Baator, The Nine Hells
A Place of Misery
• Everything is an inconvenience, difficulty or deadly.• Natives of the Nine Hells like to bemoan their misfortune and blame others for their horrible lives.
• A natural 1 might randomly break a non-magical weapon.
• Even when things go well, small misfortunes can happen. A bug bite leaves a welt, a characters belt might snap, a hot ember falls down their clothes, the ground heaves and the character falls.
• Food and drink retains nutrition but tastes awful, unless bought from a licensed merchant.
• If characters act evil or selfish, reward them with benefits or inspiration.
Geography and Time
Geography is strange in Baator. Keeping track of direction and distance is near impossible, and things shift rapidly. It could take 6 miles of travel to get from a location and 60 miles to return.• If the players get lost or are running out of resources, a fiend could offer a shortcuts for the price of a Soul Coin or other valuable item.
• There is no day or night in the Nine Hells.
Rules and Encounters
Bargain for LifeA character who needs to make a death save can receive a telepathic message from an archdevil. In return for a task (to be revealed after accepting) the character automatically rolls a 20 on their next death save. Exhaustion
A nonevil creature treats normal travel as a forced marched and must make a Constitution Save each hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour of travel. On a failed save, the creature suffers one level of exhaustion. Pervasive Evil
At the end of each long rest, a visitor that isn't evil must make a DC5 Wisdom Saving throw. On a failed save, the creature's alignment becomes lawful e vil. The change is permanent if the creature doesn't leave the plane within 1d4 days. Dispel Evil and Good returns the creature to their normal alignment.
The Nine Hells
Baator holds nine layers, each with its own form of torture it inflicts upon all who tread upon its surface. More than almost any other plane, the Nine Hells themselves are alive with emotion and thoughts of torturous ruin. The plane doesn’t communicate directly with any being, save for Asmodeus and some of the more powerful Lords of the Nine, but that doesn’t mean it works in silence either. Though each layer of Baator is infinite, planar sages describe the Nine Hells as an inverted mountain. The first layer, Avernus, is the broadest and most open, and as the layers descend they become more claustrophobic, more hemmed in by the sky and the infernal landscape. The lowest layer is Nessus filled with jagged canyons of black stone, where the sky is choked with clouds of ash.Avernus
The top-most layer of the Nine Hells is the most frequently visited by outsiders and serves as a titanic battlefield in the never-ending Blood War. Countless ruined castles and fortresses sit amidst the broken landscape of crimson stone beneath an ever-red sky of anger and fiery ruthlessness. Rivers of blood weave in and around the small peaks and valleys created by the shifting landscape, though they pale in comparison to the waters of the River Styx. There are more portals to the rest of the multiverse on Avernus than anywhere else in the Nine Hells, but when a devil commander discovers one of these they often move quickly to build a fortress around it in order to secure it from attacks by demons. The rule of Avernus has passed between multiple hands but currently sits with Zariel, a fallen angel who deposed the previous ruler Bel. Zariel rules from a floating basalt citadel and through arcane might and a deep connection with the layer she is able to rain fireballs down upon the landscape at irregular intervals. Unlike the other Lords of the Nine, Zariel is not attended to by a host of devil dukes and duchesses. Instead, Avernus is home to the Outcast Dukes – powerful devils that have been banished from their realms in the lower Nine Hells and now must fight for scraps on the edge of the Blood War. Avernus is wracked by constant war and strife, and while Zariel rules, there is too much going on across the layer for her to keep her attention focused on all of it.Dis
The second layer is Dis, dominated by the blackened iron walls and maze-like streets of the City of Dis. The city sits in a mountains basin hundreds of miles across and beyond the iron gates is nothing but despair-filled wilderness. Though, inside the iron gates is nothing but despair-filled streets. Dis is one of the most stable of the Nine Hells, owed in large part to its ruler. Dispater has ruled Dis from the Iron Tower for as long as living memory, and the canny archduke is known to be the most cautious of all the Lords of the Nine. He rarely leaves the Iron Tower, instead working with a massive network of spies and informants, including statues of the imposing infernal archduke placed all about the city and iron specters moving all about on mysterious errands. The City of Dis is confusing and off-putting. Streets go nowhere or lead only in squares and circles while buildings shift subtly to confuse and confound travelers. Few travelers come to Dis so the streets are usually empty save for the teams of lesser devils on construction projects, tearing down buildings, repairing structures, and re-paving roads using vast vats of boiling oil and sludge. The walls of Dis are hot enough to burn mortal flesh in an instant.Minauros
