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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oryan77" data-source="post: 6056071" data-attributes="member: 18701">For great encounters in Hell, check out the 2e Fires of Dis adventure. It only takes place on the first 2 layers, but it has some great "random" encounters involving devils. It actually gives personality to them rather than them just being monsters to kill.One easy way to make encounters more interesting when traveling from layer to layer (or plane to plane) is to create a task for the group to do just to be able to get from one location to the other. Each step can provide an encounter:1. Get information about a gate/portal that will take you to the next layer. For example, the encounter can involve negotiating with a devil that has that information (making a deal with him to get info; devils love to make deals). This can be a roleplaying encounter that also leads to another crazy encounter if the devil successfully pulls off a "bad deal".Or you find out that the only devil with the information to a portal is one that the PC's have to search for. For example, maybe there's a black skinned Lemure that is obsessed with using this portal. It travels the plane until it reaches the portal, but somehow it dies soon after using it. It spawns again in the Maggot Pit as a Larva until it reshapes itself into a Lemure again and goes straight for this portal. If the PCs find this Larva, wait for it to form into a Lemure again, and follow it, they'll reach the portal. The next encounter can be something related to how it keeps dying after using the portal. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it was a Drow before becoming a petitioner and he needed to use the portal for something important, but failed. His soul doesn't belong here, which is why it keeps repeating this process over & over.2. Figure out how to open the portal (get the portal key).They know where the portal is, and are maybe told how the portal opens, but getting the key to open it requires it's own encounter.For example, only the shriek of a Vargouille will open the portal. There is a Viper Tree forest on the plane that is known to be infested with Vargouilles. Not only do they have to defend against the forest and a nest of Vargouilles, but they have to figure out how to capture one alive. 3. The location of the portal is in an area that will create an encounter.Using the environment always helps spice up an encounter. The portal could be at the top of a cliff, but the cliff is made of ice, or is hot, or infested with swarms of something evil, or it shoots out poisonous gas at random from the many holes that cover it. Something that requires a couple of skill checks is nice. The portal could require a puzzle to solve just to gain entrance to the room where the portal is located. You can even do the "toll bridge" routine where they have to pass by the portals guardian.That's pretty much what I do when I run my planewalking games.</blockquote>

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