Main / OP-Pandemonium

Other Planes - Outer Planes

Pandemonium

Pandemonium is an underground realm, a great mass of matter pierced by innumerable tunnels carved by the howling winds of the plane. It is the plane of chaos tinged by evil, in many ways the opposite of Gladsheim. Whereas the realm of the Norse powers consists of great spaces of air spanned by huge earthen rivers, the lands of Pandemonium are huge dark caverns filled with continual wind. Gravity is always away from the center of the cave, so the traveler can walk on the walls, floors, and ceiling of a cavern with equal ease. Rivers flow along the cave floor or straight down the middle of the cavern through the air. Three words describe the four layers of Pandemonium: windy, noisy, and dark.

The plane of Pandemonium has no constant sources of light. Normal fires are quickly extinguished by the wind. A light that lasts for any length of time is seen for miles in the open tunnels, attracting those creatures that can normally see in the dark. Infravision functions, but the spirits of the underworld radiate no heat, so they cannot be detected in this fashion.

The name Pandemonium is used as a by-word for thunderous noise, as every word, scream, or shout is caught by the strong wind and flung through all the layers of the plane. Conversation can only be accomplished by shouting, and that is ineffective beyond 10 feet. Spells that rely on sound reaching a target {holy word, the power words, and shout for example) do not function beyond 10 feet. Those whose ears are unprotected are rendered temporarily deaf after exposure for one round, and permanently deaf after exposure for one turn. Ear plugs or similar devices negate this effect, but the noise is still mind-shattering. Finally, the huge caverns (hundreds of miles across and high) are filled with continual wind, which at its lowest point tugs at the clothing as a strong breeze and at its highest (10% chance per 10 turns) can lift up to 100 lbs in the air and carry it for 1d6 miles (damage on landing is 4d6, subject to modifications for the terrain in the landing area). Native creatures are immune to this effect.

Features of Pandemonium

The layers of Pandemonium are four in number. There is a gradual change in conditions from layer to layer: Pandesmos is the topmost and most habitable layer of Pandemonium. It is here that The River Styx winds, fed by innumerable streams that trickle through the rocky wastes. The caverns are largest here, spanning thousands of miles in width, and the wind and noise are as described above. Most of the natives and Powers known to exist in this plane live in these tunnels. What great cities and citadels exist in this plane are found on Pandesmos.

Cocytus is the layer of lamentation, has smaller tunnels and the wind that whistles through them has the sounds of cries and sorrows. The noise is shriller in the layer of Cocytus, so that those who are exposed to it for a single turn must save vs. spell or be insane for 10d10 turns. Unlike the dry natural tunnels of Pandesmos, the tunnels of Cocytus appear carved, and there are marks of tools and chisels throughout its length. Who or what created these tunnels is not known even by the gods.

Phlegethon is the layer of darkness. Its very walls are a dull ebon black that swallows the light and reflects nothing. All forms of light, regardless of source, have their radii of illumination halved here. Abilities such as infravision fail as well in the layer. Phelgethon is a wet place, with numerous rivers and streams and all forms of sedimentary formations (stalagmites, stalactites, and curtains, for example) spring from the black rock.

Agathion is the deepest of the known layers of Pandemonium. It is without tunnels. Instead, the plane is solid rock dotted by great spherical bubbles. In those bubbles that have barriers to the next layer, the wind swirls in circles, forming massive windstorms capable of flinging creatures of up to 400 pounds in weight around for 1 d6 points of damage per round. Those that do not have barriers are worse, however, for they are filled with stale air or vacuum (50% chance of each) and are often the final resting places of monsters that the Powers themselves do not wish awakened.

The barriers between the layers are unmarked but usually identifiable by the wind, which can pass between the layers with ease. A dead-end passage with a strong wind indicates a barrier somewhere within that passage. The wind can carry flying (or unfastened) items between the planes.

The portals on the uppermost layer of Pandemonium lead to Limbo, the topmost layer of the Abyss, and Concordant Opposition. These portals are always flat squares in the sides of the caverns. Yellow squares usually lead to Limbo, red to the Abyss, and black to Concordant Opposition. There is a 20% chance, however, that a traveler passing through a portal will end up on one of the other two planes instead (50% chance for each).

Time Distortion

Time in Pandemonium moves differently that most other planes. When a visitor enters they have a very hard time predicting how much time has passed on their home Prime Plane.

Features of Pandemonium

Pandemonium has no known native life; the beings that live here are usually immigrants, exiles, or marooned creatures from other planes. Most of the various non-name demons make their homes here, and the occasional demon lord-in-exile has a hiding place in the realms. Quasits and shadow demons are found in abundance, but again, they are not natives to the plane.

Of the Powers of Pandemonium, one is a temporary visitor as well. Loki of the Norse pantheon uses part of the upper layer for his Hidden Realm, where he works on his magery and plots far from the prying eyes of his fellow gods. Loki's Hidden Realm can be spotted for miles, for it is a glittering palace of white crystal that pierces the darkness of the plane and illuminates a thousand miles about itself. Loki is served in his palace by evil einheriar. He refers to his realm as the anti-podes of Valhalla. The traveler drawn by the light should be warned that within Pandemonium more of Loki's true evil nature comes forth, unrestrained by the presence of the rest of his pantheon. In the heart of Loki's realm is a portal that skips over Limbo entirely and reaches to somewhere in Jotenheim in the plane of Gladsheim. Tuonela, the realm of Tuonetar and Tuoni, gods of the Finnish underworld, is ringed by the river Manala, which flows into the Styx. The waters of the Manala are crimson with black swells of wave. Those who drink or touch it are drained of desire, so that they can neither fight, eat, nor see purpose in life. Those so afflicted waste away and perish (a successful saving throw negates this, as does a remove curse). Tuonela is a grim realm of those living and dead who have drunk of the Manala's water, ruled from a great black house where Tuonetar and Tuoni live, occasionally hosting their many daughters, who include Kiputytto of Tarterus and Loviatar of Gehenna. Anshar, the Babylonian god of dark and night, was once the supreme power of the Babylonian (and some add the Sumerian) mythos, yet gave his power to Anu (and Enlil) and passed into retirement. Anshar's estate in Pandemonium is a great city between walls that run the entire circumference of its cave. It is topped by a great citadel whose tip reaches the center of the cavern itself. Anshar is served by spirits of the most ancient type, dressed in archaic clothing and speaking tongues now dead and buried, but similar in description to Anu's warriors from Nirvana.

There is a lesser god of Pandemonium, Hruggek of the Bugbears, who makes his abode in a great fortress where one tunnel of wind spills into another, larger tunnel of wind. Hruggek's realm is decorated with the grisly of trophies of those who have intruded. He is served by the spirits of those bugbears that were sufficiently merciless enough to qualify as his servants. Hruggek's bugbear servants are the equivalents of bugbear chiefs from the Monster Manual save that, being spirits they are immune to a enchantment and charm magic.