To Save a Unicorn

The first layer of the Nine Hells, Avernus, can be accessed via the throne in the Abbey of the Distressed Body:
Throne Gate. The throne is an assemblage of magical-mechanical parts backed by a standing metallic arch set with complex filigree. The armrests of the throne are set with a complicated array of instruments, though many of the controls have been stripped away. (The throne was once the control centre of the archway — the gate Kwalish opened to the Nine Hells, crafted from the technology of the crashed planar craft.) A character who sits on the throne notes that many of its instruments are still operational, allowing them to track the comings and goings of the denizens of the monastery. If a creature seated on the throne wears the bone devil’s crown and holds its sceptre, that creature can attempt a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check to reopen the archway. Treat a successful check as if the character had cast the gate spell to open a gate to the Nine Hells.
Unless the user of the throne gate has a specific place in mind mentally pictured, it opens up randomly on Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. The gate also closes after 1 minute (use a real timer!), and the PCs will need to find their own way back. The sceptre and crown only work from the throne.
If arriving randomly, roll a 1d10 to determine the horizontal letter and 1d6 to determine the vertical number for the arrival hex (see sidebar).

AVERNUS FEATURES

As noted at the start the adventure their various effects are listed and in effect. In addition:

• Priests lose 1 level when it comes to spell casting ability (assuming the prime material is the home of the clerics power)(Planewalkers Handbook, pg. 157).
• All weapons lose 2 pluses (Planewalkers Handbook, pg. 158).

HEX CRAWL

Use the index/information at the Avernus Remix here.

SKILL CHALLENGE

If the PCs are here specifically for the unicorn and show no interest in a hex crawl (or interest in spending extensive time in Avernus) use this skill challenge to find the unicorn instead of a hex-by-hex crawl.

The gate dumps you into the middle of a blased wasteland of red sand and fire. In the distance you see plumes of red dust being kicked up by vehicles of some kind. There is a blasted and burned human skeleton by a rock, its holding a map which seems unscathed by the heat and fire of the Nine Hells ( map of Avernusand one soul coin clutched in his other hand)

Complexity Requires [number of PCs] successes before 3 failures.
DC Use a group DC number. Each PC contributes to the total successes required to hit the DC. This is checked by each PC once. DC is calculated based on the number of failures:

• Normal [number of PCs] * 10.
• Per Failure Increase the DC by 5

Process A skill challenge is a type of scene where the party needs to succeed on a certain number of ability checks before you reach a certain number of failures. We go to each person in turn, and you set up your scene yourself, describe how you try to overcome it, then make a check to see if you are able to succeed. If the party gets enough successes, you reach your destination safely. If the party fails the skill challenge, something bad will happen.
Each character can only use a skill proficiency once. Once [character A] makes a Wisdom (Perception) check during this skill challenge, they cannot use it again until the challenge is over. You can still make a Wisdom (Insight) check, just not another Perception roll. Tell the players the complexity but not the DC of each test.
The PCs always have encounter Guardian of the Way encounter as they enter the forest and the Ancestral Spirits encounter when they finish the skill challenge
Victory If the PCs succeed, they find their way to the Demon Zapper which is the prison of the missing unicorn. This leads them to either fighting the elemental guardian or triggering the related quest chain. Each check is equivalent to 1 day on Avernus.
Defeat The PCs still make it to the Demon Zapper but it takes two weeks and a random encounter is triggered after each failure (see below). The first encounter should always be with a warlord band, Raggadragga Attacks!.
EXAMPLE SKILL USES It is up to each PC to decide what skill he is using and describe the related scene, below are some ideas to help the DM adjudicate the test.

• Nature/Survival DC 15 - The character uses his knowledge of nature and the wilds to identify safe routes, avoid impassable terrain and otherwise find their way.
• History DC 20 – The character uses his knowledge of the lands both recent and forgotten to find lost trails.
• Perception DC 20 – The character looks for clearer passage and possible obstacles to travel, allowing the party to avoid delays.
• Diplomacy/Intimidate DC 18 – Only useful if there are intelligent inhabitants in the area, can be used to learn of local paths and roads
• Athletics DC 20 – You assist the party in overcoming obstacles in your path such as chasms/gorges, steep hills which must be climbed, etc.)
• Other skills as appropriate DC 20 – Any reasonable skill use by the player which might lead to either making travel easier or finding a better route to the destination.

Finding the unicorn triggers the Diamond Dust Quest Chain.

