Goooooood MORNING Pandemonium!

The Blood War is over, and the bad guys won. We always knew they would. The forces of good had a hand in the conclusion of that conflict - after all, there was an enemy we thought we could live with, and an enemy that we just couldn't stand, and one must indeed be practical, mustn't we? But it soon became clear that the bad guys were the bad guys - losers all too willing to join forces with winners, who were perhaps even worse than the losers had been - and the Blood War had simply been traded for an even larger conflict.Not that the armies of good were too worried. They'd ended the last war, after all; they could certainly win this one. Alliances were made, and plans were made: the forces of evil would not be annihilated, but simply contained, trapped within the Lower Planes and left to rot. A line was drawn across the planes - not an inch to be surrendered. No reason to give the fiends hope for future success, after all - there was a WAR on!And surprisingly enough, the plan seems to be working. The natives of Limbo acquiesced to the grand strategy - the githzerai more than willing to ally with a force that would leave them in peace, the slaadi less pragmatic but not unified enough to protest. And so the battlelines moved past Limbo, to the very edge of the Lower Planes. To Pandemonium.Yep, that's right. Pandemonium. The most worthless maze of barren rock, lightless caverns and ever-howling madwinds that's ever had the fortune to exist. It was a vicious enough pit even before the War came along; what it's become now makes even the Bleakers turn gray. The Celestials say it's vital to hold the line here. That victory in Pandemonium is necessary to contain fiendish aggression. That yielding any ground at all is giving into fear and despair. But you've done a tour in the Howling Plane, and you know the sad, grim, brutal truth:War is Hell.The OccupiersPandemonium is protected from fiendish aggression by the Third Sacred Legion of the Most Holy Celestial Host. Its presence on Pandemonium is a high honor, signal of the value placed by the celestials on this battle front - only the First and Second Sacred Legions have more stature, and both have been tasked to protect vital locations within the Upper Planes themselves.Unfortunately, the training and battle tactics favored by the Third Sacred Legion are not well suited to fighting in such a place as Pandemonium. Casualties have been steadily mounting, morale is low, and the need to adopt a survivor's mentality has turned many celestials from the path of goodness. The celestial commanders accept such things as the price of doing business, and seek to censor out any rumors that the war is not going well.Celestials of many types serve within the Third Sacred Legion. The most common ground troops are cervidals, specially armed with self-rearming repeating crossbows for ranged fire superiority; noviere sometimes act as scouts, most often as pilots for specially-built war golems. More powerful celestials are correspondingly rarer, and used for special tasks - lupinals and ursinals act as troop commanders and man key defensive points, eladrin act as independent strike agents and special forces, and archons provide the core of the Legion's fast response assets. The Third Sacred Legion also accepts recruits. Skilled and well-motivated mortals are encouraged to stand in defense of Pandemonium, serving alongside the celestials and carrying out special tasks as needed. Pay is competitive, based on experience and breadth of abilities, but does come with the need to obey orders handed down by celestial higher-ups and serve on the Howling Plane. Some Legion officers have used the recruiting regulations to hire outright mercenaries, citing 'special circumstance' pay rates and promising an 'honorable discharge' at a prearranged date. Such terms are generally honored, but those who accept them are rarely trusted by either celestials or fiends thereafter.The EnemyThe Third Sacred Legion is opposed by all the forces of evil, vileness and malice. This is expected and usual. The danger comes from the number of such creatures that call Pandemonium home, and know its nature better than that of any outsider. Such creatures battle ceaselessly against the Legion's crusade of liberation, and use the many dangers of the Howling Plane as weapons in their fight.These creatures are many and varied, and include some very cunning and dangerous combatants among their number. Too cowardly to meet the Legion in open battle, they instead engage in tactics that demoralize and wear away at their foe - hit-and-run raids on patrols and outposts, false retreats and ambushes, unleashing howlers, gibbering mouthers and ragewinds against Legion bases, and similar means of harassment. They are also absolutely willing to engage in mutilation and other atrocities, and when pushed to the wall fight absolutely savagely and to the death, without asking for or offering terms of surrender.Hostile natives within Pandemonium include the petitioners of Hruggek and Erythnul, wendigo and shadar-kai fey, flocks of vargouille and the vicious grendelspawn. The degenerate breed of tanar'ri known as the rutterkin have apparently also been promised a free and independent homeland here, as long as they are willing to fight for it - whether these promises will be kept is an open question, but the rutterkin apparently are trusting enough to attack any celestials they encounter with an unparalleled savagery and viciousness. Greater tanar'ri 'advisors' are also present here, as well as tieflings, chaonds and other mortal planars who have turned stag against the forces of Good.The last group may be the most dangerous - for they can infiltrate the Legion's territory, strike at undefended targets and betray the trust of those around them. Though the Legion occupies and protects many of the towns and other locations in the Howling Plane, including Madhouse, Bedlam and Windglum, mortals allied with evil can be present and ready to strike in any of them. They are perfectly willing to expose innocents in these places to the dangers of combat, use bystanders as hostages or human shields without a second thought, and see no distinction between civilians and the enemy. The lengths that such enemies will go to highlights not only the dangers of the great Crusade, but the importance of winning it on Good's own terms, rather than negotiating an end to the conflict.The Terms of EngagementThe powers of Good have occupied Pandemonium as part of a crusade of conversion and liberation. Territory and souls are to be denied to the armies of perdition, and eventually redeemed for the light. This makes for a rather difficult tactical situation - members of the Legion are to protect civilians, accept surrenders and proselytize the faith whenever possible, in addition to fighting the good fight and defeating the oncoming tide of darkness. Defenders are to be courteous, honorable, fair and forthright in their dealings - adopting the methods of the fiends makes for a hollow and meaningless victory.Needless to say, such ideals are not always held to in practice. Veteran soldiers may use more underhanded methods when they think no one in authority is watching, or conveniently 'forget' to protect native noncombatants if they think doing so would be too risky. In cases where such a mindset backfires - due to close attention by a superior, or a fiendish spy and agitator calling attention to such behavior - the veterans will often seek to pin the blame on mortals serving alongside the unit, or otherwise limit the fallout. Such behavior is spreading, but not yet universal.The Legion does have a few things going for it in the battle for the Howling Plane. It has better organization and coordination than the fiendish forces - calls for backup may not always be answered, but they can at least be made and sometimes will result in a platoon of devas dropping in to flatten the enemy. Several magical devices have also been assembled by the Legion - walker and drifter wargolems, piloted by noviere or other small-sized humanoids and able to bring heavy firepower to battles, and Agent Tenne, a rocklike substance that can be conjured in place to block off tunnels and absorb the madness-inducing winds of the plane.The fiendish side of things, meanwhile, is brutally simple - use any and every weapon, tactic and dirty trick available that kills more of the enemy than of your own troops. Life as a fiendish soldier is, if anything, dirtier, fouler and more brutal than serving with the celestials. The only consolation is that most of the foul play will be pointed at the enemy, rather than you - unless, of course, your unit's been double-crossed into serving as bait for an entire celestial division. Unlike the celestials with their duty terms, mustering into one of the many fiendish forces is generally a lifelong commitment (as short as that may be) - no way out except through desertion or death.Face it, berk - war in Pandemonium is hell.