House Vandree met another important milestone towards the strategic goal to upgrade the guild hall to level 7. They got most the needed adventurer's shards to upgrade the lumberyard from the continued contributions of the Princes of House Vandree.
5/05/2020
2/20/2020
The Maggot Pit and Tiamat's Lair in Avernus
Access to Tiamat's Lair is blocked by the Maggot Pit. This is a huge crater easily a thousand feet across filled with ooze and writhing maggots. It is from this primordial soup that new lemures and nupperibos are born. The Maggot Pit is guarded by a red abishai named Arraka, who can gat in more devils in case of emergency. Arraka has been known to accept bribes in exchange for a sage flight over the Maggot Pit.
The Maggot Pit abuts a sheer rock wall that stretches across the plain and rises as far as the eye can see. A single cave mouth pierces the wall; this is the entrance to Tiamat's Lair. Here the Lady of Dragonkind guars the only gateway to the second layer of Hell. She is attended by her five consorts, the most powerful male great wyrms of each chromatic color (red, black, green, blue, and white). Those who make it to Tiamat's Lair have but three options: bargain, flee, or die.
The Maggot Pit abuts a sheer rock wall that stretches across the plain and rises as far as the eye can see. A single cave mouth pierces the wall; this is the entrance to Tiamat's Lair. Here the Lady of Dragonkind guars the only gateway to the second layer of Hell. She is attended by her five consorts, the most powerful male great wyrms of each chromatic color (red, black, green, blue, and white). Those who make it to Tiamat's Lair have but three options: bargain, flee, or die.
2/18/2020
Heaven and Hell: Mount Celestia and the invertred mountain of Baator.
There're several ways to look at the Planes. Most people strongly believe in the concept of good vs. evil. Those tend to differenciate between the "good planes" and the "evil planes". When someone talks about the Upper (or "good") Planes, he's refering to the Planes of Arcadia, Mount Celestia, Bytopia, Elysium, the Beastlands, Arborea, and Ysgard. The Lower - or "evil" - Planes are Acheron, Baator, Gehena, the Gray Waste, Carceri, the Abyss, and Pandemonium.
After the Twin Serpents ouroborus had instituted the unity of rings and established the importance of rings in planar geography and philosophy, Jazirian and Ahriman's turned their attention to the other laws that would rule the planes. In honor of their triple aspects - Law, Good, and Evil - the serpents established the law of the threes, dereeing the importance of the number three in all spheres. After applying this law, the decided they needed another law to complete their triumvirate. Both agreed they should define the center of the universe, about which they would remain coiled. Despite the clear advantages of choosing the Outlands, a place already given over to neutrality, Jazirian pushed for Mount Celestia, while Ahriman agitated for the inverted mountain of Baator.
For the first time, the Twin Serpents disregarded the importance of law. Ahriman wanted the plan of law and evil to have pride of place, while Jazirian felt the same way about the home of law and good. The two Cosmic Serpents struggled back and forth, neiter willing to concede the point in the interest of law. The Great Ring shook as the two serpents rocked the foundation of the Outer Planes. With Jazirian pulling toward Heaven and Ahriman straining towad Hell, the two serpents tore themselves apart.
After the Twin Serpents ouroborus had instituted the unity of rings and established the importance of rings in planar geography and philosophy, Jazirian and Ahriman's turned their attention to the other laws that would rule the planes. In honor of their triple aspects - Law, Good, and Evil - the serpents established the law of the threes, dereeing the importance of the number three in all spheres. After applying this law, the decided they needed another law to complete their triumvirate. Both agreed they should define the center of the universe, about which they would remain coiled. Despite the clear advantages of choosing the Outlands, a place already given over to neutrality, Jazirian pushed for Mount Celestia, while Ahriman agitated for the inverted mountain of Baator.
For the first time, the Twin Serpents disregarded the importance of law. Ahriman wanted the plan of law and evil to have pride of place, while Jazirian felt the same way about the home of law and good. The two Cosmic Serpents struggled back and forth, neiter willing to concede the point in the interest of law. The Great Ring shook as the two serpents rocked the foundation of the Outer Planes. With Jazirian pulling toward Heaven and Ahriman straining towad Hell, the two serpents tore themselves apart.
