A cerberus spawn is a large, three-headed dog. They usually have sleek, grey-brown fur, although some are jet black. One can often seen their veins, which glow like red-hot lava through their skin. Their eyes, too, glow red above their slavering maws.

Spawn of Hades. Cerberus spawn are said to be the get of Cerberus itself, the great hound who stands guard upon the gates of Hades. Like their forefather, cerberus spawn are used throughout Hades to keeps souls from escaping their gaols and masters.

Guard Dogs of the Lower Planes. From Hades, the cerberus spawn have spread throughout the Lower Planes, where many demons and devils employ them as guardians. Even wild packs are sometimes seen, roaming the Abyss, feasting upon the damned souls of Avernus, or  adding their howls to the lamentations of Cocytus.

Ghost Hounds. The gifts of cerberus spawn are also renowned on the Material Plane, where their affinity for souls makes them expert trackers of ghosts and other incorporeal undead.

Packs of cerberus spawn are also often brought to the Material Plane by more powerful fiends. They are sometimes abandoned by these masters, or left feral after mortal heroes dispose of their keepers. Such hounds often seek a way home, although some find the easy prey of the mortal world to their liking and settle down.

Cerberus spawn breed true, but rarely (only going into heat once every thirteen years), so fortunately these packs rarely become endemic. Druids often seek to eliminate them, however, because they tend to violently displace native predators. (It’s not unusual, for example, to find dead wolves marking the limits of a cerberus spawn’s territory.)

CERBERUS SPAWN

Large fiend, neutral evil

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Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 85 (10d10+30)

Speed 50 ft.

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STR 22 (+6), DEX 9 (-1), CON 17 (+3), INT 8 (-1), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 5 (-3)

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Skills Perception +5

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 15

Languages Infernal

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

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Three Heads: A spawn has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.

Soul Scenter: A cerberus spawn gains advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks related to ghosts and similar undead.

Magic Resistance. A spawn has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

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ACTIONS

Multiattack. The spawn makes three bite attacks.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack. +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10+6) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

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This video is a sequel to Every Edition of D&D: A Quick History of the World’s First Roleplaying Game, and it’s a deep dive into all the oddball corner-cases that I missed (or that others insisted I’d missed) the first time around. Some of them, like the D&D board games, you’re probably familiar with, but I’m guessing that everyone will be surprised by something on the list. (I was!)

Am I still missing something? Let me know!

I’d mentioned on my last video that my efforts to set up a better video production pipeline by hiring a professional editor had spectacularly failed when they were completely incapable of turning in a single professional video that could actually be shared. I’m still working on fixing that issue so that we can get more regular updates on the Youtube channel! I’ll keep you posted!

Go to Table of Contents

AVERNIAN ENCOUNTER DISTANCE

As described in Part 7B: Avernian Hex Map, the Avernian Hexcrawl features unique terrain types. You can use the following table to determine encounter distance in Avernus.

AVERNIAN REACTION TABLE

Reaction checks in Avernus are made by rolling 2d6 on the following table.

If you roll doubles, however, the encounter’s reaction will be deceptive, in which case the encounter’s reaction will appear to be the opposite result on the table:

• Immediate Attack/Hostile encounters will appear incredibly friendly and welcoming… right up until they slip the knife in.
• Threatening encounters will appear cautious, most likely using that posture to put the PCs at a disadvantage. (“Your weapons scare me! Put them down and we can talk!”)
• Cautious encounters will attempt to scare the PCs away with a display of dominance.
• Neutral encounters are unchanged.
• Amiable encounters will present behavior that seems overtly hostile, but most likely due to cultural differences. (The demon is brandishing its venom-glistened fangs at you so that you’ll see that it’s having its venom sacs discharge a clear fluid instead of poison!)

Deception is possible in any setting, of course. By having it systemically occur one-sixth of the time in Avernus, our goal is to leave the players feeling unsettled and uncertain. Hell is an alien environment filled with lies and liars.

FACTION ALLEGIANCE TABLE

Devils encountered in Avernus will usually belong to or be allied with a faction. (Hell is all about its hierarchies.) You can randomly determine an encounter’s faction using this table.

Go to Part 7I: Avernian Rumor Tables

Go to Table of Contents

PROCEDURAL ENCOUNTER TABLE

Tip: The Procedural Encounters table will generally produce homogenous encounters with only a single creature type. Although it requires more dice rolling (and some creative interpolation to explain the results), you can quickly generate mixed encounters by rolling twice and halving the number of creatures of each type appearing (round up).

You may discover that it’s actually easier to improvise creative encounters by generating mixed results, because the pairing of different devil types will spur your creativity in explaining what they’re doing together.

STYX ENCOUNTERS

ENVIRONMENTAL ENCOUNTERS

ROCKS OF THE DAMNED: Some of the rocks in Avernus seem to have tormented faces etched into them.

BONEFIELD: A field of bleached bones lying half-buried in the dunes or choking a razor-sharp ravine These are remnants of some ancient battle. (Avernian bonefields often feature titanic skeletons that will tower over the PCs.)

