Chains of Asmodeus

N1: Top Deck

The top deck is usually crewed by a half-dozen cambions aided by ten bearded devils. They attack anyone that isn't a crew member. If the ship is at battle alert, then Brother Morax is on the top deck.

Characters might try to operate the shipboard weapons. While the great ballistae are only usable against other warships, the acid sprayers and flamethrowers can be pivoted to attack creatures on the deck (see the sidebar for details).

N2: Acid Vats

These chambers are where the acid is stored that is used in the sprayers. There are ten of these acid vats, each one colored green on the accompanying map. Each vat is situated below an acid sprayer on the top deck (area N1).

N3: Hellfire Fuel

These chambers are where the fuel is stored that is used in the flame throwers. There are ten Hellfire vats, each one colored red on the accompanying map, and each situated below a flame thrower on the top deck (area N1).

N4: Command and Navigation Bridge

Brother Adramalech can often be found here. He is usually only accompanied by three imps that he uses to send messages to other parts of the ship.

N5: Brig

The rooms are used for disobedient crew members and prisoners of war. Unlocking the door with the key makes a loud screeching noise and by the time the door is fully opened, the prisoners beyond are already standing and looking expectantly at the door. There are currently four prisoners being held in separate cells—a cambion named Shlatchel, a bearded devil, a couatl that has assumed the form of a cambion to avoid conflict with his cell mates (though all other crew members know the truth) and the former Hellrider, Barachiel (see appendix C).

The key that opened the outer door also opens any of the cells. When Barachiel sees the characters, he approaches the bars of his prison.

Barachiel insists on freeing the other prisoners (even though he doesn't know that there is a couatl here). He feels all of them have served enough time aboard this infernal vessel already. Once Barachiel is restored, the characters may use the ritual that the Hellriders taught them to free him from the Nine Hells.

N6: Nest

This is where the brothers keep their vorvolakas (see appendix B). There are three to be found here unless the ship is at battle alert, whereupon the room is empty.

N7: Engine Room

The horned devil is called Coal Heart (he keeps his real name to himself) and does his job with a great deal of relish. A dozen lemures work for him and sometimes, when he's bored, he'll throw one of them into the furnace. Coal Heart is a favorite of Brother Morax and there is a 1 in 4 chance that the archdevil is making his way to the engine room to spend time with his favorite subordinate.

Anyone entering the furnace (or starting their turn in it) must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 17 (5d6) fire damage and 17 (5d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Both Coal Heart and Brother Morax attempt to grapple an enemy to drag them into the furnace if combat occurs here.

[image: The brothers' infernal warship sails the Styx.]

N8: Kitchens

The tieflings (commoners) have no loyalty to the Brother archdevils. They're willing to tell intruders everything they know, as long as none of the imps are around to rat them out.

N9: Mess Hall

There are usually three or four each of tieflings (bandits), cambions and bearded devils. There are several smaller mess halls along the lower deck, but each only contain one or two occupants at any time.

N10: Common Quarters

There are numerous identical crew quarters throughout the lowest level of the warship.

N11: Officer's Quarters

Below-decks there are 6 almost identical officer's quarters.

N12: Workshop

A maelephant nomad (see appendix B) named Zerkosis runs this workshop. It is assisted by four bone devils and four barbed devils.

N13: Storage

The various storage rooms are filled with rations for the crew.

N14: Soul Fire Engine

This is the engine that powers the ship. Anyone entering the engine area (or starting their turn in it) must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 17 (5d6) fire damage and 17 (5d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

N15: Fuel Reserve

This reserve of fuel is used to power the ship if the usual soul fuel is unavailable.

N16: Armory

The armory is filled with weapons of almost every kind. In addition, there are two magic weapons—a Stygian Spear and a Demonbone Polearm (see appendix D).

N17: Kennels

This is where the displacer fiends (see appendix B) are kenneled. There are six of them here resting at any given time.

N18: Watchtower

At any given time, four cambions are on watch, observing the cardinal directions for signs of other vessels approaching. If a vessel is spotted, or if intruders enter the watchtower, one of the cambions attempts to flee to warn the Brothers.

Brothers Adramalech and Morax

Asmodeus seldom deigns to wield the whip himself when someone rouses his ire. He has lesser devils to do that for him. Though, in this case, 'lesser' can still mean very powerful indeed. Adramalech and Morax have served the greatest of Fiends faithfully since the earliest days of the Nine Hells. They were angels within the host Asmodeus commanded. When he fell, they cast themselves willingly down to be with him. In an internal hierarchy rife with ambition and betrayal, the brothers' lawful nature manifests as absolute loyalty. In return, Asmodeus gives them what they want. They stand outside the intricate hierarchies of the Nine Hells, reporting directly to him and undertaking his commands with their own hands, his personal enforcers. His 'hounds', say other devils with a sneer of contempt, but Adramalech and Morax are as content with their lot as any devil can be.

They manifest most often as chalky white humanoids, Adramalech around eight feet tall and the hulking Morax, twelve. Morax is the more physically potent of the two, his hide spined and barbed, his hands jagged talons. Adramalech does most of the talking, to dreadful effect. As befits Asmodeus's devils-of-all-work, they're a versatile pair of monsters, more than equipped to punish those who have disappointed their master. And 'punish' is the operative term. Asmodeus dispatches his enemies to them when they've roused his personal ire.

Morax (see the accompanying stat block) has the tremendous strength and speed one would expect of a martial devil. His spines are brittle and hollow, and shards of them lodge in the flesh of those he strikes, or who strike him, where they rapidly begin to grow jagged extrusions of their own like miniature sea urchins. The shards must be cut out swiftly before they carve his victims up from the inside. This is mostly by way of a distraction so that Adramalech (see the accompanying stat block) can play his own games though.

