Gehenna

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Gehenna
Type	Lower Plane
Native(s)
Alignment Trait	Chaotic and neutral evil-aligned
Physical Traits:
Gravity	Normal
Time	Normal
Shape & Size	Immeasurable
Morphic Trait	Divinely morphic
Faith Trait
Elemental & Energy Traits	None
Magic Trait	Enhanced (divine magic)

Gehenna's a plane were volcanoes float in a great void, belching their magma sprays onto barren, lava-crusted slopes. Sulfurous steam wheezes from fumaroles, and horrid gases drift in choking clouds through the air.

Gehenna's not a forgettable place. Where else is a cutter going to see mountains peaked at both top and bottom, floating in space - mountains that are nothing but greasy black slopes, bubbling rivers of steam, and spraying plumes of lava? Is there another place where the very rock provides the carmine glow that outlines all? These are mountains where nothing is flat, nothing is green, and nothing is easy. Gehenna's void is filled with volcanic mounts, each hovering in space, unmoving except for the occasional shudder of a particularly vicious eruption.

The suffering petitioners of this plane must cling to these slopes or risk tumbling to oblivion. So they cling as they try to make little lives for themselves, pretending that nothing has changed, that this is and always has been their home. The barren bitterness of their land makes the petitioners suspicious and greedy, so much so that no petitioner on this plane will do anything without some kind of payment. Guides must be paid, answers bought, even strangers offering aid must receive compensation. This is a plane without charity, without even a glimmer of what that means.

“Greed and an insatiable lust for power dominates the minds of those that seek out Gehenna. The plane is referred to as the Bleak Eternity, though this description does not do it justice – four volcanoes of mind-boggling size dominate each of its layers, from the churning lava heart of Chamada to the icy silence of Krangath. The bleakness comes from the perspective Gehenna forces upon all who tread its mountains layers, that greed and the pursuit of power is the only real goal in the multiverse. Of course, it’s no surprise that the yugoloths who play at being mercenary in the Blood War that rages eternally would find Gehenna a fitting home.”

It is said by the poetic among the multiverse that mercy goes to die on the volcanic slopes within the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna. Also known as the Fourfold Furnaces, Gehenna consists of four layers that are each the home to a volcano of staggering size. Most planar scholars believe Gehenna to be the smallest of the Outer Planes, though the lightless void through which the volcanoes drift endlessly is said to have no end, nor any substantial qualities.

Greed and suspicion walk together on Gehenna, and it has been theorized that the type of evil embodied in the Bleak Eternity is of a fouler and more sinister nature than the Abyss or the Nine Hells. The ideas of personal advancement and self-preservation are not just theoretical ideas here – they are enforced by the environment of Gehenna, which suppresses charity unlike anywhere else in the multiverse. Any helpful act must be inherently selfish in order to succeed in the Fourfold Furnaces, and these acts are viewed by some of the native celestials of the Upper Planes as the greatest evil.

Physically, Gehenna is a difficult realm that tests visitors and natives alike. The volcanic nature of each layer creates a plane where no flat surface exists naturally. Everything sits on the slope of the layer’s volcano, and the only flat platforms are created artificially by the residents of the plane. Falling is a real hazard, as are rockslides, earthquakes, and poisonous gases, along with volcanic eruptions from the more volatile layers.

To survive in the Fourfold Furnaces of Gehenna, a person must be willing to push themselves to meet and exceed regular challenges. On the surface, this can be an uplifting and empowering idea, but on Gehenna this concept is perverted with a palpable sense of evil emanating for each volcano’s heart. To exceed, Gehenna whispers, a person must be better than their fellows, and to show mercy is a weakness the plane does not abide.

Gehenna lacks the raw evil chaos of the Abyss or the militant ordered evil of Baator and relies more on the advancement of the self at the expense of other or lesser creatures. Fiends of all types can be found on the volcanic slopes but none more prevalent than the yugoloths.

Many planar scholars believe the yugoloths actually originate from the Gray Wastes of Hades and simply migrated to Gehenna in the distant past, but the origin is moot at this point. Yugoloths are the dominant masters of Gehenna, from the macabre horror of the Crawling City to the countless fortresses, towers, and fortifications built by the mercenary fiends to satiate their personal lust for power.

There’s an interesting distinction between Gehenna and Carceri as the two planes share miserable traits. Treachery, skullduggery, and backstabbing are common in both, but the difference is in the will of the inhabitants. In Carceri, creatures are trapped, but in Gehenna, they arrive willingly to pursue paths to power that actively forsake their fellows. Helping others out of charity is a high crime on Gehenna, but in an interesting twist the self-serving nature of the plane means that alliances are actually common. They simply don’t last long and nearly always end in treachery and bloodshed.

Thieves and assassins are common in Gehenna, and few are as notable as the famous Sung Chiang. Most believe Sung Chiang to be a god of cutthroats who built the Palace of Thieves on the slopes of Khalas from bits and baubles stolen from treasure chambers across the multiverse. The site caters to thieves of all kind, but the masters of Sung Chiang are cunning and can be found nearly anywhere.

A few other noteworthy creatures can be found on the slopes of Gehenna, including the immortal kobold Gaknulak the Trickster, the serpent-eyed hag diviner Laughing Jane, and the painwalkers, servants of Loviatar who rules from the Frigid Fortress on Mungoth, the third mount. Lost remnants of Blood War battles litter some regions, and everyone who has come to live on Gehenna learns to hide their most valuable possessions – which means there are a great number of lost vaults scattered about the volcanoes after their owners passed away.

Features

Thin Vile Air. The first thing travelers notice upon arriving in Gehenna is the air. It is noticeably thinner than most planes, and creatures find themselves gasping for breath after even short amounts of exertion, and to make it worse the thin air has a vile, acrid taste to it. The foul smell of lingering brimstone hangs everywhere and eventually gets into food and water. The most foul odors rise up from the many black pits that dot the slopes, with some leading to the other layers and others leading to a yawning pit of death.

