Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus Miniature Unboxing

In September of 2019 Wizards of the Coast put out the hardcover adventure Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. The adventure pits the characters against a plot threatening the Forgotten Realms. Someone is pulling entire cities into Avernus, the first level of hell, and it is up to the party to put a stop to this. The players must contend with roving gangs of death machine riding demons and devils, strange monsters, displaced angels, and morality. The adventure also features the endless war between not only good and evil, but also evil and other evil. The Blood War is fought on Avernus, an endless struggle between the demons of the Abyss and the devils of Hell.

The miniature set for the adventure came with an assortment of demons, devils, and other odd creatures, most of which have some relevance to the story. This set also contained new sculpts on classic monsters and sculpts of monsters from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. There are forty five miniatures in the set and one premium Infernal War Machine. The boxes each have four miniatures: one large, usually two medium sized, and one small. There were only two miniatures in the brick I opened that needed maintenance, one bent halberd and one demon with a mighty lean, both of which are easy enough to fix. For fixing bent miniatures I heat up a measuring cup of water in the microwave for about a minute, carefully dip the bent part in the hot water, reshape, and then quench the entire miniature in cold water afterwards. 

Our first box contained Reya Mantlemorn, a maw demon, a glabrezu demon, and Mad Maggie. Reya is a non player character or NPC the party meets in the adventure and can be used for a character figure for one of the players. The maw demon is a minor demon from the book Volo’s Guide to Monsters and is one of a few new demons in that title. They appeared back in older editions as well, I still have mine from the old Dungeons and Dragons Dragoneye miniature set from the early 2000’s. It also was a part of the metal Chainmail miniatures game that came before the plastic line. The glabrezu is a higher-level demon that uses not only its muscle but its mind to tempt mortals. The miniature is dead on to the illustration in the Monster Manual and over the editions has been made both as large miniatures, like the one above, as well as huge sized.  That brings us to Mad Maggie, she is another NPC in the adventure for the party to encounter. She runs a gang of hell machine riding monsters and is fantastic, she can be used as a hag miniature to fit any theme. 

Our second box contained a babau demon, Yeenoghu’s Barlgura demon, a merregon devil, and Yeenoghu’s quasit demon. The babau demon appeared in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and is one of two versions of the miniature in this set, the other has a spear. They have a gaze attack that can weaken their opponents. Now some of the miniatures in this set are demons with the prefix of Yeenoghu, meaning they are demons in service to the demon lord Yeenoghu, patron of the gnolls, a culture of hyena men that raid and pillage the material plane of Dungeons and Dragons. Because Yeenoghu has minions loyal to him and basking in his power, they have taken on bits of his likeness. The barlgura is the first in this unboxing. The barlgura normally looks like a large red furred ape monster, but here are more hyena like. This will work perfectly as a large sized wolfman monster in my world, so I am happy. Next is the merregon devil, forged from the souls of soldiers, these devils serve in the army of hell against all threats. They also have a creepy baby face sculpted into their mask. Last is the Yeenoghu’s quasit demon, these are one of the weakest demons, but can be pesky to fight because of their innate magical abilities. 

Box three had a lemure devil, Yeenoghu’s Hezrou demon, Scarla Truestrike, and a merrenoloth yugoloth. Lemure are the souls of mortals cursed to hell and are the weakest devil. They are usually faced in swarms serving some stronger master.  Next is the Yeenoghu’s Hezrou demon. These demons, like the other Yeenoghu demons have a historical look that has been altered for this adventure. Normally they look like large humanoid toads that emit a terrible smell and serve as soldiers in the battles of the abyss. Again, I love the hyena twist on this sculpt. The body looks like it is rotting away with bones sticking out of it’s form.  Next is Scarla Truestrike, her sculpt is based on the Kensei monk artwork from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and can be used for either a halfling or gnome for any character or NPC. The last is the first yugoloth in the set. The yugoloth are a species of demon or devil like creatures that are neutral evil aligned mercenaries that will serve anyone if the price is right, which makes them very popular during the Blood War and they fight on both sides. The merrenoloth run the ferries on the river Styx and can make a boat they captain almost unsinkable. 

