Acheron

Acheron is an eternal battlefield of endless conflict. It is a plane of law where conformity takes precedence over any thoughts of good. Unending battles take place across the entire plane between huge armies, with no chance of victory or cease-fire. Each layer of plane consists of a huge numbers of iron cubes of varying size, from continent-sized to small islands; not all of these are actually cube-shaped, but they are generally called cubes nonetheless The cubes float in an air-filled, infinite space, occasionally colliding with each other.

Every cube face is habitable, with gravity always being directed towards the cube's center; furthermore, the cubes are filled with caverns and tunnels. The cubes that make up each of the four layers of Acheron are pitted and scarred with cracks and dents from their many collisions and craters from their many battles. On the orderly plane of Acheron, the cubes always rust or fracture along straight lines and at right angles. Some of the cubes are only a few hundred feet on a side, but others are big enough for whole cities and kingdoms. Geometric shapes other than cubes exist, though they are rare (except on Tintibulus, the third layer). Vision is normal on Acheron. The plane is lighted by a gray, fluctuating illumination that varies slightly between bright moonlight and a dark, cloudy day. Hearing is also normal, though the echo of colliding cubes and the ring of battle is always in the background.

The light on Acheron varies between that similar to bright moonlight to that of a dark and cloudy day. The sound of battle resonates around the plane and can always be heard in the distance.

Tone

Some cutters would rather die in chains than obey another sod's orders: Acheron's a place that'll thwart even that, because the armies of Acheron aren't interested in the sufferings of principled berks. The underlying laws and order of Acheron all serve conformity and evil, and evil thrives in war. The plane's laws and strict organization force all creatures to do battle. Give fiends the power of life and death, and soon there's nothing but a wasteland. The iron-shod battle plains of Acheron are the most lawful of the evil planes, bridging the gap between the highly organized and evil realms of Baator and the ultimate organization of the clockwork disks of Mechanus. Acheron's the home to those who inflict evil as an afterthought, between the desire for organization and order. Many armies wander through Acheron, though they have surprisingly few leaders, for the nature of leadership demands those who are capable of initiative to drift toward planes with more definite alignments. Acheron's one of the hinterlands of the Great Ring. The few berks who scratch out their living from its iron ground are too busy stabbing each other in the back to notice the opportunities of the rest of the multiverse, the poor sods. It's almost as if'the Rule of Threes limits their ambitions; their sights are set on plunder, provisions. and power - nothing more. If they are ever united under a single power. the petitioners might be a force equal to the archons, but until then they're just despairing soldiers unable to leave the war and the jaded merchants who'll profit from it. Hope and decency are in short supply in Acheron.

Structure

As with other outer planes, Acheron is spatially infinite, consisting of four infinite layers or sub-planes. Acheron's first layer, Avalas, shares borders with the neighbouring planes of the Nine Hells of Baator and the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus; travel is possible between Acheron and these planes at certain locations.

Traits

• Objective Directional Gravity: The strength of gravity is the same as on the Material Plane, but which way is down depends on which face of the cube you're on. Walking across edges between faces can be dizzying for the inexperienced. Each block pulls perpendicular to its surface; step onto a new face and “down” resets. Between blocks, you drift until a mass claims you, or a grapnel does.

• Normal Time.

• Infinite Size: Each cube is finite, but the void the cubes hang in is infinite.

• Divinely Morphic: Acheron changes at the whim of its deities. Ordinary creatures must use spells and physical effort to change the infernal battlefield.

• No Elemental or Energy Traits.

• Mildly Law-Aligned: Chaotic characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks.

• Normal Magic.

• Bloodlust-Acheron rewards a creature for harming other creatures by imbuing that creature with the strength to keep fighting. While on Acheron, a creature gains temporary hit points equal to half its hit point maximum whenever it reduces a hostile creature to 0 hit points.

Links

Portals to the Outlands, Mechanus or Baator are often the rims of the gravity wells that the blocks orbit. The unholy River Styx has a source on Avalas, on the block called Wreychtmirk. The River Styx although occasionally it'll flow through channels or tunnels - it defies gravity and plummets from cube to cube, sometimes sliding across a cube's face in vast sheets and drowning entire armies, raining down unexpectedly as the cubes shift, and eventually somehow falling between layers to end up as frozen shards of ice in Ocanthus.

