THE CITADEL OF THE PLANES
The Citadel of the Planes is unlike just about any other stronghold in that its stronghold spaces are spread across ten different planes. This means that its rooms “overlap” and violate traditional geometry, but it’s simple to add on to the place any time you like. The powerful creators of the centuries-old citadel valued both their privacy and the unique features that different planes had to offer. Accordingly, they built a few rooms on several different planes, linked them with portals, and hid their handiwork behind veils of obscurity.
No part of the citadel of the planes sits on the Material Plane, but an unassuming door in a city alleyway is actually a portal that leads to the central trophy hall on the Plane of Shadow. From there, portals lead to other rooms on other planes.
The Citadel of the Planes is actually ten separate structures on ten different planes. Some of them don’t even have a doorway out into the plane on which they exist. The builders chose each plane for a reason, usually its unusual magical properties or simply its stunning, otherworldly vistas.
Stronghold Size: 39 stronghold spaces
Total Stronghold Cost: 2,600,000 gp
Entry Hall
Mementos of the builders’ adventuring days fill this fancy trophy hall: weapons, armor, treasures, and other valuables, all locked (Open Lock DC 25) in glass cases. On a ledge near the ceiling sit trophy-heads of the builders’ more spectacular kills, including many powerful outsiders. Closely set continual flame spells throw the entire hall into sharp, black-and-white relief. An armed servant always stands on duty here, although he spends most of his time dusting and polishing the treasures, merely glancing at those who come and go through this room.
Normal doors lead east (to living quarters) and west (to the kitchen) from the entry hall, but the most spectacular feature in the room is the set of nine portals that lead to other planes. The Plane of Shadow is a black and white place, but anyone in this room can see riots of color by peering through the portals.
A summoning stone in the center of the room calls forth an invisible stalker that attacks anyone not dressed as a servant of the citadel if the phrase “citadel of splendors, home sweet home,” isn’t uttered within a round of entering the room.
The portals in this room (all unlimited-use, two-way portals) lead to:
Material Plane. On their first visit, most come through this portal.
Elysium. Rooms 5–7 (banquet hall, living quarters, and Oceanus dock) lie beyond.
Arborea. Rooms 8–11 (living quarters and stables). Elemental Plane of Fire. Rooms 12–14 (smithy and living quarters).
Ysgard. Rooms 15–22 (living quarters, barracks, armory, and training grounds).
Hell. Rooms 23–27 (living quarters, servants’ quarters).
Abyss. Rooms 28–30 (living quarters, Styx dock).
Astral Plane. Rooms 31–36 (magic laboratory, libraries, living quarters, portals to Limbo and Carceri).
Elemental Plane of Water. Rooms 37–38 (changing rooms and bath).
Illusionist’s Study
This fancy study was originally built for a powerful illusionists, and programmed images of murals showing teeming cityscapes, rapid sunrises and sunsets, and massive battles cover the walls. The carved-ebony furniture is of the highest quality, and arcane manuscripts fill the low bookcases. Ivory busts and other bits of statuary sit on columns in the corners.
Umbra Suite
Much of the furniture in here is halfling-sized to accommodate the original occupant, but the bed is a massive oak and ebony structure, and a 10-foot-wide fireplace dominates the west wall. Because the Plane of Shadow is a sinister, black-and-white world, a fire in the fireplace adds light and casts weird shadows, but it doesn’t add much cheer. A door in the north wall leads to a small balcony with stairs down to the shadow landscape—a dark, mountainous wilderness.
Kitchen
Servants frequently come and go between the entry hall and this kitchen, which can handle meals for up 30 without difficulty. Food is stored in the pantry, but meals are generally delivered by servants to individual bedroom suites or in the dining hall on Elysium (see area 5).
Vista Room
Simple round oak tables provide seating for 30 in this fancy dining hall. A transparent dome (wall of force) allows views of the spectacular Elysian landscape, and servants can slide open panels on the walls to let fresh breezes in. A marble floor is kept clear for dancing, and the servants can quickly assemble a small stage for musicians, poets, or other performers.
Meadow Suite
This room has the simple, rough-hewn wood furniture favored by its original occupant, a ranger who preferred function to form. A grand balcony and large windows provide plenty to see, and kennels below the balcony are suitable for all manner of animal companions.
