City of Ashes

Anonymous's picture
Just Surviving City of Ashes [Site - Mungoth] Copyright © 2000 by Leonardo Wilhelm

Hearsay: In a hidden face of the dying Mungoth lies a city of terrible secrets, where not even the powers go. A place so long forgotten, that existed before the baatezu, where the ancient baatorians resided and may still reside. Those that dare invade their dominions are transformed in to ashes.

Description: Bizarre buildings, so old they crumble with touch, depicting never seen before figures, are found half-collapsed through a rugged slope.

Scattered among the ruins are strange ash statues that seem very familiar to those who travel the lower planes. Tanar'ri, baatezu and yugoloth, as well as common people, are represented in these statues, frozen in positions of despair, surprise, escape or simply walking by the ash-ridden streets. Seemingly there is no motive or pattern whatsoever and sages speculate that it might just be some barmy's work.

However the dark is they aren't statues but carbonized beings caught suddenly by something hot. What could possibly scorch fiends, besides the Pit of Flame, is beyond imagining, especially in Mungoth, the almost dead Furnace.

It is important to notice that the city is quite deep in the surface of the layer, which leads to the conclusion that it someday was hot and active and not snow-covered. Of course, this fits the Doomguard just fine and has been responsible for a somewhat increased visiting in the place as they attempt to discover what lies behind the burned statues.

The yugoloths avoid the city entirely and will bob or put in the dead-book any berk who asks too many questions.

Late researches hit the blinds as those involved got barmy or lost without any apparent reason. The last berk sent came back rattling incessantly about the statues before he died and others attacked anything they saw. Fraternity of Order's studies concluded that the statues may have assaulted them, but the problem goes deeper. Anyone who gets too close to them hears an almost imperceptible murmur, much like the Caverns of Thought.

Special Properties: The cold is not so intense here and the damage is by two turns instead of one. Also hearing the murmurs of the city for long drives a body to violent madness and paranoia, as he feels watched. The ash statues are soft and corrode to the touch and the same applies to the buildings, making it dangerous to try to enter or climb them.

Recent Happenings: An enterprising tiefling mage managed to decipher something from the ash books in the city and it has drawn attention from many scholars of Sigil that are interested in what may be contained in them. Unfortunately for the blood, so are the yugoloths.

Additionally, the Doomguard are already preparing expeditions to find proof that Mungoth was once hot and that the multiverse is really decaying.

Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.