How to Fix Descent into Avernus: A Definitive DM Guide to Improving the Campaign

Spoiler warning: This guide contains major spoilers for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus.

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus has one of the best campaign premises in Dungeons & Dragons. A holy city has been dragged into Hell. Its people are trapped beneath a burning sky while infernal chains pull the city toward the River Styx. Devils, demons, fallen angels, warlords, soul coins, and roaring infernal war machines all collide in one of the most metal campaign setups Wizards of the Coast has ever published.

On paper, it sounds incredible, and in many ways, it is incredible. The campaign is packed with memorable imagery, strange locations, dangerous villains, and big moral questions. The problem is that a lot of Dungeon Masters run into the same issue once they actually bring it to the table: Descent into Avernus has amazing ideas, but the campaign does not always connect those ideas in a way that feels natural during play.

The players may not care about Elturel. The opening adventure may feel like a Baldur’s Gate crime story that belongs to a different campaign. The party may wonder why they are the ones who have to go to Hell. Avernus may feel less like an open hellscape and more like a chain of errands. And Zariel, the emotional center of the campaign, may not matter to the players until the very end.

The good news is that Descent into Avernus does not need to be thrown away. It needs a stronger emotional spine. The best version of this campaign is not “a random group of adventurers gets sent to Hell.” The best version is a story where the characters care about Elturel, uncover the truth behind its fall, journey into Avernus to save it, and are forced to decide whether a fallen angel can still be redeemed.

If you make that the heart of the campaign, everything works better.

Key Takeaways

• Descent into Avernus works best when the party has personal ties to Elturel before the city falls.
• The Baldur’s Gate section should be shortened, focused, and connected directly to Elturel’s fate.
• The players need a clear emotional reason to go to Hell.
• Avernus should feel dangerous and strange, but still structured enough for meaningful player choices.
• Lulu should be treated as a character with broken memories, not just a plot device.
• Zariel should be foreshadowed throughout the campaign so the ending feels earned.
• Infernal bargains, warlords, soul coins, and moral temptation should be central to the Avernus experience.
• The finale should be about the characters’ choices, not just a single Persuasion check.

What DMs Most Often Want to Fix

Descent into Avernus is not a bad campaign. It is a campaign with a fantastic destination and a messy road map. The book has great locations, memorable NPCs, strong villains, wild set pieces, and some unforgettable imagery. The problem is that many of those pieces need extra work before they fit together smoothly.

Most of the common problems come from the same basic issue: the campaign’s emotional center is Elturel, but the adventure does not always make the players care about Elturel early enough. If the players do not feel connected to the city, the campaign’s biggest moments can feel like things that are happening around them instead of things that are happening to people they care about.

1. The Campaign Is About Elturel, But It Starts in Baldur’s Gate

The first major structural problem is that the central crisis of the campaign is the fall of Elturel, but the campaign begins in Baldur’s Gate. Elturel has been pulled into Avernus. Its people are trapped. Its leaders are missing, corrupted, or dead. Its holy identity has been twisted into a cruel infernal bargain. That is the real story.

Baldur’s Gate is a great city. It is dangerous, corrupt, colorful, and full of excellent adventure material. The problem is that the opening can feel like a separate low-level urban investigation before the real campaign begins. That creates a motivation problem. If the characters are random adventurers in Baldur’s Gate, why should they risk their lives to save Elturel? Why should they go to Hell? Why are they the heroes of this story?

The published adventure gives the DM some answers, but many groups need stronger ones. The campaign becomes much easier to run when the players already care about Elturel before the city disappears.

2. The Opening Hook Can Feel Forced

The Flaming Fist hook can work, but it can also feel heavy-handed. The characters are pressured into helping a brutal mercenary organization clean up a local cult problem. That may get the party moving, but it does not necessarily make them care about the larger campaign.

Worse, the opening can teach the players that they are following orders because powerful NPCs told them to. That is not the energy you want for a campaign about saving a city from Hell. The players should feel invested, afraid, and personally motivated. They should want answers because something they care about has been taken from them.

If the party goes to Avernus only because the module says they should, the campaign is already weaker than it needs to be.

3. The Party Needs a Better Reason to Go to Hell

This is the single most important fix. Going to Hell should not feel like the next item on the quest list. It should feel like a terrifying choice.

The party should understand the stakes before they descend into Avernus. They should know people in Elturel. They should have seen refugees fleeing in panic. They should have heard conflicting stories about what happened. They should have reasons to believe that if Elturel can fall, another city could be next.