Note that Elysium’s entrapping nature makes the Meadow Suite a dangerous place to stay long-term. That’s why the citadel’s builders turned it over to the ranger, who wouldn’t be there for more than a few days at a time anyway. Of all the bedroom suites in the citadel, the Meadow Suite is clearly a better guest bedroom than the others.
Oceanus Dock
A series of stone steps leads down the riverbank to the River Oceanus, a gently flowing waterway that passes through Elysium and the Beastlands on its way to Arborea. At any one time, a wooden dock is home to 1d6 keelboats, galleys, and longships. The most common vessel is the citadel xebec (see sidebar).
At the end of the dock is a summoning stone that calls an avoral guardinal whenever someone approaches within 30 feet without first giving the command phrase: “Oceanus, brightest of rivers.”
Entry Platform
This three-walled room, carved from living wood and festooned with woven wreaths of leaves and branches, has portals leading to the Entry Hall on the Plane of Shadow and the Vista Hall on Elysium. Gently sloping rope bridges connect to the Oakleaf suite and the Botanists’ study.
Oakleaf Suite
This fancy bedroom suite features intricate, delicate wooden furniture and rough-fiber tapestries on the walls. Originally the home of a sun-cleric who adored the outdoors, this bedroom includes a small chapel and a rope elevator that connects the room with both the forest canopy and the ground below.
Botanists’ Study
This office is given over to botanical treatises on the bookshelves, specimen jars and work tables, and a hothouse designed to cultivate rare plants. Much of the roof is glassed over to allow the right amount of sunlight in. A rope elevator connects to the ground below.
Arborean Stables
Nestled among the roots of the living-wood tree that makes up this part of the citadel are the stables. This structure, sufficient for about a dozen Large steeds, features water that trickles into each stall through hollowed out root tendrils and succulent shoots that spring from the tree itself. About half the stalls have a stable of understanding effect, so the grooms can converse with their charges. The other stalls are usually reserved for mounts and animal companions who can speak on their own.
Fire Entryway
Stepping into this room for the first time is startling, because the floor is a wall of force and below is the roiling magma of an elemental volcano. The ceiling is likewise merely transparent force, revealing angry, red-limned smoke clouds. The room is otherwise unadorned, with burnished steel walls interrupted only by two doors. One leads to the smithy, and the other leads to a bedroom suite where the citadel’s weapon master and armorer lives.
Citadel Smithy
This fancy smithy has everything a smith could want: the finest tools, plenty of room to work, and a blackmarble forge lit by elemental fire itself. If the citadel is occupied, dozens of weapons, pieces of armor, and other bits of metalcraft sit at long work tables in various states of completion.
A stone of summoning in one corner summons a Large fire elemental. It will stand there for 2 rounds for someone to say in Ignan, “I, the smith of the citadel, beseech you.” If someone does, the elemental obeys commands for the next 9 rounds. The fire elemental attacks anyone in the smithy if the command phrase isn’t given within 2 rounds, or if it’s attacked.
Coal-Ember Suite
This fancy bedroom suite is decorated with arms and armor on every wall—and even the ceiling has swords, axes, and other melee weapons mounted on it. Most weapons are ceremonial and don’t have sharp edges, but others are of masterwork quality with embedded gems and jewelry flourishes. Depending on who owns the citadel, some may be magical. The metal furniture has gold-leaf trim in abundance. Porthole-style windows in the floor afford a view of the volcano crater, and skylights reveal the crimson glow of the sky, giving everything in the room a reddish tinge.
Hall of the High Ground
This simple wood-paneled room contains the portal to the Plane of Shadow, so it’s the first place most visitor see. A gold-filigree inscription above the door to the north reads in Common “We seize the high ground.” Along the wall are testaments to that credo: glass cases full of dirt collected from the battlefields of countless different planes. The soldiers here have a tradition of collecting some “high ground” from wherever they fight, and the accumulated soil collection here is as diverse as the planes themselves.
A set of iron double-doors leads out into the training yard, but this part of the citadel is otherwise unguarded. The citadel’s original builders figured the presence of the guard barracks was protection enough.
Warden’s Suite
This fancy bedroom suite is decorated in a martial theme, of course, with frescoes and oil paintings of battle scenes covering the walls. Hunting trophies stare down at visitors from high on the walls, and cases display various military medals and trophies. The most striking feature of the room is the lifelike mannequins that display the military uniforms of armies past and present from a dozen planes. The furniture is simple, unadorned wood, and creature comforts are minimal.
