It is a place of howling, screaming winds.
It is an underground realm of stygian darkness.
It is where sanity is besieged by unending madness.
Pandemonium is a great mass of matter pierced by innumerable tunnels carved by the howling winds of the plane. It is windy, noisy, and dark, having no natural source of light. The wind quickly extinguishes normal fires, and lights that last longer draw attention of wights driven insane by the constant howling wind.
Every word, scream, or shout is caught by the wind and flung through all the layers of the plane. Conversation is accomplished by shouting, and even then words are spirited away by the wind beyond 10 feet.
The stale wind of pandemonium is cold, and it steals the heat from travelers unprotected from its endless gale that buffets each inhabitant, blowing sand and dirt into eyes, snuffing torches, and carrying away loose items. In some places, the wind can howl so fiercely that it lifts creatures off their feet and carries them for miles before dashing their forms to lifeless pulp against some dark, unseen cliff face.
In a few relatively sheltered places, the wind dies down to just a breeze carrying haunting echoes from distant pans of the plane, though they are so distorted that they sound like cries of torment.
- Manual of the Planes
Gatecrasher's Guide[]
Pandemonium is probably the least inhabited of all the Outer Planes. And for good reason: It's arguably the least hospitable. Sure, there are hotter planes and colder ones, ones with crueller denizens, and so on, but none are any lonelier or more maddening. This birdcage's like an endless cave system, filled with winds that scream their way from one side to the other. Those cutters in the Bleak Cabal think it's a decent place to set up shop, but they're about the only ones.
- Guide to the Planes
Traits[]
- Objective Directional Gravity: In the cavernous tunnels of Pandemonium, gravity is oriented toward whatever wall a creature is nearest. There is no normal concept of floor, wall, and ceiling--any surface is a floor if you're near enough to it. Rare narrow tunnels exactly cancel out gravity, allowing a traveler to shoot through them at incredible speed. The layer of Phlegethon is an exception, which has normal gravity.
- Normal Time.
- Infinite Size: Pandemonium goes on forever, although its well-known realms are bounded.
- Divinely Morphic: Specific powerful beings such as deities making their home there can alter Pandemonium. Ordinary creatures find Pandemonium as easy to affect with spells and physical effort as a material plane.
- No Elemental or Energy Traits.
- Mildly Chaos-Aligned: Lawful characters on the plane of Pandemonium suffer a -2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks.
- Normal Magic.
Features[]
The name Pandemonium means "uproar and commotion." As its definition implies, the features of Pandemonium are numerous and tumultuous. There are four layers on Pandemonium, and the terrible windstorms can blow through any one of them. Vision on Pandemonium is much like any deep underground locations on the Material Plane where there is no natural light.
Pandesmos[]
The first layer of Pandemonium has the largest caverns, with some big enough to hold entire nations. Large or small, most caverns are desolate and abandoned to the winds. The Bleak Cabal maintains a citadel in Pandesmos known as the Madhouse. It is a way station for travelers.
Cocytus[]
The tunnels of Cocytus tend to be smaller than those of Pandesmos, which means they funnel the winds more strongly. The resulting wails have earned Cocytus the nickname "layer of lamentation." Strnagely, the tunnels on this layer bear the marks of having been hand-chiseled, but such an understaking must have occurred so long ago that years do not suffice as a measure.
A jagged spike of stone stands in the center of Cocytus. The Crag is a jumbled pile of stones, boulders, and worked stone, as if a giant's palace had collapsed in on itself. The Crag's top is mostly a level platform about eight feet in diameter, with a low wall surrounding it. The platform and those on it glow with an ephemeral blue radiance. The lower reaches of the Crag are riddles with small burrows. Some are merely dead ends, but others connect. The wall of every burrow is covered with lost alphabets that supposedly spell out strange psalms, liturgies, and strings of numerals or formulas.
Natives of pandemonium say that anything yelled aloud from the top of the Crag finds the ears of the intended recipient, no matter where that recipient is on the Great Wheel. The words of the message are borned on a shrieking, frigid wind.
Legend also tells of a site in Cocytus called the Harmonica. In this place, the winds whip through a cavern with holes and tubes chiseled into gargantuan rock columns, creating a noise worse than anywhere else in the plane. Somewhere within this mazelike realm of tortured cacophony lies the true secret of planeswalking.
Phlegethon[]
The unrelenting noise of dripping water meshes with the howling winds of Phlegeton's narrow twisting tunnels. The rock itself absorbs light and heat. All light sources, natural and magic, only shine to half their normal distance. Unlike on the other layers, normal gravity applies to Phlegethon's tunnels, giving rise to intricate stalagmite and stalagtite formations, which in turn are constantly weathered by the brutal wind.
A city of the banished, Windglum, is built in a cavern several miles long and wide, with enormous natural columsn that hold up the caverns ceiling. Hundreds of ever-burning globes provide light for the city, illuminating a disordered sprawl of individual homes. Windglum is characterized by an aura of suspicion. The locals are unlikely to trust strangers, and many of Windglum's citizens are mentally unstable.
Agathion[]
In the fourth layer, the narrowing tunnels finally constrict down to nothing, leaving behind an infinite number of closed-off spaces filled with stale air or vacuum. The portals that connect Agathion to the rest of Pandemonium open into the otherwise unreachable bubbles, but the act of stepping through a portal always sets off a windstorm.
On the Server[]
Below are details about the areas on the server currently, including documentation on the portal key, location, puzzles, and monsters. Spoiler warning!
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Portal: Gatehouse - Courtyard
Key: Spoken phrase "Anoistron" to enter, "Alusson" to exit; talk to the Rock Column
Level Range: 25-30
There are three Pandemonium areas, located in the layer of Phlegethon.
Occasionally the winds whip up in the tunnels, and form miniature tornados. These Winds of Pandemonium alternately do sonic damage or bludgeoning damage with a short knockdown effect. Long term exposure to the winds imposes a penalty to saving throws and eventually leads to insanity (1 round confusion effect).
Pandemonium - Phlegethon (CR 25-31)[]
The portal from the Gatehouse to this location is one way. There are several rooms connected by narrow passages. Howling Wind elementals, barmy giants, and unseelie roam the tunnels.
Pandemonium - Phlegethon - Chasm (CR 25-31)[]
The passages open up on a narrow bridge over a chasm, and lead to an ancient ruin. Unseelie and Howling Wind Elementals stalk the halls. The portal back to the gatehouse is in this area.
Pandemonium - Phlegethon - Temple of the Lost God (CR 25-32)[]
The ancient ruins are inhabited by undead, and a boss encounter! Stairs lead up from the boss encounter to the Chasm level (one-way transition).