In Acheron, there's two kinds of permanent portals to and from other planes: tethered and free-floating. Tethered portals are simply those anchored to a specific cube, making them reliable entry and egress points. Problem is, the natives of the plane have marked each portal and usually have some kind of watch on them, to track who and what comes through. Not the best way for a cutter to make a stealthy entrance. Free-floating portals hang at set points in space while blocks slowly orbit around them. Planewalkers who pass through this type of portal float in space and are slowly drawn to the nearest large block, finally landing at a powerful, dangerous speed (20d6 points of damage). Bloods know to have flying spells and items that provide flight ready when they travel through a free-floating permanent portal into Acheron. Whatever the type, each portal's spherical and activated by touch. The sound it makes when activated tells a cutter where the portal leads. A sphere that rings with a harmonious chord leads to Mechanus, a discordant sphere leads to Baator, and silent spheres lead to the Outlands. Gates to the Astral and to other layers of Acheron sound a single note, not a chord.

Inhabitants

Acheron's the home of battalions and armies constantly at war, encouraged by powers that thrive on strife and destruction. Unlike the battlefields of Ysgard, though, there's no honor, glory, or comradeship in Acheron, only maneuvers and drills, victory or death. Each soldier fights as part of a whole and must slavishly obey his superiors. The three lower layers are nearly abandoned wastelands, devastated and shattered ground worse than the festering layers of the Abyss. In the Abyss, the garbage, manure. and rot at least give rise to compost and strange new growths - Acheron's lower layers are sterile and barren. Few creatures are powerful enough to survive the plane alone. Those that are deserve a wide berth

Renegade armies filled with every sort of creature wander the faces of Acheron looking for enemy forces to fight. However, mutiny or madness soon brings down even the strongest military leader, leaving most armies without a true objective other than the destruction of other renegade armies. Sometimes armies of undead or constructs last longer, because they are able to mindlessly fulfill their last orders. Armies that have not gone completely mad may still seek a goal, such as the defense of a realm, the procurement of provisions, the overthrow of an impostor king, or any of a hundred other causes. Unfortunately, because most of those causes were important on a plane far from Acheron, even the most steadfast armies soon lose focus and go renegade.

Achaierai, devils, imps, fomorians, rakshasas, dragons, and yugoloths also inhabit Acheron. Rakshasa clans rule several hidden cubes throughout Acheron, all cloaked by powerful illusions. Clockwork creatures from Mechanus keep a few hidden mining colonies scattered through the two lowest layers of Acheron.

Finally, Acheron holds enormous flocks of birds. Ravens, vultures, gulls, bloodhawks, and swallows tumble on the wind, sated on the carnage of the many battlefields.

The Petitioners

Ores, goblins, and hobgoblins make up the majority of Acheron's petitioners, but even these warrior creatures are confined to their realms on the first layer. A realm of duergar ekes out a gaunt and gloomy existence in the second layer, but they are few in number. In fact, most of Acheron is an empty wasteland. Scholars of Sigil are convinced that Acheron can never be a crowded place. The Book of Bindings. kept in the Rare and Dangerous Volumes vault of the Hall of Records, the library of the Cage, states that: "The absolute number of spirits in Acheron is a conserved quantity: the number can neither increase nor decrease. For this reason, the armies of Acheron take no prisoners: each enemy they slay provides an opening for an allied warrior's soul to enter. The massacres of Acheron will never end until all the petitioners of one side or the other are slain." Arguments still rage as to whether planars and proxies are counted in the conservation of spirits. Most generals assume that the principle of conservation of spirits only applies to petitioners. not planars. For this reason. captured mercenaries are sometimes spared. After all. most sell-swords are quick to change allegiance if payments from a dead employer don't seem to be forthcoming.

