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YGRA DUNN

(Created by Heather Burmeister)

Ygra (pronounced EE-grah) Dunn was born to human parents someplace in Ten-Towns. Or so she assumes. She has no idea where she was born or who her parents are, but she does know that somewhere in the wilderness north of Ten-Towns, she was… lost? Abandoned? The Frozenfar can be treacherous and it’s not unheard of for travelers with children to lose them in one of the hellish snowstorms that sweep the territory during winter.

Regardless of how she ended up there, one thing she does know is that she’s the luckiest human on this side of the Spine of the World. For reasons still unknown to her, she was spared from icy doom and was taken in by a yeti clan. The yetis raised Ygra as one of their own, and she formed deep bonds with her new family unit, especially the yeti Uziwe. Uziwe taught Ygra all about the landscape and how to move in it, and made her a part of the family unit. It was also common among the yeti to learn how to defend themselves against the weapons the humans used. Ygra learned their fighting style, their customs and their language, and was protected throughout her childhood. Coming of age proved difficult, however, with her differences from the tribe becoming more pronounced, and there were many things Uziwe could not teach her. Ygra set off on her own when she was a teen to find her place again among humans.

It started with following the caravans, getting close to them. Ygra inherited  a natural distrust of people from her yeti mother figure, and also didn’t speak Common. She discovered quickly which humans were apt to part with some meager rations and which ones would chase her away with weapons. She also quickly learned that if a caravan had stopped to camp at night you didn’t always have to beg for the food, you could just take it. Through her training with the yetis, Ygra knew how to use the landscape to her advantage and hide from any guards that were posted. She was very successful, making off with rations that were delicious – salted meats, dried fruits, things she’d never tasted. She also sometimes came away with furs and pelts she would craft into clothing which she desperately needed. The only time she failed was in trying to steal anything from Reddick Lightbrewer, and that failure changed her life forever.

Reddick was a dwarven caravan guard who caught Ygra rifling through his belongings while she thought he was asleep. Naturally, the dwarf attacked, but he was alarmed to discover a gangly, gaunt-looking teen. Regardless, Ygra almost bested him with nothing but her fists and fled into the surrounding area. Reddick, fascinated by this seemingly primitive youth, continued to come into the wilderness where he’d last seen the girl and leave rations, clothing, and warm blankets.  He’d camp nearby, and each time the supplies were gone. Through his kindness, she began to trust him, and eventually accompanied him to the city of Bryn Shander. Reddick lived in a small shack on the outskirts of town, and more or less adopted her as his strange ward. She helped with cooking, cleaning, mending and housework and he’d teach her Common, Dwarvish, and how to read and write. Most importantly, though, he taught her how to fight with weapons. That was her favorite part. Ygra spent countless hours sparring with Reddick, learning the atlatl and quarterstaff.

She got good enough that, when she came of age, Reddick invited her to come along with him on the caravans between Ten-Towns as a guide and guard. Her Common and Dwarvish got even better, and she learned some exciting new words that Reddick deemed “weren’t for ladies,” but she said them anyway.

Ygra was an excellent guide. She’d disappear on the trails ahead only to circle back around behind the caravan like a ghost to confirm that coast was clear. Life was good and went on like this for a number of years until the day when Reddick disappeared. There was a note left one morning, hastily written in Dwarvish, and all it said was, “Watch yourself. Take care of yourself. Back soon”.

The days passed and morphed slowly into weeks, which bled into months, and then, eventually, time just spread out into a new normalcy. Ygra told anyone looking for Reddick as a guide that he’d be returning, but she could help. She still kept the cabin clean, his quarters especially, and settled into a pattern of waiting. Ten years passed like this.

Eventually the upkeep and waiting for a ghost wore on her. She grew tired of keeping up a place that wasn’t hers in the hope that something might change. So, just as she’d done when she’d barely become a teen, she struck out on her own. The fishing captains in Targos were looking for guards to keep their catches safe from thieves on the docks and from sea monsters on the lakes, and the money was good. She left a note for Reddick on the table, locked the front door, and struck out.

