#descent in to Avernus

[its-avernus]

I haven’t posted here in a while, and that’s not from lack of things to post. Both campaigns are still in full swing and everyone has had fun (or at least they said they have). I’ve also been busy with other projects, but they aren’t D&D related. I have time at the moment to work on some more minis for the next stage of the campaign, and one that I should have done to begin with but better late than never.

We have Hellrider Reya Mantlemourn, and then Captain Zodge of the Flaming Fist and his personal squad. I’ve decided to do the back of the minis as well, because it was confusing for players who couldn’t see the fronts of the previous minis.

As I used the alternative first chapter, Fall of Elturel, it actually recommends skipping the opening with Captain Zodge at the start of the official module. I have decided to include the scene with some amendments. I’ve also put together an alternative route for my players to choose so I might not even end up using it 😅 It’s already mostly prepared by the module so I don’t feel too bothered by putting the extra work in.

[dmmchn]

Cecil Steelhammer.

I'm playing Descent into Avernus with my friends, and I made a tiefling paladin (oath of crown) character for that. Was heavily inspired by BG3's Zevlor, ngl.

Cecil is a Hell Rider, he descended with the city, then managed to escape it (because I joined the campaign mid-way and that's how our DM joined him with the party) to find the way to save it somewhere else.

I tired to design the most basic character I could, so Cecil would stand in line with the NPCs the party met along the way. His surname, his basic horns, his typical red skin - all serve that purpose. However I did my own take on the Hell Rider Uniform - I wanted it to look more knightly with a coat that draws the guard out from the crowd, so I added embroidery with Elturel's suns.

[mayakern]

tomorrow my wife starts running a modified descent into avernus campaign and i’ll be playing peccadillo, a kobold bard and pet to a powerful wizard, who is currently missing

[sunsetagain]

Baldur's Gate 3: My heart's An Empty Vase Looking For Roses

Ship: Karlach + non-ascendant Astarion

based on Descent into Avernus

free talk at the end

中文版

I wrote then canceled two comics after wrapping up Byzantine Generals. For a while I thought I lost my comic making ability forever, until BG3 stormed into my life.

Cover lyrics were written by Tender Henk from Singing Lute inn, on a sheet of paper on the desk in the room where Karlach's romance scene takes place. It suits her so well yet she calls him the worst guy she ever met LOL can't blame her bc what in the hells is Jableeda?

NGL I played Karlach in my first BG3 playthrough because her engine reminded me of the thirium pump of a DBH android. Romancing Astarion with her felt like Romancing Kamski with an android to me in the first place LMAO some pretty ancient headcanon like little boy Elijah being bullied in school built a buff RT600 Chloe to be his bodyguard blablabla

Then she and Astarion became my OTP and I played both of them to romance each other, tried every possibility i could think of.

So this comic is just a small talk about a big plan between Karlach and spawn Astarion after the ending of the game. Based on Descent into Avernus. I'm no DnD player so apologize in advance in case of any mistakes. OOC belongs to me.

[aitze]

Elzerina Cassalanter, my character for Descent Into Avernus. Totally normal woman with no problems.

[annadeef]

bloody streets, some secrets and a cold coin

Opal belongs to @endlessmidnightparade , Anne belongs to @artbytesslyn and Ferus to @siobhanchiffon

[shewolfofvilnius]

you do an absolutely ridiculous amount of stuff in BG3

i mentioned this in a reddit reply to a post i made but the amount of stuff you deal with in BG3 as a player is enough for like twenty individual DND campaigns - and instead you have ALL OF THIS going on at the same time:

It's wild given the duration of time but that is such an active period of time in terms of what you're actually doing.

*Stop an elder brain infused and overpowered with Netherese magic

*Kill at least two of the Chosen of the Dead Three, one of whom has a boss form that is a transformed avatar of that god

*rescue Selune's daughter (or kill her)

*potentially overturn a century-old Sharran curse that killed thousands AND later confront Shar herself after (probably) killing the Mother Superior of the Sharran cell of Baldur's Gate (AND possibly setting up your companion to become her chosen)

*stop a centuries old vampire overlord from slaughtering thousands of spawn in order to become an Ascendant Vampire (and possibly help your companion become one)

*potentially kickstart a githyanki civil war that leads one of the two factions to possibly reunite with the githzerai, which is insane,

*potentially install a new Archmage of Baldur's Gate after probably killing the old one (alternately, helping the old one achieve immortality)

*and along the way you also spite Mystra a couple of times (and possibly set up a companion to become a rival god) which leads to Elminster (or at least a simulacrum of him) showing up in your path twice.

