Saturday 21 May 2016

Hell's Underworld 1



I have a big wet sloppy surprise for post 850 coming up

Others in this series
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/hells-infernal-lands-1.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/hells-infernal-lands-2.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/hells-plague-lands-1.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/hells-plague-lands-2.html

Hell's Underworld 1
This series for my hellscape project is chugging along still. While influenced by art and literature the previous hells were more vicreal and bodily. This hell is gloomy, boring and more inspired by ancients. The previous hells were more evil this one has a wider range of alignments. Possibly the newer hells with fire and torment demonstrate increase in alignment conflicts in the multiverse. Devils are less influential here too but can be found with other evil outsiders and undead. Devils guard gate houses and sections of the underworld and operate the bureaucracy rather than actually torment the imprisoned. Some parts of the underworld are prisons with devil jailers but generally do not torture victims.

This hell is a land of despair, loneliness, gloom, doldrums, melancholia and sadness. It is littered with ruins, dung, funerary monuments and ash heaps. The damned here are desperate for food, wine, luxury and worship. Many will request they are given libations, sacrifices and monuments in exchange for services. Some dead live well if they are given offerings by their descendants. Some were once kings but now forgotten they dwell in ruins and eat dung and ash. Many damned here are tormented by useless  repetitive futile actions. Pride and greed are sins dealt with here. The proud are cast down by pointless deeds and the once splendid are brought low by wretched poverty. Hubris is pride against the gods and they jealously punish human arrogance. Tortures are mostly psychological but some are physical. Imprisonment without respite is the main condition of damned here. Most social mobility is downward. As your descendants no longer sacrifice to you, or your grave goods are stolen or people no longer pour libations to your name the damned are increasingly left with nothing.

Without ancestors to celebrate your deeds with offerings and sacrifice you will be a wretched pauper, Some damned are filthy, weak and wretched, begging for scraps. Some have shut down, laying in comatose heaps from depression. Seeing the poverty struck childless suffer might influence characters to have children and build monuments to themselves and erect shrines

Most damned are naked humans but some are phantoms or skeletons. Most damned are self obsessed and barley aware of surroundings. Some might communicate and some might have died in the adventurers future and be able to share prophetic lore.

d10 Typical Damned (most are naked)

1 Paralyzed frozen in some pose with extreme emotional expression
2 Laying immobile unconscious
3 Laying in fetal position moaning
4 Rocking on ground, pulling hair wailing
5 Running around hystericly sobbing
6 Sitting gibbering about regrets
7 Scratching in dirt, ash or garbage for food, desperately hungry
8 Cunningly tries to get others to aid it escape
9 Translucent phantom mostly moaning or repeating some action
10 Skeleton usually walking about silently

Monsters and horrors defeated by gods in the dawn time are imprisoned here as punishment and mortals are best to leave these horrors where they are. They might beg for release or try to trick explorers but this will anger the gods and could result in your imprisonment in the place of the monsters you free. Many plot to escape or plan machinations to ruin the mortal world or torment the beloved of the gods.

Dressings are common scenery and wonders less common spectacular scenery. The don't create immediate danger and are easily avoided unless explorers deliberately choose to interact with them.

d100 Hells Underworld Dressing
01 Grey distant stalactites in sky
02 Cavernous grey sky
03 Gloomy grey sky
04 Spooky mist
05 Schools of bats
06 Great grey shadows in sky moving
07 Violet auroras dancing in the overcast sky 
08 Grey clouds moving in the sky
09 Eerie fog sweeping over ground
10 Distant moaning and wailing

