonax, Imix, Ogremoch, Olhydra

Yan C Bin sided with the wind dukes

Ogremoch sided with the Queen of Chaos. He contributed legions of earth elementals and was the most involved of the evil princes. Ogremoch was present at the battle of Pesh.

Dragon Magazine 353 - Princes of Elemental Good


"During their genesis, the mortal wars between Law and Chaos raged on. The four fledgling archomentals - Chan, Ben-hadar, Sunnis, and Bristia Pel (princess of Fire) - became comrades, and after obseving the conflict they concluded that the side of Law should also be the side of Good.
The good princes joined the Wind Dukes, but were dismayed to find evil elementals among the forces of Law":

• Yan C Bin: Evil Elemental Ait
• Chilimba: Evil Magma
• Ehkahk: Evil Smoke

The drama unfolded like this:

• Murder: Chilimba and Ehkahk ambushed and destroyed Bristia Pel. they were kicked out of Team Law for this unsportsmanlike conduct.
• Abandonment: Ben-Hadar abandoned the wind dukes and even joined up with Chaos for a time.
• Princess of Earth: Sunnis remained with the wind dukes.
• Earth vs. Earth: Sunnis first glimpsed Ogremoch at the Battle of Pesh and they fought nearly to the death. Sunnis distracted Ogremoch long enough to allow the Wind Dukes to use the Rod of Law.
• Fun Fact: "Using a powerful artifact called the Sands of Slumber, Sunnis forced the tarrasque into dormancy for most of its existence, thus limiting the creature's ability to affect the Material Plane."

Dragon Magazine 357 - Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Demogorgon


Before the demons existed, the obyriths ruled the Abyss. One of their number - "a self-styled Queen of Chaos whose true name has been stricken from time" - gathered their numbers and marched in a war on the multiverse.

The Beginning of the War: When the Queen of Chaos marched on the multiverse, her first act was to strike against Obox-ob, the oldest of the obyriths. She defeated him, and he fled into the depths of the Abyss.

The Queen of of Chaos was the first to cultivate mortal souls. She turned them into demons.
The first demon she created was Demogorgon! She tossed him aside, as he was uncontrollable.

She formed demons from different mortal vices:

• Lust: Succubi
• Envy: Glabrezu
• Sloth: Alkiliths

Miska: The Queen of Chaos used sibriex fleshwarpers to adjust and transform the demons further. The most powerful of these was Miska the Wolf Spider.

The Queen of Chaos crowned him the new Prince of Demons and sent him to march on the multiverse. Her army was defeated by Law, and she was forced to flee and hide in the Steaming Fen deep in the Abyss.

Other obyriths were attacked by an eladrin host and from within by their own slaves.

The Shining Vortex of Mesnar: A portal that connects Arborea to the Abyssal woodlands of Morathkian. This portal was used by the eladrin court to invade the Abyss, in an attempt to finish the job against the obyriths. It is now guarded by Ilsidahur, the demon lord of the barlgura.

Astaroth/Diabolus: A demon lord of prophecy who is now a vestige. Wanted to fight alongside the Queen of Chaos, but was rejected. 

Cabiri the Watching Master: A many-eyed tyrant who once ruled Pazunia. He advised the Queen of Chaos often during the war.

Cabiri foresaw the Queen's defeat and fled the Battle of Pesh. This crippled her forces and allowed for the Queen's defeat.

Dungeon Magazine 148 - The Wells of Darkness

Kizarvidexus: Kizarvidexus is trapped in a well. "This long-dead demon lord, described as a cloaked demonic figure with two long curved horns tipped in darkest red, served the Queen of Chaos in her war with the Wind Dukes."

"Some time after Kizarvidexus destroyed the Wind Duke Zosiel, the demon himself was slain by another Wind Duke named Icosiol."

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss


Obox-ob had his title of Prince of Demons stolen from him by the Queen of Chaos, who killed him and granted his title to Miska the Wolf-Spider. Although Obox-ob was slain, his most powerful aspect survived and went into hiding on a deep layer of the Abyss called Zionyn.

"There, on the Field of Pesh in the shadow of a great volcano called White Plume Mountain, Miska the Wolf-Spider fell in battle to the Wind Dukes of Aaqa.."

The Wind Dukes trapped Miska in an extradimensional prison on pandemonium.

5e Monster Manual

Aarakocra (MM pg 12)

Search for the Seven Shards: "In service to the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, aarakocra scout the planes in search of temples of Elemental Evil.

"The Wind Dukes of Aaqa come from a race of elemental beings called the vaati." That's odd, as in the 2e boxed set the vaati are said to just be another named for the Wind Dukes.

Aarakocra seek signs of the pieces' locations in order to rebuild what is now known as the Rod of Seven Parts.

Elder Evils


The Queen of Chaos tried to recruit a demon lord of parasites named Sertrous, but he killed every agent of hers that came to his lair. The Queen destroyed his body and cast his essence in the gulf between planes as one might cast aside a carcass."

Against the Cult of Chaos

This is one of those D&D Encounters adventures that came out right when 4e was ending and the 5e playtest had begun. What a weird adventure! Here's how they describe it in the book:

"Against the Cult of Chaos is a strange mash-up of three classic D&D adventures: The Keep on the     Borderlands, Village of Hommlet, and Against the Cult of the Reptile God. It also includes some story elements from another adventure, Rod of Seven Parts, specifically the story of Miska the Wolf-Spider. This adventure combines the villages of Hommlet and Orlane into the single village of Hommel Lane, and turns the tower of Rufus and Burne into a version of the Keep on the Borderlands. It drops all of this into a nebulous setting defined in part by the conflict between the Queen of Chaos and the Lawbringer, two generic deities with no place in any known D&D world."

Plot: A cult of Miska are trying to establish a permanent connection to Miska's "prison plane."Miska was able to send small bits of his essence through a crack in the planes to create three items of power.

Miska's prison drains his power, forcing him to rest for a century between intervals of expelling his essence through the crack.

A villager named Haffron Hommel found the Caves of Chaos. There was a temple of chaos which contained the Chaos Mote, the terminus of Miska's power. Haffron sacrificed himself to keep the mote in check.

The Chaos Mote: A huge, cracked silver sphere, allows cultists to harness the raw power of chaos. A villager threw their body into the mote to stop it from growing.

Miska's Items:

• The Chaos Blade: When you strike your enemy with this weapon, a small measure of your foe's life force is absorbed by this weapon and directed into you (you are coated in sweet temporary hit points!).
• The Death Circlet: This black circlet has seven green gems set in it. They are dull and dead, as if any magical power they once held had been spent. When you kill people, you can store their souls in the gems and then expend their energy to heal yourself or do extra damage.
• The Scroll of Final Words: Any attempt to destroy it ends in failure. You can use this to regain an expended spell slot.

Links

So When Exactly was the Law/Chaos War? Try reading this... you'll lose hours of time as you fall deeper and deeper into D&D lore.

I am running a campaign called Hell's Rebels. It is a Pathfinder adventure path that I am converting to 5th edition. We are right now in book 5 out of 6.

One character, Fio, is linked to a fey entity called Verenestra, so I decided to use her in the game. I know nothing about the fey in D&D. I do not understand even the basic set-up. In older editions there was a "Seelie Court", but in newer editions there is a "Court of the Stars".

This article is my initial foray into trying to get a handle on the fey in D&D. Verenestra seems to only be detailed in one or two products. I'll go over her info, and then I'm going to start to dig outward. I'll look into the dryads, nymphs and sylphs that she is a god of, and then maybe read up on wherever that takes me next.

Monster Mythology


I love this book! It's got so much stuff in it.

Verenestra

She is the patron goddess of dryads, nymphs, and sylkies. She's fickle and vain, yet lotal tot he Seelie Court.

She has a "bower" in the Seelie Court, resplendent with silver birches and a fringe of willows. The trees are decorated with "living silver filigree", and there are many mirrors with silver frames.

Verenestra appears as a "demure, slim female" who is always barefoot. She generally wears "one or two handkerchief-sized garments of gossamer which are carefully designed to not quite disguise her female charms."

She has many abilities, including the following:

• With a wave of her hand, she can cast sanctuary on all creatures she can see.
• Charm person at will.
• Calm emotions at will.
• Mass polymorph at will.

She also has a +3 dagger of frosted silver, studded with moonstones.

That's it! That's Verenestra.

5e Dungeon Master's Guide

Let's make a quick pit stop to page 49 of the DMG. There is a sidebar that explains the Seelies and Unseelie Fey.

• Queen Titania: Rules the seelie fey and her Summer Court.
• The Queen of Air and Darkness: Rules the unseelie fey and her Gloaming Court.

The courts aren't necessarily split among the lines of good and evil. Ugly creatures (fomorians and hags) aren't members of either court.

Dragon Magazine 87 - Ecology of the Dryad


These ecology articles are so wacky. They're written in short story form, with game notes in citation form. This one features a number of NPCs who dole out the factoids:

• Belzime: The druidess of the Eastern Wood.
• Old Malec: A sage who teaches young students.
• Hibiscus: An aged elven woman.
• Robinia: A "flame-haired beauty".

We learn that oak trees can form their tree-souls into animate shapes. The dryad is a permanent physical form of an oak tree's soul. The dryad lives around and in the oak tree, and if the tree dies, the dryad dies.

Dryads can communicate with all plant life, and are good friends with treants. Dryads often sleep/hibernate all through the winter months.

The Terel: Dryads are unable to travel more than 1,000 feet from their oak tree. This area they live in is called a terel. If a dryad is taken outside of the terel, they die in 6-36 hours after suffering from "gligimer" (starvation/exhaustion/depression).

Making Babies: How do they make babies, you ask? Well! Let me tell you. First off, dryads like to charm "young men with low intelligence." Their ability to magically charm creatures is very potent! Roll a d6. on a 1-3, the charm is permanent! On a 4-6, the charm last weeks, months, or years. In general, the less intelligent the victim, the longer they are charmed.

When a dryad has a kid with a mortal, the offspring is always a female dryad. When a dryad has a kid with a satyr, the child is always a male satyr.

Dragon Magazine 109 - Hooves and Green Hair


This article discusses half-satyrs and half-dryads. A half-dryad is the offspring of a dryad and a human.

Half-dryads are female. When they reach the age of 12, their hair turns brilliant green.

They are mostly resistant to charm spells. They are serious and "not given to excess drinking of alcoholic beverages" and they love to sing and dance. Half-dryads live up to 225 years.

5e Monster Manual - Dryad

OK, let's see what current dryads are like.

Punishment: In the old article, dryads were basically grown from the souls of older oak trees. Here, it says that powerful fey will sometimes bind lesser fey spirits to trees, transforming them into dryads.

There is no terel, but if the tree is harmed, the dryad suffers. If the tree is destroyed, the dryd descends into madness.

So. What is a "hamadryad"? I have no idea! Let's find out.

Dragon Magazine 101 - Creature Collection III


A dryad has a terel. A hamadryad does not. Hamadryads are free to wander. They are still linked to their oak tree, but they can leave the tree and travel any distance.

Civilization is Deadly: The thing is, they start to get sick if they leave the forest and enter civilization. Hamadryads need to be close to nature and must get sunlight, otherwise they will die within 10-20 days. need sunlight

Other Traits:

• Hamadryads have green eyes and green hair.
• They can use a dimension door-type ability to travel from tree to tree.
• Hamadryads can magically compel people to perform a service - usually protecting a forest from woodcutters, that sort of thing.
• Speak with plants.
• Can magically quench fires.
• Their touch cures nilbogism.

Nilbogism: Check out Volo's Guide to Monsters pg 183. A nilbog is a possessing spirit that can inhabit a goblin and cause chaos. It actually has the ability to reduce damage it has taken to 0 and regain 1d6 hit points and can charm those who try to do it harm.

Goblin tribes fear nilbogs, which are apparently the remains of a trickster deity that Maglubiyet splintered into a spirit form.

Heroes of The Feywild


The Hamadryad is a player race in this book. Hamadryads are the incarnate spirits of living oak trees - part flesh, part wood, and part fey spirit.

They have the ability to harden their flesh to match that of the oldest tree.

Fathagn: The Dryad Queen is named Fathaghn. She lives in a briar maze known as the Maze of Fathagn.

Dragon Magazine 240 - Ecology of the Nymph


This story involves what I believe are recurring NPCs in these articles. They are the Monster Hunters Association. I dare you to use them in your game:

• Dreelix
• Zantoullios
• Grindle the Coin-Counter
• Willowquisp
• Buntleby
• Ablasta: A conjurer. The only female member.

In this yarn, the guys drool and bang pots over their head when a nymph tries to join their group. Ablasta, the only female monster hunter, scoffs jealously. I could have sworn Willowquisp was female!

Blinding Beauty: Mortals go permanently blind if they look at a nymph. This happens even if the victim glimpses their reflection in a mirror or on the surface of water. Satyrs are immune to this effect.

Those blinded by a nymph are caught up in a rapturous magical condition in which the brain becomes overloaded by beauty. This euphoria lasts 2-20 minutes, and during this time the victim is unaware of surroundings.

Did you know that nymph hair is a precious commodity? Check it out.

• Potions: You can use a lock of a nymph's hair to make a sleeping potion. The victim falls asleep for 2d4 hours.
• Charisma Clothing: If you weave at least 20 strands of nymph hair into a garment, that garment confers a +1 to Charisma while being worn!

Bond with the Land: Each nymph is bonded with patch of land. When she gains a physical wound, that land is damaged as well. If the nymph dies, that land becomes despoiled and cursed.

Other Nymph Traits:

• Treasure: Nymphs collect treasure, usually from lovesick admirers. They usually have about 10-40 gemstones.
• Potion-Making: Nymphs can make potions: Potions of healing, vitality, antitoxins, and elixirs of health. They primarily use these potions on their animal friends.
• Unicorns: Nymphs have a special relationship with unicorns. Unicorns have been known to protect nymphs with their lives.

Dragon Magazine 313 - Half-Nymph


This is a player race! Not much to it. Here's their special traits:

• They can use their awesome beauty to force all within 30 feet to make a saving throw or be "shaken".
• Half-nymphs are immune to charm person.
• They get +2 to DEX, INT, WIS, +4 CHA. Not too shabby! 

Dragon Magazine 155 - The Folk of the Faerie Kingdom


Seriously. What is a sylph? I have no idea.

According to this article, sylphs are perhaps the rarest of faeries. They have gossamer wings and serve as messengers for Rhiannon, the Faerie Queen (who "dwells within an alternate Prime Material plane consisting of endless magical forests, glens, and rivers).

Their duties include:

• Delivering messages to Rhiannon's servants
• Delivering pronouncements/summonings/advice to druids.
• On rare occasions, they bring mortals to the Faerie Queen to receive counsel.

Sylphs can enter and leave the "Realm of Faerie" at will. They apparently can cast fireball.

3e Monster Manual II

Natives of the Elemental Plane of Air, sylphs have a liking for the Material Plane. They look like small, beautiful women with translucent, colorful wings. They become invisible at the approach of strangers, but their natural curiosity prevents them from fleeing.

Sylphs have some abilities:

• They can cast spells of up to 3rd level
• They can turn invisible at will
• Once per day they can summon an elemental.

Dragon 420 - Fey of Wood and Wind

Sylphs are cousins to nymphs. They have strong ties to elemental air, to the point that some live in the Elemental Chaos. They are partly made of air and shifting clouds. Some can actually become clouds.

They sometimes shrink to the size of pixies and attend merry balls in toadstool rings.

The Game of Omens: A sylph disguises herself as a cloud formation until she spots an interesting creature below. They try to trick the person into thinking they've seen an omen of great importance.

