Cania
Cania is the eighth layer of the Nine Hells of Baator and it is ruled by the Archduke Mephistopheles.
Cania is essentially an enormous wizard laboratory. Mephistopheles tortures the souls of dead wizards and other spellcasters by forcing them into mundane, repetitive experiments and tedious study while in isolation. Once Mephistopheles has squeezed all of the pain and anguish he can out of a wizard's soul, he transforms them into a lemure and they live out the rest of their days serving the archduke with no memories of their past life.
Cania is the closest layer to Nessus, the ninth layer of the hells, so security is a top priority. Adonides, an archdevil and a Duke of Cania serving Mephistopheles, commands the security forces that guard against external threats. The most common kinds of devils in the security forces are ice devils (giant, bipedal, insect-like monsters who can attack with ice spears and huge tails and draw from the climate around them to create magic walls of ice) and horned devils (flying fiends who can hurl flames through the air and are dangerous melee combatants).
Campaign Recap
Rayphlard's Alternate Timeline
On Day 24 of the campaign (6 Mirtul), Collateral Damage interrupted a ritual by the Cult of Talos at the Wayside Inn. During the climax of the fight, the wild magic of Rayphlárd's sword Talon transported him to an alternate timeline.
Forming the Team
In the alternate timeline, Rayphlard consulted with Garaele Edermath in Phandalin and determined that, in order to fix what was now broken within him, he needed to find and kill Brophilius, the devil who helped create the Deck of Many Things; Talon was originally created after a card was pulled from the Deck of Many Things, and Rayphlard later found it in the Redbrand Hideout.
Rayphlard gathered his allies, including alternate timeline versions of Conor McGregor (an alarmingly clean human fighter/paladin), Herb Stoner (a familiar tiefling named Ignis Natus), Shinzon Greenshadow (a fallen aasimar named Aku Notenshi) and Tubby (a slightly thinner dragonborn fighter named Slim). He also gathered the alternate timeline versions of Garaele, Daran Edermath, Jory Undammuth and Don-Jon Raskin; Jory and Don-Jon were agents of the Zhentarim in the alternate timeline (as was all of Collateral Damage), and Don-Jon was actually a wizard named Ron-Jon Daskin.
Using a tuning fork Garaele found hidden inside the Deck of Many Things, Ron-Jon used the plane shift spell to send the group to Cania, the eighth layer of the Nine Hells of Baator.
Plane Shift to Hell
The group of nine adventurers arrived in Cania on an island in the middle of the River Styx. Appearing in front of a portal on the island, the group was descended upon by two ice devils and their hounds, demanding their surrender. Ron-Jon attempted to cast a confusion spell against the ice devils, but it failed. The devils continued attacking until a group of white abishai flew in and interrupted the fight. The abishai convinced the ice devils to stand down, saying they represented Tiamat herself.
Two imps then appeared next to the ice devils, whispering something to them. The imps then turned to the adventurers, saying they were lucky to have Tiamat on their side, that Mephistopheles doesn’t just let visitors roam free. Rayphlard recognized the imps (Eddie and Yep) as the same ones who accompanied Brophilius in his timeline. The imps flew away, saying something about a cave up in the mountains above the River Styx.
The abishai then turned to Aku, telling him that Tiamat was pleased that he arrived in the Nine Hells, that Aku was well on his way to becoming the most powerful of all of the fallen angels, even more than Zariel herself. The abishai then gave Aku a new mission to find an object of great magical power and bring it back to Tiamat at her temple in Avernus.
Resting and Planning
The abishai flew away, and Daran turned to the rest of the group, saying "We need to rest. We’re exposed to everything here on this island. Follow me." Ignis, Rayphlárd, Ron-Jon and Slim were especially exhausted after the encounter.
Daran led the group off the island and onto the mainland, and they spent the new few minutes looking for somewhere to rest. Ignis spotted an opening in the cliffside, a cave that was nearly completely hidden from the view of anything else. Daran then led the group to the cave, and they began to regroup and rest.
