The Curse of The Abyss

Though the Abyss is riddled with countless dangers and hazards, one of the greatest challenges facing delvers is in fact the ascent. This is due to a phenomenon called the Curse of the Abyss. The term refers to a series of symptoms that manifest upon ascending while within the great pit, with its more scientific name being "Strains of Ascension". There's no way to avoid it through conventional means, for some reason, the Curse only affects humanoids and Narehate, all other creatures within the Abyss are immune to its effects. The deeper one delves, the more severe the symptoms are, ranging from dizziness and nausea to intense pain throughout the body, loss of senses and even death. This makes the return trip from the Abyss extremely difficult, and it is not uncommon for delvers to perish on their way up. Particularly, the curse of the 6th Layer("loss of humanity or death") makes the return journey physically impossible for those that venture beyond this point.
The curse results from piercing the force field of the Abyss while ascending, although this fact is not generally known. Therefore, areas where the force field is weaker also result in the effects of the curse being less severe (if an area has a weak force field, you may wish to give the characters advantage versus the curses save). In certain specific places (like Nanachi's Hideout and The Village of Ilblu) the force field isn't present at all, and so the Curse doesn't occur.

Symptoms

The Curse of the Abyss Table If a creature ascends within the Abyss around 30ft or greater from their lowest point, apply the appropriate effect using this table. On a successful saving throw, they are immune to the curse for 300 meters of travel vertically over the next hour. Damage caused by the Curse cannot be avoided, a Creature immune to the curses Force damage is resistant instead. Teleportation within the Abyss is limited to 120 ft due to the forcefield interrupting any greater distance, teleporting upwards within the abyss causes those who teleport to suffer effects still as if they had traveled 30ft. Plane shift and similar spells work however all strains of ascending occur as if traveling the full distance to the surface one after another. All effects are temporary and last 1 hour unless stated otherwise:

Layer	Con Save DC	Strains of Ascent
1	9	9 (Light Dizziness and Nausea) • Disadvantage on Wisdom (perception) checks
2	11	(Heavy nausea, headache and numbness of limbs) • Disadvantage on any roll that relies on sigh
3	13	(Vertigo combined with visual and auditory hallucinations) • Disadvantage on any roll that relies on sight • Hallucinations of their past or future • Take 13 (5d4 + 5) force damage (half this result if the constitution save is above 11)
4	15	(Intense Full-body pain and hemorrhage from every orifice of the body) • Disadvantage on attack rolls • Disadvantage on ability checks • Movement reduced by 15ft. (to a minimum of 15ft) • Take 35 (10d4 + 10) force damage (half this result if the constitution save is above 12)
5	17	(Complete sensory deprivation, confusion and self-harming behavior) • Disadvantage on all rolls • Blinded and Deafened • Movement reduced to 10ft. • Take 53 (15d4 + 15) force damage (half this result if the constitution save is above 13)
6	19	(Devastating body alterations that result in the loss of humanity and sometimes death) • Disadvantage on all rolls • Stat reduced by 2 (Roll to determine which stat) • The target permanently mutates (see following page) • Movement reduced to 5ft. • Take 70 (20d4 + 20) force damage (half this result if the constitution save is above 15) • Max hitpoints are reduced by the damage taken above until a long rest is taken
7	21	21 (Certain death) • Disadvantage on all rolls • Stat permanently reduced by 2 (Roll to determine which stat) • The target permanently mutates (see following page) • Movement reduced to 0ft. • Take 88 (25d4 + 25) force damage (half this result if the constitution save is above 17) • Max hitpoints are permanently reduced by the damage taken abov

Affected Groups

Delvers

Prevention

NONE

Type

Supernatural