Brainstorming 'roleplaying' encounters in Hell

[Ion]

So every Christmas, we gather up my old high school gaming group together in one place, and we have a great "mini" campaign for old times sake.

Last year's game ended with the PCs chasing a devil named the "Duke of Rams" and his two headed fiendish tyrannosaurus pet back into hell and, in a sufficiently climactic moment, they managed to destroy the portal he was using, protecting the lake of steam region of Farun, but trapping themselves in hell with the Duke.

One of the guys had a good idea this year of picking up the same characters from last year and having the game set "one year later".

So now all the PCs are hardened veterans, clocking in at level 15, after a harrowing year fighting to get out of hell. (Through some weird twist of fate, nobody has managed to learn Plane Shift )

Long story short, I now have the welcome challenge of crafting a high level adventure in hell!

I am having no trouble thinking up cool hellish locations, and some awesome devils and other fiendish creatures to fight, but those things aren't worth too much without a great "story" or at least "theme" to link them together.

Any thoughts on cool 'roleplaying' encounters one might experience while traveling through hell?

 

[interwyrm]

What version of hell are you using?

 

[Ion]

In theory the Forgotten Realms version of Hell, but since it's been a year, and all the PCs get to remake their characters, I'm free to cobble together whatever depiction of hell that looks like it will work the best.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Lots of devils will probably not try to kill them, but simply offer deals to them. They might even do them a few favors "for free". Of course, their ultimate goal should be to direct them against their enemies, and they will come from the angle "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". They will all seem very reasonable, but there will always be a price later on - and the consequences will be other than what they expected. The PCs should become very paranoid indeed.

The only thing in their favor is that the devils will be even more paranoid, and the PCs might be able to play them against each other from time to time.


Of course, exploring the nature of Evil means little if you don't also have victims - in this case, humans or human souls who are imprisoned in Hell and suffer there (for the PCs are unlikely to empathize with devils). Naturally, they will all beg the PCs for help. But which ones are more-or-less innocent victims tricked by the devils, and who brought their damnation upon themselves? Finding the answers to that should be very difficult indeed...

 

[howandwhy99]

2nd Edition's Paladin in Hell might be just what you're looking for. I believe there is a conversion in the board's Library.

Necromancer's Demons and Devils has three 9th-13th level adventures which can be run concurrently, sequentially, or separately. Besides being tough (it's Necromancer) and easy to scale, they could fit in portions of Hell without too much trouble.

Legions of Hell is a good monster sourcebook as is any good website on Dante's Inferno.

If you want to just great your own adventure, you can use the Adventure Funnel method I've been reading about. Determine the Goals, than Obstacles, thirdly Details, and than add in Rewards. Rewards can be anything not just magic items and treasure. I'd say the last step involves adding the coolest things you can find too, check the storyhours, books, websites, or what have you for inspiration (borrowing).