In the Remix, there are four “memory dives”:
- The Vision From Torm
- The Dream Machine
- Claiming the Sword
- Zariel’s Spark
In each case, the players are given the opportunity to play through the events of the past. In some of the memory dives, the players will take on the roles of NPCs in those scenes. In others, it will seem as if the PCs themselves are part of the memory (as if they had been somehow transported into the past). Regardless of method or methodology, we’ll refer to this as the dreamscape. While in the dreamscape:
- PCs cannot be killed. Characters taking damage in the dreamscape suffer psychic damage and if reduced to 0 hp are rendered unconscious but stable.
- The past cannot actually be changed: These are morphable (and, it should be noted, therefore unreliable) visions of what happened. The PCs are not actually travelling through time. The dreamscape experiences are strongly guided and, if the players deviate too far from the course of history, it’s likely that the dreamscape will adjust itself. (Alternatively, the memory dive might end abruptly and need to be restarted.)
GM Note: Although the past cannot be changed by the PCs, it’s up to you how much the players can non-diegetically define what “really” happened. If it doesn’t contradict something previously established in the campaign and/or alter essential continuity, there’s no reason not to assume that how things play out at the table is how those things happened in the past. (For example, one of the players might improvise a battle cry during a memory dive, and then, later, one of the former Hellriders might make the same battle cry or talk about hearing it on the field of battle that day.
THE VISION FROM TORM
When a PC puts on the Helm of Torm’s Sight in the Grand Cemetery of Elturel (see Part 5D), they’ll enter a comatose state until someone, most likely Pherria Jynks, performs a ritual to free them. As that ritual completes, flashback to the moment of them putting on the Helm and then play through the visions they’re shown.
If the players make note of the gauntlet imagery found throughout these visions, they can make a skill check:
- Religion (DC 12): A right-handed gauntlet, held upright, is Torm’s holy symbol.
Snippets are non-interactive. Visions are interactive, as noted.
SNIPPET – THE BEGINNING OF ZARIEL’S FALL. There is a kind of inky darkness; a nauseous veil of swirling shadows. Then a beam of golden light. The light slowly grows in intensity and the shadows are ripped apart, like a caul parting before your eyes. At the point where the light is almost blinding, it turns reddish and becomes hot. Dry and hot. A dry, hot wind.
As your vision clears, you’re standing on a field of battle beneath the blood red sky of Avernus. A huge mound of devils lies dead. Other devils, still living, are hauling bodies off the mound, chittering amongst themselves.
All the way at the bottom of the mound, as one last corpse is pinioned on a pitchfork and flung to one side, the body of an angel is revealed. Her skin is porcelain white. Her hair the golden light of an evening sun. Her wings bloodstained ivory.
The devils draw back. Some of them are cackling, but then one glances back over their shoulder and suddenly drops prostrate to the ground. Others, too, following the first’s gaze, throw themselves to the ground.
A tall devil with skin of maroon and crimson, dressed in robes of black and gold, strides in amongst the scattered corpses. He is possessed of a leonid beauty, with two almost impossibly long, dark horns curving gracefully from his forehead.
The devil’s eyes smolder as he looks down at the angel. As he pulls off a gauntlet-like glove from his left hand, revealing the talons beneath, he turns and asks, in a smooth voice of elegance and grace, “Where is her Sword?”
The caul of gilded night sweeps over your vision.
VISION – THE THREE GENERALS. You are standing at attention in some sort of ceremonial uniform in a small group of similarly dressed knights. Each has a small badge on their left shoulder, depicting a pair of twin suns. Before you, on a grassy field, are arrayed three riders wearing identical badges: A woman with dark hair upon a black charger. A bearded man on a white horse. And the angel you saw lying beneath the mound of corpses riding a golden-furred, winged mammoth. Approaching from across the field is another mounted man, this one flanked by an honor guard.
GM Note: This is an interactive vision, but it’s designed to introduce the concept. If the player says they want to take an action, let them. Otherwise, the vision just plays out.
As the man draws near the trio before you, he brings his horse to a stop and then dismounts. The trio does likewise. A herald steps forward and announces, “Haruman, Lord Knight of the Far Hills greets Lord Olanthius.”
The beaded man smiles. “Hail to you, Lord Haruman. And welcome to Elturel. I am pleased to introduce you to Lady Yael of Idyllglen and Zariel, solar of Celestia.”
