Hadestown

The Isle of the Dead

Out on the lake furthest from civilisation, there is a perpetual fog, and squatting in the centre of it is the Isle of the Dead. They say that the spirits of the departed haunt the fog and they are only partially wrong. Many of the dead transition to the underworld here, but they all must pass the Gatesman.

The approach is quiet like thunder isn't.

He lurks at the mouth of the tunnel, passed the trees, passed the other side doors down. Like a statue, draped in stone cloths, he stands in constant vigil, shepherding the souls of the dead down the tunnel. The living however, he stops, and tells that; "THE PRICE OF ENTRY, IS TWO OBOLS." If questioned about this, all he will elaborate on is that "THE LIVING ARE NOT PERMITTED TO TRULY SEE THE CITY OF THE DEAD".

If the price is paid, the Gatesman will place the coins on the eyes of the entrants, and they will affix there, the eyes on the coin opening, and they will be permitted to pass. From this point on, the entrant can see as if through a thick, misty rain; all desaturated, grainy, and colourless. When they leave, the Obols will melt into mist from their eyes, and their sight shall be restored.

If they ever remove the Obols while they remain within the threshold of the Gatesman's door, their own eyes will melt from their head, as the Obol's eyes burst into sepia flame and scream.

And how do you get Obols you may ask?
In the dungeon of course.

The Dungeon

Long ago, the King of the Dead built his town and took his queen, who took umbrage at her imprisonment over a few pomegranate seeds. She sent beast after beast to take their life of her husband, but Kerberos, the Hound of Many Heads, denied her many times. Each beast was taken above, and then below again to be left in the Dungeons under the Isle of the Dead.

Dungeon Levels

There are nine levels of the dungeon. They begin civilised enough, covered in frescoes and ornate architecture. As you get deeper the carvings become rougher, the artwork daubed by hand, and older things crawl up from the darkness.

Each level is the prison of one specific demon-beast that sort to slay the Lord of Hadestown, though various other creatures and beings have crawled into its darkness or have been imprisoned down there with them.

Its a good thing they never made another one of these.
But also this is what the dungeon looks like. Like this movie.

1 - The Labyrinth 

Form: Twisting and Writhing Halls, they never seem to stay the same for long. Prisoner: Minos, the Man-Bull

2 - The Cathedral of Bones

Form: A great holy city under one great vaulted roof. All the walls are covered and ornamented by bones. Prisoner: Tiresias, the Necromancer-Oracle

3 - The Forest of Roots

Form: A classic dungeon, only roots grow through many of the walls and choke many of the tunnels. Prisoner: The Hekatonkhieres  

4 - Scrambletown

Form: A simple, mud-brick town, but the floor is covered in shattered stone statues. Prisoner: The Gorgon. 

5 - Pandaemonium

Form: A great, many-ringed city with many gates of horn and ivory. Many things that are not real wander here. Prisoner: The Oneiroi, the Demons of Dream.

6 - The Pit

Form: A Shaft, dropping far, far away into the darkness. Worm-tunnels riddle its sides. Prisoner: Artemis, cursed to fall down the shaft over and over forever and ever.

7 - The Helix Fortress

Form: A curling, ribbed tunnel, twining deeper and deeper. Prisoner: Nautilus, the Murderer-Mariner.

8 - The Bleakling Sea

Form: A vast calcite cavern, dominated by a huge and eternally still under-sea. Prisoner: Typhon, father of Serpents. [Kerberos' loyalty extends even deeper than family it seems.]

9 - The Darkest Prison

Form: Only a black and lightless hole in the world. Prisoner: the Treacherous Queen of Hadestown. [Even the patience of the Lord of the Dead is not infinite.]

On each level, a few scant Obols can be covered, enough for your party I'm sure. Each time they return, they must venture deeper.

The Descent

Once you have paid your price and covered your eyes with the currency of the dead, you can begin your journey down into the darkness. Follow the tunnel for 3 days, eat nothing, drink nothing, ignore the scratches at your belly, they are only your body unsure about where it is. Grope through the shadows until finally you emerge in the great cavern beneath. Step onto the boat, pay as little attention to the boatman as you can, and wait for the journey to be over. Look up, step up onto the dock, and gaze upon Hadestown.