Ideally, each character should have at least one personal answer to this question: why would you risk your soul to save Elturel? A character might go because their family is trapped there. Another might go because they served with the Hellriders. Another might go because they helped Thavius Kreeg and feels responsible. Another might go because they made a promise. Another might go because they believe no city deserves to be abandoned to Hell.

The exact reason does not matter as much as this: the reason should belong to the character, not just to the plot.

4. Avernus Can Feel Like a Railroad Wearing Sandbox Clothing

Once the party reaches Avernus, the campaign promises something amazing. Hell is open before them. There are infernal warlords, ruined battlefields, demon incursions, wandering devils, cursed locations, soul-powered machines, ancient secrets, and impossible bargains. The party should feel like they are crossing a hostile mythic wasteland.

In practice, this section can become a sequence of errands. The party goes to one place, talks to one NPC, gets sent somewhere else, finds a thing, gets another lead, and repeats the process until the finale. That is not necessarily bad if your table enjoys a directed adventure, but it can undercut the feeling of exploring Hell.

Avernus should not feel like a haunted theme park where each attraction points to the next one. It should feel like a terrible place full of powerful factions, desperate survivors, tempting bargains, and dangerous routes. The players should feel like they are trying to survive Avernus while making hard choices about who to trust.

5. Lulu Can Become a Plot Device Instead of a Character

Lulu is one of the most important NPCs in the campaign. She is adorable, tragic, brave, damaged, and deeply tied to the backstory of Zariel. Used well, she gives the campaign heart. Used poorly, she becomes a celestial GPS.

That is a problem because if Lulu simply remembers the next location whenever the plot needs her to, players may stop treating her as a person. She becomes a delivery system for clues instead of a character they care about.

The stronger version of Lulu is not just “the NPC who knows where to go.” She is a survivor of trauma. Her memories are broken. She wants to believe the best about Zariel, but she is afraid of what the truth might be. She can be wrong, confused, hopeful, and heartbroken. That makes her useful to the story and emotionally meaningful to the players.

6. Zariel Arrives Too Late Emotionally

Zariel should be the emotional center of the campaign. She is not just another archdevil. She is a fallen angel, a betrayed general, a conqueror, a tyrant, and possibly a soul that can still be redeemed. The entire campaign builds toward a final confrontation with her.

But if the players do not understand or care about Zariel before that moment, the ending can fall flat. The redemption ending is especially vulnerable to this. If the party has not spent the campaign learning about Zariel’s fall, wrestling with the Hellriders’ betrayal, seeing the cost of her rule, and discovering what she once was, then redeeming her can feel sudden.

The players should not meet Zariel at the end and think, “Wait, are we supposed to save her?” They should reach the end already debating the question.

The Best Way to Fix the Campaign

If you only make one major change to Descent into Avernus, make the campaign about Elturel from the beginning. The whole adventure becomes stronger when the characters care about Elturel before it falls.

That does not mean every character has to be from Elturel. In fact, it is usually better if the party has a mix of connections. One character might have family in the city. Another might have served with the Hellriders. Another might have been helped by a priest of Torm. Another might be from Baldur’s Gate and fear that their own city could be next.

The goal is to make the fall of Elturel feel personal. It should not be a lore event or a distant tragedy. It should feel like a wound.

Once that happens, the rest of the campaign has momentum. The party investigates because they need answers. They go to Candlekeep because they need help. They descend into Avernus because people they care about are still down there. They confront Zariel because the fate of a city, and maybe the meaning of redemption itself, depends on what they do next.

Fix #1: Start With a Short Elturel Prologue

The easiest way to make the players care about Elturel is to let them spend time there before it falls. You do not need a long prequel arc. One session is enough.

Start the campaign in Elturel during a festival, military ceremony, religious observance, or public celebration beneath the Companion. Let the players meet people in the city. Let them see what Elturel believes about itself. Give them warmth before you take it away.

During the prologue, introduce a few people and details the players can remember later. You might include a kind priest or healer, a proud Hellrider, a frightened refugee from another region, a young squire who admires the party, a political figure praising Thavius Kreeg, a rumor that something is wrong with the Companion, and a small sign of infernal influence. Most importantly, give each character at least one personal NPC tied to the city.