11 Great spherical boulders
12 Featureless grey plain

13 Huge stalagmites 
14 Dripping water falling from great cavernous sky
15 The great river in the distant
16 Distant volcanic eruption lights up distant sky
17 Black clouds from distant eruption
18 Ground is moist and slippery like a cave
19 A plain of moon like craters
20 Grey cliffs in distance
21 Crumbling foundations and broken columns
22 Decrepit remains of graveyard
23 Sprawling necropolis in mostly ruins
24 Ash heaped hills with chunks of bone and broken urns
25 Heaps or crumbling skeletons
26 Chalky soils of bone meal
27 Plain of dug open empty graves
28 Plain of water logged grave pits
29 Skeletons fused into limestone cave formations
30 Plain of scattered occasional naked corpses
31 Plain of stacked naked bodies covering the ground
32 River with a crumbling jetty and bell for ferryman
33 Grey muddy knee deep swamp
34 Grey muddy swamp filled with rotting corpses
35 Shallow knee deep pools of grey water
36 Plain covered in scattered dung
37 Plain covered completely in dung
38 Gloomy desperate naked damned eating ash from ground
39 Wailing desperate naked damned eating dung from ground
40 Crying naked damned sitting and laying everywhere
41 Great mound of squirming wailing bodies
42 Desolate plan scattered with paralyzed madmen posed still
43 Giant or cyclops bound in chains sobbing
44 Flowing river of grey mud with drowning damned wailing
45 Naked person chained to rock sitting sadly 
46 Small cell with several wailing damned
47 Small ruined fort converted to miserable prison
48 Giant sprawling prison complex with wailing and moaning
49 Robed damned carrying bread and wine, runs when sees you
50 Former king in rags tries to buy food with last scraps of royal crown
51 Small village of starving indolent sitting about complaining
52 Crumbling town of naked beggars with fortified town houses keeping them out
53 Sprawling crumbling city with rich ignoring the naked huddled masses
54 Damned chained to cliff
55 Damned chained to cart wheel on pole
56 Damned in gibbet hanging from tree 
57 Ground quakes for a minute
58 Twisted tree with agonized faces of damned
59 Crack in ground with wine or blood being lapped up by hungry damned
60 Stalactites fall from sky and shatter
61 Bound man being eaten by vultures and jackals
62 Swarm of naked damned moving over plain
63 Crumbling house with miserable damned inside gibbering madly
64 Huge naked giant eating damned from cage
65 Huge swarm of screeching bats
66 Damned cooking a pot of bat stew
67 Naked man dragging leaking sack of copper coins
68 Naked damned being chased by bats
69 Naked damned fighting and biting each other
70 Naked damned eating a corpse
71 Plain of phantoms wandering sadly
72 Plain of mad damned, twitching, muttering and rocking
73 Drooling giant with head injury smiling and staring
74 Demon bounty hunters dragging damned in chains
75 Shambling manour house rattling in the wind
76 Pits of starving children begging for food and help 
77 Pits of larvae being attended by lesser devils with pitchforks
78 Dragon in chains crying
79 Chained giant with snakes dripping venom on face
80 Naked damned farmers uselessly scratching dirt with farm tools
81 Dozens of damned trying to commit suicide and it never works
82 Giants pushing huge boulders
83 Giants dragging stone blocks
84 Crumbling palace with scattered finery, beggars at gates
85 Stone sarcophogi
86 Leafless forest of twisted trees, actually former tormented damned
87 Valley of tombs
88 Steaming bubbling crater pools surrounded by mineral crystal formations
89 Stone barrow hill tomb, doors wide open
90 Stone menhirs covered plain
91 Headstones built into sprawling crumbling fort
92 See strange shadows of friends act oddly and independently of owners
93 Pre human crumbling monolith with strange writing
94 Great forgotten crypt
95 Gloomy mountain carved with tunnels and mines
96 Heavy rain pours down for a d4 hours
97 Clouds of ash carried in wind from distant eruption
98 Burning remains of funerary pyres
99 Damned being swollowed by great serpents
100 Plain of writhing serpents crawling over bone assemblages 

d100 Hells Underworld Wonders
01
 Evil forgotten god chained to mountain being gnawed by dragons
02 Entourage following and attending devil or ancient god on palenquin 
03 Dead being judged by devil court with losing damned being fed to monster
04 Huge crater with chained titan sized horror that calls your names 
05 Huge black stoned incredible mausoleum
06 Titan bound to ground being gnawed on by damned mortals
07 Titanic beast trapped under mountain looking sad
08 Colossal stone maze with damned trapped in walls
09 Titan being devoured by beasts eternally
10 A collosal library guarded by dragons

11 Cracks in earth with hundreds of damned inhaling sweet fumes
12 Priestess on high chair over crack in earth inhaling fumes