Hadestown

It is built upon a great sphere of stone, supposedly a mile in diameter, though only a thousand feet or so poke above the water, a cold dome upon which a mad jigsaw, mish-mash, building-block city constructed upon the dome.
Soft candle-light illuminates parts of the town gently, like a soft luminous mist. The buildings grow both in luxury and repair as you rise up the dome. A cancerous mass of ruined building clings ungratefully to the edge of the dome, partially eaten by the deep black sea. It is all topped with a palace, measured well with spleandour and melancholy.

This is Hadestown.

There are few views to the sky in the streets of Hadestown.
They have forgotten the Stars.

The streets are claustrophobic and layered like string, few places are open to the sky, save the forums where the diviners search endlessly and desperately for stars. Fires provide a soft light, though it is muted by the Obol-Eyes you must wear.

The water laps softly against the edges of the island, and the few edges that aren't built up are blistered with fisherman dangling fruitless lines into the black waters.

The Town is split into three districts, built one atop the others, dependant on their altitude. Some try to bring themselves into higher districts by building their houses taller and taller to breach into more prestigious heights and construct bridges to connect them to their new neighbours. Rarely are these towers not torn down.

The Three Districts are Tartarus, Asphodel, and Elysium.

Tartarus

The lowest of the Districts and the closest to the water. Here are the dead who arrived with their two Obols and little else. Sometimes inhuman things uncoil from the waters are pluck them from the wharfs and streets and pull them soundlessly under the surface. No-one cares, not even Tartarans. 

The streets are slow and dark, they reek of damp and dust. They say the cobbles were cut from the bones of titans. 

Very little of interest happens in Tartarus, which is exactly why the few illicit activities that do happen in Hadestown happen here. There are a few gangs of itinerant souls once led by five particularly sinister Souls, who now languish in the Phlegethon.

The other point of note in Tartarus is Cocytus, the purgatory slum.

Phlegethon

Of the four great houses of Hadestown, Phlegethon is the most dreaded by its people. Consisting of a wide and flat main body, much of its structure lies below the surface of the dome (more so than most buildings in Hadestown. These under-levels eventually constrict and separate into 5 anti-spires, delving deeper and deeper before terminating in the 5 prisons of the Conspirators, who led the people of Tartarus against the Lord of the Dead in the Traitor Queen's name. They are suspended by the neck in vats of boiling, burning blood. 

Their names have been forgotten, but this much is remembered:

The Prisoners

One had an eye that could see the past, and one that could see the future. [They have been plucked out and are kept pointed back at themselves, all they can see is the eternal suffering they will experience, past and future.]

One had a voice whose commands had to be obeyed. [They are gagged, but in truth, any command given must be given, no matter how it is relayed. This face has been hidden well.] 

One had hands that could not be resisted or restrained. [This one stumped the Judges of Hadestown for some time, until they created a pool whose edges could not be gripped and threw them in, so that they could never pull themselves free of the pool.]

One had feet who could carry them quicker than the wind. [They were hung by the hands in a wide pool whose edges could not be reached from the centre, but they needn't have worried. The power lies in their sandals, which are hidden in their old home on the waterfront.]

And one had much knowledge of the three Great Arts. [It is said that they have been left in their pool to suffer; but the Judges of Hadestown cut a deal with them. They can live secretly in peace in Elysium with the Judges if they copy all their knowledge into three great tomes. They accepted without hesitation.]

The Jailor of the Phlegethon is a fractal being forged from many, many overlapping souls of great commanders and expert archers, forced into one multi-faceted thing. It stalks through the hallways, thundering steps echoing from its single pair of feet, many ears listening through its single set. When intruders are discovered (which only happens rarely) many arms draw back many bowstrings, though only one arrow is loosed.

But with that many experts aiming and firing it, it never misses.
And with as many minds formulating and concocting strategies, it is all but impossible to outsmart it to.