Ygra has lived in Targos for the past four years, working for a variety of captains, occasionally freelancing for the Dockworkers’ Guild, and intermittently going back to the old work of guiding and guarding caravans. Lately, Skath, the captain of the local militia since Speaker Naerth was elected a little while back, has been eagerly pursuing her; encouraging her to sign up for the militia, although she’s turned him down several times. She’s known around the city and has a few acquaintances, maybe even friends. She has a humble home on the outskirts of town which stays warm and comfortable, even now that the cold has somehow gotten… colder.

But when the caravans bring her close, she still stops by the shack in Bryn Shander to check for signs of Reddick, and keeps her ear to the ground listening for clues.

DESCRIPTION

Ygra is a small human woman, barely 5′ tall. She has deep, coal colored eyes and dark auburn hair, almost black. Her skin is tanned and weathered from her years spent in the elements, and sometimes she still speaks with a strange cadence, or has an odd turn of phrase in common. Her clothes are largely homemade from different animal furs or skins, but recently she almost exclusively wears her fur tundra gear to protect from the cold. When asked, she says she was raised outside of Bryn Shander, closely guarding her yeti upbringing.

YETI CLANS

Yeti clans in the area around Ten-Towns are divided between the glacial clans (like the one Ygra belonged to) and the mountain prides (who live up in the Spine of the World).

The glacial clans are matriarchal. Or, more accurately, almost entirely feminine. Mothers and daughters create huddles and establish homes (often in glacial caves). Male yetis among the glacial clans are solitary and nomadic, being cast out from the clan homes at a very young age and visiting them only rarely in later years.

The mountain prides are small bands of mixed gender strongly organized around the leadership of whichever yeti has proven themselves strongest. The prides are more fractious and far less stable than the glacial tribes, with yeti frequently shifting between prides and prides frequently splitting apart or subjugating rivals.

The clans and prides are only loosely organized into large societies, lacking both the size and order of the Reghed clans (see below). But they are very distinct from each other, with slightly different dialects of the Yeti tongue and usually proffering violence when they encounter each other.

REGHED TRIBES

The Reghed often hunted and clashed with the yeti, and the glacial clans in particular have a long-running feud with them. Ygra was taught to fear the Reghed, for they were not to be trusted, and she heard many tales of how they had murdered, hunted, or plundered the homes of the yeti. She never saw their murderous violence firsthand, but on more than one occasion a hunting party of yeti would come back bearing the bodies of those slain and she would mourn with them during the traditional burial rites.

The Reghed are the children of the Reghed glacier. They are tall, fair-haired (brown, red, or light brown), and blue-eyed, wearing heavy furs and brightly dyed clothes crafted from animal hides. Their skin is bronzed from the sun and cracked by the wind. They’re a nomadic people, following the herds of reindeer along their annual migration routes and sharing their large, round tents with their sled dogs. They speak Reghedjic.

There are several core values esteemed in Reghed culture:

• The tribe is one spirit, always on the move. When the motion of the spirit comes to an end, the body dies. So it is with the tribe.
• For the tribe to survive, all must work together. And no member of the tribe is left behind by the tribe.
• The land respects only strength. The strong flourish; the weak perish.
• Magic is not to be trusted, for it is used by the weak and evil.

They are organized into a number of tribes, each of made up of a number of smaller clans unified in their devotion to a specific tribal beast totem of Tempos, the god of war. The shamans who commune with the totem spirits have great power within the tribes, but they are led by the chieftains of each clan who collectively choose the most powerful among them to become the tribe’s king or queen. (The interesting bit is defining what “strongest” means and how it will be measured.)

The Tribe of the Bear. The Tribe of the Bear often haunts the shores of the Sea of Moving Ice far to the north of Ten-Towns. The tribe has shrunk precipitously, and today there are only two clans left: One led by Wolvig Barrundson and another by Gunvald Halraggson.

The Tribe of the Elk. The largest and most populous of the tribes. Their king is Jarund Elkhardt, who views the people of Ten-Towns with a mixture of disdain (they are a “tamed people”) and disinterest.

The Tribe of the Tiger. A fractious tribe who avoids the powerful Elk while preying on the weaker Bear and Wolf tribes. They are ruled by Queen Bjornhild Solvigsdottir, who was the wife of the late King Korold and fought alongside him in many battles.

