Need Help with the Hells (Prison) Beneath Magnimar

So it looks like my party will be heading down to The Hells in Magnimar (the prison beneath the city). They must head down there to retrieve a McGuffin from Sir Aeryn Darvengian who is a prisoner who has taken over the lower levels of the prison and assembled an army of prisoners. I have this loosely tied into the main arc of the AP.

I can stat Darvengian but I could really use some help in figuring out how many prisoners ought to be with him, how they should be statted, and if the party should have any chance of killing him and getting out alive.

Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated. . . session is in a week!

Many thanks!

Hi there Pasoguava,

If you're looking for some help, we'd need some basic info before we can help.

- PC levels?
- What's the McGuffin?
- How many sessions should this take?

That said, I would stat long-term convicts as something like Expert 1 / Rogue 1 or Brawler 2, which is almost far too weak for your purposes. But again, the above information is necessary for us to help.

Many thanks for the reply, Askar Avari!

PC's are currently level 7 but I can adjust Darvengian's levels as needed.

The McGuffin is a rune on parchment which will activate the powers of a homebrew sword I'm going to give the party paladin. Darvengian has the rune in his possession but doesn't know what it does, only that it contains great power. He will not want to part with it, especially seeing as someone else wants it very badly.

Would love it if the session were a one-shot. If it's one-and a half, though, that's ok, too.

I appreciate the NPC suggestions. I'm trying to figure out how many NPC's Darvengian has at his command. Is it an army of psychotic criminals down there or is itmore of a shock force? That type of thing.

Thanks again for any thoughts!

So, I'll admit up-front that I don't particularly like the characterization of the Hells and its inhabitants - convicts left to die by their captors all labeled as insane. And, given that run-of-the-mill convicted criminals of the sort mentioned are nowhere near threatening enough to pose a threat to Lv. 7 PCs, I'm going to propose taking a different approach.

This may seem recycled in RotR in particular, but what if Aeryn were attempting the Transformation Ritual to become a demon? Specifically, what if sacrificing his family was the second step, much like Nualia's burning of her father's bones, and all those years ago Aeryn developed an Aspect of the Demon unknown but to those locked in the lowest layers of the Hells? Something subtle, like demonic senses or telepathy.

I suggest this set-up for the following reason: a paladin is coming to retrieve something in Aeryn's possession. While he may not understand the scroll's significance, what if his ultimate aim here were to use the Hells and a hero who would rise up to stop him as fuel for the third step - his transformation into a half-fiend, those favored by Socothbenoth?

Also, it appears that Socothbenoth's spellcasting followers are largely enchanters, which fits in well with Aeryn's control of the Hells, but it may come off as stale for your PCs - another mind-controlling schemer running the show right after Xanesha.

I also hesitate to flesh out a description of the Hells or Aeryn's rule, given his patron and powers... I kind of had my fill of murdering sex cults with Xanesha.

Oh, but for enemies, I'd recommend low-level demons, charmed and fiendish humans, and good outsiders bound with lesser planar binding.

Many thanks for the excellent thoughts, Askar Avari. That doesn't seem overdone at this point at all as we took almost a year off from the campaign so are just starting to pick it up again. I'm absolutely going this route, thanks again!