Hell Art Notes
Opening
A massive stone gate, with magic energy and fire swirling from and around it. The gates are marked with the words “Abandon all Hope” in crude, carved letters. At the base of the gate, a prone man is vanishing feet-first into the energy barrier within the gate. Only his upper torso is visible. He is screaming and clawing at the ground as something drags him through the gate, and his flesh appears to already be melting — or being pulled — off him.
History
This chapter could have the war imagery, of an angelic host fighting a civil war in the heavens. Give it a Roman-esque feel, with the angelic beings actually wearing light togas or similar garb as marble buildings rise around them. The war is brutal, with a number of angels bursting into flame and others impaled on the marble columns. The Umbral Lord — a magnificent angelic figure — sits on a throne of skulls and wings, brooding and overseeing the battle.
Layers
This chapter contains the various layers of Hell.
Layer 1: The Gray Vistas: A rocky path through Hell, with ashen undead surrounding a traveler on the route. The adventurer might be a warrior with his shield and sword raised against the encroaching undead. He is fighting for his life against the grasping hands ripping his outer garments to shreds. Other pieces and halves of bodies lie in circles of blood around the path, with ghouls lapping the liquid from the rocks. A fog surrounds the path, but you can see in the distance a giant hole leading downward in the center of the layer.
Layer 2: The Annihilation Maelstrom: Ragged souls flutter like banners through the air as a violent maelstrom rages behind them. A monstrous black rock twirls in the air at the center of the maelstrom, sucking in the winds and the bodies. Tiny pellets punch holes through the souls in the air. A group of adventurers clings to the rock cliff, two spinning on the end of a rope as they are sucked outward into the maelstrom’s winds. Pellets hit around them, fraying the rope as the others try to pull them to safety. Behind them on a path, the damned walk meekly along in a line, ignoring the pleas of the adventurers.
Layer 3: Oblesiet, the Pit of Indulgence: Adventurers are running through a clinging forest from two 10-foot iron spheres that are smashing everything in their path. Gluttons sent to this layer of hell waddle around them, their bodies rotund and bursting with feces, maggots and other vile substances. The sphere is crushing a few of the gluttons, causing them to burst in explosions of gore. One of the balls is sitting still, but 12-foot blades spin out from its central axis, catching one adventurer and slicing him in half. Ruins rise out of the jungle in this underground cavern.
Layer 4: Maggot-home: A group of adventurers are embroiled in a war of clashing armies beneath a cloud of buzzing flies swarming over the battlefield. Bodies lie hacked apart on the sand, snarls of anger still on their faces. Sand swirls in the dark gloom of the cavern. Giant ribcages punch out of the sand, each skeletal bone covered in crawling flies. A few of the dead on the ground are disintegrating into more swarms of the buzzing insects.
Layer 5: Dis: The burning city of Dis sits on the horizon. It has 13 towers, each of which contains a massive candle burning with a large flame. A larger fire seems to burn from within the center of the massive stone citadel. The walls are 70 feet tall, and figures move along the battlements. The adventurers are advancing on the city through a marshy fen, unaware of the medusa-like furies ringing them in the darkness. One adventurer in the rear of the group appears to have noticed them, but he is already turning to stone from the single glance, unable to warn his colleagues.
Level 6: Acheron: Adventurers are fighting a giant buried to his waist in the rocky ground. One of its arms is bound to its body by a massive adamantine chain that pierces the giant’s flesh at the navel and runs through his back and into the distance. Other giant chains flail about the adventurers, one cutting a a woman in half as she appears to be casting a spell. The chain link rips through her like a saw, sending her flying. The chains appear to be alive and attacking. Giant mountains rise in the distance, their peaks nearly scraping the roof of the cavern.
Level 7: Abaddon: Adventurers are fighting through a morass of snakes and vipers that sit in a thick layer on the ground. A thicket nearby contains drained bodies that hang on metal thorns. Blood flows down the brambles to pool beneath the plants. A few of the bodies are still alive, and reach for the adventurers. A giant serpent is erupting from the ground, with the party’s thief pinned in its massive fangs.
Level 8: Parastees: The adventurers are fighting two hunting parties of demons in the rocky highlands of Parastees. The adventurers are standing in the center of a 200-foot-long bridge made of the bodies of humans and other humanoids spanning a deep chasm. The bodies appear to be contorted to form the bridge, with most of the beings still alive in the structure. The adventurers are having to walk across the bodies and faces as they fight. On either end of the bridge, demons swarm the rocky precipice, hurling spears and spells at the adventurers. A few appear to be trying to beating at the humans at the end of the bridge to cause it to fall. Behind the fight, a massive tar-like waterfall roars over a higher cliff, filling the backdrop. The bodies of other beings can be seen falling in the thick waters.
Level 9: Geryon: The adventurers are facing a horde of demonic forms poring over the walls of a ruined underground city. Blood spatters the walls and streets. Torture devices hang on the walls and sit around the alleys. Dark eyes watch from windows. Some of the demons atop the wall lob living bodies and creatures at the adventurers on the street below. Broken corpses lie in a pile around them.
Level 10: The Umbral Pit: The adventurers are sliding across an ice-covered lake as a massive ice volcano hurls magma and ice chunks into the air. Bodies are partially encased in the ice, some still trying to move. Falling stars streak through the air to strike the frozen lake. A deep hole with ladder-like indentions in the ice leads into a black pit.