It can out act you in almost every way, but there is only one of it.

And it still dies like a man does.

Cocytus

A festering scab of hovels and fire-pits clinging desperately onto the dome, here lurk the few that Charon didn't take across the waters. Once it was a great house of the dome, but it slid, slowly and achingly into the water, and its ancient hallways still make up the foundation of this water-logged despond. It is partially submerged into the black sea, like its inhabitants, for they are not permitted to walk upon the dome. They did not pay their price.

Everything is wet, and cold, and miserable. No-one wanted to be here, many did not deserve to, but they had no obols. If you could give them a pair, they could pay the ferryman and step upon the dry ground again.

But who of any actual worth would end up here?

In fact, a few important people do end up in Cocytus for various reasons, especially adventurers and warriors. It takes a good deal of effort to find any of them. Shades in Hadestown generally keep to themselves, or their social circles if they ever form them. They also look a lot alike, especially when you're wearing your obols, but they really don't like it being brought up.

In particular, there are three places in Cocytus that shades tend to congregate; the Dive, the Crush, and the Vice.

The Dive is about as miserable a bar as you could ever find. Even more dissolute that normal spirits stretch themselves thin beyond thin, and no-one is even drunk, just depressed and  pretending. Its quite obnoxious. It is run by an especially spiteful shade by the name of Ixion. He can tell you the names and sins of each of his patrons, and has a book of grudges that any particular patron has built up against him.

The Crush is what passes for a market here. Shades with nets hook and snatch up the scraps that tumble off the dome and peddle them, shouting to swap and barter for other things, like tickets to be spent in the Dive or the Vice. No-one has anything of worth, they just trade shit round and round.

The Vice is as close to a brothel as incorporeal, miserable beings can manage, mashing ghosts and writhing spectres. They are all deluded, and its the only thing that stops many of them fading away completely, such is their desperation. 

You could also descend under the water into the ruins of the old house, where it is said that many treasures still lie. You don't need to ask about much to hear many more tales of the dangers that lurk in the black sea.

Asphodel

The largest and most mediocre district of Hadestown. Grey and cold, but not so much so as Tartarus of course. The streets are not quite ruined, but they are certainly close to it. Fabrics even survive here a time, and craftsman make objects that do not succumb to the weight of years after a matter of hours. Shades wander the streets, make small talk, and even eat together. Life is somewhat normal here. Somewhat.

Here are the great houses of Lethe, and Acheron. 

Lethe

This is the house of forgetting, a bar of some notoriety in Hadestown. Here, many, many souls come to be even more dissolute than normal, sometimes to the point of fading away entirely. Its like the Dive, but classier, and set in the dusty shell, refurbished many times over the millenia, of an old and noble house. Ancient Frescoes peel away from the wall as drinks cups are manufactured from ancient jars and flower pots.

Occasionally, balls are hosted by the proprietor, Mighty Lord Eschataloc, who claims to be the best friend you will ever meet, insist on becoming the first person you meet, and is far too comfortable grabbing strangers by the shoulder as her pushes dead drinks on them. He desires to be everyone's friend and have as many links to the world as he can, so that he can delay his fading away. All his friendships are shallow and artificial, and he can't for the death of him figure out why.

Acheron

The fighting pits of Acheron are some of the best entertainment in Hadestown, if simply for the reason that here the shades which frequent it can genuinely be said to be having a good time.

There are 7 pits in all; three are for shade versus shade bouts, three for shade versus beast bouts, and one basically always empty pit. The beasts are generally abducted from the dungeon above, and the living can (sometimes) be paid handsomely for catches that will put on a good show in the pits.

The pay is in relics of older ages, so value is not always consistent, let alone guaranteed.

The final pit is almost always empty because your opponent in the final pit is the owner of the Acheron, Axis. Axis is bad news.

