TEXT: ﻿
  Avernus﻿as﻿a﻿Sandbox
  Preface: This document is a write-up of three blog posts made 
  on eventyrgames.com. It offers a way to turn Avernus into a 
  more sandbox-like experience. The information can be used 
  in conjunction with the information supplied in our DM’s 
  Resources for Chapter 3: Avernus, but they aren’t required.
  Introduction
  By far the meatiest chapter in the book, Chapter 3: 
  Avernus is where the party will probably spend the 
  majority of their time both in- and out-of-character. It’s 
  a chapter filled to the brim with exotic encounters and 
  fantastical locations, which is awesome. 
  But, it is also a fairly linear chapter, which has the 
  players making one arbitrary choice between two paths, 
  and then following that straight path all the way to their 
  goal (the Bleeding Citadel), leaving it entirely up to the 
  DM when (and if) to introduce additional encounters. 
  This makes the chapter easy to run, but also less 
  exciting than it could be.
  In our DM’s resources for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into 
  Avernus, we’ve written quite a bit about this, offering 
  ways to tie the Path of Demons and Path of Devils 
  together to give the party some choices about where to 
  go and who to speak to. 
  In this post, we’ll elaborate even further upon this 
  idea, presenting a full-fledged blueprint for turning 
  Avernus into an actual sandbox, where the party must 
  determine on their own how to reach their goal!
  Part﻿1:﻿Structure
  Here we’ll go over the fundaments of a good sandbox 
  and then put together a structure that uses what is 
  already in the book in a more open and non-linear way.
  The﻿Principles﻿of﻿a﻿Sandbox
  The main difference between a linear story and 
  a sandbox is the players’ feeling of agency – the 
  perception that they have choices and that those 
  choices matter to the story. A linear story offers a 
  straight path and clear motivation, but doesn’t allow 
  for alternate routes to success. A sandbox allows the 
  players to choose their own path through the narrative 
  by giving them several valid ways to reach their goals.
  Alright, that sounds easy enough. We’ll just dump 
  the party in Avernus, let them know about the sword of 
  Zariel, and see what they choose to do! 
  Unfortunately, it isn’t quite that easy. Having infinite 
  choices without any information about how to make the 
  right choices isn’t freedom – it’s frustration. Especially 
  in a place as unfamiliar and abstract as Avernus. No, 
  to create a fun sandbox, we have to feed the players 
  just enough information for them to realize that there’s 
  several ways to accomplish their goals.
  So, how many options should the characters have in 
  the perfect sandbox? As a rule thumb, three options is a 
  good number to aim for. To the players, three different 
  – but equally viable – ways to progress will often 
  feel like freedom without being overwhelming. Our 
  purpose, then, is to take the encounters and locations 
  described in Chapter 3: Avernus and rearrange them in 
  a way where the characters have at least three ways of 
  progressing forward at (nearly) all times.
  The﻿Basic﻿Structure
  As suggested in the book, we’ll start the chapter off 
  with the characters going to Fort Knucklebone and 
  interacting with Mad Maggie. Fort Knucklebone is 
  an interesting location with fun NPCs, which has 
  the added benefit of giving the characters an early 
  opportunity to acquire infernal war machines and 
  information about Avernus. We also won’t change the 
  chapter’s endpoint, the Bleeding Citadel, where the 
  adventurers will find the Sword of Zariel.
  So, it’s what is in-between these two points – Fort 
  Knucklebone and the Bleeding Citadel – that will 
  constitute our new structure for Chapter 3: Avernus.
  The﻿Fallen﻿Three
  To fill out the structure, we’ll start by walking 
  backwards from the Bleeding Citadel, the characters’ 
  final destination. The party will have learned about 
  the Bleeding Citadel from the Helm of Torm’s Sight in 
  Elturel, and have traveled to Fort Knucklebone because 
  they need find out where the Bleeding Citadel is.
  From here on out, we scrap what is in the book – the 
  Dream Quest doesn’t end with Lulu pointing them 
  toward a random hill, and then to the Demon Zapper 
  or the Spawning Trees. Instead, the party’s Dream 
  Quest with Maggie will allow them to see the three 
  important NPCs who know the way to the Bleeding 
  Citadel: Olanthius (Crypt of the Hellriders), Haruman 
  (Haruman’s Hill) and Bel (Bel’s Forge).
  These three NPCs share a close connection to 
  Zariel and the story of her fall, making them excellent 
  choices for delivering the final information the party is 
  after. Don’t worry, we’ll go into more detail about how 
  information about these NPCs can be presented to the 
  party in Part 2: Details
  Of course, Mad Maggie doesn’t simply point the party 
  directly to the location of one of these ‘Fallen Three’. 
  That would be both too convenient and too short – 
  remember, the characters are supposed to go from 7th 
  to 11th level during Chapter 3. However, she (and other 
  sources of information they meet) can help them find 
  the ‘Intermediaries’ – NPCs with the power to locate 
  the ‘Fallen Three’.
  Fort﻿Knucklebone
  Haruman's﻿Hill
  Bel's﻿Forge
  Crypt﻿of﻿the﻿Hellriders
  Bleeding﻿Citadel
  1
  
  ﻿
  The﻿Intermediaries
  There are three NPCs who can help the party locate 
  the ‘Fallen Three’ and – in turn – the Bleeding Citadel: 
  Mordenkainen (Tower of Urm), Red Ruth (Bone 
  Brambles) and Mephistopheles (Mirror of Mephistar). 
  Wizard, witch and fiend, these intermediaries are all 
  powerful and resourceful spellcasters.
  This gives us the following structure:
  Blood﻿Pay
  Now, this is certainly a start. The party has a 
  meaningful choice about which of the three 
  ‘Intermediaries’ to seek out, and subsequently a choice 
  to make about which of the ‘Fallen Three’ they want to 
  ask about the Bleeding Citadel.
  However, there’s still many encounters in Chapter 
  3: Avernus that deserve to see some use. To fill out 
  our sandbox, we’ll insert a fetch quest after the 
  ‘Intermediaries’ – a task that needs to be completed, 
  before the NPC will help the party find Olanthius, 
  Haruman or Bel.
  Luckily for us (and our preparation), Mordenkainen, 
  Red Ruth and Mephistopheles, are all after the same 
  thing: blood from powerful creatures inhabiting 
  Avernus. This leads to at least one of these encounters:
  • Arkhan (Monument to Tiamat)
  • Uldrak (Uldrak’s Grave)
  • Ubbalux (Obelisk)
  • Shummrath (Pit of Shummrath)
  But, finding these creatures isn’t just enough – to get 
  the blood, the characters must complete a task first:
  • To get Tiamat’s blood from Arkhan, they’ll have to 
  travel to his tower and then to the Monument to Tiamat, 
  where they must either take the blood by force, or 
  sacrifice a good-aligned creature – such as the unicorn 
  from the Demon Zapper.