Rocky Danger. The slopes of Gehenna have a well-earned reputation for being incredibly dangerous. There’s no natural flat elevation anywhere on any of the layers, everything is at an angle, and the void between the volcanic slopes is filled with floating rocky debris that crashes into the mountainside at irregular intervals. The result are rockslides that can bury and pulverize creatures in an instant.

Self-Preservation Instincts. Gehenna is a plane that demands survival first and foremost, and a powerful sense of self-preservation settles into travelers that visit any of the volcanic slopes. It’s a subtle and insidious effect that puts the survival of the individual over the survival of the group, and the nature of Gehenna actively discourages helping others. An imperceptible voice constantly whispers into the unconsciousness, “how does this help me?” whenever a creature feels an urge to lend a helping hand or share resources with others.

Traits

Gravity	Objective directional gravity, pulling inexorably down steep mountainsides.
Time	Normal, though it feels torturously slow to outsiders.
Shape & Size	Infinite
Morphic Traits	Divinely Morphic (Only deities, or demigods can alter terrain)
Elemental Energy	None Dominant
Alignment	Neutral Evil, leans toward Lawful Evil
Magic	artifcat;

Localized Phenomena

Visitors soon feel overwhelmed by suspicion, greed, and paranoia. Trust fades rapidly, replaced by obsessive thoughts of betrayal and ambition. Prolonged stays risk permanent corruption. Magical flames throughout Gehenna, particularly common on Chamada, feed upon spiritual essence. Souls and memories burn slowly in these fires, creating a valuable resource for mezzofiend lords and devilish bargainers.

Khalas

The kindest of Gehenna's cruel layers, Khalas, the First Mount, connects to the Astral Plane. The air is crimson near the ground, quickly fading to black no more than a few dozen feet overhead. Chamada glows like a bloody moon in the darkness, brightened by sparkling fountains of lava and flame. Khalas's sides are streaked with waterfalls, cloaked in steam from the singing ground. The rivers here never reach the bottom, either evaporating or disappearing into black caverns. The Styx is the largest of these rivers, plunging over falls thousands of feet high and winding through the glowing caverns of Khalas's interior.

Despite being finite as it floated in the endless void of the plane, Khalas stretched for an unimaginably large distance and was larger than any known landmass of any world in the Prime Material plane. There was no level ground to be found anywhere in the layer: all slopes were inclined at least 45 degrees, and sheer cliffs were common. Marked by abundant volcanic activity, the air of Khalas was saturated with ash and smoke. Close to the ground, the air glowed red due to the lava flows reflecting off the smoke. Above this glow, the sky was permanently dark. The layer was marked by numerous waterfalls that descended the bottomless slopes until evaporating away or going underground through fissures. As the water evaporated, it filled the entire layer with steam and cloaked it in mist. The largest waterfalls were the ones along the course of the river Styx, which flowed rapidly and violently through the layer in gorges, canyons, and sometimes free-falling waterfalls off ledges along the mountain. The violent waterfalls and rugged mountainscape conferred to Khalas an eerie beauty. Above the red glowing mist, the second layer, Chamada, was visible in the distance.

• The Cloudy Path, a bi-directional always-open Portal to the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Steam.

Divine Realms

• Teardrop Palace: is the home realm of Sung Chiang.

• Fortress Falgarthil

Khalas is the location of a number of godly realms, including the kobold deity Gaknulak's realm of Aknuthrak, the wererat god Squerrik's realm of Cheisin, and Math Mathonwy's realm of Corriegrave.

Bergs

• Void's Edge
• Blood Maze of the Charred Horn

Chamada

The Second Mountain is the most savage of the four. The ground burns with the orange glare of magma so intense that it blots out the sky. Rivers of lava cascade down its slopes, continually hardening, forming dams, and then bursting forth in new directions. Vents unexpectedly split open and spew fresh ejecta, and volcanos swell on its surface like warts. The air is full of the smell of burning hair and sulfur-scorched flesh.

Of all four layers of Gehenna, Chamada was the most violent and inhospitable. The sustained volcanic activity kept the slopes constantly flowing with thick lava, to the point that solid ground was only rarely found. The entire layer glowed bright red from the incandescent rock, brightly enough for the entire amount to be visible from the first layer of Khalas despite the enormous distance between the two. From the point of view of an observer in the first layer, Chamada appeared to be a bright-red burning moon. Vast rivers of magma flowed and twisted endlessly down the slopes of Chamada, cooling in some locations only to explode in others, creating plumes of lava, secondary volcanoes, and veering in different directions. The extreme heat was hazardous for any unprotected living creature. Due to this eternally ongoing eruption, the air of Chamada was permanently filled with ash, which could entirely block visibility in some locations. The entire layer smelled so strongly of charred flesh and sulfur that it caused an effect similar to that of a permanent stinking cloud spell. Since the ground was the only source of illumination in the layer, all shadows projected upwards.

Chamada is the location of a number of godly realms, including the giant deity Memnor's realm of Thraotor and Sargonnas' realm of Palace of Deception. It also contains the realms of dead gods Iyachtu Xvim (Bastion of Hate), and Maanzecorians realm of the Cyst of Secrets.

Settlements

• The Crawling City: A great metropolis of obsidian and ash, the Crawling City moves across Gehenna, moving from layer to layer at the will of the its master, the general of Gehenna. The Crawling City moves by virtue of thousands of fiendish, fire-immune legs grafted under the massive lower deck of the city, allowing the metropolis to cling to the steepest cliff face on Gehenna and slowly ford the broadest river of lava. The general is an ultroloth whose power is said to approach that of a demideity. In theory, all yugoloths answer to the general, although the yugoloths' proclivity for plots and webs of deception means that many have divided loyalties.