Diamond Dust Quest Chain

1. Demon Zapper (link). Replace dao with efreeti cinder lord (MMX II).
2. Bone Brambles (link). Replace hag with an elder version (MMX I or II) and one of the shambling mounts with a greater version (MM II).
3. Wandering Emporium (link). Burney may help the party and use Aesop's fables to talk their ear off.
4. Hold the Fort (ibid). Replace 1 banshee with greater banshee and treant with blackfoot tyrant (MMX II).
5. Uldrak's Grave (link).
6. Arkhan's Tower (link) and potentially the Monumant to Tiamat. Replace chimera with ancient chimera (Monster Manual Expanded I) and combine Arkhan with a dracotaur champion of Tiamat (MMX III, pg. 55). Combine them on the fly.

REWARD

Unicorn Dagger. The unicorn prince will allow the party to keep his broken horn and will revitalize it. It becomes a +1 prismatic dagger and also has the traits of a staff of healing. The prismatic trait grants the attuned users attacks a chance to instantly kill a creature that is of evil alignment on a roll a 20 on the attack roll. This drains 1d4 charges from the unicorn dagger. The creature dies if it fails a DC 15 CON saving throw as it explodes into colorful candy and streamers leaving no body behind. A creature is immune to this effect if it is immune to piercing damage, makes the CON save, has legendary actions, or the GM decides that the creature is too big for the weapon to have an effect. Such a creature instead takes an extra 6d8 piercing damage from the hit (10,000XP, 50,000gp).
Pentagrammic Seal. At some point, one of the treasures found should be this ward and if not found as part of another encounter is gifted to the party by Diamond Dust. The wards exist to defend humanity against fiends and the corrupt energies they wield. During the time of the Ancients human civilization developed aethyric generators, which were able to produce warding fields. Anyone attuned to the item automatically imposes disadvantage on attacks made by fiends passively. It can also be activated to create a similar ward out to 10 feet sphere centered on the ward. It is worth 5,000gp and 500xp (image).
There is a chance for a random encounter travelling between each location, and each location takes one day of travel. Roll 2d10 and a 1d12. A roll of 1 on 1d10 indicates an encounter. (Double 1’s indicate two simultaneous encounters.) A roll of 1 on 1d12 indicates an environmental encounter.