Map Room
No commander likes to be far from her maps, so this room was intentionally built near the Warden’s Suite. Shelves and cubbyholes cover the walls from floor to ceiling, each with a meticulously labeled map of an important battlefield, stronghold, or other feature of military interest. About half of the maps are of sites on the Material Plane, a quarter are useful sites on Ysgard for extended maneuvers, and the remaining quarter are maps of other Outer Planes. Some maps are covered with the arrows and symbols of military maneuver, telling the tale of an important battle in the universal language of generals. Others depict the terrain in great detail, identifying the slightest defensible rise or the least bit of cover.
Armory
Weapon and armor racks cover the walls of this room, and someone is almost always on duty sharpening blades or performing minor armor repairs (the citadel’s smith makes major repairs in the smithy). Along the far wall are large cabinets holding the officers’ weapons and armor—accumulated treasure from the many adventures of the adventurers who built the citadel. A trap-door leads into a basement where the citadel guard stores arrows, crossbow bolts, and other ammunition.
Barracks
The palace guard barracks are divided up into three buildings. The smaller barracks each hold 8 bunks and a small day room, while the larger, L-shaped barracks has 16 bunks and a spartan mess hall. Troopers tend to share bunks (one shift sleeps while the other trains), so the barracks complex can handle more than 60 soldiers. Depending on the force structure, the smaller barracks are sometimes assigned to special troop types or officers.
A wide ramp between the two smaller barracks leads through a portal to the stables on Arborea, so cavalry stationed on Ysgard has easy access to the steeds in the stables. A stairway along the south wall of the large barracks leads to the Abyss and the dock on the River Styx.
Barracks
Same as 19.
Barracks
Same as 19.
Training Field
This yard is the primary area for drills, inspections, and combat training. Because fallen warriors on Ysgard rise from their wounds the following morning, the soldiers practice against each other with real weapons. The yard is also large enough for calisthenics, marching in formation, and any of the countless disciplines that make up the soldier’s craft.
Because this part of the citadel is located on a sparsely populated earthberg on Ysgard, the citadel’s guard can go on extended maneuvers in the forests, fields, and mountains of the plane. Doing so isn’t entirely without risk, however—Ysgard may be the home of good-aligned deities, but many of its inhabitants are spoiling for a fight.
Foyer
This room features marble statuary in alcoves on the walls and low benches placed so visitors can sit and admire the sculpture. Artistic appreciation is an acquired taste—all the sculptures depict either physical suffering or mental anguish. The servants mutter that the builders of the citadel put the statues in this foyer intentionally, to remind the hired help of their lot in life.
Dis Suite
This fancy bedroom suite is furnished in black marble that contrasts with the white of the walls. Only the bed has cushions that make any effort at comfort; everything else is hard and slightly warm to the touch
Every vertical surface is covered with oil portraits from a dozen ages done in a hundred styles, but none smile and all stare straight ahead out of their picture frames. The ever-present black ivy that grows over every surface obscures some of the older ones.
Office of the Treasurer
This office handles the citadel’s purchasing and payroll, so it’s generally a bustling place. The treasurer and his servants purchase the citadel’s food, building materials, and other mundane goods at the marketplaces and bazaars in the city of Dis. (Because Dis is one of the most important mercantile centers on the Outer Planes, almost anything can be purchased here.)
Depending on the state of the citadel’s finances, there could be quite a lot of money here. Note that the owners guard their treasure with extraordinary care and effort.
Servant Quarters
Alcoves in these two rooms give the citadel’s maids, cooks, and other servants some measure of privacy. Each room has six alcoves, which houses enough servants to cover the requirements of the citadel’s other rooms. If guests or large events call for more help, the citadel’s owners generally use unseen servants and other magic to supplement the regular staff.
Vomitory
Amphitheater-style benches sit against the outside of the walls, and a small stage is available for performances (although most singers and musicians prefer the larger capacity, better acoustics, and more pleasant scenery in the Vista Room on Elysium). A set of double doors that give the room its name opens to the city of Dis.
A stone of summoning is mounted on the lintel over the door. Unless a visitor utters the phrase “it takes a wise man to bargain in Hell,” 1d3 barbazu appear and attack anyone coming through the door.
Stairway Landing
This area has only three notable features. Irregular steps carved into the stone lead upward and north to the portal to Ysgard. A second set of steps ascends south to the Entry Hall on the Plane of Shadow.
