A Modron's Guide: Vol #1: Evil Deities A - L

by Jestin Lightner



  A MODRONS REPORT:

  DOMINIONS OF DEITIES WORSHIPPED BY THE INHABITANTS OF REALMSPACE AND THE PRIME MATERIAL CONTINENT OF FAERUN.

  VOLUME #1: EVIL DIETIES A- L

  -1st Edition, 1335x catalog of prime material research from The Great Modron March & by modrons serialized 856,223.043 – 900,103

  Commissioned by The One and the Prime.

  Coded by Quinton #7,601,342,695 Planar Alias = “Scribbles”

  Written by Jestin L. Lightner

  Illustrated by Jestin L. Lightner

  A Dungeon Masters Guild Publication

  (2016)

 

  preface

  Recovered from Spelljammer ship wreckage, it took years for the top scholars of Candlekeep to finally break the code that this text originated from. Once the complicated math riddle was solved the text was translated into language common to the realms and then rewritten and edited so that even mortal citizens of Faerun could understand it and not just complicated modrons. And though these writings have changed our understanding of the universe at large, they have been held in secret and alas only one copy of the translated and rewritten works had ever been created. That is until the late King Azoun of Cormyr’s estate was inherited upon his death and the original translationeditrewrite once again saw the light of day. Certainly, if this information were to reach the masses chaos could ensue and so it is understandable that Azoun hid this away from prying eyes. But now, here you have your very own copy of the new edition in your hands ripe for the reading.

  Modron’s are a very technical, very complex constructs with little understanding of anything other than its own rank within modron society. This lack of understanding shines through in the original decoded texts and thus the reason for the rewrite. Currently another translation of the original code is underway now that we have a broader understanding of what we are looking at. Some of the maps or other information that seems incomplete may be discovered soon but the truth be told the accuracy of how these dominions sit in the elemental soup that is the multiverse has yet to be tested thoroughly. So some of the info may be dated and useless we are not sure. We are however thankful for what we have uncovered. Who knows what new secrets we may demystify as the progress of our own mathematical schools progress like wild fire every day and the original code is looked back upon through the years. Who knows, maybe the code we found that we have yet to be able to translate will lead us to a stronger understanding and show us in depth the dominions of the gods of light? And that is what I chase when I approach this subject: A better understanding of my own deity through the research of his enemies.

  The exact age of the report is unknown. It’s existed on Toril for over decades hough and some of the material the original author claims came from The Great Modron March itself! It took a lot of digging in an extra-planar library in the City of Doors to finally find that the last time there actually was a modron march was 186 years ago. That means it is possible this report is a hundred years old or more. With that said, as mentioned we have yet to verify any of these findings for not a soul dare travel to the evil places defined within. Things change however and it can be assumed for at least the chaotically aligned gods that things may be different in there dominions now that it is a decades into the future since this text was originally encoded. Some of the original languages vernacular has been kept in place here and there as our studies have defined some of the otherworldly lingo quite accurately (as far as we can tell) but most all of the long winded systematic descriptions written by the modrons have been replaced with a more human friendly approach. We work tirelessly to revise a new edition while in the meantime hope you put this knowledge to good use.

 

  -Siloan Caledan, Sr. Candlekeep Librarian

 

  Introduction

  Anyone that knows me as a DM will tell you how much I love the planes. It’s safe to say I’ve sent adventuring parties to every outer plane and half of the inner planes and back again. Ever since Planescape was released I’ve been hooked on the “afterlife” of D&D. With that said, as great as 3.5 was and as bad as 4e was, they both had about the same amount of info available when it came to the planes: A Manual of the Planes and a couple of source books. INSIGNIFICANT when compared to the wealth of material we had in 2e! It is my aim to at least attempt to bring some of that back with, in this case, a Forgotten Realms spin.

  I first started running games in the Realms back in middle school. I would DM for the whole lunch table and boy did we make some noise when someone rolled a 1 or a 20! Enough for the principal to nearly ban the game cause we were having too much fun. I continued to dump any cash I had on Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Planescape material as I got into high school and even sold my first car and dropped over $1,000 from the proceeds on D&D books! Let’s just say that when Planescape was released, I pretty much became the dungeon master from hell…..which was awesome.

  With that said I hope you can get some use out of this when it comes to your games. I have added an adventure hook in the last section in order to help get the ball rolling for you. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me. Please go easy when it comes to the reviews as I am not a pro I’m just a gamer like you with my own perspective of the hobby. And remember the dominions of the dark gods of the realms are beyond deadly (some say the planes are too OP cause many DM’s run them wrong) and if the combat is ever close to a TPK, use your best judgement as a DM and whatever happens, just make sure everyone is having a good time and laughing their way through it……it doesn’t hurt to fudge some roll’s behind the screen now and again either ;)

  -Jestin

  winter hall

  At the physically impossible to reach temperature of  minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit everything stops moving. A human being is frozen solid in a second to such exposure. As such, nothing can be colder than this absolute zero, and no place on the planes is colder than Winter Hall except for maybe the Frostmaiden’s heart. Like icicles dripping down from a rooftop’s edge to pounce upon the earth, Auril and the Land of Eternal Ice have solidified their common goals and it is here that the goddess of winter’s chill plans for Toril takes seed.

