last night, i sent my pc´s (av. level 4-5) to the plane of infinite portals into the abyss. they´re heading towards the 45th layer, having to recover the imaskari orb, an artifact that brought back one of them from "death" and afterwards teleported to the place of its creation: the viper-forests of zrintor (a long story about an unsuccessful ressurection, a psionic lich (the former matron mother kyorl oblodra from menzoberranzan) and her plans (within plans within plans...), some of them concerning the pc).
they arrived through an intelligent portal and found themselves as predicted in a system of trenches where recently (a few centuries ago) a (minor) battle of the bloodwar raged. after several turnoffs, they are now standing before one of the greenflamed oven-protals, ready to jump through (after protecting themselfes against the flames, of course).
as i had only one night to prepare (and have only cursory knowledge about the planes) several questions (bold) need to be answered... btw, all questions apply to both 2e rules and the 2e cosmology of the great wheel.
- the 1st layer of the abyss has portals to all(?) the other layers. do these portals all consist of pits, as "planes of chaos" suggest? the portals in azzagrats realm (45th-47th layer) are the green-flamed ovens; can those also be encountered on the 1st layer? the implication could be that a blood can perchance discern the destination of a gate by identifying the "corporate design" of the layer in question: "...a greenflamed oven on the plane of infinite portals? must be leading to graz´zt´s triple realm..."
- can skirmishes of the bloodwar spill over the the 1st plane? afaik, the abyss is no plane of conflict, but the "planes of chaos"-box mentiones that the baatezu repeatedly tried to secure a beachhed on the shores of the sea of molten iron, so i stipulated that they could be found nearly everywhere on the layer, though unlikely... the trench- system through which my players are hasting (utterly feeling hunted
) was the location of such a nondescript skirmish/battle.- i placed larvae in some of the trenches. at first, the players were disgusted as hell (bad pun intended) and later near panic when they found their planned way blocked with heaps of huge squirming maggots with human-like faces (the trenches are 2m broad and dug 3m deep into the crumbly, worm-infested earth). can larvae be found on that layer, canonically?
- what happens to a larva that´s taken to a prime world (toril in that case)? indeed, what happens when a berk returns with indigenous flora (or worse, fauna) from the abyss or other planes?
- the necromancer who sent them there asked if they could bring back some sap of the vipertrees of zrintor. as they planned to travel to halruaa after hopefully returning in few days, the idea slowly forms to sell that stuff there. that would perhaps cover some (most?) of the expenses the party suffered during the missions preparation. what may vipertree-sap be used for? their (and my) current ideas: poison (out of question because of party-alignment), antidote, spellcomponents for mages (better not ask what spells it´s used for...). what else?
- is it possible to teleport (yourself or another being) directly to a "deeper" layer of the abyss (or any other plane)? afaik, "teleport without error" should do, as well some advanced psionic powers (having a psionic lich around helps a lot to legitimate certain things
). my backup-plan consists of having an intensely hated npc (being)teleport(ed) in the middle of a potentially fatal battle, dragging out the players, all the while snarling, swearing and insulting the party...and dissaparing as soon as possible later. *digressing & zoning out*: he (a shapeshifting priest of malar, called "oblivion" (a critical threat found in a dungeon mag)) killed the pc whose ressurection brought about the abyss-mission in the first place, was afterwards "enlisted" by my master villian (undead ex-matron oblodra) as another useful tool and may be sent by her to help the party (in her eyes, a tool as well).
i suspect that much of my tangled rant is highly confusing, especially the parts where i digress into the background story. sorry for that!
thx in advance,
tauster aka
the humble clueless
[edited to remove bad spelling]
the portals in azzagrats realm (45th-47th layer) are the green-flamed ovens; can those also be encountered on the 1st layer?
The portals of the first layer of the Abyss are almost always black pits leading into unknown depths.
That said, all the lords and princes of the other layers interfere with it. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Graz'zt installed a few of his special ovens there.
- can skirmishes of the bloodwar spill over the the 1st plane?
Absolutely. It happens all the time; a lot more often than it happens in Baator, where the plane is united in its defense. Some of the layers of the Abyss are so neglected that no one guards them at all.
can larvae be found on that layer, canonically?
Larvae are used as currency throughout the Lower Planes. They could have been brought there, or they could have formed there naturally from the substance of raw evil. They could have crawled there under their own power.
I don't think there's any canonical ruling on where petitioners end up in the Abyss. It's implied they can form anywhere, although they're especially common in Woeful Escarond, where the nalfeshnee hold court on the Mountain of Woe. Armies of the Abyss, from Green Ronin, claims they only form in the first layer of the Abyss (which, even in Planescape, is the only layer with a direct connection to the Astral), but all the lords of the layers go out of their way to capture them and bring them to their own domains. I decided it was the babau who bring them to the nalfeshnee Judges of Woe.
So, to answer your question, yes. They can be anywhere.
- what happens to a larva that´s taken to a prime world (toril in that case)? indeed, what happens when a berk returns with indigenous flora (or worse, fauna) from the abyss or other planes?
Larvae do as well on the Prime as they do on the outer planes, although if they're destroyed there, they're destroyed forever. Liches often bring larvae to the Material Plane to empower their dark magic.
Flora and fauna from the Abyss can be disastrous to the local ecology. The most infamous example is the egarus fungus, which almost destroyed a material world before being banished to the Plane of Vacuum (see the Planescape Monstrous Manual, Vol. III).
However, most life forms from the Abyss thrive best in environments dominated by chaos and evil, and will do more poorly elsewhere.
what may vipertree-sap be used for?
Transforming humans into ophidians? Turning ordinary trees into viper trees? Turning your castle into a mesh of poisonous, snakelike stone golems?
- is it possible to teleport (yourself or another being) directly to a "deeper" layer of the abyss (or any other plane)?
In 2nd edition AD&D, yes, it was. In 3rd edition D&D, no. Teleportation is defined a travel through the Astral Plane, and only the first layer of the Abyss connects with the Astral Plane. And interplanar travel (other than the instantaneous travel implicit in the mechanics of the spell) is explicitly denied - you end up in the plane you started from.