A campaign set in Baator

[paladinofshojo]

Hey there, so as a DM who wants to do something a bit more… dangerous…

I am thinking about creating a campaign set in the Nine Hells…. Note, the party will be a bunch of mortals who are either contracted or outright coerced/blackmailed into serving as mercenaries for one devil lord or another…. My idea is that the PCs should be at least mid level and have some renown as to explain why the lower planes is interested in their services… and how they won’t die down there….

I am also thinking that the plots they work in will have them fight against other devils and/or demons and maybe go all the way up to (or down in this case) the archdukes themselves.

Basically, I am thinking of expanding a 5E Descent into Avernus to include more game of thrones plots between the devils.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated

[McGarnagle]

I ran a Baator-adjacent one-shot for a con last summer that was set in the City of Brass but definitely was bound up with some Archdevilish intrigues. It could probably be shifted to some place like Dis if you wanted everything to be set in the Nine Hells. It was written for 6 11th-level characters, although it was a homebrewed version of 5e such that the characters played more like 15th-17th level characters save access to 7th to 9th-level spells and magic items that would be associated with Tier 4 play.

Things started out on the Prime Material Plane, a thumbnail sketch of the initial setting might be "kind of horny Al Qadim." The characters were at the top of the heap for a gladiatorial arena in a major city, either as recently-retired champions or serving functions like head of magical security. The forgemaster of the arena was an Azer, who was kidnapped across interdimensional lines by a band of mercenary Githyanki knights led by an Arcanaloth.

It turned out that the Azer was kidnapped by a Lich who wanted knowledge of the secret ways into the City of Brass that he might bring in his allies undetected (the Lich already resided in the City of Brass) in a power play to overthrow the Grand Vizier and establish his own rule. This Lich was in league with some archdevils, one of whom was the warlock PC's Fiend patron: Glasya, daughter Asmodeus and current ruler of Malbolge. Glasya signs off on the plan, and as part of the plan the characters were to challenge and fight diminished versions of Geryon and Moloch (the former ruler of Malbolge), that they might be freed from their banishment and come to their senses and to serve as vassals of Glasya, who at this time is loyal to Asmodeus.

The session ended with the characters winning the match. I haven't yet run the follow-up session, but circling back to the Prime Material Plane, the owner of the characters' home gladiatorial arena is a rakshasa with enhanced spellcasting capabilities known only as Tony the Tiger. Tony and the gang would have been called to the court of the Maharajah and basically told "Good job, now you're going help Geryon and Moloch when they team up with our buddy Mephistopheles to overthrow Asmodeus, right? Right??"

Even if this specific plot isn't what you had in mind, the three-way power struggle between one faction who wants to maintain the status quo (in the City of Brass case this would be the Grand Vizier) and two factions that want to destabilize things for very different reasons should be adaptable to your needs. You can either insert the characters into one of these factions, or have them choose, perhaps unwittingly. And as to why the characters, mortals can leave the Nine Hells without having been summoned for that purpose, so they can be their archdevil's arm that can reach outside Baator, should the action ever move to other extraplanar realms.

[Bohandas]

You could play this like a fantasy version of Paranoia. The renowned mercenary working for a lord of the nine bit could stand in for the troubleshooter corps and have the same in-game effect of explaining away the characters moving through the totalitarian state (and baator as the epitome of lawful evil should be played as a totalitarian state) with comparative freedom

[paladinofshojo]

You could play this like a fantasy version of Paranoia. The renowned mercenary working for a lord of the nine bit could stand in for the troubleshooter corps and have the same in-game effect of explaining away the characters moving through the totalitarian state (and baator as the epitome of lawful evil should be played as a totalitarian state) with comparative freedom

That’s what I am thinking…. My idea is that there are A LOT of schemes and power plays going on behind the scenes between the archdevils and that the adventurers are roped into it.

They aren’t beholden to Asmodeus or the Archdukes like the denizens of Baator are and they’re already here… so I can see when archdevils or even an Archduke here and there notices them, their immediate reaction would be to see if they can be used as pawns for their agenda.