  Everything in Winter Hall is ice white trimmed in blue, even Auril’s robes which are magically unaffected by the freeze over the realm. For that matter, the Frostmaiden is pretty much the only thing alive and moving for thousands of miles around. Her powers keep her at peak performance in this nasty realm where warmth is as common as a snow ball in hell. As a matter of fact, if there were a snowball in hell, then Winter Hall would be it.

  Constructed of freezing cold steamy ice blocks and created by shear will alone, Auril crafted the headquarters of her dominion one block at a time. One by one they set together and magically sealed to create a nearly impenetrable fortress that no typical mortal could even come close enough to lay eyes on. It is within the great ice castle of Winter Hall where Auril hosts the grandest of all ballrooms and the chilliest of throne rooms. Hundreds of frozen solid sods hold still in a frozen suspended animation where they may have once swayed and twirled around the dance hall if at all ever possible. The goddess keeps the twisted statues like a medusa collects its victims. Interesting to note that such a thing would exist in such a place. It is said that each

  frozen “statue” was once a lover of the Frostmaiden’s but who knows the dark of it?

  It is within the paralyzed throne room of Winter Hall where her lordship would hold court if ever a visitor other than a fien
d found its way successfully to her dominion. With a realm so inhospitable to mortals and planar alike, it is no wonder she truly wallows in depression deep within her ice castle, day after day, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. She looks almost like a vampire, deathly pale skin accented by blue high lights, she looks as ice cold as death, even worse. Loneliness is a bitter thing. Left alone to her thoughts and ice elemental proxies, her wickedness rips across the northern part of the realms like a shard of glass through flesh. Dominating all with her fury the Goddess of Winter makes plans for her future ascension to greater deity status but in the meantime the winters are forever and the centuries are cold and lonely on the frozen throne.

 

  The Iron Fortress

 

  Bane’s mighty domion, the impenetrable Iron Fortress was constructed shortly after the Black Hand conquered the plane of Chemoggar. Stuck in a seemingly endless war with Gruumsh across the infinte plane, many fiendish devils flock to Banes banner like a nail drawn to a magnet. For what purpose? What is Bane’s motivation? No one knows why he forever thrusts himself into War and conquest but one thing is for sure: he’s damn good at it. Hey, he’s the god of war, does he really need a reason? War is the air he breathes and the nutrient he uptakes while The Iron Fortress is his cold Oasis in the storm clouds of bloodshed that are his existence.

  Every day the battle between Gruumsh and Bane is refueled as spirits return to life on the battlefield and fight the unending war again and again and again but one thing is for certain: The Iron Fortress has stood tall throughout the contest. With a design based off of one of Bane’s old homes, The Black Bastion, this mostly black obsidian and adamantine monster of a fortress boasts eighty foot tall walls and a central keep structure that stands nearly three hundred feet! The unconquerable dominion, by most accounts, seems to actually suck the light right out of the sky and casts an eerie darkness upon the surrounding lands. In this dominion there is never any rest for the wicked, only endless war.

  Aside from Bane himself, bladelings (the natives of the plane), baatezu, petitioners, and spirits of Banes followers also reside in the Iron Fortress. The baatezu’s motives are unclear to most as to why they fight for Bane and the Iron Fortress but the chant is that Bane is also a secret participant in the Blood War where several of the first skirmishes of the reestablished war have already taken place unbeknownst to many outside the lower planes of existence. As the Iron Fortress has become a staging point for the fiendish war, Bane has taken on battle on all fronts. This position is nothing new for the greater god of evil who certainly fights on with even greater strength when put in such position.

  The Iron Fortress, now more than ever, stands beyond the brink, the oblivion, of infinite all out warfare. It is something that can’t be, that won’t be stopped. Better for Bane to focus his attention on the war of the lower planes than war against the heavens but one thing is for sure, as Banes conquests grow, so does his tyranny.

  the blood tor

  The Blood Tor is a sheen black tower carved from one massive piece of solid granite. It sits atop a craggy hill that leaps out of an ocean that goes on and on for as far as the eye can see in each direction. A great dire stag’s head is mounted high above the entrance to the Lady of Doom’s tower and it bathes everyone in blood who dares approach as it continuously spills out the blood of accident victims from the prime material plane. The chant is that being covered in the blood serves as a ward against misfortune but that is shortly figured out to be a lie after it is all too late.