The city has low barracks for devilish, demonic, and other assorted elite mercenaries, and siege towers housing potent war magic. There's also a war academy where brilliant fiendish strategists teach their lore to up-and-coming officers bound for the Blood War, and massive factories where smithies constantly turn out the latest in fiendish military hardware. The Crawling City itself, in all the millennia of its existence, has never directly entered the Blood War. Ancient prophecies tell that should it ever do so, the Blood War will finally reach a decisive conclusion in an apocalyptic final battle.

• Nimicri: From the slopes of Chamada, Nimicri appears as a small moon about 2,000 feet in diameter. It floats in splendid isolation above the burning mount, covered with spires, steeples, and less dramatic structures connected by a weblike network of streets. Everything is clean, the buildings are comfortable and in excellent repair, and every citizen of Nimicri is quite polite. Excellent goods of all sons can be had at the trading post, and Nimicri is an established stop along several trading routes that crisscross the Outer Planes. What most visitors never realize is that Nimicri— buildings, people, and all—is one vast creature that mimics a town. Sometimes Nimicri absorbs a visitor into itself completely, but other times it allows visitors to leave completely unharmed. If even a single drop of a visitor's blood spills onto any surface in the city, Nimicri is able to duplicate that visitor exactly, including memories up to the point when the blood was spilled. If a “citizen” of Nimicri is ever forcibly removed from the town, it immediately dies like a limb severed from a body.

• Tower Arcane: This tower rises high above the lava flows and ash clouds of Chamada, decorated with blades and spikes that promise pain and death to unwelcome visitors. Yugoloth wizards control the tower, which functions as the record vault for the yugoloth race. The history of the yugoloths can be found here, though the information is well protected and heavily encrypted with glyphs of warding, symbols, and other protective spells. The interior halls of the Tower Arcane support the bodies of flayed petitioners dangling from chains. The wizards use the blood of these petitioners (and the occasional unwelcome visitor) to pen their history. Torture paraphernalia line any walls not given over to bookshelves and sealed archives. Deep below the tower lies a vast library of particularly ghastly contracts with mortals, extending for miles. The most potent protective spells in the wizards' arsenal protect the sanctity of the library from encroachment by molten rock or extraplanar thieves. Each contract is inscribed on the living skin of a petitioner, burned in with magic and branding irons. Petitioners are strung on chains like popcorn on a string for miles in parallel lines of agony. The only thing on the mind of any given petitioner is its own particular contract and its personal pain.

• Engine of Wrath: To support their efforts in the Blood War, the yugoloths require weapons and armor on a grand scale. To this end, the latent power within Chamada, the most active of Gehenna’s layers, was harnessed by engineering yugoloths to create a mighty factory. Referred to now as the Engine of Wrath, it is an imposing iron fortress built over the confluence of three lava rivers flowing like waterfalls from further up the mountainside.

Mungoth

The Third Mountain is constantly assaulted by a rain of ash and acidic snow. The ground is cool, with only scattered volcanos that barely make enough light to show the way. Avalanches of cold mud threaten travelers at every turn. Mungoth was a land of falling ash and burning snow (also known as the Burning Ice). The furnaces of this layer were fewer and farther apart, allowing ice and snow to build up in the darker places between active areas. Travellers had to brave the never-ending avalanches of wet snow and fiery rock. Underground passages were relatively safe. Mungoth was far less volcanically active than the topmost two layers Khalas and Chamada, but not completely extinct. There were still cool lava furnaces that provided a dull reddish glow to the layer, as well as volcanic vents that continuously spewed ash into the air. Nevertheless, temperatures across the layer were very low, so that it was under almost constant snowfall. The snow mixed with the volcanic ash turned acidic and could rapidly damage unprotected living creatures, burning through most ordinary clothing. Upon hitting the ground, the snow and ash mixture turned into thick mud that made the slopes extremely slippery. Mudslides and lava flows were common and frequently buried the caves that could serve as temporary shelters from the acidic snow.

Mungoth is the location of the lich god Velsharoon's realm of Death's Embrace and Loviatar's realm of Ondtland.

• Valley of the Outcast: A deep chasm contains a wellhidden realm sheltered from the ever-present acidic snow. Built of equal pans basaltic rock and giant bones is a rough castle. The castle is scaled to the proportions of its master, an outcast fire giant wizard named Tastuo. Her eight siblings, fellow outcasts, also reside in the castle. Like their sister, all are either wizards or sorcerers. Yugoloths of the layer have several interlocking contracts with Tastuo, which helps ensure the valley's safety should her enemies ever find her. Tastuo never names those enemies, but her predicament makes her sympathetic to the plight of travelers seeking asylum. Thus, the Valley of the Outcast doubles as a way station for visitors in need, but only if they can find it.

• Hut of Eyes

Krangath

The Fourth Mountain is the dead realm. Here, all the fires are out and the mountain shudders no more. All is blackness and ice. Nothing dwells on the frozen surface. The fourth layer was devoid of any volcanic activity, even underground. All was dark and cold. The name of this layer meant literally "Dead Furnaces". Unlike the other three layers of Gehenna, Krangath was completely devoid of any volcanic activity. Although the rock composing the slopes was volcanic in origin, the layer had been extinct for at least several millennia.  Not only geologically dead, but the layer was also devoid of any other signs of life. There was no wind, no source of light or heat, and no natural sounds. The only pervasive smell was that of brimstone. The only time's wind blew on the slopes were when an occasional portal shifted the air. The only sounds heard were distant footsteps of visitors. The layer's rare petitioners kept very quiet for fear of being discovered by its residing lich lord. The only inhabitable locations throughout Krangath were subterranean caves that provided some protection against the intense cold. Since nothing could survive on the surface, the cave systems were violently disputed among the layer's inhabitants.

Divine Realms

Krangath is the location of the orc god Shargaas' realm of The Night Below.