Rogue Armies

With so many military endeavors setting off in search of glory and plunder. it's no surprise that a few of them go astray. Mutiny and madness soon destroy most of these rogue armies from within, bur a few reorganize themselves in one of two fairly standard forms: either a mass of undead or automatons serving a single powerful priest or mage, or a ragtag gang of scavengers that survives only so long as it can take supplies from others by force. These latter armies arc generally whittled down to nothing within a few yea rs or decades at the most, so only the armies of automatons can be considered a permanent feature of the plane. Though they are more often encountered as legends and bard's entenainments than as breathing foes, rogue armies do travel the ravaged hinterlands of Acheron, aimless but ever hungry for battle. Each rogue army serves its own agenda, because it lacks any greater cause, a realm to defend, or even a steady supply of provisions. Most of the rogues are undead. but armies of mechanisms. magical constructs, energy-creatures, and divinely-animated beings have been sighted as well - the last transformed by the aura of Thuldanin, the junkyard of magic and loss. The most famous of the rogue armies is that of Boretti the Necromancer-King. Boretti is a lich, and his army of sword wraiths. ghouls, zombies, and skeletons keeps growing. Every soldier he meets becomes either an officer or a foot soldier. A few diviners who have taken the risk of scrying on Boretti claim that he lives with a single obsession: to rule an entire realm as a god. Other armies are more obscure. Some say that a hapless emperor saint of the kuo-toans once lost his way in the Styx and arrived in Baator. only to quickly escape through the nearest portal to Acheron. His fishy followers have long since become oddly mummified soldiers sustained through the magical intervention of their goddess, though they still take every drop of water from travelers they meet. The third of the famous rogue armies is the personal army of the House of Reddirk. the lost clan of the bladelings. those who sought another haven and still wander the cubes, having found none. The few bloods who've survived meeting them claim that fully half the army consists of blade golems, and the other half are well on their way to becoming them with the help of modron mechanics. Bladeling patrols have a standing offer of 88,000 gold bezants (the number has some mystical significance for their priest-king) for anyone able to locate this army and lead them to it. 

The Mercy Killers

The Mercykillers keep a large presence on the plane, offering food and safety in exchange for loyalty and a set period of service throughout the planes; these slave-soldiers are treated well enough, though they arc always the first to be sacrificed when a breach opens or the ranks of the enemy must be distracted or broken. The Mercykillers side with the roaming armies of the Battleplains only when necessity compels them to. The elite legions other realms (and sometimes planewalkers as well) to serve as slaves in their palaces and mansions. The rakshasa realms are cloaked by powerful illusions. and most sods know enough not to go looking for them of the Red Death are justly feared. The local leader of the Mercykillers is Tall Tally (Pl/M/fiend (osyluth)/Mercykiller/LE), the Warden of Vorkehan. He's assisted by the Justicants, a council of ten judges who preside over the trials of arrested sods. In Acheron, those found guilty of any crime are left to slowly wither in the Wells of Vorkehan, inky black pits dug into the iron cubes and lined with the bones of past perpetrators. Mercykiller courts and arbitrators decide the final punishment appropriate for all infractions in several towns; they are eager to provide courts, marshals, and punishments. Roving executioners called Inquisitors serve the goblins and the ores, the duergar and the bladelings equally. Inquisitors seek to purge evil from the multiverse, and claim they answer only to a higher law. Though it's kept deep and dark, Mercykiller sages and smiths are constructing the first new hassitorium in centuries, as a beacon and rallying point for their cause. They hope to use it to establish perfect law and justice among those unfortunates who have not yet agreed to be ruled by Mercykiller justice. 

