Ahbael Campaign Guide
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Ahbael Campaign Guide

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The incursion of fiends that had been going on for years was enough of a problem... but the Gap changed everything. Cities crumbled into ruins in seemingly the blink of an eye, mortals crying out to their gods that gave no answer. Areas of the world that nature still had its grasp on had grown as if centuries had passed, and others held scars upon the land that could only have been afflicted by beings of unimaginable power. Though, not all was lost: the Demon Lords and Archdevils that had made their way into the world disappeared along with the gods, and even through the immense destruction, there was still hope.


You will be starting in the city of Myddraal, the only beacon of mortal hope still around in Nurau or maybe even the Severed Rimelands at large. 


Setting

The setting will be Ahbael. You are located in the city Myddraal, within Nurau (a subregion of the Severed Rimelands).

What You NEED to Know about the Campaign/Setting

  • The Incursion happened long before the Gap, named after when fiends entered and began their sieges upon the material plane alongside their archdevil masters and demon lords. The River Styx that parts through all of the lower planes also made its way into the material plane, cutting up lands and forming new, almost impassable barriers of mind-altering water between them.
  • The Gap happened 70 years ago: the amount of time that passed in the blink of an eye to all mortals during it is completely unknown, though it is assumed to be at least a couple hundred years due to the erosion and changing of much of the landscape, and the ruins that many cities turned into after that single blink. All known archdevils and demon lords seemed to suddenly disappear after the Gap, as well as the gods. There has also been no known major contact with any of the celestials since, though some report ghost stories of the shadows of what looks to be angels that suddenly appear over cities then disappear just as quickly.
  • The land you are in, Nurau of the Severed Rimelands, is overrun by demons, though that does not mean an errant devil does not pop up here and there. Also, fiends are not the only creatures to watch out for in the land: plenty of beasts and monsters of the old world still roam the wastelands, though some may be tainted by fiendish influence.
  • You will all be starting in the largest known mortal city not just in Nurau, but the Severed Rimelands at large: Myddraal. Much of the city's structure managed to stay intact during the Gap, though its previous, diarchic rulers Akhedya and Motaedoxa were nowhere to be found after. These previous rulers established a law system based upon the seven sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth), where committing egregious acts in line with those sins would get you punished by law, usually resulting in exile. From those who were around before the Gap, some recall that this system was established in order to take strength away from the fiends that feed on these sins.
  • People, and overwhelmingly Tieflings, have been suddenly disappearing from the city. One of these people was a young tiefling from the orphanage (if it is agreed upon by you guys that you are all from the same orphanage), and the last place that he was seen was a long destroyed area of the city that has been undergoing re-acquirement for a very long time. Much of the area is covered in ruins.

How Your Character Relates to the Campaign

This only matters if we go with the plotline that you guys are all orphans in the city.

Somehow, someway, you are an orphan. At some point in your life, you found yourself at the orphanage that you met the rest of the party at, whether this means you grew up in it your whole life or you were only recently orphaned. 

Why are you at the orphanage, or Myddraal in general? Refer to the following table for ideas, but you can do whatever you want even if its not on the table:

Why are you an orphan?
d10Example
1You never knew your parents, and have just spent your whole life in the orphanage.
2Your parents were accused of one of the sins, so they were exiled and you were put in the orphanage. You could also have been exiled with them for a short amount of time, and came back to the orphanage.
3 Your family attempted to flee the land across the River Styx and through the Hellfire Barrier, but died or were lost along the way. If you made it close enough to the barrier might have never-fading burn scars, or if you touched the waters of the Styx it could have made you forget how you got to the city after that.
4Your family was killed by demons in the waste.
5You were the product of a devils bargain with your parents outside of the city, but you fled to the city to get away from them.
6You were found or otherwise woke up having been preserved in the black ice of Aruun, and managed, against all impossible odds, to make it to the city.
7

You are a Gapborn, and at some point in your early childhood your parents disappeared and no one seems to remember them.

8Your family died due to starvation, as a product of the resources being scarce and the city prioritizing certain districts over others.
9A seemingly supernatural disease spread through your village (or local community in a district of the city), and you are inexplicably the only survivor.
10Your parents were Ashwardens, a group in the guard that patrol outside of the city, but their regiment disappeared one day while patrolling and were never heard from again.