  • To transform Uldrak back to an empyrean, they must 
  first help him slay a dragon – which can be found at 
  Arkhan’s Tower.
  • To release Ubbalux from his prison, they have to 
  convince another sentient creature to willingly take 
  his place – perhaps the chaotic good Krikendolt at the 
  Spawning Trees.
  • To free Shummrath, the characters must first secure 
  explosives from the Firesnake Forge at the Wandering 
  Emporium.
  Final﻿Task
  To further pad out our structure, we’ll also place a task 
  after each of the ‘Fallen Three’ – something that needs 
  to be done before the party can learn the way to the 
  Bleeding Citadel. Here we won’t give the party multiple 
  choices, since they’ve already had quite a bit of agency 
  (and always having three choices can get nonsensical if 
  overdone). In short summary:
  • Olanthius wants the party to distract Zariel by freeing 
  Kostchtchie (Kostchchie’s Maw)
  • Bel wants the party to find the control rods (Wrecked 
  Flying Fortress)
  • Haruman won’t tell the party anything, so they’ll have 
  to extract the location of the Bleeding Citadel from his 
  corpse by feeding the dead narzugon to the Sibriex 
  (Sibriex).
  ...and﻿even﻿more﻿filling
  There’s still some encounters left in Chapter 3 that 
  we aren’t using, however. We still haven’t used the 
  Arches of Ulloch or the Hellwasp Nest. Additionally, 
  there’s also the Wandering Emporium and Smiler the 
  Defiler, both of which offer cool social encounters and 
  nice ways to supply the party with information. Lastly, 
  there’s our own ‘Infernal Bounty’-encounter, which you 
  can download for free at the DM’s Guild.
  Arches﻿of﻿Ulloch
  In our DM’s Resources for Chapter 3: Avernus, we’ve 
  fleshed out the Arches of Ulloch into an elaborate 
  encounter involving an infernal sphinx. We can fill 
  out the structure a bit more by inserting the Arches 
  of Ulloch as the only way one can actually reach the 
  Bleeding Citadel – also providing a logical explanation 
  to why nobody can find or locate the citadel through 
  other means.
  Hellwasp﻿Nest
  The Hellwasp Nest can be intertwined with Haruman’s 
  Hill, or used independently as a ‘random’ encounter, 
  that can take place at any time you want to shake things 
  up a bit. If the players are thinking to take rest before 
  they’ve been properly pushed, it might be time for a 
  few hellwasps to descend upon them and steal some 
  valuable stuff (or golden elephants!).
  Wandering﻿Emporium,﻿Smiler﻿the﻿
  Defiler﻿&﻿Infernal﻿Bounty
  We can use the last three encounters – the Wandering 
  Emporium, Smiler the Defiler and the ‘Infernal 
  Bounty’-encounter – as means to supply the party 
  with information, so they become aware of the options 
  available to them in an organic way. With Smiler 
  the Defiler, we’ll use our Bitter Rivals-adventure, 
  which turns the chance encounter into a full day of 
  adventuring.
  Conclusion
  This structure provides us with roughly 10 encounters 
  between Fort Knucklebone and the Bleeding Citadel, 
  while also allowing the players to make meaningful 
  choices at (at least) three critical junctions: choosing 
  which of the ‘Intermediaries’ to seek out initially, 
  choosing what ‘Blood Pay’ to go after, and, finally, 
  which of the ‘Fallen Three’ to seek out.
  Fort﻿Knucklebone
  Tower﻿of﻿Urm
  Bone﻿Brambles
  Mirror﻿of﻿Mephistar
  Bleeding﻿Citadel
  Haruman's﻿Hill
  Bel's﻿Forge
  Crypt﻿of﻿the﻿Hellriders
  2
  
  ﻿
  Fort﻿Knucklebone
  Infernal﻿Bounty
  Tower﻿of﻿Urm
  Bone﻿Brambles
  Mirror﻿of﻿Mephistar
  Wandering﻿Emporium
  Arkhan's﻿Tower
  Uldrak's﻿Grave
  Obelisk
  Pit﻿of﻿Shummrath
  Monument﻿to﻿Tiamat
  Demon﻿Zapper
  Arkhan's﻿Tower
  Spawning﻿Trees
  Wandering﻿Emporium
  Smiler﻿the﻿Defiler
  Haruman's﻿Hill
  Bel's﻿Forge
  Crypt﻿of﻿the﻿Hellriders
  Sibriex
  Kostchtche's﻿Maw
  Wrecked﻿Flying﻿Fortress
  Hellwasp﻿Nest
  Arches﻿of﻿Ulloch
  Bleeding﻿Citadel
  Level 7
  Level 8
  Level 10
  Level 11
  The 
  Intermediaries
  Blood Pay
  Fallen Three
  Final Task
  Level 9
  3
  
  ﻿
  Part﻿2:﻿Details
  Here we’ll go over over each encounter and location 
  in turn, briefly discussing what we need to change to 
  make the structure work. It’s highly recommended 
  that you read through the encounters in the Baldur’s 
  Gate: Descent into Avernus-campaign book before or 
  while reading this post. Along the way, there will also 
  be references to our DM’s Resources for Baldur’s Gate: 
  Descent into Avernus, but while these resources will 
  certainly be helpful, they are not necessary to make the 
  structure work.
  As we go over the various encounters and locations, 
  we’ll also offer suggestions on how to deliver 
  information to the players in an organic way, so 
  that they become aware of the options available to 
  them without feeling like they’re being flooded with 
  information and exposition.
  Fort﻿Knucklebone
  In the book, the characters are supposed to undergo 
  a ritual at Fort Knucklebone, venturing into Lulu 
  the Hollyphant’s dreams with Mad Maggie as their 
  guide. At the end of the Dream Quest, Lulu looks into 
  a spyglass, exclaims that she knows where the sword 
  is, and leads the characters to Haruman’s Hill without 
  further explanation.
  The logic – or lack-there-of – behind going from Fort 
  Knucklebone to Haruman’s Hill always seemed a bit 
  jarring to me, and since we now need the party to seek 
  out three Intermediaries, who can help them find one 
  of the Fallen Three, we’ll scrap that final dream and 
  alter what the characters experience during the Dream 
  Quest.
  Altering﻿the﻿Dream﻿Quest
  To open up this part of the story, and give the characters 
  more options – and perhaps options that make more 
  sense than Lulu simply pointing them along without an 
  explanation – we’ll insert Bel, Olanthius and Haruman 
  into the Dream Quest. We do this by replacing Dream 
  5: Revelation with one or two scenes featuring Zariel, 
  Olanthius, Haruman and Bel:
  A terrible scene fills your vision. The angel you saw earlier 
  is surrounded by a throng of fiends, flanked only by two 
  bloodied, human knights wearing the insignia of high-
  ranking generals. For a moment, it seems like they will 
  be able to hold against the devils surrounding them, but 
  then a mighty pit fiend emerges, wearing a devilish grin 
  and a cruel blade. In one fell swoop, the pit fiend severs 
  the angel’s hand at the wrist, sending her sword flying far 
  away. The vision begins to darken and fade then, just as 
  the legion of devils finally bury the three valiant warriors 
  beneath their unending numbers.