Sylph Windshaper: This is a special variant of a sylph. They have special powers:

• It can create blasts of wind that move enemies around.
• It can create thunderstorms.
• It can assume mist form or change shape into a medium or small creature. 

So... yeah. I only scratched the surface. The amount of 4e lore on fey is INSANE. I sort of want to sort through it all.

Fey vs Demons

In my Dungeon Academy campaign, the group is battling the Queen of Chaos. At the end of the War Between Law and Chaos, an "eladrin host" led by Gwynharwyf (a fey entity detailed in the Savage Tide adventure path) swept in to the Abyss and slaughtered many demons and obyriths. The obyriths were all but done in, though the Queen of Chaos and Obox-ob survived.

Maybe, once we resolve the Rod of Seven Parts quest, the Fey will recruit the heroes to go ahead and try to finish the job - assassinate the Queen of Chaos and other obyrith stragglers.

This would give the group the opportunity to meet the Court of Stars and use all this material. Fey vs demons is an interesting mix to me.

Today I’m going to try to review the newest D&D adventure, Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. I read the whole thing, I wrote a guide to it, I ran a bit of it, and I’ll be running more of it in my Dungeon Academy campaign.

I’m going to go in depth, so there will be major spoilers throughout this review.

The Good

I am a big fan of the planes in D&D, especially the Nine Hells, so I was very happy when I first heard about this book. I was even more thrilled when I found out they were going to flesh out Zariel, a D&D entity that had been around for a long time but was barely ever described in any of the old books.

Zariel: I just think Zariel is cool, both in her angel incarnation and in her devil form. She’s a bad guy with depth, someone who has specific goals in mind. She’s not necessarily someone you have to fight - she’s someone you have to interact with. Some groups might want to save her, while others might want to destroy her. I really like that she’s not a generic “bad guy”.

I’m a little torn on the hollyphant sidekick. It just seems a bit too silly, even for me.

Stat Blocks: In each book, they change up how they present the adventure. This time around, some stat blocks and items are presented in the immediate text rather than in an appendix in the back. I prefer this, as I always like it when all the information I need is right there on the page in question.

Running a D&D session is complicated enough without having to flip all over the book to get the information I need.

Also, I should note that while I have virtually no interest in the Baldur's Gate section, the "Cultist of the Dead Three" stat blocks are phenomenal. They're short, but each has some kind of cool power that sets it apart.

The Art: I think this is my favorite cover of them all so far. One of my biggest beefs with 5e art is that too much of it lacks a certain “badass” quality that older editions had. This cover definitely works in that regard..!

I still maintain that for whatever reason, the best art in 5e is of landscapes, not people. I’d also say that the item art is better, too. The soul coin on page 226 is great, as is the battle standard of infernal power on page 223. I could do without the shadow of it, but no big deal.

I also like the inclusion of concept art. I guess it is not particularly useful, but it feels like a valuable addition. I love D&D art, so maybe I am biased.

War Machine Rules: Looking at them now, what amazes me is that the war machine stuff is all contained on just a few pages, but you can get many sessions of fun out of it. If you don’t like the war machine concept, you can easily discard the whole idea and you still have an entire adventure’s worth of material to use.

It’s something that makes this adventure very unique. That said, I can see why some people might not like it. These are literally cars in D&D. It’s a bit much, and a pretty blatant Mad Max reference.

On top of that, it seems to me that if you’re going to rip off Mad Max, then this stuff should be in Dark Sun, not the first layer of Hell, which already has tons of content from older editions to be expanded upon.

All told, I personally like the war machines. Like the dinosaur races in Tomb of Annihilation, this concept makes the adventure stand out and it’s just plain fun, which really is what D&D is all about, right?

Soul Coins: When I was writing Emirikol’s Guide to Devils, one thing I couldn’t figure out was how exactly souls were used as currency in Hell. Some books said that soul larvae were used.

Soul larvae are foot-long worms with faces of people! Hags would collect them into herds in the Gray Wastes! I was a bit baffled how somebody could carry this “currency” around in bulk.

Check out page 225. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that they gave soul coins their own magic item entry! Now we have all the details we need.

• Non-evil creatures suffer when carrying them.
• You can commune with the soul inside.
• You can expend the soul for temporary hit points.
• Rules on how to free the soul.
• Where soul coins are “minted”.

Amazing! So much material, so many cool ideas, all in more or less one column of one page.

Blood War: I’m also really happy that they dug into the Blood War to a degree in this book, and that they didn’t make it yugoloth-centric. The use of yugoloths in 2e in particular just made things too complicated for me. It really felt like yugoloths were the stars of everything for a period there, way back when. I think the prime focus of the Blood War should obviously be on demons vs. devils.

It does feel a little odd to me that demon lords are just running around on the first layer of Hell. Kostchchie just showed up? And he ended up in chains? I would think that the arrival of a single demon lord on the first layer of the Nine Hells should be a bigger deal. Wouldn’t Asmodeus take an interest in this?

Flying Fortresses: I love the idea of the flying fortresses, I love how they look, and I love what they do. Check out the image of the docked fortress pulling souls out of the River Styx on page 123. That’s just awesome.

Hellfire: Another thing I struggled with in Emirikol’s Guide to Devils was hellfire. Hellfire is this special kind of flame discovered by Mephistopheles. In older editions, if you were hit by a spell or item that used hellfire, it bypassed fire resistance. In Pathfinder, I believe, hellfire does both fire and necrotic damage.

I really struggled with how to make hellfire feel special without being overpowered, or to use it in a way that violated the 5e simple-but-effective design sense.

Check out what the hellfire weapon does on page 223: “Any humanoid killed by an attack made with this weapon has its soul funneled into the River Styx, where it’s reborn instantly as a lemure devil (described in the Monster Manual).”

Oh! OK. Holy crap. They took a hard left turn with it, but they made it scary in an interesting - terrifying - way. I love this so much. The players can and should be terrified of bad guys wielding these things.

The Bad

Now we’ll go over the stuff I didn’t like. Please remember this is just one dude’s opinion, and that my opinion is likely to change over time.

Baldur’s Gate: I don’t want Baldur’s Gate mixed in with my Hell stuff. I just want the Hell stuff. The first 44 pages of this book are in a fantasy city on a mortal world, when the players have been promised devil shenanigans.

My big fear is that groups will sit down to play this adventure, and will have quit/fizzled out before they even get to Hell. A lot of groups take a while to play through these adventures, and just getting their characters to level 5 can take months of real life gaming.

I have worked out an alternate beginning to this adventure that avoids Baldur’s Gate entirely. I’ll write it up at some point soon.

The previous published adventures - Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage, are set in a Forgotten Realms city. This scenario just feels too similar to the last two. You’re in a city, here’s a location/dungeon to hack through. I think that more variety is needed.

Too Much/Too Little: In the past, I have written about how the most important thing in an adventure for me is good ideas. Ideas that inspire me and get me excited to actually run the adventure. I can’t handle walls of text and/or pages of description on the minutiae of how a trap or room works.

This adventure most definitely avoids this pitfall, but goes too far in the opposite direction. The entire Avernus section is full of bite-sized chunks of encounters that, in my opinion, aren’t fleshed out enough.

Remember the Thay chapter in Rise of Tiamat? It was about two pages long, and consisted of a weird dream that the heroes would have while hanging out with the Red Wizards.

In some cases here in Descent Into Avernus, we get scenarios hampered by brevity. Check out page 97 - The Tower of Urm. It is Mordenkainen’s tower in Hell! A tower that can shift between the planes! Home to one of D&D's most famous NPCs. The description of it consists of one column of text.

What’s in it? I don’t know. This is a cool place and it deserved to be fully expanded upon! I’m glad it is in the book, but it comes off as boring. I’ve been given a homework assignment - design the tower. The main reason that I buy adventures is so that I don’t have to do that kind of work.

The Denizens of Avernus: I really don’t like the use of non-devils in the Nine Hells. When I think about an adventure on Avernus, I think of devils! Legion Devils, Hell Knights, all sorts of really cool devils that finally get their chance to shine.

In fact, when I think of Avernus, I immediately think of that one Monte Cook adventure in Well of Worlds where the group has to escape Avernus while being chased by a horde of fiends!

Yet I open the book and see wereboars. Wereboars. In my Nine Hells! Why inject something comparatively mundane into such a cool place? Why water it down? Why waste the space?
The players finally get out of the mundane city and actually get to the Hell stuff, and they are greeted by kenku, redcaps, and wereboars. Not a fan.

That said, I was very much expecting to hate and junk Mahadi’s Emporium for the same reasons, but it is actually very cool.

Joke Names: I run very goofy D&D games. I come up with stupid NPC names all the time. Essie has a zombie named “Teat Chillmango” on Hell’s Rebels. The group in my Acq Inc game just met a dwarf pirate with peg arms and peg legs named “Peggy Stickbeard”.

It takes a lot to make me say, “OK, that’s a bit much”, but it happened right here in Descent into Avernus. Let me give you some examples:

• Slobberchops: The villain’s pet winged cat in Baldur’s Gate. This by itself is fine. But, when taken in totality with all of the others, it’s too much for me. One struggle in D&D is to avoid having your big bad guy become a joke to the group.
• Chukka & Clonk: Again, fine on its own. But when it is one of many, it starts to feel like we’re playing a silly cartoon romp rather than tearing through Hell, carving a path through demons and devils.
• Lucille the Pit Fiend: This one in particular gets me. The general… THE GENERAL! ...of Yeenoghu’s demon army, a badass-looking white-scaled pit fiend with a cool-looking helmet and battle-standard, is named “Lucille."
• Mickey the Flesh Golem: This is a flesh golem made from demon parts. It has awesome art and everything!
• Burney the Barber: Oh, a barber! Hi Burney, how’s it going? Can you just take a little off the sides? What’s that? You're a bronze dragon? You’re an agent of Bahamut, the god of good dragons that opposes Tiamat?! OK.. yes, Burney's his real name is Balarystul. But you know the group is going to call him Burney and will start doing Bernie Sanders impressions every time he shows up.
• Smiler the Defiler: This one just doesn’t do it for me. It rhymes. His name is “Smiler”. It’s like a Shadowrun NPC from 1993 discussing biotech on the Shadowland BBS system that you have accessed with the aid of your 2600 baud dial-up modem.

Path of Demons/Path of Devils: One of the biggest negatives of this book, in my opinion, is these “paths”. The group will basically have to go from one location to the next, performing side quests to ultimately get to where they need to go.

Each area has more or less pointless busywork which feels quite a bit like “filler” or a way to work in more encounters before the group gets to where they need to go.

Long ago, I ran Golden Voyages, an Al Qadim boxed set adventure for my group when we were little. I love that adventure. Your group has a ship and they race against other ships, all searching a handful of islands for hidden treasure.

One section of Golden Voyages involves meeting genies on the plane of fire to get something you need. Those genies tell you that first, you must go to the plane of earth. The earth genies tell the you to go to the plane of water. Water says go to wind.

My group got so turned off by this that their interest in the entire setting dropped. Eyes glazed over, and soon after, half of the players dropped out.

I think these paths should have been organized differently so that it is not so obvious that these encounters on the paths (many of which are very cool, by the way) are speedbumps.

Double Page Spreads: I really like that they put some big art in this book. The problem, for me, is that when the big pieces are spread out over two pages, the seam mars the art pretty badly. Another issue is that I feel like either the subject matter or the composition isn’t worthy of two pages.

Pages 48-49 The Infernal Puzzle Box: The seam doesn’t ruin this one. My beef here is very slight - the tiefling looks too “real” in comparison to the rest of the image. Do you remember those old dragon magazine covers that looked like photos of people in costumes? Where it looked like the artist used their friends as reference? I get that vibe from this. This looks a bit too much like someone doing a tiefling cosplay as opposed to a tiefling.

I say that, yet when I look at the image online as opposed to the book, it actually looks really cool.


Pages 88-89 War Machines: The seam obliterates this one. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. So much of the piece depicts an explosion. If anything, the explosion should have been in the center of the image so that the seam devours it and we can still make out the war machines. Instead, the fire takes up most of the right-hand page.

Pages 157-158 The Blood War: My beef with this one is more that most of the art depicts fire. It is very cool to see the relative size of a goristro compared to medium-sized creatures, but this feels like a missed opportunity to me. The artist is awesome, I just would have preferred to see more devils vs. demons and less fire.

Pages 168-169 Battle in Baldur’s Gate: This one actually works pretty well. It’s weird that the central character is caught in the seam, but there are scenes on each page that are clearly visible.

I’d have liked to see different scenes get the two-page treatment. Maybe Zariel vs. Kostchchie, or two war machines side by side, with adventurers jumping from one to the other, that kind of thing.

Overall

So. Is this a good adventure? I’d say yes. One of my favorites! No 5e adventure has, in my opinion, come close to the greatness of certain adventures in past editions.

These 5th edition adventures are “tool kits”, semi-sourcebooks wrapped in adventures. This book has a huge, in-depth guide to Baldur’s Gate in the back of the book. The Avernus section is as much a sourcebook as it is an adventure.

By splitting the focus and making this a book that has “something for everyone”, I think it becomes a product that doesn’t fully achieve any of its goals. It is not a sourcebook that is easy to navigate. It is not an adventure with deep, dramatic moments laid out for you. It offers endless options, most of which are described in no more than a single paragraph. It offers suggestions rather than details!

The thing is, as I’ve mentioned in the past, what they are doing is working. From what I understand, these adventures sell well. They are well-received. So just because it doesn’t fit my needs doesn’t mean they should in any way stop what they’re doing. It just means that I might need to look elsewhere to find adventures that I am excited about running.

Ranking the 5e Adventures

Where does this one rank among the 5e adventures? Right now, I’d say the three best adventures are:

• Curse of Strahd
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus

Curse of Strahd: This is a good adventure, but I like certain sections more than others. The fact that it is essentially a re-make/update of an adventure that’s been re-done many times before hurts it a bit, too.

Once you've decided to run Curse of Strahd, you have to spend a lot of time identifying the parts you want to use and then cobble together your version of the adventure, but the component parts are cool enough that it is worth doing.

Tomb of Annihilation: I really liked this adventure, but man, that jungle section is such a huge campaign killer. Newer DMs might find their group growing extremely bored and restless as they wander the jungle seemingly forever.

The tomb itself is absolutely fantastic. Definitely, IMO, one of the best dungeons of all time. What’s even more impressive is that the tomb is huge and yet almost every room is worth running. White Plume Mountain is probably my favorite dungeon ever, but that one is something like 16 pages long!

Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus: Is this adventure better than Tomb? I’m not sure. I sort of want to say yes. The thing that gives me pause is the fact that I don’t want to run the Baldur’s Gate section OR the Elturel stuff.

I just feel like by the time the group gets to Hell, they’re going to be let down again by having to explore another mortal city (Elturel), even if it is chained to Hell. For me, it’s a “when are we going to get to the fireworks factory” kind of thing.

I guess I can say that this adventure is one of the best 5e adventures out so far. The sheer volume of good ideas in the Avernus section easily outweighs the more dreary elements in the opening chapters.

When 5th edition officially got underway, two adventures where released: Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat. The first scenario led right into the second, and pitted your players against a cult of Tiamat.

To celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the release, Wizards has published a new book that combines both adventures in one volume, and adds in a sketchbook section.

Today I'm going to go through this book and see what's new, if anything, give my overall thoughts, and reflect on what it was like to run this game when nobody knew if 5th edition would be popular at all.

Links

Back Cover

• You can buy this book here.
• I wrote a Guide to these books in my blog.
• My DMs Guild Guide to Tyranny of Dragons.
• I wrote session recaps of this campaign in this blog, starting here.

Changes

Sketchbook Section - The Dragon Mask

The thing that I am most interested to see is if changes were made in the adventure. There were a few notorious spots where bad guys were too powerful, and I am wondering if they expanded the Thay chapter, which was really brief in the original.