Below Dis squats the vast, stinking swamp of Minauros. This layer is a fetid nightmarish realm of disease and oozing decay over which rules Mammon, a serpentine archduke of exceeding vanity and pride. Great clouds of bloated flies buzz about the swamp constantly and the stinking morass and dismal weather makes travel difficult for any non-native traveler. Flesh-rending hailstorms are common and can beat down even unprepared devils if they’re not cautious. It’s surprising that a fair amount of Minauros is actually urbanized, but all of the cities and fortresses are gradually sinking into the muck and their original construction predate modern memory. Each location works to curb the slow sink in its own way. The city of Minauros where Mammon rules uses hundreds upon hundreds of zombies as an unliving foundation, while Jangling Hiter – the City of Chains – is actually suspended on massive iron links to the City of Dis on the layer above. Minauros is also the home of the Witch-Queens of Hecate, who rule a fog-shrouded realm of forbidden magic called Aeaea. These powerful hags have held a long truce with Mammon and the two powers often work together towards common goals.Phelegethos
Phlegethos is the layer of the Nine Hells that most mortals imagine when they think about the plane of damnation and torture. Great volcanoes stab at the fire-filled crimson skies, pouring rivers of molten magma down their slopes and into bubbling lakes. Jets of flame erupt from the ground at irregular intervals and the air is filled with the screams of the tortured and damned. Phlegethos is ruled by Belial and his daughter Fierna, a pairing that has given new life to the archduke’s schemes and plots. Fierna’s Palace is a tower of crystalline stone wreathed in blue flames filled with prisoners and slaves that serve the archduchess’ every wild whim. Belial watches and plots from the city of Abyrimoch nestled within the caldera of an always-active volcano. That obsidian city also houses the Diabolical Courts, an independent institution designed to settle disputes between devils.Stygia
The frozen layer of Stygia is a realm of enormous ice floes, titanic icebergs, and a howling wind that freezes blood. The River Styx is said to originate here, though truthfully none know for sure its source, but the oily black water is easily distinguishable from the surrounding dark waters. The river cuts through glaciers, many large enough to support cities, and winds through the sea itself. The ruler of Stygia is Archduke Levistus who is imprisoned in an enormous glacier. He was once overthrown by Asmodeus and imprisoned in the icy tomb, but Baatorian politics brought him back to the status of a Lord of the Nine. It did not, however, free him, and Levistus control the layer and his forces from inside the frozen prison. The former rule of the layer, Geryon, still skulks around Stygia, plotting his revenge and return to power. Tantilin is an impressive city carved completely from a massive glacier, but it was the seat of Geryon’s power and since the archduke’s fall the city has collapsed without a ruler. One of the more curious sites on Stygia is Ankhwugaht, the realm of Set, a mysterious deity of snakes and treachery. This realm sits on an enormous earth chunk scoured lifeless by the frozen winds, which also created fine black sand that gets blown around the tombs, obelisks, and pyramids that fill the island.Malbolge
No layer of the Nine Hells has seen more turnover among the Lords of the Nine than Malbolge, the sixth layer. The current ruler is Archduchess Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, who replaced the only non-devil to rule in the Nine Hells, Malagarde the Hag Countess. Others have ruled over Malbolge in the past, and with the way Glasya openly defies her father, it’s not unreasonable to think that her time is limited at the top as well. The rocky surface of Malbolge sits at an angle, like the slope of a plane-sized mountain, creating numerous rock avalanches that can catch the unwary and bury them beneath tons of broken stone. Great lakes of poisonous bile dot the sloped landscape, and Glasya has been known to harvest potent poisons from these to use across the multiverse. When Malagarde the Hag Countess was deposed, Asmodeus turned her into a literal feature of Malbolge. The night hag ballooned out to incredible proportions before being consumed by the land itself, only to have parts of her regurgitated across the broken landscape. Ten enormous ivory towers representing her fingers emerged in one location, and her skull now serves as Glasya’s personal fortress.Maladomini
