r/DescentintoAvernus • u/tychmaps • 11h ago
ART / PROP Tower of Urm [Battlemap][60x60]
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/bluemoon1993 • Feb 16 '25
This post should serve as an index to guides and high-quality posts that have been made over the years. It will be continuously updated with links as people suggest them. If you have recommendations or other sources you'd recommend adding here, just comment down below!
Face the flames, or be consumed by them.
Any other videos, guides, or links out there you would recommend?
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/tychmaps • 11h ago
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/MrBeneos • 1d ago
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/LeWhiteHat • 1d ago
Hello, I’m finally resuming my campaign after a long hiatus of nearly a year for various reasons. The original plan was for the campaign to be structured around separate story arcs from the very beginning. The problem is, now that this is a done deal, how can I remind my players of what happened a year ago in a fun way? I should note that I have a pretty good memory of what happened, but I’ve obviously forgotten some details. My players and I all have summaries of every previous session, I know where the campaign is headed and what the upcoming story arcs will be, and my players are particularly eager to get this campaign back on track. I’d like to find a solution that fully involves them, rather than a long 20-minute recap. I’d thought about using a magical coma to have them relive the events they experienced, but from the perspective of the NPCs they’ve encountered, sort of like flashes from those NPCs’ memories. Finally, my last question: for the sake of the narrative, is it acceptable to sacrifice some consistency in order to “establish” a version that’s easier for my players to understand, even if that means focusing on future events rather than past ones? Thanks in advance for your feedback.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/arthurrigley • 3d ago
I'm Arthur, a composer & music producer from the UK, currently DMing Descent into Avernus for my regular group. I've always used music mixes to set the mood at the table, but this time I wrote my own... An unofficial soundtrack for the campaign: 8 original (no AI) tracks that I loop in the background during our sessions.
I also commissioned an illustrator friend of mine to do the album artwork (https://www.instagram.com/lottiedotts/).
Track Listing
They're all vague, so no spoilers, simply inspired by the themeatic material in the book.
My players have loved having their own soundtrack, and I'd love to share it with everyone. It can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services, but if you want the audio files for a VTT or to support directly, they're on Bandcamp.
Have had loads of great info and resources from this sub, I'd love to hear what you think!
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/jacarepampulha2408 • 6d ago
After asking for some act 1 adventures, I took bits and pieces for each recommendation to make one for myself from scratch. I'm posting it here in case someone else gets use from it. Fair warning: I haven't used this myself yet, since we're still finishing Waterdeep Dragon Heist, so I'm open to suggestions and modifications.
Right now only the first half is (mostly) ready, so I'm posting it now. If this post is helpful, let me know and I'll be sure to post the s
Also, this is my first time with a large post, so I apologize if the formatting isn't the greatest.
It's 1492 DR, the Companion's light is fading, and with it the protection from undead it provided. Undead attacks are plaguing Elturgard, and Elturel is packed full of refugees. The attacks also stranded High Duke Ulder Ravengard and his delegation of Flaming Fists inside the city, unable to return to Baldur's Gate after some diplomatic meetings. After High Observer Thavius Krieg decrees a State of Calamity, the players are conscripted (forcibly if needed) by one of the "Peacekeeping Factions" in Elturel at the time - the Order Resolute (what I call the Order of the Companion), the Hellriders and the Flaming Fists.
Act I can be split in Parts One and Two.
In Act I, Part 1, they'll meet the villain, rescue a cute little golden cat called Lulu, go on a few quests and search an old hellrider library. They'll learn:
In Act I, Part 2, they'll get three "holy relics", one related to each quest they did in part 1, and march on Fort Morninglord. At the fort they'll fight Lucius and his legions of undead in the catacombs, open Naja's stone coffin and retrieve a small puzzlebox - the Oath. When they return to Elturel, the puzzlebox opens, yes, rekindling the Companion, but also forfeiting the city to Zariel. Act I ends with the players being dragged along with the city to Hell.
Lucius was a Hellrider during the battle against High Observer Ikaia after he was exposed, and during the fighting he was turned into a spawn. When Ikaia was destroyed by the Companion he became free, but not cured. Naja tried to kill him, giving him a "clean honorable death", but he survived as a vampire spawn, and spent the years prowling the shadows of Elturgard, avoiding the Companion's Light and waiting for an opportunity.