  If you want to, you can follow this scene up with 
  another scene showing Zariel’s submission to 
  Asmodeus (or use either of the two, as you see fit):
  A huge, dark throne of skulls, blades and bones stands 
  before you. Seated on the throne is a slim, red-skinned 
  devil more than 13 ft. tall, wearing luxurious black and red 
  robes. The angel kneels before the throne, a human paladin 
  kneeling on either side of her. All three are beaten and 
  bloodied, looks of utter defeat on their worn faces. To the 
  right stands an enormous pit fiend wearing a sardonic grin, 
  seemingly presenting the captives. The devil on the throne 
  speaks – the dream muffles the words, rendering them 
  inaudible – and a contract appears in a puff of black smoke 
  to float eerily in front of the captives. The pit fiend seems 
  to roar in protest, but a stern look from the figure on the 
  throne silences the fuming devil. Meanwhile, an angry, 
  resolute look comes over the angel’s grim features, and 
  after only a moment of hesitation, she signs the contract 
  with a bloody finger. As she does, her wings melt away to 
  blackened vestiges, her golden hair withers to bare her 
  pale scalp, and her glowing halo becomes a ring of infernal 
  fire. One paladin bows his head solemnly, before putting 
  his own finger to the contract, immediately sending 
  spasms through his form as it darkens and transforms, 
  turning into something vile and evil. The other paladin 
  roars in grief and anger at the sight of his comrades’ 
  betrayal, and swiftly snatches a dagger from his belt and 
  slices his own throat. His limp form falls to the ground to 
  lie completely still, blood flowing thickly from the deep 
  gash in his neck. Just before the dream fades to darkness, 
  you see the fallen angel leaning over to touch the body, a 
  dark glow spreading from her fingers to cover the paladin’s 
  still form – and the paladin’s eyes reopen, though his gaze 
  remains cold and lifeless.
  When the Dream Quest is over, Mad Maggie (or Lulu, 
  if she’s with the party) can help the characters interpret 
  the meaning of what they’ve seen: only those present 
  when Zariel fell knows where to find the Sword of 
  Zariel. Maggie can easily identify Asmodeus (the figure 
  on the throne), but focuses on the other three. She can 
  name Bel, the former Lord of Avernus, as the pit fiend 
  that cut off Zariel’s hand, while Lulu (or Gargauth, if 
  Lulu’s not present) can supply the names of the two 
  generals, Olanthius and Haruman. Unfortunately, 
  neither know where to find these ‘Fallen Three’.
  Finding﻿the﻿Fallen﻿Three
  To find the ‘Fallen Three’, the party will need to find 
  a very powerful spellcaster. At this point, you can 
  have Mad Maggie name all three ‘Intermediaries’ 
  (Mordenkainen, Red Ruth and Mephistopheles) as 
  NPCs that may be able to locate the ‘Fallen Three’. This 
  gives the party all their options from the start, at the 
  risk of feeling a bit too convenient.
  You can also choose to ration the information, having 
  Maggie say something along the lines of: “Hmm… I 
  might know someone who could help you. A distant 
  cousin of mine, Red Ruth, lives out by the Bone 
  Brambles. A darned good diviner that one – but a bit 
  loopy, if you ask me, heh!”
  If the party has the Shield of the Fallen Lord, you 
  can have Gargauth chime in: “Red Ruth is hardly the 
  only diviner in Avernus. The archwizard Mordenkainen 
  spends much of his time doing research in Avernus. 
  If anyone can help us find these generals, it would be 
  him. Plus, I’m getting tired of haggling with hags!” 
  Of course, Gargauth has ulterior motives – he hopes 
  that Mordenkainen has the power to release him from 
  his prison. If Gargauth isn’t with the party, you can 
  also have Lulu provide the rumor, or have a character 
  with proficiency in History or Arcana automatically 
  remember that the wizard Mordenkainen often 
  frequents Avernus.
  4
  
  ﻿
  To supply the characters with the third option, 
  you can have them run into some informative NPCs 
  shortly after leaving Fort Knucklebone. In our sample 
  structure, this would be the bounty hunters from the 
  ‘Infernal Bounty’-encounter, but it could also be the 
  Wandering Emporium, Smiler the Defiler, another 
  Warlord, or someone else. These NPCs can drop 
  information about the Mirror of Mephistar if the 
  characters mention that they need to find someone, are 
  looking for information, or just as a random passing 
  comment. Perhaps it was the Mirror of Mephistar that 
  informed the bounty hunters where to find the party 
  – “so if you need to find someone, well, that would be 
  my best bet” – or any mention of a powerful spellcaster 
  will make Mahadi, Smiler or a Warlord tell the party 
  that “there’s no spellcaster more powerful than 
  Mephistopheles – so that’s what I would recommend!”
  The﻿Intermediaries
  Below, we’ll quickly go over how to alter the three 
  encounter locations that constitute our ‘Intermediaries’: 
  Mordenkainen at the Tower of Urm, Red Ruth at 
  the Bone Brambles and Rigorath at the Mirror of 
  Mephistar.
  Mordenkainen﻿(Tower﻿of﻿Urm)
  You can run the encounter with Mordenkainen exactly 
  as it is described in the book, or the more elaborate 
  version from our DM’s resources for Baldur’s Gate: 
  Descent into Avernus, altering only the information 
  Mordenkainen gives the party. Instead of sending 
  the characters along to the Obelisk, Mordenkainen 
  asserts that he can easily find any of the ‘Fallen Three’ 
  (the location of the Bleeding Citadel itself, however, is 
  hidden even from him). Before the wizard will tell the 
  party anything, however, he wants them to retrieve a 
  pint of blood from a balor, a pit fiend, or a creature even 
  more powerful – an ingredient he often needs for his 
  arcane experiments. Mordenkainen has no idea where 
  to find such a creature, and won’t waste time helping 
  the party find out, instead sending them on their way to 
  find out on their own.
  Red﻿Ruth﻿at﻿the﻿Bone﻿Brambles
  Once again, you can run this encounter pretty much 
  as it is described in the book. After making their way 
  through the maze, Ruth asks the party to arrange and 
  pay for her pampering session at the Infernal Rapture 
  in the Wandering Emporium, and watch over her grove 
  while she’s away. When that whole deal has been 
  resolved, Ruth tells the party that she’ll help them with 
  the ritual, but that it will require blood from a creature 
  at least as powerful as a balor or a pit fiend. Her only 
  suggestions are Zariel and Bel, both of which are quite 
  unlikely, so once again the characters are on their own. 
