D.I.O: Alternate Avernus Campaign

tl;dr: sketching out the Blood War centred campaign I wanted Descent into Avernus to be.

Jolted by this Do It Ourselves rallying cry by the Grumpy Wizard I was thinking of something that annoyed me for a bit. Effectively this is the same effect as when you see a trailer and anticipate a certain amazing movie - and then you don't get that (maybe the movie was good or bad, but it wasn't what you envisioned).

I got that same thing with Descent into Avernus. I have been tracking along the Avernus: Remixed series on Alexandrian and I feel entirely justified in my initial 'huh' reaction to DiA. As an old Planescaper I feel the forces of Hell should get more respect. Either they are a creditable threat to the multiverse or they aren't. To me the whole scale of Descent into Avernus felt wrong - that a single city on a single Prime planet could attract notice of the Archduke essentially running the Blood War felt off.

But to follow the Grumpy Wizards direction, enough wailing, time to rub some dirt on it and go get it fixed.

First off - what did I actually want? Clarify what I thought I wanted before I heard the contents. What did I hope was within those covers? I wanted a slice of the Blood War taken seriously. I wanted to see the hot Blood War of legions marching, hordes clawing over one another and cataclysmic battles. The Blood War should shock and awe from a distance. Being anywhere near it should be a horrifying, low probability of survival event.

Second, I wanted the forces of hell to be taken seriously. Overcoming fools is no glory. The Nine Hells should be a dread place, a place that has rebuffed invaders for long aeons, populated by devious, smart, highly motivated evil-doers. Say what you will about the devils, you don't progress up the ranks without trying very, very hard.

So I think what I wanted was a war zone heist like Three Kings or Kelly's Heroes where the objectives need to be achieved in secrecy and screened by the chaos of conflict or there is no hope of success. Attempt to pull this off without a distraction and you will be seen coming and stopped or identified and pursued home. You get away clean or not at all.

Taking the base premise of Descent into Avernus - that a city has been snatched from the Prime and concerned heroes have to go get it back - what is the adventure series that I would write had I infinite time?

Act One - Figuring out what happened

The first half of this is similar but cut down from the original content; cultists and destruction make it obvious to the survivors what has happened, the party ventures to someplace where they can find counsel on what to do - get us to Candlekeep where they rapidly sketch out 'Hell has snatched a city'.

Where we deviate first and strongly is that the sages of Candlekeep hit them with 'to venture straight into hell is death' and we start our build up of the Nine Hells as a dread place. The sages can also say that there is some time, not a lot to fix this and probably get them to the planes.

Act Two - Finding the solution

This is all about figuring out how to counter the devils by dealing with those who know or study or fight them. Possible ideas for this bit:
- go to Ribcage, the gatetown to the Nine Hells, and figure out whats going on from the mercenaries passing through there.
- visit some information brokers maybe in Sigil, maybe Grenpoli or Dis, possibly trade services with them, for the current big picture situation
- sneak into Avernus for a look at the terrain, see what is there

All of this is to figure out where they should even start on the infinite plane of Avernus. By the end they should have an idea where the city is, who is in charge of the operation and what kind of forces are around it. This should be the point where they get a sense of the threats to Avernus as well.

Act Three - Setting up the opening

This is the point to use the nature of the Hells against them. Devils are smart but prone to seeing feints and over-complexity. The players need to set up enough chaos that they can get in, operate unhindered, and get out while the devils are occupied with other problems.

The simplest thing to do would be to trigger a new push from the Abyss - build a chaotic alliance, trick some celestials into knocking over a strategic strong point, goad some demon lords into setting their differences aside for a bit. If they are feeling particularly gutsy they could even spear-head an abyssal push but the survival odds on that are somewhere between slim and Buckleys.

Other angles would be some targeted assassinations to trigger the devils rigid promotion structures to ensure that they abyssal push hits while inexperience officers are in place. Another would be to massively over-sell the abyssal push to the devils scouts and get them moving reserves away from where the players need to operate. Another could be to forge papers, swap-out contingency plans and otherwise misdirect devils.

This would also be the point to make ensure they have the tools in hand to release the city, whatever those might be. My immediate thought would be some kind of celestial bolt-cutters - an axe with a stone blade that is flint from Mount Celestia or a candle that burns with the heat of true love - something that is little use as a weapon but opens up 'break the chains, free the city' as an option if they can get close enough.

Act Four - The Rescue

Now comes the moment where the players have to switch modes and act, rapidly, before they get noticed and the hammer comes down on them. As this act starts, Avernus should be a cauldron of violence with an Abyssal invasion force pouring off the styx and the devils attempting to throw them back. Siegebeasts, Book-of-Vile-Darkness magics and million-strong hordes of fodder minions should throwing up horizon-wide dust-clouds. The Blood War is here, doom is coming, anyone who isn't buttoned up in a fortress is not going to survive this. This is the window for the players to act, without being stopped or noticed. The city-seizing project is going to be well down the priority list - equivalent to trying to save a half-built hull in a ship-yard when the enemy landing craft are hitting the beaches.

We keep the awesome infernal warmachines for the high-speed urgency they lend and the extra hitting power it gives the party. Themes for this section are hitting the locations they identified through their intel efforts, stirring up residents and generally doing the 'get in, hit the target, get out'.

They get to the city, they break the chains however that happens. I would think that two paths could be available - the 'ride the city home' version which requires more set up, and the 'release the city' version where they then have to escape from Avernus seperately themselves - with their inbound path now swamped by the battle-front.

So, thats it. All through out this still gives the players the opportunity to be the big damn heroes and save the city but lets them pluck this prize from the grasp of the devils only after they have been badly distracted. I think this keeps the sheer horrifying scale of the Blood War and its forces while still letting the players make a difference. Soon the devils will no doubt reinforce from other parts of Avernus and deeper in the Hells and the demons will be thrown back, but in this case, it was not all for nothing, the city was saved and some good was achieved.