ADVERSARY ROSTER
| BATHHOUSE (NIGHT) | ||
| Imp | D1 - Courtyard | (spies for Thurstwell) |
| 3 Night Blades | D2 - Baths | |
| Necromite | D4 - North Massage Room | |
| DUNGEON | ||
| 2 corpsedamp zombies | D6 - Bloated Corpse | (must be summoned) |
| 3 Necromites | D10 - Necromites' Room | |
| Yignath (Iron Consul)* | D12 - Bane's Altar | |
| Kazzira (Fist of Bane) | D12 - Bane's Altar | |
| 2 Flying Gauntlets | D12 - Bane's Altar | (must be summoned) |
| Flennis (Master of Souls)** + Skeletal Rats | D13 - Morgue | |
| 3 skeletons | D17 - Myrkul's Altar | (must be summoned) |
| 3 corpsedamp zombies | D21 - Zombie Crypt | |
| Fist of Bane | D23 - Door Sentry | |
| 4 Fists of Bane | D25 - Bane's Rest | (sleeping) |
| Reaper | D26 - Bhaal's Rest | |
| 2 corpsedamp zombies | D28 - Old Cellar | (must be summoned) |
| Mortlock*** + Vaaz**** (Death's Head) | D29 | (programmed encounter) |
* Key ring with seven keys (shackles in D12 & D22, chests in D30).
** Carries spellbook (see DIA p. 23) and Missive of the Hidden Lord Ψ handout.
*** Carries Mortlock’s Correspondence handout.
**** Has Assassin’s Orders handout.
Stat blocks for Dead Three cultists can be found in Descent Into Avernus, p. 231-235.
Corpsedamp zombie stats can be found here.
See Art of the Key: Adversary Rosters for details on using an adversary roster.
QUESTIONING CULTISTS
CULTISTS
- The abductions/murders are actually being carried out by a team based out of the Poisoned Poseidon in the Brampton neighborhood.
- They have the support of one of the Council of Four! (Or, at the very least, someone very powerful.) Most of the low-ranking cultists don’t actually know who it actually is, and they might speculate: Ravengard, Stelmane, Portyr, Vanthampur. The ducal representative (Mortlock, although not all of them know his name) is here in the dungeon.
- The local cult leaders are Yignath (Iron Consul of Bane), Flennis (Myrkullian Master of Souls), and Vaaz (Death’s Head of Bhaal). They may be able to give some indication of their current location.
CULT LEADERS
Yignath, Flennis, and Vaaz are obviously more knowledgeable than the rank-and-file cultists.
- They have been receiving missives from the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which is currently in the possession of the Vanthampurs. (See “Lore of Gargauth” in Part 3B of the Remix.)
- Under Gargauth’s guidance, they have formed an alliance with Duke Vanthampur. They have also received this temple complex in exchange for their service (proving the divine purpose of their actions).
- They know that Duke Vanthampur is a Zarielite. They believe that Zariel is responsible for the fall of Elturel, with an army of devils responsible for sacking the city.
- Their primary liaison with the Vanthampurs is Mortlock Vanthampur. Mortlock provides them with the target list for their murders. (They don’t know where Mortlock gets the names.)
- Each leader also knows the contents of the Missives of the Hidden Lord addressed to them.
- Vaaz: Can also reveal the information in the Assassin’s Orders (that he was hired by Amrik and Thurstwell Vanthampur to kill their brother and was to send evidence to Amrik at the Low Lantern when the job was done). Within just the past hour, he has dispatched an assassination team to kill Duke Portyr at a charity event being held at the Beloved Ranger in the Wide.
MORTLOCK VANTHAMPUR
Mortlock is not inclined to betray his family, but if he realizes that the attempt on his life was coordinated by Amrik and Thurstwell he will feel betrayed himself and be more likely to help the PCs (if they agree to giving him an amnesty for his own role in all this).
- The Vanthampurs are Zarielites. Mortlock is not a true believer, but he’s loyal to the family.
- Duke Vanthampur is using the Dead Three cultists to murder specific targets. Mortlock’s brother, Amrik, is responsible for identifying these targets: He provides the names to Mortlock, who passes them along to the Dead Three cultists.
- Amrik has set himself up as a black market resource for smuggling refugees into the city. He holds court at the Low Lantern, fleecing refugees who want to bring their loved ones inside the city.
- Duke Vanthampur is working in coordination with a powerful cult leader that escaped from Elturel just before its fall. The Duke is protecting this cult leader in the basement of Vanthampur Manor. (Mortlock does not know the identity of this cult leader.)
- The cult leader brought two powerful artifacts with him from Elturel, one of which was a shield in the likeness of a demonic face. Mortlock’s other brother, Thurstwell, was fascinated by these artifacts.
- He also knows the history of the Dungeon of the Dead Three, and how it was given to the Dead Three cultists in exchange for their alliance.