For the most part, this book is the same as the original printed versions.

Hazirawn: They cleaned up a slight error in the stat block of Hazirawn, a rather confusing issue discussed here.

Kobolds: The biggest complaint from the original was that the kobold encounters in the opening chapter were too hard and groups would get wiped out. The very first encounter pitted the 1st level characters against 8 kobolds.

On page 24 of this new book, we see that it is now 7 kobolds, and it is stated that the kobolds assume the heroes are members of the cult and are busy focusing on townsfolk. So, the group should get a surprise round if they choose to fight them.

The Assassins: This one always amused me. The heroes might stop off at a tavern and get jumped by assassins who were way too powerful for a low level group of heroes. Apparently, the reason this was in the book is because when the adventure was written, assassins were much weaker than what ended up being printed in the 5e monster manual.

Checking page 52 of this new book, the assassins have been replaced with 4 veterans.

Still Stingy on Treasure: The white dragon's treasure hoard had no magic items in it! Surely they've changed that in this new edition. Check out page 123. Still no magic items! Though it does say that you can "add potions, scrolls, and magic items at your discretion."

Chuth, the green dragon, has an item-less hoard as well.

Thay: Still tiny!

The Cult Strikes Back: Chapter 13 on page 140 has a few encounters detailing how the cult tries to assassinate the group. If I remember right, the original section included some yugoloths that felt really out of place. Those are gone now!

Overview


Cover: The cover is really great. It is probably my favorite of all the "special edition" covers so far.

Paper: One thing that I LOVE about this book is that they used the same "parchment" type paper they used in Rise of Tiamat. It's thinker, heavier, doesn't "shine" and the ink doesn't smudge off onto your fingers.

The downside to this is that it seems to make the art come out a few shades darker. All things considered, I like this paper more than what the use for their newer books.

Sketchbook: The most substantial addition to this book is the sketchbook section in the back. It has art depicting cult designs, dragon designs, various locations, and what looks to be some comic-book style two-page spreads of dragons.

What Happened to the Dragon Mask? There's a few sketches of the dragon mask, the magic item that the cult can use to pull Tiamat out of the Nine Hells. It's interesting to think about now, with all the lore developments since this adventure was released.

In Descent into Avernus, we see that Tiamat has Arkhan the Cruel working as her agent and, in the end, he might become the new ruler of Avernus. If Arkhan set his sights on it, could he track down the mask and give it to his tortle sidekick to bring Tiamat back to the Material Plane?

Where did the dragon mask end up at the end of Rise of Tiamat? In the hands of the adventurers? In the possession of the Council of Waterdeep?  Could Lord Neverember have absconded with it when he was chased out of Waterdeep? Could the mask have been in the vault at the end of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist?

Cultists! Looking at the sketches of the dragon cultists, I really wish they would have made themed cultists like the ones that are in the Neverwinter MMO. In that game, there are cultists aligned with each of the five chromatic dragon types, and each has a special power relating to the dragon they are aligned with.

For example, a green dragon cultist might be able to spit acid, while a red dragon cultist might be able to cast a fire spell or be fire resistant.

I do like the dragonsouls, dragonwings and others on page 182, so it's not that big of a deal.

Dragon Factoids. I love the dragon sketches. They contain all sorts of little details you can use to help make a dragon come to life. For example, a black dragon's nose slits can seal up, aiding the creature when it goes underwater.

When a blue dragon is about to breath lightning, it "charges up". A humming noise grows as little blots of lightning crackle around its head.

Running Tyranny of Dragons


If you're reading this artcle while wondering if this adventure is something you might want to run, I wrote a LOT of stuff about doing so in this blog. Check out these:

• Addressing the Criticisms of Hoard of the Dragon Queen
• Overview/Review of Rise of Tiamat

I started running games in my local game store in 2008. I ran tons and tons of 4th edition D&D, and I loved it. Despite that, everyone agreed that the 4e rules were flawed.

When the 5e playtest was rolled out, we dove in. In the game store, it was a weird transitional period where I ended up running games for new players. These new players were younger. In 4e, I was running for people in the 20's and 30's. In 5e, I found myself with a group of kids ranging from age 9 to 15!

It was a huge adjustment. I wrote about it a lot in the early days of this blog. We played through Scourge of the Sword Coast, Dead in Thay, and even a "D&D Next" conversion of White Plume Mountain.

As 5e hit, I wondered what attendance would be like. 4e was plenty popular in our store, and we always had a few tables going. I was running 2-3 games per week, and at times I actually had to turn people away!

5th edition launches... and people just poured into the store. There was a massive influx of players, to the point where it got bigger than Magic: The Gathering (which was huge in terms of both attendance and profit in our area).

I wondered if there would be a decline after the first few weeks. There was not. In fact, more people showed up. It just got bigger! It was crazy.

The Blog

I had been thinking about writing a D&D blog for years. I wanted to share the trials and tribulations of being a DM, which can be a weirdly lonely endeavor. Sometimes I would toil away for hours and hours during the week while preparing a module, only for the session to fall flat. The next week, I'd pick myself up and do it again, and the next one would be a home run. It was a wild ride.

I'm glad now that I didn't write a blog during 4e. I wasn't ready at that time, and our group's shenanigans probably weren't fit for public consumption. We had a ton of fun, but I think choosing to wait until 5e was a great idea.

I had begun the blog at the start of 5e, and was spewing forth years and years of pent-up ideas. Everything from goofy D&D stories to whacked-out theories.

During 4e, I had worked out a system for preparing adventures. It involved hand-written notes, both on paper and on the margins of printed-out 4e adventures. Over the span of 2007 to 2013, I had perfected the art of DM preparation, at least for myself.

I realized that the blog was, at the very least, a place to keep all my prep work in a fairly easy-to-find format. I also realized that my DM prep stuff would probably be very useful for new DMs as well. So I sat down and started work on the Guide to Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

It was and still is very popular, and over time, I became known for my guides. I even put them on the DMs Guild, and I now make a living off of this stuff!

It was Tyranny that got the ball rolling for me.

The Campaign
I wrote so much about this campaign, in detail, and I guess there's no need to rehash it.

But, 5 years later, I can say that what I liked about the campaign was running for kids who genuinely enjoyed the adventure. I was very proud of how well-behaved they were, and I marveled at how they respected one another and figured out the rules on their own.

People seem to bash the younger generation quite a bit online. This bothers me. Kids were much worse when I was growing up! It's not even close.

My kids were awesome D&D players. They showed up every week, they paid attention, they never looked at their phones. They were funny and they worked as a team. Heck, one of them even did drawings for me!

We plowed through Tyranny with gusto. When my group was literally fighting Tiamat, the table next to us was still slogging through the endless caravan ride in Chapter 4. They were a great group and I'm really glad we got through the whole campaign.

Overall: So, is this book worth buying? I'd say yes. The adventure is good, but you will need to do a lot of work to keep it running smoothly. It was certainly worth doing, in my experience.

Now, with a more expanded version of the city of Waterdeep available in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, you could really flesh out the council and give greater detail to the group's time in that city. I believe there are a few Tyranny encounters set in Waterdeep that you could merge with some of the Dragon Heist detailed locations and NPCs.

Personally, this special edition of Tyranny of Dragons is more of a trophy than a gaming tool. This book represents an absolutely phenomenal stretch of 5 years both for D&D as a whole, and for me as a person.

Now that I have gone through Descent into Avernus in great detail, I'm going to look at some of the products linked to it on the DMs Guild. Let's see if we can find some stuff worth adding into our Avernus games!

• Buy Encounter in Avernus here. 
• Buy Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus here.

Today, I'm going to check out Encounters in Avernus. Now, if I know you - and I don't - I bet you're wondering what exactly is in this book. Well, let me tell you: It has encounters set in the first layer of the Nine Hells, also known as Avernus!

The one thing I notice on my initial glance is that they used art from the main book, including pieces that were IMO somewhat hampered by the two page spread. Check this one out:

Better, right?

Random Charts: This book makes generous use of random charts. I love random charts. I would say that in many instances, the best use of the charts that determine the makeup of an encounter, that you go through them beforehand and pick your favorite. Rolling at the table while you are running your session might lead to some hiccups. At least, it would for me.

Chapter 1: Avernus Encounters

We start off with a devil name list, which is very handy.

Here are some of my favorite encounters in this chapter, just to give you an idea of what's in this book:

• Weather: There is a random weather chart. My favorite result is "Stygian Humidity", where "the waters of the River Styx permeate the air itself."
• Bone Piles: A chart of items you could find in Avernus. It includes some of the new magic items listed in appendix b of this book.
• Wreck: A wrecked war machine... "The previous rider of this war machine shoved a whole quasit into the machine's intake valve...." If the group fixes it up, the machine has a special boon and bane.
• Avernus Chase Complications: A horde of fiends is chasing you. Roll on the chase chart. This one is fantastic!
• "Soul Canon": A wrecked war machine with a special "soul canon". These are tremendous!
• Knight: A knight of Elturel hunting down a traitor.

I 100% love this so far. These encounters are very concise, and many of them are very much worth using. There's actually more stuff in this chapter that I like aside from what I listed, but I think this is a good sample.

If I had a complaint, I'd say that a few entries could use more specific numbers. For example, one entry mentions "a group of nupperibos" are in the group's way. I'd prefer it if the entry said "3d4 nupperibos". Even though I hate rolling d4s.

In one encounter, the group can come across a prisoner. There's a quick chart listing types of creatures that could be the prisoner in question. I think it would have helped to give the creature a name and a few words describing its personality.

Chapter 2: River Styx Encounters


The River Styx! Who doesn't love the River Styx? Let's see what we've got:

• Angel: An angel spying on the Blood War, ordered not to intervene. You could do tons with this.
• Familiar Gnomes: Two gnomes riding around in a bulette/war machine with the same last name as one of the best-named gnomes in Dragon Heist: Cockaby Fapplestamp.
• Hag Barge: This is one that I wish got more space. A hag that is selling contraband! I'd like it if her actual hut was on the barge.  
• Assassin: Her memory is wiped and she has a tattoo of a labyrinth on her back! 
• "Soul Shower": "A huge number of screaming, translucent, humanoids shower down from the sky into the River Styx." This one is great.

One interesting encounter in this chapter involves a potion maker that is using water of the River Styx to make magic potions. The water of the River Styx normally steals your memories.

As far as I can tell, these potions function normally. I think there should definitely be come sort of added effect - maybe a memory boost/memory/replacement (perhaps "taken" from the remnants of a soul in the river), or an infernal additional effect or something.

Another very good chapter!

Chapter 3: Elturel Encounters


Elturel is the city that has been pulled into the Nine Hells. In the book, the group has to make their way through the city to get to the main palace.

A lot of these encounters are either simple traps set by the devils to lure the group near, or citizens struggling to survive - a building on fire, a few knights fighting a losing battle, that kind of thing. Here's some encounters of note:

• Bridge: An NPC has created an "invisible bridge" that the group can use to cross the gap in the city.
• Keeper of the Keys: A chain devil sells keys. I really, really wish that a random chart was included with this one! Great idea.
• Skeleton Bonfire: Awesome. The skeletons get up and attack!

There is one encounter involving a spellcaster looking for her missing imp. I'm not sure why the group would stop everything to scour the city for a random imp. It could be amusing for the group to find the imp in some ridiculous predicament 10 sessions from this one.

I am noticing that, in general, 5e is a bit soft on the "rules of Hell". I think that is a good thing. In older books, there were very clearly defined rules on what happened to souls that appeared on Avernus. It was stated pretty clearly in older editions was that devils have no memory of their mortal lives.

In this book, there's a least one instance of a devil remembering its mortal life. I prefer this.

A devil remembering its time as a mortal can lead to a lot of cool things. A memorable mortal villain that the group faced and killed could come back in devil form!

Chapter 4: Encounter Chains

This chapter contains two longer strings of encounters linked to one another.

Tiamat: The first storylinr involves Tiamat, and one of the smaller sections of this I believe references one of the bad guys from Tyranny of Dragons. There is a very cool part to it where the group needs to bring a golden heart to the demon zapper from the main adventure.

Serpent: The other storyline involves a couatl that was allied with Zariel when she was an angel. It's a bit of a twisty story.

Appendix B: Magic Items

After a pile of stat blocks in appendix a, we get 5 new magic items.

I think my favorite is the poppet - a doll linked to a specific individual. You can use the poppet in rituals to cause the person excruciating pain.

Overall

Is this worth buying? Of course! It's $6! A no brainer, if you ask me.

Descent into Avernus is already full of good encounters that are set in the first layer of the Nine Hells, but this book is full of slightly smaller events that should make the campaign feel more full. It will definitely add to your campaign in a positive way, so you should check it out.

Today I'm going to take a look at another DMs Guild product. It's Hellturel, an expansion on the Elturel section in Baldur's Gate, Descent into Avernus.

This one is a bit of a tougher sell on me, as I am primarily only interested in the pure Nine Hells stuff in Descent.

Right off the bat, one thing that I notice in here is the layout. Most DMs Guild products (mine included) tend to imitate the official D&D "look." You know... parchment-y backgrounds, coffee stains, all that stuff.

This book goes for more of a Pathfinder look. It looks very professional. Check it out:

Another thing I notice is that the maps are of very high quality.. The artist, Meshon Cantrill, has a style similar to that of Jared Blando, which is a good thing. I don't want to just cut and paste a full map into this blog, so here's just a horizontal slice to give you an idea of what the maps look like:

Chapter 1: A Pair of Black Antlers

The basic idea here is that a bunch of demons who serve Baphomet have taken over a tavern. The heroes can go in and clear them out.

This is a tavern, so it amuses me greatly to see that there are 3 drunk minotaurs in the common room. I'm sure players will do all sorts of hilarious/horrifying things with that scenario.

There is a holy avenger in here! Dang.

"A barlgura lets out a loud, pungent belch as it guzzles a barrel of warm brine labeled "PICKLES."

A very cool NPC lurks in this place. I don't want to spoil too much, but I love it when D&D spells are used in a logical manner.

This scenario is good. It could have been boring, but the author came up with a bunch of fun things to mess around with in there.

Chapter 2: Helm's Shieldhall

There are citizens in the hold of this building. Devils are trying to get at them.

"The gates held until a few hours ago when the devils teleported an infernal war machine into the city..." Awesome! The bad guys literally crashed a war machine into the front gates.

There's a really good trap in one area. A character could lose their head!

The armory is loaded up with fun stuff for the heroes to use, including five silver bombs "which function like fragmentation grenades" that are in the DMG. I think it is a really cool idea to re-skin some of the modern weapon stats in this manner. So many times, I forget that there's some cool little thing in the 5e DMG that could solve some problem I am having. I almost feel like I need to re-scan the DMG every 6 months to remind myself of all the things that are in there.

There's ANOTHER awesome trap. Again, I don't want to spoil it, but it utilizes a magic item in a very cool way.

A nice variety in this chapter. This could be placed in almost any campaign as a building over-run by devils.

Chapter 3: Dragoneye Dock House

The heroes might check out this house for a variety of reasons listed in the book. It is home to a deathlock - an undead warlock who draws power from Zariel.

"Twin half-elf girls of about eight years of age in matching, bloody, pink dresses sit at a child-sizes wood table and pretend to have tea with a gagged and bound human..."

There are also bad guys who sleep among the bodies of their victims. Yikes!

Wow there is another epic trap here, too. Don't want to spoil it, but it's a rough one!

There's a chest full of new magic items, which are listed in an appendix in the back of the book. "Celestial caltrops," a "devil catcher," and more.

Looking at these items... they're perfect for my Dungeon Academy campaign. My group is linked up with a big church of Umbra, goddess of good, and they could definitely get their hands on these before the heroes make their excursion into Avernus.

