We only have a few minor tweaks for the Grand Cemetery.
THE ABYSSAL PORTAL
The abyssal portal in Area G12 (described on page 65 of Descent Into Avernus) is how Liashandra’s Demons were inserted into Elturel.
GIDEON LIGHTWARD
Lightward serves Zariel and he wants the demonic incursion stopped. He may be quite willing to negotiate with the PCs and use them as his pawns to do so.
If the PCs don’t destroy Lightward, then he could develop into an emerging faction in Elturel on future visits: They return to find that his undead have laid siege to the High Hall. Or that the Zariel cults have unified under his leadership. The PCs might discover that Ravengard’s forces have been pushed up into the High District (where they are starving from lack of supplies), while the lower city is divided between the undead horde of Westerly and the vampiric servants of the Dock District.
THREE CLUE RULE TO THE CEMETERY
In the adventure as written, the PCs are funneled towards the High Hall and from there are directed to the Grand Cemetery. But this isn’t a necessary structure. In addition to the PCs simply navigating to the Grand Cemetery on their own through the Elturel pointcrawl, you could seed the scenario with additional clues that could pull them in that direction independently.
Any or all of the following could be used:
- Grand Duke Ravengard sends them.
- Liashandra’s demons come from here. Other factions may know that, or clues could be followed from the Dragoneye Dealing Coster.
- Alternatively, a random encounter with Liashandra’s demons could be a new group of reinforcements traveling from the cemetery to the coster. Perhaps they are carrying a map drawn by Ophurkh (DIA, p. 69) to show them the way?
- A group of Hell Knights the PCs wipe out are carrying written orders to destroy the portal beneath the chapel.
- Before they leave for Elturel, Traxigor mentions that he once worked with a priest of Lathander named Gideon Lightward who now works at the chapel in the Grand Cemetery.
REMOVING RAVENGARD
As noted in Part 5D, Ravengard never mounts an expedition to retrieve the Helm of Torm’s Sight. Removing all traces of this expedition has surprisingly little effect on the location and can probably be done on-the-fly. But here’s a quick guide to the changes:
- Area G7: Remove tracks.
- Area G11: Remove tracks. The golden Helm of Torm’s Sight still rests on the statue here.
- Area G12: Remove Ravengard and the bodies of the fallen guards. (I also like the imagery of the portal being placed under the rotating pool with demons emerging up through its surface, their bodies gleaming with steaming water. But I digress.)
RITUAL OF RETURNING: If a PC puts on the Helm of Torm’s Sight, they’ll be afflicted just as Ravengard is in the adventure. As written, the group will need to return to Pherria to perform the Ritual of Returning. Ophurkh might suggest Liashandra could also help them. (Which may or may not be true.)
We’ll discuss the precise vision the PC wearing the helm receives as part of the general discussion of Lulu’s memories in Part 6D.
THE COLLAPSED TUNNEL
In the ossuary beneath the chapel, there is a secret, collapsed tunnel described as going “To the Cathedral.” This is odd because:
- There is no matching tunnel at the High Hall Cathedral.
- The High Hall Cathedral is nowhere nearby and also in the opposite direction.
I think this is actually an abortive attempt at a video game-style quick exit from the dungeon. (The text now separately recommends that you don’t have any encounters back to High Hall, which is advice I recommend ignoring.) Or possibly they originally intended for the cemetery (which did not previously appear in maps of Elturel) to be placed directly next to the High Hall, but changed their minds at the last minute?
My recommendation is that this tunnel provides a potential exit from the city: It leads west, under the wall, and hits the edge of the earthmote that Elturel is floating on. Directly in front of the tunnel’s end, one of the large chains descends to the Dock of Fallen Cities below.
GIDEON’S TESTAMENT
This book is a testament written by a man named Gideon Lightward. It is written in three overlapping parts. The first part describes a series holy visions sent to him from “a divinity beyond divinity.” The second part is a series of transcribed dialogues between Gideon and another individual called the Woman in White. In the beginning, it seems as if the woman is a pupil who has come to Gideon for religious guidance. Over time, however, their roles seem to invert and now it is Gideon who seems to be seeking guidance from her regarding the visions he has been receiving and, eventually, deeper questions of metaphysical and philosophical import. The third part of the text is Gideon’s own philosophical ruminations upon his experiences and the conclusions he has drawn.
The overwhelming theme of the book regards the evils of demons:
The Woman: Tell me, O Master, of what is the greatest evil.
Gideon: It is that of the Abyss. It is the teemless horde of chaos which seeks to rip down civilization.
The Woman: And why should civilization be not destroyed?
Gideon: Civilization is that which gives life meaning. It is the font of morality and thought. Of art and of science.
Great praises are heaped upon those divinities which stand stalwart against this demonic threat.
It is the gods’ place to stand between Man and Chaos. It is their aegis which is their ultimate purpose, for behind their shield we create greatness and dedicate it to their honor.
