| "Pandemonium" is
universes of dark, lonely, iron-clad, lawless labyrinths full of cold and howling winds.
Most sounds do not carry over ten feet, but the sounds of madness, suffering and hatred
are borne by the winds throughout the planes. The winds pass through the gateways between
layers. On most layers, gravity is away from the tunnels' center. The native life is
mostly cthulhoid monsters, and they are rare. Most of the inhabitants are transplanted
from other planes, and almost all are dangerous lunatics. Don't expect warmth, love, or
kindness from the locals. Upon entering, and during stressful moments when the sound of
the wind is present, check vs. wisdom. After the first failure, the character is crabby
and abrupt, with a penalty of 1 on wisdom and intelligence. After the second failure, the
penalty no longer applies, but the character is despairing, and is always surprised in
combat even if others are not, yet gets +1 on all "to hit" and
"damage" dice. After the third failure, the character is hysterical for a number
of minutes equal to the difference rolled, then returns to normal dice rolling but now has
some behavioral aberration based on previous personal traits. Work this out with the
referee. The spirits of the dead have no body heat, and are invisible to infravision. Evil
deeds, or any use of death magic or necromancer's spells invites trouble, including
personality deterioration. The Bleak Cabal nihilists have their headquarters here.
Primitives will find sinners doing penance for their anti-social deeds. Public portals
between the layers and to remote planes appear as rifts in the cave walls, often guarded
by dread things. Pandesmos is a
universe of great caves (thousands of miles across, so that their walls appear to be
barren plains), turbulent, decaying cities and the citadels of mad warlords. The city of
Madhouse is operated as a public service by the Bleak Cabal. There's plenty of traders,
but almost no craftspersons and no natural resources whatever. The River Styx plummets
into an abyss here. Those who drink from the river lose all sense of purpose in life.
Winter's Hall is an arctic mead-hall hideout maintained by the banished Norse character
Loki, guarded by frost giants and white winter wolves. Olive-drab pools to the astral
appear at random in the riverbank slime, and can be moved freely. Portals to the Outlands,
Limbo or the Abyss are often flat squares drawn on the walls of the caverns. This is a
common location for cults of darkness, wind, madness, and hate.
Cocytus is a universe of extreme noise, where the
sounds of madness and lamentation fill the air. This causes permanent deafness plus
insanity unless protective measures (earplugs, "silence", mind blank) are taken.
Its tunnels are artificial, but no one knows who or what carved them. This is a common
location for the headquarters of cults devoted to madness and weird mental states.
"Howler's Crag" is a mountain. An inn lies at its base. Its peak dances with
faerie fire, and at the top, anyone can shout a message to anyone else in the multiverse,
and it will be heard by that one recipient. Sometimes the message goes to the wrong
person. "The Harmonica" is a huge, windswept spherical hollow, miles across,
with towers rising from it wall toward its center. No one knows which actually reaches the
center, but rumor has it that any party climbing this tower will receive a
"wish" (or perhaps something nasty, instead.) Bugbear heaven is here. Skulls
around the bugbear king's throne whisper of their old lives as the wind blows through
them.
Phlegethon is a universe of darkness, where all the
walls are black and slimy, and all light sources are greatly dimmed. Small black fires
burn here, and they produce little heat. In some areas, the gravity is all in one
direction, and here dripping water produces stalactites and stalagmites. This is a common
location for the headquarters of weird sects devoted to darkness. The town of Windglum is
unfriendly and unplanned, filled with exiles. The Court of the Bad Fairies is here,
dominated by an evil artifact. Visitors will probably be charmed into perpetual slavery or
used in some foul magical experiment. There is a monster who, in exchange for all your
food, will give you a one-way trip to your selected location in Agathion via her
intestinal tract.
Agathion is a prison universe of solid rock with only
spherical bubbles, and no tunnels. Undesirables are kept imprisoned here, which is good.
There are probably many more layers. |