  Mirror﻿of﻿Mephistar
  At the mirror of Mephistar, Rigorath informs the 
  party that Mephistopheles can help them ascertain 
  the location of any of the ‘Fallen Three’, but that he 
  requires a service in return. Like Mordenkainen, 
  Mephistopheles is always in need of powerful 
  blood for his arcane experiments, although his true 
  motivation for offering this quest is more nefarious. 
  Mephistopheles knows it will be hard for the party 
  to get the blood without somehow causing chaos in 
  Avernus – chaos that will harm Zariel and, thus, benefit 
  Mephistopheles. Once again, the adventurers are given 
  no directions, but told to find out on their own.
  Where﻿to﻿now?
  This is where we enter true sandbox-territory. The 
  characters know they have to find blood from a 
  powerful creature – but where can they learn more 
  about one of those?
  Literally anywhere you choose. You can have any 
  NPC they come across have information about Arkhan, 
  Uldrak, Ubbalux or Shummrath. They can learn about 
  them from Gargauth, Lulu, Mad Maggie, the yugoloths 
  outside Mordenkainen’s Tower, a random imp they 
  meet on the plains, or the other ‘Intermediaries’, if they 
  seek them out.
  However, this is also the perfect point to introduce 
  the Wandering Emporium, which we’ll describe in 
  more detail below.
  The﻿Wandering﻿Emporium
  The Wandering Emporium is a fun location, which 
  also works really well as a hub for information. You’ll 
  probably want to make sure that the characters find it 
  early, so they always have somewhere to return to when 
  they need more information, or are unsure about what 
  to do. So, how do we get them there?
  Getting﻿to﻿the﻿Wandering﻿Emporium
  Of course, the Wandering Emporium can just show up 
  right after the party has visited an Intermediary. But, 
  the party might also seek it out on their own (and this 
  can feel more rewarding) – below we’ll go over some 
  ways you can make that happen:
  • The pair of nycaloths from outside the Tower of Urm 
  ambush the characters after their visit at the tower, 
  and a surviving fiend surrenders and offers to aid the 
  characters, leading them to the Wandering Emporium.
  • The characters ask Gargauth where they can find 
  blood from a powerful creature – and though he doesn’t 
  know, he can suggest that Mahadi from the Wandering 
  Emporium might know.
  • The party asks Lulu, who doesn’t know, but vaguely 
  remembers a caravan filled with all manners of exotic 
  and powerful creatures: the Wandering Emporium.
  The party might also go to one of the other 
  ‘Intermediaries’ in search of a powerful creature. In all 
  three cases, the party learns something from the NPC, 
  but has to go to the Wandering Emporium first – where 
  they can learn even more, if they think to ask:
  • To Red Ruth, who now can’t help them find the ‘Fallen 
  Three’, but can tell the party about Ubbalux – a balor 
  in disguise – if they secure her a spa treatment at the 
  Infernal Rapture at the Wandering Emporium.
  • To Mordenkainen, who can inform the party about 
  Uldrak, if they first pick up some demon ichor for him 
  from Ichor’s Aweigh at the Wandering Emporium.
  • To the Mirror of Mephistar, where Rigorath can tell 
  the party about Arkhan and the blood of Tiamat, if the 
  characters fetch some yugoloth larvae from Zneth’s 
  Larvae Farm at the Wandering Emporium.
  If you want to make finding the Wandering Emporium 
  a bit more convenient and less random, you can have 
  NPCs – or Mahadi himself, after their first visit – 
  give the characters a Wandering Coin. If thrown on 
  the ground, this dented, rust-colored coin, showing 
  Mahadi’s grinning face on one side and a tiger’s paw 
  on the other, begins rolling along on its side 10 feet in 
  front of whoever threw it, unerringly leading the way to 
  wherever the Wandering Emporium is at that moment.
  5
  
  ﻿
  The﻿Emporium﻿as﻿an﻿Information﻿Hub
  So, how do we give the party information at the 
  Wandering Emporium?
  We can assume that the party will first ask Mahadi, 
  who can – at your discretion – know as much or as 
  little as you’d like. I have found that it works best if 
  Mahadi doesn’t know much himself, but freely names 
  the various NPCs in the emporium, many of which will 
  be able to help. This allows the players more agency 
  in finding out information, instead of just getting 
  everything from one source.
  The following NPCs can help the party find a 
  powerful creature’s blood:
  • Rassh, Skidds & Slagg at the Firesnake Forge know 
  that Bel (their former employer) has imprisoned a pit 
  fiend named Shummrath in a crevice near the River 
  Styx. They can also sell the party Shattersticks to help 
  free Shummrath.
  • Burney the Barber knows that Arkhan carries 
  Tiamat’s blood in a vial around his neck, and freely 
  points the party to Arkhan’s Tower in the hopes that the 
  adventurers will kill Arkhan, or at least hinder Arkhan’s 
  plans to free Tiamat.
  • Elliach at Ichor’s Aweigh knows that Ubbalux – 
  seemingly a wizard imprisoned by an obelisk – is in fact 
  a balor, and can point the party to the Obelisk.
  • Fhet’ahla knows about Uldrak – his imps have told 
  him about a spined devil who insists that it is in fact an 
  empyrean, hanging out near a gargantuan sword and 
  helmet on the plains of Avernus.
  The point here isn’t that the characters need to discover 
  all four options, but that it should be relatively easy 
  for them to do so, if they put in just a little effort. They 
  might only learn about one, and just go for that option – 
  and as long as they know that more options likely would 
  have been available, if they had asked around more, 
  then that’s perfectly fine. Remember also, it’s always up 
  to you which of the options you want to emphasize or 
  withhold, if there’s any options you particularly like or 
  dislike.
  Blood﻿Pay
  The next leg of the characters’ journey leads them 
  to either Arkhan (Arkhan’s Tower), Uldrak (Uldrak’s 
  Grave), Ubbalux (Obelisk), or Shummrath (Pit of 
  Shummrath), where they can recover a pint of blood for 
  the ‘Intermediary’ of their choice. Below we’ll go over 
  how to make each of these encounters/locations fit the 
  new structure.
  Arkhan's﻿Tower﻿&﻿Monument﻿to﻿Tiamat
  The characters’ arrival at Arkhan’s Tower can be 
  handled exactly as described in the book, except that 
  the characters won’t have an Orb of Dragonkind to 
  trade. After being led to the Monument to Tiamat by 
  Krull, the characters will have to – as in the book – 
  trade or fight with Arkhan to obtain Tiamat’s Blood.
  Arkhan offers his deal – the sacrifice of a good-
  aligned creature for a vial of the dragon queen’s blood. 
