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As discussed in Whither Exploration?, the basic structure of a hexcrawl will allow the PCs to navigate and explore a region, but this interaction will remain random and relatively shallow unless the PCs can gain access to information which will allow them to make meaningful choices and pursue specific goals. In other words, your Avernian hexcrawl will work best if it becomes a guided exploration; an exploration with purpose.

A rumor table is a default structure for injecting this information into your campaign, with each rumor informing the PCs about what can be found in the hexcrawl. When you need a dollop of such information, you can either roll on the table or select an appropriate rumor for the situation.

Rumor tables can be useful in a number of situations:

• During any broad social interaction (e.g., the players say “we spend the evening drinking at the tavern”) you might mention one or two interesting things they pick up in general conversation.
• During specific interactions with NPCs, the rumor table can be used to generate topics of conversation.
• NPCs might also be specifically questioned or interrogated about the area.
• The PCs might specifically canvass for information in a populated area (like Fort Knucklebones or the Purple City).

The point is to impart information to the players, so be proactive in finding opportunities to leverage your rumor table. On the other hand, it’s not necessary for the PCs to learn every rumor on the table, so you also don’t need to force things.

Playtest Tip: When you give a rumor to the PCs, cross it off the list. If you roll the same rumor again, you may want to roll again. However, being aware that you’ve given this specific rumor previously, you might simply make a point of finding a different spin or elaboration on the information the PCs already have. (For example, if they get Rumor #1 on the table below a second time, you might improvise a different fake “benefit” from drinking the demon goo.)

AVERNIAN RUMOR TABLE

1. The Pit of Shummrath is a huge canyon more than a mile deep filled with a lake of green slime that undulates as though breathing. It’s said that drinking the slime will give devils/mortals hallucinogenic visions which may have some power of foretelling the future. (True/False, you should not drink the demon goo.)
2. There’s a mine for green Baatorian steel (a rare metal which can only be found in Avernus and which can be easily crafted into swords of wounding) located Dis-ward of the Shummrath Dam. The mine is ringed with colossal, writhing tentacles. (Hex E2)
3. When you travel the Ashlands (located along the contra-Dis mountains), be careful: The ash can hide huge holes that you can fall down. I lost my Devil’s Ride in one and barely got out alive myself. (Hex B5, C5)
4. If you travel contra-Abyss along the Styx and head Dis-ward from the Pillar of Skulls, you will come to the Monument of Tiamat: The skull of a colossal dragon. A tunnel passes through this mouth into Tiamat’s Lair, where one can find the Gate Tower of Dis, leading to the second level of Hell. (Hex C1)
5. In the cliffs facing the Pit of Shummrath, there is a village of goblins. (Hex A3)
6. There is a mighty, elemental storm which perpetually surrounds a peak in the contra-Dis mountain range. There is rumored to be a great treasure at the eye of this storm. (Hex D6)
7. The legendary witch Tasha keeps a summer home in Avernus, located contra-Dis from the Alvskraema Caravanserai. (Hex B3)
8. The tinker Uldrak pretends to just be a humble mechanic, but he’s actually a celestial disguised as a devil to spy on Avernus! (Hex D5)
9. There is a colossal, insectile demon who lairs within the volcano at the tip of the contra-Dis mountain range. Cut off from the Abyss when the battle lines of the Blood War shifted across the River Styx, this demon remains within its volcanic demesne. You can sometimes see its antenna sticking up above the rim of the caldera. (Hex H6, False: The antenna actually belongs to a modron outpost.)
10. Sarcasia, Mad Maggie’s banker in the arcade at Fort Knucklebones, is skimming money. Anyone who could bring proof of her thievery to Mad Maggie would surely be rewarded. (Hex I4)
11. Bazelsteen, a devil working out of the Stygian Dock (H4), is looking for volunteers to test run an experimental bathysphere to dredge silted souls from the bottom of the River Styx. (Hex H4)
12. I once served on a flying fortress. They are vast and hungry constructs. They dock at the Stygian Docks to suck up souls from the Styx for fuel. (Hex H4)
13. The bone brambles contra-Dis and Abyss-ward of Fort Knucklebones are infested with abyssal chickens. (Hex J4, J5)
14. Warlords must be careful not to draw down the wrath of Hell’s elite. There was once a warlord named Jevvka who earned the ire of Bel and she and all her crew were wiped out. (Hex F6)
15. There’s a band of tulgar warriors marauding the wastes. They come from the endless vortex of the Elemental Chaos, and their leader, Algoran, is more savage than any demon. (Hex B6)
16. Contra-Abyss from the Purple City is a hellwasp nest. Such nests often contain vast treasures, left behind by the hellwasps’ countless victims. (Hex E3)
17. Avernus was once a glorious paradise envied throughout the Many Planes. Known now as Avernus That Was, there are supposedly still pockets of this paradise which remain embedded within the hellscape of modern Avernus. There are cult societies within the Blood Legions who supposedly still idolize Avernus That Was and seek to restore its lost glories.
18. There are often shipwrecks along the shores of the Styx; interplanar travelers seeking to use the river to travel between the Outer Planes who are not capable of passing through the dangers of Avernus. Such wrecks offer plentiful opportunities for treasure hunters, although one must be careful to avoid the river’s memory-stealing waters.
19. The imprisoned demon lord Kostchtchie is chained in a great pit Abyss-ward of Bel’s Forge (Hex H2). He cannot die, and the infernal elite would pay handsomely if his elusive phylactery could be found.
20. Rumors of Elturel: The PCs receive a rumor regarding the current state of affairs in Elturel or of its eminent approach to the Styx (possibly from a refugee who fled the city; or secondhand from one such). 75% chance that the rumor is accurate. Also use this as an opportunity to provide the devils’ perspective on Zariel’s city-stealing schemes.