My House Rules

Every GM has their list of house rules. Here's mine:

  • When drinking a healing potion, you can choose to drink it with an action instead of a bonus action and take the maximum amount of healing offered by the potion.
  • Death saves are rolled behind the GM screen (by you) so that just the GM and the player who's dying know how close to death they are.
  • The following character options are banned in the game:
  • If we are using standard array for determining ability scores, you gain a +2 bonus to an ability score depending on the Core Ability of your class.
  • Races/species give a +2 to an ability score specific to the race/species, but also gives a free +1 to any ability score. Alternatively, if we decide we want Race to have less of a bearing on Ability Scores, we can do a free +2 and then a +1 specific to the Race (the +1 increase in this case is the Ability Score the +2 would have applied to if this alternate ruling wasn't being applied). Modified standard array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

Some of these I am pretty set in keeping, but if there is a house rule you really don't like please say something and we can work on changing/removing it!

Temptations

During a normal session, you will start with one token that you can expend (called "taking a temptation") by handing it to the GM for a free reroll of a type of roll depending on if you choose an Abyssal Temptation or an Infernal Temptation. Both types of temptations will have you roll on a table that determines an effect that occurs as soon as you take the temptation. Unless specified otherwise, all effects from temptations last one hour.

Any effects from the temptations that require a saving throw of any kind have a DC equal to 12 + your Proficiency Bonus.

When you roll a natural 1, natural 20, or the GM determines it appropriate, you gain your token back if you do not already have it.

Abyssal Temptation. Intimidating, violent cacophonies of demons encourage destructive tendencies. Choose one from the two options below, then roll a percentile die and the GM will consult the Abyssal Temptations table to tell you the consequences to giving into this temptation:

  • Reroll an attack roll, or;
  • Force a hostile creature within 30 feet of you to reroll a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw.

Infernal Temptation. Seductive, charismatic whispers of devils make sure you perform at your best. Choose one from the two options below, then roll a percentile die and the GM will consult the Infernal Temptations table to tell you the consequences to giving into this temptation:

  • Reroll an ability check, or;
  • Force a hostile creature within 30 feet of you to reroll a Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw.

The following are examples of some examples I came up with for Demonic Temptations and Infernal Temptations, but I would like your guys help to make more!

Abyssal Temptation Examples
d10Effect
1Black tusks erupt from your mouth that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike, but you take Necrotic damage equal to the amount you rolled on the damage die.
2You must use your next action to take the Attack action against the nearest creature to you when you get this temptation. For the next hour, every time you use an action to do something other than the Attack action, you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or suffer the first part of this curse again. If you succeed on the Wisdom saving throw, this curse immediately ends.
3 Every time you hit with an Attack or with a spell that would deal Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing, or Fire damage, you deal an additional 1d4 of Necrotic damage. Every time you miss with an Attack or a spell that would deal Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing, or Fire damage (or if a creature succeeds on a save against the spell), you take 1d4 Necrotic damage.
4You move up one size category (Small to Medium, Medium to Large, etc.), and while you stay that new size category you have Advantage on Strength checks and saving throws but Disadvantage on Dexterity checks and saving throws.
5Your blood boils and smoke rises from your superheated skin. You take 1d6 fire damage every 10 minutes. Creatures within 10 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw whenever they end their turn, taking 1d6 fire damage on a failure.
6... others!
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Infernal Temptation Examples
d10Effect
1You have advantage on Deception checks, but any time you tell the truth you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or blurt out an embarrassing lie about yourself or the person you are talking to.
2A glowing symbol appears in the back of one of your hands. Anytime until this curse ends, the devil who placed it can expend the symbol and force you to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, you suffer the effects of a Suggestion spell that lasts for a minute instead of 8 hours, the terms of which are up to the devil (the GM will let you know).
3 You are crippled by self doubt. You have disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls. If you are given encouragement in some way by an ally, you can make a Wisdom saving throw, losing your disadvantage on your next ability check or attack roll on a success.
4Any damage that you would take is initially ignored (though any additional effects from attacks still happen), but you take the same amount of damage as psychic damage at the beginning of your next turn. Due to the sudden strain, immediately after you take this damage you must make a Wisdom saving throw or have your speed reduced to 0 for the turn.
5You gain a debt to a devil that siphons positive effects from you. Anytime a spell is cast on you that would benefit or heal you, you take 1d6 Psychic damage for every level of the spell.
6... others again!
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Character Creation in Ahbael


Use the God's Guide Dashboard to find the links to classes, subclasses and races that I allow in table formats. You may choose any race from the Official Races column of the "General List of Races" table, any class from the "General List of Classes and Subclasses" table and any subclass in the Official Subclasses column of the same table.

This campaign starts at 3rd level, so you will be starting with your subclass right out of the gate.

For a general step-by-step guide that leads you through character creation, go to this link: Step-by-Step Character Creation

Additionally, the following options are available for this adventure:

New Race Options

Thematic Race Options

Classes