We're just about done with the Hell's Rebels adventure path! The heroes are now in the very final section of Book 6 and are making their way through a tower of bone that is situated in the eighth level of Hell.
Mission Accomplished: For me, finishing a big campaign is sort of like gaining a level in real life. To be able to say you've run a published campaign, from beginning to end, from 1st level to whatever, is a big deal. So here we are, about to check Hell's Rebels off the list and move forward.
We'll be jumping back to our Tomb of Annihilation characters, and will be playing through four classic Monte Cook adventures converted to 5th edition. I've already converted two of them - The Harrowing and Labyrinth of Madness. I just busted out my notes for it and I'm gearing up to finally, after so many years, run these adventures to the best of my ability.
As I was converting them, I noticed that Monte has certain monsters that he likes to use in his high level stuff. He uses gray renders and hezrous. My first instinct was to swap them out, but when I realized that they were seemingly a Monte Cook trope, I decided that I should lean into them rather than throw them into the garbage. Up until now, I've always disregarded hezrous as to me, there's just too many frog-person monsters in D&D and it can get confusing.
The Soul Anchor: For this session, the heroes needed to deal with the Soul Anchor - a magic ball of light that, if touched, allows you to retain your memories in the afterlife. Usually, in D&D, when you die, you are reborn as a planar entity with no memory of your former life.
In addition, there is a beating heart in the Soul Anchor. That's the heart of the villain, Barzillai Thrune. The group learned in this session that they needed to get the heart, go to Barzillai in Hell, put the heart back in his body, and destroy him for good. If they don't do this, The land around their city will be possessed by his spirit and.. well, they're screwed.
The heroes tore through the guardian of the soul anchor, which was a nemesis devil. They messed with the heart for a bit, and realized that it can't be destroyed. They recruited the witchfire (a sort of undead had-thing with cool art) to contact an infernal entity, who gave the group the info they needed.
Barzillai is in Hell: Then they used their Melancholic Talisman to summon a devil worm that took them to Cania! The only way to get to Barzillai, who is suffering eternal torment, is to go through the 9 rooms of this tower. Each room is linked to a sin that Barzillai committed in life. So the group was about to learn all his weird, creepy secrets.
I am not a fan of graphic torture in D&D, so I change it to jokey stuff. I know that's not for everyone, but that's how I roll. The group came upon a few chain devils "torturing" some of Barzillai's damned servants with unflattering sketches and caricatures. The heroes gave them their comeuppance.
Stat Stuff: I'm doing a bit of an experiment in this place. I am basically throwing every type of devil from the Monster Manual at the group, and seeing how it works out. According to kobold fight club, these two chain devils should have been a medium challenge, but they really weren't.
The group has a metric ton of magic items, and that has definitely affected their power level to a degree. Right now, they own a white robe of the archmage, but none of them can wear it. They've been trying to "dye it grey", which is a funny idea but hey, even I am not that lenient. It is a funny idea. I suppose they should visit the slaad lord Renbuu if they really want to change its color.
The Portals: This place doesn't have normal doors. Each floor has about three portals that lead to some of the 9 rooms. Each portal is linked to a sin. In order to use a portal, one hero must experience a misdeed of Barzillai's and lessen his burden. Barzillai has a thing for his own sister, so it's a little weird. I definitely softened some of these, again, to make them more jokey.
The heroes came to a room where a nereid was being held prisoner because she greatly resembled Barzillai's sister. Mephistopheles was using her to taunt Barzillai.
In here is an awesome magic item - a harp that, when you play the Song of Silver on it, casts both haste and heal. Pretty sweet!
That's where we stopped. I'm not too sure how many sessions we have left. Three? Something like that. I'm digging in to all my old Monte Cook stuff now to get that all ready to go!
This campaign has been good. It's definitely one of the best campaign/adventure path products ever made, in my opinion. I'm not really thrilled at all with my performance in running it, honestly. I did the best I could.
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