The Tribe of the Wolf. The smallest of the tribes, to survive the Tribe of the Wolf has welcomed many outsiders, including outcasts from Ten-Towns, disenfranchised members of other tribes, and even goblinoids. The Tribe is fractious and its chiefs have been unable to agree on a king for more than a decade. One of its most powerful chiefs is Isarr Kronenstrom, who worships Malar the Beast Lord and is known to hunt Ten-Towners for sport. Isarr has of late declared himself the Wolf King, despite other clan chieftains like Rhun Meirchion and Owain Lilwarch not recognizing his claims.

The Tribe of the Seal. They have actually left Icewind Dale entirely, migrating into the Sea of Moving Ice and settling in ice-fortresses as fishers and whalers. The other tribes no longer recognize them as Reghed.

The Tribe of the Caribou. Also known as the Lost Tribe, during the Spellplague the last surviving members of the Tribe of the Caribou were seen climbing atop the Reghed Glacier… and were never seen again. Some assume they died out. Other tales claim that they passed far to the north. Or the south. Or were led by the caribou totem spirits into a green paradise that lies hidden within the glacier.

Although the Tribe of the Elk has slowly learned to live in peace with the people of Ten-Towns, the other tribes are a constant threat to them. However, they spend just as much time feuding and fighting with each other. However, the tribes collectively hate orcs, white dragons, and frost giants, and will readily set aside their differences to ally against such threats.

BRYN SHANDER

Bryn Shander is the Tenth Town of Ten-Towns. Originally it was a lone cabin on the trail to Mael Dualdon where caravanners, weary from their trip over the pass, would rest by a warm fire before continuing to their intended destination – usually Targos, the most accessible settlement in those days. Fishers from the towns often came to the hilltop cabin to meet the caravans as they arrived, eager for news from the outside world. But when scrimshanders from Termalaine began bringing their wares to the cabin to entice the richest goods from the caravans before they reached the other towns, they ignited a trade war.

As other towns sent their own traders to the cabin, new buildings and infrastructure were constructed. Finally, after a feud broke out between four of the traders that ended in bloodshed, all of the towns of Icewind Dale agreed to send speakers to the new outpost to regular business being carried out there.

Market Square: Has a number of major businesses surrounding the central market, notably including the Town Hall, Rendaril’s Emporium (where the original cabin stood and now the largest trade house in the city), Blackiron Blades (the cheapest blades in Ten-Towns!), and the Hooked Knucklehead (a cheap inn where caravan crews often stay).

The Northlook: The inn and tavern most frequented by mercenaries and adventurers, and thus the most crowded and dangerous place in town. At the same time, its taproom is the best spot in all of Ten-Towns to get leads on profitable ventures, along with the latest news and rumors. The proprietor is a retired sellsword named Scramsax.

Geldenstag’s Rest: One of the oldest establishments in town, far enough from the center of things for people to be able to keep a low profile.

TARGOS

Targos is located on the southern shore of Maer Dualdon. Nestled within a series of high cliff walls that shelter its port from the savage winter winds of the Dale, the city has also built a wall which extends out into the harbor and protects their fleet from the battering storm waves that afflict the fleets of other towns. The protection of the wall also enables Targos’ shipbuilding industry to work year-round.

The current Speaker of Targos is Naerth Maxildnarr who was recently elected only a few months ago, displacing former Speaker Glandro Holfast (who remains the head of the Dockworkers’ Guild).

The Luskan Arms: The oldest public house in Ten-Towns, established back when Bryn Shander was still just “the camp on the hill” and Luskan was still a thriving free port. Many of the traders who came to Targos back then hailed from Luskan, so the Luskan Arms was built to look like an inn that might be found in the City of Sails. In recent years, the place has fallen into disrepair and is infested with rats.

Three Flags Sailing: A tavern frequented mostly by the local fishermen. Run by Ethel Yarbroul, a gray-haired widow better known as “Ma” by the regulars.

