FROM WATERDEEP TO AVERNUS

by Justin Alexander – November 27th, 2020

I have done remixes for both Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Descent Into Avernus. It’s perhaps not
unsurprising that I have been frequently asked how I would connect the two campaigns.

It’s not something that I, personally, had given a lot of thought to. My own run of the Dragon Heist
campaign ended with the PCs poised to pursue very different goals: Some had become ensconced as
leaders of the Harpers in Waterdeep. Others were heading to the Sea of Fallen Stars to pursue threads
from their characters’ backstories. (Although we’re taking a break from those characters, I’m planning to
return and run separate campaigns for both of those threads.)

So I guess that would be my first word of caution: It’s quite likely that connecting the two campaigns will
actually be a really bad idea. By the time you get to the end of Dragon Heist, your campaign will have
built up a lot of momentum, and all of that momentum is likely to be tied to Waterdeep. (The whole
function of Trollskull Manor is, in fact, to give the PCs permanent ties to the city.) It probably makes more
sense to follow that momentum (continuing to explore the factions and intrigues of Waterdeep) than it
does to uproot the whole campaign and head south.

The other thing to note here is that the whole function of the Dragon Heist Remix is to turn the campaign
into an active playground. I know where my Remix campaign ended up, but I honestly have no idea
where yours did: Who are the PCs allied with? Which enemies survived? Where’s Neverember’s gold?
What other resources have the PCs accrued? What enigmas are the PCs most interested in pursuing? Do
they have the Stone of Golorr? If not, who does? Did they end up adopting kids or falling in love? The
possibilities are almost limitless.

With those provisos in mind, here are some general thoughts on how you might connect the campaigns.

START AT THE BEGINNING

If possible, the first thing I would do is to plant the seeds of the transition from the very beginning. As the
players are creating their characters for Dragon Heist, encourage some or all of them to make characters
who have a connection to Elturel. This is more or less what I discuss in Remixing Avernus – Part 2:
Character Creation, it’s probably just a little more difficult to explain why you’re encouraging the players to
do this if the campaign is going to be taking place in Waterdeep.

First, this can easily include having Lulu as a PC in Dragon Heist. This actually fits in well with her
revised backstory, in which she returns to Toril via a portal that takes her to Neverwinter before
journeying south to Elturel. It might be interesting to explore that connection to Neverwinter — did she
meet Neverember? Or perhaps she met Dalakhar? Alternatively, you might just move the portal so that it
leads to Waterdeep (and she has likely just come through it as the campaign is beginning).

Second, you’re still going to want a Hellrider for Descent Into Avernus. Could they have been sent to
Waterdeep to investigate links to Asmodean cultists who were recently captured in Elturel? Perhaps the
cultists were kidnapping people in Elturel, and their interest in looking for similar disappearances in
Waterdeep leads them to Volo (looking for people to investigate his missing friend) at the beginning of
Dragon Heist? (This link will likely bias your Dragon Heist run towards the Cassalanters. The twist where
the friendly nobles looking for help saving their Asmodeus-cursed children turn out to actually BE the
Asmodean cult leaders will be great. More on this connection below.)

Third, for any Elturel-connected character the players do create, try to find ways for them to have
unfinished business back in Elturel (or perhaps Baldur’s Gate). It’s quite likely that this business is what
brought them to Waterdeep in the first place, but its conclusion is back home.

For example, in my Dragon Heist run one of the PCs needed to raise a large sum of money as a ransom for
his mother’s freedom. (The nice thing about Dragon Heist is that literally any goal that requires large sums
of money can be trivially tied to the central conceit of the campaign.) That link is part of what led half the
group to the Sea of Fallen Stars (where that PC’s mother was being held). If that link had instead pointed
back towards Elturel, it would obviously help a transition to Descent Into Avernus.

Check out Running the Campaign – Dragon Heist: Creating the Characters for an in-depth discussion of how
to handle this type of character creation.

ASMODEAN CONNECTIONS
If I’m looking for an actual connection between the campaigns — the thing that will drive PCs from
Waterdeep to Elturel — then what immediately leaps out are the Asmodeus cultists in Dragon Heist.

If you want to make the transition fairly organic, then you’ll want to seed clues into the Cassalanter
faction of Dragon Heist that point the PCs towards either Elturel or Baldur’s Gate. (In the latter case, we’d
most likely assume that the Cassalanters have a direct connection to the Vanthampurs. In the former, they
would have connections to various Asmodeans heading to Elturel for the “Exodus.” Or you could do
both.)

If the players are particularly interested in Cassalanters, finding an opportune time for the Cassalanters to
flee Waterdeep and head for Elturel or Baldur’s Gate would also be a big pull. Alternatively, if the PCs
are concerned about the kids, the Cassalanters might send them to Vanthampur for “sanctuary” as the
noose closes around their own necks (forcing the PCs to chase them down).

For a slightly more focused experience, consider tweaking Dragon Heist to make the Cassalanters
Zarielites instead of Asmodean cultists. Either way, you can seed a bunch of Asmodeus/Zariel lore into
Dragon Heist (like the Averniad and the Trial of Asmodeus).