Other Encounters

Achaierai, baatezu, bladelings, imps, modrons, rakshasas, rust dragons, rust monsters, and yugoloths are all encountered here. Only yugoloths and rakshasa are truly native. the others coming only to recruit or scavenge or feed. Yugoloths occasionally serve as proxies to Lei Kung or the hobgoblins or ores, but this role's limited at best. More often they pursue their own unfathomable plans. Rumors say that an entire yugoloth city exists under the black surface of one of the cubes of Aval as, but the city has never been found - or at least, never reported. Rakshasa clans rule several hidden cubes throughout Acheron, all led by a singularly powerful maharajah. The clans vie for his attention by kidnaping petitioners from other realms (and sometimes planewalkers as well) LO serve as slaves in their palaces and mansions. The rakshasa realms are cloaked by powerful illusions. and most sods know enough not to go looking for them. Though they are not natives of the plane. the modrons maintain a large presence on Achcron, with mining colonies scattered throughout the two lower layers. Some say that they gather new cogs for Mechanus by carving out the blocks, and when every block of Acheron has taken its place in Mechanus, the Great Ring will be broken. replaced with the perfectly mechanized workings of the modrons. The hinterlands of Acheron are haunted by unimaginably enormous rust monsters. called rust dragons. Even a barmy can see that they're some sort of insectoid creature, not true dragons at all, but they're terrors no malter what a cutter calls them. The rust dragons live on a steady diet of metal etched and eaten our of the plane's blocks themselves. Unfortunately for the dragons' palates, the cube metal is a bit like eating gruel every day; the rust dragons are always eager for a change, particularly a change consisting of magical or specially-forged metals. The armies of the first layer keep wooden and stone weapons available to destroy rust dragons, to prevent losing their entire stores of arms and armor. Many planewalkers are not so lucky. Bladelings haunt the depths of the fourth layer. occasionally venturing into the upper layers in search of some obscure ingredient for the Hopping Mage or for their own conjurers. Though they are sometimes confused with golems, bladelings are actually a race of living metallic creatures. They can be enslaved and forced to serve by mages who know the proper spells (some say that the undead form of a bladeling becomes a blade golem), but otherwise they keep to themselves. Their leader or high priest (the difference is too subtle for outsiders to appreciate) is a powerful shaman called Iron Feather (Pl/M/bladeling/P12/LN he's said to rule a great hidden city on the fourth layer, Ocanthus. Finally, every traveler should know that Acheron is a place for enormous flocks of birds: Ravens. pigeons, sparrows, vultures, gulls, bloodhawks, and swa llows tumble on the chill autumn winds. Some eat provender stones and small insects, others devour the dead of Acheron's many battles, but all of them travel in great wheeling flocks. Solitary birds are considered a very bad omen in Acheron.

Environment

Acheron's divided into four layers, each layer stressing order over evil, the group over any single soldier. Only the first layer is thickly inhabited, and even that's a stretch. After all, Acheron isn't made to support life. Each layer consists of enormous iron cubes floating in an airy void, cubes that collide in jarring, echoing blows like the ring of swords in battle. The cubes themselves are pitted and scarred with craters, cracks, and dents from their many collisions, though in the orderly plane of Acheron the cubes always rust or fracture along straight lines and at right angles. Not even weeds grow in Acheron. All four layers drift in a void of air that supports life and night. Gravity here conforms to the shape of the solid. always pointing to the center. Thus, armies can range on all six sides of one of the immense cubes, or they can walk on both the top and bottom of Ocanthus's drifting plates. Travelers in Avalas and Thuldanin must be wary of collisions between the cubes, since everything between the two masses is crushed. Nearing cubes are seen a day or two in advance, depending on size. giving just enough warning lo escape. (So pitched are some of the wa rs between legions that they light until crushed, ignoring all other perils.)

The plane's lit by a gray, fluctuating light that varies slightly between bright moonlight and a dark, cloudy day: never bright enough to harm the eyes of ores or the goblin races, but never so dim that a cutter can't sec the hand in front of him. Though the source of this illumination has never been found, it's strong enough that the cubes break the light up into shafts and shadows, and some recently collided cubes have surfaces shiny enough to reflect the shafts or light in odd directions. Some say that a single cube somewhere glows bright enough to light the rest of the plane, and that it's been glowing forever - after all, that's the only way it could light an infinite space. Regardless of the explanation, the light is there.

