Hades

The lowest of the Lower Planes, Hades is between the races of fiends and is the battlefield where they wage war with one another. The endless battle of the Devils of the Nine Hells and the Demons of the Abyss never gives quarter to either side. The devils are organized and make coordinated attacks while the demons attack with sheer numbers and chaotic ferocity. It is an otherworldly stalemate that both sides know neither can win, but to back down would mean defeat and their obliteration.

It is where evil springs eternal.
It is a plane of endless apathy and despair.
It is the great battlefield of the Blood War.
— Manual of the Planes

In the Gray Wastes of Hades, even the insidious plotting of the Nine Hells and the all-consuming rage of the Abyss are subjected to the woeful subjugated hopelessness. Being the nexus of evil, Hades eats away at a person's desires, leaving them hollowed out, apathetic husks of what they once were, leaving all those who stay within its borders in a near-catatonic and careless state. Each of Hades' three layers called Glooms that are filled with uncaring and malevolence that permeate within.

Hades Links

Winding throughout the uppermost layer of Hades flows the River Styx which the sinister ferrymen sail to and from other planes. There are spiral coin-shaped portals that lead to other planes of existence, each one color-coordinated. Golden portals lead to Carceri, silver leads to the Outlands, and platinum ones lead to the Astral Plane though the latter are few and far between. Due to the dull and color-drained property of the Gray Waste, these portals can be seen from miles away.

Hades Inhabitants

Other-dimensional creatures of all kinds can be found in the Gray Waste due to it being the focal point of the battle between several planes. Demons, Devils, Slaadi, Formian, and even the occasional Celestial can be found here, either evaluating or, more likely, participating in the great battle. Yugoloth can also be seen with this being their plane of origin, even though the species have moved onto the plane Gehenna.

Art By: Chris Platz

Gray Wasting
The gray wasting takes over its victims skins and causes it to decay in a mass of mucus and rotting flesh. Due to its magical nature of being created from the Siege Malicious, it is more potent than typical diseases, requiring a Greater Restoration to reverse the effects.

Infection. Contact.

Consitution Save DC. 20.

Incubation. 1 Day.

Damage. 1d4 Charisma.
Cure. Greater Restoration.

Night Hags are also fairly common in Hades, searching for specific partitioners of the Gray Wastes known as larvae, poor souls that have succumbed to a unique form of the Gray Waste. These unsightly creatures are often used as currency between malevolent creatures and Deities. Aside from the various debris left behind from the Blood War, Hades is commonplace to a myriad of monstrosities only dreamed of.

Hades Petitioners

Petitioners of Hades usually appear as sickly gray ghosts that shamble even in their incorporeal state. Though normally they wander aimlessly throughout the Gray Wastes, they suddenly and quickly flock to any outsiders like insects to light, seeking the warmth of their emotion and hope that they may still possess. Particularly malicious or selfish petitioners will sometimes form into a special form known as larvae. The larvae appear like human-sized worms that bear the face they once wore in life. These creatures serve as currency between the Lower Planes and are typically consumed by spells and incantations. There are rare larvae, however, that are lucky enough to be promoted to a lower form of fiend.

Art From: Dungeon Magazine #150

Features of Hades

The glooms of Hades were not named ironically. The dull gray earth, sky, and even petitioners are colorless and drab. There is no sun here and likewise, only a bleak gray radiance that emanates from its sky. This grayness isn't only literal, however, but even the hearts of those who inhabit the Gray Wastes are dull, gray, and devoid of any feeling. No laughter, weeping, or despair can be heard; Only apathetic existence.

Oinos

The highest gloom of Hades is a barren land of withered trees, sickly dull fields, and teeming with pestilent disease. More than even the natural environment, however, are its signs of war. Being the main battlefield for the Blood War, fiends, beasts, hired mercenaries gather here, waging horrific war on epic scales. Bodies of the dead, discarded equipment and broken weapons of siege constantly litter the fields. The sound of tearing flesh and clashing weapons echoes across its entire layer.