Ron-Jon cast the spell tiny hut, and the group began discussing what to do next. Rayphlard pointed out the location that the imps were talking about, and they decided to look for Brophilius there first. They next discussed how to get there, either climbing up into the mountains first or traveling along the River Styx and then climbing up to the cave. After some debate, the group decided to climb into the mountains first.
During the rest, Conor spotted an ice devil leading a group of hounds on a patrol on the opposite side of the river. The hounds stopped and had a brief encounter with a pack of dire wolves near their cave, but the ice devil led them away. Later during the rest, Conor noticed a mammoth lumbering through the area. The pack of dire wolves attacked the mammoth, killing it and feeding on it near the river.
After the dire wolves left the area, the group decided to try using the mammoth hide - and the hide from a dire wolf that died during the attack - for warmth. First, Aku examined the bodies using his knowledge of nature and medicine, identifying where to skin them. Then, Conor started skinning the mammoth and Aku the dire wolf. Finally, Conor used his leatherworker's tools to create a total of five cloaks from the hides. The group decided to give the cloaks to the four who were exhausted (Ignis, Rayphlard, Ron-Jon and Slim), plus Garaele.
Meeting Adonides
The group began climbing the mountain, and a few minutes into their hike they encountered a blue-skinned imp appearing from behind a tree. The imp asked the group to wait, saying "The boss is coming." While they waited, Rayphlárd figured out that the imp looked very familiar to him; some of the imp's features reminded him of something or someone, but he couldn't quite place it.
After a brief moment, a devilish figure appeared before the group. He introduced himself, saying:
"Hello, and welcome to Cania. My name is Adonides. I oversee our patrols here in our service to the Cold Lord, Mephistopheles.
"First, allow me to apologize. If we had known we had visitors coming on official business from Tiamat herself, we would have offered a much more friendly welcome. You see, Mephistopheles redirects any visitors coming to us through plane shift or teleportation magic to that gate on the island. We have our patrols there at all times. We should not have treated you that way, and for that, again, I apologize."
Adonides then offered to help the group, saying that any friend of Tiamat's is a friend of his. Rayphlard replied, saying that they were looking for Brophilius. Adonides hesitated, explaining that Brophilius reported to him. Adonides did then admit that Brophilius was lazy and uninterested in impressing his superiors, so he agreed to help the group.
Adonides offered to help them find Brophilius if they would agree to a longer conversation in the future. He said that he had been looking for allies on the Material Plane. The group agreed to have a conversation later, so Adonides ordered Ollie, the blue-skinned imp, to lead them to Brophilius' location. Adonides then looked at the group, smiled, and disappeared.
Climbing the Mountain
Ollie led the group up the mountain. While hiking up the winding trails, the group avoided several obstacles, both natural and unnatural. Some spots had fallen trees blocking the trail, other spots had tree branches hanging over the trail, forcing them to duck underneath. There were boulders, and patches of ice, and gaps in the trail over which they needed to jump.
In a few spots, the group saw frozen remnants of gruesome scenes from long ago. Body parts of various humanoids or other creatures were scattered about and frozen into the mountainside, possibly the result of a fight or some kind of magical experiment gone wrong. There were also birds of varying sizes, including eagles and owls.
Also, throughout the hike, the individuals more familiar with arctic climates recognized ominous signs of avalanches through that stretch of the mountain, although it was difficult to determine how long ago they happened.
The group arrived at a flat section of the trail and met Otto, a dwarf wizard who was serving Mephistopheles by conducting experiments by using his Wand of Dancing on bushes and trees. Otto welcomed the group to his "party," but after a few minutes of talking, he made a mistake with the wand, accidentally casting it at the cliffside instead of a bush. Otto then said "Oh. Not again. Um, sorry?" and cast fly on himself and flew up to safety. The cliffside started "dancing," causing an avalanche from above.
Geography
Cania is an icy hellscape and bitterly cold, possibly the coldest environment in any of the known planes. There are constant storms, some of which can tear flesh from bone. Much of the layer is covered in jagged mountains and glaciers, but the River Styx flows through a low-lying valley and is one of the few sources of warmth in Cania.
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