Nathanicus Gamer Gamebook Review: Baldur’s Gate Descent Into Avernus
Score 4/5
Background Lore
This gamebook really is a journey into the Hells. The background of this adventure is the Blood War of the Lower Planes between the demons of the chaotic evil Abyss and the devils of the lawful evil Nine Hells (not incidentally prison of the queen of dragons, Tiamat), with the treacherous chitinous yugoloth mercenaries switching sides like the English in the Habsburg-Valois Wars of the Renaissance. The conflict began and continued from time immemorial, and while the motivating origins of the Blood War remains unknown to mortal minds, given that the belligerents are divided along the disjunctive line of Law or Chaos, this antagonism is likely the source of the casus belli. There exists philosophical rumination that her Lady of Pain of Sigil (a major antagonist of the kino Planescape Torment game) was an instigator, but there is no known extant confirmatory evidence.
The demonic forces made riverine incursions over the Styx into the first concentric layer of the Nine Hells, known as Avernus. Situated firmly in the Fire realm of the Lower Planes, which is part of the organization of the Great Wheel mystic cosmology of the Forgotten Realms, the Nine Hells are a foreboding locale and devoid of sustained joy. Avernus was the primary site of skirmishes and larger clashes between the armies of fiends, which numbered as the stars in the skies. However, devilish expeditionary forces counterattacked the demonic stronghold of the hopelessness-inducing Gray Waste of Hades, the absolute base of the Lower Planes and which stands at the crossroads of Law and Chaos, Fire and Earth.
More pertinent to the gamebook, the imperial archdevil Zariel captures the city of Elturel in a bargain with the High Overseer, Thavius Kreeg. The city phases out of the Forgotten Realms and into the fiery Avernus. During this same campaign of conquest, Zariel and his hellish host set their sites on Baldur’s Gate, the cornerstone of our present quest. The archdevil commanders use souls to power their mighty war machines. Our doomed heroes are thus called upon by the Fates to defend Baldur’s Gate while forward deployed to the perimeter of the Hells.
Opening Sequence
This gamebook is for newly-minted initiate adventurers. Mercenaries of the Flaming Fist field army, the player characters are charged with a search and destroy mission against cultists of the Dead Three. Over the course of their local investigations, they uncover a grand conspiracy by devil worshipping senior officials of Baldur’s Gate. Baldur’s Gate is a rat’s nest of scum and villainy.
Wandering the alleys of Baldur’s Gate, a degenerate place corrupted by the wicked emanations of an artifact with a trapped demon buried into the subterranean chambers beneath, the players will encounter viciousness and treachery. It is a place of intense tension. Wretched refugees from Elturel press upon the exterior gates, while dense plots pressurize the city within. The refugee crisis at the city’s border only further inspires fear, paranoia, and dread in the citizenry.
In this chapter, our heroes build their skills chasing Dead Three cultists into the dungeon and uncovering the palace intrigues of the conciliary leadership of Baldur’s Gate. Armed with evidence of the treachery that allowed Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard, without whose presence the city further unsteadies, to be captured in Elturel and the infernal Thavius Kreeg to infiltrate the city, the adventurers confront the lady Duke Thalamra Vanthampur at her family estate, and recover the Shield of the Hidden Lord and a puzzle box in its catacombs after confronting Thavius. They carry the box to the Candlekeep fortress over-watching the Sea of Swords, wherein a tiefling espionage agent connects them with intelligence resources and a hollyphant, Lulu, who, when restored, can assist with leveraging the puzzle box to traverse the Planes to Avernus, should they seek to enter.
Midgame Mayhem
The now seasoned adventurers can flex their muscles in the citadel of desperation that is the ruins of Elturel, which has been cast into dark repose floating above the River Styx, whilst fiends fight fervently in the fires underfoot. Herein they might encounter a contemplative vrock with some insight into existential and pragmatic matters alike, and they might contend with a narzugon sentry. The main obstacle here is passing through the battle lines of demons and devils to move to the deeper fortresses of Avernus. Once past Fort Knucklebone and before delving deeper into Hell, the adventurers can replenish themselves and their inventory by the wares of the nomadic Wandering Emporium.
Avernus the Fallen Hell
Avernus was once a garden of earthly delights designed to ensnare souls. There are only fleeting remnants of this in the detritus of the Avernusian wastelands. Emotionally, the nihilism in the aether of Avernus inspires distaste and dejection, as well as a desire to make company of the misery therein endured. Avernus is in stark contrast to chambered spaces of the Baldur’s Gate built environment. There are no stable spatial relations, and player characters are as likely to encounter anything as anything else at any point. They must know, too, that they are always at risk of encountering their worst nightmares.
The adventures follow their hollyphant North Star to mount Haruman’s Hill, where they will then have to rescue her from an abominable apiary, the Hellwasp Nest. They will then face a major decision point, and decide whether they will follow the branching of the Path of Demons or Path of Devils in pursuit the Sword of Zariel, which was cleaved from her hand whilst she was still an angel in good standing.
Dealing With the Devil
Once an angel of the high heavens on Mount Celestia, Zariel was corrupted during her charge in the Hells, launched from Elturel, and swore an oath of fealty to Asomodeus, Lord of the Nine, in exchange for rule of Avernus. She makes minions of her companions Haruman and Olanthius, and begins rule of the infernal Avernus.
After claiming the Sword of Zariel from the dais of the Bleeding Citadel’s spire, the party is ready to confront Her Wickedness the archdevil of Avernus. They are faced with a myriad of choices, from genuflecting to evil and serving Zariel under contract most foul to bargaining with her with her once and possibly future blade in exchange for sparing Elturel and all its souls from the impending collapse into the abyss of the River Styx.
The remainder of the journey is about escaping the Hellscape of Avernus and the Nines. The characters’ levels are teenagers at this point, and this party of Hell-weary adventurers should be highly portable, being garrisoned at Baldur’s Gate or a freed Elturel.
Concluding Remarks
This gamebook would be a delight for training novice adventurers in a grand cosmic quest of sweeping scope and upwardly-titrating difficulty. The strangeness, peculiarity, and otherworldliness of this adventure are reminiscent of Planescape Torment, as are some more specific particles. I am quite comfortable recommending it.