  Once again, Lulu is an ideal candidate, but characters 
  who ask around with NPCs they’ve already met – one 
  of the ‘Intermediaries’, someone at the Wandering 
  Emporium, etc. – can also learn about Mooncolor at the 
  Demon Zapper or Krikendolt at the Spawning Trees, 
  both of which meet the criteria. Or, as adventurers are 
  wont to do, they may go toe-to-toe with Arkhan and his 
  followers in an epic battle instead, and hopefully live to 
  tell the tale (we have some notes about handling that 
  battle in our DM’s resources for Chapter 3: Avernus).
  Uldrak's﻿Grave
  Uldrak is an empyrean, who ventured into Avernus to 
  slay Tiamat, but was defeated and transformed into a 
  lowly spined devil by the dragon queen – a form he has 
  now held for millennia.
  In the book, Uldrak must spill the blood of Tiamat 
  on the ground of Avernus to break the curse – and 
  tells the party as much, while showing them the Orb of 
  Dragonkind that sits in the pommel of his giant sword, 
  in the hope that they will trade the orb for the vial of 
  Tiamat’s blood Arkhan the Cruel carries around his 
  neck.
  Because the party is already out for powerful blood, 
  we don’t want Tiamat’s blood to be the way to break 
  Uldrak’s curse. Instead, Uldrak must slay a dragon for 
  the curse to be broken – a solution chosen by Tiamat to 
  cruelly mock the empyrean’s new, puny form. However, 
  with the party’s help, slaying a dragon might not be 
  all that impossible. In fact, Uldrak even knows where 
  to find a dragon: there’s several of them by Arkhan’s 
  Tower, a five-spired monstrosity not far from Uldrak’s 
  Grave.
  If the characters go to Arkhan’s Tower intending to 
  slay a dragon, it’s likely they’ll get into a fight with Krull 
  and the dragons at the tower. If they face everything 
  at once, this fight is extremely dangerous, so you may 
  want to split things up a bit, having the party face Krull, 
  the dragon Obatala and his ghouls, or Krull and the 
  four young/wyrmling dragons residing in the tower. 
  To break the curse, Uldrak simply has to participate in 
  the killing of the dragon. If the transformed empyrean 
  dies in the process – well, the party will have to go 
  somewhere else for the blood they’re after.
  Obelisk
  At the obelisk, the party finds a trapped demon 
  disguised as a wizard, who first makes them perform 
  an arcane ritual before eventually revealing its true 
  identity and sending the party toward Mephistopheles 
  at the Mirror of Mephistar.
  You can run this encounter pretty much as it is, 
  changing only two things: Ubbalux is a balor, not a 
  barlgura, and it doesn’t point them to Mephistopheles at 
  the end of the encounter.
  Ubbalux is a balor (instead of a barlgura) both 
  because it makes more sense, but also because the 
  party needs to find a powerful creature, and not just any 
  old demon. And because the party might have already 
  been by Mephistopheles, we don’t want the archfiend to 
  be the solution to Ubbalux’ predicament.
  Instead, Bel has made the way to free the balor so 
  difficult, it might as well be impossible: to break the 
  obelisk’s hold on Ubbalux, another creature has to 
  willingly and without coercion take the demon’s place 
  in the prison – while being fully aware that this means 
  being trapped for eternity (or until another creature 
  willingly takes their place).
  Since self-sacrifice and selflessness are some of the 
  rarest commodities in Avernus, Ubbalux has all but 
  given up on being freed this way. However, if the party 
  asks around (likely informants could be Ellioch at 
  Ichor’s Aweigh, Smiler the Defiler, or other NPCs who 
  travel a lot or deals with demons), they can eventually 
  learn about a bearded devil out by the Spawning Trees, 
  who’s recently become very soft-hearted. Or, you can 
  6
  
  ﻿
  also just have the party find the Spawning Trees by 
  pure chance and realize the opportunity for themselves.
  Regardless of how they arrive at the Spawning 
  Trees, they can here save Krikendolt from his bullying 
  comrades, and easily convince the devil to give his own 
  freedom up to free Ubbalux (“it’s just sooo sad that he 
  has been imprisoned for so long, unable to go home. Of 
  course, I’ll take his place!”). If you want to top off the 
  ordeal with an encounter, you can have a weakened 
  Ubbalux – a balor with four levels of exhaustion – 
  immediately take his pent-up rage out on the party, 
  instead of upholding his end of the bargain!
  If the characters can’t convince anyone to take the 
  balor’s place, or fail to extract the blood from the freed 
  Ubbalux, they will have the other options waiting for 
  them.
  Shummrath's﻿Pit
  This encounter can run just like in the book (with the 
  salamanders in the Wandering Emporium providing 
  the Shattersticks instead of Mephistopheles) up until 
  the point where the river’s flow is dammed. After 
  damming the River Styx, the party will have to wait 
  around for about 24 hours, as Shummrath reforms 
  enough for them to harvest its blood. To add an 
  encounter at the end, you can have the weakened, but 
  now sentient, pit fiend put up a fight. Even with four 
  levels of exhaustion (disadvantage on everything, speed 
  and hit points halved), the pit fiend should still present a 
  decent challenge for the party.
  Paying﻿with﻿Blood
  When the characters return with a flask of blood for 
  their intermediary of choice, they can finally learn the 
  location of one of the ‘Fallen Three’:
  • Mordenkainen’s simulacrum closes his eyes for a 
  brief second, accessing the memories of his main form, 
  before swiftly (and impatiently) relaying the location of 
  the Fallen Three.
  • Red Ruth brews a stinking concoction with the blood, 
  inhaling the fumes as she sends her consciousness 
  flying across the vast plains of Avernus to seek out the 
  Fallen Three.
  • Rigorath, Mephistopheles’ cambion, disappears 
  into the portal for a few hours, and reappears 
  unceremoniously to give the party their answer.
  Now, it’s up to you whether Red Ruth, Mordenkainen or 
  Mephistopheles can provide the party will the locations 
  of all three fallen NPCs, or only one of them – but no 
  matter what, it should be the characters themselves 
  that get to decide which one they will seek out.
  Smiler﻿the﻿Defiler
  Somewhere during ‘Blood Pay’ or soon after, our 
  structure calls for another travel encounter. Here we 
  have chosen Smiler the Defiler, but once again, you 
  can use any travel encounter you’d like. The purpose 
  of this encounter is to supply the party with additional 
  guidance and information – if they need it – but also to 
  make Avernus feel alive and exciting by breaking up the 
  monotony of travel.
  When using Smiler the Defiler, we do so using our 
  own published adventure Bitter Rivals, which has 
  Smiler beseeching the party to help him get vengeance 
  on Bitter Breath and his hobgoblin marauders. 