• Hopelorn: An artificially maintained ledge holds a precisely fashioned complex of obsidian. Dim, reddish lights are visible in tiny, slitlike windows throughout the complex. This is Hopelorn, the stronghold of Melif the Lich-Lord. Hopelorn is a mortuary city where sarcophagi glow like streetlights and necromantic energies dance wisplike over every boulevard. Here undead are welcome, but not so the living or petitioners, whom Melif regards as pathetic losers unable to properly manage the passage of their mortal lives. In Hopelorn, Melif and a cabal of liches and other powerful undead spellcasters conduct their undying research into the nature of life, death, and being. Sometimes Melif and his assembly capture fiends for outrageous experiments, though they are careful never to capture yugoloths, lest the wrath of that race fall squarely on Hopelorn. Besides, it is rumored that Melif was once a yugoloth himself, before he steeped himself in the eldritch arts and eventually lichdom.

Special Physical Conditions

There are no level points on the surface of any mountain. Should a traveler lose his footing, he tumbles down the slope until stopped by something solid or until he can catch a passing outcropping. This tumble causes falling damage equal to half the distance rolled in feet. The hot surface of Khalas inflicts 1d2 points of damage each round to unprotected skin; Chamada's surface causes 1d6 points of damage per round. Mungoth's acidic snows cause 1d3 points of damage per turn, and storms can last for hours. Krangath's utter cold causes 1d6 points of damage per round.

Special Magic Conditions

Cruel Hindrance: The plane’s cruel nature makes it difficult for visitors to help one another. Whenever a visitor casts a spell with a beneficial effect, including a spell that restores hit points or removes a condition, the caster must first make a DC 10 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the spell fails, the spell slot is expended, and the action is wasted. In addition, anyone attempting to take the Help action must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the intended target of the Help action receives disadvantage on their action instead of advantage.

Corruption: Attacks with the disease, poison, or necrotic keyword gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll. Healing powers restore only half as many hit points as normal. Attacks with the radiant keyword deal half damage (ongoing radiant damage is not affected).

Darks Revealed: Some say it's because there's no charm on Gehenna, others say it's because the bare essence of truth lies revealed on this plane. Whatever the reason, Deception rituals cost twice the normal component cost to cast.

The Fourfold Furnaces: On the burning slopes of Gehenna, spells with the fire keywords gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and those with the cold keyword deal half damage.

Rule Through Fear: Spells with the shadow, necrotic, or force keywords gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls. Spells with the radiant or charm keywords suffer -1 to attack rolls.

Enchantment/charm magic is diminished on Gehenna, while invocation/evocation magic is enhanced. Conjuration/Summoning; Divination; Necromancy; All Elemental, Since you are on an evil aligned plane, you can deduce that an altered spell will be twisted in some sort of evil or neutral way. Basically, the spell may need "help" to work, or its effects may be changed.

• Summonings can only bring something native to the plane, even a "gate". A spellcraft check, or intelligence check at -4, is required or the summoned creature is free-willed and will probably attack. All divinations require an act of cruelty to be effective. No enchantment above level 4 works, and those that do are cast at one level lower; as per older information, spells that produce happiness or affection usually fail (referee's option). Invocations-evocations function as if cast one level higher, and saves are at -1. Necromantic spells producing pain or injury get +1 per die, while those that heal get -1 per die and probably require a key to work at all. Undead are turned as if the cleric were one level lower. Fire and earth spells are cast at two levels higher in most places. Water spells fail completely on the second and third layers. Fire spells fail totally on the fourth layer. Water and air only work as freezing ice crystal jets on the fourth layer. Spell keys might help overcome some or all of these.

• Wizardly spell keys are variable but logical. Obsidian for fire, a skull of someone slain in anger for necromancy. Power keys are bones and muscle of some animal, charred in a furnace. Rarely given.

• The suggested color for pools from the astral is russet. Ethereal curtains might be bright red.
• The dead are immune to poison and acid, and as an additional ability have +10 on climb checks.
• The plane is "mildly evil-aligned". Good creatures have -2 on charisma checks.
• -1 on all charimsa checks for all chaotic creatures
• -1 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all non-good, non-evil creatures
• -2 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all good creatures
• Good-based spells simply fail.
• Evil-based spells work as if caster were 4 levels higher.
• Law-based spells (non-good) work as if caster were 2 levels higher.
• Chaos-based spells (non-good) require a Spellcraft check (DC 15) for success.

More

Gehenna is recognizable in "Tytherion, the endless night", a "canyon complex" with "volcanic depths" surrounded by a black or indigo fog in the astral sea. The Chromatic Dragon now lives here, as does Zehir, patron of snakes and poison. Souls who have pleased these powers may survive as "darksworn", who tyrannize each other as they are able. Perhaps visitors would get bonuses or penalties to intelligence, wisdom, and charisma-based skill checks depending on how much their behavior has been in keeping with the ideals of the locals.

In keeping with the flexibility of the third and fourth editions and the backgrounds of many players, perhaps Gehenna is essentially a world where like-minded spirits meet. It looks and works like our own world, except there is no love or kindness, and it is dominated by sophisticated, capable gangs. NPC attitudes are typically "hostile" unless visitors seem to be likely allies. If there is a spiritual race native to Gehenna, it is devoted to promoting the community's ideals among the living by encouragement and subtlety, rather than by force. The dead find communities matching their own ideals and interests, and continue to live much as they did on earth, though no longer able to visit the Prime Plane.

Native Inhabitants

Vaporighu and yugoloth are native, while other creatures such as imps, quasits, overthrown baatezu, and exiled tanar'ri often hide here.

