Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus

*Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus* is the first campaign in the Descent Saga. It begins in the city of Baldur's Gate, in the southern reaches of the Sword Coast.

## **The Great Ride of the Hellriders**

On the plane of Mount Celestia, the archangel Zariel chastised her peers for not getting involved in the Blood War, the aeons-old feud between the demons of the Abyss and the devils of the Nine Hells. She felt that it was the responsibility of the angelic host to destroy evil in the multiverse, rather than stand back and watch fiends annihilate one another, destroying vast swaths of the multiverse in the process. In defiance of her superiors, Zariel left the Seven Heavens and went to the holy city of Elturel, where she rallied an army of warriors and trained them to fight in the Blood War. She promised that when they were ready, she would lead them into battle on the scarred fields of Avernus, the first level of the Nine Hells.

Two hundred years ago, Zariel led her army out of Elturel amid a throng of cheering well-wishers and proud citizens. In an epic charge, Zariel's holy army entered Avernus and took the fight to the archdevil Bel and his infernal legions. Many of Zariel's warriors fought bravely, but the horrors of the Nine Hells proved too great and eventually overwhelmed them. Zariel had fallen to the might of the Nine Hells, and the remnants of her army returned to Elturel. They were overcome with grief at the loss of their glorious general but confident that the lords of the Nine Hells would dare not threaten Elturel again. The knights of the cavalry would become known, henceforth, as the Hellriders.

## **Adventure Overview**

*Main article - Descent Into Avernus Overview*.

## **Player Characters**

* Alexi von Svalich
* Selara bin Rasaad
* Thurman Upton Manly

## **Companions**

The following characters accompany you on your journey in Avernus:

* Luxolumos (Lulu), an enigmatic being that has some connection to Zariel but has lost its memory
* Gargauth, a pit fiend trapped within a legendary treasure known as the *shield of the Hidden Lord*
* Valephor, a philosophical vrock that was awakened by a bald wizard

The following characters accompanied you on previous journeys:

* Reya Mantlemorn, a young Hellrider from Elturel who seeks answers for its destruction
* Falaster Fisk, a Calishite spy who works for the sage Sylvira Savikas of Candlekeep
* Barney Muckchucker, a halfling burglar who was tied to the murder of Dolandre Eomane

## **Current** **Quests**

### **Avernus - Into the Wastelands**

In order to get around effectively in the wastes of Avernus, you will need to utilize your infernal war machines to survive the blasted landscape. Fuel for these machines is a great rarity: *soul coins*. Mad Maggie, the warlord of Fort Knucklebone, has provided you with a few *soul coins* to get you started, but you will need more to continue your journey.

One way to earn *soul coins*, according to Mad Maggie, is to "acquire" them from some of the other warbands that tear up the wastes. The most fearsome warlords of Avernus are Bitter Breath and his Marauders, the Court of Filth, Princeps Kovik and the Eighth Remnant, Feonor and the Golden Doom, Mumbo-Jumbo and his Jumbo Mummers, and the Blastmaster of Laduguer's Fist.

### **The** **Sword of Zariel - The Pillar of Skulls**

You find yourselves at the base of Haruman's Hill, where dark iron trees claw upward from the ashen ground. As Lulu's memories cleared, she remembered that Haruman's Hill was the spot where she and Zariel's general, Yael, first took the sword as it fell from the archangel's grasp, and not where the sword is now. With the location of the alabaster palace still a mystery, you must look to the enigmatic oracle Mad Maggie spoke of, located at the Pillar of Skulls.

## **Characters**

* Duke Thalamra Vanthampur, one of the Council of Four, and her three sons
* Falaster Fisk, a Calishite spy imprisoned in the dungeon under Vanthampur Villa
* Sylvira Savikas, a tiefling sage of Candlekeep who specializes in the lore of the Nine Hells
* Traxigor, an eccentric archmage who prefers a polymorphed form to his own
* Luxolumos (Lulu), a strange being of light with a fractured memory
* Ontharr Frume, a Chondathan paladin of Torm who was in Elturel when it fell
* Thavius Kreeg, High Overseer of Elturel seeking refuge in Baldur's Gate
* Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard, leader of the Flaming Fist and Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate
* Cordona of Candlekeep, High Judge of Baldur's Gate who was in Elturel when it fell
* Ren the White, a visiting scholar from the city of Aion who was in Elturel when it fell
* Bel, a vengeful pit fiend and former Lord of the First
* Haruman and Olanthius, fallen paladins of Elturel who followed Zariel into the Nine Hells
* Tiamat, goddess of evil dragons
* Arkhan the Cruel, a red dragonborn paladin of Tiamat
* Highlord Verminaard of Nidus, herald of Tiamat
* Zariel, Archduke of Hell and Lord of the First

## **Lore Notes**

The following notes are additions, alterations, or clarifications to existing lore.

### ***Baldur's Gate* & *Baldur's Gate II* (Video Games)**

For the sake of the shared world, the following companions accompanied Cordona of Candlekeep on her adventures:

In *Baldur's Gate*, Cordona began her adventures along with her childhood friend, Imoen. On their exodus from Candlekeep, they were aided by Khalid and his wife, Jaheira. Cordona and Imoen finally allied with the wizard Dynaheir, her brave protector Minsc, the drow cleric Viconia DeVir, and the bard Garrick of Beregost.

In *Baldur's Gate II*, Cordona was accompanied by the paladin Sir Anomen Delryn, the illusionist Jan Jansen, the halfling archer Mazzy Fentan, Cordona's future husband Rasaad yn Bashir, and the Chultan vampire known as Hexxat.