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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

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Mon, 2005-05-23 19:43
#1
LegatoX
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

I just got the Planes of Conflict boxed set (a friend who was going into the military GAVE it to me, only missing the top of the box) and was reading about Carceri and Gehena. These two planes are fairly unique by comparison to all of the other planes.

Gehena is four land masses suspended in an infinite void.

Carceri is a "string of orbs" suspended in a void.

Unlike planes like Archeon and Mechanus, which are similar in this respect, there is "nothing" in this void. No further volcanoes or orbs.

So, let's say you really wanted to imprison some really awful thing, or hide something, or just get rid of something.

You go out, oh, lets say about 700,000 miles into the void and start building a fortress. The chances of anyone who doesn't know about it comming here are ridiculously low (why is anything going to just randomly choose to start heading 700,000 miles into the void where "nothing" exists for them to get to anyway?). You can use it as a prison, a secret base, whatever. Who in the planes is going to find it?

Getting to the area initially would be a pain (how do you propose one goes that far out into the void?). However, once you've been there, getting back woudl be easy with teleportation spells/powers/items.

Has anyone ever played with this idea before? There could be a whole town of REALLY bad prisoners on the sixth layer of Carceri just completely isolated, not even on one of the orbs. I would want to visit that town myself . . . if they were too bad for one of the orbs of the lowest layer no good could come of going there . . .

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Mon, 2005-05-23 20:11
#2
Ohtar Turinson
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

It's kinda been done by something. Remember the Bells of Carceri? I'm pretty sure that's in Planes of Conflict.

Regardless, it sounds like a good plot hook.

Mon, 2005-05-23 21:01
(Reply to #2) #3
LegatoX
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

Oh. I've only gotten through three of the five books thusfar. I still have the Adventures and Monster Manual to read. I guess I shoudl have checked the adventures book before posting.

It'd work equally well in Gehenna as well. Perhaps more-so.

Tue, 2005-05-24 04:13
(Reply to #3) #4
Ohtar Turinson
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

I meant the "Strange beings" from page 14 of Liber Malevolentiae. It's support for your idea- the area beyond the orbs has been used as a prison.

The reason I like the idea of this in Carceri is that its the prison plane. Gehenna... gehenna's all about the strong ruling the weak, so unless the guard is stronger than the guarded, you could have a problem...

Tue, 2005-05-24 05:31
(Reply to #4) #5
Nemui
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Re: So you want to make the ultimate prison?

"LegatoX" wrote:
You go out, oh, lets say about 700,000 miles into the void and start building a fortress.

Getting to the area initially would be a pain (how do you propose one goes that far out into the void?).

I don't propose one does. Generally, the documented PS "voids" were usually described as "utterly unreachable but once you do get there you can't return". Think of Sigil's "sky"... or better yet, the Hinterlands area of Outlands - no matter how far you go into the Hinterlands, when you turn around the Spire is still about as far as it was when you were at gate-town distance.

As a GM, I would rule that a similar effect takes place when a character decides to go flying away from the mounts of Gehenna, orbs of Carceri, or whatever.

Alternatively, since the planes of the Great Ring are arranged into a great, well, ring, maybe the "space explorer" would eventually just cross a planar border and end up in the adjacent plane?

Now, if you want a really safe prison for an enemy, you can always try praying to the Lady of Pain to maze it.

Tue, 2005-05-24 09:15
(Reply to #5) #6
Gerzel
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

There is nothing else in those voids that we know of.
Gehena might really be an archipeligo of sorts with the four mounts close enough that they can be seen from one another. The other mounts might be further off and obscured somehow by that distance.

Tue, 2005-05-24 13:58
(Reply to #6) #7
eldersphinx
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Re: So you want to make the ultimate prison?

"Nemui" wrote:
Now, if you want a really safe prison for an enemy, you can always try praying to the Lady of Pain to maze it.
Given the well-documented effects of praying to the Lady of Pain, that's likely to work. Sort of. It's just that the person who gets mazed isn't likely to be your enemy. Laughing out loud

Now capturing an enemy, hitting them with enchantment effects until they roll a natural 1, and then ordering said enemy to start worshipping the Lady might do it...