A menhirlike stone of summoning calls forth a bebilith who attacks anyone who doesn’t give the phrase, “I long to forget the River Styx.”
Cave Suite
This fancy bedroom suite is decorated entirely by items looted from a dozen castle sieges and dungeon delves. No two pieces of furniture match, although all are of the highest quality. The arrangement is haphazard, with tapestries obscuring frescoes on the walls, coins, and jewelry strewn across the floor, and rich garments hanging from every chair corner and bedpost.
Dock
This dock is exactly like its counterpart in room 7, except that it squats alongside the River Styx, which connects to the Plane of Pandemonium downstream and Carceri, Hades, Gehenna, the Nine Hells, and Acheron upstream.
Astral Entrance
This room contains the portal to the Entry Hall on the Plane of Shadow. Large chalkboards along the walls are covered with experiment schedules, messages from one spellcaster to another, and half-completed magical formulae and diagrams.
Blue Library
This fancy library, named for the inky blue ceiling painting of a starry night, has a large collection of books on arcana, the planes, and religion. Desks and study carrels are scattered across the floor, and ladders on sliding rails allow easy access to the thousands of books here. A librarian is always on staff here to help researchers find a particular volume.
Violet Library
This room is exactly like room 32 except that the ceiling painting is of a canopy of grape vines and the books cover the topics of geography, history, and nobility. The geography books are sometimes missing because they have been borrowed by citadel guards. The missing books can usually be found in the Map Room (17).
Magic Laboratory
This room has all the tables, grimoires, rare spell components, and other trappings you would expect from any magic laboratory. The hexagonal room is dominated by four inward-pointing engraved circles of protection in the center of the floor—one each for good, evil, law, and chaos. These circles provide a measure of protection during dangerous summonings, especially planar bindings.
Those who look through the ceiling skylight see eruptions of flame, crashing waves of water, tornadoes of air, and massive chunks of earth all in an ever-changing chaotic boil. The “skylight” is actually a one-way portal to the Plane of Limbo. Not only is it visually impressive, it provides a quick way to safely dispose of magical experiments gone awry.
Heart Suite
The walls, ceiling, and floor of this fancy bedroom suite look vaguely organic and are warm to the touch, almost as if the room were made of skin over muscle. The furniture likewise is molded into the floor and seems to be a part of the room. Anyone who succeeds at a Listen check (DC 20) can hear a faint throbbing— like a heart beating
It’s actually a permanent image—the room isn’t alive. The wizard who originally lived in this suite wanted a décor that would simultaneously comfort her while unsettling her visitors.
A stairway leads down to the arcanist’s study.
Arcanist’s Study
This room is almost a miniature version of the magic laboratory, although it lacks some of the more impressive pieces of arcane equipment, the engraved circles, and the portal to Limbo. It’s a more comfortable place, with overstuffed furniture and even a pull-out bed.
A stairway descends to a portal to Carceri.
Changing Rooms
This room, which contains the portal to the Plane of Shadow, has a number of small changing alcoves and a door to the top of the Bath Sphere.
Bath Sphere
This room is a vast bubble of force with a door near the top where the bathers enter and a hole in the bottom that lets fresh water in. The water is pleasantly warm, and a chamber of airy water throughout the sphere means that nonaquatic bathers can swim throughout the inside of the globe without worrying about drowning. The servants periodically feed small tropical fish in the bath, and vast schools of colorful fish sometimes give bathers something to watch as they relax in the hot water.
Torture Chamber
The stairway descending from the portal to the Astral Plane ends in this irregular chamber full of the iron maidens, racks, and other implements of the torturer’s trade.
Prison
Ten sets of shackles are strung along the walls of this prison. These shackles grant negative energy protection to any creature wearing them (though they only function when set into a wall or other structure). Prisoners who spend more than one day in this place find themselves trapped up to their waist in a chunk of black ice (hardness 10, 480 hit points, break DC 57). The prison can handle ten captives at a time.
Elysium Rooms
The natural beauty of the Blessed Fields of Elysium—brilliant green meadows, silver clouds, and flower-covered hills everywhere—makes it a natural place for entertaining. The banks of the River Oceanus, which flows from Elysium through the Beastlands, and Arborea, are nearby for citadel-dwellers who want to see more of the Upper Planes.
The citadel’s presence on Elysium is an alabaster palace with a transparent domed roof perched on the banks of Oceanus. Rolling hills and placid meadows dominate the landscape in every direction. From elsewhere on Elysium, the alabaster palace is hidden behind a veil of obscurity, making the citadel look like another flower-bedecked hillock.
