Carceri

The Tartarian Depths of Carceri is also known as the Red Prison or as the prison of the multiverse. This plane is nestled between The Abyss and the Gray Wastes of Hades, those that arrive on this plane are often sentenced to this plane to an afterlife of misery and pain. Six layers make up this plane, though anyone who travels to this plane can be forgiven for thinking that there are hundreds of layers. Upon arrival on this plane, the dull red glow of this plane reveals hundreds of orbs like pearls on a necklace stretching off into the distance only a hundred miles above.
Instead, the layers of this plane are down inside of each of the more than likely infinite number of planets that make up this plane. As you travel to the lowest points of a planet, you can access a conduit that sends you to the next layer down. Arriving on the lower layer, you find yourself standing on the highest point of the next layer of a smaller planet with the sky full of planets, but further away. As you continue moving down, the light grows fainter, the planets smaller, the temperature plummets, and the distance between planets become astronomical. The six layers of this plane are Orthrys, Cathrys, Minethys, Colothys, Porphatys, and Agathys.

Ecosystem

An Outsider’s Perspective Outsiders who arrive in Carceri venture into a plane of reddish tinge as if they are viewing the plane through blood-stained glasses. The plane is a prison and outsiders who arrive here rarely make friends with those who are stuck here. Portals that lead out of this plane are guarded heavily by fiends, petitioners, and even the powers trapped on this plane. Those who spend just a few days here begin cycling into a state of despair, the longer they stay here, the stronger it holds onto them.
If you choose to travel to Carceri, a traveler should always have a way out, though if it involves dealing with anyone on this plane, they should double think coming here. Any deals someone makes, especially if they are an outsider, will rarely if ever, be seen through honestly. The people of this plane just can’t be straightforward or honest, the plane breeds despair, double-crossing, and hatred for all, including yourself.
It isn’t just the inhabitant that you must watch out for, even the plane itself hides behind a facade. Dense jungles that cover the second layer are dangerous for anyone to make their way through, for they don’t release sap but rather acid that eats through metal, clothing, and skin alike. Those who can venture into those deep jungles must follow the pre-made trails hacked into the jungle, but even those can lead you astray and lost in the jungles. If you make your way out of the jungles that dominate the layer, vast grasslands await you, and while they do not spray acid, they are as sharp as jagged blades, shredding even the thickest pairs of boots.
A Native’s Perspective Planes of Conflict, 1995 TSR Inc. Planes of Conflict, 1995 TSR Inc.
Those who live on Carceri are rarely ever doing so voluntarily, though that doesn’t mean any. Most who live on this plane are the petitioners who lied and backstabbed their entire life until they passed on to this plane. While they may have forgotten their mortal lives, they still keep enough of their former personality to continue lying and cheating here. Apart from the petitioners, some have been exiled or were once traitors, sentenced for life on this plane. Those who are sentenced continue to plot and scheme, though this time it is based on how to leave this plane and regain their former positions.
It is said that the only way for someone who is sentenced to this plane to leave, is by becoming more powerful than the one who sentenced you. This seems to be true as the most powerful on this plane, the titans, are constantly looking for ways to increase their power. Eons past, the Gods of the greeks, who can largely be found on Mount Olympus located on Arobrea, destroyed the part of Mount Olympus that stretched down into Carceri and locked the titans away here for their traitorous actions. Now, these titans sit in despair, plotting their eventual escape from their prison planet, often calling upon adventurers to help them, though they can’t help but betray them at the end of it all.
Every creature who resides here has typically done something despicable, but that isn’t always true. In 4th edition, this plane is a prison used almost exclusively by the Gods who, based on an agreement that all but four of the major Gods agreed too, can put anyone they wish in prison with little to no backlash from the other Gods. From angels who have fallen to traitorous demons, these individuals are sent here where they must serve out their sentences. Some of the eviler Gods have been known to send dissenters, even those who never broke the laws, to this prison where there is no hope of escape.
Apart from those sent here as punishment, in 4th edition there are also the abominations that the Gods created to help them win the Dawn War. Unfortunately, they had no way of stopping the self-creation magics of the abominations and those creatures began to grow twisted and cruel. They are the reason, in 4e, that this prison plane was created and the adamantine gates set to block any from leaving or entering without the express permission of the Gods. Those who reside in this plane must band together against the abominations, even if they often turn on each other more often than not.
Atmosphere The atmosphere of Carceri is much like The Material Plane, though that quickly begins changing the further down the layers you go. The top layer, Orthrys, is often humid as it is a bog, but not unpleasantly so, even if the dim glow of red might make you think it would be a hot plane. As you journey deeper into the layers, the planets that make up this plane begin getting further apart, and the temperature begins dropping. While the second layer, Cathrys, isn’t horrible and the temperature is only described as cool, the third layer, Minethys, takes a sudden turn as winds that rival even those found on Pandemonium, begin whipping up sand and blasting the surface of this layer. If you can survive being stripped of your skin by the sand, you arrive on Colothys which is a layer of miles-deep canyons and sweeping mountains with only tiny goat trails to help travelers.
Porphatys marks a change as now every planet is covered in a shallow ocean and the light only glows dimly here. Cold and freezing waters suck any warmth from travelers, and the acidic snow that blows across the plane pollutes the water and melts most structures here. Swimming down to the darkest depths of this plane, you can arrive in the lowest layer, Agathys, a layer completely frozen over in black ice. This plane has but the faintest of lights and only the darkness surrounds you, if there are any layers below this one, no one has found it beneath the dozens of miles of thick ice.
Each planet on this plane gives off its light, though there is no day or night cycle here unless one of the powers wills it for their domain. The closer you are to the top layer, the brighter the light is, and the closer each planet is to each other. On the top layer, the planets are only 100 miles apart, and those that try to move from one planet to the next can easily do so, so long as they have a way of flying. Once you leave the sphere of influence, there is no longer any gravity pulling on you between the planets, which makes it easy to simply drift to the next planet without getting too tired.