Triglio: A general store selling everything except fishing and sailing supplies (which are sold through specialty stores closer to the docks). It takes its name from one of the chanteys that the fishers of Targos sing while hard at work:

Trig-lee-oh, lads, an’ ‘oist upon the line!
Trig-lee-oh, lads, an’ bring yon fishers in!

Graendal’s Fine Dwarven Craft: A smithy run by Graendal Granitefist, one of the original dwarves who fled Mithral Hall with Clan Battlehammer and resettled in Icewind Dale.

Go to Hugin Jorhund Athukavore Thuunlakalaga

Go to Part 1

WRENN PILWICKEN

(Created by Erik Malm)

In 1451 DR, Mount Hotenow in the Crags cataclysmically erupted, ripping apart the city of Neverwinter and opening the Chasm which left the city exposed to the plaguechanged depths of the Underdark.

To the south, in a gnome enclave deep within the Neverwinter Woods, this was the very moment at which Wrenn Pilwicken was born.

The Hotenow eruption also affected the Neverwinter Woods. The thin skein of reality between the Feywild and the mortal plane was ripped apart, leaving, in addition to many portals, remnants and extrusions of the fey realms scattered throughout the forest. This notably included the ruins of Sharandar, the treetop capital of the elven empire of Iliyanbruen which once ruled much of the North. Iliyanbruen was formed in -1100 DR when the even larger elven empire of Illefarn dissolved. It stood for more than a millennium before collapsing in 177 DR. As their empire fell, the elves of Iliyanbruen sought to preserve the beauties of Sharandar within the echoes of the Feywild; like some precious jewel preserved within amber. The eruption left in its wake a multitude of echoes of an echo that had lived in a ream.

Wrenn grew up in this history-haunted wood. Although he could speak to animals, like his brethren, and felt a connection to the forest, he found himself drawn to the wider wonders of nature. In his youngling teens, Wrenn began venturing beyond the borders of Neverwinter Woods. His journeys took him west to the coast, south into the foothills of the Sword Mountains, and even dared one journey into the upper reaches of the ancient dwarven city of Gauntlgrym, located in the Crags northeast of Mount Hotenow.

Journeying even farther into the Sword Mountains, Wrenn met a dwarven druid named Dolodrus Rubybane. Rubybane taught him the importance of preserving the balance among the elements and began to train him in the ways of the druids, introducing him to the worship of Silvanus, one of the Gods of Harmony (along with Chauntea, goddess of agriculture, and Lathander the Morninglord, god of the dawn) who stood opposed to the Gods of Fury (Talos the Destroyer, Auril the Frostmaiden, Malar the Beastlord, and Umberlee the Bitch Queen).

Wrenn visited the druid often, but upon one of his trips he discovered that Rubybane was simply… gone. Everything suggested he had simply moved on during the winter.

Returning to Neverwinter Woods, Wrenn became interested in finding ways of restoring balance between the feywild cysts and the natural world. One of his most memorable encounters during this time was with an archmage named Orapius, who presented himself as being a wizard of Sembia seeking the lost heritage of Netheril. (Netheril was an empire even older than Iliyanbruen, marked by an upper class who lived in floating cities. Netheril infamously fell when a disruption of the Weave caused arcane magic to temporarily fail, causing their cities to fall from the sky.) Orapius was eventually revealed to be a fey lord merely impersonating a Netherese mage.

Recently, Wrenn heard that Auril the Frostmaiden was disrupting the natural order in Icewind Dale, cursing it with an eternal winter. He felt compelled to journey north to see if he could help return balance to the blighted land. Working his way north and seeking both information and passage in Luskan, he was captured by slavers who intended to sell him to the whaling fleets of the Sea of Moving Ice. (Possibly as bait.)

While sailing north, the slavers’ ship was surprised by a blizzaught – a powerful snow elemental taking the form of a sentient blizzard. In the deadly confusion (and suffering a moment of panic himself), Wrenn was able to wildshape for the first and, so far, only time into an arctic fox, hiding deep within the ship as the storm tore it apart. Despite their desperate prayers (and even sacrifices) to Auril, one by one the crew succumbed to the elements as the ship became trapped in the moving ice sheets. Wrenn was able to survive, much to his horror, only by eating the remains of his captors.