Elysium Traits: Positive energy flows through Elysium, so every character on the plane gains fast healing 2. Nongood characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Wisdom-, Intelligence-, and Charisma-based checks.
Elysium is also such a joyful, satisfying place that it’s sometimes hard for visitors to leave. A nonoutsider on Elysium must make a Will saving throw (DC 10 + the number of consecutive weeks on Elysium). Failure indicates that the individual has fallen under the control of the plane and will never leave voluntarily
Arborea Rooms
The citadel’s presence on the Olympian Glades of Arborea is a massive tree house constructed of living wood at the edge of a golden-grass clearing. The veil of obscurity hides the citadel behind layers of leaves and tangles of root and branch. From within, citadel denizens can enjoy the forest splendor and the thrill of riding through the sun-dappled glens and glades of Arborea.
Arborea Traits: The plane is mildly good aligned and mildly chaos aligned, so evil or lawful characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks. Lawful evil characters suffer a –4 penalty.
Plane of Fire Rooms
Nestled inside a volcano cone on the Elemental Plane of Fire is another bedroom suite and the citadel’s smithy. The veil of obscurity makes this part of the citadel (a torus that rings the lip of the volcano) appear to be just more basalt and magma. The views from inside the citadel show the magma of the volcano’s heart and the fiery sea that is the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Plane of Fire Traits: Almost everything on this plane is ablaze. Unprotected wood, paper, cloth, and other flammable materials catch fire immediately (although not if they’re protected within the citadel’s walls). Characters outside take 3d10 points of fire damage every round. Down in the magma below the citadel, it’s worse—the lava deals 20d6 points of damage each round.
Spells and spell-like abilities with the fire descriptor are both maximized and enlarged (as the relevant metamagic feats), but they don’t use up higher spell slots. Casters attempting spells and spell-like abilities that use or create water (including spells from the Water domain and spells that summon creatures with the water subtype) must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + level of the spell) or have their spells fizzle.
The smoky atmosphere limits normal sight to a range of 120 feet, and darkvision doesn’t function. The constant crackling of the elemental flames provides a –2 circumstance penalty on all Listen checks.
Ysgard Rooms
The plane known as the Heroic Domains of Ysgard is home to the citadel’s military wing, a small barracks and training complex suitable for small “palace guard” contingent. From time to time, the citadel has been host to larger military forces, but they generally camp outside the citadel; usually on Ysgard, which is unusually hospitable to soldiers.
Ysgard is a plane of floating “earthbergs”: giant flying mountains that drift past each other in midair. The citadel is a masonry-and-timber stockade in the center of a mesa on one of the smaller earthbergs. Around the stockade is the still-smoldering ruin of an age-old battlefield, and the citadel’s veil of obscurity makes the citadel look like more of the same: empty, smoking ground littered with broken weapons and pierced armor.
Ysgard Traits: Positive energy flows through Ysgard, so all characters here gain fast healing 2 as a supernatural ability. Even lost limbs will grow back given enough time on Ysgard. Furthermore, anyone slain on the battlefield surrounding the citadel rise anew the following morning as if a true resurrection spell had been cast on them. This makes this part of the citadel an ideal training ground for combat, because the soldiers can practice against each other with real weapons but without the risk that accompanies them.
The plane is also mildly chaos-aligned, so lawful creatures suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks.
Hell Rooms
The citadel reaches into the second layer of Hell: the iron city of Dis. The citadel’s veil of obscurity makes it look like parts of other buildings in one of the hell-city’s warehouse districts, and only careful measurement of all the neighboring buildings would reveal that there’s “missing space” in the citadel’s city block.
The city of Dis is a place of red-hot iron—iron that forms the walls of the buildings and even the cobblestones on the streets. Smoke fills the air, and screams from captives held in subterranean prisons echo through the alleyways.
Inside the citadel, things are much cooler and quieter. The architecture is all white marble columns, and black ivy grows across almost every surface. The black ivy grows so fast that it visibly moves during a growth spurt, and the servants must constantly prune it back. No windows look out onto the city of Dis, and only a single set of double doors in area 27 (hidden by the veil of obscurity) connects the citadel to the plane it’s built on.