Petitioners

Petitioners of Gehenna are the refuse of the planes. Greedy and grasping, they care only for themselves. Expect no favors from such a petitioner unless proof of immediate recompense is at hand. Unlike on many of the other Outer Planes, petitioners on Gehenna are more willful, traveling from layer to layer on their own personal quests for power. They're looking for the ultimate exercise in free will, though they are destined to never find it. Gehenna's petitioners have the following special petitioner qualities: Additional Immunities: Poison, acid. Resistances: Fire 20, cold 20. Other Special Qualities: Surefooted. Surefooted (Ex): All petitioners have a +10 competence bonus on Climb checks.

Humanoids

Few humanoids live on Gehenna by choice. The nature of the plane doesn’t lend itself towards the kind of cooperation that builds cities or towns, so the humanoids that do dwell on the layers often keep to small bands and huddle in the caves away from the sulfurous stench above ground. The avari are noted slavers and still maintain large colonies beneath the ground, so it’s not uncommon for a humanoid of nearly any type to be found in their warrens.

Kobolds. Kobolds are considered pests by the yugoloths but they’ve managed to eke out an existence on the slopes of Khalas. They form nomadic tribes darting from cave to cave, fighting other creatures for meat and creating makeshift traps and hazards to protect their temporary warrens. Many kobolds come eagerly to Gehenna to follow in the footsteps of Gaknulak, a famous kobold trapsmith who supposedly won a wager against the kobold god Kurtulmak by building an insidious warren filled with devious and potent traps somewhere below Khalas’ slopes.

Minotaurs. The minotaurs of Gehenna are not the noble warriors found elsewhere. They are mostly bloodthirsty barbarians living in brutal tribes, fighting anyone and everything for dominance over their territory. They have a strong reputation for being reckless raging fighters willing to forego their own survival for the sake of the combat, seeking only to destroy their enemy in as brutal a fashion as possible. Gehenna’s slopes hold several sprawling mazes below the ground that house minotaur tribes, though few are as brutal or legendary as the Blood Maze. There, a degenerate tribe of savage minotaurs called the Blood Horns hunt and kill for sport.

Orcs. Shargaas the Night Lord, the orc god of hunting and stealth, rules over a region of Krangath known as the Night Below. There, in the inky void darkness of the deep tunnels, orc rangers and priests honor Shargaas by honing their hunting skills in preparation for heading out into the multiverse on missions of assassination and ruthless savagery. The orcs that live and die in the darkness of the Night Below usually take the tribe name Nightdeath to honor their patron.

The General of Gehenna

All yugoloth true names are recorded in the mythical Books of Keeping, from the lowliest mezzoloth to the greatest ultroloth and baernoloth. All, except one at least. He is an immensely powerful ultroloth known only as the General of Gehenna. He wanders the volcanic mountains, and many lesser ultroloths have sought out the general’s wisdom. Those that succeed in finding the legendary warrior leave with a greater sense of the multiverse’s truths and a memory gap that can never be filled regarding their time spent in the general’s presence.

The General of Gehenna often stops by the Crawling City, and his appearance there is always a cause for frenzied agitation and excitement. His mere presence elevates lesser yugoloths to greater heights of personal glory, and legends about his prowess grow year over year. Whether it’s wrestling a band of solars barehanded, snapping the neck of an upstart demon lord, outwitting Dispater in a contest of contracts, or drinking fully from the River Styx, stories about the General of Gehenna are wild and varied.

What truth is there to the general’s immense library of tall tales? The Arcanaloth Conspiracy in the Tower Arcane are said to hold volumes of lore surrounding the General of Gehenna’s exploits but even they record little but hearsay and conjecture. Ultroloths have spent their entire life tracking down the General of Gehenna and have failed to do so, while nycaloths have stumbled into him in bars within the Crawling City. He can impart knowledge of the past and future, battle wisdom earned through countless campaigns, or greater truths about the nature of existence itself – if only the General of Gehenna could be found.

Links

Like all the lower planes, Gehenna has the River Styx flowing through at least its first layer, Khalas. In fact, it is the biggest river on the layer, and it hurtles through gorges and canyons with breathtaking speed. Its cataracts are legendary, and the occasional ledge creates waterfalls of epic, if polluted, proportion. Attempting to change planes via the Styx is a very dangerous thing indeed, on Gehenna. Portals to other planes are fairly common, as are portals between layers of Gehenna. They usually appear as bottomless black chasms. Sometimes they are marked as portals, but sometimes yugoloths mark actual bottomless chasms as portals by mistake or with malice.

Gate-town

Torch. It's built amid volcanic spires and is surrounded by a stinking blood-red marsh. The gate: it is a big red gem hovering high off the ground (about 30').

Movement

Combat on Gehenna is much like it is between two climbing foes on the Material Plane. Anyone on the surface of Gehenna's mountains loses his Dexterity bonus to AC and cannot use a shield. Attackers get a +2 bonus to attack climbers, even if they're climbing themselves. A climber who takes damage must immediately make a new Climb check against the DC of the slope. If the climber fails, he immediately falls, taking damage as described in Falling on Gehenna, above.

Falling on Gehenna

Because every natural surface on Gehenna slopes at least 45 degrees (except for occasional ledges and artificial constructions), moving from place to place is dangerous. The description of the Climb skill in Chapter 4 of the Player's Handbook describes how characters move about on Gehenna's slopes. The DC for Climb checks on Gehenna varies from 0 for ordinary slopes to 15 for steep areas and 25 for sheer cliffs. Creatures can move at one-quarter speed as a moveequivalent action on the sloping surfaces, or at one-half speed as a full-round action. Attempting to move faster incurs a –5 penalty on the climb check, as described in the Player's Handbook. Those who fail their Climb checks make no progress. If they fail their Climb checks by 5 or more, they fall. If a fall occurs, the victim rolls, bounces, and rebounds off the endless steep slope of Gehenna. Falling characters get a chance to catch themselves by making a Climb check (DC 10 on a slope, 35 in a steep area, and 45 on a cliff). If the fall occurs in a random location, the victim comes to a stop on a natural ledge some 10d10+100 feel farther below and takes 10d6 points of damage from the bouncing, bone-jarring descent. In some locations on Gehenna, a victim's fall could end sooner—in a river of lava.