“And I’m Lulu!” trumpets the mammoth.
Haruman removes his left gauntlet and extends his hand, shaking each of the others in turn — and also, with a laugh, Lulu’s trunk! Escorted by Lord Olanthius, he proceeds down the line. In a few moments he stops before you and extends his hand. What do you do?
(As they grip Haruman’s hand or within a few moments either way, the vision shifts again.)
SNIPPET – ZARIEL’S REQUEST. The red heat of Avernus sweeps over you. So do the sounds of battle, but only at a distance. There is a trumpeting and the shadows are swept away like mist in a strong wind, you see the angel Zariel kneeling in the dust. Lady Yael, arrayed for battle in battered, bloody, and dust-covered armor kneels on the ground next to her. Zariel is pushing her glowing sword into Lady Yael’s hands.
GM Note: The trumpeting is Lulu stomping some devils a little distance away.
Yael: I refuse. Do not ask me of this.
Zariel (smiling sadly): I must. I do. Look beyond this forsaken day. One last time, I need you to dream a little bigger.
Yael weeps and then, unable to speak, nods, taking Zariel’s sword.
There’s another trumpet and Zariel’s golden mammoth comes charging up. “I drove them off, but there’s another group drawing near.”
Zariel pulls off her left gauntlet and buries her hand in the mammoth’s fur, taking a moment of comfort. “My old friend. Goodbye. Perhaps we shall meet again, but I do not think so. I need you to go with Yael. Help her make certain my Sword is not captured by the forces of Hell. Let it become a symbol of everything we have fought for. Even if it has ended in folly, let our deeds have meaning.”
As the veil formed from shadows of gold wraps itself around you again, slowly blotting out everything except the sword still glowing in Yael’s hand, Zariel’s voice continues: “This is the last thing I will ever ask of you. Protect Yael.”
VISION – YEENOGHU’S GAMBIT. Through the shadows, the sounds of battle intensify. Your vision clears to reveal yourself riding on horseback at a full gallop. The sun hanging high in the blue sky momentarily blinds you. Your companions are with you: [insert PC names] Ahead of you, on the back of a golden mammoth and leading your charge, is the angelic Zariel. You’re surrounded by a massive battle – an army of mostly human knights are fighting a horde of gnolls.
[Call for initiative checks.]
A wall of black-furred gnolls come loping up over the top of the hill in front of you. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. Zariel calls back over her shoulder: “Guard the flanks! I’ll cut us a path through!” Then she spurs her mount to an even higher speed; the mammoth’s feet actually glide off the ground.
[Collect initiative scores and start combat.]
Combat Encounter: As Zariel instructs, she’s got the gnolls in front. (If one of the PCs is playing Lulu, give them the Hollyphant Elder stat block from Lulu’s Guide to Hollyphants. They can help Zariel on the front lines, probably attacking gnoll pack lords. Alternatively, have Zariel order her to help guard the flanks and add an extra Fang and four gnolls to the fight.)
- Left Flank: Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu, Gnoll Pack Lord, 8 Gnolls
- Right Flank: 2 Gnoll Pack Lords, 8 Gnolls
At some point during this, Zariel will almost certainly refer to Lulu by name and the penny will drop (if it hasn’t already).
After Combat: After the fight, the PCs can rally to Zariel and ride up over the top of the hill. From there they can look out over farm fields churned and ruined by the battle, sowed with a carpet of the dead. Off to their left is a small village. Some of the buildings are on fire.
A few hundred yards away across a field stands a twelve-foot-tall demon gnoll. It holds aloft a dark-haired woman — Lady Yael – by the neck. Seeing Zariel across the field of battle, it turns and with a slash of its claws rends a purple, roiling gash in the air. With a hyena-like cackle which crackles across the field like black lightning, it leaps through the portal with Lady Yael still clutched in its gauntleted right hand.
SNIPPET – ZARIEL’S COURT. As the demon vanishes, the energy of the portal turns red and then seems to turn into swirls of shadow and gold. Through the darkness you hear two voices.
The first voice, as if played from a cracked record, asks, “Where is the Sword?”
And the second voice, weak and disoriented, replies, “I don’t know… I don’t… I used to know, but I don’t any more. I don’t.”
SNIPPET – MESSAGE FROM TORM. A hand — or, rather, a gauntlet — reaches through the shadows and sweeps them away. An immense light which seems as if it should be blinding in its intensity but which is instead a soothing comfort to your eyes emanates from the gauntlet… or perhaps from a point behind the gauntlet.