Tourism

Travel to the Plane Traveling to this plane is often called easy and cheap. The ferrymen who ply their trade up and down the River Styx charge a meer pittance for them to sail you into Carceri and the portals that lead to the plane are well known and published. From the olive color pool in the Astral Plane to the portals located on the Outlands and on the adjacent planes, finding a portal to Carceri is easy. Once a traveler arrives on the plane, the trouble becomes trying to leave. If you were sentenced to prison here, there is little to nothing you can do as the plane itself seems to stop you from leaving. The only way, at least as far as rumors are concerned, is to grow and outstrip the power of whoever sent you here, though if you are a petitioner, there is no escape.
For visitors, the hard part of leaving here is that petitioners and fiends who make their home here hate the idea that someone could have the freedom to leave. They have heavy guards around every known portal, and to get permission to use them, you must either get special permission from a power or trick your way past. If you try to use the ferrymen and take the River Styx, while it is incredibly cheap to get into Carceri, they charge fortunes to leave, even then they may require further funds once they get you on the boat and out on the river.
The portals leading out of this plane are black obelisks with screaming faces that appear to be ghosts inside the stones. Depending on which plane you are traveling too, the obelisks will be shaped differently. If you are heading to Hades, keep your eye out for an obelisk that is taller than it is wide, while an obelisk that is wider than it is tall can be used to travel to The Abyss. If the obelisk is equally proportioned, it will take you to the Outlands, though travelers should be careful before they take an obelisk. Many have been slightly disguised so that they are dug into the ground or rotated on to their side, thus fooling those quickly judging their dimensions before jumping in.
Traversing the Plane
Walking across the plane is filled with unexpected hazards that can trip up even the most experienced explorer. From quicksand and sinking bogs on Orthrys, to acid jungles trees on Cathrys, and down to the bottom layer with its acidic snow and frozen wastelands, this plane hides its deadliness behind a facade of the normalcy. While the temperature and climate rarely change on a layer, there are gales of sudden storms that will fling travelers off of treacherous mountain paths or decimate the local area. No matter what something looks like, a traveler should be wary about what dangers it might be hiding.
To traverse the six layers of this plane, one must venture to the lowest depths of each layer and find the conduits that connect the layers. Upon getting to the deep tunnels of the first layer, you’d then arrive on the high mountains of the second layer. From there, you must continue into the deepest sections, with the fourth and fifth layers requiring you to swim down into the acid oceans and find a conduit beneath the waves.
If you wish to instead stay on the same layer but travel to the different planets that make up each layer, you must simply have a way of flying. Once you fly up high enough, you can leave the sphere of influence of the current planet, which ends at the highest point on that planet, and then you are in the void between the planets. While the atmosphere stays the same, there is no gravity and you can simply drift from one planet to the next, of course, you must be on your guard for many have suddenly plummeted to the ground of the next planet because they misjudged the sphere of influence.