Lore

The Fourfold Furnaces, the Fires of Perdition...these names don't begin to describe the horrors of Gehenna, where there's no escape from pain, no free will and no mercy.

Each of Gehenna's four layers is a volcano floating freely in space, with a peak at both top and bottom. The volcanoes are literally hundreds of thousands of miles tall. Level ground doesn't exist on any of the layers, and each of them is as inhospitable as possible. Travelers to this plane have got to watch out for lava flows, gaseous explosions, burning grounds on the hot furnaces, and acidic snow and bitter cold on the cold ones.

The yugoloths live on Gehenna, although some claim the Gray Waste was their original home. The yugoloths remain neutral in the Blood War, but that doesn't mean they're not involved. They hire themselves as mercenaries to either side, taking great profit from baatezu and tanar'ri war. In fact, it's rumored they had more to do with the beginning of the Blood War the the baatezu and tanar'ri themselves.

A planewalker won't find much here but pain. One exception is the orb-town of Nimicri, which floats above the second layer. Its surprisingly organized and unified people run a fairly well-stocked bazaar. On the other hand, the Tower of the Arcanaloths holds great lore but also a messy death --chant is these yugoloths don't take to visitors, in particular thieves, kindly.

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Gehenna

The Slope of Flayed Children (Realm) Character. Stillbirth. Nothing will ever happen, because I will destroy it. Nothing will change, because I will kill it first. There will be nothing new under my sun. Power. The slope is the home of an exiled baatezu, a noble exiled from the court of Count Beherit, the destroyed ruler of the sixth Hell. The noble (his name was stripped away with his status), looked on in growing fear as Beherit amassed his army of baatezu, for he was shunning the laws of ascension for the sake of quick power. "How... how are we better than tanar'ri?" the noble thought, but he kept silent before his liege's wrath. The end came as inevitably as the Unity of Rings. Count Beherit was utterly destroyed and all of his advisors were exiled . The noble settled in a part of Khalas that reminded him of his former estates, and swore that never again would he allow anyone within his reach to flaunt tradition or attempt to change the way things were ordained at all. In this way, he hoped to earn back his former status. Known today simply as the Flayer, the former baatezu high-up and a core group of loyal subordinates patrol the realm on slaasrath mounts, ensuring compliance. Description. Barghest slaves have carved infant heads and reaching arms, big as Waste Giants and lying twisted with exposed muscles and bulging veins and bone, from the rock of the slope as a testament to the Flayer's commitment. Canals have been built to ensure that lava flows never mar the realm's eternal perfection. The main thing that has prevented the realm from sliding back into Baator or even Acheron is the same barghest slaves, who have organized rebel militias to attempt to free themselves. Sabotage of the various sites is their primary modus operandi, but they do whatever they can to hurt their hated ruler. Principal Towns. Akanth, Bagron, and Urwal are barghest villages. The Stable Voice is a citadel built in a mountain made to look like the lower half of a skull. The Flayer returns to the Voice after every patrol, there to receive exactly the same meal from his servants. Special Conditions. Due to the fervor of the Flayer's belief or perhaps a result of an amused Lord ofNessus pulling strings behind the scenes, planar travel is impossible in this realm. As a result, the barghests trappe on the Slope are unable to send their young to the Prime Material Plane to grow and develop. PrincipalNonplayer characters. Rigel (male barghest Revolutionary League, LE) is the current leader of the rebels. Young for a barghest, he was smuggled out of the realm so that he could mature on the Prime. Upon maturity, he discovered to his shock that he couldn't get home again. When he finally found a way (through the Gate of Murdered Souls three months' journey upslope) he was angry enough to attempt to invade the place with an army of goblin mercenaries. This failed disasterously, but a goblin Anarchist introduced Rigel to the tactics of the League, something the young barghest immediately took a liking to. Disguised as a common laborer, he slipped into the realm in the carcass of a gargantuan maggot the Flayer had slain. Quickly renewing contacts, Rigel and his goblin ally organized the resistance. Currently the goblin (Hezzik, female goblin Revolutionary League, LE) is recruiting in the barghest city of Bellgrim. Services. Nothing grows here, but adult stench kine are taken from barghest villages outside the realm by the baatezu troops. Those who've had them claim that the locals grill a mean stench steak; whether or not that's a good thing is left to the reader to decipher.

sOULgATE OF TEH hANGED mAN (Site) Character. The way to ascension is on the backs of your victims.the Harrowing of the ego Heresay. A cult of Godsmen dwell near the Soulgate. It is their belief that it can be used to ascend to another level of existence, if the proper sacrifice can be found. Description. The Soulgate is a stained green altar at an extremely high altitude of Gehenna's first furnace. A universe spun of conduit ends leads Beyond. Special features. If given an appropriate sacrifice, conduit ends will lash out like fine hairs with glowing tips, essentially consuming the sacrificer and sacrificee both from the inside out. Those with sufficient will (Wisdom or lower on 1d20 to reach another site in Gehenna. 2d20 for another lower plane. 2d20 for a neutral or good outer plane. 4d20 for the Prime) can recreate forms for themselves at their desired destination. Those without can expect to become a mangled bit of drained soul-stuff drifting in the Astral void.

HEllcrystal (Site) Heresay. is a spire of Gehenna that gives off a pure white light. As folk approach it, it hurts each of their chakras in turn. Description. Hellcrystal is ruled by an ultraloth named Ramaravana. The yagnaloths he shapes are slightly beautiful. He is also served by those new yugoloths, and a marraenoloth with a turban who never stops talking. He mostly stays in his tower, and contemplates evil. Ultimately, Ramaravana seeks to become one with his crystal, or maybe be a baernaloth or a god or something, and is collecting loads and loads of larvae. Special Features. Mysterious lights. A magic sandpainting that reflects and guides cosmic order. Of course, the monks that make the painting have to be kept alive, or the sand is useless.

