The Night Roads

The Night Roads are the connections between the scattered realms of the former world, the broken shards of Heaven, and the smolder- ing pits of Hell. Some were fabricated intentionally by the Former Empires as roads to reach their enemies while others precipitate naturally out of the void of Unending Night. They most commonly pierce the skin of a realm in lonely or desolate places. The deepest pits of an ancient ruin or the most remote glade in a brooding forest might serve as the mouth to a Night Road, and strangers would do well to stay away. The road entrances appear in many shapes. Some are obvious mag- ical portals, while others are hollow arches, sinister doors, or simply a particular location in a seemingly-unremarkable chamber. Most Night Roads have some sort of seal that can be opened from either side of the gate. Ancient theurges forged most of these seals to keep out the occasional invader from a distant realm or Uncreated Night, but time and evil purposes have eroded many of these ancient wards. The table below offers some potential means to open or close a Night Road's seal, though powerful theurgic invocations can force open or bind shut the ways without such complications. The roads themselves appear in many forms to those who travel them. Broad ribbons of pale stone reaching through the silent, bot- tomless void of Unending Night are the most common variety, though others have been found as dark flowing rivers or paths through a featureless desolation. For travelers on foot, it usually takes anywhere from a week to several months to walk the length of a Night Road. The size of the gates rarely allow large vehicles to pass, though most have enough room for a horse, if such creatures can be kept from panicking at the road's alien environment. Not all Night Roads connect only two points. Some branch or form crossroads in the void, while others form occult mazes of paths that require special knowledge to navigate successfully. Several Night Road entrances might open on the same stretch of pathway, allowing for highways and thoroughfares through the bottomless darkness. Such major arteries were usually of great importance in the days of the Former Empires and most of them had some form of defenses or inhabitants to secure them against rivals. Some gates might be hidden along these ways, invisible without the right key or knowledge. "Wayhouses" are sometimes found along the road, structures built by ancient civilizations to provide some necessary refuge or service along the road. The table here provides some suggestions for the purpose of the wayhouse, which you can build out as a standard ruin location if it seems interesting. These wayhouses are usually abandoned by anything save unliving or automated inhabitants, but a few are still populated by refugees, hermits, or cultists. Inhabitable wayhouses usually have some means of providing food, water, and other necessities to the inhabitants, save for those who survive by raiding out of the Night Road and retreating back in with their plun- der. Such ravagers sometimes require the special environment of the wayhouse to survive, or fear the realm on the other side too much to permanently relocate there. The Night Roads are perilous to wayfarers. Aside from whatever fauna might still live in the wayhouses or what defenses might exist at the far end of the road, creatures of Uncreated Night can sometimes evade the structure's wards and turn them into paths for the invasion of other realms. Creatures hurled off the road and into the Uncreated Night will drift forever unless caught and pulled back onto the relative safety of the road. Creatures that can fly can return under their own power, but to lose sight of the road is certain doom even for them.

Type

Dimensional plane