- If questioned, he can provide background on the Tiamat treasure found in Area D30: Yignath had his followers steal it from a vault owned by the Hhune noble family. They kidnapped Satiir Thione-Hhune in the process. Satiir and one of the artifacts were taken to Vanthampur Manor at his mother’s request.
- Duke Vanthampur has ordered the assassination of Duke Portyr. A Dead Three assassination team has already been dispatched to a charity event at the Beloved Ranger where the Duke is planning to make a speech within the hour (see Part 3J: The Portyr Assassination).
I think one sentence is incomplete:
> if he realizes that the attempt on his life was coordinated by Amrik and Thurstwell he will feel
Otherwise, keep up the good work. This is interesting stuff, even though I’ve never seen the original book you’re remixing.
Fixed! Thank you!
Any thoughts on nerfing or swapping out Master of Souls for a different NPC for Flennis? According to the book’s pacing, PCs should be level 2 and she has two fireballs up her sleeve.
A few things:
1. As noted in Part 3C, I’ve bumped the PCs level up to 3 for the dungeon to address the concern that it’s too tough as written.
2. Flennis has been placed in a room with a gas leak. A strong argument can be made that she won’t use fireball. Now, if the PCs let the alarm get sounded and Flennis comes to find them… on them.
3. If you’re still concerned, you could probably make a strong argument that Flennis has already cast animate dead today, cutting her down to one fireball.
4. We know that the cultists like to take prisoners. DIA p. 40 actually has a recommended procedure for it. If they do get wiped, having them wake up in chains in Area D22 with an announcement that Mortlock is going to come and interrogate them to figure out who they’re working for is a legitimate scenario.
I still have so much more to learn…
Thanks for sharing, Justin!
Was there supposed to be a Key entry for D6 (Bloated Corpse)? You have a listing here for there being two corpsedamp zombies that must be summoned. I assume that means that the PC’s have to do something to make them appear. Did you replace the corpse of Hiskaal with them? Or are they there and arise when the players examine the body?
“Summoned” in this context means that they usually won’t move from this location unless one of the bad guys comes and gets them (summons them). So they’re available for reinforcements, but won’t come hunting if they hear something.
Does it seem weird to anyone else that the leader of the cult of Bane is only an Iron Consul instead of being a Black Gauntlet?
Hi, excellent stuff! It says Flennis carries the Missive of the Hidden Lord Ψ but the missive is directed at Yignath. Is this on purpose?
Actually I think it was wrong in the first instance, form the Key and then copied here. Flennis shouldn’t be carrying any missive – her missive Ω is in her keyed room D13. MORGUE.
Yignath should instead be changed on this adversary roster to be carrying Missive of the Hidden Lord Ψ
With regard to Flennis’ use of Fireball (or Scroching Ray or Burning Hands), DtA p.234, the stats for Master of Souls, Flennis will have Grave Magic, which allows her to change spell damage type to necrotic. I’d think she could do that and not worry a bit about lighting off any of the explosive gases.
In the revised key for D-13 Morgue, you have included 3 corpsedamp zombies that are strapped to the walls, but are “ready to go”. If she is surprised in D-13, wouldn’t Flennis move to release at least one of the zombies? The zombie would then move to attack the nearest PC. And get killed pretty quickly. Exploding. The other zombies in the room are likely to be close enough to the exploding zombie to be set off in a Fiery Death, basically a sympathetic explosion. This is likely to happen with multiple PCs within the 15ft zone around the exploding zombies. Likely more than one of the PCs will then be subjected to 2d8 plus 4d8 plus 4d8 fire damage. Flennis, expecting the consequences of an Exploding Death zombie on the others would position herself outside the range of the explosions, so she survives unharmed. It seems like we have about a 25% chance of TPK just on this act alone. Tie that in with Flennis’ potent spell kit, it seems like there is very high chance of TPK happening in D-13 by itself. Maybe it would be better if the zombies strapped to the walls were NOT “ready to go”, but instead had been just recently started on the exposure to corpsedamp and therefore only able to act as a regular zombie?
You mention that
The cult leader brought two powerful artifacts with him from Elturel, one of which was a shield in the likeness of a demonic face.
And
Satiir and one of the artifacts were taken to Vanthampur Manor at his mother’s request
What were these artifacts? i was under thre impression that The shield belonged to Satiir’s family and was stolen from them and TK brought the Puzzle box from avernus?
If so what was the other artifact TK brought with him?
The two artifacts are the puzzle box and the shield.
The shield was stolen from Satiir’s family, but was taken to Elturel. (And TK brought it from there.)
TK has never been to Avernus. The puzzle box also comes from Elturel.
Regarding Fireball, the solution I used in the Poisoned Poseidon and will use again here is to have the Master of Souls use Animate Dead twice that day to create undead or continue to assert control over them.
This can add anywhere from 2-5 (your choice, or even up to 8 if you want to fudge the mechanics a bit) zombies and/or skeletons to the encounter, under the Master of Soul’s control.
I figure that is something most level 2-3 groups can handle, compared to one or two Fireballs.