CLAIMING THE SWORD
In the larger structure of the campaign, this memory dive more or less replaces the Idyllglen visions from Descent Into Avernus, p. 140. Its presentation and function, however, are different.
In the published campaign, the Idyllglen vision is triggered by Lulu’s memories being restored in a burst of magical light. In the Remix, that doesn’t really happen. We’ve put large structures in place for Lulu (and the other PCs) to slowly piece together what was taken from her, but there is no finale where it all magically comes back to her.
This memory dive is instead triggered when a PC moves to claim the Sword of Zariel. Within the Sword is Zariel’s Spark, and this memory dive is basically the Spark showing the PCs’ the long path to the Fall of Zariel.
Structurally it’s more or less doing the same thing for the players: We’re setting up the path to Zariel’s Fall because that’s also the path to her Redemption — if the PCs choose to take that path. (If they don’t, then this simply completes Zariel’s story and reveals the origin of her evil.)
So, a PC reaches for the Sword, there’s a flash of golden light and…
SNIPPET – THE LEGIONS OF HEAVEN: A legion of solars stand at attention, flaming swords held point-down before them. Before them – inspecting them – is another angel. He rides a golden, winged lion. His face shares the fierce, leonid beauty of his mount.
Zariel is there — somehow younger in her timeless beauty. An innocence around her eyes? A naivete? An eagerness?
The mounted angel stops. He speaks, but not to Zariel. To an angel just a little further down the line.
Celestial Marshal: What’s your name?
Chazaqiel: Chazaqiel, Celestial Marshal, of the ninth legion.
Celestial Marshal: Do you know why you are here, young one?
Chazaqiel: Elysium seeks to claim the Avernian paradise!
Celestial Marshal: Thank you, young one.
The winged lion spreads its wings and soars into the sky.
Celestial Marshal (addressing the whole assembly): To glory, my angels! To the emerald plains we’ll soar, and there forge our destiny! The Legions of Heaven shall secure the Eighth Heaven!
A great, golden light grows around the mounted figure, suddenly pulsing with blinding intensity. And then…
GM Note: The Celestial Marhsal is Ashmedai, who shall become Asmodeus.
VISION – THE GREAT BETRAYAL: You find yourselves… flying? Yes, flying on feathered wings through a jungle at night. Somewhere nearby the forest is on fire — a wall of blue flame which sends strange shadows dancing through the writhing foliage. The air is hazed with purple smoke. You’re following another angel, your commanding officer.
“Zariel!”
Another small squad of angels swoops out of the night, led by Chazaqiel. Your commanding officer — who your realize is Zariel —pulls up in midair.
Zariel: Kentarch Chazaqiel! Thank the Heavens! Have you heard from Princeps Sanniel?
Chazaqiel: Sanniel is no longer in command. I am Princeps now.
Zariel: What do you mean? Was she killed in the planar upheaval?
Chazaqiel: No. She turned against the Celestial Marshal.
Zariel: Against Ashmedai? What are you talking about?
Chazaqiel: Things are changing, Hecaton. We are no longer going to be a the plaything dangled between Elysium and Celestia. Ashmedai has claimed Avernus for himself. The great work has just begun. We ride paradise into the jaws of battle!
Zariel: Where?
Chazaqiel: To Hell.
Zariel: This is treason!
Chazaqiel: Don’t be a fool, Zariel! You swore an oath to the Celestial Marshal! Now obey him! Obey us!
Zariel: I swore an oath to Heaven, Chazaqiel. To Heaven above all.
Zariel abruptly draws her sword and attacks! Chazaqiel beats his wings and flies back just out of reach.
[Roll initiative.]
Angelic Rebellion: The PCs are currently solars under Zariel’s command. They use their own stat blocks, but have the hit points, AC, and other abilities of a solar (MM, p. 18).
- Zariel and Chazaqiel both command an equal number of solars. (The PCs are free to choose which side of the conflict to side with.)
- After 3 rounds, there are trumpets from reinforcements nearby. Zariel orders those loyal to her to cut their way free and flee!