d30	Random Encounter
1	Smiler the Defiler (DIA, p. 133).
2	Boney Grab Bag (EIA, p. 5)
3	Chain Rider (EIA, p. 5)
4	Crater Raiders (EIA, p. 6)
5	Demon/Devil Horde/Legion (EIA, p. 7). If the party is detected, a demon/devil band will intercept them and a molydeus (demon) or pit fiend (devil) recruiter will approach the party peacefully initially before attacking. He will offer a deal/contract or just press-gang the party to join the Blood Wars.
6	Demon/Devil Horde/Legion (EIA, p. 7). Ibid.
7	Demon/Devil Horde/Legion (EIA, p. 7). Ibid.
8	Demon/Devil Prisoner (EIA, p. 7)
9	Spawning Trees (link).
10	Poppet Masters (EIA, p. 10). A coven of night hags clusters around a table, sewing together small doll-like “toys.” They are making poppets (see appendix B), which are dolls that can be infused with the properties of a person and thereby used to manipulate or hurt a person from a distance. One poppet can be purchased for one soul coin. To make a poppet, the character must supply the hags with an item that belonged to the person they want the poppet to impersonate: this can be a scrap of clothing, a lock of hair, a piece of jewellery, or any item that denotes sentiment or identity.
11	Stirge Swarm (EIA, p. 10)
12	Ghost in the Machine (IE, p. 6). The party comes across a beat-up but functional infernal war machine of the Tormentor design. The inside is splattered with old blood and rotted flesh. Once some of the characters are inside, the doors lock, and the machine activates. Unfortunately for the party, through some quirk of fate or infernal design, this infernal war machine, Christine, has gained sentience (INT 10, WIS 8, and CHA 6) and thirsts only to kill! Not responding to commands, the Tormentor tries to run down anyone with its crushing wheels. It needs no crew to drive it or operate its harpoon flinger, and the controls inside the cockpit don't respond. Those inside are thrown about roughly as the vehicle takes sharp turns or careens into debris, taking 11 (2d10) bludgeoning damage per turn. To escape, the characters either need to do enough damage to exceed the vehicle's mishap threshold or succeed on a DC 20 Dexterity check with proficiency in thieves' tools. If one of the doors is unlocked, the characters have only one round to escape before the war machine locks the doors again on its own!
13	Glyph of Hell (IE, p. 6). The characters spot a glyph inscribed upon a wall or rock. Roll 1d4 to see what the glyph portends: It declares this area to be the territory of the chain devil Laanyx. It is a marker left by a previous adventurer that notes this path as safe. Old bloodstains suggest otherwise. It magically detects the passing of creatures (as a mental alarm) and alerts a cambion and succubus pair that come looking for prey. It is a trap (DC 16 glyph of warding (explosive runes) cast using a 6th-level slot).
14	Hellish Hitchhikers (IE, p. 6). Its crew of devils is dismantling the charred remains of an infernal war machine. If the party has a vehicle, in exchange for three soul coins, the devils ask for a lift to a nearby infernal outpost.
15	Help? (IE, p. 6). The characters cross paths with a bewildering human man named Korlos, who claims to be lost and in need of help to escape wherever he is. He doesn't seem to know what's going on and is more than a little desperate. To determine what is really going on, roll 1d4: Korlos (knight) really is lost and was somehow sucked into the Nine Hells through no fault of his own. He's a true innocent. As #1, but Korlos (Warlock of the Fiend) is an evil man who tries to take advantage of the situation to profit himself. Korlos (drow assassin) has lost his soul to a devil but has agreed to another bargain with a bone devil who wants the party dead; if he leads the characters into a trap and makes sure at least half of them die, he regains his soul. Korlos is an incubi using its shapechange ability to gain the characters’ trust, with the eventual plan of betraying them when the time is right.
16	Travelling Infernal Garage (IE, p. 7). The characters come across a garage servicing infernal warmachines. Four fiendish goblins, two imps, and a bearded devil called Elmax repair or augment the party's warmachine for an appropriate amount of soul coins. They currently have one very beat-up Tormentor (half hit points and missing its raking scythes) that they are selling for twenty soul coins.
17	Lost Coffer (IE, p. 7). A locked box (DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check) is just lying there. It is trapped with a glyph that explodes for 22 (5d8) necrotic damage in a 30-foot radius when touched. Characters must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw to halve the damage. The trap is noticed with a DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check and disarmed with a successful DC 20 Dexterity (proficiency with thieves’ tools or Intelligence (Arcana) check). Someone is no doubt looking for this box. What's inside? Roll 1d4 to find out: 2d4 imps A severed head with the symbol of Asmodeus carved into it. 50 gp and an infernal contract for the soul of someone named Trislop. A soul coin.
18	Motivational Sculptures (IE, p. 8). Three bearded devils are diverting runoff molten slag from a nearby foundry. A fourth bearded devil stands by a cage filled with lemures. After collecting a sufficient amount of slag, they grab a lemure and drip it into the molten metal. When the lemure's cries of pain stop, the devils pull out an iron casting of the lemure's death throes and toss it into a wagon. When the bearded devils tire of dunking one lemure at a time, the remaining ones are rounded up, stacked on top of one another, and the slag is diverted on top of them creating a larger sculpture of lemures. If questioned, the bearded devils explain that they were commissioned to create this “artwork” by Fierna, archdevil of Phlegethos. These lemures were incapable of fulfilling their original purpose, so their opportunity to redress this failure is to eternally serve as a reminder to others to act obediently. The artwork is one of a kind and not bartered by the devils. They intend to deliver it to Fierna immediately to avoid a similar fate.
19	My Pile of Meat and Treasure (IE, p. 8). A horned devil stands atop a pile of slain demons, scavenging scrap and treasure. The horned devil shouts threats at interlopers who it feels are looking to steal its potential score. If attacked, the devil barks an order and the three barbed devils digging in the pile erupt from within. If defeated, the horned devil wields a +1 fork (trident) made of wickedly sharp green steel.
20	Robed Watcher (IE, p. 9). A robed figure stands in shadow at a distance, watching the characters. It makes no move to interfere and if approached, attempts to teleport away. The figure is Alatrixiel the Watcher, a cambion wizard with the spell list of an archmage. Alatrixiel chronicles the travels of mortals in Hell and sends his reports on to Asmodeus. The characters’ range of abilities are soon be known to the Lord of the Ninth!
21	Abyssal Sky Harriers. High above the PCs’ heads, an abyssal dragon (BOF, p. 204) flies by. It is beset by a dozen squads of the 3rd Aerial Cohort of the 5th Legion (which is based out of Zariel’s flying fortress). The dragon has been separated from the demonic frontlines and driven deep into Avernus, harried constantly by the aerial cohort who are hoping to take the beast down once and for all.
22	Cadaver Collector. A cadaver collector (TOF, p. 122) has been collecting demonic corpses, which are pinioned to its back.
23	Orthon Hunter. An orthon (TOF, p. 169) has been sent to kill one or more of the PCs. (Who sent it and why, exactly, they want the PCs dead will depend on exactly what sort of mischief they’ve been getting up to in your campaign.) This particular orthon is quite sporting and will start by openly approaching the PCs and explaining that, with its deepest apologies, it will begin hunting them thirty hours from now. They should make whatever final arrangements they need to because then they will surely be dead. “Good luck! I look forward to a good, fair challenge!” If the PCs attempt to immediately attack the orthon, he will consider this a breach of good sportsmanship. If he can escape, he will contact two additional orthons to form a triumvirate who will ruthlessly hunt the PCs.
24	Escort to Dis. A corruption devil (paeliryon, MMX II p. 82) named Drograxol is being carried across Avernus on a bower by a dozen corrupted followers (EGD, p. 176). They are accompanied by an Enforcer of Dis (BOF, p. 154) who serves as Drograxol’s bodyguard. Drograxol is an ambassador from Dis who is now returning to the Second Layer of Hell. (He’s heading for Tiamat’s Lair in Hex C1 and the Gate Tower of Dis that lies within it.) If he is successfully engaged in repartee, he may bemoan the hardship of his work in recent centuries. Relations between Dispater and Zariel have been… difficult since the Siege of Dis during the Reckoning.
25	Lemure Harvest. A malebranch (SSA, p. 27) is often dispatched to collect wayward souls. This one, named Kaziron, has gathered a half dozen lemures (MM, p. 76) who are leashed to him with hooked chains. He hopes to gather more before returning to the Purple City (Hex F2) and would be glad to hear of any recent lemure sightings. (He’d also be interested in any reports of nupperibo.) "A malebranch is a devil with a humanoid body, bat-like wings, sharp claws, and a canine head. It is commonly seen wielding chains with grappling hooks on the ends, which it employs to ensnare sinful souls and beings to bring back to its home of Maladomini, the seventh layer."
26	Sin Bearer. The soul of a man or woman (commoner or cult fanatic; MM, p. 345) walks the Avernian wastelands with heavy tablets of lead strapped to their back. The tablets are inscribed with all the sins they committed in their mortal life.
27	Feasting Swarm. A feasting swarm (Use a rotgrub swarm, large from MMX I) has settled upon the bodies strewn across a recent battlefield, stripping flesh from devil and demon corpses alike. (You can roll on the Procedural Encounters table to determine the corpse types.)
28	Warlord! use the following resources: Raggadragga Attacks!. Raggadragga has demon ichor coated weapons that will warp flesh. The entire crew are wererats - wererat lord, captain and thugs (MMX II). Bitter Breath. Feonor. Princeps Kovik. White Maggie (Fort Knucklebone).
29	Chernobue Stalker. A chernobue (BOF, p. 194, image) begins following the PCs at a distance. A chernobue has the appearance of a large, scuttling, filth-encrusted eye. It keeps far away from the PCs, often lurking right at the edge of the horizon or peering down at them from the top of some distant hill. It watches them without surcease.
30	Hellwasp Nest (link). As written.