Chapter 4: Owlbear Butcher Shop

No, they don't sell Owlbear meat. The shop is named in part for the owner's pet owlbear, who would join the ownerand go out into the woods to hunt exotic animals. You could probably run a whole campaign off of the idea of heroes hunting exotic monsters to serve as expensive meals at their restaurant and to sell parts as components for potions, spells, and magic items.

There's an owlbear with orange eyes that burn! An infernal owlbear!

Overall

Is this worth $5? Hell yes! This book has a big pile of good ideas that you could use in whatever you happen to be running. Very useful stuff.

Devils make contracts with mortals. It's what they do. In D&D, this has always been a pretty vague thing in terms of how the rules work. But now, in 5th edition, we have some pretty concrete rules that can be used to make contracts be a more involved and integral part of a D&D campaign.

I'm going to go over the official 5e rules for infernal contracts, the Pathfinder rules, and the rules in a 5e DMs Guild product called "A Guide to Infernal Contracts" to see if I can understand them, and to compare them and see which set of rules work best. Here are the products this information comes from:

• Devil's Advocate: A Guide to Infernal Contracts
• Pathfinder Adventure Path 101 - The Kintargo Contract
• Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus

I am thinking that I am going to like Pathfinder's rules best, as they have a whole thing going that I really like. The 5e rules are a bit too vague for me.

Descent into Avernus  Appendix A: Diabolical Deals


Check out page 212. This is the official 5e Infernal Contract info. Who can make contracts?

• Lemures and Nupperibos can't make contracts.
• Lesser & Greater devils can't make deals outside of the Nine Hells unless very specific conditions are involved (truenames and/or devil talismans).

Offers: The devil offers a gift, the character names a price (usually their soul). Devils can offer various things depending on how powerful they are. Check out the list on page 214.

Price: Soul, fealty, or a service (see pg 213)

Haggling: Charisma checks don't work on devils.

• Devils can try to make Deception checks vs. the character's Insight.
• Slip in an extra clause: Character who can read Infernal makes an Investigation vs. the devil's Deception.

Infernal Contract: Comes in various forms. See page 214. The Devil can produce/create a contract as an action.

Breaching the Contract: If the character fails to pay the price specified in the contract, they'll suffer the penalty listed in the contract. That includes forfeiture of the soul when the character dies, or losing all monetary wealth, etc.

Voiding a Contract: Voiding a contract releases all parties from the deal, no strings attached. The devil and the character can agree to this. The devil summons the contract with an action, and then it crumbles to dust once both parties agree to void.

Devils will want compensation for this. They might want soul coins, gold, sacrifices, or an artifact.

Charms: On page 215, the book lists charms that archdevils might us as gifts for mortals. These are really good. There's a charm of agelessness, a charm that lets you summon a horned devil that serves you for 9 days, all sorts of stuff. 

Pathfinder Adventure Path 101 - The Kintargo Contract


In the back of this book on page 63, there is a section that describes the Pathfinder rules for infernal contracts.

In Pathfinder 1st edition, there are "contract devils," also known as phistopiluses. Most devils can make infernal contracts.

Negotiating: The devil provides whatever the mortal requests, and in exchange receives the mortal's immortal soul, to be delivered to the devil at the moment of the mortal's death. "Some devils, like pit fiends, can grant wishes, effectively giving a mortal almost anything she desires..."

Price: Devils usually want a soul, but sometimes accept an artifact or the murder of 1,000 innocents (!), stuff like that.

Creating the Contract: Contract devils have the ability to magically create a contract. Other devils use an intermediary, someone in Hell who makes it for them. Creation times range from days to months (later on in this section, there are special contracts listed, each with its own creation time).

Some devils travel to Dis (the second level of Hell) and train in the making of contracts. They gain a feat called "Infernal Legist."

One note in the listing of this feat: "As long as the infernal contract remains in effect, the victim cannot be restored to life after death save by a miracle or wish."

Knowledge Points: All infernal contracts have a "knowledge point" score. These act in a way similar to Hit Points. 

Researching a Contract: Reading an infernal contract can take hours or days.

To research a contract, a character needs to make a Linguistics check. This takes 8 hours of uninterrupted research. Up to two characters can aid another on the check.

Success on a check: This is a little complicated. Succeeding reduces the knowledge point score. Bards reduce the score by 1d12 + their INT modifier. Other classes have lower results.

If a character reduces the knowledge point score to 0, they discover a flaw that could allow for an early termination in the contract. A mortal could exploit the loophole to terminate the contract. Sample loopholes appear on the contracts listed on pages 66-67.

Failing two checks in a row causes the researcher to hit a dead end, and no more attempts can be made. The researcher has misunderstood the contract's terms!

Escaping an Infernal Contract: When a contract is signed, two copies manifest. One goes to the mortal, one goes to the devil. Mortals can do whatever they want with their copy. Devils generally either keep them close at hand, store them in vaults, or file them away in a secure facility in Hell (usually in Dis, the 2nd level of Hell).

Transferring a Contract: Sometimes a devil can be convinced to adjust a contract so that it applies to a different mortal, if the other mortal consents to take it on.

Destroying a Contract: If both copies are destroyed, the contract tends. If the mortal signee has died and their soul is already in Hell, the soul remains in Hell unless some bold adventurer goes down there and rescues them.

Sample Contracts: Each contract has a hidden condition, a termination clause, a complexity score, and more. The complexity score calculates the DC for the research checks. The contracts are also given a CR score to represent how powerful they are in comparison to one another.

I'm going to talk generally about what each contract does, but I don't want to spoil them by revealing their hidden conditions and termination clauses. So here's a light overview.

• Pact of Blood Taking: The mortal gains the ability to deliver bleeding wounds that are difficult to be healed magically. The signee can't regain hit points through natural healing!
• Shadow Coin Bargain:  The mortal can speak with shadows and can see in darkness. Once per week, the mortal must kill a sentient creature and leave a platinum coin in its mouth. Failing to do so means the mortal's soul is damned.
• Vow of Heartrime: The mortal stops appearing to age, gains immunity to cold damage. Don't need to eat or drink, just consume 1 gallon of ice each day. The area around the mortal is always 10 degrees colder and any liquid on their person freezes in 1 minute.
• Curse of the Ever-Soul: The mortal gains 1,000 years of life, can speak every language (and can speak with animals). The signee must sacrifice 100 sentient mortal lives to Asmodeus within 1 year of the signing, otherwise the payment becomes the signee's mortal soul.

As far as rolplaying games go, I prefer D&D 5th edition rules to Pathfinder 1st edition rules. But, I absolutely love the "mini-games" that Pathfinder creates that give things like this infernal contract stuff a more concrete feel. Each contract basically has hit points ("knowledge points") and you can do damage with extensive research checks. I love it.

It's more complicated and is a real wall of text for me, but if you take the time to dig through it, and absorb each piece, it can add a ton to a game. 

Devil's Advocate: A Guide to Infernal Contracts


This is going to be a review as well as an information hunt. I love the cover. We start off learning about some contractual terms:

• Signatory/Signee: Creature that signs a contract.
• Drafter: The devil making the contract.
• Contract Administrator: The party that offers the contract (usually the devils).
• Agent: A devil working on behalf of a higher-ranking devil.
• Benefactor: The higher-ranking devil.

The ultimate goal of a devil: Acquiring a soul at its lowest possible cost.

Consideration: Both the devil and the mortal must incur some burden to have a valid contract. Otherwise, the offer is a gift, and devils don't give gifts.

Life-years: Sometimes, instead of giving up their soul, a mortal can agree to sign away a portion of their remaining mortality. The signee must serve a fiend for that amount of time once they have died. Once the time is up, the soul is free to proceed to its original planar destination.

Offers: Identify the number of life-years that the signee is putting up. Then consult the Offers table on page 9.

On the table, the offers are ranked by tier. The smallest rewards are things like succeeding on an attack roll (costing up to 10% of your life-years) to casting resurrection without components (costing up to 99% of your life-years).

One thing I really like is that higher level characters who hand over their souls can get different things than lower level characters.

• Heroes of level 10 and under can gain levels, boost ability scores, or undo the deaths of multiple creatures.
• Heroes of level 11 or over can "undo a TPK," Boost an ability score to its maximum, or resurrect a creature that died in the past millenia.

Obligation: The legal duty of two parties to perform. If either party violates this, they may face harsh punishment according to infernal law.

Fine Print: Heroes can scour the fine print with Arcana, History, or Investigation. The DC varies, ranging anywhere from 15 to 25+. There is a list of possible entries in the fine print. One I like: "The benefit conferred upon the character is taken from someone else."

Acceptance: Signing the deal might include a toast, leaving an infernal tattoo on the signee's skin, or other entries on the "devil clinches" table.

Collection: "It's common for a signee to struggle or attempt an escape when their time runs out." Devils sometimes send "collection agents" to go deal with the mortal. What an awesome idea! There are three types:

• Baggers: Tall, gangly devils who go get the signee and stick them in a magic sack.
• Bloodhounds: Hell hounds that have been magically altered by Mephistopheles so that they can sniff through illusions and magical non-detection.
• Handlers: Devils who vary in appearance, the quintessential collection agents.

Then we get a section on drafting a contract - how it might look, and words that might be used in it. There's actually a list of latin phrases to include, such as "campos menits" (of sound mind), "in curia" (in court), and "periculum in mora" (danger in delay).

Appendix A has stats for the Collection agents. The "bloodhound" hell hound has this power: Planar Tracker. The bloodhound knows the most direct path to a tracked creature. If the creature is not on the same plane of existence as the bloodhound, it knows the closest arcane portal to that plane.

Right at the end, there is a sample contract.

Overall

This is an AMAZING DMs Guild product. The idea of collection agents is so great. It boggles my mind that nobody has come up with it before!

I'm not totally sold on the idea of life-years. It's a little confusing. I think I'll stick with handing over your soul, for the most part.

I still love the Pathfinder rules, but I think going forward in my games I'll use a hybrid of all three books to depict my contracts. The DMs Guild book has tons of extremely useful details. It really spells out the whole concept in a way that is inspiring and easy to digest.

Art by Nelson Vieira

I have been running a bunch of games - all online - for quite a while now. Each campaign has its own challenges, and it is an eternal struggle to keep each one "afloat" and healthy.

If you're a player in one of these games, please don't read any further, as I'm sure it will contain spoilers.

Online Campaigns

Art by Vaughn Distrito

Since 2008, I've gotten into something of a rhythm where I run 1-3 games per week. I made a conscious choice to prioritize D&D and RPGs in my life. This means that I don't get to play as many video games or watch as many shows/movies as other people, but for me, D&D is a social outlet.

With the addition of streaming technology, this means I can "create" a substantial body of work. I've always enjoyed cataloguing the events of my campaigns. Every session matters. Things that happened in games 10 years ago can impact what is happening now. In theory, players from different eras could interact with one another, in a weird "crossover" that, until now, only I could enjoy.

From 2017 onward, All of my games are right there on youtube. Forgot what happened in a particular session? Go watch it! Need clarification on a complicated in-game event? Go check!

I get really excited when I think about my youtube channel 3 years from now, or even 7 years from now. I will have all sorts of awesome, long-term campaigns right there on youtube neatly organized in playlists. You can watch us all age! You can see players who moved on, only to show up again 5 years later.

I will probably continue to run the published 5e adventures in these campaigns, as I get a kick out of running "official" stuff. Although I must admit that I am really losing enthusiasm for the published D&D adventures, mostly because they are dealing with areas of the D&D multiverse that I just don't care about.

Viewership

Art by Vaughn Distrito

I feel like I should mention something about viewers, both on Twitch and on youtube. I run these games because I love D&D. This is what I enjoy doing, but I'm not Matt Mercer and I'm not Chris Perkins. I don't get hundreds of people watching my stuff.

Hey, it would be nice to have piles of viewers who rabidly follow the campaign and donate bits (on Twitch, people can basically give you money through bits or donations, which is pretty great) in a large amount. I mean, how cool would it be if your campaign was popular enough that you could pay your players? Imagine making a living running D&D games! Amazing.

Looking at the youtube analytics is a lot of fun. I relish every comment, every view, and I marvel at the small but steady growth that occurs over time.

For example, my Tomb of Annihilation Episode 1 video has over 7,000 views! That's the one that sort of launches the current "Power Score Multiverse."

My current videos usually get 20-40 views on youtube, and slowly grow over time.

The idea that, if I continue to make a sustained effort to improve the presentation aspects of my games as something worth watching, it will continue to get a little more popular bit by bit, is very rewarding to me. I enjoy clawing and scraping for every subscriber, like, and view.

I think that it ultimately helps me become a better DM. If my campaign is appealing to the viewer, than presumably it is also appealing to the players.

Current Campaigns

Acquisitions Incorporated - Orrery of the Wanderer: This is the adventure in the back of the new Acquisitions Inc book. This is the one I'm having the hardest time with.

Hell's Rebels: This is a Pathfinder adventure path converted to 5e. I do intend on posting a conversion guide on this blog at some point, as I know a number of people have asked me to do so. I absolutely love this path, and it's right up there with the best stuff I've ever run.

Dungeon Academy: We have been using the 2e Rod of Seven Parts boxed set as a framework. I've placed each piece of the rod in a different D&D campaign setting/adventure.

This campaign features a group of players who had actually gotten into D&D through watching Dice, Camera, Action. It's been fun to watch them learn the game and it's also been a new challenge to try and give them situations that are engaging to them.

Future Plans


I am always thinking about the future. There's so much stuff out there to run! I know for sure that once Hell's Rebels is done, that group will pick up their Tomb of Annihilation characters ("The Shiftspice Trading Co.") and they will play through four classic Monte Cook adventures converted to 5e.

I've already done a lot of work on that campaign. Two adventures are fully converted as of this writing. One of which is the legendary Labyrinth of Madness, which I have waited 20 years to run!

Deciding what's next for the Acq Inc players has been difficult. I love the idea of running the first Pathfinder 2e adventure path, Age of Ashes, and converting it to 5e, but I've been reading that it is not especially good.

That made me think I should run Curse of the Crimson Throne, which I actually ran one session of long ago. I really love the stuff in that path. My only concern is that I don't really want to run just old material on my channel, I'd like a nice mix of old and new.

The Dungeon Academy crew is a big question mark as far as what to do after we finish the Rod of Seven Parts. The heroes will be around level 14. They do have spelljammer ships and I'd love to run some of the old 2e spelljammer modules, especially the one about the gigantic beholder ship, but I'm not sure if they'd enjoy it.

This group is more into developing their characters' personal stories. I've always been terrible at this! So I guess I'm just sort of worried about actually focusing an entire campaign on homebrewed stuff based on their backstories.

I could try to work their stories into smaller adventures - maybe high level DMs Guild adventures like Invasion From the Planet of Tarrasques. Although I'm not in any way sure how the Tarrasque would fit with anything we've done.

Acquisitions Inc Ep. 14

Art by Dylan Ramsey

This campaign is rolling along nicely now, but I was having a hard time in the beginning. My problem is that I am just totally done with these 5e Forgotten Realms adventures dealing with cities and dungeons. They're too similar to each other.

The Acq Inc book does have a lot of cool ideas in it, and I love the sense of humor in the whole thing, but I've been struggling to make myself read through the whole adventure.

There was an incident in the session before last.. There are shadows at the top of a light house, which has a lantern that spews forth a magic zone of shadow. I decided that the 4 shadows lurking up there would all attack one character. The heroes are a bit higher level than they should be, so I wanted to make sure this adventure would be a challenge.

Welp. When a shadow hits you with an attack, it drains 1d4 points of Strength from you. The shadows attacked the kobold member of the party who has a 6 Strength. He died. In a surprise round.