The Flight of Blue Fire. Use the rules for chases (DMG, p. 253). Even if the PCs are captured or cut down, Zariel is fated to escape with a small band of other loyalists.
Homework: Develop a chase complications table that features the after effects of the planar upheaval as Avernus plunges through the multiverse.
When the chase comes to an end (either because the PCs have been captured or they have escaped with Zariel), there is a flash of golden light. A voice cries out, “The demon lord flees!” And then…
SNIPPET – FIRST VISIT TO IDYLLGLEN: Zariel is mounted upon Lulu in her golden war mammoth form. A small force of planetars and other celestials are arrayed behind and above them. Across a recent battlefield of torn mud and blood, they are glowering at a deviless mounted upon a dire hellhound and surrounded by a motley gang of demons.
The devil has coppery skin, dark hair, and two curving ram’s horns upon her head. Her lips are curled in a sultry smile that doesn’t touch her tawny eyes.
Zariel: What has brought you to the mortal plane, demon?
Glasya: It seems the same as you, angel. We pursued the demon lord Yeenoghu and followed the foul beast here to his butchery among the humans.
Zariel: And your name?
Glasya: I am Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus.
Several of the planetars surged forward with a strong beat of their wings. Zariel raises her hand to keep them at peace.
Glasya: And yours?
Zariel: Zariel. What are your intentions?
Glasya: Completed, I think. Yeenoghu has slipped through our snare. He has most likely slunk back to the Abyss with his tail tucked between his legs. [she looks up at the planetars] Will we need to tuck yours, too?
Planetar 1: She’ll only have a tail once she’s ripped it off of you!
Glasya (laughs): Come, Zariel. Leash your dogs and I’ll leash mine. I would speak with you without our voices being drowned by the rattling of sabers.
Zariel gestures towards a small grove off to one side. Glasya considers it, then nods her head and dismounts. Zariel follows suit, leaving Lulu and the others behind as she moves off to parlay with the devil.
Glasya’s hellhound edges closer to Lulu and sniffs. Lulu recoils. The hellhound reaches up… and licks her trunk.
Glasya and Zariel return. Zariel announces that they have both agreed to leave the fields of Idyllglen in peace, having “fought to common purpose.”
There’s a flash of golden light. And then…
SNIPPET – ZARIEL’S FALL: 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. A blood-stained Zariel.
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.
You recognize this face. It is the face of Ashmedai, once Celestial Marshal of the Legions of Heaven.
The devil’s eyes smolder as he looks down at the angel. In a smooth voice of elegance and grace he asks, “Where is her Sword?”
“Gone.” Zariel chokes out of the word. “Asmodeus.”
“Fetch her some water,” Asmodeus says.
They wait. Simply gazing at each other. A few minutes later, the water is brought in a chalice of ivory-and-gold. Asmodeus takes the cup and offers it to Zariel.
Zariel smacks his hand aside, spilling the cup into the dust and blood.
Asmodeus smiles:
I look at you and I see that you are in despair. You thought you could make a difference. That you could end the Blood War. But here you are on a field of dead friends.
You look at me and I know you see malevolence. You see Evil. You see an antithesis. You see betrayal. But I did make a difference. And I will end the Blood War.
All those aeons ago, at my trial, when I looked you in the eye and laughed. Do you think I mocked you? No. I laughed because I saw you standing where I had stood before. I knew we walked the same road and you were just a few steps behind me.
Look around you. Look at the dead. Piled high. Do you really think this to be Good? Do you think this butchery to be worthwhile because it was done in a noble cause? You know as well as I do that as long as this continues, as long as the dead are nothing but tallies in the ledgers of complacent gods, Good is derelict. It is meaningless. It is feathery cupids cavorting on a celestial isle while suffering boils forth across the multiverse.
I know you came here to kill demons. You think you have failed. I think you have barely begun.
Which of us do you think sees more clearly?
What I offer you is simple: A chance to continue our fight. You have killed Terza’reg. I offer you his place on the Dark Eight and command of a Blood Legion. Serve me and your Crusade can still boil across the Abyss and turn the Great Wheel into a new epoch.