Khin-Oin the Wasting Tower

A twenty-mile high and twenty-mile deep tower made from the spinal column of an ancient Yugoloth deity pierces the surface of Oinos, the tower is ruled by an ultraloth prince. There are stories that say the entirety of the Yugoloth race was birthed from the flesh and bone of the creature whose spine this once possessed, arising in a deep cavernous pit lying at the bottom of Khin-Oin. Despite the constant onslaught from devils and demons alike, this has known no ruler other than that of Yugoloth blood.

The Grays
Any creature not possessing a form of magical resistance must make a Wisdom Saving Throw (DC 13) for every twenty-four hours spent in the Gray Wastes. A failed save deals 1 point of Wisdom damage to the victim. A victim can be drained to a minimum Wisdom of 1 in this fashion. Unlike most ability score damage, Wisdom damage dealt by The Grays does not heal until the victim has left Hades behind. Each point of Wisdom damage dealt in this fashion represents growing apathy, hopelessness, and despair. This effect is concurrent with the entrapping trait of Hades. Wisdom damage take from the grays makes it harder to make the weekly Saving Throws to resist the loss of all hope that the entrapping trait represents.

Art By: Wizards of the Coast

Alternative Name(s)

Gray Wastes

Type

Dimensional plane

Characters in Location

Indryth

Hades Traits

Hades has the following traits.

Normal Gravity.
Normal Time.
Infinite Size. Hades may extend infinitely, but its realms are finitely bounded.
Divinely Morphic. Entities of at least lesser deity status can alter Hades, though few deities deign to reign in Hades. The Gray Waste has the alterable morphic trait for less powerful creatures; Hades responds normally to spells and physical effort.
No Elemental or Energy Traits.
Strongly Evil-Aligned. Nonevil characters in Hades suffer Disadvantage on all Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence checks.
Entrapping.This is a special trait unique to Hades, although Elysium has a similar entrapping trait. A non-outsider in Hades experiences increasing apathy and despair while there. Colors become grayer and less vivid, sounds duller, and even the demeanor of companions seems to be more hateful. At the conclusion of every week spent in Hades, any non-outsider must make a Will Saving throw (DC 10 + the number of consecutive weeks in Hades). Failure indicates that the individual has fallen entirely under the control of the plane, becoming a petitioner of Hades. Travelers entrapped by the inherent evil of Hades cannot leave the plane of their own volition and have no desire to do so. Memories of any previous life fade into nothingness, and it takes a Wish or a successful Divine Intervention to return such characters to normal.
Normal Magic.
Petitioner Qualities.

Immunities. Cold, Fire
Resistances. Lightning, Acid
Wounding. (Larvae Only) Every time a larvae deals damage the victim must roll a Constitution Saving Throw (DC 15) or take 1d6 additional damage. This persists at the end of each of the victims' turns until the check is successful.
Disease. (Larvae Only)
No Planar Commitment (Larvae Only)

Having seemingly no end, the floors and rooms are home to spawning vats, ancient laboratories, and meditation chambers. Likewise, there are orreries and suites of rooms that can double as battlegrounds where many Yugoloth can be seen practicing drills and training their aspiring warriors. The one ruling the Wasting Tower is known as the Oinoloth and any creature that can make it to the top of the tower at the zenith and defeat the current oinoloth and claim the magical throne known as the Siege Malicious, an ancient artifact that grants them boons and control over the layer of Oinos.

The Siege Malicious

The Siege Malicious is a major artifact. It is a gargantuan, immovable throne carved from the stone of the Wasting Tower itself. The throne is made completely out of bones from various Demons, Devils, Slaadi, Formians, and Yugoloth alike. A circular crown of rubies adorns the top of the high seat, which is just large enough to sit a Huge creature. (Many Medium-size creatures would look ridiculous sitting on the Siege Malicious with their legs dangling several feet off the floor.)

Made By: NECA

Powers of the Throne. In order to operate the Siege Malicious, a character sitting on the throne must have defeated the previous oinoloth. If the previous oinoloth yet lives, the sitter suffers 3d6+6 points of permanent Charisma drain, as a consequence of being infected with a particularly virulent strain of the disease called gray wasting. Characters immune to disease don’t take damage, but the Siege Malicious seems powerless to them.