The way things played out, there's not really a way to bring him back to life. I felt bad about it and promised that, in the next session. I'd be "nicer".

So in the next session, I handed out stuff people almost never use - the "charms" from the DMG. I made up some BS about "Fate" blessing the party and doled out the charms, which basically replicate the effects of magic potions.

Soon after, the group triggered two encounters in a circular stairwell. At the top of the stairwell were two hell hounds. At the bottom were 4 ghouls. One character got paralyzed repeatedly and was nearly murdered.

The players took all of this in good stride. I mean, the game should be dangerous. Ultimately, I think that I feel bad because I did not describe the shadow effect on the light house adequately enough as the group approached it. I also arbitrarily decided that the shadows got a surprise round.

I felt like I didn't have a good handle on what was in the book, because I haven't really prepared it like I normally would. To be honest, right now I couldn't tell you exactly how the magic shadow effect affectsd visibility up there at the top of the light house.

Hell's Rebels Ep. 42

Art by Shauna Nakasone

I usually stick to the book and try to avoid homebrewing stuff, but this was a special case. In this part of the adventure, the group can return to Vyre, the City of Masks. The heroes had been here during book 3 and they really liked it. So did I!

I decided to whip up a storyline linked to the backstory of Fio, one of the heroes. Fio used to serve Verenestra, the Fey entity that I wrote up in this blog last week.

As far as I can tell, there are no official "nymph" stats in 5e. They are creatures who are so pretty that they blind you permanently! I made up this story about one of Verenestra's nymphs replacing one of the city's 5 rulers.

I didn't feel adequately prepared. I had created a scenario and only an outline of events and NPCs. I got through the session, but I could feel it running thin toward the end.

Next time, the heroes will go to the Feywild and I'll be using a map from this dude's patreon, which is pretty great in my opinion.

Dungeon Academy Ep. 52

Art by Aya Golender

My focus shifts quite a bit over time. Lately, this campaign has been getting a lot of my attention in the week between sessions. I finished preparing the final scenario (the rod is in the Citadel of Chaos, detailed in the boxed set). I had mapped out a "sandbox" in Avernus, utilizing a lot of the material from the DMs Guild products I reviewed last week in the blog.

I even made a new overlay I was quite proud of and picked out new music in Syrinscape.

I've gotten a bit better at shutting up during the game. This group in particular likes to roleplay and interact with NPCs. In the past, especially in 4e, I was so obsessed with making progress in the adventure, that I'd "crack the whip" and get the group to move on if there was any lull in the dialogue at all.

But in this, I was able to sit back as they divided up new magic items and decided what to do with this severed head that was attached to a demon. Basically, One of the heroes had grown a second head, which was lopped off and attached to the body of a demon. A unicorn's horn destroyed the demon's body and only the head remains.

I did interject to play Strahd von Zarovich, the legendary vampire who is traveling with the group. They helped him escape Barovia, and his beloved's soul merged with the group's cleric. So now, Strahd buys her gifts and says things in a really bad accent like "Come, my sweet, we have an empire to rebuild!" as his cape flutters in the breeze.

When planning this session, which sees the group leave Sigil and begin Descent into Avernus, that one thing was missing from Descent - A hellfire engine. The devil steamroller with a bonemelt sprayer!

So, as soon as the group stepped through the portal, what rolled over the hill? Why, a hellfire engine firing a thunder cannon. It was awesome, but I'm a bit concerned that it is too deadly for this group.

We had to stop in the middle of the battle, so I have a week to tweak it a bit and read up on whether the heroes are able to drive this thing.

While I was putting together something else, I noticed this product on the DMs Guild. I am right now running a Rod of Seven Parts campaign and this seems like it could be real handy. It's only 50 cents, so what the heck, let's check it out!

You can buy this right here on the DMs Guild

I have written a few articles about the Rod of Seven Parts:

• A Guide to the Rod of Seven Parts
• The War Between Law and Chaos - That's the Wind Dukes vs. the Queen of Chaos.

We start off with a synopsis of the history of the rod, which is more or less a summation of what is written in the 2nd edition boxed set.

Then we get the statted-out rod. This should be handy!

Volatility

"If targeted by an effect that could unmake it or if it’s placed in a situation where it could be destroyed, the rod teleports away 1d100 miles in a random direction."

The tendency to scatter has actually killed my previous attempts to run this campaign. I tried once in 2nd edition, once in 3rd, and once in 4th.

"Every time the wielder uses a resonance property of the rod or property gained from having 2 or more pieces they roll a d20. On the result of 1, the rod is sundered and each pieces teleports away 2d100 miles in a random direction."

On one hand, it's cool to have the rod be so volatile. But I've seen this type of thing make the players want to give up, especially if they aren't even aware that the rod might do this!

Driven to Order

This is a power in the 2nd edition boxed set which I have, so far, discarded entirely. The rod makes the wielder more lawful and imposes personality traits on them. Depending on the player, this could be a lot of fun or a character-ruining experience.

In my campaign, the wielder is Lilia, a cheerful gnome who believes in goodness. I feel like the rod's law powers as described in the 2e boxed set would hurt more than help, so I've ignored it.

The author has transformed the lawful stuff as "flaws", which seems like a very cool idea. Here are a few examples of the seven flaws:

"I will not knowingly violate the letter of the law, no matter how absurd that law or how minor the infraction."

That one could get weird, especially if your player is in a mood.

"Extreme emotion make me uncomfortable, and I strongly dislike becoming angry, envious, or fearful."

Lilia, the wielder in my game, is extremely emotional. I just don't see much upside in implementing these.

"I take everything I hear or read absolutely literally. I lack any understanding of sarcasm, metaphor, or symbolism."

I have some friends who are like this!

Powers

All of the powers are converted to 5e here. Very handy!

In general, with the rod, I've found that it has so many powers that it can be confusing. The rod has three sets of powers:

1. One power for each piece
2. Powers that are "unlocked" as the rod is assembled.
3. Minor and Major Beneficial Powers

This is awesome, but, weirdly, my group almost never uses the rod. At all! Never! Part of it is that they know that, when the rod is used, the Queen of Chaos might sense it and open a portal for her demons to attack.

But right now, they are in Sigil, a place that the Queen can't open portals to. And still, they don't use it.

Assembling the Rod

This is one of my favorite things about assembling the rod. Putting it together is intense! Combining two pieces is a process that takes hours, special ingredients, and ability checks. Failure means at least one piece vanishes and teleports somewhere far away.

My group went through this a few times, but as I realized that they had a chance to actually get all 7 pieces, I decided I didn't want the campaign to possibly collapse due to a failed check. So I had them find these spelljammer alchemy plants that produced an ingredient that would prevent the piece from teleporting if the check was failed.

The author has reduced the amount of time it takes to assemble the pieces, but did keep the ingredients (which includes the hair of a lawful creature and a chaotic creature).

Monsters

Then we get stats for a few different types of spyder-fiends and Miska the Wolf-Spider, the big bad guy that the Queen of Chaos is trying to set free.

Looking at Miska's stat block, I think his damage should be raised a bit.

The most interesting thing is that, in the boxed set, it says that Miska's blood can kill you! As in, if you hit him with a melee attack, his blood sprays on you. You must make a saving throw and if you fail, you die!

In this book, the author understandably changes it to poison damage.

I thought about this quite a bit, and ultimately I decided to let Miska's blood be lethal. After all, the whole story is that it was Miska's blood is what caused the Rod of Law to shatter into the Rod of Seven Parts to begin with!

To make this fair, I had a wind duke warn the group about Miska's blood in our last session. He told the group's ranger that her ranged attacks will likely be the key to defeating Miska.

I also told the group that the Queen of Chaos actually created Demogorgon, and discarded him when he proved to be too out of control. She then created Miska, who is part-man, part-spider, and he has a wolf head on each shoulder. The group decided that this means that the Queen of Chaos is "into furries."

The author gave one type of spider "iridscent webbing," which blinds you. Very cool. Another type throws venom grenades! Love it! I'll definitely try out these stat blocks in the coming weeks.

Pricing

This pdf is 7 pages long. I can see that a lot of work went into it. Converting those stat blocks is a pain in the butt, and wrestling with the insane powers/re-categorizing everything for 5e takes time and effort. The rod is a centerpiece of entire campaigns!

It bums me out to see that the author priced this at just 50 cents. It looks like this was published in 2016, when the DMs Guild was just getting started.

But the author deserves more. In the DMs Guild, you make half of what people pay, and the other half goes to the site. So that means with each sale, the author makes a quarter!

From what I understand, the majority of DMs Guild products sell under 50 copies. Selling over 1,000 copies of something is a major success! So that means that the author busted his butt and probably didn't make a lot of money, which is a bummer because this is a very useful product.

What's the minimum you would pay for a DMs Guild product? $2? $3? I would have had no problem paying a few bucks for this, as it is worth it and will definitely be useful.

If you are thinking about putting something on the DMs Guild, don't sell yourself short! I get that it makes sense to create one or two products that are pay-what-you-want so people can try out your stuff risk-free, but just don't sell yourself short.

This has Descent into Avernus spoilers, so bail out now if you might play this at some point in the future!

Preparing Avernus

In my Dungeon Academy campaign, my group has entered Avernus in search of the sixth piece of the rod of seven parts. Avernus is the first layer of the Nine Hells, and of course it is detailed in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

When I sat down to prepare this, I knew I needed to tie in backstory elements into this. I had set up some stuff that I intended to merge with the content in the adventure. I've got some agents of the Raven Queen running around, a character's evil parents are up to no good, and a character is searching for the lost soul of a loved one.

I've connected them to three locales from the book that I like - the Bleeding Citadel, the Tower of Urm, and Mahadi's Emporium. The biggest surprise for me when I first went through the book was that I actually liked Mahadi's Emporium. I generally dislike the use of non-devils in Hell, but there's a lot of fun ideas in there.

Bleeding Citadel is a piece of cake to change up. You can just swap out the bad guys in the book for the ones that you want to use. Mahadi's is mostly a matter of adding in the one element I need, which is easy because they left space for you to make your own vendors.

Mordenkainen and the Tower of Urm

The Tower of Urm is Mordenkainen's tower that can travel the planes. I think that this location could be awesome, but as presented int he book, there are very few details. So my plan is to dig up a bunch of Mordenkainen lore and try to create the tower based on all that.

I'm also going to try to figure out how to explain how Mordenkainen, the "mad mage" from Curse of Strahd, escaped Barovia and is no longer mad. If I remember right, he actually fought Strahd and fell from a vast height and barely survived.

Escaping the demiplane of Ravenloft has always been an amusing thing to me. The old 2e boxed set talked extensively about how hard it was to escape Barovia, but almost every published adventure had a way out. I know that was probably just put in for groups who were going to just do a quick excursion into the Demiplane of Dread before resuming their campaign, but it always amused me.

So how does Mordenkainen get out? Vistani can come and go as they please, so maybe they helped him get out? Maybe Mordenkainen cut a deal with a Dark Power in the Amber Temple? Maybe he had a re-match with Strahd and was about to win, so Strahd summoned the mists to take him away?

In this campaign, the group is actually traveling with Strahd, so the fact that these two have fought before should make it very interesting. I love playing Strahd as this over-dramatic, fawning dude who yearns for Tatiana, whose soul currently resides in the body of the group's cleric.

The Hellfire Engine

I've always loved the Hellfire Engine. In 3e, I think the engine was a giant steam-powered humanoid that rampaged through Hell. In the 5th edition Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, it is a giant steamroller with a variety of deadly weapons attached to it.

We had left off last time with the group under attack from an engine, so we picked up from there. In between sessions, I had done some reading and was surprised to see that the hellfire engine doesn't have a pilot - it is a living creature that controls itself.

I changed it, because I like the idea of it being a war machine in its own way.

The group is 11th level, and I quickly saw that the hellfire engine was way, wayyy too powerful for them. One shot from the bonemelt sprayer was absolutely devastating. It does a pile of damage, and then the acid and fire continue damaging a character each round until they take an action to remove it.

The group immediately knew they had to run away, even though Strahd and the ranger were inside the engine killing the pilots. This led to another thing I had wrestled with when preparing: Should I allow for the group to actually take control of the hellfire engine?

In a campaign I played in on the Greyhawk channel called Mordenkainen's Path of the Planes, we actually got a Hellfire Engine and drove it around for a few sessions. I loved it and never wanted to leave it!

I ultimately decided not to allow it in this session. The group has a lot of powerful stuff as it is, and I have a tendency to give my groups so many magic items that the magic items lose their "specialness" and become boring. Also, I thought the idea of the hellfire engine self-destructing would be cool.

So a devil pilot set the engine to self-destruct, and the group was able to outrun the massive explosion in their war machine.

The Choice

At this point, I had planned to let the group make a somewhat fateful decision. In theory, what they should do next is use their 5th piece of the rod to locate the 6th piece. That is, after all, what they are here for!

But as I'm sure you know, players often do things you don't expect. The group had the ability to obtain leads on some of the subplots going on in Avernus. I had prepared some stuff in case they decided to pursue one of those.

What followed was a lot of banter in the group's war machine, which has been described as a "van" with "seatbelts" (Strahd, being lawful, always wears his seatbelt). After a healthy debate, the group decided to pursue the 6th piece.

Who has the sixth piece? Why, the archdevil who rules Avernus! Zariel! The group saw Zariel and some devils fighting hundreds of demons (spyder-fiends - agents of the Queen of Chaos). I made sure to describe that Zariel was using the huge hammer that she took from Kostchchie.

Long story short, the heroes snuck onto her flying fortress (I used the "fallen fortress" stuff from Descent) and they tried to use the device that communicated telepathically to devils in a one mile radius. The group tried to make up an emergency using a phony "voice."

Zariel ended up confronting them, and the group made a deal with her. Zariel said she'd give them the sixth piece if the group stops agents of the Queen of Chaos from burrowing into the Bleeding Citadel.

Abyssal Chickens

The heroes got in their war machine and sped off toward the Bleeding Citadel. A massive dust cloud rolled in, lowering visibility. The group almost ran over an abyssal chicken. The cloud cleared up, and they saw some shadar kai agents of the Raven Queen who'd been in an accident. Their war machine was sinking into a lake of demon ichor. The 2 raven knights were on the shore of the lake being swarmed by 15 abyssal chickens.

The group proceeded to... try to make friends with the chickens. The demon chickens who grow on tress in Hell. They of course rolled really well, and got the chickens to stop attacking the shadar kai.

That's where we stopped. They really love the idea of packing 15 abyssal chickens into their already cramped van and continuing on, and I'm not sure exactly what to do yet. These are evil, chaotic chickens, right? And the rod radiates law, which is repulsive to them.

Strahd might want them, so he can drink their blood. Not sure if vampires can ingest demon blood, I'll have to look that up.

Right now I'm leaning toward letting them keep the chickens, because it is funny to me, and D&D is all about fun.

This guide is my attempt to grab all of the lore about Mordenkainen and collect it in one place. That should make it easier for you if you decide to use Mordenkainen in your campaign. 5th edition has done some sneaky and very cool things with him!

Short Version: Who is Mordenkainen? He's an archmage (MM pg 342) from the Greyhawk setting. He is sometimes in charge of a group of wizards known as the Circle of Eight. He has spells named after him in the Player's Handbook.

But what's really special about him is that he is the most famous real life character played by the co-creator of D&D: Gary Gygax.

Mordenkainen, the Character


Mordenkainen in the publications differs a bit from the "real life" pen-and-paper version. When Gary Gygax was playtesting D&D, he'd sometimes have Rob Kuntz (player of Lord Robilar) run him through adventures. Rob had Gary play through some now-famous scenarios, including Maure Castle aka Mordenkainen's Fantastic adventure.