  This encounter gives the party a nice, hardy combat 
  challenge and an opportunity to flex their infernal war 
  machines. You don’t have to use that adventure, of 
  course, there’s a hundred different ways you can have 
  Smiler show up to interact with the party.
  As mentioned above, Smiler can also serve as a 
  conduit for information if the characters are unsure 
  about where to go next during their search for a 
  powerful creature’s blood. A traveling soul is likely to 
  know much about Avernus – where to find a fiend dumb 
  enough to give themselves up to release Ubbalux, how 
  to find an innocent creature to sacrifice to Arkhan, 
  where to locate a dragon to end Uldrak’s curse, or 
  where to find explosives potent enough to dam the 
  River Styx.
  Fallen﻿Three
  In the final part of Chapter 3, the party heads toward 
  one of the Fallen Three: Bel, Olanthius, or Haruman to 
  finally discover the location of the Bleeding Citadel.
  Bel's﻿Forge
  You can run the encounter with Bel exactly as it is in 
  the book, only cutting out the Sibriex – or keeping it in, 
  if you like it, it won’t matter if the party never seeks out 
  Haruman – and perhaps adding the Arches of Ulloch 
  as the key to finding the Bleeding Citadel, if you want 
  to run that encounter as well (more on that below). 
  Everything else remains the same: the characters are 
  accosted by devils outside of the forge and attacked 
  by fire giants within, before they can finally strike a 
  telepathic deal with Bel to find the adamantine rods in 
  the Wrecked Flying Fortress in return for the location 
  of the Bleeding Citadel.
  Haruman's﻿Hill
  The encounter at Haruman’s Hill can also be run 
  much as it is in the book, and you can even include the 
  Hellwasp Nest if you want to beef up the fight a bit. 
  Regardless of the circumstances, Haruman fights to 
  the bitter end, not allowing himself to be taken alive.
  When Haruman is destroyed, his fiendish form shifts 
  back into that of a human paladin – greyed, bloodied 
  and broken. If the characters try to speak with the 
  corpse, all they get is dead silence – no soul resides 
  within Haruman’s broken form.
  At this point, you can have Jander Sunstar chime 
  in, saying that he knows that there are ways to extract 
  memories from even a soulless body. Perhaps he even 
  knows of a creature wielding such powers – a sibriex 
  – which he’s seen travelling through Avernus. It’s up 
  to you whether Jander also knows where the sibriex is, 
  or if the characters will have to find out through other 
  means (causing them to revisit other NPCs).
  Alternatively, you can leave the characters with no 
  information and see what they do – maybe they seek 
  out another of the Fallen Three, or take the body with 
  them and try to find some way to reach its memories 
  (perhaps Red Ruth, Mordenkainen or Mephistopheles 
  can extract information from the corpse in return for 
  more blood!).
  If the characters do seek out the sibriex, this 
  encounter runs pretty much as in the book, except it 
  is Haruman’s memories and not the location of the 
  adamantine rods, that the party is after. The sibriex 
  can, by devouring the body of Haruman, relay the 
  location of the Bleeding Citadel to the characters, but 
  will only do so if they free it first.
  7
  
  ﻿
  Crypt﻿of﻿the﻿Hellriders
  You can run this location exactly as it is in the book, 
  except switching around the Arches of Ulloch and the 
  freeing of Kostchtchie, if you want to use the Arches as 
  the only way to reach the Bleeding Citadel (as described 
  below). The encounter with Olanthius otherwise 
  requires no changes.
  Introducing more of the Fallen Three
  Allowing the characters to interact with the figures from the 
  story – Haruman, Olanthius, Bel, Yael, Zariel – is what really 
  makes it come to life. In the structure above, the characters 
  will end up meeting only one of either Bel, Haruman and 
  Olanthius – instead of at least two (Haruman plus either Bel 
  or Olanthius) as the original structure does. If you want your 
  party to meet at least two of the fallen three, you can do it by 
  having the first Fallen Three lead to one of the other, either 
  by making them a dead-end, or by otherwise involving them 
  in the encounter. It could look something like this:
  • After releasing Kostchtchie for Olanthius, the party returns 
  to find that the death knight has been destroyed. Ghosts 
  at the Crypt of the Hellriders can inform them that it was 
  a legion of devils led by Haruman who did the dark deed, 
  and the party must now find Haruman (or Bel) instead.
  • After destroying Haruman, Jander Sunstar doesn’t relay 
  information about a sibriex, but instead tells the party 
  about the animosity between Zariel’s two former generals 
  and suggests they seek out Olanthius instead.
  • After the party has recovered the control rods from the 
  Wrecked Flying Fortress, Bel still hesitates, demanding 
  that they also destroy Haruman, Zariel’s most loyal 
  follower, before he dares divulge the location of the 
  Bleeding Citadel.
  In addition, you can also include one of the three NPCs in 
  the final showdown with Zariel. We’ve written a bit more 
  about this in our DM’s Resources for Chapter 5: Escape 
  from Avernus, but to briefly summarize, you can have 
  Olanthius show up to aid the party against Zariel, have 
  Haruman show up to aid Zariel (not that she particularly 
  needs it) against the party, or have Bel show up to attack 
  a redeemed (but weakened) Zariel, requiring the party to 
  defend her. 
  Arches﻿of﻿Ulloch
  I personally find that the Arches of Ulloch is a pretty 
  dull encounter, as it is used in the campaign book. A 
  teleportation portal serves little purpose in a place 
  where distance and time is already abstract – unless, of 
  course, we decide that the Arches of Ulloch is the only 
  way to reach the Bleeding Citadel.
  This makes sense if Asmodeus has hidden away the 
  Bleeding Citadel with powerful magic in an attempt to 
  ensure that no creature – Zariel least of all – can find 
  the sword. The only way to reach it from Avernus itself 
  (the demons scouring through the citadel have arrived 
  through their own magical means) is through the 
  Arches of Ulloch.
  In our DM’s resources for Chapter 3: Avernus we’ve 
  written up an extensive encounter for the Arches of 
  Ulloch, which has the place guarded by an infernal 
  androsphinx, but you can choose any guardian you 
  like, such as a young red shadow dragon, a battalion 
  of yugoloths, or something else you find fitting. The 
  point of the Arches of Ulloch is to challenge the party 
  a bit before they move on from chapter 3, and to give a 
  logical explanation for why the Bleeding Citadel is so 
  damned hard to find!
  Part﻿3:﻿Extra﻿Advice
  In this post we’ll talk a bit about how to implement the 
  structure for making Avernus into a sandbox that we’ve 
  covered in part 1 and part 2 of this series (if you haven’t 
  already, you really should read those before jumping 
  into this one!). This includes both general and specific 
  advice about running an open adventure, as well as 
  troubleshooting for certain problems that may arise 
  along the way.
