RichGreen said:
What does the picture of the torture devil look like? Does it have a very long thin beaky nose?
There is no "torture devil", just a pain devil also called excruciarch. It has no picture (only two of the devils in the monster section have no picture), but its description rules out it having a long thin nose. (A black spiked mask covers their faces, only showing their eyes.)
How detailed are the ambitions/histories of the various lords? Does it take up much space?
About half a page.
What is the main focus of the book? The monster section?
Chapter 1: All about Devils 7-32
The Economy of Hell
Promotion and DEmotion
Soul Harvesting
The Blood War
Devils as Monsters
Devils and Demons
A DM's Guide to Demons
Mortals and Devils
Corrupt Acts
Chapter 2: The Nine Hells 33-76
Each layer has its on section, built up as follows:
Lord of the Layer
Important Locations
Divine Realms (if there are any)
Encounters on the Layer
Chapter 3: Game Rules 77-106
New Race: Hellbred (When someone dies, and repents his sins in the moment of death, they can become helbred. They don't go to either Heaven or Hell. They fight against evil in Hell, and some will find final salvation and ascend to celestial planes, but most fail. The concept doesn't impress me much.
New Feats: 27 Feats, inculding divine feats and a new type, devil-touched feats.
Prestige Classes
New Spells: 21 spells, including 15 Investiture spells, which give you some aspects of a devil, but you become fatigued for a minute when the spell runs out.
Chapter 4: Devils 107-138 (monster section)
Chapter 5: The Lords of the Nine 141-158
I'd say that the main focus of the book is the soultrade, that's what powers the entire Hell, getting more and more souls is what motivates the devils (and achieving promotion).
Basically out of thin air she started to grow to really-really giant size, "some force" (Asmodeus?) was using her to transform the entire layer. Her head became a fortress, her ribs mountains, her inner organs a twisting maze below the surface, etc. She basically fused with the layer. When this process was over Glasya appeared to take over the rule.
And does the book mention Geryon?
He is mentioned as the former ruler of Stygia, but no further details are given. There is also a Magical Location called Pillar of Geryon on Stygia.
This is what you get by squeezing everything into a compact 160-page book.
Yeah, it's a shame that these are limited to 160 pages, while the drow get much more pages. this book could hev used some more detail in plays (especially in the description of the layers IMO. Those seem really short.)