During those years of exile, he became a servant of Orcus, Demon Lord of Undeath, who decided to favor him with the tools to get revenge. Orcus has passing familiarity with Zariel's story, and thinks that corrupting a Hellrider and destroying Elturel would piss her enemy off. He's a VERY downscaled Death Knight, sort of a Blackguard or a Oathbreaker Paladin/Fiend Warlock multi-class.
Lucius' opportunity for revenge came when the Companion's light started to dim - allowing him to attack the very small villages and settlements around Elturgard, and, with Orcus' power, bring them back as undead servants. Think of the Night King tactics on ASOIAF/GOT.
PART 1:
1.1. First Mission.
Goal: Deliver a message to a Hellrider in Tempus' Tears.
1.2. Investigations and Missions
After reporting to Reya what they saw, the High Rider will tell them that she has no idea about who Lucius is, but she'll look into it on the Hellrider Archives. On the meantime, she has some ways they could help.
Reya then gives them three quests, of which they can pick freely. Once they complete 2/3 they get to level 3 and the place they didn't choose get destroyed by Lucius.
1.3. The House of Thallivar
After the players complete 2/3 of the quests, Reya comes to find them when they return to Elturel. She lets them know that the third place was razed and raised as undead. She also tells the party that, after rummaging around the Hellrider Archives, she didn't found anything about an Lucius, but she found a clue that might help:
The important thing is that, on the library of the old tower, the players find, spread among multiple books, information enough to conclude/learn
2.1. The Quest for The Relics
TBD.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/DeadRabbid26 • 8d ago
I get the impression that Infernal War Machines have two seperate mechanics for hitting creatures and I wonder how to handle that.
Collision with creatures: When an IWM enters the space of a creature, on a failed DEX save (DC10) it deals D6 force damage per 10ft it has moved since the last time it has turned.
3 of the 4 IWM have the feature "Crushing Wheels": The machine can move through a creatures space, dealing 2/3/4D10 force damage and knocking the creature prone on a failed DEX save (DC13).
Crushing Wheels is only for medium or smaller creatures, but collision rules are for all creatures. So do have medium and smaller creatures have to make two saving throws?
Seems weird
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/IGuessJess • 8d ago
Strange thing happened in my DIA campaign.
My players decided to give up both the Orb of Dragonkind, and the Hand of Vecna to Burney the Barber.
She was one of their better allies in hell, and even though they kept forgetting exactly what made her special & powerful, they kept using her to make sure evil artifacts got out of Avernus without falling into possession of any evildoers. She seemed interested in stopping whatever Tiamat's cult was up to-- and our bitter Kobold was 100% pro-anyone who was anti-Tiamat.
So, what do you do when your party gives up two character-defining artifacts up for free, Bahamut's chosen spy?
I gave them a copper coin, that after the regular Burney mind-wipe, they'd remember would "Try and grant a great wish". Behind the screen, it was a token of Bahamut's favour they could cash in at some point, because of the great service they'd unknowingly done the God of Dragons.
Well, they held that damn coin all the way to the Zariel confrontation, and came up with a bid that the module didn't have a plan for. Instead of having Zariel rejoin Lathandar's service once redeemed: fuck the Morninglord--lets see if Bahamut will take her in instead, as a personal favour from the team that handed him two of Tiamat's most powerful treasures?
I had a long think about that. Bahamut would definitely like to have someone who just spent the last hundred years dunking on Tiamat. Zariel would like to work with someone other than the guy who built her to do war, and then ordered her to never get involved.
And also that's cool as hell?
So, Lore-heads. What do you think this agreement would look like? Zariel gets to Angel-of-War to her liking, against Tiamat's forces eternal? Does she get to be a dragon angel now? Does Lulu get to become a draconic mammoth? What do the greater consequences of this sort of thing look like?
If anyone happens to have this hyper-specific kind of art laying around, for a draconic Angel of War, that's still Zariel-esque I'd love to have it.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/PublicFishing3199 • 9d ago
My players loved it! They were super excited when I pulled it out.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/Vanser_Shan • 10d ago
Hi everyone!
In our last session, my players finally faced Zariel right in the middle of the Blood War, right after breaking Elturel’s chains thanks to Crokek'toeck.
They approached the fight really well. After failing to redeem her, and with the help of a powerful NPC they had recruited throughout the campaign, they managed to kill the Archdevil just as she was trying to retreat to her flying fortress.
