Manual of the Planes

OthrysCathrysMinethysColothysPorphatyxAgathysCHAPTER 7:THE OUTERPLANESCarcerithough in some accounts it is referred to as the WhiteCaravel. It appears as a ghost-white caravel unmannedby any visible crew. It wends between the islets ofmany orbs (somehow disappearing on one orb andappearing on another), picking up stranded souls andother travelers who are brave (or foolish) enough tobrave passage.Passengers soon discover that apparently no onemoves on board the craft. The lower deck and hold arestuffed with exactly one hundred unadorned stone sarcophagi.No one has ever successfully opened a sarcophagusand lived to tell the tale. Any time this hasbeen tried, some unrecorded calamity devours all creaturescurrently on board, and the next time the shipputs in at a new port it is utterly empty of life. Storieshave it that the ship seeks to deliver its terrible cargo,but it waits for the end times to do so.Between the “cleansings” that occur when the curioustry to open a sarcophagus, travelers (mostly petitioners,demons, or other creatures) infest the ship. Some make ittheir temporary home, happy to move from place to placeby whatever mysterious force steers the ship. Thesedenizens take a very dim view of visitors who want toopen a sarcophagus.AgathysThe coldest layer of Carceri is also the lowest—or innermost,given the nested nature of this plane. Unlike theother layers, Agathys has only a single orb: a sphere ofblack ice streaked with red.The air is bitterly cold and deals 1d2 points of colddamage each round. This layer has the minor negativedominanttrait. Petitioners here are half imbedded in theice, their lies frozen on their lips.Necromanteion: A black citadel carved out of ice isthe focus of the greater deity Nerull’s realm. Nerull is adeity of death and is called the Reaper, the Foe of AllGood, the Bringer of Darkness, and similar names. Petitionersare frozen flush into the floors, walls, and ceilingsof the Necromanteion, just as they are in the surroundingice.The deserted entrance to the Necromanteion leadsquickly to a wide hall called the Hidden Temple,which crawls with undead of all types. The pallid,green glow of gibbering ghoul-light lanterns illuminatesthe area. Hundreds of onyx altars are evenlyspaced around the hall, and demonic clerics constantlychant stanzas of a ghastly necromantic ritual. Besideschanting, the demonic priests spend endless hoursattending grotesque experiments on necrotic fleshpiled on other altars.Nerull’s throne stands at the center of the HiddenTemple. Woe betide the character who disturbs Nerull, arust-red skeleton wearing a dull black cloak. Alwaysclutched in Nerull’s skeletal hands is his sablewood staff,Lifecutter, which projects a scythelike blade of scarletforce that has the power to slay any creature.The Hidden Temple has several satellite chambers.Some hold food and quarters for the demonic clerics,others have cells for living captives destined to be107