Descent into Avernus

(Nancy Kaufman) #1
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and a bone devil. All of the corpses are torn to pieces


and, in some cases, partially eaten.


The first time a creature that isn't a fiend tries to cross


this room, the fljes gather into four hostile swarms of


insects. Replace the swarms' climbing speed with a fly-


ing speed of 30 feet.


S8. HAG'S LAIR


The tunnel leading to this cave narrows to a height of 2


feet, requiring Medium characters to crawl through it.


As the characters peer into this 20-foot-wide chamber,


read the following boxed text to the players:

The floor of this dark cyst is strewn with bones and dot-
ted with weeping sores. Shallow niches gouged into the
scabby walls hold an assortment of stoppered flasks,
polished black orbs, humanoid skulls, and other curios.

Yiggleblight the night hag used this chamber as a lair


until she was rudely disposed of (see area S3).


Tr easure. A detect magic spell reveals six magic


items in the niches, including a black sack made of


stitched flesh, a lustrous black gem shaped like a human


baby's fist, an iron flask containing a berserk fiendish


flesh golem (see page 236 for its stat block) that can't


be controlled, and three soul coins (see page 225). The


sack is Yiggleblight's soul bag, which is of no use to the


characters. The black gem is the night hag's heartstone.


(For more information on these two magic items, see


the "Night Hag~ entry in the Monster Manual.)


Yiggleblight also kept a collection of poisons in six

small, stoppered tubes made from human finger bones.


Each flask holds a single dose of a different kind of poi-


son: burnt othur fumes, carrion crawler mucus, essence


of ether, malice, oil of taggit, and torpor (see "Poisons"

in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for the ef-


fects of each). A character with a poisoner's kit can use
it to take tiny samples of each poison for analysis. After

spending 1 minute analyzing a poison, the character can


identify it and its effects with a successful DC 15 Intelli-

gence (Nature) check. The character's proficiency bonus


applies to the check if the character is proficient with the
poisoner's kit.

The only other valuable items are three 3-pound orbs


of polished obsidian (100 gp each) that can be used as


arcane focuses for spellcasting.


Other curios include an empty casket sized for a


human infant, a copper cowbell, a rope noose, a nothic's
shriveled claw on the end of a black cord, a soot-stained
wooden coffer containing three teeth from a red dragon

wyrmling, a dead tomato plant in a ceramic pot adorned


with images of dancing cherubs, and nine gnoll skulls.

S9. DIGGING DEMONS


At this point, the scab transitions from being soft and


spongy to hard as rock.


When the characters enter this 20-foot-wide chamber,

read the following boxed text to the players:


CHAPTER 4 I SWORD OF ZARlEL
137
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