Descent into Avernus

HELLWASP NEST

FALLEN ANGELS ARE MEAT FOR HELLWASPS. STEER CLEAR,

lest you nourish their young with your flesh.

-The Cartographer

Throughout Avernus, aggressive hellwasp colonies

shape enormous nests from the cocooned carcasses of

slain angels and other fallen celestials. Such structures

are magically buoyant and must be tethered by chains to

the surface of Avernus. The cocooned angels writhe un-
pleasantly from the motion of the larvae gorging on their
insides, creating the false impression that they still live.

Because of this, the mere sight of a hellwasp nest has

been known to drive mortals mad. This entry describes

a typical nest, such as the one Lulu is carried to from

Haruman's Hill.

When the characters encounter their first hellwasp

nest, read or paraphrase the following boxed text to

the players:

A gigantic sac of wet, papery material floats high above

the surface of hell. Angelic figures with feathery wings

stick to its surface like flies in amber, their bodies strug-

gling futilely underneath layers of gunk. Iron chains at the

bottom of the structure tether it to the hellish landscape.

A typical hellwasp nest contains eight bellwasps (see

page^236 for their stat block), although twice this

number are typically out hunting when the characters

arrive. If they paralyze every character in the party with

their stings, the hellwasps move them to their larder

at the top of the nest (area N4) to be used as food for

their larvae.

ENCOUNT E R S I N THE NEST

The following descriptions correspond to the areas

marked on map 3.2. A hellwasp nest has no stairs,

so the characters must fly or use climbing gear to tra-

verse between levels. Each level of the nest is basically

one large chamber. Map 3.2 includes a side view of

the nest that shows how the various levels stack atop

one another.

Map 3.2 shows where dead angels are entombed

in the hellwasp nest's translucent walls. The angels'

well-preserved corpses, which are visible to creatures

inside the nest, keep the nest aloft. Removing them from

the walls causes the nest to slowly sink to the ground.

Nl. ENTRY LEVEL

The nest's entrance is on its underside, where one or

more heavy chains tether the nest^100 feet above the

surface of Avernus. The hellwasps keep this level mostly

clear to avoid blocking off the hatcheries above. Even so.

discarded gear accumulates here among the gory efflu-

via expelled from the wasps' devoured captives.

Treasure. Anyone searching through the junk finds

a backpack containing five healer's kits and a fully

charged wand of magic missiles.