As the ship slowly drifted through the sea of moving ice, locked between the ice flows, one day he heard a sound like thunder as the hull itself cracked, crushed between the icebergs. Wrenn could see the coast in the distance and, not knowing what else to do, fled without hope across the shifting ice, praying he could find a path to stable land.

After two days of fleeing across the ice flow, soaking wet and nearly frozen to death, Wrenn finally collapsed on the solid shore of Icewind Dale. His last memory was of an approaching axe beak. On the edge of consciousness, Wrenn wasn’t sure if he understood the axe beak to be saying,” What are you doing here?” because he could speak with animals or if the axe beak was… actually speaking in Common?

Although he knew that his life would probably end at the beak of this territorial creature, he just barely managed to whisper, “Help me… Please…” as the darkness and the cold consumed him.

DESCRIPTION

Wrenn is a fierce 2’8” tall, lithe even for a gnome. He has a sandy blond mop of medium length hair that’s always a little unkempt, as if he just got caught in the wind or something. He keeps his beard neater, in a dwarven style with an elaborate braid. Unlike many gnomes, he wears fairly subdued clothes, with colors selected to blend into his surroundings. But he does wear jewelry — a necklace, several bracelets, a selection of earrings — composed of brightly colored stones, many of which he has tales to tell of, for he found them on his “rambles” (as he refers to his adventures).

Go to Ygra Dunn

Go to Icewind Dale Index

I’m launching an Icewind Dale campaign for my local group and, if all goes well, I’m hoping to give a ring-side sea to how the campaign is developing.

The first thing a campaign needs, of course, is the player characters. There are five PCs in the group:

• Mara Brightwood, a half-elf bard
• Wrenn Pilwicken, a gnome druid
• Ygra Dunn, a human monk
• Hugin Jorhund Athukavore Thuunlakalaga, a goliath sorcerer
• Avral Terikson, an awakened axebeak warlock

For a deeper insight into how I collaborate with my players in creating their characters, check out Running the Campaign: Designing Character Backgrounds and Dragon Heist: Creating the Characters. This series will be more narrowly focused on just introducing the characters.

MARA BRIGHTWOOD

(Created by Kristina Fjellman)

ALIAS: Mara Blackoak

Mara Brightwood, now 31 years old, was born in Neverwinter in 1461 DR, ten years after the eruption of Mount Hotenow which devastated the city and formed the Chasm in its southeast district. Her parents were the proprietors of the Frozen Bear tavern in the Blacklake District, which thankfully was spared the worst of the Ruining’s destruction. Many of the city’s nobles lived in the district, and that enclave of power helped ensure its safety even as the rest of the city struggled with the strange ash zombies and plaguechanged horrors which clawed their way out of the depths.

In the Year of Splendors Burning (1469 DR), when Mara was eight, things changed considerably. Lord Neverember of Waterdeep declared himself a descendant of Neverwinter’s dead noble family and the rightful “Lord Protector” of the city. Neverember marched into the city with Mintarn mercenaries and began spending profligately to rebuild the city’s infrastructure. Although many muttered that much of this cash was going to Waterdhavian workers and craftsmen who were being shipped up the High Road, Neverember’s presence was probably good for Neverwinter.

But not everyone agreed, and when Neverember signed a treaty with the Many-Arrows orcs which essentially surrendered the River District to them, it led to popular unrest, fomented by a number of factions, including disgruntled Neverwintan nobility. The Blacklake District was torn apart by fractious conflict and riots. The streets were filled with violence which prevented efforts to rebuild, while the Nashers robbed from the poor to finance their rebellion. As a result, most of Blacklake fell into ruinous poverty. These were hard years.

In 1479 DR, Mara was now eighteen and the civil violence was heating up considerably. These events would eventually conclude with the Siege of Neverwinter, in which a force of Thayans unsuccessfully attempted to take advantage of the chaos within the city to invade, but Mara would be long gone before then: During the Spring of Smoke, numerous buildings were burned in the riots. Among these was the Frozen Bear, a conflagration in which Mara’s parents were both killed.