Adramalech retains his angelic voice from before the fall. His golden words inveigle their way into the ears of listeners, confusing, distracting, distorting the way they see the world and causing mind-wrenching dissonance in mortal minds. Worse than this, Adramalech can conjure simulacra of his enemies' loved ones, living or dead. More than mere illusions, these creations have a temporary life and thought drawn from the memories of the brothers' enemies. This psychic link means that, when Adramalech torments them or Morax tears them apart, the pain is felt by those whose minds gave rise to them. In this way, Asmodeus's decreed punishments combine physical agony and mental trauma in equal measure.

Though concentrating on destroying the less imposing Adramalech might seem the logical way to assault the brothers, the pair have a final surprise for their foes. They were as close as two angels could get before the fall and nothing in all the eternal ages of the Nine Hells has ever divided them. If either falls while the other still stands, the remaining Brother's presence sets their fallen kin's flesh bubbling in a frenzy of regeneration. They must be defeated together or not at all.

B1: Bridge

The bridge is always crewed by a half-dozen bone devils. There is a 50 chance that the commander on deck is Abigor, otherwise it is the first mate, a pit fiend named Seleceus. If the submersible is currently at battle footing, then Abigor is in command. The words on the wall are written in Infernal and are how the aboleth in area B3 communicates with the bridge commander.

B2: Brig

The prisoner is named Aeshma (see his entry in appendix C). The moment he walks free of the room with the characters, he holds out his hand for the coin he has won from them (he did win the wager after all). His satchel contains two Soul Coins, 15 gp, and a set of gambler's dice.

B3: Communication Room

The tentacled creature is an aboleth that was imprisoned by Abigor centuries ago. It now serves the purpose of keeping Abigor in communication with everyone on the ship and its other servants throughout the Nine Hells. The aboleth uses the sigils to send messages to other rooms in the submersible or receive messages from those locations. Likewise, and not unlike a Sending Stone, some of Abigor's minions carry talismans that can send messages to this room or receive messages from it, even when they are on a different layer.

The aboleth knows many things and it is willing to share for the right price. A rare or more powerful magic item is what it wants in exchange for knowledge. It knows almost as much about the Nine Hells as Asmodeus himself. The most important thing it knows is the truth of Asmodeus's origins. You choose which of these origins is the true one:

• Asmodeus arose from the primordial chaos as the mightiest of the lawful gods, with Jazirian the only one who could rival him. They both took the form of a serpent and they set their minds on bringing law to the chaos. Eventually the two gods fought, and Asmodeus was defeated. His body fell through the multiverse until it crashed into Nessus forming the canyon known as the Serpent's Coil.
• Asmodeus is a fallen angel. He was originally tasked with keeping the demons of the Abyss in check, but eventually to become better at killing demons he and his angelic followers took on demonic traits. This led to him being banished by the gods. But before he was exiled to the Nine Hells, he was able to fool the gods into signing the Pact Primeval. This is a contract between Asmodeus and the gods of the multiverse that allows Asmodeus and his servants to legally corrupt mortal souls so that they end up in the Nine Hells. These souls can then be used to increase Asmodeus's power.
• Asmodeus served the first and most powerful god, He Who Was. Asmodeus chaffed at having a master, so he used an artifact called the Shard of Evil to kill his god. Then he was able to erase the name of the god from existence. The Shard of Evil is the ruby at the tip of the rod that is Asmodeus's signet. Asmodeus was banished to the Nine Hells by the other gods.

B4: Engine Room

This is a Hellfire furnace. Anyone entering the furnace (or starting their turn in it) must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 17 (5d6) fire damage and 17 (5d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

B5: Kitchens

The six imps flee from any intruders, looking to alert the rest of the ship.

B6: Showers

There are four rooms dedicated to bathing or showering, along with toilet facilities. These are often empty.

B7: Common Quarters

There are two large rooms dedicated to housing and feeding the crew.

Each of the quarters contains two bone devils and three cambions. If fighting occurs in one of these rooms, the occupants in the other room are likely to hear.

B8: Officer's Quarters

B9: Storage

There are several mostly empty rooms dedicated to storing rations and nonmagical weapons.

B10: Abigor's Bedchamber

Abigor is seldom here, as there is so much work to be done in maintaining the infernal submersible. The papers mostly detail the logistics of keeping the devil crew fed and disciplined.

B11: Torpedo Room

There are usually two bone devils present, but on a battle alert the room has eight bone devils working feverishly to keep torpedoes loaded and ready to fire. There are thirty-four cylinders, each a torpedo weighing 800 pounds. They're usually inert, but if the submersible is at a battle alert, then 1d4 of them have been primed. To prime a torpedo, one must press the correct combination of runes on its surface. This requires a successful DC 17 Intelligence (Arcana) check, for each torpedo (Fiends succeed on this check automatically). If a primed torpedo takes more than 10 damage it explodes, dealing 35 (10d6) force damage to every object or creature within a 30-foot-radius. Any primed torpedo damaged in this way explodes too. The damage from two or more torpedoes breaches the hull of the submersible, filling the room with the waters of the Styx within 2d4 rounds.

B12: Depth Charge Room

There are two bone devils present, whether or not the submersible is at a battle alert. There are ten depth charges, each weighing around 400 pounds. A depth charge must be armed before it is capable of detonating. To arm a depth charge, the correct combination of runes on its surface must be pressed, requiring a successful DC 19 Intelligence (Arcana) check for each depth charge (Fiends succeed on this check automatically). If an armed charge takes more than 20 damage it detonates, dealing 52 (8d12) lightning damage to every object or creature within a 60-foot-radius. Any armed depth charge damaged in this way detonates too. The damage from a single depth charge immediately breaches the hull of the submersible, filling the room with the waters of the Styx.