Then let the disaster happen. Maybe the party is just outside the city when Elturel vanishes. Maybe they are sent away on a minor errand. Maybe they survive because an NPC sacrifices themselves. Maybe they watch helplessly as the city is torn from the Material Plane.

The exact method does not matter as much as the emotional result. The players should remember Elturel as a place, not just a problem. Instead of saying, “A city has disappeared,” you can say the priest who healed them is gone, the squire who idolized them is gone, the market where they laughed last night is gone, and the friend who asked them to come back safely is gone.

That is much stronger.

Practical DM Tip

At session zero, ask each player this question: who in Elturel would your character risk their life to save?

Write down every answer. Those NPCs are now part of the campaign. Some may be trapped in Elturel, some may become refugees, some may die, some may be tempted by devils, and some may survive until the end. Use them carefully, but use them, because they are your campaign glue.

Fix #2: Make Baldur’s Gate Serve the Main Story

You do not have to remove Baldur’s Gate from the campaign. In fact, Baldur’s Gate can be very useful. It gives the party a grim contrast to Elturel. Elturel is holy, proud, and doomed. Baldur’s Gate is corrupt, brutal, and possibly next in line.

That contrast is excellent, but the Baldur’s Gate section should not feel like a completely different campaign. Every major scene in Baldur’s Gate should connect to one of three questions: what happened to Elturel, who benefited from its fall, and could Baldur’s Gate be next?

If a scene does not support one of those questions, consider cutting it, shortening it, or turning it into optional side content. The Dead Three cult, the Vanthampur family, the Shield of the Hidden Lord, and Thavius Kreeg can all support the main story. The key is to make those connections clearer.

The cult should not feel like a random low-level dungeon. The Vanthampurs should not feel like unrelated city villains. The Shield should not feel like a strange magic item that appears because the book needs it. Everything should point back to Elturel and forward to Avernus.

A stronger Baldur’s Gate spine might look like this: the party arrives with Elturel refugees, learns that refugees are being murdered or exploited, follows clues to the Dead Three cult, discovers the cult’s connection to the Vanthampur family, finds Thavius Kreeg, uncovers the truth about Elturel’s fall, and realizes that Baldur’s Gate may be next.

Now Baldur’s Gate is not a detour. It is the investigation that reveals the campaign.

Practical DM Tip

Use Reya Mantlemorn early. Reya gives the party a living connection to Elturel, the Hellriders, and the emotional stakes of the campaign. She should not just be an NPC who shows up because the book needs a guide.

Make her angry, scared, loyal, and sometimes wrong. Let her believe in Elturel even as the truth about its leaders begins to rot beneath her feet. If the party likes Reya, the campaign gets much easier to run.

Fix #3: Give the Party a Clear Reason to Descend Into Hell

At some point, the characters need to make the most important choice in the campaign: will they go to Avernus?

This should not feel automatic. The players should understand what they are choosing. They are not going into a dungeon or traveling to another city. They are descending into Hell, and that should feel terrifying.

Before the party leaves the Material Plane, give them three things: a personal stake, a clear mission, and a terrifying cost. The personal stake is someone or something they care about. The clear mission is saving Elturel, rescuing its people, or discovering how to break the contract. The terrifying cost is the knowledge that Hell does not just kill people. It corrupts them.

Good motivations might include a loved one trapped in Elturel, Ulder Ravengard carrying information needed to save the city, Thavius Kreeg’s pact also threatening Baldur’s Gate, the Companion visibly changing, or a divine vision showing the party that no army is coming. You do not need to rely on only one reason. Give the group several, because different characters care about different things.

Practical DM Tip

Before the descent, give each player a private prompt: what is your character most afraid Hell will take from them?

The answer might be their life, their soul, their faith, their friends, their innocence, or their sense of control. Use those fears later. That is how Avernus becomes more than a dangerous location. It becomes personal.

Fix #4: Turn Avernus Into a Pointcrawl

Avernus should feel hostile, strange, and unpredictable, but the players still need meaningful choices. If travel is completely random, choices stop mattering. If every location simply points to the next required location, choices also stop mattering.

A pointcrawl is a great middle ground. In a pointcrawl, the party has known locations, possible routes, dangerous paths, and incomplete information. They do not need a perfectly realistic map. They just need enough structure to make decisions.

Instead of treating Avernus as either a pure railroad or a meaningless wasteland, create a network of locations. Each location should offer at least one useful element: a clue, a bargain, a faction contact, a resource, a threat, a route to another location, or a moral choice. The players should usually know two or three possible places they could go next.