Whatever Maladomini once was, it is now an apocalyptic wasteland. Ruined buildings and destroyed cities squat in squalor and decay amongst sludge-choked rivers. Many of the ruins suggest inhabitants as large as giants but none now in living memory remember any of their names. A stench pervades Maladomini reminiscent of rot, which might explain the truly frighteningly large clouds of black flies that swarm over the skies. Maladomini is ruled by Baalzebul, the Lord of Lies and Flies, whose lower body was transformed by Asmodeus into an enormous slug. No other Lord of the Nine has tried usurp Asmodeus as many times as Baalzebul but somehow he has retained his rulership over the seventh layer. From his Palace of Filth, this Lord of the Nine wallows in sloth, hating his fellow lords but taking little action against them anymore. Most of the other archdukes pity the once powerful Baalzebul but few seem willing to claim his broken and wretched layer. Maladomini does hold a surprising haven for malcontents across the multiverse – the city of Grenpoli. There, the Rules of Hell have dictated no violence be done, with powerful wards forbidding weapons of any kind, and any creature in pursuit can find respite there for as long as they stay. Political power is king in Grenpoli as words supplant weapons as the tools of getting ahead.Cania
Those that think Stygia is cold are in for a deadly shock when it comes to Cania, the eight layer of the Nine Hells. Here, no water moves unless its frozen, and great glaciers crash into each other, pushed by elemental forces of death and enormous blizzards with ice-shards capable of rending flesh from bone. Locked in many of the glaciers are frozen cities, the discarded trophies of Cania’s lord, where foolish travelers can find some sanctuary from the deadly cold. Mephistopheles rules Cania, and his ambitions and plots are exceeded only by Asmodeus himself. The Archduke of Cania has his eyes on the throne of Baator itself, and has worked carefully and methodically across eternity to position himself to take advantage of every opportunity. For Mephistopheles, it’s not a matter of if Asmodeus makes a grave miscalculation, it’s when. For being the lord of the coldest layer of the Nine Hells, Mephistopheles is the creator of the diabolic element known as hellfire. This fire burns not with fire but with pure pain, and his dedicated disciples of the art – the Circle of Hellfire – work to spread the power of Mephistopheles across the multiverse. Deep within the Citadel of Mephistar, Mephistopheles’ personal abode, new and terrible means of using hellfire are being developed constantly.Nessus
The lowest layer of the Nine Hells is the least visited. From what has been gathered, Nessus is a cramped, crowded landscape of blackened earth pitted with miles-deep canyons and gorges that lead to an eternal and endless darkness. The pits of Nessus have birthed monsters out of a devil’s nightmare, and from his layer rules Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine. Asmodeus’s throne rests in Fortress Nessus at the end of a maze-like canyon called the Serpent’s Coil. It is said no mortal has visited this unholy site without the express permission of Asmodeus, and any who dare travel to Nessus itself are often overwhelmed with a sense of utter despair that eats away at even the stoutest of resolves. Overhead, Nessus is lit by a black orb that sheds darkness across the entire layer. Known as the Nighted Sun, it has been confirmed that Asmodeus keeps a prison in the orb for special betrayers – and there is rumors of a treasure vault there as well.Lords of the Nine
The absolute powers in the Nine Hells are the archdukes and archduchesses that sit at the top of the power pyramid – the Lords of the Nine. Individually, these are powerful entities that have an almost divine connection to their home layer, allowing them to control and direct geographic and environmental forces nearly at will. The greatest among them is Asmodeus with true divine powers, though a few others are coming close (Mephistopheles being the closest). Infernal politics in Baator demand the attention of each of the Lords of the Nine. Someone is always scheming against them, usually lesser devils looking to promote themselves to the top by impressing Asmodeus or killing an archdevil. And that’s one of the secrets of the Lords of the Nine – they all serve at the whim of Asmodeus. The most powerful archdevil has deposed multiple lords over the countless