City on the edge of torment, on the gates of hell, on the shores of metaphor (town)

Character. Tongues of Yugoloth, roosts of crow. You are halfway to hell, halfway to torment, halfway into deep metaphor, walking precariously on the edge of reality. Rulers. The mayor of the Edge is Ttaw, a wereraven (Pl/Male Wereraven/Th8/NE). When not in wereraven form, Ttaw is a tiefling with yugoloth and baatezu blood. He is the voice of the city in matters of both internal and external diplomacy, ably dealing with the city's guilds and factions and with the governors of cities abroad. It is a narrow line that Ttaw walks, but he walks it well. Behind the Throne. Ttaw enjoys the support of the garrisons of yugoloths and baatezu who are stationed in the city, but his real power comes from a cabal of ancient vaporighu who founded the city in times forgotten. They dwell in a secret underground chamber and send instructions to their minions in the land above. Description. The city squats at the precipice between the bulk of Khalas and the void beyond. Row after row of ancient tenements make up the majority of the town. In the center of the city is an island covered with tall, elderly mansions, connected to the rest of the city by a bridge made with the living , flapping bodies of gargoyles. The cold river Styx underneath washes waves of hate against the dikes and shore that disperse amongst the populace like petulant mist before flowing into Baator. A small channel flows uncertainly into a city on the Prime. Limited commerce takes place with the material world, mostly pets and small children. Gates also lead to Sigil, and just upstream on the Styx are the cities of Glass and Vine and Saurum in the Waste. In the sky is the blood-red orb that serves as the portal to Curst in the Outlands. The populace is mainly human (decendents of lost children from the Prime), but includes tieflings, baatezu, barghests, kytons, mephits, yugoloths, tanar'ri, phiul, diakka, night hags, planar spiders, shadow fiends, formians, modrons, hordlings, vaporighu, and creatures from all over the planes of evil and cordance. Wild animals include some of the unpleasant small things that are found in most of Gehenna's cities, but also cats, dogs, rats, spiders, flies, bats, opossums, racoons, crows, jays, squirrels, and pigeons. Enzog's Decoy Shoppe. Enzog is an expatriate from the City of Witches in the Gray Waste; he crafts living automata, realistic creatures that can be used as vehicles. The Fire Quarter is where the plane's lava is channeled into the manufacturing district. The air here is, if anything, worse than in Sigil. A fantastic zoo consists of cobbled paths among small adamantium cages containing baku, slasrath, horses, alligators, bar-lgura, thunderbeasts, quasits, abrian, darklore, a troll, a Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen, bugbears, hollyphants, humans, bonespears, terlens, fhorges, and even a small white dragon. The beasts are fed by mephits. At the DM's option,a train station exists in this city, with a plane-traveling locomotive whose tracks guide it to planes unknown. Militia The Edge has a regular police force organized into patrolmen, sergeants, and captains. They are all fighters, mainly of low level, though a few are barbazu. Their uniform is gray and covered with many straps for holding clubs, knives, and mancatchers; their badge is the city's coat of arms: a crow flying through a gate. Most of the citizentry regard them with ambivalence at best. Childcatchers are often a common sight, herding loose children into stern, poorly funded orphanages where they are sometimes adopted by one of the businesses in need of cheap labor. Services. Weapons and other iron products, cheap labor, human prey, access to several large and easy gates for a relatively small toll (2 sp), Enzog's Decoys, rare animals, Styx water, and mercenaries. The channel of the Styx that flows into the prime is unstable and difficult to find, disappearing into the sewers or rocks outside the city and moving from place to place. Current chant. Laraby is a guvner mage doing research on the society of Baator. From his apartment in the Edge's internal island, he has been studiously writing. He would appreciate it if someone could find him a rare book called the Lay of Hell; he has quite a substantial grant from his faction. Also, a beholder mage has been making trouble for a certain powerful tanar'ri, learning his truename and escaping to the Edge. Both the tanar'ri and his enemies would be very glad if the beholder could be found. Once a (prime) year the tides of night swell into the city from the void beyond the layer. On that day, all of the lights in the city are snuffed and all manner of debaucheries take place. Tourists from Sigil are especially common during this Day of Nighttides.

The Island of the Black Grail (Site)

Hearsay. Today, Ynlur placed Bottle of Black Sorcery among the stars. Explore it .It is well guarded. Whatever you find is yours. Description. Deep in the black void beyond the mountains lies a lone artificial island, made of adamantite and laced with runes. Special features. The Black Grail is a place of wonders and horrors. As the legendary Holy Grail is the font of life and well-being, the Black Grail is the bottomless well of destruction and sickness. The Black Grail can only be seen by those with extremely tainted hearts, and then only after a long Grail Quest, and then only in a vision.

The sea of drowned Mothers (realm)

Character. Beginnings are weakness. Only be destroying your origins can you be free to live your life the way you desire. To orphan yourself is the way to power.

Power. Many deities and near-deities have visited the Sea and allowed it to do its work, empowering the realm with the results of their deeds and sacrifices. Some are rumored to be imprisoned below, victims of their own desire for relief from guilt and fear.

Description. The Sea's silent waves lap in Mungoth, Gehenna's third furnace. Beneath Gehenna's eternal night it glows the blue of a cloudless sky. The shoreline rocks take semi-humanoid forms, lying twisted and prone halfway in the water. Volcanos boil on the bottom, a few of which are rumored to be gates. Weird civilizations on the sea's rocky shore turn the power beneath the waters into magic for themselves: the orcs, goblins, baatezu and yugoloths are all of unusual size and strength, all sorcerers with control over water and flame, but racial abilities, loyalties, and knowledge are lost to them.