2/15/2020
Birth of the Multiverse: Formation of the Outlands and the Outer Planes
The multiverse tends to form endless rings - whether physical or philosophical. Sigil, the Outlands, the Outer Planes, and even the Elemental Planes from rings without beginning or end.
The multiverse, at its birth, was little more than swirling chaos. A primordial soup of infinite possibilities, the cosmos was both everything and nothing. Through some unknown process, forms coalesced out of the chaos, including the planes themselves and those beings later known as gods. Some of these newborn powers reveled in the chaos, while others abhorred it.
The conflict between these two groups, between Law and Chaos, definied the planes and the laws that they would obey.
The mightiest of Law's champions were the Twin Serpents. These Cosmic Serpents expressed the duality of Law, and were unstoppable when the worked together. Jazirian, winged and feathered, dedicated herself to the cause of good, while Ahriman, scaled and forked of tongue, embraced the darker path of evil. Despite their differences, they were first and formost agents of Law.
Sending teir coils out into the endless chaos, Jazirian and Ahriman created the first ring, so establishing a fundamental principle of the planes. When Ahriman toook Jazirian's tail in his mouth and shw did the same with his, they demarcated the plan now known as the Outlands. Since this plane was created by the interaction of Law and Chaos, and was bordered by both, Good and Evil, it became the plane of true neutrality. With the Outlands defined, the other planes fell in around it, creating what became known als the Great Ring. This construction - a central plane of neutrality with sixteen other planes of all alignments arrayed around it - is popularly known as the Outher Planes.
The multiverse, at its birth, was little more than swirling chaos. A primordial soup of infinite possibilities, the cosmos was both everything and nothing. Through some unknown process, forms coalesced out of the chaos, including the planes themselves and those beings later known as gods. Some of these newborn powers reveled in the chaos, while others abhorred it.
The conflict between these two groups, between Law and Chaos, definied the planes and the laws that they would obey.
The mightiest of Law's champions were the Twin Serpents. These Cosmic Serpents expressed the duality of Law, and were unstoppable when the worked together. Jazirian, winged and feathered, dedicated herself to the cause of good, while Ahriman, scaled and forked of tongue, embraced the darker path of evil. Despite their differences, they were first and formost agents of Law.
Sending teir coils out into the endless chaos, Jazirian and Ahriman created the first ring, so establishing a fundamental principle of the planes. When Ahriman toook Jazirian's tail in his mouth and shw did the same with his, they demarcated the plan now known as the Outlands. Since this plane was created by the interaction of Law and Chaos, and was bordered by both, Good and Evil, it became the plane of true neutrality. With the Outlands defined, the other planes fell in around it, creating what became known als the Great Ring. This construction - a central plane of neutrality with sixteen other planes of all alignments arrayed around it - is popularly known as the Outher Planes.
2/14/2020
Two rivers, a mountain, and a really big tree
Though plenty of gates allow for travel between the Outer Planes, most planewalkers know a few other ways to get around. In particular, four major planar connections link several planes:
- the magical River Oceanus (running through a few of the Upper Planes),
- the River Styx (blood-red, dirty, and oily waters, running through all the Lower Planes in a twisted, aimless path),
- Mount Olympus (a mountain realm on the Plane of Arborea with a good number of planar pathways), and
- Yggdrasil, the World Ash (a gigantic plane-spanning tree, with its source in Ysgard, but with branches and roots spread throughout may planes, layers, and realms).
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| The Great Ring of the Outer Planes |
2/13/2020
The Blood War
There is one thing to talk about, before we explore the individual planes: a bit of a hullabaloo on the Lower Planes that most folks refere to as the Blood War. The principal inhabitants of the Abyss, the tanar'ri, battle the baatezu of Baator for nothing less than controll of all of the dark planes. This eternal struggle is best characterized by the following excerpt from an interview with Verrith, a human observer of the war:
Tanar'ri die, Baatezu die. The war rages on with an infernal intensity. Each side leads legions of troops, mercenaries, conscripts, slaves, and servant monsters into the horrendous battle for control of the Lower Planes. Most think that it's a never changing, futile stalemate, but each side has come close to defarting the other on numerous occasions. This war is a real threat to all the planes.
