A Psychoclastic MicroHell is a small pocket aspect of Hell that an adventuring party can be temporarily teleported to for a variety of reasons. Going there is a bit like the classic Maze spell except you actually go there and when you do it's all fucked up.
It also addresses an issue that I think about once in a while: although names like Demogorgon, Tiamat, Cthulhu, Orcus, Khorne, etc are a vital part of the background lore in RPGs--players seldom get to actually interact with them at least unless they're very lucky/unlucky at high levels which they may never reach. The "looming villain" effect is somewhat lost. This helps with that, adding what they call foreshadowing.
So anyway Psychoclastic MicroHells--parties typically end up there because:
-There's a portal or trap that sends them to one in the middle of a dungeon.
-Some wizard casts "Banish to Psychoclastic MicroHell" on them.
-They cast it on themselves.
Why would anyone cast it on themselves? Well, there is always treasure there. Technically.
Probably the best way to introduce the usable spell into the campaign is to have it used on the party unwillingly first, then allow it to be a thing they can use on themselves if they're out of their minds. Such players exist.
It takes about a bathroom-break's worth of time to create a Psychoclastic Microhell (largely because they rely on an existing library of content you likely already have access to, like the Monster Manual) so they can be drawn up mid-session.
You can also make custom ones for specific games or dungeons--like if its an underwater dungeon you can make one with your creepy custom underwater satan.
For the record the spell is:
Banish To Psychoclastic MicroHell
Magic-User Level 1
Duration: See below
Range: 50'
Area of Effect: Maximum 1 creature per caster level
This spell sends a creature or creatures to a Psychoclastic MicroHell as described below for the length of time described below.
Ok, so to create a Psychoclastic Microhell the GM needs to:
1. Take a piece of paper.
2. Make a little flowchartish box marked "Throne" at the top ("North" edge--but it doesn't matter, you're in Hell.)
3. Make a little flowchartish box marked "Entrance" at the bottom ("South" edge.)
4. Drop all the dice in the middle. A standard array-- d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20.
5. Make a little flowchartish box around where each die landed on the paper, noting kind and position. Like for example write "D6" and the number on that D6 wherever the D6 landed.
6. Starting at the bottom with the "Entrance" box, draw 2 lines to two other nearby boxes.
7. Then go to the one of those two boxes and draw two more lines coming out of it connecting to two more nearby boxes.
8. Then go to the next box and draw to lines coming out of it.
9. And so on until you've drawn two lines from each numbered box reach the top and at least one is connecting to the Throne box.
10. Each die indicates the location of a distinct area/room in the Hell but also gives you information. The rooms/areas can be shaped like the dice themselves if you like (I like). The lines represent paths.
11. The paths between the areas are all about 60' (or at least one round's full movement) no matter how far the actual lines on the paper are. Movement here takes place in bad-trip nightmare movement so distances are abstract--the point is to show their position relative to the start and each other and to show how long movement will take, not make a precise physical map.
12. Interpret the numbers on the dice as follows:
The number on the D8 Tells You Whose Hell This Is. My chart includes the classic Monster Manual guys, plus the Warhammer guys and some of my own, so that's:
1. Geryon or Slaanesh (DM's choice on these)
2. Dispater or Akayle Ozph
3. Baalzebul or Tzeentch
4. Asmodeus or Tiamat
5. Yeenoghu or Khorne
7. Juiblex or Nurgle
8. Demogorgon or The Great Maggot
Feel free to substitute in Cthulhu or whoever you're using in your game. The Lord of this Hell will determine the aesthetics of the experience. Juiblex is going to have a lot of ooze and goo, Slaanesh might have more of a sexy Hellraiser thing going on, whatever.
No matter what, this actual figure will be on the throne when things begin.
The D4 Is the Location of the Treasure and The Kind of Treasure:
1. Cursed Item
2. Important Knowledge
3. Major Miscellaneous Magic Item
4. Major Magic Weapon
The item can be raised on a plinth or in a little carved box or floating in a glass sphere or whatever.
The D6 Is The Danger Level:
1 is the worst, 6 is the safest.
Every area with a number equal or lower than the D6 has no encounter. (They all might--lucky you. Except Tiamat is in that one room, but whatever.)