  The only ones that actually live in the tower other than Beshaba and her guestscustomers (if I may) are the saints of her priesthood known as the Lysinterai. A well known gambling hall resides on the first level of the The Blood Tor and it is a badge of honor for a planeswalking gambler to actually walk away from the place with their skin intact after a night of gaming. Problem is the games are always rigged and every so often, periodically throughout the nights, a live amputation is done right there on the gaming floor! The Godddess later consumes this flesh and with it a bit of the poor sods life force. Sodding berks don’t even realize what’s coming to them. One minute they are in the The City of Doors booking a budget package casino trip and the next thing they realize they are covered in blood and being hypnotized by the dealers at the gaming tables of The Blood Tor.

  Aside from feeding off the misfortune of others she also serves as general of her Saints who rage war across the plane. It is her chess. Meanwhile her true passions are the flames of hatred that flicker between she and her twin sister Tymora, Goddess of Luck. And woe to thee that gets in the way of the plot to put Tymora in the dead book……or is found with a symbol of Tymora on their persons while testing fate at her gaming lounge.

  The mid-levels of the The Blood Tor are arranged with dozens of private sleeping quarters and torture chambers…….the walls are thin so there is a fine line between them. As a matter of fact certain guests pay more just to experience the act of torturing some berk. Tieflings and cambions frequent these services most and usually pay for the honor if they can’t win the privilege at the gaming tables. But it’s just a matter of time until misfortune bathes it’s gloom on them.

  Gaining an audience with the goddess is ill advised to say the least. If you’re lucky enough to give her the laugh at the tables why push your luck? But it seems that if you make the right case to the Lysinterai your wish could be granted. But the chances are you’d have better luck trying to negotiate with a Red Dragon than the Lady of Misfortune. She is always looking for info on her twin sister’s weaknesses though, so maybe just maybe with the right bit of dark, you could find your way to the upper echelons of the tower and up onto the battlements of misfortune. Good luck.

 

  throne of blood

  Within the fourfold furnaces of Gehenna, nearly a layer unto itself, the Throne of Blood is home to the powerful Lord of Murder. Upon his throne of bone which forever flows the blood of the innocent, Bhaal’s murderous ambitions for Toril come to fruition. Large disk shaped platforms made of the bones of both man and dragon alike hover in the void forming interlocked bone crafted structures arranged in the similar fashion of a clock work cog mechanism. It is here where Bhaal holds court with only a single outcome in mind.

  A central disk of bone crafted into a great floating platform holds the central throne of ever flowing blood. Orbiting around this central disk are four smaller, yet similar structures, each containing a portal leading to extra-planar destinations. It is through these portals that fiendish guardians must step through in order for anyone to hold an audience with the Lord of Murder. But as difficult as it may be to travel to the Throne of Blood, it is even more of a challenge to seek an audience with the lord of the dominion.

  Seeking an audience with the god of murder takes four steps. One must activate each of the four portals in the dominion one by one and defeat the guardian that steps through. The guardians can be anything from Yugoloth’s to Baatezu but one thing is for certain and that is if you make it past the guards you will be in little to no condition to argue with the power, Bhaal himself, for you will most likely be covered in blood and on the verge of death! Bathed in the warm blood of fiends you can gain audience with his lordship but only if your heart is tainted by evil. Otherwise you will most likely just become more bones for his Throne of Blood. It has been encoded in this tome that over hundreds of Modrons were put in the dead book before the lords of Mechanus were finally granted an audience.

  What the Throne of Blood lacks in size it makes up for in sheer evil. If a berk were to stay too long he would most certainly fall under the sway of darkness. The longer a cutter stays the weaker his morals become as things like ethics and religion fade and the desire for cold blooded murder takes over. Thankfully it seems that modrons, being part construct, are immune to such mind bending effects. But take this as a warning at the very lea
st. If you for whatever barmy reason decide to make an extended stay even for more than just an hour you must roll percentile dice and anything between one and twenty is a failure and your alignment makes one tick towards evil (ie: if you are LN you are now LE, if you are CG you are now CN, etc).

  The castle of the supreme throne

 

  What once belonged in the chaotic soup of Limbo, The Castle of the Supreme Throne, also known as The Shattered Keep, crumbles in a barren realm on the wind swept plane of Pandemonium. On Cocytus, the River of Wailing Souls, a layer of Pandemonium destined to flood the prime with screaming madness, Cyric waits. From a distance his castle doesn’t look out of the ordinary. That is of course if a cutter were to be able to survive the maddening winds of the plane and get close enough to the place with ones sanity in check. The twisted towers and great keep, which take beatings from the chaotic howling winds of the environment, are surrounded by a great moat that consists of the blood of once irrevocably evil rulers over the prime material plane. The souls of liars, cheats, and what’s worse, the petitioners and other natives of the realm, keep watch over the restored gatehouse and ruined walls. Further inside the wreckage of the keep sits Cyric upon the Supreme Throne who waits, fending off the madness of the howling winds, for the next thousand years.