DREAM MACHINE COMPONENT REFERENCE

In addition to the general rumor table, the Avernian hexcrawl has a very important second set of rumors: those indicating the locations of the four components of the dream machine.

Wherever the PCs go, they can ask people if they know about the components they’re looking for. Assume a 1 in 3 chance that they do, and then roll on the rumor table below to give an appropriate lead.

In addition to the rumor table, here is a reference to the locations in the Avernian hexcrawl where the dream machine components have been keyed.

Astral Pistons

• A2 – Obelisk of Ubbalux
• A5 – Warlord Lair: Lost Golgari
• D5 – Uldrak’s Grave
• H4 – Stygian Dock
• J1 – Siegeworks of Dis

Heartstone

• B4 – Red Ruth’s Lair
• D2 – Warlord Lair: Carol D’Vown
• E4 – Tower of Urm
• F2 – Purple City (The March)
• G5b – Plagueshield Point / rumor actually points to I6 – Shadowswimmer Tower

Nirvanan Cogbox

• B6 – Warlord Lair: Soul Collectors
• D3 – Demon Zapper
• E2 – Tentacular Mine
• H6 – Modron Outpost

Phlegethosian Sand

• E4 – Tower of Urm
• H3 – Bel’s Forge
• I2 – Warlord Lair: Feonor

DREAM MACHINE COMPONENT RUMORS

ASTRAL PISTONS

1. Archduke Bel imprisoned a demon named Ubbalux using a machine designed with astral pistons. If the prison is still there, you might be able to scavenge the pistons. The prison is said to lie between the River Styx and the Pit of Shummrath. (Hex A2)
2. Zariel’s vast legions still use a lot of older infernal machines and technomantic devices. It’s likely that a supply of astral pistons is kept at the Stygian Dock, located along the River Styx contra-Dis (south) of the Dock of Fallen Cities and north of Shadowswimmer Tower. (Hex G4)
3. Astral pistons? I haven’t heard of anyone using those in a long time. You’d need to scavenge them from some sort of old infernal machinery. I heard Zariel was funding some sort of major project during the Reckoning. There was some sort of technomantic complex located in an old mine Dis-ward of Kostchtchie’s Maw (Hex J2) in the mountains. (Hex J1)
4. [False] Zariel’s vast legions still use a lot of older infernal machines and technomantic devices. It’s likely that a supply of astral pistons is kept at Bel’s Forge. (Hex H2)