It would later by revealed that a group of Asmodean cultists known as the Ashmadai, or the Messengers of the Raging Fiend, had infiltrated both Neverember’s New Neverwinter organization and many of the rebel groups, as well. They had played both sides of the conflict, escalating tensions for their own gain. It was tiefling agents of the Ashmadai who Mara saw light the fires at the Frozen Bear, and she never forgot not only who was responsible, but the corruption made possible by the ambitions of powerful men.

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE SWORD

In the wake of the destruction of the Frozen Bear and Mara’s entire life, she fled Neverwinter as a member of the Daughters of the Sword, a traveling troupe of musicians and entertainers who toured the northern part of the Sword Coast. The Daughters were an all-female group and were often considered a novelty act because of this, despite being quite talented, and they would usually perform at the Frozen Bear when they could come to

Mara had been enamored with the Daughter’s performances, and had been taken under the wing of Sanela Mushina who had first taught Mara how to play the harp. Mara had actually joined their performances on several occasions at the Frozen Bear, and it seemed perfectly natural to leave Neverwinter with them now.

Mara toured with the Daughters of the Sword for more than a decade, mostly in the northern reaches of the Sword Coast — making long passes up and down the High and Long Roads to Neverwinter, Luskan, Mirabar, Longsaddle; occasionally south of Waterdeep to Daggerford. Leveraging some of her old connections from the Blacklake District, Mara was particularly adept at making connections with noble patrons. In addition to their public gigs, the Daughters were asked to many private venues and high society events.

Mara also picked up all manner of gossip and secrets from these high-born connections, and she would actually write songs including this scandalous information… which only increased the demand for the Daughter’s performances!

At one of these soirees, Liara Portyr, niece of Grand Duke Dillard Portyr of Baldur’s Gate, heard the Daughters perform and invited them to come south to the mouth of the Chionthar River at a price they couldn’t refuse.

While in Baldur’s Gate, however, Mara uncovered a terrible secret: Several prominent patriar families of the city — including members of the Vanthampurs, one of the Council of Four grand dukes that ruled the city — were devil worshipers. Furthermore, these devil worshipers had connections to the Cassalanter noble family in Waterdeep, suggesting an axis of corrupt nobility conspiring along the length of the Sword Coast.

With flashbacks to the horrors she had experienced in Neverwinter, Mara composed “The Hellbent Highborn” to reveal what she had discovered.

This, ultimately, proved to be a mistake. An assassination attempt drove the Daughters of the Sword out of Baldur’s Gate and back up the Trade Way to Waterdeep. It seemed they had escaped the scandal and the danger, but The Hellbent Highborn pursued them: The lyrics to her song, now attached to a collection of lurid tales regarding Asmodean cultists, were published as a pamphlet of the same name by a scurrilous broadsheet publisher named Shan Chien in Waterdeep.

The Daughters of the Sword fled further north, but danger pursued them. Or, more specifically, Mara. All the ire of the cultists seemed to be aimed squarely at her. Hiding in a small inn in the tiny hamlet of Longsaddle, Mara tearfully parted from the friends who had become her family and headed north.

She hoped to disappear into the anonymity of the Luskan underworld. And, when that failed, she decided to head even farther north into the Frozenfar. Now traveling under the alias of Mara Blackoak, she seeks refuge in Icewind Dale.

DESCRIPTION

Mara is a half-elf bard. She thinks of herself as somewhat average looking, with dark brown hair and an average height and build. But she has striking blue eyes, like looking into the depths of a frozen lake. She often has her pale blue lyre of wave cypress close at hand.

Go to Wrenn Pilwicken

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Creating the Characters

Go to Table of Contents

There was a time when the Styx was the front line of the Blood War. That is no longer the case: the legions of Hell have pushed back the demonic hordes, and the front lines now lie somewhere Abyss-ward of the Avernian hexcrawl where the Remix is set.

This region, however, is still marked by its long history as a battlefield. Chunks of territory here, on both banks of the Styx, have been held by the demons at various points during the long aeons of the conflict, and their legacy can still be found imprinted on the wastes.