One night, however, Gideon awakens from a strange and formless dream and sees a disturbing vision in his bedchamber:
There I beheld her. Her beauty was so great it seemed to burn my eyes. And yet through my blindness I could see her with greater clarity than any other sight that I have ever beheld.
Two great wings of white she had. And a sword of celestial steel so sharp that I could hear the hum of its edge. A weapon made to cleave the division between soul and mind.
But then I saw this essence of perfection cast away her sword. Her wings turned black. Her eyes turned to pits of fire. And a great and terrible purpose furrowed her brow.
The next day he speaks with the Woman in White, who tells him that she, too, has had a vision of this angelic being, and that its name is Zariel.
Gideon: But why should she have turned from the light?
The Woman: She turned from the light because it blinded her.
Gideon: Does not the light let us see?
The Woman: That is the lie of the light. We think only of what it illuminates, but not of what it conceals from us.
Gideon realizes that the Great Blindness – the Great Lie — is that the gods protect man from chaos.
… but it is not so! Helm? Torm? Tyr? Lathander? None of them battle the Abyss. They claim the glory of that war, but shed no blood in it!
This is why Zariel turned from Heaven. She saw the truth of her holy purpose; the Great Need to stand against Chaos. And she saw that her “holy” power was powerless because her gods had willed it so. Thus she allied herself with Hell! For it is Hell who fights chaos! It is Hell which sacrifices itself in the Blood War! Hell which fights eternal so that we poor mortals may eke out a few years of freedom upon the mortal plane!
Zariel is, thus, the inordinate exemplar of both sacrifice and service. Gideon has nothing but praise for her, for the choice she made, and for the great work which she does in the service not only of the mortal races, but for the balance of the entire multiverse.
Without her, all would become Chaos. And all those who do not stand with her are servants and abettors of Chaos, though they know it not.
“We’ll discuss the precise vision the PC wearing the helm receives as part of the general discussion of Lulu’s memories in Part 8.”
Oh… come… ONNNNNNNNNNNNah!!!! I’m dying here! Totally on the hook, but I need this stuff faster than it is coming out! Great job, again!
I love love love Gideon’s Testament.
You always make such great lore books and handouts (“Books of the LA Cult” in Eternal Lies was amazing) and it is something I struggle to come up with myself but absolutely adore in games.
You mentioned on your article Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Commentary on the Info Dump “The ways in which I develop and use lore handouts… is probably deserving of a much longer and more detailed post at some point in the future…” and I would love to see that happen at some point.
Gotta agree with Bill here. One bad habit Justin has is posting irregularly. Like, for twenty days he’ll go without any new content, and then for ten days straight he’ll post once a day. That’s bad because in those twenty days it’s VERY likely you’ll forget about him, and then IF you remember later, odds are good you’ll come back in the middle of the ten-day part of the posting cycle and be drowning in content on a Tuesday morning. Generally, I lose interest after about a week, so you want to dodge occasions like that as much as possible. Posting only on Mon-Wen-Fri (or, for that matter, any other form of three times a week) might be a good idea if you want to spread out the content more.
@Bill: I’d briefly discussed this over on Patreon in response to a similar question, but I think it’s likely that Lulu’s memories will end up being discussed in Part 6. I’m thinking of moving the campaign ending stuff up to properly frame the other material.
I’m not currently envisioning huge changes in Lulu’s memories. It’s more about rebalancing them and rekeying the triggers. So you can almost certainly use the vision in the book here (whose primary function is to point them at Fort Knucklebones) and be just fine.
The biggest change is that I’m probably going to shove the charge further back in history. Although the impact on Lulu is probably minimal.
@Sarainy: I’ve got a couple abortive drafts on it. Unfortunately, it’s got a real “draw the rest of the fucking owl” problem right now where I haven’t quite figured out how to explain what I’m doing beyond, “And then you write the handout.” High hopes I’ll crack it at some point.
@Kai: M-W-F is the goal, but this has proved to be a systemic problem with these longer series featuring lots of interconnected material. I write about 20-25k words for the Alexandrian per month. One you get a chunk that’s about 10-12k in length that’s interdependent (i.e., I need to write the whole thing before posting it), it tends to delay the first half of the month’s content into the second half — essentially, creating a gap while I’m working on the large chunk and then creating a flurry of content as the big stuff rolls out and shorter stuff gets written to fulfill the original schedule.
Solution #1: Keep writing smaller stuff on schedule, work on the larger stuff in the gaps around it. In practice, this leads to the larger stuff like the Remix getting delayed. So you might have more regular updates, but Elutrel wouldn’t have been done until August or September.
Solution #2: Post draft versions of material and then revise the posts to match changes/additions from later material. In practice, this doesn’t always work; and it’s a lot more labor-intensive for me (which also tends to delay material). The one time I actually tried this approach it also created a ton of confusion for readers.
Obviously the real solution is to produce 50k words in a month and get a buffer built up. 😉
Another solution to the problem is on the reader side, use the RSS feed. I use it and I just get the articles landing in the inbox when they are done, and there’s no risk of forgetting to check back.