Acheron's weather's best described as brooding, and none too warm, either. On the first layer, Avalas, the cold metal cubes sap the heat from travelers. Blizzards, waterless realms, ice storms, and the sudden appearance and disappearance of the River Styx all confound armies marching across the land. At least the blizzards are useful for predicting periods free of collisions; they're taken as signs that no collision is imminent, since snow forms around a cube only when it's floated in the void for long months, far from other cubes. Only one area has predictable weather: Thunder always signals the approach of Lei Kung's free-floating realm. As for the other layers, Thuldanin's weather is usually ignored since most berks only see its caverns, but it's prone to hail and ice storms. Tintibulus has no real weather, only a constant cool temperature. Ocanthus has only one form of weather, the constant rain of razor-sharp shards of black ice. Many or the cubes of Acheron are hollow and pierced with tunnels, some of them collapsed into scrap or riddled like wormy cheese. The tunnels are uniform, always circular and about 20 feet in diameter. Cubes that are cratered or laced with tunnels are favorites for permanent habitation, because cities or structures built on the flat surfaces of cubes are always crushed sooner or later, when the cubes collide. Interior caverns are often square like the cubes themselves, and a few of them serve as strongholds, hiding places, and treasuries for the armies that struggle on the surface. The tunnels are also crucial sources of food, for they support humid, fertile mushroom beds and a strange form of woody, black, earthy fruit called provender stones. Provender stones are edible, though just barely. The stones are square, black blocks that sit on the iron plains like dark boulders and seem to grow constantly, for the largest are house-sized or larger, sufficient to feed an army. A few sages have even suggested that stones allowed to grow large enough are somehow transformed into the iron cubes. Army regulations among all the combatants require that the white seeds of provender stones be immediately planted, to provide future provisions. Failure to do so is punishable by immediate execution in all the major armies.

The real dark of Acheron's that its barren iron plains are cluttered with many strange relics of ancient times, living, mechanical, and magical. Long-forgotten armies come boiling over the edge of a cube, as fresh as the day they were first marshalled before a banner. Cubes drift out in to the void, returning centuries later as if it were mere days or months. Some barmies say that time flows differently on every cube, and the Guvners blither on about how it only changes in relation to a cube's proximity to others," but here's the chant: Time sim ply stops on the cubes of Acheron if they sail through the void without colliding with another cube. Some say this proves the existence of the powers, since it keeps the poor marooned berks on a cube from starving if there are no tethered gates on their cube (see "Paths and Portals below). A blood finds herself a way out or opens her own gate quickly. before centuries pass back in the Cage. Some armies have found a way to create magical, mobile fortifications for their constant wars; necessary.since immobile structures are crushed flat whenever the cubes collide.

These mobile fortresses are cal led hassitorium, after the immeasurably ancient race that first created them, the hassiror, a race known only through its works and monuments. The hassitor citadels are a product of ancient necromancy combined with bizarre architecture and stonemasonry: Hordes of slaves are built into the walls of the hassitorium. The iron walls of the hassitorium are half-living, half-metal, and constantly in pain ; the slaves within them must drag the iron ramparts along on rough iron skids. Slaves that fail to keep the grueling pace of their masters may stumble and fall, but even as they are smeared into a rusty paste, they serve to smooth the progress of the citadel onward over the echoing battlefields. Eight of these citadels are known to exist on the first layer of Acheron, but the wreckage of many more has been found in the scrapheap of Thuldanin, the second layer.

Layers

Acheron has four known layers:

Avalas

The first layer of Acheron, Avalas, is also called The Battlefield. It contains the highest density of metal cubes and is thus host to the most fighting on the plane. The cubes are dotted with fortresses and covered with battlefields. Collisions between the cubes causes them to break apart in to smaller cubes, hence the smallest cubes are the oldest on the layer.

Realms

The realm of Nishrek is located on Avalas. It is home to the orc deity Gruumsh and the other deities of the orc pantheon including Bahgtru, Ilneval, and Luthic.

Bralm's realm, the Hive Fortress, is in Avalas.

The citadel of Scourgehold is the realm of Hextor, the god of tyranny and half-brother of Heironeous. Here Hextor presides over his legions as they train in The Great Coliseum.

Clangor, is located here. It is the realm of goblin deities Maglubiyet, Khurgorbaeyag, and Nomog-Geaya. Avalas also contains the realms of Amatsu-Mikaboshi (The Brilliant Land) and Lei Kung (Resounding Thunder).

With the destruction of Iyachtu Xvim, Bane has returned to his Black Bastion, a massive fortress-castle on the layer.

Lei Kung's Realm of ''Resounding Thunder'' can be found on Acheron's first Layer of Avalas. The realm is a place of sound and fury centered around his dark fortress, the Firecracker Palace, which floats on a great storm cloud throughout the plane. His Petitioners sometimes leave the realm on missions of vengeance. Lei Kung is the only power of Acheron whose realm's not devoted to war. As a result, his realm is a sanctuary for traitors, deserters, and cowards. Lei Kung's many converts are put to good use, defending the borders, gaining the allegiance of others, and scouting for approaching armies.