Hell Traits: The Plane of Hell is aligned with law and evil, so chaotic characters and good characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks. Chaotic good characters suffer a –4 penalty on all Charisma-based checks.
Abyss Rooms
The citadel has a minor presence in the Abyss—just a single bedroom suite and a dock on the river Styx. Because the top layer of the Abyss, the Plain of Infinite Portals, is a major battlefield, the citadel is placed out of the way. At one point, a minor channel of the River Styx drops into an underground channel for a mile or two. Carved out of the rock wall and camouflaged by the veil of obscurity, the citadel survives by escaping notice.
This part of the citadel is roughly hewn from the black bedrock of the Abyss itself. The floors are rough and cracked, and the ceilings curve upward from about 20 feet high at the walls to 30 feet at top of the vaults.
Abyss Traits: Lawful characters and good characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks on the Abyss, because chaos and evil suffuse the plane. Lawful good characters suffer a –4 penalty.
Astral Rooms
The Astral Plane is a bright gray haze in all directions, devoid of features. The citadel’s astral wing is a gray stone jewel that hangs in the misty void, its many facets gleaming. It only gleams to those who pierce the veil of obscurity. Anyone else sees only more of the bright haze.
The interior of the astral rooms in the citadel is dark-paneled wood and white stucco ceilings. It’s unusually quiet in these well-insulated rooms, so the citadel’s spellcasters can research in the libraries and experiment in the laboratory without distraction.
Astral Traits: The Astral Plane is beyond the reach of the ravages of time. Age hunger, thirst, poison, and natural healing don’t function here, although magical healing functions normally. There’s no gravity on the Astral Plane, although the inside of the citadel has normal gravity.
The Astral Plane is also a place where magic comes easily. All spells and spell-like abilities may be employed as if they had been improved by the Quicken Spell feat, although the spells don’t use higher spell slots. Characters can still use only one quickened spell per round.
Plane of Water Rooms
The Elemental Plane of Water is an unending ocean without surface or floor, so it’s the perfect place to put a luxurious bath. The citadel is a simple wooden chamber attached to a large force-bubble in a particularly warm stretch of elemental water. The veil of obscurity is simply haziness added to the water to obscure the room and any bathers from the denizens of the plane.
Elemental Plane of Water Traits: The Plane of Water doesn’t have normal gravity; the inhabitants of the plane can rise and sink at their swim speed as they see fit.
Spells and spell-like abilities that use or create water are both extended and enlarged, as if the relevant metamagic feats were used, although they don’t use higher spell slots. It’s hard to employ magic fire on this plane. Spellcasters must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + level of the spell) to cast spells with the fire descriptor. Creatures with the fire subtype are very uncomfortable, and those actually made of fire (such as fire elementals) take 1d10 points of damage per round spent on the Elemental Plane of Water.
Carceri Rooms
The Tarterian Depths of Carceri serve as the prison of the multiverse, so there’s no better place for the citadel to have its prison cells and torture chamber. The citadel is a self-contained cave carved into the sixth layer of the plane, Agathys, a sphere of black ice.
Carceri Traits: Carceri is evil-aligned, so good characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks. The layer of Agathys has negative energy coursing through it, so living characters take 1d6 points of damage each round. The citadel’s prisoners only survive because the shackles provide negative energy protection to those they imprison. Escaping from one’s bonds is a mixed blessing at best.
These rooms are all bitterly cold, and the walls, ceilings, and floors all have the crystalline sparkle of black ice. Furniture is minimal, because no one tarries here overlong—other than the captives, of course.
The Basics
Some planes aren’t all that hospitable to visitors, especially those from the Material Plane. The conditions— fire, cold, water, and so on—are harsh, and the natives can be harsher. The citadel’s builders realized the importance of security. If someone breaks into a single room, they would then have immediate access to each and every other plane the citadel touches.
The first layer of protection for the Citadel of the Planes is that most passersby never know it’s even there. If the citadel’s location were widely known, a hundred petty despots would be at the door with an army in tow, intending to use the portals within the citadel for an extraplanar crusade.
For this reason, a veil of obscurity covers each stronghold space, melding it in nicely with the surrounding landscape. The exact appearance of the veil varies widely depending on the plane—everything from molten rock to .murky water.
Initially, the illusion works both ways, so citadel inhabitants don’t see much when they look out the windows, After a few rounds peering out the window, viewers have studied the glamer sufficiently to allow them a Will save (DC 17). If another denizen of the citadel explains the nature of the illusion to them, viewers receive a +4 circumstance bonus on the Will save. Those who make their saving throws can see through the veil and gaze on the otherworldly landscape beyond.