*You can possibly have to deal with the kua-toa imbuing a redcap with a tiny sliver of the power of a god (enough that if a Durge pledges to be BOOOAL's chosen, Bhaal gets legitimately pissed and you get a big hint as to Durge' identity WAY earlier).

*Silvanus clearly has a hand in the events of the grove, and seems to be eyeing Arabella as either a powerful follower or possibly a future chosen, and you're placed in the position of potentially helping her.

*A son of Mephistopheles actively tries to get you to deal with him so that he can seize total power over the universe.

*You have two different but intersecting plot chains at least tangentially involving Zariel (Wyll & Mizora, plus her top fighter/pet Karlach), while the main non-companion B-plot of the game (Elturian Refugees) is a direct epilogue to the Descent Into Avernus campaign.

*You find out what happened to both Balduran AND his legendary dragon Ansur and have to do something about it.

*Jergal just chills out in your camp making fun of your love life, and you just have to sort of put up with it.

*And related to above, along the way you probably meet the person who becomes your spouse/beloved, all but one of which tie into the above.

*And Minthara (the only one I hadn't mentioned yet) was at one time in her life a highly favored woman of her powerful house who was personally handpicked by two of the aforementioned Dead Three's chosen, and you can either slay her or recruit her.

*AND if you're Durge you also get the fun happy b-plot of your own showdown with not just your sister but your father, and either becoming Chosen of Bhaal or at minimum personally resurrected from the dead by Jergal if not made his Chosen (it's conflicting exactly what Redeem Durge' status is w Withers/Jergal exactly).

*and that's not even including rediscovering the ancient Sharran grymforge, the Shadow Druids' plot, the fate of the Harpers, the dude who wants to blow up refugee kids, the gondians, the ironhand gnomes' misadventures, Mol's whole deal, and like 30 other side plots.

That is a lot. No wonder we make it from level 1 to level 12 in just four months.

[penismage]

trying to get back into drawing a bit with a little sketch of one of my favorite d&d characters i’ve ever played

[fireflysummers]

I finished the written portion of my General Exam, and as a gift to myself I spent several weeks working on a thoroughly self-indulgent piece of Baldur's Gate 3 fanart.

Hell to Pay by @pengychan is one of my favorite BG3 fics, which puts Raphael (and, by natural extension, Haarlep) on a post-canon life changing roadtrip through the hells with Durge, Astarion, Halsin, Karlach, and Wyll. Get in losers, they're going to upset the hierarchy of the hells by assassinating at least one archdevil (maybe more, as a treat), with the power of friendship*.

*and incredible violence, which looks identical to the power of friendship with this deeply unhinged band of weirdos.

All jokes aside, this fic is a favorite for three main reasons: 1) a masterful exploration of DnD and BG3 lore, particularly the Descent into Avernus campaign; 2) a thoughtful extension of the themes of BG3, especially surrounding the perpetuation of cycles of abuse in the face of systemic violence; 3) comedic timing. Seriously, this fic is so damn funny in a way that matches unhinged and horny energy of the game.

On a more personal note about the power of writing etc..., is that the weekly updates on this fic provided a significant serotonin boost. I missed commenting on the final chapters due to brain blah (something I can and will fix eventually), but I figured that this might be as good.

The art itself isn't 100% to my satisfaction, but it's also a radically different art style than I'm accustomed to using, so I learned a lot. I couldn't remember what outfits everybody was wearing in the fic so it's a mix of their origin and epilogue outfits except for Raphael who may get a redemption arc but not enough of one to escape the cone of shame Blazer of Benevolence. A lot more detail could be added, as well as messing with the post-processing a bit, but I needed to stop because I need to refocus on like. Academic research and stuff?

[drownedrow]

Cania, The Eighth Layer (Envy)

[anrimortis]

if you remember my Avernus dnd oc Astrid well

this is her mother Arabea 💖

[its-avernus]

I watch lots of D&D YouTubers, and while I've been prepping for my campaign I've been devouring DnD horror stories videos, so it's been drilled in to me to have a session zero (thanks Crispy's Tavern). I have been part of games where a lack of a session zero has been a problem, I wouldn't call them horror stories but I know from experience why they're important. I've spoken before about wanting to make sure the player's characters are embeded in the world and really part of the story. I also wanted to make sure I had clear notes for both groups game preferences because I'm fairly confident that the two groups will be pretty different. So I made myself a worksheet!