  Because not everything here is relevant for every DM, 
  here’s a list of section headlines so you can seek out 
  what interests you:
  • Manage Player Expectations (preparing your players 
  for a sandbox-style-game).
  • Keeping Players on Track (making sure your players 
  can keep up and stay on task)
  • Keeping Yourself on Track (how to run and prepare a 
  more open chapter 3)
  • Pacing Chapter 3 (how to control the overall pace of 
  the chapter)
  • Pacing the Adventuring Day (how to control the 
  length of each adventuring day, so the chapter stays 
  exciting and challenging)
  Manage﻿Player﻿Expectations
  When running an open(ish) adventure, it’s usually never 
  a bad idea to tell the players up front what is expected 
  of them. This is especially true for the Descent into 
  Avernus-campaign, where the characters will likely 
  have been travelling more or less on rails through 
  chapters 1 and 2, before we suddenly begin demanding 
  that they figure stuff out on their own as they come into 
  Chapter 3. 
  A good time to do this – manage your players’ 
  expectations, as well as tell them what is expected of 
  them – is after the Dream Quest at Fort Knucklebone. 
  You can simply let your players know that they will now 
  be entering into a more ‘open’ part of the campaign, 
  where there will be multiple ways to proceed forward, 
  and that they should no longer worry about what the 
  ‘story expects them to do’ or ‘what they’re meant to do’. 
  They have to stand on their own legs now, and trust that 
  answers will be available to them, if they just remember 
  to ask questions.
  Keeping﻿Players﻿on﻿Track
  When running adventures that are less linear, it 
  becomes increasingly important for everyone to keep 
  track of what is happening. Some players – and entire 
  groups – are very good at this, while others have a 
  harder time staying on task when everything is open 
  and free.
  You can help your players stay on track by taking 
  time at the beginning of each session to remind the 
  party what they’re doing and why (unless they’re having 
  tons of fun being off-track, in which case you should 
  probably just roll with that!), by simply reminding them 
  that they’re “looking for Olanthius, Haruman or Bel, 
  who can help you find the Sword of Zariel, which is 
  supposed to be the key to freeing Elturel”.
  If at any point your players seem lost or frustrated, 
  travel encounters are ofte your best tools to get them 
  back on track. The Wandering Emporium, which 
  serves as a hub for NPCs who can carry all manner of 
  information, is particularly well-suited for this, and can 
  show up at any time you want it to. 
  8
  
  ﻿
  Remember though, that the whole point of a sandbox 
  is to foster player agency and creativity, so if your 
  players suddenly become enamored with a particular 
  path you haven’t planned for, try to see if it’s something 
  you can work with. If the players – as an example – 
  decide to seek out Asmodeus, because they think he’ll 
  be able to help them find the sword, your immediate 
  reaction may be to have Mad Maggie go “uh, no, bad 
  idea”, but maybe you can work with it? Perhaps the 
  Intermediary becomes a means of introduction in this 
  case – someone who can get a message through to 
  the Supreme Lord of the Nine Hells – and an intense 
  encounter with a bemused Asmodeus substitutes an 
  encounter with another of the Fallen Three. Building on 
  player ideas is always better than shutting them down!
  Finally, if your players seem to be responding badly 
  to having too many choices – they become frustrated, 
  meandering, demotivated – don’t be afraid to reign 
  things in and put them back on the rails (i.e. having 
  NPCs strongly suggest one option, or simply cut some 
  of the options out) – that just might be the way your 
  group prefers to play.
  Keeping﻿Yourself﻿on﻿Track
  It’s not just the players who have to stay on track – it’s 
  also you! As the story opens up, you are required to 
  keep track of more encounters and locations, because 
  you have to be ready for whatever the players decide to 
  do next. And, to make things even harder, you’ll now 
  also have to both consult the campaign book and the 
  information here!?
  Relax, breathe! Remember that chapter 3 will 
  probably span something like 5 to 15 sessions of play. 
  You will have months to figure everything out. To begin 
  with, all you need to do is have a basic understanding 
  of the chapter’s structure, and be prepared for the next 
  3-4 hours of play.
  To address the first point, it may help you to 
  remember the following, very abbreviated general 
  structure of the sandbox:
  • Fort Knucklebone. At Fort Knucklebone, the party 
  learns that they must find one of the Fallen Three, Bel, 
  Olanthius and Haruman.
  • Intermediaries. Soon after, they learn that three 
  Intermediaries can guide them along: Mordenkainen, 
  Red Ruth and Mephistopheles.
  • Blood Pay. To get aid from an Intermediary, they 
  must find blood from a powerful creature (Arkhan, 
  Ubbalux, Uldrak or Shummrath).
  • Fallen Three. When they find the Fallen Three, 
  they’ll perform a simple task to gain the information, 
  and are then told how to find the Bleeding Citadel.
  That’s more or less all there is to it! Now, all you need 
  to do is keep track of the basic structure, and stay one 
  step ahead of the party at all times. If they’re dealing 
  with the Intermediaries, look ahead to the Blood Pay-
  section and understand the encounters there, and so 
  on.
  Having a rough idea of your party’s intentions will 
  also help you. At the end of each session, try to gauge 
  where the players are likely to go next. Prepare that/
  those location(s), make a note of what information 
  they’ll find there, and you’re more than likely fine for the 
  next session. Remember, depending on your group’s 
  style, you’re always allowed to ask the party in-between 
  sessions if they have decided where to go next, so you 
  know what you should be preparing for.
  Lastly, remember that, unlike most of the creatures 
  they control, a DM is only human. If you suddenly find 
  yourself treading water, become unsure about what 
  to do next, or get entirely in over your head, call for a 
  break or end the session early, get yourself back on 
  track and pick it back up later. That’s always an option 
  – and never something to be ashamed of. We’ve all been 
  there!
  Pacing﻿Chapter﻿3
  Another question that can arise has to do with the 
  pacing of the chapter – in particular, the fact that the 
  players are supposed to go from 7th to 11th level during 
  Chapter 3. Will the characters just blow through these 
  levels in no time, making the chapter feel incredibly 
  fast – and does the sandbox-structure do anything to 
  mitigate this?
  If I’m being perfectly honest – which I try to be – the 
  sandbox-like structure we’ve put out here probably 
  improves the pacing slightly, but does not completely 
  slow down the relatively fast pace of Chapter 3: 
  Avernus, as it is written in the campaign book.
  Before you start to work on the chapter’s pace, 
  however, you should first decide whether it’s really an 
  issue or not. If you have a talkative, RPG-heavy-group, 
  that loves to visit new locations, revisit old locations, 
  speak at length with every NPC, and constantly gets 
  sidetracked, then it probably won’t feel that fast at 
  all, since Avernus has plenty of locations and NPCs 
  to engage with. Hell, even if you have hyper-focused, 
  combat-excited players, who gloss over the talky bits 
  so they can get to the action, a fast pace may not be an 
  issue, simply because they’ll enjoy getting their levels 
  fast, so they can become even more powerful and 
  awesome.