He stands about 12 feet tall, and is wreathed in terrible flames, and crowned with many horns, and has many arms ringed about him, at least, when he doesn't want to be civil about things. His head is also a skull most of the time. Axis organises the fights, and occasionally asks favours of those who do particularly well. Very few are not friendly with Axis (not to his face at least) and his connections make Mighty Lord Eschataloc of House Lethe quite, quite jealous. 

Elysium

As good as it gets in Hadestown. The buildings are actually cared for (often by souls from Tartarus who are bullied into doing it), and the streets are clear of rubble, even the back streets. The tea houses have comforting candle glows, and here, you might almost forget you're dead.

Almost.

In Elysium is the last of the great houses, Styx.

Styx

The final great house, it is something of a temple, something of a gathering place. One thing about it in particular stands out, while within its walls, no harm can befall you, of any kind. Knives will not cut, fires will not burn you, and even hurtful remarks gutter and die in the throat of those that would say them (if the saying would actually cause any offence to any that would hear it). It is a neutral meeting place for the dead and those that would visit them.
It is all presided over by The Dour Dowager, a woman of some startling age, beauty (considering her advancement at least) and cunning. She has little stake in the schemes and politics of her fellow dead, but she does so enjoy knowing about all about it, and is more than happy to trade secrets with those who offer. It is also she that controls the schedule of who can make use of each of the Styx's private rooms, the price often being a piece of juicy, fresh gossip.

The Lord's Palace

There are no records of it, but the Lord of the Dead was overthrown, and his corpse thrown into the black sea. In his place, 3 Judges sit in counsel of Hadestown, and continue the charade of the Lord's rule. His throne sits empty. This is very much secret.

The Three Judges

Mila - A general in life, she is stern, tactical, and imperious. This is also all a facade to ensure that none try to get too close to her. She is haunted by her old comrades.

Rhadaman - A king in life of a small but prosperous realm, brought to ruin in a single night because of a single mistake. Deeply disturbed by his past failings.

Aedriad - A mere beggar in life, long suffering and deeply empathetic, and yet also capable of startling acts of pragmatism in the name of Hadestown.

Together the three run the settlement fairly, if tersely and occasionally brutally. They are not above throwing shades into the lake and not looking back. They would do anything to continue the town's legacy, and their own standing.

Magic Item Smith Quirks

Magic Item Sellers, and what the Heck is up with them

This series of tables are supposedly to help make a Magic Item salesman, though unfortunately, not their stock. That's a bit much to ask. In general, I'm all for making magic stuff a bit more weird than perhaps it really should be, and if buying magic items in your world is as simple as popping down to Tesco on a Sunday afternoon, cool, whatever. I'd rather buy/commission my Magic Items from an ancient Earth-God sequestered away in his sunken Temple-Forge. I dunno, adds a bit of a story I guess.

[As an addendum, when there's italic text in the tables, that means its a nested sub-table. As in, roll on the main table, then roll on the sub-table you just rolled. Perhaps I should have learned to format better, but perhaps you should have learned to read better.]

d20 Magic Item Smith Quirks

1 - This Smith can only forge/enchant items that have never been made before.

2 - This Smith is actually a Lich, who only accepts the bones of legendary beasts as payment for their services.

3 - This Smith is actually a Demon or perhaps a Devil who sells the belongings of the departed-for-hell.

4 - This Smith creates only sentient items, which are:
(d4 roll) 1 -  also secretly polymorphed sentient beings. They have been enchanted to forget this,
2 - powered by the bound spirits of the Smith’s ancestors. They may or may not be okay with this,
3 - binds the vestiges of ancient deities into items. They are usually not particularly bothered by this, but can be very willful or petty, and withhold power at the least convenient times,
4 - powered by the energies of the Asphodel fields. This is unknown even to the Smith, but if such an item is used, agents of the field will hunt down its bearer to recover their stolen power.

5 - This Smith enchants items by engraving Runes upon them, but they are blind. They are skilled enough to be able to carve the Runes perfectly without sight, but they don’t know every Rune that can bind magic into objects.

6 - This Smith specialises in potions, but has a reputation for selling potions cut with other, less beneficial substances.