Box four was heavy. It contained the abyssal chicken, the legion spined devil, the legion pit fiend, and Barnabus the flameskull. Abyssal chickens are new creatures from the adventure, they are from the abyss and have migrated to the hells as well.  It can also be used to represent a wizards familiar if you are lacking a miniature for one. The next miniature is the first legion creature. Legion refers to the legions of hell, the monsters with this prefix are new sculpts and versions of monsters that have already appeared in the lore of Dungeons and Dragons but with a new art twist. They all have a very Guillermo del Toro/Hellboy feel to them with the masks and chains. The spined devil is stronger than an imp and for me has always filled the same purpose in adventures: tiny flying nuisance to vex the party. This sculpt has a shield. The next miniature is one of my favorites, the legion pit fiend. Normally we see the pit fiends as large red devils with rippling scaled muscles. Here we have a pale blue, almost white, bloated armored creature. I love it. Pit fiends are the strongest of devils outside the archdevils and serve as great end of campaign foes. The last miniature is Barnabus the flame skull. It is an odd sculpt with a very simple, almost cartoonish mockery of a face painted on. He serves Mad Maggie and has all the normal powers associated for a flame skull. 

Box five contained Sylvira Savikas, a nupperibo devil, a legion horned devil, and a legion imp. Sylvira is another NPC the party meets on the journey and can be used for any tiefling character as a miniature. The nupperibo are gross bloated devils that either have failed to climb the hierarchy of devils or where slothful in life to the point of ruin. Their eyes have been sewn shut and they are surrounded by swarms of insects that can damage their foes. They appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Another favorite, the legion horned devil, can be an intimidating boss battle for players as well as just a cool miniature in general. This box ended with the legion imp, a small flying creature overladen with a basket of flames. This sculpt is different from the other imps out there and can serve as a great warlock familiar. 

Box six contained a Babau demon with a spear, Yeenoghu’s dretch, a legion barbed devil, and an armanite demon. The babau demon is the same sculpt as the earlier one but with a spear in its left hand. The Yeenoghu dretch is just like the other demon lord blessed demons, having a canine appearance.  They are on the lower end of the demon spectrum. The legion barbed devil is covered in spikes and carries two cleavers. It can hurt creatures that are grappling it and has the ability to do a tail attack. The last miniature is the armanite demon, which looks like a mutant centaur, equine body, tail spike, and creepy horned face. It can also throw lightning. There is another version that has the lightning in its hand. It is also from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 

Box seven contained a bulezau demon, a legion spined devil with a trident, a lemure devil, and a yagnoloth yugoloth. The bulezau demon is ridden with disease and can damage its foes in close proximity with its mere presense as well as its wicked sickness riddled tail. It appears in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. The legion spined devil is like its sibling above but has a trident. The lemure is a repeat. The strange miniature left is a yagnoloth yugoloth, it has bat wing ears, a beefy arm, and a book on its loincloth. They lead other yugoloth into battle and sign contracts. It also appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 

Box eight contained another Yeenoghu’s dretch, Falaster Fisk, a legion barbed devil with fire effect, and a legion ice devil. The dretch was the second repeat in the boxes I opened. Falaster Fisk is another NPC from the adventure but can be used by both playersor dungeon masters as a spell caster or cultist. The legion barbed devil has a ball of fire it can toss at its foes, otherwise it is similar to its sibling above. The legion ice devil has a gladiator style armor, which I think is pretty cool.

Of the forty five miniatures available in this set, I was able to get thirty awesome miniatures with two repeats in one brick. This has been one of my favorite sets and I have bought a few boxes here and there as well as a few singles. I am still waiting to pick up the premium figure, the Infernal War Machine, but I will pick it up and hopefully do a post as well.

Even if you don’t end up running the Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus adventure these miniatures can be used in any adventure and role playing game. I intermix my miniatures from both Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 

Thanks for checking out my haul. The lore and information has been gathered from the awesome book, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, Volos Guide to Monsters, and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Photos were taken by me. Miniatures made by Wizkids. Check your local game stores for curbside delivery and more information. 

Special edition of the adventure game store exclusive