A Modron's Guide: Vol #1: Evil Deities A - L
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Imprisoned for the murder of Mystra, Goddess of Magic, Cyric does not wait patiently for his freedom. Forever plotting and scheming his escape when he can string his frenzied thoughts together, his punishment takes it’s toll. Too immortal to end his own life, vengeance is the sustaining force which keeps the gears of his mind rotating. Keeping the company of Chaos Beasts and Slaad from around the layer, Cyric’s decent into madness and chains is a legendary one and the unraveling of his psyche is symbolic in the crumbling walls of his dire ruined home.
Gaining an audience with the God of Lies is possible but it is best to go through the proper channels if planning on traveling to the Shattered Keep: The proper channels being Cyric’s planar clergy (if you can trust them). It is also possible to strike up a deal with the right Slaad, however it may be difficult not becoming it’s lunch, or worse off yet, a host for it’s eggs. Assuming you have a guide (optional) and the appropriate magical protection from the planes environs, it is possible to travel to The Castle of the Supreme Throne through one of the rotating portals that blink in and out of existence seemingly at random around Cyric’s realm. Why anyone would want to visit the home of the God of Lies is beyond most mortal’s comprehension. If one sought an audience with Cyric then going through one of his proxies or aspects would be a much more conservative and more effective approach…that is if you could find one not imprisoned.
One day the castle will be ground into dust and there will be nothing left but piles of debris around a solitary throne: The throne of a prisoner and a liar. Until then the old demon faced Limbo constructed castle is a legendary part Faerunian history but if the pantheon of light on Abeir-Toril has anything to do with it, it will forever be The God of Lies prison and eventually, his ruined grave.
The Demonweb pits
The Demonweb pits may be one of the most inhospitable places ever in known existence (for non-drow). Imagine the grand void of space. Now imagine if a super massive spider spun a web throughout it: A web with strands wide enough for dark streets and avenues to form. This grand mesh is spun by The Spider Queen, Lolth, who sits within her palace, a moving structure in the shape of a giant spider that creeps along the strands of the Demonweb at will.
An always changing and difficult realm to map out do to Lolths forever spinning an altering of her web according to the victims she is trying to ensnare, the Demonwebs are more than just the planar home of most drow but also the host of many demon councils over the millennia. At one point in time Lolth was a demon lord herself and such she has never been able to escape the arena of Abyssal politics. Expeditions have been held in the past by adventurers from Toril in efforts to disrupt said councils but most of these incursions into the Demonweb have failed time and time again.
Torture, slavery, and dark magic are just normal everyday things you’ll encounter in the Demonweb. The Drow Priestesses run the government of the Demonweb which sits in the palm of their hands like male testicles that they crush in ceremony if one is not a chosen breeder. What can be said about this inhospitable place that hasn’t been said before in passing legend? It is the epitome of darkness within the universe of the immortal elves of Faerun and beyond. Can it’s darkness be stopped? Will the drow finally successfully invade the lands underneath the moon or will all their minor incursions continue to be thwarted? It is just a matter of time until a full scale invasion occurs and when it does you can believe that the source is not the Underdark but that which the center of subterranean evil worships.
Aside from being a staging point for incursions into the prime and a host for demon lord councils, the Demonweb is home to a million plus drow spirits and drow planar petitioners. And let’s not forget the seemingly endless amount of spiders which are revered with all the dark divinity in the soul of drow society. Seeking audience with Lolth is not at all suggested even to the most desperate unless of course you are a female drow: All others would most likely be tortured for their insolence. But it has been said before that a little bit of polymorph skills in the Pits could go a long way…..
Like a ticking delayed fireball the Demonweb waits as does a hungry spider for it’s opportunity to lunge at the prey it’s caught in it’s web. And this time just might be all out war with the surface worlds of the prime material.
palace of pain
Across a broken snow filled landscape deep within Gehenna sits a site so gorgeous and so evil it could make a celestial cry out in agony. Like diamonds gleaming in the sun, Loviatar, The Living Whip’s ice palace stands tall under the beautiful aurora lights that fill the sky above. But it’s beauty can be as deceiving as a tiefling for inside the walls of the remote palace are only places of torture and pain. As you look upon the sky over the distant palace you hear the screams of victims being flayed or worse…Much worse. Who in their right mind would travel to such a place? It’s beyond comprehension.
Many dire wildlife inhabit the realm but mainly fiendish Dire Wolves keep guard outside the perimeter of the ice palace. Usually wolf packing around the realm you’d have to be barmy to tangle with these foes. You’ll have to get past these beasts though if you have any hopes of gaining entry into the Palace of Pain. The closer you get to it’s gates the stronger the tortured souls within scream and eat away at your healthy subconscious. Only a machine like construction could stand the hideousness of the inhuman tortured screams which cast a shadow over the gleaming structure.
Inside Loviatar’s lovely residence we have housed tens of thousands of tormented souls longing for a break in the pain just for that few seconds of relief before the pain begins once again. Each room of her palace is dedicated to different types of torture, different torture devices, and the goal of expanding ones threshold for pain. Needless to say, this is the absolute last place a berk wants to find himself but a great place to banish ones enemies to. Either way the outcome is usually more than grim and can only be compared to a painful reasoning that is beyond mortal understanding. It is within this realm of pain Loviatar dances.
Seeking an audience with Loviatar is no simple matter at all. It takes the type of determination most normal mortals simply do not own. A great display of pain, mass suicide, self-mutilation, all of these things are a good start to get in the gods favor but for how long until the tables are truly turned on you?
Sitting on an ice throne carved into dozens of twisted screaming faces she feels no pain herself but only joy as the Maiden of Pain scourges most that cross her path. Cold hearted to the core, her throne room wields the instruments of her song: Torture chairs, dunkingdrowning contraptions, live burials under ice, racks, contraptions that freeze and others that burn and everything in between. One slip up while in the maidens presence and you know exactly what will happen. No one leaves the Palace of Pain without the scars to prove it.
Adventure Hook
The high council of Waterdeep has authorized expenditures to rally several adventuring parties to a grand game. After the council was made aware of the first volume of “A Modron’s Report” they have decided to finance several expeditions, let’s call it a race around the dominions described in this tome. The first adventuring party to come back alive and with proof of their travels wins the ultimate prize: a wish for each hero in the party!