7 - This Smith demands extremely abstract payments for their services.

8 - This Smith always creates two items at a time, which are each the exact opposite of the other. They charge for them to tell you which is which. To purchase both is exponentially more expensive than buying one.

9 - This Smith crafts items that must be refueled or refreshed periodically for their power to be maintained.

10 - This Smith lives/works in an extremely inconvenient location.

11 - Will only work when:
(d4 roll) 1 - when certain stars are in the ascendent,
2 - when a certain race is in (coin flip) [heads - decline, tails - ascendency],
3 - they are on the: (d4 roll) [1 - a wild and untamed reality, 2 - a dark and subdued reality, 3 - the astral sea that binds all reality together, 4 - a plane of purest form and element],
4 - the leylines converge on their place of work

12 - This Smith forges their items of/heavily featuring amber, which as you use the item, seems to twist and mold to more and more resemble you. Maybe it will even one day think for itself.

13 - This Smith is a being of elemental earth, and carves their items from the fossils of ancient beasts. You need to provide the fossil, and the aspects of the magic item come from the aspects of the fossil it was carved from.

14 - This Smith is a Druid, and grows plants in their grove into magic items. You may not have complete control over what they can nurture into being, and though it takes much less time than mundane plants, you’ll still need to wait for it to grow.

15 - This Smith must dedicate each item that it makes at the foot of an idol of a deity that it has never dedicated an item to.

16 - This Smith is secretly an old, retired god, and asks only that while they work on the item, you recover old relics of their religion and bring them to them. The relics of course, are all buried deep in dungeons across a remote region.

17 - This Smith doesn’t create items, he tattoos you, and the tattoos have power.

18 - This Smith is an old, nearly feral druid. If you ask him for something, he will craft a charm from the parts of various beasts. Each component adds an aspect of the item’s power. You may be asked to retrieve something for the charm.

19 - This Smith creates items that have no initial power, but become more powerful the more they are used. Certain acts using the item might make it more powerful. Some might diminish it.

20 - This Smith is incalculably ancient. His magic draws power from the spirits of the world to fuel the item’s power over the course of a ritual that can last many days. The spirits of the world will be less than pleased while this happens.

d20 Abstract Payments

1 - The taste of a:
(d4 roll) 1 - windy day,
2 - funeral march,
3 - victory song,
4 - rain on the lips of a dead man

2 - A (d4 roll) 1 - maiden’s,
2 - mother’s,
3 - king’s ,
4 - criminal’s,
(d4 roll) 1 - joy,
2 - sorrow,
3 - reward,

4 - punishment

3 - The scent of:
(d4 roll) 1 - a child’s confusion,
2 - geometry,
3 - bright light,
4 - a joyous reunion

4 - d8 years of another man’s life

5 - A pacifist’s weapon.

6 - Joy in Iron.

7 - The final work of an artist as yet unborn.

8 - The final breath of an immortal.

9 - The hair of a dragon.

10 - The apple of the Beholder’s eye.

11 - Acceptance of futility.

12 - A beautiful person’s ugliness.

13 - A Secret:
(d4 roll) 1 - Your secret,
2 - A secret of your family’s
3 - A friend’s secret,
4 - An enemy’s secret

14 - A Memory:
(d4 roll) 1 - A happy one,
2 - A sad one,
3 - A crucial one,
4 - One of no apparent significance  

15 - Your greatest skill

16 - Coins from an empire, as yet unborn

17 - A dead heart, still beating

18 - A child’s first words

19 - A reflection of the dark

20 - Your shadow

d6 Magic Item Rejuvenation Methods

1 - It must be regularly fed blood:
(d10 roll) 1 - Yours,
2 - An enemy’s,
3 - A friend’s,
4 - Royalty’s,
5 - Angelic,
6 - Demonic,
7 - Draconic,
8 - Familial,
9 - A long dead species,
10 - A Powerful Spellcaster’s: (d4 roll) [1 - Arcane, 2 - Divine, 3 - Druidic, 4 - Bardic]