HEARTSTONE

5. There’s a night hag (named Red Ruth) who lives in the bone brambles Abyss-ward of the Ashlands. (Hex B4)
6. A heartstone? I’ve heard those are useful in alchemical experiments. There’s an alchemist who lives in a tower on the banks of the Styx near where a tributary from the Pit of Shummrath joins the river. (Hex D2a)
7. The legendary wizard Mordenkainen has a vast stock of magical components and trophies taken from the many enemies he has slain over the endless centuries of his existence. He might have a heartstone. He has a tower on an island in a boiling lake of blood here in Avernus. (Hex E4) [He also has Phlegethosian sand.]
8. The thieves’ guild of the Purple City is rumored to use heartstones in planning their heists. (Hex F2)
9. There’s an old tower full of alchemical junk in Plagueshield Point, which is a demonic prison located on the bottom of the Styx. There might be a heartstone in there. (Hex G5b) OR There’s a mage named Shadowswimmer who lives in a tower on the Styx contra-Dis (south) of Fort Knucklebones. He dabbles in alchemy and might have a heartstone. (Hex I6)
10. [False] Mad Maggie has a heartstone, she just doesn’t want to give it up. (Hex I4)

Design Note: Mad Maggie is, in fact, a night hag, and most night hags have heartstones. The framing here implies that Maggie has lost hers, but you could also conclude that this is NOT a false rumor and that Maggie, in fact, just hopes that the PCs will bring her an extra one. Or, alternatively, the dream machine will irrevocably damage or destroy the heartstone, and Maggie isn’t willing to sacrifice her own. (In which case she might nevertheless be convinced to use her own heartstone in the dream machine.)

NIRVANAN COGBOX

11. Nirvanan cogboxes are used by modrons. I heard that the warlord Algoran recently captured a modron. His lair is located at the far end of the Ashlands. (Hex B6)
12. There’s a technomantic apparatus designed to destroy demons located contra-Dis of the Pit of Shummrath and contra-Abyss of the blood lake. Modron technomancy was used in its construction, which makes it possible that a Nirvanan cogbox might have been used. (Hex D2)
13. There is a dream machine similar or perhaps identical to the one which Mad Maggie has. It’s located in a mine Dis-Abyssward from the Dam of Shummrath (Hex D2) where baatorian steel is taken from the Avernian soil. It’s likely to have the components that the PCs are looking for. (Hex E2)
14. Nirvanan cogboxes are used by modrons. There’s a modron outpost which occasionally engages in trade located within a volcano along the contra-Dis mountains near the River Styx. (Hex H6)
15. [False] The Archmagi of Thraxai, in the Purple City (Hex F2), are said to maintain portals to many other planes, including Mechanus, the home plane of the modrons who create Nirvanan cogboxes.
16. [False] Nirvanan cogboxes are a Modron technomancy. There’s a fortress of modrons located in the Dis-ward mountains, Abyss-ward of the Drogoloth Mines (Hex F1). (Hex G1, but this is actually a Court of Hell managed by the Rilmani.)

PHLEGETHOSIAN SAND

17. The legendary wizard Mordenkainen has a vast stock of magical components and trophies taken from the many enemies he has slain over the endless centuries of his existence. He might have Phlegethosian sand. He has a tower on an island in a boiling lake of blood here in Avernus. (Hex E4) [He also has a heartstone.]
18. Phlegethosian sand is used to quench certain types of infernal blades. It is therefore used in Bel’s Forge. (Hex H2)
19. Phlegethosian sand is used in necromantic experiments. One of the warlords (Feonor) is a necromancer. Her lair is located on the Styx Dis-ward of Bel’s forge and Abyss-ward of the Purple City. (Hex I2)
20. [False] Phlegethosian sand can be found in bone brambles.

Go to Part 8: The End