  However, if you fall somewhere in between, and want 
  the party to cover more ground before they get their 
  levels and can move on with the story, there are several 
  tools at your disposal – most of which require only 
  minimal alterations to the structure. Here’s a few ideas 
  on how you can slow down the pace of Chapter 3:
  • Use more travel encounters. This one is obvious, 
  and fairly easy to implement. There should be at least 
  a handful of encounters that will end up left unused, 
  depending on where your players go and what they do 
  – if you want the chapter to feel longer, simply let them 
  stumble upon these along the way.
  • More Blood Pay. Having the party perform an 
  additional Blood Pay-quest should extend the chapter 
  by at least a few sessions. Perhaps the first attempt is 
  a dead end – Arkhan disappears with Tiamat’s blood, 
  Ubbalux/Shummrath escape before the party gets 
  their blood, or Uldrak is killed before his curse can be 
  broken – and the party will have to find an alternate 
  ‘donor’.
  • A Dead End. The Fallen Three can also become 
  dead-ends (as suggested under ‘Telling the Story’ 
  above), requiring the characters to find another of the 
  Fallen Three to progress  – and perhaps even sending 
  them all the way back to find more blood first! 
  9
  
  ﻿
  Pacing﻿the﻿Adventuring﻿Day
  An equally important pacing issue – perhaps even more 
  important – has to do with the pacing of individual 
  adventuring days during Chapter 3.
  At the end of a good adventuring day, the characters 
  should be drained of nearly all resources, on the 
  brink of collapse, and a few near-death experiences 
  richer. To accomplish this, we must fill each ‘active’ 
  adventuring day (i.e. days not spent in fast-travel, or 
  doing simple tasks like shopping/resting/etc.) with 
  enough exploration and combat encounters to actually 
  challenge the characters – before they get the chance to 
  take another long rest and ‘reset’.
  Here’s an example of the adventuring days your 
  players might have during Chapter 3 using the sandbox-
  structure (this will vary greatly depending on player 
  choice, so use this only as an example!):
  Adventuring﻿Day﻿1
  • Fort Knucklebone encounters
  • Infernal Bounty-encounter
  • Nycaloth-encounter after speaking with 
  Mordenkainen
  • Wandering Emporium
  Adventuring﻿Day﻿2
  • Arkhan’s Tower Encounter (brief fight with young 
  dragons/wyrmling dragons)
  • Monument to Tiamat (fight with Arkhan + entourage)
  Adventuring﻿Day﻿3
  • Smiler the Defiler (Bitter Rivals-adventure)
  Adventuring﻿Day﻿4
  • Haruman’s Hill
  • Sibriex
  • Hellwasp Nest
  • Arches of Ulloch
  As you’ll notice, this also coincides with when the 
  characters are intended to level, i.e. the characters gain 
  a level after completing each adventuring day. If you 
  think that’s awfully fast, you’re not wrong (see Pacing 
  Chaper 3 above!), but remember that between these 
  adventuring days, there will likely be whole days spent 
  behind the wheel of an infernal war machine, shopping 
  at the Wandering Emporium, or having meaningful 
  philosophical discussions with unicorns and devils.
  The more important question is, how do we ensure 
  that the characters don’t break the pacing of these 
  adventuring days? If we allow the party to rest 
  in-between encounters, they can effectively split the 
  adventuring days into pieces, making one exciting, 
  challenging adventuring day, into two easy, boring 
  adventuring days. And that’s not fun for anyone.
  In Chapter 3, we run the risk of having many of 
  these very low-intensity adventuring days, because the 
  characters will often be travelling between encounters, 
  giving them ample opportunity to  set up camp, roll 
  out bedrolls and hunker down for some good shut-
  eye. We’ve already written a bit about this in our DM’s 
  resources for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, but I 
  think it’s important enough to repeat here: if we want a 
  chapter with this much travel to be exciting, we have to 
  shape the adventuring day to fit our needs.
  Luckily, because Avernus is such a fantastical and 
  otherworldly location, we can control both travel 
  distances and rests even more than we usually can.
  Shorten﻿Travel﻿Times
  We can keep each adventuring day exciting by 
  lumping encounters together. We do this making 
  travel distances between combat encounters be very 
  short, right until the party needs a long rest. That 
  means handling Fort Knucklebone in the morning, 
  running into infernal bounty hunters in the afternoon, 
  and battling nycaloths in the evening. No rest for the 
  wicked! 
  While this strategy can certainly be effective, it can 
  also make the chapter’s pace feel a bit funky – several 
  days of ‘nothing really happens’ interspersed with a few 
  days of high intensity, where travel times are suddenly 
  super-short. Additionally, the party can always overrule 
  this by simply setting camp early or taking a long rest 
  in the middle of the day.
  Controlling﻿Rests
  My preferred method for keeping the pace of 
  adventuring days in Chapter 3: Avernus is to make 
  it harder for the party to rest. Because Avernus is 
  such an awful place, with threats constantly looming, 
  insufferable heat, and loud fireballs exploding 
  everywhere, the characters simply can’t get the 
  restorative benefits of a long rest (regaining hit points, 
  hit dice, spell slots, abilities) unless they’re sleeping in 
  a safe location, of which there are very few in Avernus 
  (Note: You’ll have to ban the spell Leomund’s Tiny Hut, 
  if a character has access to that!). By doing this, we can 
  have several days of travel between locations – thus 
  extending the adventuring day – without ruining the 
  pace of each adventuring day.
  In our example from above, the characters would 
  be able to rest at the Wandering Emporium after 
  visiting Mordenkainen, can rest in Arkhan’s camp after 
  defeating him and his forces, can rest in the Marauders’ 
  War Camp after clearing it with Smiler the Defiler, and 
  set up camp in a more gentle, secluded area of Avernus 
  after travelling through the Arches of Ulloch to the 
  Bleeding Citadel. 
  This approach gives you more-or-less complete 
  control of when long rests happen. Want to push the 
  party a bit further before they rest? Don’t give them any 
  safe spot to set up camp. Running low on resources 
  right before you know a big fight is coming? Oh, lo and 
  behold if it isn’t Mahadi and his Wandering Emporium 
  ahead!
  Conclusion
  We hope the above advice and suggestions can help 
  you make your Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus-
  campaign as awesome as possible. Remember, you’re 
  allowed to pick-and-choose from the content as much as 
  you want, so use only what you like, and discard what 
  you don’t. Your game, your rules!
  Have fun in Hell!
  J. A. Valeur
  10
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/Adventures/Eventyr/Complete DM's Bundle - Baldur's Gate - Descent into Avernus/Avernus as a Sandbox.pdf