A slight risk with the “organic” approach is that the PCs might go haring off to Elturel before the Grand
Game of Dragon Heist has reached its conclusion. If the PCs are in possession of the Stone of Golorr or any
of its Eyes when they do this, the Grand Game will follow them. (The other factions need that stuff!) We
might imagine a scenario where the PCs and a bunch of Dragon Heist-related faction members get sent to
Avernus and the Grand Game continues while everyone simultaneously tries to escape Hell… but it’s
probably not ideal.

Although the risk of this is, in my opinion, rather low, if you want to avoid any chance of this happening
you can take a slightly less organic approach by waiting for Dragon Heist to reach its conclusion, selecting
some faction that the PCs have become allied with, and having them dump a bunch of intelligence
reports suggesting that those Asmodean cultists the PCs were recently tangled up with are active in
Elturel. “Could you check that out for us?” (If the PCs were already heading that way to settle up
personal business, all the better.)

On the other hand, if the Grand Game in Avernus sounds amazing to you, have the Cassalanters take
their Eye to Elturel before the PCs can get it.

SPLIT THE PARTY

If some of the PCs are naturally interested in staying in Waterdeep to pursue their interests there while
other PCs are interested in returning to Elturel to complete their unfinished business… Let them.

The players whose characters remained in Waterdeep simply need to create new PCs who can join the
other characters as the other campaign begins. (If your plan is to lead with the Elturian refugee caravan,
for example, the other PCs could be members of that caravan or join the other PCs in protecting it. This
might also be an ideal time to introduce Lulu as a PC if you haven’t already.)

As I mentioned earlier, this is similar to what happened after my Dragon Heist run: Some of the PCs
stayed in Waterdeep. Others went to the Sea of Fallen Stars. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be running
both of those as separate campaigns.

THE STONE OF GOLORR IN AVERNUS

If the PCs still possess the Stone of Golorr after the events of Dragon Heist, its legend lore abilities alone offer
many cool opportunities for the PCs as they delve into the deep lore of the Descent Into Avernus remix.
You’ll want to give some thought to cool legend lore responses to topics the PCs are likely to ask about
(like Zariel, Lulu, etc.). What stuff qualifies as “legendary” (so that the spell works) and what doesn’t?

Also decide if the spell’s description of “the more

information you already have about the thing, the more
precise and detailed the information you receive is”
means you can benefit from casting legend lore multiple
times (gaining more detailed information each time).

It might also be cool to think about how the backstory of

Descent Into Avernus might be tweaked to incorporate
the Stone of Golorr. Specifically, is there some big secret
of the campaign that the Stone might have been used to
erase from common knowledge? (For example, perhaps
one of the original Hellriders decided to use the Stone to
eradicate the knowledge that Zariel led the Charge of the Hellriders.) Seed some clues to that effect, so
that the PCs can use the Stone to their advantage.

The Stone of Golorr might also be an alternative source for the Vision from Torm, pointing the PCs in the
direction of the Sword of Zariel.

ADJUSTING FOR LEVEL

I haven’t discussed adjusting the level of challenge in Descent Into Avernus. Broadly speaking, these
adjustments should be obvious. (Make the bad guys tougher and/or add more of them.)
In some ways, this will actually be to your advantage: There are wide reports that the beginning of
Descent Into Avernus is too difficult for beginning characters. (And I’ve already discussed in the Remix
starting the characters at a higher level.)

Speaking in very general terms, I would:

• Cap level advancement in Dragon Heist to 6th. (It’s possible to get to 7th in the Remix, just don’t
include that final milestone advance.)
• If your group won’t get crabby, you can just hold advancement until they leave Elturel.
• Alternatively, give them a milestone level up to 7th level when they leave Baldur’s Gate and again
when they leave Elturel. (They’ll be a little higher level than they should be in Elturel and when
starting out the Avernian hexcrawl, but close enough that you can probably get away without
making any adjustments to those sections of the campaign.)

Alternatively, skip the Baldur’s Gate section of Descent Into Avernus entirely: Pull the PCs from
Waterdeep to Elturel. Then, as they arrive, have the whole city sucked into Hell with them along for the
ride and continue the campaign from there. To make this really work, seed the information and resources
the PCs would have received in Baldur’s Gate into the Cassalanter sections of the

For example, the infernal lockbox can be an artifact held by the Cassalanters. Maybe the PCs’ allies come to
them and say, “Hey, we found this among the Cassalanters stuff. Sylvira Savikas is an expert on this stuff.
She lives in Elturel. Can you take it to her and see if she can open it?” Or maybe they just take it to the
Blackstaff and have her crack it open; then, armed with the evidence in side, they head to Elturel to
expose the conspiracy… but they’re too late! The city is sucked into Hell just as they arrive!

WATERDEEP IN HELL
Why bother moving the campaign to Elturel at all? Why not just swap in Waterdeep and send the City of
Splendors to Hell instead (with the PCs along for the ride)?

First, the City of Splendors is chock-a-block with high level NPCs (including many whom the PCs have
been directly interacting with during Dragon Heist). There will be an obvious question of why these NPCs
aren’t solving the problem themselves instead of leaving the PCs to do it.

Second, once you make all the fundamental changes to the lore of the campaign necessary to move it
from Elturel to Waterdeep (no Companion, no Charge of the Hellriders as a central element, etc.), in
practice you’re not really running Descent Into Avernus any more. You’re running a completely new
campaign that you’re designing almost entirely from scratch.