As Asmodeus speaks, you sense that this is but one truth among many: That Zariel and Asmodeus converse upon many different planes of thought. That this is but a mortal reflection of a myriad complexity beyond your grasp.
But when it is done, Zariel gazes upon Asmodeus for a long moment. An eternal moment.
And then she reaches out her hand.
“I accept.”
As their hands clasp, they explode with a blinding, golden light. And then…
SNIPPET – ZARIEL’S REQUEST, REDUX: You are elsewhere on the Avernian field of battle. Zariel is kneeling in the dust. Lady Yael, arrayed for battle in battered, bloody, dust-covered armor kneels on the ground next her. Zariel is pushing her glowing sword into Lady Yael’s hands.
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.
But the moment shifts, and you see that in the moment Zariel passes over the Sword, she passes something else, too: A part of herself. A spark. A shard of her eternal, celestial soul.
I am the memory of Zariel that was and who can be again.
I am the Sword of her will and the Blade of her soul.
Zariel continues to speak to Yael, but she turns her head and her blazing eyes bore into you: “This is the last thing I will ever ask of you.”
Great stuff! A question though, is Glasya being referred to as a demoness and being surrounded by a gang of demons a continuity change I’m forgetting from the Remix, or just a typo? As I recall, she’s a devil, not a demon.
A couple of ideas for the combat and chase scene with the solars. First, have the PCs able to choose a domain for their solar and they gain all the benefits associated with it.
Meanwhile, for the planar chase here are some thoughts. Note that this is heavily upscaled given that the PCs are going to be playing as literal Solars. Also note that unless explicitly called out as a spell (see #9) magic resistance is irrelevant. Finally, I would remove legendary actions and instead allow teleport as an action, and searing burst and blinding gaze as recharge bonus actions (maybe these change depending on the domain).
1. A planar portal opens up to the elemental plane of fire as a massive lava spurt shoots out. DC 20 Dexterity saving throw or take 78 (12d12) fire damage, or half as much on a successful saving throw.
2. The howling winds of Pandemonium ring in your mind. DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or take 44 (8d10) psychic damage and suffer from the Confusion spell (PHB pg. 224) until the end of your next turn, except treat any result of 5-6 as 7-8, and a ranged attack is allowed.
3. You feel the call of a powerful mortal from the material plane demanding a miracle. You must succeed on a DC 20 Charisma saving throw to resist the summons. On a success, you are immune from this effect for one turn, and you must choose another solar that you can see within 300 ft. of you to make the saving throw. If there are no other solars available, nothing happens. On a failure, you are removed from combat.
4 – 5. The journey interrupts a massive abyssal battle between the forces of Baphomet and Yeenoghu. Roll a d6, on a 1-4 you’re attacked by a Balor (MM pg. 55; +14 to hit, 3d8+8 slashing & 3d8 lightning and triple dice on a crit & +14 to hit, 2d6+8 slashing & 3d6 fire and DC 20 Strength saving throw or be pulled 25 ft. back), on a 5 you’re attacked by Yeenoghu (DiA pg. 242; 3x +16 to hit, 1d12+9 bludgeoning and either 3d12 bludgeoning, DC 17 Constitution save or be paralyzed until the end of your next turn, or DC 17 Wisdom save or be affected by confusion until the end of your next turn), and on a 6 you’re attacked by Baphomet (DiA pg. 229; +17 to hit, 2d10+10 slashing & +17 to hit, 2d8+10 piercing & +17 to hit, 2d6+10 piercing)
6. The chains of Carceri shoot out of a planar portal, aiming to restrain you. Make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw, a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw, and a DC 20 Charisma saving throw. On one or more failures you take 55 (10d10) slashing damage. On two or more failures you are also grappled (escape DC 20) until either you escape or the end of your next turn. On three failures you suffer from the effects of the Banishment spell, except you are instead banished to Carceri where you are indefinitely incapacitated.
7. A wave of positive energy washes over you from the positive energy plane itself. You must make on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw, taking 132 (24d10) radiant damage or half as much on a success.
