Raid on the Flying Fortress

As previously discussed in the Remix, there are at least two things the PCs might gain by raiding
Zariel’s flying fortress:
Zariel’s half of Bellandi’s contract (which can be destroyed if brought together with the other
half)
Access to the control room for the Dock of Fallen Cities (which they can use to detach the
chains holding Elturel if the pact has been broken)
It’s also quite possible that the PCs might come up with any number of other plans, like sneaking in
with a Bel-sponsored strike team to assassinate Zariel. Or they might be captured by Zariel’s forces,
thrown into the fortress’ brig, and then need to escape.
There are two flying fortresses presented in Descent Into Avernus – Zariel’s flying fortress (p. 130)
and a wrecked flying fortress (p. 118). The presentations of both are severely restricted by the
limitations of their design. The wrecked flying fortress, for example, crams everything into the
command deck so that it can be presented as a single, small dungeon map. Zariel’s fortress, on the
other hand, would be impossible to tackle as a clear-the-dungeon style adventure with its vast
legions of hell troops, so an implausible railroad sees the ship abandoned by all but a skeleton crew
of twenty-two devils.
To avoid these problems, we’ll use an alternative structure. A Death Star Raid is designed for
exactly this type of scenario. It’s discussed in more detail here, but we’ll look at the essential
elements below. The adventure features:
A toolkit of situational obstacles, including both active and passive defensive measures that can
be found in the flying fortress.
Entrances to the flying fortress, including the obstacles which will try to prevent the PCs from
using them (if any).
A flowchart map of significant locations within the fortress, including obstacles
and objectives placed within some of these locations.

RUNNING THE RAID

This should give the PCs enough structure to make meaningful choices (without getting bogged
down in navigating every corridor) and give you the tools to flexibly run the scenario (without
micromanaging every imp).
As noted in the article on Raiding the Death Star:
Don’t feel trapped by your prep. Remember that what you’re designing are tools: If
they’re in the brig and they blow their Bluff check, send in some stormtrooper squads. If
they feel trapped, don’t think they can fight their way out, and they say, “There must be
another way out of here! Can we get out through the vents?” think for a moment and
then say, “Sure. That works. You can blast a hole in the wall over there and drop down
onto the garbage disposal level.” You didn’t prep a garbage disposal level, but it makes
sense that a space station would have one, right?

Since the garbage disposal feels like a significant location, you might want to add an obstacle to it.
You could add stormtroopers here, too, but since the whole point was to get away from the