Dungeons & Dragons‘ upcoming adventure establishes the campaign setting of Critical Role as part of the D&D multiverse. Later this month, Dungeons & Dragons will release Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, a new campaign that tasks players with rescuing the city of Baldur’s Gate from getting dragged into hell…literally. One of the NPCs characters can meet during the campaign is Arkhan the Cruel, a Dragonborn Oathbreaker Paladin created by actor Joe Manganiello. Manganiello wrote parts of Descent Into Avernus and created several new characters who were assisting Arkhan in his quest of freeing the dragon goddess Tiamat from her prison within the Nine Hells.
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In Descent Into Avernus, Arkhan is also shown wielding the Hand of Vecna, a powerful artifact that Arkhan picked up when Magnaniello made a guest appearance on Critical Role, a popular web series starring a group of voice actors playing D&D on a weekly basis. In fact, Descent Into Avernus explicitly notes that Arkhan retrieved the artifact during a brief stint in Exandria, the world created by Critical Role DM Matthew Mercer. While it’s only a passing mention, it also means that the adventures of Critical Role are now officially part of the D&D multiverse.
Technically, this is the second time that Critical Role has gotten a shout-out of sorts in a D&D book. Mercer appeared in a picture of the Yawning Portal Inn in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, a book which he helped to write. And while it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see an official appearance by Vox Machina or the Mighty Nein in a D&D adventure or a campaign book, it’s still pretty cool for the popular show to get a mention, even as an Easter egg. And who knows – if Acquisitions Incorporated, a campaign created by Penny Arcade, could get an official D&D book, anything is possible!
We’ll have more coverage of Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus in the coming days. Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus will be released on September 17th.