A few years ago, I wrote a few articles collecting all of the information I could find about the original Castle Greyhawk campaign. Here's what I learned about Mordenkainen:

According to this blog, these are his stats:

• STR 9
• INT 18
• WIS 13
• DEX 13
• CON 16
• CHA 17

He has a staff of power and a ring of x-ray vision.

His henchmen included:

• Bigby: A wizard
• Zigby: A dwarf who led Mordenkainen's 300 dwarf followers.
• Riggby: A cleric
• Sigby Griggbyson: A fighter
• Nigby: Bigby's apprentice
• Digby

Pet Dragons: He owned two red dragons named Gorky and Porky.

Home: He lived in an obsidian citadel with Gary's other characters - Yrag, Vin & Vram (elf twins), and Felnorith (a fighter who collects swords).

Adventures: It is known that Mordenkainen barely survived Maure Castle, which I write more about further into this guide. Dave Arneson also ran Mordenkainen and Lord Robilar through City of the Gods.

Quick Note: I'm sure I've missed stuff, but I took a stab at it. I am fairly certain that the 3e stuff summarizes the events of the 2e Greyhawk sourcebooks. I have a lot of trouble reading the 2e Greyhawk stuff - massive walls of text.

In a lot of D&D supplements, Mordenkainen has teams of allies that get into all sorts of shenanigans. Here's a list of his two big groups:

The Citadel of Eight

Devoted to maintaining the cosmic balance between good and evil, this group fell apart due to infighting.

• Mordenkainen
• Bigby
• Lord Robilar
• Riggby
• Yrag the Fighter
• Tenser
• Serten (Died at the Battle of Emridy Meadows. Tenser blamed Mordenkainen for his death)
• Otis

The Circle of Eight

This is a band of very powerful wizards who eventually fell to infighting. Here is a list of the members, which changed over time.

• Mordenkainen
• Bigby
• Bucknard (who eventually disappeared, and was replaced with Jallarzi Sallivarian)
• Drawmij
• Leomund (who eventually left to explore other planes, and was replaced by Tenser)
• Nystul
• Otiluke
• Otto
• Rary (who would betray the group, killing Otiluke and Tenser)
• Tenser
• Warnes Starcoat

Rogues Gallery

This fun book is full of people's characters, many of them who played in Gary Gygax's own Castle Greyhawk campaign.

Apparently Gary Gygax says that Brian Blume made up these stats, as he refused to give Brian Blume his real stats. As Gary put it in 2003:

"The information in the ROGUE'S GALLERY was quite fallacious, made up im many cases when we refused to give Brian our PCs' stats. Rob respected my wishes and didn't use Mordie's actual stats and information, and whatever was written thereafter based on those works continues the error."

According to this book, Mordenkainen is a 16th level mage who "spends much of his time pondering over new bits of magical research." He usually travels with henchmen, but sometimes disguises himself as an old, poor merchant.

"He is an active and aggressive person, not failing to attempt bold, sweeping plans when the situation demands."

"He is stubborn and his decisions are often harsh. For all this, he is a clever and useful ally."

Mordenkainen has a lot of magic items, including an efreeti bottle, a bag of holding, and a crystal ball.

Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure


Gary Gygax explains in the special preface that explains this adventure was made by Rob Kuntz, and that Gary ran Mordenkainen and Bigby through it alone. "The terrible iron golem on the first level spelled petrifaction for Mordenkainen, and Bigby teleported out in great haste to bring reinforcements. With the aid of Yrag and Riggby, the monster was finally destroyed. Mordenkainen was restored to flesh again."

Gary Gygax explains in the special preface that explains this adventure was made by Rob Kuntz, and that Gary ran Mordenkainen and Bigby through it alone. "The terrible iron golem on the first level spelled petrifaction for Mordenkainen, and Bigby teleported out in great haste to bring reinforcements. With the aid of Yrag and Riggby, the monster was finally destroyed. Mordenkainen was restored to flesh again."

In this adventure, your players have the option of playing Mordenkainen, Yrag, Riggby, and Bigby. This group of heroes decided to go on this adventure when they heard that there were doors in Maure Castle that could not be opened.

Appearance: Mordenkainen appears to be a middle-aged man bedecked in simple grey robes.His beard is black with silver streaks and well-waxed.

Mordenkainen is statted out in the appendix. He is a 12th level wizard and he's got a mighty pile of magic items, including a carpet of flying, bracers of defense, a "scroll of the efreeti," and a Silver Key of Portals.

The Scroll of the Efreeti: This scroll is made from a lesser demon's skin, and bears flaming runes and sigils. When a spellcaster holds the scroll, it acts as a ring of fire resistance. If read, an efreeti appears and will serve the wielder for 2-5 hours. Once that time is up, the genie leaves and the scroll is useless.

Silver Key of Portals: This silver skeleton key was found in an abandoned chapel of Dalt, a lesser god of portals and enclosures. When the key is touched to any portal, "be it magical or other," the portal will slowly open. This key can be used to open four portals per day, and no more.

Statistics: What are his stats, you might ask:

• STR 10
• INT 18
• WIS 15
• DEX 17
• CON 17
• CHA 18
• AC 1 (in 5e, that's an AC of 19)
• HP 52

He worships Boccob, god of magic.

Bigby: He's a level 10 necromancer. He is described as oddly nervous and is extremely cautious.

Riggby: A lvl 9 high priest of Boccob and Zagyg, his opinions are "short and succinct."

Dragon Magazine - The Wizards Three

Through the history of Dragon Magazine, the great Ed Greenwood wrote many articles where wizards from different setting met with one another. They usually involved Elminster, from the Forgotten Realms, and Mordenkainen, from Greyhawk.

Reading these was a wild ride. Basically, these stories are a way to introduce new spells, monsters, and magic items. Mordenkainen, Elminster, and Dalamar get together and share these things with each other. They also drink and eat a lot (and.. well, you'll see).

This serves as a very early attempt at portraying the D&D "multiverse" and has characters cross over from one setting to another. 

Dragon #185 "Magic in the Evening"

Elminster is hanging out with the author, who lives on our Earth. Mordenkainen is coming to visit, and the author is hiding in a suit of armor hanging from hooks on the wall.

Here's what we learn about Mordenkainen, as well as some of the wacky things that happen in this story:

• Here's the deal. These stories take place in Ed Greenwood's home on Earth. The wizards actually meet in his house.
  
• Mordenkainen's Appearance: "A middle-aged man with a wise, craggy face." His face was "...alert and almost angry, like a hawk looking about for prey."
• Mordenkainen likes soda. 
• Mordenkainen is aware that Elminster tells a young lad (Ed Greenwood himself) all the secrets of Faerun. He gestures to "a few modules and boxed sets on a high shelf."
• Mordenkainen can magically summon slim, dark cigars.
• Elminster wants to create a wizard team-up group called the Wizards Three - and he wants to include an apprentice of Raistlin named Dalakar.
• Mordenkainen explains that Tenser and Bigby have been attacked by some mysterious individual.
• Mordenkainen thinks the Zhentarim are "dolts." 
• Spelldreams: Mordenkainen weaves "spelldreams" for merchants which slowly unravel the spells other wizards have on the merchants.
• Samander's Ring: Mordenkainen has Samander's Ring, which can be secretly placed on a person and block attempts to charm that person. Mordenkainen can summon it back to himself.
• Mordenkainen likes mayonnaise.

Dragon #188 "The Wizards Three"

• The author again hides in a suit of armor to quietly spy on the wizards. He notes that "Dalamar the Dark" is indeed going to meet with Elminster and Mordenkainen.
• Vecna Lives: Mordenkainen is in a dark mood. The Circle of Eight are dead and Vecna is supposedly gone for good. I think this is a reference to the events that occur in the adventure called Vecna Lives.
• Dalamar is edgy and Mordenkainen threatens him.
• Daunskul: Mordenkainen talks about Daunskul, a wizard who walks between worlds and is a shapeshifter. He is a "Lord High Necromancer" who can grant undead the ability to use spells, and make false liches." He also can create undead that reflect spells back on the caster.
• These Visits are Personal: Elminster refers to Ed Greenwood as his "pet."
• Dalamar likes mustard.
• Mordenkainen eats a giant cheese-and-turkey sandwich that is as thick as Ed's forearm.

Dragon #196 "Three Wizards Too Many"

• Elminster possesses mint-wine given to him by a gold dragon named Galglentor.
• Mordenkainen Saying: When Mordenkainen is surprised, he yells "Dancing hobgoblins!"
• Another saying: "I'm on blade's edge these days. A great war rages in my world."
• The Wizards Three are laughing and probably a bit drunk. 
• Dalamar doesn't like marshmallows or root beer floats.
• Spell Mirror: A fragile oval of polished glass. Each one guards against a specific spell
• Big Crossover: Mordenkainen met Fistandantilus. "The memory of our meeting is not a happy one." It is explained that Fistandantilus at one times wandered worlds, seizing magic and killing people with his Bloodstone. Mordenkainen says that he taught Fistandantilus "the wisdom of staying closer to home."
• Mordenkainen can have a third hand come out of his robes to hand you things or perhaps use magic items.
• An old saying on Oerth: "Secrets kill."
• Bloodglass: It shows how many hit points an enemy has left.
• Friendly Fungus: A living mushroom familiar, that can fetch things that you visualize while touching it. 
• Uh oh. Mordenkainen might know that Ed is hiding in the armor. The visor suddenly seals shut as Mordenkainen leaves. 

Dragon #200 "The Wizards Three"

• Mordenkainen definitely knows Ed is there, hiding. Mordenkainen winks at him.
• Mordenkainen is still upset about the wars on Greyhawk. He has the "stink of spell-battle" on him.
• Mordenkainen's Involuntary Wizardry: This spell forces a random memorized spell out of the mind of an enemy wizard, and visits its effects on them.
• Bonebind: This spell immobilizes undead and rolls them up into balls. Seriously! That's Mordenkainen's spell he's sharing in this one.
• So... a fork started moving, and turned into Elminster's girlfriend - The Simbul. "A fire-eyed woman whose long silver hair curled around her shoulders with a life of its own."
• Dalamar keeps getting mad that everyone is higher level than he is.

Dragon #211 "The Wizards Three"

• Elminster isn't thrilled with Ed's chili.
• Mordenkainen is in a better mood.
• They pranked Dalamar. Something about a "flatulent eructation." Mordenkainen calls him a "youngling."
• Mordenkainen used to take trips to Waterdeep. "I used to go with some friends to Waterdeep fairly regularly, for - ah, recreation."
• Night of Shadows: A frolic, a night of fun. On Oerth, it refers to a night of doom that befell many Bakluni mages so long ago that what happened has been twisted into several legends.
• Mordenkainen can snap his fingers and cause a flurry of parchment to erupt on wings from his book. 
• Mordenkainen can summon a fine dark red cloak out of nowhere, which settles on his shoulders.
• Dalamar is now 100% friends with the other wizards.
• Argaster's Cloak of Shadows: Targeting one creature, this spell boosts AC, makes the wearer hard to see, and allows the wearer to walk through web and evard's black tentacles spells.
• Belsham's Mace: This spell summons a magic mace that, if it hits, knocks the target unconscious for one round. 
• Othnall's Spectral Dagger: A hovering weapon that attacks enemies.

Dragon #219 "The Wizards Three: Warmer Than Expected"

• This story is a turning point. All of the tales after this one get wackier and wackier.
• Ed's bedroom has a poster of unicorn-riding ladies. Elminster grunts in an approving tone. 
• The Wizards meet in the woods behind Ed's house. Dalamar is bringing a guest who breaks things. Ed is able to spy through Elminster's belt buckle
• Elminster doesn't like hot dogs: "They seem to represent the first feeble reachings of thy culture toward achieving undeath for no-longer needed body parts!"
• Shaaan the Serpent-Queen: Dalamar's guest. She has soft white skin and wears a garment made of serpents' scales, and a green half cloak. She ends up being an extremely powerful villain with a big backstory. Shaaan has a "spell-shield" that she once used to disintegrate an island.
• Mordenkainen goes to kiss her hand, and suddenly "hooked white fangs protrude from her knuckles" and give him a poison bite. Mordenkainen doesn't care because the dude can handle the poi.
• Shaaan turns into a pillar of flame and attacks the wizards. She apparently cast time stop, but Elminster broke it somehow.
• Elminster has a steel codpiece. What is happening right now
• Elminster confines Shaaan to the "Floating Helm of Tarados" in the Astral Plane, drifting endlessly.
• Mordenkainen likes hot dogs. 
• Ring of Lady Summoning: OK. So, Mordenkainen has three "rebellious young beauties" who are his apprentices/girlfriends, I guess. He has a ring that he can use to summon them. He does so. Elminster then makes sure Ed can't see anything else and the Wizards Three party all night. Elminster meets with Ed the next morning, with "smudges of rouge and kohl" on his face.

Dragon #238 "The Return of the Wizards Three"

• I swear this is real. Elminster claims he was on the internet and that he was not happy about people talking about his shenanigans with the ladies in the last Wizards Three story that Ed wrote. He says that all they did was wash each other's backs. All 6 of them, together.  Elminster starts to describe an "undignified" game mages play with each other. It involves taking off your clothes and is called Twenty Transformations.
• Rautheene: She is Mordenkainen's apprentice, a tall woman.  I think she was one of the apprentices from the last story.
• Dalamar won't be here, because of "magical trouble" on Krynn.
• There's a lot of talk about Rautheene's bodice and red lips.
• They get wasted and eat piles of pizza and ice cream.
• Firedart: Basically a firebolt spell.
• Backshift: This spell forces a creature who changed shape back into its original form.

Dragon #242 "Jest the Wizards Three"

• It looks like Rautheene has replaced Dalamar in the Wizards Three.
• She calls Mordenkainen "Master."
• They talk about dipping cheddar in mustard. 
• Rautheene says that her career tended toward deception before she met Mordenkainen. She has a spell called "false ioun stone."
• These last few stories have taken a weird turn. Elminster actually tells Ed that Rautheene is gaining weight and that he secretly noticed that her dress size went up since their last meeting.
• Echo: "Records" all sounds heard by its caster in the round immediately preceding its casting. 
• Fingerblade: When cast, this spell calls forth a smallblade that can desstroy one non-magical bladed weapon.
• Spy: Summons an eye or ear that the caster can perceive through if within 90 feet.

Dragon #246 "The Night it Wailed Wizards"

• Mordenkainen likes old sherry.
• Rautheene had tried to cast fly for the first time, but a storm was raging and I think she got hit by lightning. She's not hurt too badly.
• Elminster likes to turn into a tree branch during a thunderstorm?
• The wizards worry that Krynn is going through another cataclysm. Rautheene wants to go to Krynn to find out. 
• They eat a lot of ice cream.

Dragon #344 "A Dark and Stormy Knight: Another Evening With the Wizards Three"

• This should be interesting. It's been 100 issues since the last story! We're jumping from 2nd edition to 3.5.
• They actually follow up on Rautheene's attempt to learn the fate of Dalamar. She says her magic isn't strong enough and that the mages of Krynn are arrogant gluttons.
• So... Elminster does some magic thing and Rautheene burps. Then she wipes a deviled egg on his face.
• This whole series changed completely once Mordenkainen summoned those lady friends. Ever since then, it's been nothing but food, pranks, and the aggressive teasing of Rautheene.

Dragon #359 "Goodbye and Hello, as Always: One Last Evening with the Wizards Three."

• The weird Rautheene stuff reaches critical mass when she falls in Elminster's lap, and he seeks to "buck her off by repeatedly thrusting his pelvis sharply upwards."
• Dalamar shows up! He's fine, just crabby.
• They watch television and Dalamar decides that all the women of Earth must be fat. Really!
• Elminster confesses that Ed has been spying on them all this time and writing about them in Dragon Magazine. When Mordenkainen is assured that these articles are of good quality, he decides to let Ed live.