Every area with a number higher than the d6 has an encounter.
By definition, the room/area where the d6 landed has no encounter.
Each D10 Tells You What One of Your Encounters Will Be:
1. Type I Demon (Vrock) or Malebranche
2. Type II Demon (Hezrou) or Barbed Devil
3. Type III Demon (Glabrezu) or Bone Devil
4. Type IV Demon (Nalfneshee) or Ice Devil
5. Type V Demon (Marilith) or Stag Demon (that's one of mine from the Bestiary)
6. Type VI Demon (Balor) or Pit Fiend
7. Manes or Lemure
8. Succubus or Erinyes
9. Bloodletter of Khorne or Daemonette of Slaanesh
10. Demon Fly (Chasme from Monster Manual II or ...of Nurgle) or Flamer of Tzeentch
Note that:
-These two encounters don't necessarily have to be where the D10s landed, just in any area with a number higher than the one on the d6.
-There may be none. These may be rolls indicating creatures that don't show up.
-If more than 2 encounters are called for, the extra encounters will be:
Tainted clones of any PC present (and any other creatures brought here by the spell) but each will be able to use one of the listed powers/abilities of whoever owns this Hell. They have the same hit points, appearance and AC as a PC but only this special ability to attack.
They also speak with the sovereign's voice, which you should play up as hard as you can for disturbing effect.
These clones can also be clones of the PCs' friends or relatives.
The D12 and the D20 tell you what the environment is like.
The die that lands closest to the Entrance box shows what the environment is like at the beginning (whether that be D12 or D20). It shifts to the second environment once the party enters the area indicated by the other die.
D12 Environment:
1. A pair of fat demons appears on a featureless plane, each a different color. They attempt to swallow you whole (attack at +10)—each is merely a harmless, invulnerable portal to the next “room” (with two more demons). There is no other way out.
2. You’re clinging to a giant statue of the dimension’s sovereign in some exotic material—progress by climbing into its eyes, mouth etc. The next "room" is another statue.
3. Narrow bridge-like causeways over infinite abyss or black ocean full of demonic seathings, obscured by dark mist.
4. Platforms floating in a dark void.
5. Depressing empty shadow city.
6. Tightly-compressed vertical tiled climbing maze.
7. Rooms made of writhing and tortured flesh.
8. A complex of high-vaulted cathedral-rooms with stained glass holding back molten plasma.
9. Apparently exitless rooms, each wall of which is either an illusory wall concealing an exit or a bottomless pit.
10. A series of platforms hanging from chains over nothingness.
11. Each room contains a large box or other geometric solid floating in the center, the only exits are by climbing into faces of this solid.
12. A giant machine of glass and amber gears amid weird fire.
d20 Another Environment:
1-12 (as d12 results, reroll if it’s the same)
13. Tunnels full of pools—defying gravity, on walls, floor, ceiling, etc. These are the only "doors".
14. Massive kaleidoscopic patterned carpet, progress by heading through different colored panels
15. Desert with lurid-colored sand and neon sky. Doors stand surreally upright in the sand.
16. It is just like where you were before you were sent here but time’s stopped and creatures are intangible and there’s a weird keening in the air. If there weren't doors there are now.
17. Blacksilver Giger-like biomechanical tunnels with tarlike vertical pools and flesh orifices for
exits.
18. Dimension of small clear glass compartments with hatches, the path ahead fairly visible to you and your foes, although reflections distort the more distant rooms somewhat.
19. M.C. Escher-esque echoing stone environment
20. Halls of distorting mirrors and thick colored glass panels.
All of the die results added together is the number of rounds you're there. After that you're teleported home.
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| Click to enlarge the example |
Obviously the first time this happens, players will simply be freaked out and confused and not know how they're ever getting home, which is great.
If they eventually figure out how the magic works, any visit then becomes a speed-run to get to the treasure before they get killed.
Although their creatures will, the regent of the Hell often will not attack immediately, as these incidents often amuse them, and sometimes the items taken are intentionally left in order to enact some subtle scheme against a rival power.
Re-roll every time. The same MicroHell can never be visited twice.
