Avernus
Avernus is the first layer of The Nine Hells of Baator. The most likely beachhead for any attack by demon-kind, it is the primary battleground for the Blood War; legions of devils march across its plains in continual readiness to repel the hordes of demon invaders that sail the River Styx into the layer.
Geography
Avernus is the largest layer of Baator and one of the most traditionally infernal - a blasted hellscape in the most literal sense filled with rivers of lava, barren hills, and low, rocky mountains as far as the eye can see. To scale the mountains or move too quickly is unwise at best, since obsidian, quartz, and other crystals jut from the jagged land, able to cut clothes and slice flesh. The ubiquitous presence of rocks and boulders, some of which seem to resemble tormented faces and shapes of creatures, render the terrain extremely difficult to cross at any pace quicker than a fast walk. Rubble covers the vast, ashen plains of Avernus's charred wastes, dotted with bubbling tar pits, quicksand, lakes of lava, and salt flats made from the tears of the damned.
Fireballs race across the dark sky of Avernus, seemingly at random (but on closer inspection actively targeted motion), and fall to the scorched earth, leaving smoking impact craters and burnt corpses in their wake. Travellers need to find shelter, such as a building or cave, lest they inevitably be struck. The acrid air is clouded with pumice and volcanic ash from the foul fumaroles and blighted with swarms of flies. Roiling clouds of red and black flicker with orange flames, but the atmosphere has neither sun nor stars, only a constant, blood-red light that suffuses the air.
Blood, as it happens, is the leitmotif of Avernus; it is where the River of Blood runs through Baator, collecting rivulets from every gulch, stream, and pool, from the victims of millions of battles. Practically all of the plane is bathed in a coat of blood and covered with bones and gore, whether devilish, demonic, or otherwise, acting as a grim reminder of the regular bloodshed that marked an average day in Avernus.
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