In the beginning, these stories were very intense and pretty serious. Mordenkainen and Elminster were trying to subtly influence Dalamar, trying to make him a force for good, or at least, not an evil-doer.

But halfway through, this turned into stories about wizards eating ice cream and a heck of a lot of Rautheene silliness.

I honestly feel the urge to try to portray Rautheene differently in my game - as a serious spellcaster and not quite so silly.

Castle Greyhawk


I've written about this "parody" adventure before and it annoys me even more now. The real life Castle Greyhawk is Gary Gygax's own dungeon that he playtested the entire D&D game with! This published thing is a "comedic romp" which in part lampoons Gary's time in Hollywood working on the D&D cartoon.

Mordenkainen is actually in this adventure. He's gone Hollywood, see? So Mordenkainen cleared out the 11th level of the dungeons so he could set up a film studio.

He made friends with "Sam and Irwin Splitstein" on a world very similar to our own 20th-Century Earth.

Mordenkainen has branched out from Sword and Sorcery films. Here's some of his movies:

• "Seven Secrets of Kung Fu Death."
• "Monster Fraternity Vacation II: Daytona Daze"
• "Fantasy: The Movie" The author actually writes out a page of the script of this movie.
• "They Saved Tenser's Brain" Tenser is a severed head floating in a fishbowl, leading an army of 90-foot-tall orcs.
• Mordenkainen's Groupies: 2d6 giant trolls from the Pomarj.
• "Balzor the Warrior"
• "Island of the Sorceresses"
• "Anak!"

Apprentices: Mordenkainen's apprentices are all helping out with the movie biz.

• Mort and Gort: They run a small movie theater in area 2. 
• Bort: The projectionist. 
• Cort: Handles casting.
• Qort and Xort: Filming special effects. They're using a miniature model of the City of Brass.
• Port: Works in the cafeteria, selling "Cream of Human Soup", "French Fried Dwarves," and more.
• Yort: Director of "Monster Fraternity II." The writers of this movie are "fat orcs with perms."

Shockingly, these apprentices are actually used in the 4e Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium in an extremely cool way!

Mordenkainen has a hot tub of relaxation. The group finds him in the hot tub with his "very special friend," Fiona. She is a 14th level thief. Seems like a personal jab, doesn't it?

Mordenkainen wants to hire any character with a Charisma of 16 or higher to be in one of his films.

Yes The Tarrasque is in This: The  tarrasque agreed to make a cameo in "Fantasy: The Movie." It is wearing sunglasses that make it immune to light or continual light spells.

The heroes can actually step through a portal into the Splitstein's world.

Couch of Casting: If you sit on it, the couch tries to charm you on the behalf of the director of the film.

Dungeon Magazine #112 "Maure Castle"


This issue includes Gary Gygax's own account of when Mordenkainen was turned to stone. He states that Mordenkainen and Bigby were accompanied by "the doughty Lords Yrag and Felnorith, as well as a cleric, the Bishop Raunalf."

The battle against the stone golem went very badly. Bigby was turned to stone and Yrag was killed. Felnorith defeated it alone.

"With the aid of a minor artifact known as the Silver Key of Portals, Mordenkainen and his companions entered the dungeon twenty-five years ago."

In this adventure, the bad guy Eli Tomorast was resurrected by a gnoll shaman named Yug-Anark, who was sent visions by the demon lord, Yeenoghu.

In the 4th level of this dungeon, there are two hirelings of Lord Robilar, named Vlarda and Nornuk. They ended up joining the side of Eli Tomorast as spies, but Eli is on to them. He hopes he can use them to strike down Mordenkainen and the Circle of Eight in "glorious revenge."

Living Greyhawk Gazeteer

"Mordenkainen the Archmage formed the Circle of Eight as a tool to manipulate political factions of the Flanaess, preserving the delicate balance of power in hopes of maintaining stability and sanity in the region. Mordenkainen's view of 'enforced neutrality' is not a tit-for-tat equality but rather a detailed theoretical philosophy derived from decades of arcane research. He has fought ardently for the forces of Good, most recently during the Greyhawk Wars, but just as often has worked on darker plots to achieve his ends."

Epic Level Handbook


There is a section in the back of the book which gives stats for some famous NPCs, including Elminster and Lord Robilar.

• He runs the Circle of Eight, who work to ensure that no one power gains dominance over too much of the Flanaess.
• He has a dark beard trimmed to a point and a shaved head.
• "His apparent age is around 40 (though his true age is twice that)."
• The Obsidian Citadel: His private army, who fights for good.
• Mordenkainen has often worked on the side of infernal forces.
• Those who count him as an enemy: Evard the Black, Terik, and Rary.
• Silver Key of Portals: It functions like a chime of opening and automatically dispels arcane locks. It can cast passwall, ethereal jaunt, and word of recall.

Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk


The book gives an extensive history of Mordenkainen's life.

36 years ago, Mordenkainen came to the city of Greyhawk after hearing about Zagig and his Company of Seven. Mordenkainen form the Citadel of Eight, and went on many adventures.

The Citadel Implodes: He developed a rigid philosophy based on cosmological balance. Tenser did not like it and wanted the Citadel to dedicate themselves to eradicating evil. This conflict eventually tore the group apart, though Mordenkainen remained friends with Lord Robilar.

The Prison of Demi-Gods: Robilar and Mordenkainen traveled to the City of the Gods. Mordenkainen ultimately discovered Zagig's prison, an entire dungeon level under Castle Greyhawk designed to imprison nine demigods. Zagig used it to steal some of their own power and becoming a god who served in the court of Boccob.

Assassinating Iuz: One god trapped in the prison was Iuz. Mordenkainen knew that his prison wouldn't last forever, and sent Lord Robilar down there to kill Iuz while he was still trapped there. But as Robilar got in the prison, Tenser, Bigby, and Neb Retnar appeared in an attempt to stop the scheme. In the chaos, Iuz escaped, plane shifting to the Abyss.

27 years have passed since that happened. Riggby died of natural causes.

The Circle of Eight: Mordenkainen regretted freeing Iuz, and formed the Circle of Eight, an association of wizards. Then, Rary betrayed the group, killing Tenser, and Otiluke. Bigby was gravely injured. Lord Robilar, a surprise ally of Rary's, had attacked the strongholds of the slain and prevented them from being raised from the dead.

The Expedition: This adventure gets underway and at one point, the heroes run into Mordenkainen. He has the key that will allow the heroes to enter the Tower of Magic in Castle Greyhawk.

Bilarro: He explains that there is an artifact called the Orb of Opposition that is a key to an alternate world called "Uerth," which is like Oerth, but darker. Long ago, Zagig and his allies actually swapped worlds with their counterparts from Uerth. Mordenkainen is convinced that the Robilar of this world is actually his evil double, Bilarro (of Iron bands of Bilarro fame).

This is an extremely clever way to explain why Robilar sided with Rary. The betrayal never matched up with Lord Robilar's character. 

At the end of this adventure, Mordenkainen might consider the heroes as new members of the Circle of Eight.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium


I did not expect to find anything interesting in here, but man was I wrong.

This is a 4th edition sourcebook full of magic items, many of which have weird lore attached to them. This book was a bit of an effort to encourage 4th edition players to utilize story and roleplaying, which was a bit tricky to do for some in 4e with the gridded combat and abstract skill challenges.

Destroyed? Mordenkainen's secret master copy of the Magnificent Emporium tome was destroyed. Mordenkainen "burned its pages and then disintegrated the ash."

Introduction: The intro to this book is an epic screed written by Mordenkainen. He says stuff like: "But for a few dust-mad liches dreaming in their lonely tombs, my friends and I represent the last of the old guard. Who born in the last forty years can measure of themselves an ounce of the worth of Otiluke, Bigby, Tenser, or Robilar - or even Rary or Evard? Bah! What does it matter?"

Some other choice nuggets:

• Mordenkainen once sought power, but now he seeks to keep it from others.
• "Power wielded to dictate over all is power used to disastrous effect."
• "By cataloguing what exists - and what is rumored to exist - I hope to be forewarned of the danger of any item when it falls into the wrong hands."

Scholar's Note: "This excerpt and others to follow were gleaned from the original master text during the production of one of its eight copies. As a former apprentice to Mordenkainen, please understand that I take my life in my hands by disseminating his work without his permission. Please treat this text with the utmost care and secrecy.  - Qort"

Yes.. that's Qort, being canon. Qort, one of Mordenkainen's apprentices in charge of filming special effects in the 1st edition parody Castle Greyhawk adventure.

Armor: In the armor chapter, he mentions that Robilar wore armor of all sorts.

It notes that this entry was "from his master copy of the Magnificent Emporium, on a magically hidden page accessible only by those who can cast spells."

Weapons: "Woe would come to us all if Blackrazor or a vorpal sword were allowed to circulate unchecked by our vigilance."

"When you find new properties on weapons (or upon any other items,for that matter), please record them in your copy of this book. Doing that will transfer them to my master copy, and I will then disseminate that knowledge to the others who hold a copy of this work. Please include any information you gather about creating the various properties of magic items, and be assured I will keep such knowledge in the strictest confidence."

Qort writes: "Of special note is the last paragraph, which was redacted from the few copies that Mordenkainen disseminated before he reclaimed and destroyed them."

Implements: "I have collected an array of the most powerful of these items, and those that serve no purpose for me I subject to disjunction."

Qort writes: "Though it cannot be confirmed, it is the belief of this scholar that the paranoia evinced in his words might be due to a curse or even possession by some foreign spirit. Doubtless Mordenkainen could have held thoughts such as those he expresses here, but it is unlike him to betray such concerns so candidly."

Magical Gear: Mordenkainen writes that magic is not a system or a language. "... the truth is that all things are part of the same continuum. Why else would magic of so many types accomplish much the same end, and why else are so many things - from old gloves to living beings to entire planes - able to be created and imbued with magic?"

He further writes that it is probably beyond the capacity of mortals to comprehend. He wonders if that is why there are gods. "Certainly they've proved themselves good for little else."

Artifacts and Curses: "Any artifact puts the scales out of balance." Destroying them is difficult. He prefers that they remain unfound and inaccessible.

Adventuring Gear: After Mordenkainen writes about how he likes his hirelings to be predictable,

Qort writes: "I do not doubt that Mordenkainen would consider my copying of a text he eradicated from existence to be a betrayal. And the manner in which I left his service can leave no doubt. Did he know that I would create this extra copy of the work? If so, did he predict that I would kill the other seven apprentices to protect my secret? I would not put such a callous calculation past the old scoundrel. But if he knew I would act this way, am I being allowed to live out my part in his plans, or shall I be eliminated now that my part is done?"

Qort Killed the other Castle Greyhawk apprentices! Amazing.

Dungeon Master's Guide


On page 68, it says: "On Oerth (the sword-and-sorcery world of the Greyhawk setting), heroes such as Bigby and Mordenkainen are driven by greed or ambition."

Monster Manual

On page 167, there is a quote:

"Beyond the unopenable doors lay a grand hall ending before a towering stone throne, upon which sat an iron statue taller and wider than two men. In one hand it clutched an iron sword, in the other, a feather whip. We should have turned back then.

- Mordenkainen the Archmage, chronicling his party's harrowing exploits in the dungeons below Maure Castle."


Pretty cool that they slipped this into the MM. I love all the quotes and references they sprinkled into the book.

Curse of Strahd


So, what is Mordenkainen up to in 5th edition, you ask? Why, he's the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok!

• A man in tattered black robes. His hair and beard are long, black and streaked with gray.
• Mordenkainen came to Barovia more than a year ago to free its people from Strahd's tyranny.
• Strahd drove the Mad Mage to the mountains and sent the wizard hurling over Tser Falls.
• He lost his staff and his spellbook.
• He survived the fall but was driven mad by the realization that he no longer has any hope of defeating Strahd or freeing the people of the vampire's damned realm.
• Greater restoration would normally cure his madness, but he has cast a mind blank spell on himself.
• Stats: He's an archmage.
• The Mad Mage's Mansion: He has a hidden Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion on the mountain.
• "If the characters come from the Forgotten Realms and mention this fact to Mordenkainen, he asks them if they know his old friend Elminster of Shadowdale."
• "With his sanity restored, Mordenkainen can be stubborn and difficult even with his friends, and doesn't suffer fools."

Death Masks


I had absolutely no idea that this novel actually tells the story of Mordenkainen recovering from his time in Barovia. I am relying partly on this post to describe the content of the book.

• This is a recent book by Ed Greenwood about Elminster and Mordenkainen.
• Mordenkainen heals himself in Waterdeep, and Elminster protects him while he does so.
• Mordenkainen goes from gibbering and violent at the start of the book, to composed and helpful by the end.
• This takes place as Storm King's Thunder gets going.

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Shemeshka the Marauder actually has a note in the beginning:

Preface: Shemeshka claims much of this book was written by Bigby, who was under a charm spell. "Mordenkainen released Bigby from the spell once he had turned Bigby away from his evil ways and Bigby had earned Mordenkainen's trust."

Qort: Guess who also has a note? Qort! Amazing. Qort paid Shemeshka to steal this book from Mordenkainen. This book is the birthplace of Mordenkainen's philosophy of the Balance.

In this book, Mordenkainen writes about the Blood War, Elves, Dwarves, Gith, halflings/gnomes, and various monsters. Here's some of the info found in the quotations scattered throughout the book:

Rary Corrupted by Demogorgon? Modenkainen studied the symbol of Demogorgon through a mirror, but was still magically affected by it. "It was Rary who saved me, and I thought that he had been spared the symbol's effects. I don't have many regrets, but underestimating that symbol is one of my greatest."

Elves: "In so many worlds, the rise of humanity seems to follow the fall of elves. What will follow, should humanity fall? Orcs."

Drow and Elminster: "I have heard tales of drow who have forsaken the evil ways of their kind. I give these stories no credit, though Elminster himself swears they have validity. Never trust a drow, or the word of an archmage."

Mordenkainen and the Githyanki City: "I have been to Tu'Narath. A heaven for the githyanki it is not. Their apathy and frustration manifest as a visible fog, which clears only when the githyanki ready for war.

Mordenkainen and the Githzerai: "I couldn't discern if the githzerai leader was alive, dead, or undead. But the psychic stress in his audience chamber was so intense that I could barely think. Did that pressure come from Menyar Ag-Gith, or from the dozens of followers that surrounded his body? Alas, I left with that thought and my original question, unanswered."

Githzerai Inspiration: "I studied for a time with the githzerai in Limbo. Their adamantine citadels inspired a spell I created."

Elminster and Gnomes: "Elminster calls gnomes the Forgotten Folk - an apt name for them in most worlds. I've walked many realms, and nary a one has even a hint of a gnome nation."

Gith and Mindflayers: "The githzerai are a check on the githyanki and the illithids. The githyanki are a check on the githzerai and the illithids. Thus, three unequal forces enforce the Balance."

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus


Mordenkainen is in The Nine Hells! He has a dwelling called the Tower of Urm that can shift between planes.

• The Tower: "An iron tower rises atop an island on a lake of boiling blood.""Red lightning crackles constantly between two horns of metal on the tower's roof." Mordenkainen remains "deep inside his tower and swiftly shunts the building to another plane in times of danger."
• Studying: "Mordenkainen, a chaotic neutral human archmage, often sojourns to Avernus to study how the Nine Hells affect the schools of magic."
• Yugoloth Agents: He pays yugoloths to do his bidding in Avernus. He has 9 mezzoloths and 3 nycaloths at the tower. Two of the Nycaloths - Torgrazk and Shraal - are loyal to Zariel and have been sent here to kill Mordenkainen. 
• Appearance: "Mordenkainen is a stern bald man with a neatly trimmed black goatee beard and a penetrating stare."
• Simulacrum: He uses a simulacrum outside the tower.