The Blood War creates a great need for supplies, weapons, troops, and leaders. Many adventurers capitalize on these needs to earn some jink of their own. Some brave planewalkers deal in weapons or mercenaries with either or both sides. Those who don't end up in the dead-book often come out of it very rich. The yugoloths, natives of the Gray Waste and Gehenna, devote a great deal of time and energy in helping both sides - but only so they can earn a fair profit.
Tanar'ri die, Baatezu die. The war rages on with an infernal intensity. Each side leads legions of troops, mercenaries, conscripts, slaves, and servant monsters into the horrendous battle for control of the Lower Planes. Most think that it's a never changing, futile stalemate, but each side has come close to defarting the other on numerous occasions. This war is a real threat to all the planes.
The Blood War creates a great need for supplies, weapons, troops, and leaders. Many adventurers capitalize on these needs to earn some jink of their own. Some brave planewalkers deal in weapons or mercenaries with either or both sides. Those who don't end up in the dead-book often come out of it very rich. The yugoloths, natives of the Gray Waste and Gehenna, devote a great deal of time and energy in helping both sides - but only so they can earn a fair profit.
2/09/2020
House Vandree upgrades barracks
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| Barracks of House Vandree |
2/06/2020
Fast Facts and Concepts: Avernus
Lord: Bel
Resident Devils: Abishai, lemures, nupperibos, spinagons
Other Denizens: Goblins, kobolds, dragons, imps
Important Locations: The Bronze Citadel; Darkspine; The Maggot Pit; Tiamat's Lair
Realms: Draukari (Kurtulmak), Tiamat's Lair (Tiamat), the Peaceable Lands (Bargrivyek)
Avernus, the first layer of Hell, is the most frequently visited and a blasted plain with a red sky and explosive energies coursing through it. Here, the mighty armies of the baatezu muster and train for the Blood War. A host of baatezu fills this layer, lead be the pit fiend Bel. Because the focus of this layer is the waging of war, Avernus is a dangerous place to visit. Many a traveler has plane shifted into the midst of a baatezu army and been torn to shreds in moments.
First-time visitors are sure to be impressed. Avernus certainly looks like Hell, with neither stars nor sun shining overhead. Instead, the entire layer is suffused with bloodred light that never wavers or dims. Blood, in fact, is the leitmotif of Avernus. Consider that the Lake of Blood spills from Stigmaris Mountains into the River of Blood, and thence through a series of streams and gulches into the River Styx. There are those who say that every scum-covered river, from trickle to torrent, is naught but blood of Avernus's victims. In any other place, such poetic exaggeration would be cause for a smile. Here, it is grim reality.
Tiamat, dragon-queen of darkness, guards the passage to the next layer. Planewalkers would do well to avoid her, and rumor has it that a conduit to the scond layer can also be found near a monstrous landmark known as the Pillar of Skulls - but considerin that Bel's troops have an iron grip on the layer, it's probably guarded.
Resident Devils: Abishai, lemures, nupperibos, spinagons
Other Denizens: Goblins, kobolds, dragons, imps
Important Locations: The Bronze Citadel; Darkspine; The Maggot Pit; Tiamat's Lair
Realms: Draukari (Kurtulmak), Tiamat's Lair (Tiamat), the Peaceable Lands (Bargrivyek)
Avernus, the first layer of Hell, is the most frequently visited and a blasted plain with a red sky and explosive energies coursing through it. Here, the mighty armies of the baatezu muster and train for the Blood War. A host of baatezu fills this layer, lead be the pit fiend Bel. Because the focus of this layer is the waging of war, Avernus is a dangerous place to visit. Many a traveler has plane shifted into the midst of a baatezu army and been torn to shreds in moments.