centuries for displeasing him or simply because he grew bored of them. Usually, though, Asmodeus does not flex this particular power unless absolutely necessary. The plotting and planning inherent in all devils, as decreed by the Rules of Hell, usually keep the Lords of the Nine occupied and distracted. And that’s another secret – Asmodeus knows that if the other lords were to all band against him, they would have the strength to depose him from Nessus. But the devilish nature, inherently selfish, prevents such cooperation from coming together on such a massive scale. Zariel. Originally an angel from the Upper Planes sent to watch over the Blood War, Zariel fell to the ultimate corruption of the Nine Hells. She spent a long time as the ruler of Avernus before being replaced by a powerful pit fiend named Bel, but the tides recently turned and Zariel rules Avernus once again from a massive floating basalt citadel. Bel still serves as a general, advising Zariel and directing the devilish forces in great campaigns in the Blood War. Dispater. Dispater rules Dis from an imposing gothic iron citadel in the center of his city. He is paranoid and cautious but the best weapons dealer in all of Baator. Dis’ forges pump out the sharpest blades and the most protective armor, but Dispater takes no chances. His network of spies runs deep in his iron city so that little occurs in those heavy streets without his knowledge, and his trade connections with the rest of the Nine Hells puts him in a very comfortable position. Or so he believes. Mammon. It is said no devil is as greedy as Mammon, the ruler of Minauros. He oversees the bulk of the soul trade in the Nine Hells and he has amassed a treasure hoard greater than any other in the plane, or so it is said at least. Mammon’s greed and obsession with wealth has gotten him into trouble over the centuries but thus far he has retained his position as archdevil. Belial & Fierna. The rules of Phlegethos are a strange study in duality. Belial and Fierna are father and daughter but their relationship is more intertwined than that, and the two play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses perfectly. Fierna is charming, second only to Asmodeus it is said, while Belial is brutal and straightforward. Lately, Fierna has been spending a lot of time on Malbolge in the palace of Glasya, and the two have been working on delicate schemes that are making Belial more than a little nervous. Levistus. Archduke Levistus ruled over Stygia long ago but angered Asmodeus, so was deposed suddenly and entombed in an enormous glacier. Another archdevil, Geryon, stepped up to claim lordship over Stygia, but recently Asmodeus reinstated Levistus – but didn’t free him from his icy tomb. Now, Levistus uses his magical prowess to command the legions of Stygia while Geryon stalks around, undermining the new archdevil at every turn. Glasya. Malbolge has seen a large number of rulers over the centuries. The previous ruler was Malagarde the Hag Countess, but in a fit Asmodeus threw down the night hag and replaced her with his own daughter, Glasya. Most see nepotism at its finest with this choice but Glasya has proven to be an effective and surprisingly unpredictable ruler, and Malbolge has shifted dramatically under her rule. She works to undermine her father, more openly than any of the other Lords of the Nine, and has thus far managed to not be deposed. Baalzebul. Baalzebul is a tragic figure in the annals of the Nine Hells. He is an archduke of lies and deceit, perhaps the most intelligent devil in all of Baator, but his ambition long ago to depose Asmodeus failed. Now, more slug than devil, Baalzebul wastes away as ruler of Maladomini, a wasteland layer filled with clouds of flies that matches the mood of its once proud ruler. Mephistopheles. Cunning, charming, and devious, Mephistopheles is the pinnacle of pride itself and would like to see nothing less than himself on the throne of Nessus. The frozen layer of Cania is his current home but this has not deterred his ambitions. Mephistopheles has so many plots spinning at one time across the multiverse that he can sometimes lose track of them himself. Asmodeus. At the top of the Nine Hells pyramid (which, as represented by the layers themselves, is actually the bottom) sits Asmodeus, the ruler of Nessus and the greatest devil of them all. His background is a mystery, filled with legends and tall tales about a fall from grace and a grand betrayal, and the truth seems to be that he is as much a prisoner in Baator as its ruler. But his temples and cults have spread across the multiverse, especially in the Material Plane where wealthy nobles find worshipping Asmodeus a profitable venture – as long as they’re willing to pay the pricePortraits
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