More information about the gates of the Outland gatetowns?

[Oryan77]

I'm trying to get information about each of the gates in the gatetowns of the Outlands. I've gone through my Planescape sources but there are details that are missing that I would like to get answers to (they may not even exist).

If anyone knows the official answers to these questions (and the source) that would be fantastic:

Plague-Mort - Where on the Plain of Infinite Portals (Abyss) does the gate exit to?

Fortitude - Where on Abellio (Arcadia) does the gate exit to?
Also, the Fires of Dis adventure mentions that the gate is closed and a key is required to open it. What is the key?

Faunel - Where on Krigala (Beastlands) does the gate exit to?

Tradegate - Where on Bytopia does the gate exit to?

Curst - Where on Othrys (Carceri) does the gate exit to?

Torch - Where on Khalas (Gehenna) does the gate exit to?

Hopeless - Where on Oinos (Gray Waste) does the gate exit to? I assume it is random, but I would like to verify that.

Xaos - Where on Limbo does the gate exit to? I assume it is random, but I would like to verify that. It seems impossible to find it from the Limbo side if it is random.

Bedlam - Where on Pandesmos (Pandemonium) does the gate exit to?

Glorium - Where on Ysgard does the Watergate gate exit to?

 

[Quickleaf]

Ooo, Planescape!

What sources have you checked already? I'm assuming the respective boxed sets and the Planewalker's Handbook?

 

[Oryan77]

Mostly the Player's Primer to the Outlands and the Sigil & Beyond book from the Campaign boxset. I haven't looked in the other boxsets. I don't remember ever reading any gatetown gate information from those boxsets.

 

[Kinak]

It's been a long time since I've read my old Planescape stuff, so this might just be the solution from my game, but I remember the gate-towns bridging the gap.

Which is to say, I think Plague-Mort (Outlands) leads to Plague-Mort (Abyss).

It was never described, to my knowledge, how those were situated on their respective planes. I'd assume they're all in the "low-level" cosmopolitan areas of those planes, though.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=18701]Oryan77[/MENTION] I just referenced the Planewalker's Handbook, Great Modron March, Planes of Law, Planes of Conflict, and Planes of Chaos. Here's what I found...

Plague-Mort - Broken Reach, a town described in Planes of Chaos, it's where the succubus Red Shroud rules from.

Fortitude - Unknwon. Personally I'd probably use "The Ghetto" (odd name) described in the players guide to Planes of Law.

Faunel - Unknown. Personally, I'd go with Signpost, a Signer town described in Planes of Conflict.

Tradegate - Unknown, but it seems implied Yeoman is Tragegate's counterpart, it's described in Planes of Conflict.

Curst - Unknown. Personally I'd go with the Bastion of Lost Hope, run by the Anarchists, described in Planes of Conflict.

Torch - Unknown.

Hopeless - Unknown.

Xaos - Strongly implied it is random in the Limbo section of Planes of Chaos.

Bedlam - Unknown. The Black Gate is used by PCs in the Great Modron March, but the authors don't describe what's on the other side. Weird. Personally, I'd use the Madhouse from Planes of Chaos, but that's not official.

Glorium - Unknown. Personally I'd adapt Himinborg (Heimdall's realm) from Planes of Chaos.

 

[Oryan77]

That's very helpful, thanks. I'll check out those sections once I get a chance.

It's strange; all of these years I've used the gatetown portals, I never thought about how the gate works going from the plane back to the gatetown. So I never realized that it is rarely ever described even though every gatetown gate is a 2-way portal. So now I find myself contemplating how it works getting back to the gatetown when the portal is unusual.

Like, the Excelsior gate drops you from 20 feet over the Silver Sea of Mt. Celestia. So how do you use it to get back to Excelsior? I just assume it is a visible portal floating in the air and you would have to fly up or use some other means to get 20-ft above the water.

Then there is the gate from Tradegate to Bytopia. If making a trade with Master Trader is the gate, then how do you get back to Tradegate from Bytopia if Master Trader is the gate?

Of course I can come up with my own assumptions for this (maybe Master Trader exists in two places at once), but you'd think if the gate operated differently going back, that it would be explained. I guess the writers didn't think about that when they came up with these clever gates. I didn't even think about that when I was using the gates in game!

 

[Li Shenron]

We've used some of these towns in the past, but now I see we've used them wrong

Basically we've always just had them exist at the same time in both planes, with each town having only one entrance from each plane, but two exits from the inside, each leading out to a different plane. Thus the entrances/exits were always two-ways.

 

[Oryan77]

We've used some of these towns in the past, but now I see we've used them wrong

Basically we've always just had them exist at the same time in both planes, with each town having only one entrance from each plane, but two exits from the inside, each leading out to a different plane. Thus the entrances/exits were always two-ways.

I've heard of other people using the towns that exact same way. It's a pretty good concept that adds to the weirdness of the planes.

The only issue with that is the fact that gatetowns can slide completely into the plane they are associated with. If they exist in both places, they can't really slide. But it could just mean that the gate slides into a new town that now exists in both planes and the old gatetown now only exists in the aligned plane.

I've always been a little confused on how the sliding of towns worked anyway. I'm not sure how open-ended that event is. I've never tried to get an official answer. I just assumed that the new town looks completely different and would have a different name. But then I've thought it would be interesting if the town that slid is the one that changed appearance and it's name, and the new town just reformed, keeping the same appearance and same name. Only the inhabitants would change. So other planars would never notice a difference unless they were familiar with the townsfolk. That would also help keep a DM from needing a new map of the Outlands.

 

[Quickleaf]

I've heard of other people using the towns that exact same way. It's a pretty good concept that adds to the weirdness of the planes.

The only issue with that is the fact that gatetowns can slide completely into the plane they are associated with. If they exist in both places, they can't really slide. But it could just mean that the gate slides into a new town that now exists in both planes and the old gatetown now only exists in the aligned plane.

I've always been a little confused on how the sliding of towns worked anyway. I'm not sure how open-ended that event is. I've never tried to get an official answer. I just assumed that the new town looks completely different and would have a different name. But then I've thought it would be interesting if the town that slid is the one that changed appearance and it's name, and the new town just reformed, keeping the same appearance and same name. Only the inhabitants would change. So other planars would never notice a difference unless they were familiar with the townsfolk. That would also help keep a DM from needing a new map of the Outlands.

Te canon has an adventure in the Planes of Law IIRC called "Hot Time in Darkspine" which gets into this a little. Darkspine used to be the gatetown to Baator (much as Ribcage is now), and when the PCs cross over they find ruins ad infinitum of old gatetowns which slid into Baator. I believe it felt eerily similar to Ribcage, but it has been a long time.

 

[TarionzCousin]

There is obviously not enough info on the Gate Towns.

5E must fix this problem.