I have space at the top to record basic details about characters (names, pronouns, class, species). Then my house rules, which is the same for both parties. After that some basic party boundaries I wanted to make sure I covered. Then I made a table for hard and soft limits, which was a really good tip I got from the 2024 DM guide. Basically - hard limits are topics that people do not want in the game at all, whereas soft limits are topics which can be explored in the campaign but with some caveats.

For example:

A player may ask that self harm/suicide not be a used as a plot point or be something the party has to confront directly, but it can happen in the background as part of the story. This is a Soft Limit.

It's not unusual for a party to ask that no rape or sexual assault be included or mentioned in the campaign at all. This is a Hard Limit.

Finally is a list of 20 (such a fortuitous number!) character prompts. I made these to help players hash out their characters with a fun activity. The plan was a player would roll a D20, choosing a prompt, then each player would answer for their character. Then the next player would roll, etc. etc.

I have now run a session 0 and session 1 with the Goblins (I'll probably make posts about this later), and I'm really glad I had this form on hand. It was useful to make sure I got all the information I needed. I wont be sharing the sheets for the specific parties (but I may bring some of the info up later). I didn't get a chance to try out my roleplay prompts due to time constraints, I wasn't too worried because their characters were mostly fleshed out, but I think they would be handy for me to get to know the characters better. I think I might start asking for one person to roll the dice and pick a prompt at the begining of sessions as a little roleplay warm up.

I finally have a date for the Nat 1 session 0. I already knew that the Nat 1 games would be a lot more infrequent than the Goblin's sessions. Me and the Goblins currently have every two weeks on a monday evening booked in for the forseable future. The Nat 1 group is booked a weekend day at a time, but the weekend sessions will be a lot longer. So the two groups might end up progressing at about the same speed. I am really curious to see how the two groups session 0s divert. I'll probably go in to the differences a bit once I have all the data.

[dmmchn]

Cecil Steelhammer, on duty.

Cecil, being a Hellrider, used to patrol streets of Elturel on horseback together with a deputy partner. I imagine he was something like a second lieutenant, higher than a private, but not that higher.

Cecil became a Hellrider at the age of 18, and he was 29 in 1492 DR, when Elturel fell.

P.S. Cecil became a fan-favourite here! Many thanks to everyone reblogging! Why do you all like him so much though? :’D

[yeetmeoutthewindowdaddy]

Tiefling lovers PSA

While reading fanfictions about Zevlor/Rolan/Dammon/Karlach/etc. I noticed that authors tend to describe their scent as a mix of something and brimstone.

For those who are unawares:

Brimstone is another name for sulfur, which smells like a mix of rotten eggs and sewage. It fucking stinks.

And to be clear, tieflings can smell like sulfur— but they don't have to smell like sulfur.

If you want to learn more about tieflings, here is my shameless self promotion post that covers their lore.

Avernus is the first, and largest, layer of the Nine Hells. "The stench of Avernus" isn't just a literary device to show how other characters can tell that someone, such as Wyll, has been in contact with a devil— "the Stench of Avernus" is sulfur, hence the 'stench' part.

Sentence: "The stench of Avernus clings to you." Translation: "You smell like fermented farts."

Poor Karlach has been in Avernus for so long that the smell probably clings to her no matter how much she bathes. 😰

A/N: If you intentionally make tieflings smell bad in your fanfictions then ignore this post. And I have to say, y'all are more simpier than I am— I loves me some tiefs, but if they smell like sulfur I'm out.

[watchingceaselessly]

I've always thought about post-game BG3, if Karlach went back to Avernus, who would she go with and what would she do?

I always liked the ending where Wyll becomes the Blade of Avernus and goes with her, and I also wonder if Spawn Astarion could go with her as well? I know he can't be in the sun and I wonder how this would work in Avernus?

As for what they do, there's the canon things like taking down a high-level Cambion and finding the blueprints to fix Karlach's heart. I was looking through the Descent into Avernus book the other day and the idea of the three of them on an Infernal War Machine riding around fighting devils and monsters like Mad Max, maybe visiting The Wandering Emporium.

Would love to see some art / or fiction about this kind of continuation!

[chiefpurpleimp]

DONE ... mostly. Just the border to do.

This piece has consumed whatever little free time I have. I'm sorry for the spam 🤣. I'm just so very slow at drawing 😅.

I have other pieces planned but they will have to wait until I've finished some work and other things.

Hellriders in Avernus against Zariels armies.