For example, Mad Maggie may know one path to Lulu’s memories. A warlord may know where to find a missing Hellrider relic. A devil may offer information in exchange for a contract. A demon attack may reveal a shortcut across the wastes. A soul coin merchant may know who recently passed through the area. A prisoner from Elturel may have seen one of Zariel’s generals.

Now the party is not just following the next arrow. They are choosing which risks to take.

A pointcrawl makes Avernus feel like a place. The players can learn the landscape, make enemies, return to old locations, hear rumors, and choose between bad options. That is exactly what Hell should feel like: not random, not comfortable, and not fair, but understandable enough to tempt the players into thinking they can control it.

Practical DM Tip

Create a simple Avernus travel sheet with three columns:

Location	What It Offers	What It Costs
Fort Knucklebone	Repairs, rumors, Lulu help	Favors for Mad Maggie
Wandering Emporium	Supplies, contracts, information	Soul coins, secrets, debts
Warlord Camp	Vehicle parts, prisoners, local routes	Combat or negotiation
Demon Battlefield	Shortcut, lost relics, divine visions	Corruption, exhaustion, danger
Infernal Monument	Lore about Zariel or Elturel	A sacrifice, oath, or bargain

You do not need to map every mile of Avernus. You need to map decisions.

Fix #5: Make Lulu’s Memories Matter

Lulu is one of the campaign’s best tools. She gives the party access to the lost history of Zariel, the Hellriders, and the Sword of Zariel. But her memories need to feel like more than convenient exposition. They should be a mystery that reveals emotional truths, changes how the party understands the campaign, and slowly reframes the story they thought they were in.

Give Lulu’s memories a clear progression. Early memories should be fragmented and emotional. Middle memories should reveal contradictions. Late memories should expose the truth. At first, Lulu might remember Zariel as radiant, brave, and kind. Later, she might remember the Hellriders charging into Avernus, followed by flashes of fear, betrayal, retreat, and Zariel refusing to abandon the fight. Eventually, she may remember the sword being hidden and the possibility that redemption is still possible, but not guaranteed.

Each memory should do two things: reveal one useful clue and reveal one emotional truth. Do not make the memories only about where to go next. Make them about what happened and why it matters.

The players need to care about Zariel before they meet her, and Lulu is the best way to make that happen. Through Lulu, the party can see Zariel before the fall. They can see the idealism, pride, rage, betrayal, and grief that led her to become what she is now. That makes the ending much stronger because the final question is no longer, “Can we persuade the villain to stop?” It becomes, “After everything we have seen, do we believe Zariel can still be saved?”

Practical DM Tip

After each major Avernus milestone, give Lulu one memory fragment. Keep it short, make it vivid, and then let the players talk about it.

Do not immediately explain everything. Let the mystery breathe.

Fix #6: Foreshadow Zariel From the Start

Zariel should not feel like a final boss who appears at the end. She should haunt the entire campaign. Her name should appear in prayers, curses, contracts, murals, battlefield songs, devilish propaganda, Hellrider shame, and Lulu’s broken memories.

The party should hear many versions of her story before learning the truth. To Elturel’s faithful, she may be a nearly forgotten figure of divine tragedy. To devils, she is a ruthless commander. To demons, she is a hated enemy. To the Hellriders, she is a buried shame. To Lulu, she is a lost friend. To the people of Elturel, she may be the reason their city is damned.

These contradictions make Zariel interesting. Do not reduce her to “the archdevil villain.” Make her a question the players keep returning to.

You can foreshadow Zariel with a damaged mural of an angel leading knights into battle, an old Hellrider song with missing verses, devils who speak of her with fear and admiration, a refugee who says the Companion turned black before the city vanished, a priest who refuses to discuss the oldest Hellrider legends, a dream of a burning sword falling into darkness, or an infernal contract bearing Zariel’s mark.

By the time the players meet Zariel, they should already have an opinion about her. That opinion may change, but they should not be indifferent.

Practical DM Tip

Give the party three different versions of Zariel’s story over the course of the campaign. The heroic version says Zariel led the charge against evil. The shameful version says the Hellriders abandoned her. The infernal version says Zariel chose power because Heaven was too weak.

None of these versions should be completely true by itself. The real story is found between them.

Fix #7: Make Hell Tempting, Not Just Dangerous

Avernus should be dangerous, but danger alone is not enough. The harder and more interesting part is making Avernus tempting.