Known Cubes

• Wreychtmirk
• The Blue Cube

Sites

• Arena of Bloo'dveeri
• Vorkeham ("the City of Fumes") The "Mercykillers" philosophic sect, which believes in the enforcement of absolute justice without regard to collateral damage, has its headquarters here. ("You broke the law, now you're gonna pay.") Their home city is made of titanium with acid fountains. Check vs. constitution each day or remain in bed with the dry heaves. Mercykillers are immune.

Avalas is the spiritual home of the most dedicated race-supremacists, and all who wilfully forgot their good causes in the excitement of battle. The Army of Purity has its headquarters here. This is a common location for the headquarters of sects devoted to vengeance and war.

Thuldanin

The universal junkyard of battle, where all the garbage of war finds its way and turns to stone. Each block is hollow, a shell a few miles thick. Inside is junk. Compared to Avalas, Thuldanin has a relatively small population. Geographically it is very much like the first, consisting of numerous huge cubes. On this layer the cubes are scarred and pitted by battle. Many pits lead down to labyrinths containing the refuse of the endless battles of the plane. The remains of broken war machines and other devices line the interiors of the cubes, even some finely crafted weapons can be found amongst the rubble.

Thuldanin has a preservative quality that results in the petrification of objects and creatures that spend too long on the layer; savvy visitors spend no longer than 29 days here.

Realms

The realm of Hammergrim, a separate plane in the 3rd-Edition Forgotten Realms cosmology is located on Thuldanin. It is the realm of the duergar god, Laduguer.

Sites

The mines of Marsellin are the richest source of treasure, and they are guarded by a huge rust dragon who has joined the Mercykillers.

Tintibulus

Tintibulus contains a large number of four-sided, five-sided, eight-sided, and other solids in preference to the six-sided cubes that predominate the other layers. A layer of thick dust coats the surface of the solids here, which are made of a grey volcanic stone. Magicians' libraries are scattered here, and is the best place in the Multiverse for magical research.

Ocanthus

The fourth layer contains no regular shapes, but many shard-like solids of black ice with razor sharp edges. The shards fly about in violent motion, referred to as a bladestorm.

Sites

• Zoronor known as the City of Shadows, is the home of the bladeling race.

Realms

At the extreme of Ocanthus lies the Cabal Macabre, the realm of the goddess of death and magic, Wee Jas. Her domain takes the form of a huge and intricately carved ice castle, that glows with a pale light. Wee Jas' powers quell the bladestorm within a half mile of her location, allowing her to maintain her realm. Cabal Macabre is located on a huge, possibly infinite shard of black ice which may be a barrier between Ocanthus and a deeper level of Acheron.

Fauna

• Achaierai
• Chronotyryn
• Rust dragon
• Steel Predator
• Bonespear
• Maug

Spell alterations in Acheron

Magic in Acheron's usually straightforward, and proceeds with frightening order and precision. There's no half measures, no gray, no maybes or power-sharing. Every magical action has a magical reaction. What one mage gains, another must lose. What's this mean for a curter who's just arrived from across the Great Ring? Well, for each new spi rit that enters Acheron, another spirit must die. For each ice storm, a fire storm occurs elsewhere. For each healing, someone suffers. Each of these reflections appears at the moment the spell takes effect and then rushes off.just like a whizzing spell crystal. It don't matter what it's called, it's the reversed, frozen form of another spell, resembling an ioun stone or a spell crystal from some prime world. The reflections can be captured by a spectral hand, a Bigby's hand spell of any kind, and certain magical gloves. If captured, reflections are used to undo the magic that created them, so long as death ain't involved. A berk polymorphed into a snail returns to her own form if touched by the crystal formed when her shape was first shifted; a berk frozen by a cone of cold becomes unfrozen, and regains the hit points lost to the..spell in the first place. Reflections last one hour per level of the spell; there's not much point to tracking down the reflection of a magic missile (even if it could be found within an hour), but the chance to undo a wish gone awry is certainly worth the chase. Most reflections are useful only as counter-measures to negate malevolent spell effects, but current chant's that some ambitious magelings are conducting research to determine if the reflections may be turned to other purposes. These spell reflections have a thousand different colors. patterns. and shapes, and some less-than-honest members of the Fraternity of Order claim to know the dark of which reflection holds what spell. Half of them offer a "concordance" or a "guide" to the powers of Acheron's reflections. but every last one of them·s a sheer farce. Mercykillers don't take kindly to frauds and cheats, so these knights of the post usually don't hawk their ragsheets for long. Finally. casting spells with material or somatic components when two cubes collide is impossible - the reverberations and aftershocks last for as much as an hour. as the cubes· impact diminishes and the two bodies slowly separate. Otherwise, the conditions for casting spells are pretty good, though the difficulty in scrounging material components can hiring even a great magic to his knees.