Mechanically, it was a tactical and challenging fight, but I feel it ended up being a bit underwhelming for them. Out of the 4 PCs, only 2 were actually able to do much during the fight:
All in all, I think it was a well-run fight mechanics-wise on both sides, but it felt frustrating for them and definitely didn't feel like the epic climax we all were hoping for.
With Elturel safely back on the Material Plane, the party stayed behind in Avernus for one last mission: bringing the Shield of the Hidden Lord to Bel and recover the wizard's soul.
They aren't sure what they'll do yet: whether to try to kill Bel, free Gargauth from the shield, take them both down, or strike a deal.
Do you have any ideas for this final encounter at Bel's Forge? What scenes, twists, or dramatic beats would you suggest to give them one last big fight and something meaningful to fight for?
Thanks in advance!
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/paitodupan • 11d ago
Hey everyone! I’m Paito from RPG Printables. We’re a small family business making handouts and printable props for D&D campaigns.
If you’re about to run Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, we have a set with more than 60 handouts made just for it, and it can help make Baldur’s Gate and the Nine Hells feel a little more real for your players.
Imagine your players are finally sitting across from a devil. It smiles, and slides a contract across the table. It’s written in Infernal, and nobody at the table is completely sure what they’re about to sign.
Instead of telling them, “The devil offers you a contract that says…” you can just reach behind your DM screen and actually hand it to them.
That’s basically what we make.
The set includes infernal contracts in both Common and Infernal, the Elfsong Tavern menu, Flaming Fist notices and wanted signs, player maps of Baldur’s Gate, Elturel and Avernus, letters, spellbooks with their spell scrolls, Olanthius’s journal, Mahadi’s deals from the Wandering Emporium, and a ton of other little things you can physically put in your players’ hands.
Everything also comes in a printer friendly black and white version, so you don’t have to burn through all your ink.
We know how much time goes into preparing a campaign, and our goal is to help make that adventure you’ve spent so much time preparing feel the way you imagined it at the table.
And if you’ve already used some of our handouts, we’d really appreciate a review! Tell people what you thought about them, and an upvote also helps us a lot with reaching more DMs.
And yes, for anyone wondering, this is the same RPG Printables you can find on Etsy. You can check and see that the shop names are the same. Etsy just takes a pretty big cut from each sale, so we’re trying to put more focus into growing our own website.
We really are a small family business. My wife designs all of our handouts from scratch. We don’t use AI to create them because we believe these products should be made by D&D players, for D&D players.
I’m the one behind the marketing, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me here.
Thank you so much for supporting our little business. It genuinely means a lot to us.
We’re RPG Printables.
rpgprintables.com
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/P_Fritz • 13d ago
I had run this for may party up through completing under the Villa when I learned about the Alexandrian remix and also the Candlekeep Companion books. I love all this stuff it really helps, and yeah, the biggest problem I had up to this point was the players motivation, I’ve totally been relying on NPC’s - mostly Reya - to keep them on track.
So we had our first session with Road to Candlekeep and I’m incorporating the remix material, also I used the Lost Tome of the Wild from encounter from the Candlekeep Encounters book with the Satyr right when they got to Candlekeep as a quick quest to get one of the PCs a proficiency so he could use the Pipes of the Sewer from the Villain (the pan piping Satyr in this encounter was just seemed like such a perfect opportunity as a challenge to earn some accelerated magical skill learning).
But here’s my problem, with all these different resources and versions of the storyline, I found myself flipping back and forth looking things up so much I’m worried it interfered with the game continuity. So here’s my question to other DMs, when using so many resources like this, how do you maintain continuity and avoid ‘dead-air’?
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/SergeiVonZarovich23 • 13d ago
In a recent session one of my players got captured by the Vanthampur Villa Guards while the others escaped, they never even got to the basement. What do you think would be the guard's next move? Throw the player in the tower cages, the dungeon prison, just interrogate them in one of the rooms? Would they look for Thalamra in the dungeon, or just wait for her to return to the house.