Hell is not just a place where monsters attack you. Hell is a place that offers exactly what you need at exactly the wrong price. If the party only fights devils, they may treat Avernus like any other hostile plane. If the party has to negotiate with devils, bargain for resources, accept compromises, and weigh souls against survival, Avernus becomes much more memorable.

Use infernal bargains regularly, but do not make every bargain a trick. That is important. If every devil lies, cheats, and instantly betrays the party, players will simply refuse to engage with them. The best infernal bargains are clear, specific, and awful. A devil should be able to say, “I will give you exactly what you asked for. The question is whether you can live with what it costs.”

A devil might offer safe passage in exchange for one cherished memory. A warlord might offer vehicle repairs if the party hunts a rival. A contract devil might offer the location of a missing NPC in exchange for a future favor. A soul coin merchant might offer supplies if the party agrees not to free a trapped soul. A fiend might offer the truth about Lulu’s memories in exchange for a secret the character has never told anyone.

The goal is not to trick the players. The goal is to tempt them.

Practical DM Tip

When offering a bargain, make sure it has three parts: what the party gets, what the party pays, and what moral line the bargain asks them to cross.

That third part is what makes it feel like Hell.

Fix #8: Use Avernus Warlords as More Than Random Encounters

Infernal war machines are one of the coolest parts of Descent into Avernus, so use them. Avernus should feel like a blasted wasteland ruled by violent factions, scavenger gangs, infernal knights, demon hunters, mercenary devils, and desperate survivors.

If warlords only appear as combat encounters, you are leaving a lot of fun on the table. Give each major warlord or faction three things: a desire, a resource, and a reason to interact with the party.

One warlord might want revenge against Zariel’s forces. Another might want soul coins. Another might want a relic from Elturel. Another might want Lulu. Another might want the party’s war machine. Another might want protection from demons. Another might want to escape Avernus, while another wants to become important enough for a devil to notice.

Now the warlords become part of the campaign’s social landscape. The party can fight them, trick them, trade with them, race them, rob them, ally with them, or turn them against each other. That is much more interesting than another random vehicle battle.

Practical DM Tip

Before each Avernus travel session, prepare one faction complication. Maybe a warlord recognizes the party’s vehicle, a devil patrol is looking for stolen soul coins, a demon horde forces two rival groups into temporary cooperation, or a faction offers a shortcut if the party sabotages someone else.

This makes Avernus feel alive. Terrible, but alive.

Fix #9: Make Elturel a Place Worth Saving

Once the party reaches Avernus, do not forget Elturel. The city is not just the reason the campaign started. It is the thing the party is trying to save.

If the characters spend too long away from Elturel without reminders of its suffering, the campaign can lose urgency. Return to Elturel emotionally throughout the campaign. Show the players what is happening there through visions, refugees, sending spells, scouts, devils, dreams, or brief returns to the city.

Let them see food running out, neighborhoods collapsing, devils tempting citizens, priests losing faith, survivors organizing defenses, families searching for missing loved ones, people blaming the Hellriders, people blaming the gods, and people still refusing to give up.

Elturel should change as the campaign progresses. The longer the party takes, the more desperate things become. This keeps the stakes visible and reminds the players that the campaign is not about collecting plot coupons in Hell. It is about saving a city before it is lost forever.

Practical DM Tip

Create an “Elturel Pressure Clock” and advance it each time the party completes a major Avernus section.

Possible stages could include:

1. The city is in panic, but organized leaders still hold sections together.
2. Food, water, and healing magic are becoming scarce.
3. Devils begin offering protection in exchange for service.
4. Neighborhood factions turn on each other.
5. The chains pull the city closer to the River Styx.
6. Final collapse begins unless the party acts.

You do not need to punish the players constantly. Just remind them that Hell is patient, and Elturel does not have forever.

Fix #10: Make the Ending About Choices, Not One Check

The ending of Descent into Avernus has several possible outcomes, and that is good. But the emotional weight of the finale should come from the choices the party has made throughout the campaign, not just from a single social roll at the end.

If Zariel can be redeemed, the campaign should earn that possibility. If she cannot be redeemed, that should also feel like a meaningful result.

Track the party’s “redemption evidence” during the campaign. This does not need to be a formal mechanic. Just keep notes. The party may strengthen the redemption ending if they restore Lulu’s memories, learn the truth of the Hellriders’ betrayal, recover the Sword of Zariel, show mercy when Hell rewards cruelty, reject easy infernal bargains, save Elturel’s people when there is no obvious reward, or remind Zariel of who she was before her fall.