A booming voice emanates seemingly from all directions: “Seek ye Zariel’s blade. It is the key to her heart and her greatest desire. With it, Elturel’s chains can be severed.”
The gauntlet clenches into a fist as the voice speaks. Then it opens and, upon the palm of the gauntlet, a tiny golden elephant — Lulu — is flying in miniature. “Even from my sight is the Sword hidden. There is only one who knows and she knows not.”
The gauntlet closes again, then opens to reveal two black-feathered, birdlike humanoids standing next to a strange vehicle of blackened iron. “She must seek the kenku. In her memory they speak.”
The gauntlet closes for a third time. You hear a different voice chanting as if from a great distance.
[This is the voice of whoever is casting the spell. The PC might recognize this voice.]
The booming voice speaks again, but it, too, seems to come from a distance now as the other voice grows stronger: “Seek the kenku!”
The light now truly becomes blinding and—
[The PC wakes up.]
Note: As per p. 72 of Descent Into Avernus, when the PC who received the vision tells Lulu what they saw, it will trigger a memory of meeting two kenku at a place called Fort Knucklebones. Realizing it was near the Dock of Fallen Cities, she’ll swoop up into the sky and then return, declaring that it’s only a dozen miles off and she can lead the PCs there.
If Lulu is a PC in your campaign, you might want to prep a brief handout describing the kenku and Fort Knucklebones, and also telling Lulu’s player that she knows how to get there across the Avernian plains.
If it WAS Lulu who put on the Helm, modify Torm’s final vision. He’ll say something like, “Among all living creatures, only you know where it was hidden.” He might also show her Fort Knucklebones in miniature, triggering her memory of the kenku there.
Hi, first of all I love the writing and would most definitely use it in my campaighn.
Just one question, is everything here supposed to play out during the vision from torms helmet? it seems rather long.
Short answer: Yes.
The memory dives are designed to be meaty. You can think of each one as being a mini-adventure in itself.
Do you have ideas for fixing the kenku problem? “The god tells you to go to some place you’ve never heard of, that also happens to be right over there” already seems pretty weak, especially if it turns out the kenku themselves aren’t important. I want to rewrite this linkage, but I haven’t figured out a good way yet. If you’ve already got an answer in mind I’d love to hear it! Or at least be advised to have patience, it’s coming. 🙂
@croald Check out Part 6: The Rest of the Remix. There’s a whole section that addresses the kenku problem.
@some_guy, I know that page describes why the kenku are a problem, but it does not (yet) present an answer. I was surprised to see Torm still directing the PCs to find them, when I thought we had established that no living kenku actually knows anything.
@croald It’s been a while I read that post in full. I suppose the “find the kenku” direction was mainly to get Lulu and the PCs to Fort Knucklebones, and more importantly, to Mad Maggie, who can help Lulu regain her memories through the Dream Machine.
I suppose the reason the vision doesn’t just say “find the hag” is because Lulu didn’t really meet Mad Maggie in the past, but did with the kenku.
Another important detail in the article is that, if Lulu has the vision, Torm just directs her to Fort Knucklebones instead of just the kenku.
This all just my impression.
Am I understanding correctly that only the player that puts on the Helm goes into the first memory dive? Should the combat be truncated to give the player a sense of danger, but then proceed after 2 or 3 rounds of combat? I don’t think it’s wrong to have a solo adventure, but I don’t think it would be good for it to last more than half a session, or else why even bring all the other players together. I imagine my other players would get bored watching someone else play for several hours.
@zachary: the rest of the party can become involved when they participate in the ritual to rescue the first character. Alternately, you can just say that the other players take on roles in the dream, whether their characters are “really” there or not. Kind of like handing them a temporary NPC to play in a scene where their main character is elsewhere.
@ZACHARY: Note that the other players are explicitly involved in the combat.
Oh, yeah, when I said “can become involved” I meant “you can justify them being present in the vision”.
Who are the voices in the Zariel’s Court snippet, Zariel and Lulu? Mahadi and Lulu? Asmodeus and Zariel pre-deal?
I’m a little unclear on the jump from SNIPPET – ZARIEL’S REQUEST to VISION – YEENOGHU’S GAMBIT. The REQUEST seems to be sword handoff to Yael and then Yael and Zariel parting in Avernus but then GAMBIT is back in the realms and Zariel is there trying to protect Yael some time later, but Yeenoghu grabs Yael and the sword?
