Manual of the Planes

CHAPTER 7:THE OUTERPLANES114falls everywhere like dread snow, often dropping visibilityto zero.Nimicri: From the slopes of Chamada, Nimicriappears as a small moon about 2,000 feet in diameter. Itfloats in splendid isolation above the burning mount,covered with spires, steeples, and less dramatic structuresconnected by a weblike network of streets. Everything isclean, the buildings are comfortable and in excellentrepair, and every citizen of Nimicri is quite polite. Excellentgoods of all sorts can be had at the trading post, andNimicri is an established stop along several tradingroutes that crisscross the Outer Planes.What most visitors never realize is that Nimicri—buildings, people, and all—is one vast creature thatmimics a town. Sometimes Nimicri absorbs a visitor intoitself completely, but other times it allows visitors toleave completely unharmed. If even a single drop of a visitor’sblood spills onto any surface in the city, Nimicri isable to duplicate that visitor exactly, including memoriesup to the point when the blood was spilled. If a “citizen”of Nimicri is ever forcibly removed from the town, itimmediately dies like a limb severed from a body.Tower Arcane: This tower rises high above the lavaflows and ash clouds of Chamada, decorated with bladesand spikes that promise pain and death to unwelcomevisitors. Yugoloth wizards control the tower, which functionsas the record vault for the yugoloth race.The history of the yugoloths can be found here, thoughthe information is well protected and heavily encryptedwith glyphs of warding, symbols, and other protective spells.The interior halls of the Tower Arcane support the bodies offlayed petitioners dangling from chains. The wizards use theblood of these petitioners (and the occasional unwelcomevisitor) to pen their history. Torture paraphernalia line anywalls not given over to bookshelves and sealed archives.Deep below the tower lies a vast library of particularlyghastly contracts with mortals, extending for miles. Themost potent protective spells in the wizards’ arsenal protectthe sanctity of the library from encroachment bymolten rock or extraplanar thieves. Each contract isinscribed on the living skin of a petitioner, burned in withmagic and branding irons. Petitioners are strung on chainslike popcorn on a string for miles in parallel lines of agony.The only thing on the mind of any given petitioner is itsown particular contract and its personal pain.MungothThe third mount is far less volcanically active thaneither Chamada or Khalas. In fact, it is quite cold andpqsACIDIC SNOWThe snow-ash mixture on Mungoth deals 1d4 points of aciddamage per minute of exposure. Only artificial structures orcaverns offer any lasting protection against the snowfall, whichblows through any given area 80% of the time.pqsoften covered by snowfalls. The light of scattered volcanicvents is akin to the light cast by a full moon, makingnavigation across Mungoth’s icy slopes difficult. Eventhat light is sometimes snuffed out by a heavy snow andash fall. The combined snow and acidic ash are dangerousto travelers without shelter.The ice that accumulates on Mungoth’s slopes gives a–4 circumstance penalty on Climb checks.Valley of the Outcast: A deep chasm contains awell-hidden realm sheltered from the ever-presentacidic snow. Built of equal parts basaltic rock and giantbones is a rough castle. The castle is scaled to the proportionsof its master, an outcast fire giant wizardnamed Tastuo. Her eight siblings, fellow outcasts, alsoreside in the castle. Like their sister, all are either wizardsor sorcerers.Yugoloths of the layer have several interlocking contractswith Tastuo, which helps ensure the valley’s safetyshould her enemies ever find her. Tastuo never namesthose enemies, but her predicament makes her sympatheticto the plight of travelers seeking asylum. Thus, theValley of the Outcast doubles as a way station for visitorsin need, but only if they can find it.KrangathThe fourth mount of Gehenna, the Dead Furnace, isdevoid of volcanic activity; it went inactive millennia ago.The great mountain of the layer is a darkened pillar tumblingin the night. The layer is shrouded in silence. Nowind stirs and no light glimmers. Krangath is dead.Petitioners are rare, and those that move about on thislayer have learned to keep quiet, lest Melif hear them.Hopelorn: An artificially maintained ledge holds aprecisely fashioned complex of obsidian. Dim, reddishlights are visible in tiny, slitlike windows throughout thecomplex. This is Hopelorn, the stronghold of Melif theLich-Lord.Hopelorn is a mortuary city where sarcophagi glowlike streetlights and necromantic energies dance wisplikeover every boulevard. Here undead are welcome, butnot so the living or petitioners, whom Melif regards aspathetic losers unable to properly manage the passage oftheir mortal lives.In Hopelorn, Melif and a cabal of liches and otherpowerful undead spellcasters conduct their undyingresearch into the nature of life, death, and being. SometimesMelif and his assembly capture fiends for outrageousexperiments, though they are careful never tocapture yugoloths, lest the wrath of that race fallsquarely on Hopelorn.Besides, it is rumored that Melif was once a yugolothhimself, before he steeped himself in the eldritch artsand eventually lichdom.Gehenna EncountersUse Table 7–7: Hellish Encounters for random encounterson Gehenna.