To Reign in Hell
This chapter contains various monsters and templates.
The Umbral Lord
The Umbral Lord should be a charismatic angelic figure (based off a trumpet archon from the Monster Manual) sitting on a throne carved from ice and the bodies of beings frozen in that ice. Think brooding, like a chess player. Behind him, a truly monstrous form rises into the heights. This is his true body, a massive demon with bat wings and gnashing teeth. He is buried to his waist in the black ice of Hell, and his wings scrape at the roof of the cavern he is imprisoned within. His face is bestial, and acidic saliva drips from his mouth. The bodies of sinners are impaled on massive horns running down his neck.
Minos, the Judge
Minos is a 100-foot-tall monstrous demon who stands atop a narrow path that runs beneath his massive redwood-like legs. He has a flailing nest of tentacles rising from his back with which he picks up sinners passing beneath him and flings them into the central pit of Hell to land on a layer appropriate for their sin. He has 40 spider-like eyes with which he watches the beings below him. He stands on the second layer of Hell, which is a massive storm of winds and flying bodies. His tentacles are barbed with giant hooks that tear at the damned. Flaps of skin flutter from some of the hooks, ripped from the bodies of the damned.
Cerberus
Cerberus is three ancient red dragons, each linked to the others with long chains made of the twisted bodies of humans. Each dragon has a similar collar of bodies that goes around its neck. The wyrms live in three caves in a massive hill composed of the rotting fangs of slain dragons. The wyrms fight as a team, and attack en masse. Adventurers following one of the long chains into the cave find themselves facing a dragon erupting from its lair, as two others swoop in behind them.
The Ferryman
The Ferryman is a 13-foot-tall being who slumps forward so you don’t get the true impression of his massive height. His body is clothed in rotting rags, and he has a human-like face with a long white beard and scraggly hair falling down his back. His arms are thin and sticklike, and end at the forearm, where four-foot-long serrated blades extend like paddles. A good image of the Ferryman would be of him standing in the back of his boat, his paddle hands in the water to guide his vessel. The open keelboat holds a group of adventurers facing backward, each rowing to move the vessel. Each 10-foot-long oar ends in a blade similar to the Ferryman’s hands. The adventurers are forced to row the boat along, dipping the bladed oars into the water. In the water are the bobbing bodies of the damned, which are being sliced apart each time the oars are dipped into the river.
Corruption Crone
A corruption crone is a withered old woman wearing rags and walking with a gnarled cane. Beneath the hem of her skirt, her feet appear to be hooves. She has long nails that curl from the tips of her fingers. She is bending over a dying victim, possibly cut deeply in the gut with his intestines spilling into lap. She looks to be whispering to the man, and a fine wisp of air is leaving the man’s lips as she draws out his soul.
Sphere Golem
A sphere golem is an animated ball of iron weighing 10,000 pounds and standing 10 feet diameter. A band of hardened steel bisects the two hemispheres. It rolls with a deep grinding noise that vibrates the ground for hundreds of feet around. It leaves a rut trail as it pulverizes everything. The sphere can also spin in place, and extend 12 huge great swords in a swirling attack.
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Adventure Art
The Hell Knight: A massive black gate set in a crumbling wall. The gate is open and a glowing portal shines within. Dark fog boils out of the gate, covering the ground, but a few broken bodies can be seen lying on the dirt. Each body is scarred or burned. A ghostly skeletal deva stands with a trident before the gate, as if guarding it. Riding through the fog behind the deva (or even through the deva) is a knight in silver platemail armor. He rides a nightmare.
The Worms: Two massive purple worms rise up over a party of adventurers, one on each side, in the middle of a grove of gray, ash-covered trees. The trees are leafless. The worms are obviously dead, and smaller, wriggling rot grubs drop off them in droves. One worm could already have struck at the party, with the legs of an woman sliding down its gullet through its sharp teeth.
Summoning the Ferryman: PCs are standing on a small island in the middle of a caustic river. A keelboat is rising out of the water at the side of the island near a set of iron kettle drums on the shore. A group of adventurers is trying to jump onto the boat, all the while avoiding hands reaching out of the water for them as they leap. The boat has rib cages down its length holding it together, and a 13-foot-tall figure stands in the back of the boat, his hands replaced by 4-foot-long serrated blades. Behind the leaping adventurers, a massive undead tarrasque is rampaging across the island as a fighter and a sorcerer to hold it back. The island is littered with sharp, raised projections that hold bits of flesh and cloth.
The Hell Hole: A shot of adventurers running down a spiral staircase, probably from just in front of them as they race down the stairs. Behind them in the narrow staircase is a rolling mass of lava that paces them down the staircase. Riding within the lava and breathing fire at them are two red-scaled giants, each with massive bat-like wings. Each giant holds a warhammer.
Lix Tetrax: A rusted iron altar sits in the middle of a room. Niches in the walls contain skulls with a candle sitting on top of each one. A beautiful priestess is bound to the altar, looking away from a black-skinned man with demonic features standing over her. He appears to be chanting. Behind the man, a choir of human men and women are wearing red robes and singing. All of their hands have been sliced off at the wrist or forearm. Six rotting ghouls in robes stand around the altar, each holding a torch. Chains hang down around the room, and 6 bodies dangle amid the chains. The eyes of the bodies glow malevolently.