That doesn’t seem to follow at all – what am I missing?
@Quinnegan: Zariel and Lulu.
@JeffC: The visions are non-linear.
I realized after my posting that *I* was reading things non-linearly as well! Apologies, hadn’t properly read through the rest of the background and somehow found myself on this one first. All good now – makes great sense. Thanks for confirming!
Do you have a stat block to use for the PCs in the gnoll fight? I don’t see how they could use their own characters.
@Luckbox
I think it’d be fine to let the players play their PCs during the battle, if only for the sake of less prep. The PCs themselves aren’t there, but maybe you could justify it as Torm using the Helm-Wearer’s memories to incorporate their companions into the fight for some esoteric, divine reason.
If it really bothers you, maybe use Knight stat blocks (D&D Beyond Stats: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/knight) to represent the PCs?
So my player’s just went though this and while the vision is well written and this whole remix is great, I have some criticisms they concerned. The combat here was completely unnecessary, it could have been summarized or described to the letter. My players haven’t quite felt the attachment to Zariel and that may be my DMing’s fault but they had to ask, “Is this me or am I just playing some random character?” Meaning they wanted to use the vision to try and alter the past by stopping Zariel from falling. And when I explained that it wasn’t mutable, they were like “then what was the point of the combat sequence? Why not just explain it?” I’m afraid the other dream machine quest section will feel the same to them.
@greel70: That’s a great conversation to have with your players! Sounds like you’ve got a really clear vision about how to most effectively run those future scenes for your players to get the most out of them!
Just ran the first dream sequence and it was phenomenal! I can’t thank you enough for putting this together. They know exactly what they need to do and are confident to follow it through with the guidance of Torm.
Looking forward to the next dream sequence and more immediately how they tackle the securing of the city. Which seemed to go get supplies of various kinds and figure out where the evil faction leaders are.
Hey!
A bit late to the party here, but I hope I can get some help understanding a step that I’m missing: do all of this Visions/Snippets happen all together, or are they revealed only partially when a PC puts on the helmet, with the rest of them being revealed sometime later in Avernus? Because the thing that is confusing me is that this page is placed under the ACT III: Avernus section, and not under the ACT II: Hellturel section, despite the helmet being found in the cemetery.
Thanks for the patience and sorry for my not-so-good english, hope you can understand 🙂
@Justin
At the time of the THE THREE GENRALS, the Elturel Crest should not yet represent twin suns. This is on the day of the Last Charge, and many centuries before the actual Companion star, right?
I would advise changing that to the horse and sun of the older version of Elturel crest.
@Francis: I would advise NOT changing it. See Part 6D-F.
Man, I just wanted to say thank you, again. Your entire retelling of the history of Asmodeus and Zariel, with Lulu in tow, had me in literal tears multiple times. I can only imagine what it’s going to do to my players, who recently revived Lulu. This is so much better than the prewritten module.
I turned the whole Vision from Torm into snippets, except in order to get to the Vision they had to cleanse the Helm of Baphomet’s taint. I further modified the “remove Ravengard” aspect and have the Baphomet cultists having grabbed the Helm and performed a prophane ritual upon it in the corrupted pool/portal that the PCs had 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 after Pherria Jynks finds the ritual and concludes that friends of the victim are required to circle the victim and hold hands to draw their friend 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 really 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…
In order to spice things up and give my players more to do than just listen to me read all this out, I noted every quote or bit of speach, and wrote them down on index cards. I cast my players in various roles… the player playing Lulu of course was given Lulu’s lines, another player read all of Zariel’s lines, from there I had to give remaining players multiple roles.
I then gave each player their stack of index cards and while reading the flashback, and indicated when it was time to deliver a line as we went through the memory dives. This went over very well!
I did this as well for all of Lulu’s flashbacks. We’re coming up on finding the sword, I’ve alerted the player cast as Asmodeus that they have something of a monologue coming up, I didn’t want to surprise them with it, but they are enthused.
I might see a problem…
High level npcs have access to high level magic, possibly including miracle/wish. I get that the citadel might shield the sword from magical detection, even by Torm.
But wouldn’t Zariel have had the resources to restore Lulu’s memory when she got her hands on her?
On another thought, i’ll probably make Torm less clear in what he says: he could likely give the party more helpful clues, but he knows he has Baphomet listening in on the other line.