On the other hand, the party may weaken that possibility if they embrace infernal bargains without hesitation, sacrifice innocents for convenience, treat Lulu as a tool, ignore Elturel’s suffering, or become crueler as Avernus tests them.

Do not use this to railroad the ending. Use it to make the ending respond to the campaign the players actually played.

The final confrontation with Zariel can go several ways. The party might redeem Zariel, destroy her, free Elturel through sacrifice, make a dangerous bargain, save the city but leave scars that matter, or fail to save everyone while still preserving enough hope for the future. Whatever happens, make sure the ending reflects the party’s choices.

Practical DM Tip

Before the final session, write down three things the party did that Zariel would respect, hate, or recognize.

Use those moments in the confrontation. Do not make the final scene generic. Make Zariel respond to them.

The Fastest “Fixed” Version of Descent into Avernus

If you want the short version, these are the changes I would make every time.

1. Give Every Character a Tie to Elturel

Do this during session zero. Every character should care about someone or something connected to the city.

2. Run a One-Session Elturel Prologue

Let the players experience the city before it falls. Introduce NPCs they will want to save later.

3. Shorten and Focus Baldur’s Gate

Keep the best material, but make every scene point toward Elturel, the Vanthampurs, Kreeg, the Shield, or the threat to Baldur’s Gate.

4. Make Reya Central

Reya is one of your best tools for connecting the party to Elturel, the Hellriders, and the emotional stakes of the campaign. Use her early and often.

5. Make the Descent a Real Choice

Before the party goes to Hell, make sure they understand why they are going and what they might lose.

6. Run Avernus as a Pointcrawl

Give the party meaningful choices, dangerous routes, faction politics, and multiple leads. Do not make travel purely random, but do not make it a straight line either.

7. Make Lulu’s Memories a Mystery

Use Lulu’s broken memories to reveal Zariel’s story piece by piece. Each memory should provide both a clue and an emotional truth.

8. Make Hell Tempt the Party

Use infernal bargains, soul coins, desperate shortcuts, and morally costly offers. Avernus should test the characters, not just damage them.

9. Keep Returning to Elturel

Show the city getting worse. Remind the party who they are trying to save.

10. Make the Finale Reflect the Campaign

The ending should depend on what the party learned, who they saved, what they sacrificed, and what kind of people Avernus turned them into.

What I Would Cut or Compress

You do not need to remove huge sections of the campaign, but you should be willing to compress anything that does not support the main story. The simple rule is this: if it does not point toward Elturel, Zariel, Avernus, or the party’s moral choices, shorten it.

That might mean cutting some Baldur’s Gate side material, simplifying dungeon sections, combining Avernus locations, or turning some NPCs into rumors, visions, or faction contacts instead of full encounters. That is fine. The campaign is strongest when it moves with purpose.

The Core Campaign Spine

Here is the fixed campaign spine in one clean sequence:

1. The characters know and care about Elturel.
2. Elturel falls.
3. The party follows refugees and clues to Baldur’s Gate.
4. The party uncovers the Vanthampur/Kreeg/infernal plot.
5. The party learns Elturel can still be saved.
6. The party chooses to descend into Avernus.
7. In Elturel, they see the city’s suffering firsthand.
8. In Avernus, they seek the truth of Zariel, the Sword, and the contract.
9. Hell tempts them, bargains with them, and tries to change them.
10. The party confronts Zariel and decides what saving a city is worth.

That is the campaign. Everything else should support that spine.

Final Thoughts

Descent into Avernus is full of unforgettable material. A city chained above the River Styx. A golden holy symbol turned into a doom clock. A fallen angel ruling the first layer of Hell. A tiny celestial elephant trying to remember the truth. Infernal war machines roaring across a battlefield of devils and demons. Soul coins, Hellriders, bargains, and redemption.

The pieces are fantastic. The problem is that the campaign needs help connecting those pieces into a story that players care about from the beginning.

That is the real fix.

Do not run Descent into Avernus as a campaign where random adventurers get pushed from Baldur’s Gate into Hell. Run it as a campaign about people trying to save a city they care about, uncover the truth behind a terrible betrayal, and decide whether even the damned can be redeemed.

If you do that, Descent into Avernus becomes much stronger. Not because you rewrote the whole campaign, but because you gave it a heart.