If the character sitting on the throne has defeated the previous oinoloth, then the powers of the siege malicious are theirs. But the throne forever changes those who sit on it. The Siege Malicious deals 1d4 points of permanent Charisma damage as part of the sitter’s skin sloughs off in a rather grotesque manner. This disfigurement is the mark of the oinoloth and may not be magically healed without forsaking the title of Oinoloth.
But with the disfigurement comes absolute control of disease on the layer of Oinos. The new oinoloth (whether Yugoloth or not) commands the diseases of Oinos, creating, modifying, or nullifying diseases as he sees fit. New or modified diseases could potentially spread beyond the layer of Oinos, but the oinoloth only has this power while in Hades. The oinoloth has power over disease whether sitting in the Siege Malicious or not.

Creating or Modifying a Disease. The oinoloth may conceive of or modify a disease at will as a free action (though coming up with just the right name is an exercise of intellect that could take longer). The important parameters for creating or modifying a disease are infection, DC, incubation, and damage; for more information, see Disease in Chapter 8 of the Dungeonmaster's Guide.

Generally, new or modified diseases must possess a standard infection type, have a DC no higher than 20, have an incubation time of no less than one day, and have damaged not greater than 1d8 temporary points of any ability score damage except Constitution (1d6 if the disease deals permanent ability drain). Secondary visual effects of a new disease are up to the oinoloth. Secondary effects can include deafness, blindness, muteness, and other sensory deprivations (one per dis-ease), on a second failed saving throw against the initial disease DC.

Infecting. Once a disease is created or modified, the Oinoloth can set it loose. The oinoloth can infect a living target within 300 feet as a standard action, and the target gets no saving throw to avoid infection.

Niflheim

The second gloom of Hades is the layer of Nifleheim which is encompassed by a constant ever-swirling fog. This fog is so thick that it inhibits any sight outside of one hundred feet. Niflheim doesn't see as much combat as the rest of Hades largely due to the combat conditions on this layer. Even those gifted with extraordinary sight (aside from True Sight) cannot see past this barrier. The nature of the supernatural fog also makes hearing largely muffled and all attempts at Sight or Hearing based Perception Checks are rolled at the Disadvantage.

Death of Innocence

Those who find themselves in this town think they have stumbled upon a vacant ghost town due to the petitioners remaining indoors unless traveling to another abode. Death of Innocence is crafted from the surrounding misty trees and holds more than five thousand non-larvae petitioners. This town can sometimes feel like a sanctuary inside of the Gray Wastes and its citizens have developed both magical and meditative means to better themselves and even on occasions, break from the plane's apathetic conditioning. The gargantuan wooden walls and gates of Death of Innocence ooze with blood and have a magical effect that keeps the mists and outsiders at bay, making neither the Grays nor the entrapping trait of Hades able to penetrate its territory.

Pluton

The third gloom is a vast forest of dying willows, shriveled olive trees, blackened poplars. The petitioners have no desire to be there but have no recollection as to why they came though they had no choice in the matter after their lives were forfeit. The Blood War does not reach to Hades' lowest gloom, though some raids have pierced the veil when one side needed to retrieve a fallen comrade of importance. Journies such as this require a vast amount of skills of a veteran tactician.

Underworld

Contained within a marble-walled barrier that stretches for thousands of miles, a single double gate leads into the beaten bronze city of the Underworld. The gates are guarded by a gargantuan three-headed canine that is constructed of squirming, decaying bodies that writhe in agony. Inside the city are twisted trees and empty buildings of obsidian that house millions of larvae throughout it. Dust and ash is as thick as snow and the larvae petitioners crawl throughout it as the plane of Hades sucks the remaining emotion from their wriggling bodies, their last shred of feelings nothing but pain and agony. The Underworld is not ruled by any individual, but instead is frequented by the Hags, Devils, and Demons, and Yugoloth looking for a tasty morsel or prized larvae that it can use in monetary exchanges. Once a larvae is sucked of all emotion, it turns to ash and its screams of agony, merely a whisper on the wind.

Art By: Todd Lockwood