Principal Towns. Elan, a baatezu town dominated by a large acropolis built on a very humanoid hill, with an inordinate amount of nupperibos . Pungeance, which is mainly yugoloth but with some resident phiuls, is controlled by an apolcalyptic cult of fume-sucking mystics who predict the imminent death of the General of Gehenna. Canis, filled with goblins who were formally slaves of the barghests, is perhaps the most powerful of the towns around the Sea because of the advanced academy of magic the goblins have managed to create from stolen spells. Takhold, home of orcs, is built entirely within carved ebon domes shielded from Gehenna's fiery light, since the population is built by immigrants from the realm of the night god Shargas. Of course, there are many lesser towns populated by the above races and barghests, linqua, and baku.

Special Conditions. The sea represents cruel ascension at the cost of beginnings. A baernaloth lies chained at the bottom, unable to do more than burble the lies of another world. A tribe of orcs warm themselves, using the sea to shield themselves from the wrath of the powers they deserted. The sea actually works that way for anyone: anyone able to inhale the winds of noxious gas from the sea's heart is protected from the pursuit of their former patrons, but they lose all skills and memories from their former existence. It's as if they were born from the sea itself, and in a way they were. Visitors will find they have lost their traditional hatreds, replacing them with a complex web of newer and stronger ones.

Principal Nonplayer Characters. Wu (Pl/neuter baatezu (Gelugon)/W11/LE) is the duly elected warlord of Elan. Elan's society has broken down into a number of competing assassin's guilds, with each guild rotating their designated leaders. Elan's major innovation, however, is giving nupperibos the same rights as lemures. If the nupperibos evolve, this may be the first society where baatezu and elder Baatorians live in relative piece. Pochalaq (Pl/ female yugoloth (yagnoloth) /W 10/LE) is the ruler of Pungeance. Pochalaq, though a hermaphrodite like every yugoloth, has declared herself High Priestess of the Revelation. She and her followers (including some greater yugoloths) firmly believe that the General of Gehenna will shortly be slain by a god of incarnate evil and madness, leaving only the faithful alive. Snee (Pr/male goblin/W22/LE) is the chief of Canis' Council of Magi. He is well on his way to becoming the only known goblin lich, and thus day-to-day affairs of Canis are operated by his peers in the council and his apprentice, Zirak (Pr/male goblin/W16/LE). Zirath is naturally a bit irresponsible, tending to give up potential gains for the city if offered valuable new magicks. Taeunis (Pl/male orc/F12/W 8/NE) is the warlord of Takhold. He rules his people through blood and fear, though they don't fear him nearly as much as they fear the wrath of their former god.

Services. The natural laws of the realm are a valuable service themselves, but the various cities are able to supply magical services unavailable elsewhere. The water of the lake, bottled, stays potent for several weeks. Takhold has a brewery that makes the best beer in Mungoth; it's said that it includes the essence of night. Gigantic worms are the most common beasts of burden. They are available both for sale and for rent, but are of no special quality.

Bellgrim (Town)

Character. Be ready, be ready, be ready, be ready. Ruler. Bellgrim is ruled by a monastic colony of barghest mystics. They have ruled for some time, and have forced the other barghests of the city to subscribe to their philosophy: that the barghest race is destined to become the new incarnations of law and evil, replacing the baatezu as they replaced their own predecessors. They have determined that the Transcendent Order has the best means to do this, and all belong to that faction. Behind the throne. Meander (Pl/yugoloth nycoloth)/Transcendent Order/NE) is a nycoloth spy, posing as a member of the mystics. He rarely speaks except to agree with their present course of action. Occasionally, he goes on "pilgramages" to report what he has learned to the local ultraloth consul. Description. Bellgrim is a city of barghests, named for its ubiquitous bells that toll regularly, urging the barghests to work or prayer. Major buildings include the hospital, the "House of Strategy," the gymnasium, the red light district, and the rows of houses, which include both bare barracks-style buildings and ornate mansions. The city is surrounded by high stone walls framed with stout square fortresses (with bell towers). Militia. Bellgrim is ably defended by adult barghests. They operate in close platoons and are capable of quick and decisive action. They are often accompanied by yeth and hell hounds, and by goblin slave troops. Services. Bellgrim produces little of use for the outside world, though it does make an effort to bring tourists into its entertainment district. Their primary export is their philosophy, though they are happy to import it as well in the form of visiting Ciphers of any race (except baatezu). Current Chant. A goblin named Hezzik from the Slope of Flayed Children is trying to recruit help in liberating the barghests of that realm. The citizens of Bellgrim are simpathetic, but unwilling to go after so powerful a baatezu lord unless they can be assured of allies from other cities.

Sea of glass (site)

Heresay. Somewhere in gehenna a sea of pure glass extends (downhill, of course) for hundreds of leagues, navigated by pirates with diamond-tipped blades. Description. A dead volcano in Krangath has become a sea of clear volcanic glass, a slippery expanse of lubricated hate. Nomadic barghests and mephits travel its surface in sleighs driven by specialized glassworms. Special hazards. It's very easy to slip here, and cracking the glass releases some of the dormant hatedominationsufferingabusegreed, afflicting the character with a -1 to their constitution for a few hours.

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Shaka Zulu

An Adaptor experiments on brains of various species, interviewing and csapturuing them. Attempting to, by understanding the brain, change the metaprogram of reality. Reality! There's a pattern -- if I can only hack it. The multiverse, or all the important parts, work along the same structure as the mortal brain As above, so below. I can HACK THE program!vlad tepes

tests -- snakes and ladders. (gate of serpents to graywaste, Jacob's Ladder to Elysium) Purple Crayon (gehenna) Barghest childcatcher. The cold war/war of words rules of war sabatage. Minions of night.

Anti-Dothion Distopia barghest casino and pubs legion of hope