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d12	Environmental Encounter
1	Landslide! (Infernal Encounters, p. 7). A cascade of dust, stones, and boulders careens towards the characters who must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 33 ( 6d10 ) bludgeoning damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one. Characters that fail are also buried beneath hundreds of pounds of rock (escape DC 17).
2	Quicksand (DMG, p. 110). A quicksand pit covers the ground in roughly a 10-foot-square area and is usually 10 feet deep. When a creature enters the area, it sinks 1d4 + 1 feet into the quicksand and becomes restrained. At the start of each of the creature’s turns, it sinks another 1d4 feet. As long as the creature isn’t completely submerged in quicksand, it can escape by using its action and succeeding on a Strength check. The DC is 10 plus the number of feet the creature has sunk into the quicksand. A creature that is completely submerged in quicksand can’t breathe (see the suffocation rules in the Player’s Handbook). A creature can pull another creature within its reach out of a quicksand pit by using its action and succeeding on a Strength check. The DC is 5 plus the number of feet the target creature has sunk into the quicksand.
3	Razorvine (DMG, p. 110). Razorvine is a plant that grows in wild tangles and hedges. It also clings to the sides of buildings and other surfaces as ivy does. A 10-foot-high, 10-foot-wide, 5-foot-thick wall or hedge of razorvine has AC 11, 25 hit points, and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and psychic damage. When a creature comes into direct contact with razorvine for the first time on a turn, the creature must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or take 5 (1d10) slashing damage from the razorvine’s bladelike thorns.
4	Rocks of the Damned. Some of the rocks in Avernus seem to have tormented faces etched into them.
5	Bonefield. A field of bleached bones lying half-buried in the dunes or choking a razor-sharp ravine These are remnants of some ancient battle. (Avernian bonefields often feature titanic skeletons that will tower over the PCs.)
6-7	Avernian Fireballs. Travelers in Avernus are periodically plagued with balls of flaming energy that spontaneously erupt without apparent reason. They inflict 5d6 fire damage, with a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw for half damage.
8-9	Infernal Wreck. 1d3 wrecked infernal war machines. The PCs can likely scavenge parts from them. There’s a 1 in 6 chance that the machine can be repaired without completely overhauling it.
10-12	Oppressive Conditions. Trigger an oppressive condition, as described in Part 7B. This will exist in addition to any oppressive conditions already present.

Avernus Hex Crawl

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