This guide is crafted to complement the "Chains of Asmodeus" adventure and can be utilized before your heroes embark on their journey to Hell. The malevolent influence of the Arch Devil has seeped into your realm, putting the magical abilities of your players in jeopardy.
Sinister happenings
In every corner of our world, a sinister shadow is growing, an insidious blight that seeps through the weave of magic. Spellcasters of all walks, from the novice scholars to the most venerated clerics, find their incantations morphing into something unrecognizable, something dreadful. This creeping corruption manifests in spells that distort into sinister versions of themselves, in spellbooks whose words writhe into vile script, and in magical components that demand the macabre.
Like the Death Plague of the Tomb of Annihilation, this corruption is systemic, its tendrils extending and intertwining through the fabric of our world. Its origin is shrouded in mystery, its purpose obscured by the shadows of deceit. Yet, whispers in the darkest corners of taverns and the hidden alcoves of mage towers speak a name with dread:
Asmodeus.
As your heroes ascend in power, so too does the corruption escalate. What begins as subtle changes in magic grows into an unmistakable sign of a world in peril. The only path to salvation, to cleanse the world of this malignant force, is to confront the source itself: Asmodeus, in the fiery depths of the Nine Hells.
- from the publisher's blurb