8. The concentration of the astral sea becomes denser and your entire movement slows to a crawl as you struggle to move using the power of thought. Until the end of your next turn, in order to move you must succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence check. On a failure your speed instead becomes 3 x your intelligence score (75 ft.), and on a failure by ten or more your speed is reduced to 0.
9. The commanding influence of Mechanus blares through your mind, demanding order in this chaotic battle. You are affected by the Command spell (DC 30) with the command of “Halt.”
10. The mutating effects of Limbo permeate your entire being. You must succeed on a DC 20 Strength saving throw and a DC 20 Constiution saving throw. For each failure you must choose one of the following (you must make the choice before you roll [i.e. you cannot fail, roll a 300 for your new hit points, then choose that]): Rolling 3d100 for your new hit point total (maximum and current), rolling 2d20 x 5 for your new fly speed, or 3d10 for your new Armor Class.
These are definitely rather complex and strange, but this is also me just randomly spitballing ideas hahaha
Glasya (laughs): Come, Zariel. Leash your dogs and I’ll leash mine. I would speak with you without our voices being drowned by the rattling of saber
First, thank you for publishing this remix. I’m prepping a DiA campaign to kick off at the end of this month and this has been an invaluable resource (even if I’m going in a slightly different direction)
Second, in another segment, you were wondering why Yeenoghu, a demon, would open a portal to Avernus, commenting that it doesn’t make sense. The answer is in the quote above.
Yeenoghu didn’t open the portal.
Zariel was already well on her way to falling before she even set foot in Hell. Zariel cut a deal with Glasya and Glasya opened the portal from Avernus. Yeenoghu saw an escape route, figured she could deal with whatever was on the other side, and went through. What Zariel didn’t count on was Yael being kidnapped. But Zariel knew well before the battle that that portal would be there.
Bonus points if it was a double-cross to lure Zariel into Hell and Glasya plotted everything out with Yeenoghu beforehand, but that’s possibly one conspiracy over the line.
@charles: Note that this is a completely separate incident.
Good luck with your campaign!
Why would the 7 Heavens and Elysium goto war?
I’m struggling with why two good aligned afterlife with infinite space and resources would goto war.
I mean, seven infinities are nice. But have you considered EIGHT infinities?
Also, those Elysians are neutral. Neutral?! During the formation of the multiverse? They have no discipline and can’t be trusted with something as important as the Avernian paradise. For good to be meaningful, it must be guided by firm laws.
Who says any of the planes are infinite? Not even the Prime plane is infinite.
Running a mixed game, replacing the Baulder’s Gate opener with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, set in a world we’ve played in many times before (so multiple lore changes anyhow).
Was wondering what your opinion is on how the Sword of Zariel is supposed to alter the player who attunes to it. It’s a ways off in my game (we’re still in Dragon Heist), but I was curious to know how you handle that part of the book.
Yeah, the war against Elysium is totally in keeping with older source material about the early days of the multiverse, as depicted in various Asmodeus origin myths in *Guide to Hell* and *Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells*. They framed Law versus Chaos as the more ancient cosmic struggle. ‘On that day, the deities began to see that law and chaos were not the only principles in the universe. Good and evil were natural forces in the cosmos as well.’
Gotta say, the final line of the Redux of the flashback from 6D-H is some real fun shit. But did you sacrifice one of the most memorable motifs in DiA for the sake of that killer line recontextualizing previously-heard dialog? (and the earlier parts about ‘An innocence around her eyes? A naivete? An eagerness?’ and ‘All those aeons ago, at my trial, when I looked you in the eye and laughed. Do you think I mocked you? No.’)
Zariel always wears a blindfold, which has a really great unspoken “justice is blind” / “Asmodeus has opened my eyes” dichotomy between pre-Fall and post-Fall Zariel.
I almost thought you were hinting at the blindfold when you have Asmodeus straight up say ‘Which of us do you think sees more clearly?’
Is the Averniad pre-existing lore I’m not familiar with that’s being expanded on here? Or is it something created for the remix?
@Jlablue: Most of what you need can probably be found in the Textual History of Zariel.