If someone pierces the veil, they’ll have to contend with the exterior walls: reinforced masonry in most cases, with some walls of force. The citadel also has barracks for a small “palace guard” contingent, several summoned guardians, and the best defense of all: the high-level characters who call citadels like this home.
Getting Around
The main entry to the citadel is a portal from an alleyway in a large city on the Material Plane. Those who step through the portal are whisked to a trophy room on the Plane of Shadow. From there, they can travel to further planes through a series of portals, and from the further reaches of the citadel they can explore the mysteries of the Inner and Outer Planes.
The portals that lead from plane to plane are all two-way portals. Normal vision works through the portal, so you can see where you’re going. You can’t shoot ranged weapons or send unattended objects through the portal.
The citadel’s denizens can reach all the other planes from the trophy room on the Plane of Shadow. Furthermore, several of the outlying parts of the citadel connect with each other directly. For example, a portal links the barracks on Ysgard and the stable on Arborea.
The citadel’s builders often had extraplanar errands and missions, so some parts of the citadel connect to important parts of other planes. The citadel’s docks sit on the banks of the River Oceanus (which winds its way through most of the good-aligned Outer Planes) and the River Styx (which connects many of the evil-aligned planes). Another part of the citadel is an unobtrusive doorway into the city of Dis, one of the largest metropolises in the Nine Hells of Baator.
Plane of Shadow Rooms
The alleyway door—iron with an amazing (Open Lock DC 40) lock—covers a two-way portal between the Material Plane and the citadel’s heart on the Plane of Shadow. Viewed from elsewhere on the Plane of Shadow, the citadel looks like a narrow granite pyramid with a single door halfway up one wall. Around sits a sinister, shadowy mountain range. Observers elsewhere on the Plane of Shadow see nothing but another mountain peak unless they somehow pierce the citadel’s veil of obscurity.
Plane of Shadow Traits: This world of black and white features shifting, twisted versions of landmarks from the Material Plane. Spells with the shadow descriptor are enhanced on the Plane of Shadow. Such spells are cast as thought they were prepared with the Maximize Spell feat, though they don’t require the higher spell slots. Furthermore, shadow conjuration and shadow evocation spells are 30and as powerful as the conjurations and evocations they mimic (as opposed to 20%). Greater shadow conjuration and greater shadow evocation are 60% as powerful (not 40%), and a shade spell conjures at 90% of the power of the original (not 60%). To calculate the effect of such spells, take advantage of Maximize Spell to garner maximum hit points or maximum damage, then apply the percentage above.
Spells that use or generate light or fire may fizzle when cast on the Plane of Shadow. A spellcaster attempting a spell with the light or fire descriptor must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + the level of the spell). Spells that produce light are less effective in general, because all light sources have their ranges halved on the Plane of Shadow. Despite the dark nature of the Plane of Shadow, spells that produce, use, or manipulate darkness itself are unaffected by the plane.
Modify the descriptions given below as appropriate for your campaign.
Citadel Xebec
The Citadel of the Planes has six xebecs it uses to make trips through the Upper and Lower Planes (three for the River Oceanus and three for the River Styx), although it’s unusual for more than one or two to be sailing at any one given time.
The 70-foot-long xebec, distinguished by its sloping bow and stern, has an open top deck, three triangular sails, and a completely enclosed lower deck. A crew of 10 is sufficient for sailing, although an extra 20 rowers are necessary on planes where wind is a problem (and breezes are common along both Oceanus and Styx). Its magically hardened wooden hull is proof against even jagged rocks, and its smooth polished hull slips through the water almost effortlessly.
After 5 rounds of preparation, the crew can swing two of the masts sideways and raise magic sails that enable the xebec to fly, although slowly and ponderously. It takes a further 5 rounds to return the xebec to seaworthy state.
The xebec has +1 ballistas in cupolas fore and aft. Both regular ammunition and ballista bolts of lightning are plentiful.
Citadel Xebec: Spd 40 ft., fly 20 ft. (poor), 24 mph; Turn 90 degrees; Hull magically treated wood 6 in. thick; hardness 10; hit points 120; AC 4; Break DC 20; Crew 10; Cargo 20 tons; Cost 228,700 gp; Face 70 ft. by 30 ft.
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