Justin, have you published any modules? I got stated as a GM running your Keep on the Shadowfell for my friends way back, but I’d prefer to just have a book written by you that I pay for over the remixes where you have to keep flipping between them.
Totally not trying to pressure you, I love what you”re doing, I just want to NOW, all of it. 🙂
I also love Gideon’s testament – where would you recommend dropping this so it can be found?
Re: Pressure. No, no. Makes total sense. I’m also frustrated at how long this is taking. Avernus ended up being a bigger project (and a bigger headache) than I’d anticipated when I launched the Remix.
Gideon’s Testament is actually on page 67 of Descent Into Avernus. The handout here just significantly expands its content and presents it in a form that can be given to the players as a handout.
@Theo: I believe you can also Follow at Patreon even if you’re not a Patron and get e-mail updates.
Re: My writing. Check the Bibliography link on the right. Most of my efforts to get larger D&D modules published over the years have floundered, but I have a number of micro-adventures. More substantive adventure work for Infinity and Over the Edge in recent years incorporate a lot of the stuff I’ve developed here at the Alexandrian.
There’s also some non-remix D&D content here at the Alexandrian (see RPG Scenarios in the menu on the right). I’m hoping to do more of that in the future.
I had a few questions about Gideon and his Testament,
1. When did he start writing the testament? Before he was corrupted/started serving Zariel or after?
2. Who is the ‘Woman in White’ supposed to be?
Love the writing you’ve done for it – definitely starts to plant the idea that Zariel may not be the 100% evil villain the players may assume she is.
Just wanna say thanks for the efforts on the remix! Haven’t gotten the group toghether yet but hopefully soon.
My players all thought the testament of Gideon was AWESOME.
Seconding the RSS thing. It’s still the best notification tool around, even all these years later. All the new ones are designed to enrich a social media company by giving them control. RSS was the last and best designed to give total control to users. (I don’t hate social media companies or anything, but they’re not always the tool you want.)
Before the site became a WordPress site, I used to hand-code my RSS file because I thought it was important. It’s why the link is still right at the top of the site in the right hand column.
From the book, the “Chapel of Light” has a stained-glass window depicting Torm, god of courage, offering the helm o’ visions to Lannish Fogel, and the “Chapel of Mourning” has a window depicting Lathander, the Morninglord, and the spirits of the dead. Isn’t this a little confused? Wouldn’t it make more sense if Lathander was the one who gave the helm that could allow one to *see* and the window depicting this event is in the Chapel of Light, while Torm stood among those who offered themselves and a window depicting that event is in the Chapel of Mourning?
The chapels’ names are a little irrelevant since the players won’t learn them, but it seems counterintuitive that Lathander, god of the dawn and rebirth, is languishing with the recently dead while Torm is offering a helm of visions to Fogel. On the other hand, if one were to make it the helm of Lathander’s sight then other things break down like the ritual of returning, and that’s not great either?
Any thoughts on this?
Hey! Quick question, in Gideon’s diary:
“Zariel is, thus, the inordinate exemplar of both sacrifice and surface.”
What do you mean with the word “surface”? Something like redemption or rebirth? I’m not a native English speaker and i really can’t figure it out =)
Thanks a lot for your incredible work!
You do great work Justin. I further modified the “remove Ravengard” aspect and have the Baphomet cultists having grabbed the Helm and are performing a prophane ritual upon it in the corrupted pool/portal that the PCs have to interrupt to retrieve it. Once a PC donns the Helm, hopefully after some prestidigitation, I wanted the “vision” to be more about the Baphomet / Torm conflict. This is done by having the donner appear in a labyrinth as Lannish Fogel being chased by a minotaur. When the Ritual of Returning excorism is performed, Pherria Jynks finds the ritual and concludes that friends of the victim are required to circle the victim and hold hands to draw them back to reality. When they start the ritual, they are all transposed into the labyrinth (sans the Sheild of the Hidden Lord that cannot exist in such a demiplane in my version) next to Lannish (who has the donner’s stats and equipment, but does not remember who he is until his friends arrive). Pherria appears spectral in a magic circle in their midst, she must remain there chanting the prayers of the Ritual of Returning. The metaphysical argument and battle between Baphomet and Torm is heard in the distance (the words the donner has been spouting randomly), and Baphomet accuses Torm of cheating, so Torm allows Baphomet to bring his champions into the labyrinth too (bulezaus). The PCs must escape the labyrinth with Lannish, and the exit is the tumult of shadows that turns into the first of Lulu’s memory snippets. If they fail by going to the center instead of the exit, they are drawn into the Endless Maze and probably have to use Sending to Traxigorican (who does not have to wait overnight to Plane Shift back btw, just use a higher level spell slot) for help, so they must survive until he can do that, or survive the Abyss to find a gate or the Styx, etc. If they fail by getting killed by the bulezaus or minotaur, they are ejected unconscious, even the donner who can now remove the tainted Helm. The price of failure, Lulu’s first memory dive must be triggered another way, the Helm must be reconsecrated, another holy relic found, etc. PC failures escape the linear plot as written, but that what remixes are all about…