Descent into Avernus

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

MAP 3 ,1; AVERN US


is usually simple and straightforward, and always for


the benefit of the archdevil who struck the deal. Sample


tasks include delivering a soul coin to one of the arch-


devirs minions, refusing to help someone the character


is fated to meet in the future, or destroying something


the archdevil abhors (such as a holy symbol).


EXHAUSTION
Avernus's combination of oppressive heat and super-
natural malevolence weighs on the bodies and souls of


those who are not evil. A non-evil creature treats normal


travel through Avernus as a forced march and muse


make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each


hour of travel. The DC is^10 + 1 for each hour of travel.


On a failed saving throw, a creature suffers one level of
exhaustion.


PERVASIVE EVIL
Evil pervades the Nine Hells, and visitors to this plane
feel its influence. At the end of each long rest taken on


this plane, a visitor that isn't evil must make a DC^10


Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature's
alignment changes to lawful evil. The change becomes
permanent if the creature doesn't leave the plane within


ld4 days. Otherwise, the creature's alignment reverts


to normal after one day spent on a plane other than the


Nine Hells. Casting the dispel evil and good spell on the


creature also restores its original alignment.


USING THE POSTER MAP


The poster map depicts a region of Avernus, a wasteland


of dizzying proportions that has been warped by eons of


demonic invasion. Travelers face a hellscape that disori-

ents the senses and defies attempts to map it accurately.


Standard cartographic methods are useless, since dis-


tances in Avernus are impossible to gauge and locations


sometimes shift supernaturally. As such, the map shows


pictorial impressions of locations that only hint at their
distances from one another. It is by no means something

that can, or should, be taken literally.


No scale is marked on the map, and the placement of


locations is based on the memories of an intrepid yet


MAPPINC AVERNUS
Celestials and demon lords alike wish for a working map of
Avernus, but attempts to map the layer have consistently
met with failure.
If a character attempts to map Avernus, madness begins
to set in. After each mapping session, the character must
make a DC 1 S Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save,
the character contracts a random form of madness deter-
mined by rolling on the Short-Term Madness table in chap-
ter 8 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. If the character fails
this saving throw a second time, roll on the Long-Term
Madness table instead. If the character fails a third time,
roll on the Indefinite Madness table.

CHAPTER 3 I AVF.RNUS
79
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