Books Written By Mordenkainen


Most of these come from an article in Dragon #82.

“Epic Saga of the Great Conjurers”: Contains these spells: Mordenkainen‘s faithful hound, conjure animals, monster summoning VI, cacodemon.

“Architecture” by Leomund & Mordenkainen: Contains these spells:Leomund’s secure shelter, Leomund’s tiny hut, forcecage, Mordenkainen‘s magnificent mansion.

“Cosmogony of Magnetic Fluids: Contains these spells: Chain lightning,  Mordenkainen‘s disjunction,
volley, energy drain.

“The Dark Sides of the Memory”: Contains these spells: Banishment, Mordenkainen’s lucubration, ensnarement, contingency.

“The Weapons of the Ether” by Melf & Mordenkainen: Contains these spells: Whip, Melfs acid arrow, magic missile, enchant an item, enchanted weapon, Mordenkainen’s sword.

Codex of Mordenkainen: This book is detailed in the AD&D 2e Outer Planes Appendix. Information in the Codex:

• Mordenkainen suggests that a day will come when the plotting of the devils will come to a fruition and a gate will be opened into the Prime Material plane.
• Mordenkainen scryed into the Abyss. "The great writhing mass of torment and hatred that extended infinitely in all directions tore my soul asunder and caused me to weep."
• He saw a pillar of flame that extended up into the sky that rose from a base of torment. The dead of the Abyss lined the base.
• The archmage studied the Blood War and used a ritual that put him into a deep sleep , where he dreamed of history and prophecy.
• He saw "coils of time and written upon them were the histories of all deeds and places."

You could do a lot with that last bit. Mordenkainen has glimpsed the future! Apparently this has reinforced his belief that the balance between good and evil should be maintained.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium: This book describes magic items. There are/were 8 copies in existence, distributed by Qort, an apprentice of Mordenkainen's. Mordenkainen may have destroyed what he thought was the only manuscript.

Apparently, if you write down notes in a copy, your writings would also appear in the master copy.

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes: Another book stolen and distributed by Qort. It contains a lot of lore on a variety of subjects, and may have been partly written by Bigby under duress.

Mordenkainen's Cookbook: According to this ENWorld thread, Mordenkainen may have written a cookbook. This qiote is allegedly from Gary Gygax:

"Mordenkainen thinks of blueberries as food. He has written a 500 pp cookbook listing his favorite recipes, and spells, employing this blue food item. One of the premier ones is a recipe for blue-fin tuna. The Blue Bolts dish is rather shocking, though...."

Spells Researched/Created by Mordenkainen


Mordenkainen's Buzzing Bee
Mordenkainen's Capable Caravel
Mordenkainen's Celerity
Mordenkainen's Defense Against Lycanthropes
Mordenkainen's Defense Against Nonmagical Reptiles and Amphibians
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Mordenkainen's Electric Arc
Mordenkainen's Encompassing Vision
Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound
Mordenkainen's Faithful Phantom Defenders
Mordenkainen's Faithful Phantom Guardian
Mordenkainen's Faithful Phantom Shield-Maidens
Mordenkainen's Force Missiles
Mordenkainen's Involuntary Wizardry
Mordenkainen's Lucubration
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion
Mordenkainen's Penultimate Cogitation
Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum
Mordenkainen's Protection From Avians
Mordenkainen's Protection From Insects and Arachnids
Mordenkainen's Protection From Slime
Mordenkainen's Sword
Mordenkainen's Trusted Bloodhound

Links

Greyhawk Online
Forgotten Realms Wiki
The Great Library of Greyhawk
ENWorld - Books Written by Mordenkainen
Merric Blackman - Who is Mordenkainen the Mage?

I ran a couple of games over the weekend, both went OK. This was one of those times where I felt a little run down, so I let the players "carry the burden" of making the game entertaining, if that makes sense. This almost always leads to a good session, yet I still find it difficult to find just the right balance between being too railroad-y and letting the players run amok.

The Patterns of a Long Term Campaign

We are barreling toward the end of the Hell's Rebels adventure path. This is always the best time in a  campaign, in my opinion - when the end is in sight, you've totally got a handle on everything's that's coming, and now your primary concern is pacing.

As a DM, you've already gone through the "launch" of the game, where the initial enthusiasm propels the group forward. Then, usually somewhere around session 6-10, that enthusiasm wears thin and you need to re-calibrate and quickly find the things that interest the players to keep the game from becoming a slog.

Some time after that, you get into a rhythm and you just roll on and on. Once the players get used to the routine of playing at the same time over the course of months and not only do they want to play, they expect to play, at that point, you're just holding back your own dungeon mastering demons and making sure you don't kill your own campaign through bad habits or losing perspective on what it's like to be a player.

Hell's Rebels


We are deep into book 5 of 6. The group has taken a side trip into the Feywild in a homebrewed thing I whipped up, because my group likes the city of Vyre and it was an opportunity to work in Fio's backstory.

So as the session approached, I realized I had to actually come up with a bunch of Feywild stuff for the session. I still don't really have a handle on Feywild lore, so I dug up material from the products I am somewhat familiar with:

Dungeon 166 has a high level Feywild adventure in it for the 4e Scales of War adventure path. Running Scales was one of the best things I've ever done as a DM, and I am always going back to it to use stuff. This Feywild adventure was actually not especially essential to the main story, but it  has an NPC that I love: The Sky Shaper, a sun with a face on it that will give you information if you flatter it or do cool acrobatic tricks.

Heroes of the Feywild is a 4e sourcebook that has tons of lore and information on the Feywild. I used this mostly just for general ideas, the spark to get things moving.

Then, when I really need ideas, I go to the Dungeon Dozen index and after about 15 minutes I have tons of building blocks to work with.

The heroes made their way into a forest, looking for a captured NPC who is one of Vyre's 5 rulers. They had these goofy encounters:

• A leprechaun illusionist tried to steal colors off of the heroes to make a custom rainbow to impress his Feywild superiors. 
• A bunch of snobby talking cats drank from a small milk lake that issued whispers relating to the dark past of some of the heroes.
• A treant had grabbed a stork who was carrying a baby and fell asleep. This was specifically a way to show Essie how her fey baby would arrive.

Then we got to the main event. I had found some awesome fey-themed maps from this person right here.

Tooth Fairies

I knew I wanted to use Pathfinder fey monsters that had appeared earlier in the Hell's Rebels Path. Tooth fairies! Basically, they are Pathfinder goblins with wings and pliers.

I had the NPC glued to a bridge above a chasm filled with teeth. I was using goblin stats for these monsters and checked kobold fight club to see how many goblins were a challenge for four level 11 heroes. the answer: 32 goblins!

I was a little concerned. Can a group fight 32 monsters? I gave it a try and Fio, a spellcaster, dropped 20 in one shot, so everything worked out fine.

I stuck a "tooth golem" in the pit to attack anyone who fell in, and as the battle commenced, 3 of the 4 heroes ended up in the pit, either through being shoved in or jumping down.

Then I had the tooth fairy monarch show up, and the whole thing worked out nicely. The heroes ultimately rescued the NPC and wiped out the tooth fairies.

The Tower of Urm



Last week, I wrote up a guide to Mordenkainen mostly because I knew that the Dungeon Academy group would be going to his tower in Descent into Avernus this week.

In Descent, the Tower of Urm encounter is way too short in my opinion. All they tell you is that Mordenkainen is in the tower, and that a bunch of yugoloths work for him. I have this natural aversion to using yugoloths in my games, so the whole thing didn't sit right.

If I was going to "fix" it or expand on it, I figured I could just use all of the published lore to do so.

The thing that I liked the most from all of the Mordenkainen lore that I found was the notes in the 2e Outer Planes Appendix discussing the Codex of Mordenkainen. In the codex, it is revealed that Mordenkainen went through a magical sleep ritual which allowed him to visit the Coils of Time, which have all sorts of information written on them about places and events.

I love the idea that Mordenkainen learned bits of information about the future on this visit, and that one thing he learned was that my Dungeon Academy group was actually going to assemble to rod of seven parts.

As a believer in "the Balance," Mordenkainen thinks that artifacts need to be locked away. This is actually specifically discussed in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. Artifacts are very hard to actually destroy, so it's better to just set them aside and let the knowledge of their existence fade away.

As my Mordenkainen started telling the group about how he thinks they need to give the assembled rod to the Wind Dukes, the group actually piped up and started talking about how it might be best to destroy it. They basically came to the same conclusion that Mordenkainen did with no prompting!

Mordenkainen was impressed. You may be aware that Mordenkainen has had some adventuring groups before - The Citadel of Eight and the Circle of Eight. My Mordenkainen is wondering if maybe these heroes might become a new Circle of Eight, or some new, similar organization of a different name. I think that would be pretty cool.

One other thing that happened in this session was that Mordenkainen cast banishment on Strahd von Zarovich, the legendary vampire. Strahd has been traveling with the group because the soul of his beloved, Tatyana, merged with the party cleric.

This led to an internal debate amongst the group - was this a good thing or a bad thing? Strahd was the cleric's "boyfriend," one player pointed out, and the whole group thought it was not cool to banish a boyfriend.

On the other hand.. he's evil. They noted that he's constantly tempted to drink their blood, and he's had it out for the party fighter since she called Strahd a "pu**y."

If you read Curse of Strahd, you know that Mordenkainen and Strahd are enemies and have fought before. I thought it would make sense for Mordenkainen to do this to the vampire. Additionally, having an evil vampire in the group could upset the group's own "Balance" in the eyes of Mordenkainen.

Mordenkainen gave the heroes a copy of his Magnificent Emporium. Basically, if they write down information on magic items in that book, it will appear in Mordenkainen's master copy. The group immediately pointed out that it was a "pokedex," which is something I never considered.

We're building up to the big final fight with Miska the Wolf-Spider, an ancient demon lord who has blood so toxic that if it gets on you, you must make a saving throw or die. Mordenkainen pointed out that this makes the party's archer crucial in the final battle, so he gave her three arrows of demon slaying and he enchanted her bracers, making them bracers of archery (+2 to hit and damage with bows!).

I'm sort of tempted to have the group visit the Coils of Time, but I think that is something that will require some thought and planning, not just a throwaway encounter. I might write it up at some point in the future. I think I should consult the old 2e Chronomancer sourcebook for inspiration, first.

We played some more of my version of Descent into Avernus on Sunday. When I was putting the session together, I had this feeling I knew how far we would get. My outline involved three things:

1. Wrapping up things in Mordenkainen's tower.
2. Riding through the Nine Hells, being attacked by the Queen of Chaos.
3. Exploring the Bleeding Citadel.

That plan assumes the group doesn't decide to do something completely different, which you always have to be ready for. Having read Descent makes that a bit easy. There's a whole book full of stuff to use if the group decides to drive in a random direction, or if they seek out some random thing that was mentioned three sessions ago.

Timing

I've been doing better at giving the group space lately - just letting them roleplay and dictate the pace. With a 2-hour session, I'm always a little wary and watching the clock. I want to make sure stuff happens.

That said, I've found that it doesn't feel like D&D if you forcibly march the group from one thing to the next. They need time to inhabit their characters, take in the scenery, and explore the group dynamic.

I had a feeling that they'd spend that time in Mordenkainen's tower roleplaying. What's fun about that is that I, the DM, have absolutely no idea what will happen. The players are completely unpredictable.

So I made it even more fun for myself by putting goofy stuff in Mordenkainen's tower. He's got guest rooms, each themed after once of his favorite planes. Which one would each hero pick? Would they take different rooms, or would they share one?

Magic Hot Tubs

Each of these rooms have a magic item created by the Mordenkainen from the original, somewhat blasphemous Castle Greyhawk parody adventure: A hot tub of relaxation. What are the command words for this magic hot tub? "Hot" and "Not Hot."

So we started and boom they were off and running, picking their themed rooms, checking out the hot tub, and deciding which NPCs slept where. One of the biggest surprises was how Winthrop, the party's shadar kai dude, shared a room with "Twinthrop" (Winthrop had grown a second head which was severed and attached to a suit of magic wind armor). Winthrop has this magic tattoo kit he got like 40 sessions ago, and ave his "brother" a cool face tattoo.

The group also debated the fate of Strahd, who had been traveling with them until last session, when Mordenkainen hit him with a banishment spell. Strahd is obsessed with one member of the party named Seraphine, because the soul of his beloved Tatyana merged with hers.

It's so amusing to me to listen to them talk about Strahd, because nobody can quite decide if he is Seraphine's boyfriend or what. Seraphine actually got in an argument with Mordenkainen about how Strahd can be a help and isn't necessarily going to ruin their quest for the rod of seven parts.

If you read my old Planescape session stuff, you know that I had made the two heroes of that campaign into living embodiments of the laws of the multiverse. There are three of these laws, and in that game, I left the identity of the third a secret.

In this Dungeon Academy campaign, it has been revealed that Lilia, the gnome warlock, is actually Center of All, the embodiment of that third rule. What that exactly means, she's not sure. If she dies, what does that mean for the multiverse? She is literally the center of the multiverse. What happens if that goes away? Is the multiverse unmoored? Does it collapse in on itself? Do planes start to shift in position?

So! Yes, just spending time in Mordenkainen's tower ate up a good portion of the session. It was all worthwhile and, to me, did not drag.

The Hell Chase

The group got into their van/war machine, put on their seatbelts, and rode toward the Bleeding Citadel, with their 15 abyssal chickens chasing behind them.

I want to make sure I solidify the threat of the Queen of Chaos, who is trying to get the rod of seven parts so she can free Miska the Wolf-Spider. Most of the time, the group has been in a place that is beyond her reach. Their spelljammer is protected by Umbra, the goddess of good. "Powers" like herself can not enter Sigil.

But now, the group is in the Nine Hells! The Queen can get at them! In the boxed set, it describes how the Queen can warp the land just by fixing her gaze on it. So, I had the Queen's face appear in the clouds. The land all around the van turned into a tentacle-scape.

From the clouds came a bat-shaped chaos ship! You might remember that I wrote a guide to chaos ships a few years ago in this blog. This blog is, if nothing else, a repository for all my DM prep, and boy did that thing come in handy.

My first thought was to say that the sibriex that is loyal to the Queen made the chaos ship, but when I went through my guide, I realized that making a chaos ship is very involved so I thought up a bit more to the story which has yet to be revealed.

I love running vehicle chases in D&D. I wanted this to be like the crazy chase levels in Half-Life 2, where you're in the dune buggy and the freaky alien gunship is dropping mines on you and opening fire as you are careening around swampy land littered with tunnels.

I had the chaos ship driven by one of the queen's agent, a solamith (my favorite D&D monster) named Barzhim Rangoth.

What followed was a pretty epic battle with Seraphine driving the van, avoiding mines and tentacles, while the heroes fired harpoons from their war machines at the massive chaos ship. Winthrop was clever and used magic to pull the solamith out of the chaos ship. He ended up floating safely down and landing on the roof of the van.

The chaos ship, a sentient thing, took control of itself and continued the assault. Demons onboard fired lightning ballistas at the group. Winthrop and Twinthrop suddenly took to the air and flew onto the chaos ship!

That's about where we had to stop.

I had this feeling that's as far as we'd get, and I was right for once.

We're rolling along real nicely in this campaign, and we'll be done soon. I've got everything all prepared, and all I have to do is sit back and roll with what the players choose to do.

I have warned them that in the final fight, anything goes. The last piece is in Pandemonium - I'm using the final level right out of the 2e Rod of Seven Parts boxed set. That's a general rule of mine. I might pull punches in a lot of fights, but in the final battle, if you die, you die. If there's no risk, what's the point?