First-time visitors are sure to be impressed. Avernus certainly looks like Hell, with neither stars nor sun shining overhead. Instead, the entire layer is suffused with bloodred light that never wavers or dims. Blood, in fact, is the leitmotif of Avernus. Consider that the Lake of Blood spills from Stigmaris Mountains into the River of Blood, and thence through a series of streams and gulches into the River Styx. There are those who say that every scum-covered river, from trickle to torrent, is naught but blood of Avernus's victims. In any other place, such poetic exaggeration would be cause for a smile. Here, it is grim reality.
Tiamat, dragon-queen of darkness, guards the passage to the next layer. Planewalkers would do well to avoid her, and rumor has it that a conduit to the scond layer can also be found near a monstrous landmark known as the Pillar of Skulls - but considerin that Bel's troops have an iron grip on the layer, it's probably guarded.
1/29/2020
Fast Facts and Concepts: Baator
It is an important and popular fact that hell has nine layers. The native baatezu ain't a bunch of stupid fiends, waiting passively for do-gooders to come an "clean out" the place. No, you won't find a fouler and cannier bunch of creatures anywhere - not even in the Abyss. These fiends disguise their dark hearts with a foundation of order, which at first might sound encouraging. Instead, it makes the plane one of rigid an unyielding law, a realm filled with struggles for absolute, total domination far worse than any Prime Material Plane's most terrible totalitarian rule.
There are two major groups of beastly folk in Baator: First, there's the Dark Eight - eight powerful pit fiends who control large armies of baatezu and other creatures. The eight direct the baatezu forces of the Blood War. The other group comprises the fearsome beings known as the Lords of the Nine. Each of these rules a layer of Baator, hovering in status somewhere between the greatest of pit fiends and actual powers themselves. Much is unknown regarding these beings (including most of their names), but that may be for the best - a planewalker's better off not even referring to the Lords at all.
Each of Baator's nine layers has its own unique environment, but they're all inhospitable and deadly.
There are two major groups of beastly folk in Baator: First, there's the Dark Eight - eight powerful pit fiends who control large armies of baatezu and other creatures. The eight direct the baatezu forces of the Blood War. The other group comprises the fearsome beings known as the Lords of the Nine. Each of these rules a layer of Baator, hovering in status somewhere between the greatest of pit fiends and actual powers themselves. Much is unknown regarding these beings (including most of their names), but that may be for the best - a planewalker's better off not even referring to the Lords at all.
Each of Baator's nine layers has its own unique environment, but they're all inhospitable and deadly.
1/24/2020
Through the mercury pool
Slowly, slowly, our bodies descended. I had no clue, what to expect (if anything), so i looked around one last time at the Prime Material plane that surrounded us. It was shimmering, beginning to look indistinct and cloudy, becoming transparent. Finally, after a minute that seemed an eternity, we descended all the way into the cold pool.
Then, chaos! Tumbled and turned in a wild vortex, our bodies felt as if they were being turned inside out! My disorientation was total as I was gripped with nausea and dread. Then suddenly, I broke free, to find myself floating weightless in bright, well-lit grayness that seemed to extend to infinity in all directions. Floating near me were my comrades, and also nearby was a pool of rippling silver - obviously the portal through which we entered the Astral plane.
That was, off course not our final destination. I felst myself being dragged helplessly along toward a pool of amethyst. I was sucked in, felt the terrible discorientation and nausea once again, and then felt a wrenching, tearing sensation within me.
Suddenly it all stopped. I sat up and looked around. Tthe surroundings have totally changed - it was a barren, dusty place without life or greenery, baking beneath a hell-red sun. The dusty plains were broken by three features: huge holes in the earth, great iron fortresses, and a winding, black river. Welcome to the Abyss.
Then, chaos! Tumbled and turned in a wild vortex, our bodies felt as if they were being turned inside out! My disorientation was total as I was gripped with nausea and dread. Then suddenly, I broke free, to find myself floating weightless in bright, well-lit grayness that seemed to extend to infinity in all directions. Floating near me were my comrades, and also nearby was a pool of rippling silver - obviously the portal through which we entered the Astral plane.