• For every spell, an opposite effect flies off in the form of a crystal at movement rate of 100. Except for deaths, the effects can be reversed by the touch of this crystal. The crystal lasts one hour per level of the spell, then discharges.

• Conjured and summoned creatures must obey the letter of any command, but cannot disobey, and a hostage person(petitioner or sentient creature not native to the Prime) must be provided in exchange to trade places. The hostage is entitled to a saving throw to avoid the effect, and if this succeeds, the caster must save or become the hostage. If both save, the spell fails. Creatures summoned to Acheron must always obey the letter or any command. though they strive to avoid the spirit: no order can be refused, no matter how suicidal. Since elementals, fiends, and other creatures have no chance of disobeying a caster's commands or slipping from his control. these summoned creatures are often used as suicide troops to break strongpoints and strategic locations. There's a price for such perfect obedience. however. For each creature summoned, the mage who calls must provide a petitioner or planar in its place as a sort of magical hostage; in the case of summoned baatezu. this duty usually results in the death of the unfortunate victim. The hostage automatically trade places with the intended summoned creature. The intended victim's entitled to a saving throw versus death magic to avoid the effect. If the victim makes the save, the caster must then make a saving throw versus death magic to avoid being drawn in as a hostage. If both victim and caster save. the summoning spell fails. If the caster fails and is pulled away, the desired creature arrives without magical restraint - unfortunately for whomever's left in the area

• Divination cannot spy on an enemy army. A bad omen, if obtained, will extend the bad luck to the questioner's entire group or army. Spell keys might be able to avoid this. Divinations in Acheron can never be used to spy on opposing forces: the nature of the plane requires careful scouting and encourages surprise attacks. This applies only to divinations that might have military significance; it has no effect on civilians or adventuring individuals, objects. or places with little strategic value. Omens arc common and are often skewed to show the worse possible result. Any positive or negative omen (from an augury or divination) always applies to the entire group that the caster belongs to. whether that group is a party of heroes or an army of thousands. For this reason, casters who report too many bad omens to their generals rarely live to enjoy their old age

• Necromancy used against a stronger target rebounds, and drains two points per spell level from the caster. A spell key might prevent this. Armies are easy to obtain on acheron. There are no limits to how many undead one may control while on Acheron. If the controller leaves the plane, their control limits return, and they must release undead from their control until they are within their limits. Returning to the plane doesn't bring back control of these creatures. Acheron's a good plane for raising armies of the undead. for any number of followers can be raised here to serve as an army. However. other forms of necromancy arc less successful. All necromancy on Acheron depends on the magical aptitude of the caster. If his life force is greater than the life force of his target, his spells succeed. Specifically. if the caster's level or Hit Dice are greater than the target's, then the spell works. Trouble is. if the caster's life force is weaker. his spells reverse and redouble against him, draining hit points equal to twice the level of the failed spell. For instance. a cutter tries to fend off a rust dragon with an enervation spell, but the rust dragon has 10 Hit Dice and the necromancer only has 7, and so the necromancer loses 8 hit points (twice the spell's level) himself.

• Wild mages lose two levels, and no surge is possible. The effects of wild magic arc sharply reduced on Achcron. Wild mages lose two levels of spellcasting ability when on the plane. including their available number of spell slots. All wild magic spells have range, duration, and other factors reduced appropriately, and wild mages can memorize only the spells available at the lower level. Their normal level of ability returns when they leave the plane. In addition. wild surges simply don't occur on Acheron.