13 Titanic bull bound in chains
14 Huge damned armies batting while opposing gods or devils watch
15 Titanic skeleton of humanoid or horrible beast
16 Huge devil playing with naked wailing damned like toy building blocks 
17 Weeping black robed giantess over plain of dead soldiers with tears of blood
18 Colossal stair case to higher or lower cavern realm guarded by devils
19 Rows of enigmatic stone sphinxes
20 Worn stone pyramid or ziggarut 
21 Blind crippled giant crawling on fours sniffing for food
22 Giant hand crawling and looking for rest of body
23 Colossal statue of ancient god or devil 
24 Giant eating own intestines
25 Filthy giant in ruined rich clothes drunkenly laying in pool of vomit
26 Gigantic stone skull with a tavern inside full of damned souls 
27 Hundreds of broken statues with sad expressions 
28 Hundreds of miserable giant stone heads
29 Broken titanic statue half buried with boastful text about ruling forever on base
30 Shipwreck half buried in sand
31 Huge open cut mine pit with a chained forgotten god in the bottom
32 Dilapidated incomplete huge tower reaching to the sky
33 Ruined coliseum with phantom gladiators
34 Huge floating stone head flies slowly overhead
35 Huge walls made of sobbing damned 
36 Triumphal archway vandalized and worn by wind
37 Shallow lake choked with corpses
38 Hundreds of naked people sheltering in cliffs from rain of fireballs
39 Sprawling ruined walls and archways filling valley floor
40 Sprawling slum with thousands of damned wallowing in ash and filth for food
41 Thousands of damned falling from sky onto a corpse covered plain
42 Burning lake of fire
43 Huge waterfall in a river with screaming damned going over falls
44 Clouds of floating screaming damned rolling across the sky to beyond horizon
45 Hundreds of smoking funeral pits with dozens of zombies wandering around 
46 Headless giant looking for head
47 Huge pit with hundreds of damned wrestling
48 Huge pit with hundreds of damned fighting snakes
49 Hundreds of smoking vents and exposed limbs struggling to break free from ground
50 Cerebus the colosal three headed dog eating and chasing damned
51 Thousands of naked crying damned wallowing and fighting covered in mud
52 Huge crater with hundreds of dragons spawning
53 Styx the river of hate in the distance
54 Lethe the river of forgetfulness in the distance
55 Archeron the river of pain in the distance
56 Cocytus the river of wailing in the distance
57 Phlegethon the river of fire in the distance
58 Famous ancient hero with devil entourage judging the dead
59 Huge wall with spectacular gatehouse and devil guards
60 Volcanic vent growing into volcano
61 Volcanic explosion exposes flaming pit of lava
62 Earthquake cracks open ground and wailing damned pour out
63 Earthquake cracks open ground and volcanic ash blocks out the sky
64 Earthquake cracks open ground and lava pours out
65 Earthquake cracks open ground and creates a huge canyon
66 Quake causes huge chunks of cavernous sky to fall and shatter into rubble
67 Lightning bolt shatters mountain  
68 Semi collapsed stone dome, favorite haunt of harpies
69 Ruined cathedral a lair of wolves or panthers
70 Well of memories restores lost memories
71 Ruins of location familiar to explorers that seemed ok last time they saw it
72 Spiraling circular ziggurat, noble devil on top and wailing damned fighting to reach top 
73 Titan catching damned and sucking meat off skeletons that then run away
74 Huge roots from sky guarded by a dragon who gnaws on them
75 Marching hoard of damned with flailed skin hanging from skeletal necks like capes
76 Huge pyramid of ash and garbage with thousands of damned scrounging for food
77 Huge mound of flailed human skins with crows and vultures eating them
78 Huge structure of thousands of caged damned prisoners stacked into a pyramid
79 Thousands of damned chained to giant devil using them as playthings
80 Crumbling aqueduct from horizon to horizon usable as highway 
81 Step pyramid with lines of damned climbing to top where devils skin them and eat hearts
82 Titanic skeleton with ramshackle garbage shacks of town built in rib cage
83 Huge open pit mine full of garbage and water and wretched damned wallowing in filth
84 Huge funeral barge with hundreds of damned working oars and a small town inside
85 Huge devil dropping damned into meat grinder where skeletons crawl out of ground meat
86 Huge devil squatting and shitting out skeletons which run away
87 Huge light flaming house beacon surrounded by damned unable to get in
88 Huge triumphal procession of devils, underworld and forgotten gods with entourages 
89 A huge fountain of wine guarded by devils gleefully maiming desperate damned
90 A titanic dragon with children guarding a mountain of treasure
91 Huge open mine pit filled with fire and screaming damned
92 Sleepy toad devil squatting on monolith while dancing damned perform around him
93 Huge sabbat of damned witches and familiars and devils cavorting
94 Angels chained to cliffs begging for release and offering gold and true love as reward
95 Titanic throne guarded by devils used by underworld god occasionally
96 Colossal court house complex where judges and ancestors assign punishment damned
97 Enormous tree with jewels and rich food in branches, desperate damned trying to reach
98 Titanic underworld god in chariot crosses the sky, horses with flaming manes
99 Skeleton horse pulled chariots of skeletal warriors hunting for intruders
100 Titanic bronze golem stomping on anyone intruding into underworld, some managed to get inside it where a small town thrives

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