# Descent into Avernus *9 Sessions · The Fall of Elturel* --- *A city of one hundred thousand souls does not simply vanish. There are reasons, and those reasons have names, and those names are carved into the walls of Hell in letters of fire. What began in the shadow of a diplomatic summit has become something far uglier: a conspiracy reaching from the foundations of Baldur's Gate to the throne of Avernus itself. Nine heroes — and one small golden elephant — are the only ones asking the right questions.* [[Avernus 1 - The Last Light of Elturel|Start Reading →]] --- ## The Story So Far ### Act One: The Last Light *Sessions 1–5* The campaign opened with a routine call to action: cultists of the Dead Three were conducting ritual sacrifices in the Woods of Sharp Teeth. The heroes responded, rescued the Stoutfoot family from the Iron Consul's rites, and destroyed a Death Knight attempting resurrection. A clean victory. Then Elturel fell. The Companion — the celestial sun that had protected the holy city for fifty years — flickered once, turned a sickly purple-green, and then massive chains erupted from the earth and dragged the entire city into an abyss. Forty thousand souls. Gone. Only a crater and a screaming horizon remained. The heroes fled south with a wave of refugees, picking up loose threads as they went: a sixteen-year-old boy named Jorik Thornwick was found murdered on the road, his death staged to look like a gnoll attack. A list fell from the pocket of their escort, Sir Tarquin Belmont — a man whose suspicious absence from Elturel during its fall suddenly carried new weight. The list named targets: Docktor, Jorik, Reya Mantlemorn. All tied to the Hellriders. The truth came out under interrogation. Tarquin was a cultist of Zariel, operating on orders from a man called Aetan Morrow, hunting descendants of the Creed Resolute. Rick executed him. His body erupted in infernal fire. His soul went straight to Hell to be remade as a devil — and somewhere in Avernus, an archdevil smiled. ### Act Two: The Vanthampur Web *Sessions 6–9* Baldur's Gate received the refugees with the warmth one might expect of a city that profits from crisis. Duke Thalamra Vanthampur was already moving: controlling the refugee quarter, manipulating the press, positioning herself to absorb the Flaming Fist's leaderless power in Grand Duke Ravengard's absence. The heroes infiltrated a masked revel at the home of patriar Nysene Eomane — and walked into a trap. The elegant tailors who dressed them were succubi. The evening ended with every hero unconscious and the party barely escaping through Baldur's Gate's criminal underbelly. They crawled out with bruises, a new enemy, and an infernal ledger full of blackmail files on the city's elite. Those files traced directly to Amrik Vanthampur at the Low Lantern — Thalamra's charming, dangerous son — and to the Frolicking Nymph bathhouse. The conspiracy runs deeper than any one duke. In the Elfsong Tavern, a ghost materialized and sang specifically to Docktor. The song became a vision: the original Hellriders fleeing Avernus, Zariel cutting down a knight named Corwin, and Lulu — *their* Lulu — pulling him through a portal to safety. Except Lulu has no memory of this. Whether that means prophecy, or something stranger about her nature, no one knows yet. The heroes have a ledger. They have allies in Duke Portyr, in the Guild's cautious neutrality, in a city that doesn't yet know how badly it's been betrayed. And somewhere in Baldur's Gate, Aetan Morrow is still walking free. *Elturel has nine days before permanent chains bind it to Avernus forever.* --- ## Key Developments 1. **The Fall of Elturel** — The holy city of one hundred thousand was dragged into Avernus by Zariel's chains, ending fifty years of the Companion's protection and triggering a citywide refugee crisis. 2. **The Tarquin Conspiracy** — A Hellrider turned Zariel cultist was hunting descendants of the Creed Resolute on orders from Aetan Morrow. His soul was claimed by Zariel upon death. 3. **Jorik Thornwick** — A sixteen-year-old boy was murdered by Tarquin before the heroes could save him. His father Corwin was a Hellrider who appears in Docktor's vision — cut down by Zariel in Avernus. 4. **The Vanthampur Network** — Duke Thalamra Vanthampur is using the Elturel crisis to consolidate power over Baldur's Gate, operating through succubi, assassins, and media manipulation. 5. **The Succubi Trap** — The Paltara siblings — fashionable tailors and infernal spies — ambushed the party at Eomane House. Veldan was destroyed; Viresse's location is unknown. 6. **The Infernal Ledger** — Recovered from the succubi's shop, the ledger contains blackmail files on Baldur's Gate's most powerful families, with direct ties to Thalamra Vanthampur. 7. **Docktor's Vision** — The ghost of the Elfsong Tavern triggered a vision of the original Hellriders' retreat from Avernus, showing Lulu pulling Docktor through a portal — something she has no memory of doing. --- ## Dramatis Personae ### The Heroes | Hero | Role | |------|------| | [[Cassian]] | Bard and nobleman; politically astute, smooth-tongued, with Lords' Alliance credentials and a complicated connection to the Vanthampur family | | [[Char]] | Rogue with a bounty hunter's eye and Harper connections; the party's strategic mind | | [[Docktor]] | Cleric of Selûne and sworn follower of the Hellriders' codes; recipient of the ghost's vision; haunted by what it means | | [[Kial]] | A steady hand and loyal companion in the chaos of the fall | | [[Lulu]] | A hollyphant — a small golden celestial elephant with a trumpet blast that banishes devils and a smile that's won half of Baldur's Gate. Becoming something of a legend. Has no memory of pulling Docktor through a portal in Avernus | | [[Mon]] | Reliable, watchful; one of the first to notice that things were not right at Elturel | | [[Rick]] | Barbarian and native son of Baldur's Gate; executed Tarquin with his own hands; driven by grief for Jorik Thornwick and fury at what was done to his city | | [[Rowan]] | Goliath sworn to the Emerald Enclave; befriends creatures others overlook, including a badger named Thistle | ### Allies | Name | Role | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [[Reya Mantlemorn]] | Young Hellrider, barely eighteen, who watched Elturel fall from a distance. Bound by the Creed Resolute and disillusioned with the Church, she is perhaps the truest Hellrider left alive | | Duke [[Dillard Portyr]] | The one honest man on Baldur's Gate's Council of Four. Horrified by Thalamra's schemes; quietly backing the heroes through the Baldurian Benevolent Business Association | | [[Ludo Vance]] | A Guild cutout at the Elfsong Tavern with a card sharp's face and a city spy's knowledge; not an ally exactly, but a shared enemy makes for useful conversation | ### Enemies & Powers | Name | Role | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [[Thalamra Vanthampur]] | Ruthless Duke of Baldur's Gate; architect of the city's coming crisis; connected to the Zariel conspiracy through sources the heroes are still untangling | | [[Amrik Vanthampur]] | Thalamra's charming, dangerous son; runs a moneylending operation out of the Low Lantern, squeezing desperate people dry | | Aetan Morrow | The man who gave Tarquin his orders. Still in the city. Still hunting | | [[Tarquin Belmont]] | A Hellrider consumed by guilt and remade by Zariel. Executed; his soul claimed. He is a devil now | | [[Thavius Kreeg]] | The High Observer of Elturel who was not in the city when it fell. His orders referenced *"the day that was promised."* | | Zariel | Archduchess of Avernus; former angel who fell into damnation; pulled Elturel and its forty thousand souls into her domain. She remembers the Hellriders. She remembers Corwin |