That was, off course not our final destination. I felst myself being dragged helplessly along toward a pool of amethyst. I was sucked in, felt the terrible discorientation and nausea once again, and then felt a wrenching, tearing sensation within me.
Suddenly it all stopped. I sat up and looked around. Tthe surroundings have totally changed - it was a barren, dusty place without life or greenery, baking beneath a hell-red sun. The dusty plains were broken by three features: huge holes in the earth, great iron fortresses, and a winding, black river. Welcome to the Abyss.
1/23/2020
High priestess Fini'they meddles with the devils of avernus
Hell: There and back again.
Baator, of the Nine Hells, is the sort of place, every smart planewalker wants to avoid - but sometimes you have to go to places and do things you don't wnat to in order to get by.
The easiest way to get to Hell is to die with an alignment of lawful evil. The spirits of the dead are known as petitioners, and each one re-forms on the plane that corresponts to its alignment. Long ago the baatezu discovered that lawful evil petitioners could be made into lemures and nupperibos, the lowlies members of their race. It is for this reason that diabolic agents ply the Prime Material Plane tempting mortals into evil.
Other ways, that do not involve dying and spending several millennia as a lemure:
Situated about the Outlands are burgs that contain gates leading to the various other Outer Planes. Each gate-town opens onto the first layer of its respective plane. The areas around the gate-towns, as well as the burgs themselves, take on various aspects of the plane to which the gate leads.
So the town around the gate to Avernus is Ribcage. The gate to Baator is protected by a fortress city, nestled unter the curving "ribs" of the Vale of the Spine mountains. The people are a peery bunch who work hard and keep their eyes open. Fail in either, and there'll be music too harsh to pay.
Hell looks like an inverted mountain (an apt metaphor, as more than one commentator has mentioned). The plane consists of nine layers: Avernus, Dis, Minauros, Phlegethos, Stygia, Malbolge, Maladomini, Cania, and Nessus. The broadest part of the plane is the first layer of Avernus, and Hell comes to a tip on the ninth layer of Nessus. The farther down a traveler goes, the better his view of the layers above. The nine layers fit together like the pieces of a puzzle; each subsequent descent allows a traveler to see more of how the puzzle comes together.
While it is easy to get to Hell, getting out is an altogether tricker proposition. Gates are heavily guarded by diabolic forces, who can always gate in assistance when needed. Gates that change location are difficult to locate. It's possible to spend years blundering around the landscape of Hell without stumbling across a portal out. Then there's the River Styx. It's more reliable, but only travels through the Lower Planes. You can get out of Hell, but is Acheron or the Abyss any better?
Most travelers discover that a good way to escape is to make a deal with a local. The righteous, of course, have problems with dealing with the devils and usually refuse to do so. They also tend to stay in Hell longer than those with a more realistic outlook. If they get out at all, that is ...
The easiest way to get to Hell is to die with an alignment of lawful evil. The spirits of the dead are known as petitioners, and each one re-forms on the plane that corresponts to its alignment. Long ago the baatezu discovered that lawful evil petitioners could be made into lemures and nupperibos, the lowlies members of their race. It is for this reason that diabolic agents ply the Prime Material Plane tempting mortals into evil.
Other ways, that do not involve dying and spending several millennia as a lemure:
- travel via Sigl
- use gates
- spells (e.g. plane shift)
- macial items (e.g. amulet of the planes attuned to Baator)
Situated about the Outlands are burgs that contain gates leading to the various other Outer Planes. Each gate-town opens onto the first layer of its respective plane. The areas around the gate-towns, as well as the burgs themselves, take on various aspects of the plane to which the gate leads.
So the town around the gate to Avernus is Ribcage. The gate to Baator is protected by a fortress city, nestled unter the curving "ribs" of the Vale of the Spine mountains. The people are a peery bunch who work hard and keep their eyes open. Fail in either, and there'll be music too harsh to pay.