AVERNIAN FIREBALLS: Travelers in Avernus are periodically plagued with balls of flaming energy that spontaneously erupt without apparent reason. They inflict 5d6 fire damage, with a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw for half damage.

INFERNAL WRECK: 1d3 wrecked infernal war machines. The PCs can likely scavenge parts from them. There’s a 1 in 6 chance that the machine can be repaired without completely overhauling it.

OPPRESSIVE CONDITION: Trigger an oppressive condition, as described in Part 7B. This will exist in addition to any oppressive conditions already present.

AVERNIAN WARLORDS

See Part 7E: Warlords of Avernus for more details on the warlords. You can roll on the table below to randomly determine which warlord’s faction has been encountered. There is a 1 in 4 chance that the warlord is present for the encounter, otherwise it’s just an appropriate squad of their gang members (most likely riding infernal war machines).

DANGEROUS DEVILS

Go to Part 7H-D: Advanced Encounter Options

Go to Table of Contents

DESIGNED ENCOUNTER TABLE

ALLIP’S SECRET: An allip (TOF, p. 116) wanders Avernus. This particular allip was formed when the Bloody Cyst formed around Yael and Lulu. Its whispers of madness ability reveals fractured images from the Second Visit to Idyllglen (see Part 6D-B). This allip (or others formed in the same instant) might have other secrets which belonged to Yael or Lulu.

CADAVER COLLECTOR: A cadaver collector (TOF, p. 122) has been collecting demonic corpses, which are pinioned to its back.

ORTHON HUNTER: An orthon (TOF, p. 169) has been sent to kill one or more of the PCs. (Who sent it and why, exactly, they want the PCs dead will depend on exactly what sort of mischief they’ve been getting up to in your campaign.) This particular orthon is quite sporting, and will start by openly approaching the PCs and explaining that, with its deepest apologies, it will begin hunting them thirty hours from now. They should make whatever final arrangements they need to, because then they will surely be dead. “Good luck! I look forward to a good, fair challenge!”

If the PCs attempt to immediately attack the orthon, he will consider this a breach of good sportsmanship. If he can escape, he will contact two additional orthons to form a triumvirate who will ruthlessly hunt the PCs.

ESCORT TO DIS: A corruption devil (EGD, p. 175) named Drograxol is being carried across Avernus on a bower by a dozen corrupted followers (EGD, p. 176). They are accompanied by an Enforcer of Dis (BOF, p. 154) who serves as Drograxol’s body guard.

Drograxol is an ambassador from Dis who is now returning to the Second Layer of Hell. (He’s heading for Tiamat’s Lair in Hex C1 and the Gate Tower of Dis that lies within it.) If he is successfully engaged in repartee, he may bemoan the hardship of his work in recent centuries. Relations between Dispater and Zariel have been… difficulty since the Siege of Dis during the Reckoning.

LEMURE HARVEST: A malebranch (SSA, p. 27) is often dispatched to collect wayward souls. This one, named Kaziron, has gathered a half dozen lemures (MM, p. 76) who are leashed to him with hooked chains. He is hoping to gather more before returning to the Purple City (Hex F2), and would be glad to hear of any recent lemure sightings. (He’d also be interested in any reports of nupperibo.)

SIN BEARER: The soul of a man or woman (commoner or cult fanatic; MM, p. 345) walks the Avernian wastelands with heavy tablets of lead strapped to their back. The tablets are inscribed with all the sins they committed in their mortal life.

FEASTING SWARM: A feasting swarm (BOF, p. 74) has settled upon the bodies strewn across a recent battlefield, stripping flesh from devil and demon corpses alike. (You can roll on the Procedural Encounters table to determine the corpse types.)

FACES OF BELLANDI: High Watcher Naja Bellandi, who formed the Pact with Zariel which ultimately led to Elturel’s fall, was damned to Hell. She wanders the Avernian wastelands as a faces of the great (BOF, p. 94), with the important distinction that rather than being made up of the faces of many different mortals, Bellandi’s bloated form carries many different versions of her own face — all of which mutter and murmur, constantly debating each other over whether she was right to do what she did; what she could have done different; how unfair it was that she was betrayed before she could make it right; and so forth.

If the PCs can interpret through her madness, they may be able to learn much of the history behind Elturel’s fall.

CHERNOBUE STALKER: A chernobue (BOF, p. 194) begins following the PCs at a distance. A chernobue has the appearance of a large, scuttling, filth-encrusted eye. It keeps far away from the PCs, often lurking right at the edge of the horizon or peering down at them from the top of some distant hill. It watches them without surcease.

ABYSSAL SKY HARRIERS: High above the PCs’ heads, an abyssal dragon (BOF, p. 204) flies by. It is beset by a dozen squads of the 3^rd Aerial Cohort of the 5^th Legion (which is based out of Zariel’s flying fortress). The dragon has been separated from the demonic frontlines and driven deep into Avernus, harried constantly by the aerial cohort who are hoping to take the beast down once and for all.

ESCAPEES FROM ELTUREL: This encounter indicates that the PCs have met someone else who has chosen to leave Elturel and seek their own fortune in Hell. You can roll on the table below to determine what Elturian faction they belong to:

Go to Part 7H-C: Procedural Encounters