2 - It must be regularly consecrated in:
(d12 roll) 1 - freshly blessed holy water,
2 - a lake that has never seen the light of day,
3 - in angel’s tears,
4 - in a demon lord’s forge,
5 - somewhere that has never been charted on a map,
6 - over the bones of a martyred saint,
7 - in freshly ground diamond dust,
8 - in a dream,
9 - at the tip of a unicorn’s horn,
10 - in the blood of a convicted criminal,
11 - in the belly of a dragon,
12 - at a mountain peak untouched by cloud

3 - It must be returned to its maker for its power to be rejuvenated:
(d4 roll) 1 - the cost will be great,
2 - the process will be long,
3 - the maker has moved to an inconvenient location,
4 - the maker will not do it willingly

4 - It must be used to accomplish:
(d6 roll) 1 - an act of great good,
2 - an act of great evil,
3 - an act of justice,
4 - an act of mercy,
5 - the death of the mighty,
6 - a great discovery

5 -  It must be fueled by the caster’s own magic. Doing so makes it:
(d4 roll) 1 - harder to remember and prepare spells,
2 - that spells have a small chance to fail on casting,
3 - that you have less power to fuel spell casting,
4 - easier for other spellcasters to counter their spells. This effect is only for: (d4 roll) [1 - a relatively short period following recharging the item, 2 - for a short while after using the item’s power, 3 - as long as you wield the item, 4 - permanent, but only has a small impact each time]

6 - It must completely drain the magic of:
(d4 roll)1 - other spellcasters, probably through violence,
2 - magical locations, by being present overnight,
3 - other magic items, by touch,
4 - ancient enchantments, at least a century old,
5 - the power sources of golems and other manufactured beings,
6 - powerful extra-planar beings, unaware of what will happen

d10 Inconvenient Locations

1 - A few levels down in the local dungeon.

2 - A few hundred years ago.

3 - Deep inside a labyrinthine pocket dimension.

4 - Secluded in the sealed tower of a monster haunted:
(d4 roll) 1 - ruined city,
2 - decrepit castle,
3 - temple complex,
4 - lonely island

5 - In a retreat deep below the surface of the earth, with no known entrance.

6 - In a flying dwelling that has never seen the underside of clouds.

7 - In the hardest to reach nook of this massive:
(d10 roll) 1 - mountain,
2 - ravine/chasm,
3 - jungle,
4 - desert,

5 - Ocean,
6 - Cave System,
7 - Glacier,
8 - Cliffside,
9 - Giant Tree,
10 - Roll twice, placing the first somewhere in the second.

8 - In dreams:
(d12 roll) 1 - on the shores of memories-through-twisted-mirrors,
2 - in the archives of experience-and-knowledge-lost-long-ago,
3 - in the wildlands of imagination-left-to-grow-unwatched-and-unpruned,
4 - in the forest-of-the-haze-of-the-mind-after-long-ages,
5 - atop the precipices of the mountains-of-aspirations-always-dreamed-of-but-thought-impossible,
6 - in the depths of the ocean-of-desperation-and-despond-that-weighs-heavily-on-the-down-trodden,
7 - in the vast halls-of-the-familiarity-and-close-mindedness-of-the-comfortable-and-rich,
8 - in the ravines-of-fears-once-held-but-now-cast-away,
9 - in the forest clearings-of-those-moments-when-all-is-still-and-silence-can-settle-and-comfort,
10 - in the cities-of-the-worries-and-pressures-of-the-inferno-of-modernity,
11 - the lands of the-illusion-that-is-known-to-be-real-though-it-is-not,
12 - the harbour-of-the-half-asleep on the borderlands of the-not-quite-dreaming

9 - Beyond the silver of the mirror

10 - In a tower that exists only:
(d4 roll)  1 - At night,
2 - When you have your eyes closed,
3 - At a certain time of year,
4 - At the culmination of a: (d4 roll) [1 - lost and esoteric ritual, 2 - long and demanding ritual, 3 - fabulously expensive ritual, 4 - devastatingly self-sacrificial ritual]