Descent into Avernus Homebrew #4: The Demonic Ship

 

Apologies for the poor quality of the map here: when I was sketching it out, it was primarily for myself as the DM, and to a certain extent to show the players. 

So the setup for this was loosely inspired by an old 2nd edition AD&D adventure called A Paladin In Hell. Part of this was on a demonic ship called the Demonwing. The ship in that adventure was multi-dimensional and considerably larger and more complex. This ship is relatively conventional in its layout. Nonetheless, like its inspiration, it is was a flying ship capable of navigating the outer planes, created by the demons of the Abyss to launch raids into Avernus. I say it was, because it has crashed and is now distinctly non-functional as transport. Nonetheless, most of the crew have survived and are angry and defensive, assuming that any intruders are their foes. 

The plot hook I gave my players was that Mordenkainen (who in Descent into Avernus has temporarily set up base on the first level of Hell for academic studies) wanted the PCs to retrieve two very important instruments, the Astrolabe and the Sextant that allowed the ship to traverse the outer planes along with its crew and passengers. In return Mordenkainen would help them in their quest to free the city of Elturel. 

All creatures on the ship except the rutterkin demons are from the 5E Monster Manual. The rutterkin is officially in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes but since I don’t have that book I adapted the stats for rutterkins from 3E Fiendish Codex II: Hordes of the Abyss. 

Key to the ship map (1 sq: 5ft)

1) Main deck: Empty

2) Fore-deck main cabin: Empty 

3) Bowsprit cabin: 1 barlgura, the bosun, who has the sextant that Mordenkainen seeks.  

4) Stairs down

5) Poop cabin: 1 vrock

6) Mid-deck corridor: usually empty but creatures will wander through.

7) 5 Dretches 

8) Crew Cabin: 2 rutterkin

9) Crew Cabin: empty

10) Crew Cabin: 1 chasme

11) Cultists’ cabin: 10 cultists + 1 cult fanatic. These are human mortals. Although the cult fanatic is eager to take the fight to the forces of Law and feels privileged to fight alongside actual demons, her followers are really having second thoughts and are quite terrified, having seens two of their number being casually murdered by their demonic masters. 

12) Ships Stores: 2 shadow demons

13) 2 rutterkin demons are torturing a captured spined devil who they wrongly suspect of sabotaging the ship’s engine

14) Engine Room: This room has a clearly damaged magical mechanism at the rear - this was the engine. In here, invisible, is an imp that has sabotaged the engine and caused the demonic ship to run aground. However, the imp is stuck here in a ship full of demons and is terrified of anything and anyone. Although Mordenkainen has not specifically asked for it, he would be fascinated if the PCs could retrieve some or all of the engine for him to study. 

15) Captain’s Cabin: 1 hezrou who has a navigation table, with charts of the planes and  the astrolabe that Mordenkainen is after.