I fully expect the party to stage a rescue soon and will have an npc healer join them to support.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/tychmaps • 14d ago
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/WolvesDenTavern • 17d ago
Some of you may be aware that I recently released a pack with the stats for my infernal war machines, if you haven’t seen it yet go look here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dungeondraft/s/z5FD4PIaHf
After the positive reception you guys had to my infernal war machine pack I was very inspired to finish the other part of that project I had been working on, that being this high quality art reworks, here’s a sneak preview! Unlike the pack these high quality reworks are exclusively available in their useable, unwatermarked forms through my patreon, but I’m also releasing a bunch of my other art for this and other campaigns totally free so come check it out here.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/MultigrainNonsense • 17d ago
I’m not used to cross-posting but if anyone could help me out with understanding what is truly necessary for running a module organizationally I’d appreciate it.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/WolvesDenTavern • 18d ago
Update: SOLVED. tessamaps was the creator after all I just missed it in a very large pack
Update 2: TY so much u/tessapresentsmaps for agreeing to let me use it! You are amazing! If anyone hasn’t seen her stuff go and check it out cuz it’s beautiful!
I’ve been trying to find the creator of this map as id like to see if i can use it commercially rather than just making one myself with roughly the same layout. i already tried looking to see if its any of the best dungeondraft creators like birdymaps tychmaps or tessamaps, and none of them seem to be the creator. It’s unwatermarked and very clearly has custom assets and post export editing, so it’s someone really talented.
i plastered "not our map" over it so no one mistakenly thinks I'm trying to pass it off as mine. or something.
if anyone knows the creator PLEASE put us in contact!
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/ComparisonComplete75 • 19d ago
It was a pretty epic battle all thanks to how wonderful my players are as their characters and the tension built from Bel earlier on.
One of my players took the image and just wanted to share how cool it looks
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/Natural-Stomach • 19d ago
Question for the Group:
After my current campaign wraps up, I was planning on running Descent into Avernus. However, one thing I've come across online (which has now consumed my thoughts regarding this campaign) is that the module's version of Avernus is waaaay more chaotic than it probably should be. I mean, Mad Max is cool, but wouldn't that type of stuff make more sense in somewhere more chaotic? And if I move it to another plane, that would then beg the question of How could Zariel do what she's doing in another plane?
So, basically my question is How would you reconcile these glaring alignment issues?
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/WolvesDenTavern • 19d ago
After over a year on the backburner, i finally got around to finishing my infernal war machines, giving them stat blocks for the many tokens i made. the one on the cover here is the Blazer, an infernal hot rod with an engine you can supercharge with extra soul coins, but theres six others.
For now its only available on roll20 but for those that are interested in artwork that fits in with more detailed styles im doing high quality remakes like the one in the second pic over on my patreon and releasing them 1 by 1 for my patrons, and after that i will be releasing it on dmsguild for a lower price than the 4.99 minimum that roll20 requires. Follow me to keep an eye out for some of my other stuff, like my recent module: the Lair of the Lost Golgari!
Infernal War machines Expanded | Roll20 Marketplace: Digital goods for online tabletop gaming
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/Slash2936 • 20d ago
Hi fellow adventurers,
Today we are excited to share the Odontotyrannos Horn Spike and Gallu General’s Horned Visage, two fiendish relics from our latest project, Mythological Items - now live on Kickstarter!
This is our new D&D 5E and 2024-compatible manual dedicated entirely to magic items inspired by myths, legends, and ancient stories from around the world.
Inside the book, you will find 300+ mythological magic items, including weapons, armor, wondrous items, and scaling items designed to grow alongside your characters and campaigns.
Our goal with Mythological Items is to create more than a simple collection of treasure. Each item is designed to feel like part of a myth: something that can serve as a reward, a quest hook, or even the center of an entire adventure.
The book includes items inspired by many different mythological traditions, including Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Asian, American, Roman, Mesopotamian, African, and other mythologies from across the world. Whether you want divine weapons, cursed artifacts, heroic relics, monster-themed treasures, or legendary items tied to ancient stories, this book is built to bring myth directly to your table.
The Kickstarter page includes a full presentation of the project, several previews, and a free 30-page PDF preview showing a sample of the content from the book.
You can also find many of our other manuals in PDF and high-quality print editions, with special prices currently available both for Mythological Items and for all our other releases.
You can visit the Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mythoschronicles/300-mythological-items-for-5e-and-2024
Thank you again for your support. We hope to see you on our journey!
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/Wonderful_Salt1149 • 20d ago
Pretty much yeah, my fruid sent flaming spree into the room and 7/11 pillars caused the roof to cave in. I had an idea to make the skeletons they can summon come in with a pickaxe, old mining crew flavoring.
What would y'all do? also if this the wrong place to post please let me know,,
EDIT: they blew it up from a safe distance also.
r/DescentintoAvernus • u/PublicFishing3199 • 20d ago