Avernus

Baatorian Layer
Order:	First
Realms:	Abthalom Draukari The Peaceable Lands Tiamat's Lair

Avernus, the First of the Nine, is an ideal battleground and launching pad for Baator's mighty armies. Its blasted, rock-strewn fields gape like festering wounds under a crimson sky. Neither stars nor sun brighten the infinite reach of this layer's sky, for the blood-red light emanates from the air itself. There's no way to keep time in Avernus, save by the screaming of petitioners doomed to suffer until they're promoted to some sort of meaningful status.

The wasteland of Avernus is scattered with rocks of obsidian and quartz. There's mountains dotting the blood-dusty plain, and foothills march across the land like the overturned tracks of some gargantuan, unknown beast. The rocks and boulders present a danger for all those who decide to move at a pace faster than a brisk walk, stumbling and falling down into the scree.

Some of the rocks of Avernus seem to have tortured faces etched into them, or occasionally take the vague form of some berk caught in the stone. no one knows if they're petitioners caught in the stone, tormented there for a time, or if it's just happenstance and the will of the powers.

For nourishment in Avernus, there's no rivers or lakes or streams - none as an ordinary planar understands 'em, anyway. For example, the Lake of Blood spills from the Stigmaris Mountains into the River of Blood, and the waters wind their way along the plains and through the gulches until they evventually flow into the polluted Styx. It's rumored that there's a whole system of rivers and lakes that are nothing but the blood and fluids and solids from various mortal creatures, all of which drain into the Styx.

The Styx runs right through the middle of Avernus. It used to be right on the edge of the layer, but, due to the success of the recruiting plan for the gate-towns like Ribcage and Darkspine, Baator's been gaining territory. There's a line of ruined towns leading from the gate by Ribcage ever farther into the layer. Each one represents a gate-town successfully lured in by the baatezu, and a victory for Baator.

One of the greatest dangers of Avernus for the planewalker is the ever-present threat of fireballs - great big balls of flaming energy that appear around the layer without an apparent reason, weave about a bit, and exprode in a fiery furnace. Some sages say the fireballs represent the will of the nameless archduke of the layer.

Bel, the pit-fiend commander of the armies of this layer, leads immense legions across the plane, scouring every inch of it for invaders and searching for honors for the archduke. Bel organizes squadrons, battalions, and armies that leave the plane to go hunting for tanar'ri meat, lining them up to go through the portals he's found. The other generals, whether pit fiend or otherwise, bow to Bel's experience and political muscle - he's been appointed by the Dark Eight, so he's not one to be crossed.

Baatorian Layers

Avernus . Dis . Minauros . Phlegethos . Stygia . Malbolge . Maladomini . Cania . Nessus