Plague-Mort
| Gate-Town | |
|---|---|
| Population: | 20,000 |
| Gate To: | the Abyss |
| Primary Faction: | None |
Plague-Mort is an Outlander town that demonstrates the basic rules of the Abyss - the strongest bashers thrive and do as they see fit to the weak. In this case, though, the weak make up most of the town.
Plague-Mort's a bundle of shacks, kips, and ruins clustered about the walls of a shining, silver-steel keep. In the keep sits the Arch-Lector, who rules the city with an iron fist. Outside the keep is the rest of the burg, with temples, residents, and merchant districts left to fend for themselves. As a result, most of the town is gray, wrecked, and abandoned.
The Arch-Lector's keep, though, is a grand, ornate building. Its roof shines with metallic tiles, and its eaves are dotted with gargoyles, real and otherwise. Razorvine and bloodthorns cover the keep's walls to make sure that outsiders stay out.
The current Arch-Lector of Plague-Mort is Byrri Yarmoril, a tiefling priest of some secret and destructive goddess. He pulls the strings of the town, but, in turn, has his strings pulled by the Abyss itself.
The Arch-Lector keeps the terror through his own personal militia, a gang of planar/human crossbreeds known as the Hounds. This pack of tieflings, alu-fiends and cambions jumps at the master's command, and they'll even leave the city to chase down sods who've offended him.
Plague-Mort's also known as the Tradegate of the evil gate-towns, offering goods for jink or for trade. Cutters who come to town for this game have plenty of inns and taverns to choose from, including such well-known watering holes as the Eye of the Dragon, the Bell and Whistle, and the Golden Griffon. 'Course, the last place is also a favorite hang-out of the Hounds, and it should be skipped by any berk with a strong attachment to his life.
The Gate
One wall of the Arch-Lector's keep is breached by three large archways. The center and rightmost archways lead into the keep, but the leftmost leads into someplace even worse. This archway is the Gate to the Abyss, and travellers who look through it will see the blasted landscape known as the Plain of Infinite Portals (the uppermost layer of the Abyss). The Plain is a desolate wasteland, empty except for two things: huge pits that are conduits to deeper layers, and iron fortresses that are outposts of powerful tanar'ri lords.
Like the rest of the keep, the gate's entwined with razorvine, so a berk's got to watch his step going through. On the other hand, the razorvine might be the best part of the trip.
The Populace
On the whole, the people of Plague-Mort are here for the benefit of the Abyss. Some look for adventure in the Plain of Infinite Portals, some seek favors from the dark powers, and some just have temperaments that match this vile city. Whenever a body looks, though, he'll find treachery, oppression, and pain.
Most of the locals are humans and tieflings, along with such evil-aligned humanoids as orcs, gnolls, and ogres. But with the Abyss so close, a berk's just as likely to bump into one of the quasits or tanar'ri (mostly alu-fiends and cambions) who make Plague-Mort its home.
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