Tue, 2005-05-24 17:36
(Reply to #7) #8
Nemui
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Re: So you want to make the ultimate prison?

"eldersphinx" wrote:
Given the well-documented effects of praying to the Lady of Pain, that's likely to work. Sort of. It's just that the person who gets mazed isn't likely to be your enemy. .

Shhh! You're spoiling my fun! Don't you ever play Push the Prime?

Tue, 2005-05-24 20:45
(Reply to #8) #9
Anarch
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

Quote:
Gehena might really be an archipeligo of sorts with the four mounts close enough that they can be seen from one another. The other mounts might be further off and obscured somehow by that distance.

If you can find it, A (More) Complete Guide to the Outer Planes by Dave King has a realm named "Beyond the Void" which is indeed located off Gehenna-space, so to speak. I was sure there was another PS piece I'd read about a Fifth Mount but I can't locate it right now.

Tue, 2005-05-24 23:15
(Reply to #9) #10
Clueless
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

If I recall there's a place in the Astral run by the Doomguard called Pitiless. Anyone know where that's mentioned?

Wed, 2005-05-25 06:20
(Reply to #10) #11
edobrzel
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

I would think Limbo would make for an interesting prison, at least for the non-natives. Githzerai shapers can create whole cities and have them be stable. You could essentially customize a prison around the prisoner. Hold a fire mephit within a shell of water and ice and things like that. You'd probably want some sort of dimensional anchor effect in place.

Wed, 2005-05-25 19:11
(Reply to #11) #12
Bob the Efreet
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

"Clueless" wrote:
If I recall there's a place in the Astral run by the Doomguard called Pitiless. Anyone know where that's mentioned?

That sounds like Guide to the Astral, although I don't remember the book well enough to quote a page to you.

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Wed, 2005-05-25 22:44
(Reply to #12) #13
Anarch
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

"Bob the Efreet" wrote:
That sounds like Guide to the Astral, although I don't remember the book well enough to quote a page to you.

pp89-91 (last couple of pages, almost). It's not officially a Doomguard prison AFAICT; it's just that the wardens happen to be Doomguard.

Thu, 2005-05-26 04:03
(Reply to #13) #14
Mick
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

The way I see it, Planes are not about physical distance, you would drift for light years into space and always find that the ground remains constantly at the same distance. More probably you would find the other side of the mountain you were flying from. And besides, these mountains are infinitely large, so you can0t probably even notice they're mountains. If one tries to climb one of these mountains it might take 5 hours from bottom to top, or an entire life, depending on the path he walks, I see planes ase very, very morphic.

Thu, 2005-05-26 11:54
(Reply to #14) #15
LegatoX
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

Actually, the mountains of Gehenna are not infinitely large. They mention in the Planes of Conflict boxed set that if someone wanted to, they could actually map out all four mountains completely because the only thing infinite about the plane is the void itself. Of course, that "someone" would have to live for quite a long time and be pretty damn badass to just wander around mapping without being beat down by all of the dangers of the plane. It could be done though if someone really set their mind to it and had the means to accomplish it.

Thu, 2005-06-09 21:19
(Reply to #15) #16
Vzerii til Corrinea
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

How do you move in these voids? Couldn't you just immobilize someone and chuck them off?

Thu, 2005-06-09 21:36
(Reply to #16) #17
LegatoX
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

Flight spells and whatnot will work. Any of your normal "movement" based spells will do the trick usually to get around Carceri or Gehenna.

Yeah, you could paralyze someone and chuck them off an orb if you wanted. Hell, take anyone who doesn't know magic and doesn't have an appropriate magic item and they are royally screwed.

Thu, 2005-06-09 21:50
(Reply to #17) #18
Clueless
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So you want to make the ultimate prison?

On another end of things if they get far enough out you may also have a decent arguement for allowing their belief that 'gravity' is pointing them in a certain way to allow them to get momentum to head someplace. It depends on how much the DM doesn't want them going out there.

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