With the front so near, there is also a constant churn of espionage, with demonic infiltrators and fifth column quislings endlessly seeking any advantage which might turn the tide of war. Such agents might easily recognize the PCs as pawns to be used against Zariel.

CROKEK’TOECK

In the original version of Descent Into Avernus, Crokek’toeck is a powerful demon that was pursuing Yael and Lulu and imprisoned within the Bloody Cyst (Hex F4) when it erupted. For the Remix, it is less clear that having him trapped within the cyst makes sense (although maybe it does for your version). You might also reposition Crokek’toeck:

• In the prison of Plagueshield Point (Hex G5b).
• Simply rampaging around the Avernian plains, perhaps pursued by the 9^th Cohort (Hex J6).
• In the service of Yeenoghu, who will dispatch him to the PCs’ service if they can somehow negotiate with him.

Whatever the case may be, see p. 150 of Descent Into Avernus for details on how Crokek’toeck might be used to break the chains holding Elturel.

KOSTCHTCHIE

The demon Kostchtchie is imprisoned in Hex J2. As described in the Dance of the Deathless Frost adventure, Kostchtchie has a phylactery (currently hidden in Hex D6) with which one can either control him or bargain with him.

Even without the phylactery, a freed Kostchtchie desires vengeance on Zariel for his long imprisonment, making him a powerful (if somewhat unreliable and senselessly violent) ally against her. Kostchtchie also possesses the strength necessary to break the chains holding Elturel.

The PCs might learn of the phylactery from:

• Rumors (see the rumor table in Part 7I).
• Bel, who knows that if some deniable third party (i.e., the PCs) freed Kostchtchie it would be a thorn in Zariel’s side.
• Bitter Breath, who once sought Kostchtchie’s phylactery.
• The Sibriex (Hex E5).

Any of these sources, or perhaps subsequent investigations with the Archmagi of Thraxai in the Purple City, would reveal that Baba Yaga was the one who originally made the phylactery, and that her once-apprentice the Witch-Queen (Hex B3) might know something of value.

YEENOGHU

The Gnoll Lord would sooner eat your face than speak to it, and even getting into the same room with the Beast of Butchery isn’t exactly easy. Arranging the meeting will almost certainly involve the PCs heading Abyss-ward, somehow crossing the front lines of the Blood War, and then miraculously arranging a meeting. (Crokek’toeck, Kostchtchie, or perhaps some other demonic ally might be able to make introductions?)

But here’s the thing: He really, really, really doesn’t like Zariel. And the legions of devils that are about to pour out of the Elturel project are a serious problem for him.

If – and this is a big if! – the PCs can convince him that they are the solution to one or both of these problems, then Yeenoghu can be an incredibly powerful ally: Not only can he break the chains holding Elturel himself, but he literally has an army of gnolls, demons, and demonic gnolls that can be put at the PCs’ service if they play their cards right.

Yeenoghu also prizes the Sword of Zariel. It may or may not be the best use of it if the PCs obtain it, but Yeenoghu would give much to obtain it.

SHUMMRATH

Shummrath is neither a demon nor an active faction of Hell (since it’s been reduced to a canyon full of green slime), but it is nevertheless a powerful entity in the region and we should briefly consider it.

As detailed on p. 100 of Descent Into Avernus, it’s possible to restore Shummrath to its original form as a pit fiend, in which case it is capable of raising a small force of devils from those once loyal to it. Restored to his full glory, Shummrath might be:

• A valuable ally in fighting Zariel (although his animosity is overwhelmingly directed at Bel and relatively difficult to point in Zariel’s direction).
• Capable of severing the chains holding Elturel.

The barely sane telepathic residue which is Shummrath’s current consciousness will be difficult to either commune or negotiate with, but he does crave freedom to seek his revenge and may be willing to pay a price for that.

Homework: You may find it worthwhile to create response teams for each faction. Response teams will allow you to bring a faction “onstage” whenever it seems appropriate (attacking warlords, drinking in a caravanserai, trying to murder the PCs). You can probably scavenge these with minimal effort; for example, pulling legionnaires from Zariel’s Flying Fortress or demonic gnolls from the dream machine visions.

Go to Part 7G: The Devils of Baldur’s Gate