Hell looks like an inverted mountain (an apt metaphor, as more than one commentator has mentioned). The plane consists of nine layers: Avernus, Dis, Minauros, Phlegethos, Stygia, Malbolge, Maladomini, Cania, and Nessus. The broadest part of the plane is the first layer of Avernus, and Hell comes to a tip on the ninth layer of Nessus. The farther down a traveler goes, the better his view of the layers above. The nine layers fit together like the pieces of a puzzle; each subsequent descent allows a traveler to see more of how the puzzle comes together.
While it is easy to get to Hell, getting out is an altogether tricker proposition. Gates are heavily guarded by diabolic forces, who can always gate in assistance when needed. Gates that change location are difficult to locate. It's possible to spend years blundering around the landscape of Hell without stumbling across a portal out. Then there's the River Styx. It's more reliable, but only travels through the Lower Planes. You can get out of Hell, but is Acheron or the Abyss any better?
Most travelers discover that a good way to escape is to make a deal with a local. The righteous, of course, have problems with dealing with the devils and usually refuse to do so. They also tend to stay in Hell longer than those with a more realistic outlook. If they get out at all, that is ...
1/22/2020
A paladin of noble birth, but with questionable methods
I must admit that the waterdeep mission has become a little bit boring. What had started as a great opportunity nine months ago, has become a routine job.
At the beginning, all was new: The city of waterdeep, the yawning portal, the discussions in Gareth's council about financing this mission. Not to forget the rapid growth of House Vandree that was the reason for me and Riordan to come here in the first place.
But not much happened during the last months. OK, I have to admit: some Gith appeared and brought their eternal fight against the mind flayers to neverwinter. This opened an opportunity, which Fini'they Vandree immediately took. She invited Gith characters into House Vandree. But the number of Gith in the ranks of the house remains small. Not much impact.
House Vandree made some progess, too. It could build important supporting structures and is about to upgrade their barracks soon, but it clearly lost its dynamic.
Finally, after my last presentation at the court of Gareth, the funds of this mission were cut to 0. Consequently, we had to transform our cover up workshop into a real enterprise. That was quite a success. Follwing the example of Omin Dran and Acquisitions Inc., we really make money by producing highest quality healing potions and selling them to the merchants.
So this operation has become self sustaining. We can continue to monitor House Vandree, as long as the Barony of Bloodstone has nothing more important for us to do. Nice, but I did not escape the daily routine in the Bloodstone army and move to the promising west coast, just to run an alchemists' shop and watch the slow progress of a minor drow house in neverwinter.
I should really look for another exiting opportinity...
"Cousin Celedon! Have you heard about the Vallenhas estate?" Riordan suddenly asked.
Maybe Riordan had found something interesting for us. "No, tell me about it!" I replied, trying to hide my hope that this might become a hook for a new adventure.
At the beginning, all was new: The city of waterdeep, the yawning portal, the discussions in Gareth's council about financing this mission. Not to forget the rapid growth of House Vandree that was the reason for me and Riordan to come here in the first place.
But not much happened during the last months. OK, I have to admit: some Gith appeared and brought their eternal fight against the mind flayers to neverwinter. This opened an opportunity, which Fini'they Vandree immediately took. She invited Gith characters into House Vandree. But the number of Gith in the ranks of the house remains small. Not much impact.
House Vandree made some progess, too. It could build important supporting structures and is about to upgrade their barracks soon, but it clearly lost its dynamic.
Finally, after my last presentation at the court of Gareth, the funds of this mission were cut to 0. Consequently, we had to transform our cover up workshop into a real enterprise. That was quite a success. Follwing the example of Omin Dran and Acquisitions Inc., we really make money by producing highest quality healing potions and selling them to the merchants.
So this operation has become self sustaining. We can continue to monitor House Vandree, as long as the Barony of Bloodstone has nothing more important for us to do. Nice, but I did not escape the daily routine in the Bloodstone army and move to the promising west coast, just to run an alchemists' shop and watch the slow progress of a minor drow house in neverwinter.
I should really look for another exiting opportinity...
"Cousin Celedon! Have you heard about the Vallenhas estate?" Riordan suddenly asked.
Maybe Riordan had found something interesting for us. "No, tell me about it!" I replied, trying to hide my hope that this might become a hook for a new adventure.
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