The distance between the planets changes depending on which layer you are on, which coincides with the amount of light available. On the first layer, the planets are only 100 miles apart, and bright light floods everywhere. It is easy to see the string of planets, like a string of pearls, that hang across the sky in a line. As you move further down the layers, they get further apart and on the second layer, the planets are 500-miles apart and slightly smaller. The third layer has even smaller planets that are 5,000 miles apart and a dim-rudy glow provides scarce lighting, that grows even dimmer on the fourth layer with its even smaller planets shaped like a spiky ball with massive mountains and incredibly deep canyons, the planets are 500,000 miles apart from each other.
The fifth layer is the second coldest out of the layers and a faint light barely illuminates each tiny planet here. The planets are spaced out so that five million miles separate them and the planets are covered in a shallow ocean of acidic water. The final layer, at least that travelers are aware of, is completely frozen over and covered in dark ice streaked with red. The pitch-black sky hides the distance of the planets, while some claim it is too vast to measure, others claim that the planets are tens of millions of miles from each other.
Flying Between the Planets
If you are not naturally blessed with wings or have the power of magic to call on, you can still travel from planet to planet thanks to a few devices for sale by the inhabitants of this plane. Before purchasing, always make sure that you aren’t buying a broken piece of equipment or that you understand exactly what you are buying.
Ferrous Sled - ~2,000 gp This flat sled is made up of a lodestone that repels itself from the ground of a single layer and is widely used by traders and travelers for its rather well-known price and abilities. While a traveler is sitting on the sled, they can push off the ground and the sled will activate and begin to repel itself from the ground, a traveler can guide it by adjusting their body weight across the sled. If they wish to travel to another planet over, they must fly it up a mountain and out into the void between the planets where it will then slowly make its way to the next planet. Many inexperienced sledders will crash as they enter into another planet as they are ill-prepared for determining where the sphere of influence begins. A sled only works on one layer that it is designed for, and if a traveler wishes to sled across every layer, they must get a sled for each layer. A typical sled can carry up to two people, or one person and up to 500 pounds of supplies.
Skin Balloons - ~1,000 gp per 2-man Balloon Similar to hot air balloons found on The Material Plane, these balloons are much smaller and are made from the furry hide of many of the natural beasts and residents of this plane, some even include the skin of outsiders if the creator is lacking in supplies. These balloons can be launched by using fire to cause the air inside the skin bladder to begin getting hotter and the traveler can ‘breach’ the sphere of influence of one planet and fly over to another planet. These balloons do have the problem that they are highly subjective to the wind and that they are made up of skins of natural beasts on this plane. Many of those creatures get rather angry seeing their fellow kind being used as a balloon and will attack the rather fragile balloons, sending the travelers crashing to the ground far below them.
Spinneret - ~150 gp Similar to the web parachutes of spiders, this incredibly light and thin rope is made out of special silk. About 100 feet long, a traveler merely must travel to a windy place and uncoil the rope, allowing the wind to grab it and pull them off to where ever the wind takes them. This is incredibly dangerous for almost everyone to travel across the planets as no one should ever trust the wind on Carceri.

Type

Plane of Existence

Location under

Lower Planes