• Earth magic cannot affect the iron bricks, fire heats them, and water rusts them Water and Fire spells are Empowered, Widened and Enlarged. Earth spells are impeded. Beneath the surface of a cube, Air spells are impeded. Fire magic affects the iron of the cubes like a heat metal at searing heat (2d4 damage) in the spells area for a number of rounds equal to the caster level. With the right keys, elemental magic works well on Acheron, especially the magics of fire and water. Earth magics have absolutely no effect on the iron cubes of the plane. Air magic works, though only on the surface of cubes - within the cubes all air magic fails. Fire magic affects everything, including the iron of the cubes, which reacts as if under a heat mortal spell near any fire. The diameter of the heated metal is 10 feet per level of the fire spell involved. A fireball, for instance, heats the metal in a 30-foot radius. Water magic works normally within the cubes, but on the surface such magic only rusts the iron within a radius of 10 feet per level of the spell.

Wizardly spell keys are rigidly-defined but otherwise meaningless words, motions, and substances. The keys to unlocking magic in Acheron are rigidly defined but otherwise meaningless sets of words. motions. and substances. Precise ritual and adherence to form are required for each key; tradition and the battle mages· desire for order and precision have given many of these spell keys names. such as the blood key for magic missile, the gray key for invisibility. the lesser fire key for burning hands, the great fire key for all elemental fire spells, and the swords key for enchanted weapon. There are no known spell keys for any form of wild magic in Acheron. Wild mages don't advertise their presence, for those who fall into the hands of Acheron·s warring armies are quickly enslaved and set to disrupting enemy formations. The mere thought of chaos magic is enough to panic some of Acheron's soldiers.

Power keys for clergy are rare. Power keys in Acheron are very rare outside the vast armies that roam the Battleplains. Ore, goblin. and hobgoblin officers (captains, generals, and chaplains) are often entrusted with power keys for the spheres of Combat, Guardian, Healing, Necromancy, Protection, and War. These keys arc common enough in armies that some officers sell them for the proper bribe (at least 1,000 gp per key). since they can always claim they were lost in battle. These keys always resemble arcane marching orders or commissions, complete with seals, ribbons, and florid handwriting. Most keys are only good for a given duration (with the expiration sometimes written in the language of the baatezu on the key itself), and some unscrupulous officers sell theirs shortly before they expire. There's no penalty for selling a key, especially if the money's used to hold the loyalty of mercenaries. Owning a stolen key. however. is a crime punishable by a huge line and banishment from the ranks, a mistake no military blood'll make twice. The armies may be rigid and over-disciplined, but they're canny as fiends. and they'll take a cutter's jink twice if she's not careful - once for a key, and once for the fine. Lei Kung's power keys are sparks of lightning and claps of thunder. which must be absorbed into the caster (making him into a living lightning rod). They're released whenever a spell is cast, a little at a time. and each spell cast thunders, sparks, and growls to reflect Lei Kung's concerns and sphere of influence. The number of "charges" va ries, though each charge seems to work for any level spell. The power key can only be removed by slaying its holder and catching his dying breath in a vial. which shimmers and sparkles until it's infused into the next holder of the key. The power keys of Laduguer are items forged by the caster himself, then blessed by a duergar priest and lucky enough to attract Laduguer's notice. They only function for their maker.

• The suggested color for pools from the astral is flame. Ethereal curtains might be metallic red.
• The dead are immune to electricity and sound, and as an additional ability have various morale bonuses against charm and fear and +1 on attack and damage when in the military.
• The plane is "mildly lawful-aligned". Chaotic creatures have -2 on charisma checks.
• -1 on all charimsa checks for all good creatures
• -1 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all non-lawful, non-chaotic creatures
• -2 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all chaotic creatures
• Good-based spells (non-chaotic) require a Spellcraft check (DC 15) for success.
• Evil-based spells (non-chaotic) work as if caster were 2 levels higher.
• Law-based spells work as if caster were 4 levels higher.
• Chaos-based spells simply fail.