Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo

Danger and possibility collide noisily in the primordial soup known as the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. Raw elements pulled from across the Inner Planes bubble, transform, and shift through the raw expressions of chance and chaos. It isn’t evil, it isn’t good, it’s just untamed chaos, churning forever.

And it’s not just the physical properties of Limbo that exhibit the traits of pure chaos. Opportunity and chance play as much of a role in the plane’s makeup, a surprising fact that is lost on many travelers. The odds of running into another traveler in an infinite plane like Limbo are normally astronomical, but there visitors can expect to encounter other creatures better than half the time. Items malfunction only to spontaneously fix themselves amidst the swirling soup.

Soup is the best word to describe the physical properties of Limbo. It has no gravity, though pockets of elemental power move about like ingredients in a stew – thick in some areas, thin in others. The broth is a swirling kaleidoscope of muted colors and sensations, wet and thick and dry and oozy at the same time. Everything in Limbo moves naturally according to an unknown whim, which includes sentient creatures. Regular physical movement against the primordial soup is near impossible.

But the will of creatures can be imposed on the area around them, stabilizing matter and pushing back the soup. The effect is similar to that of the Astral Plane, where a creature’s mind affects how fast and far they move, but in Limbo it’s taken to an extreme. Movement without mental command is impossible against the unbending will of pure chaos.

Monsters of a wide variety swim through Limbo, most adapting spontaneously to the changes around them. Kleeltarns are massive octopi-like behemoths that absorb the chaotic energy and transmute it through their many arms, while flavabeeks have wings, webbed feet, scales, and a fish tail they use to snap up unsuspecting prey. The proto-ooze is the purest expression of chaos amongst the creatures that inhabit Limbo.

Limbo is known for its two primary inhabitants, however. The first are the slaadi, great toad-like monsters that exist only to feed. They scavenge across Limbo in nomadic bands, owing allegiance to none and expecting none in return, though their defined hierarchy sorts out power and ability by color. They are ruthless creatures capable of savage acts of barbarism, but some can be trusted. Deciding who and when can be difficult, however.

The githzerai are the other species closely associated with Limbo. Unlike the slaadi, githzerai are not natives to the plane, instead having been transplanted from their original homes during the uprising against the mind flayers that held them as slaves. When they broke free under the leadership of Gith, two factions split off along ideologically different lines. The savage and bloodthirsty githyanki retreated to the Astral Plane, while the contemplative and pacifist githzerai found solace in Limbo. Great monasteries have been built to honor the most powerful teachers of the githzerai and they all strive to stop the machinations of their evil cousins on the Astral Plane and mind flayers everywhere.

Along with its dangerous or just bizarre inhabitants, Limbo offers many fascinating sights and treasures to lure planar travelers across the multiverse. The halls of the College of Chance run by the Seekers of Xaos hold great volumes of lore and legend, while the Font of Reckless Magic is said to be the source of wild magic across the multiverse. The disembodied Trass Tarr floats in his mind-cylinder while slaadi protect their eternal Spawning Stone from intruders.

Powerful & Mighty

Power exists all across the multiverse, and those that have or seek the accumulation of power are worth watching. In the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, those that have power tend to lose it quickly to the random whims of fate and fortune, but some groups and individuals have managed to remain relevant in a plane that constantly churns and changes.

• Agni (Indian)
• Fenmarel Mestarine (elf)
• Indra (Indian)
• Shina-Tsu-Hiko (Japanese)
• Sirrion (Krynn)
• Ssendam (slaad)
• Susanoo (Japanese)
• Tempus (Toril)
• Vayu (Indian)
• Ygori (slaad)

Baroness Razza

Long ago, on the Material Plane, an ambitious sorceress came to power known as Baroness Razza. She was born into nobility and held a great disdain for the “common” people that surrounded her, but magic was her true passion. Razza was born with the spark of sorcery originating from Limbo, wild magic, and as she grew up her magic grew more unpredictable and dangerous.

Razza’s temperament matched her sorcery and she was quickly labeled unhinged and unstable by the other barons and baronesses of the region. Below her castle she used slave labor to create a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers dedicated to her ongoing study of raw magical might, and she traced that power back to the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. Razza became a recluse in her underground lair, and eventually the rulership of her barony passed to a relative. The story of wild Baroness Razza faded over the years.

But Razza did not. She drank deeply from elixirs and potions meant to prolong her life. She dipped down into true insanity, but always held the goal of releasing more wild magic onto the world. At the culminating moment in a critical experiment meant to pull more energy from Limbo, Razza’s magic misfired spectacularly. Her castle and labyrinth were pulled forcibly across the multiverse into the primordial soup of Limbo.

The servants and relatives of Razza that took the trip became trapped in a plane where random transmutation was common and dangerous. But the true danger lay with Razza herself, who hunted down the people within the floating castle and brought them down into her laboratory for experimentations. Insane, dangerous, and incredibly unstable, Baroness Razza is at home in Limbo trying to perfect wild magic and spread it across the multiverse.

Queen of Chaos

In the early age of the multiverse, when most planes had yet to form and raw power coursed between the folds of reality, law and chaos fought for domination. Great and mighty beings waged war for their respective sides across the planar cosmos. For chaos, few creatures held as much influence and determination as the Queen of Chaos. She fought savagely against the vaati, agents of law and order, and their battles spread far and wide.

Eventually, the vaati defeated the Queen of Chaos’ greatest champion with a powerful relic, the Rod of Seven Parts, and the war between law and chaos settled down. Stung, wounded, and without a commanding officer who had led her forces, the Queen of Chaos slipped into the realm that shaped itself chaotically around her, Limbo. She built a grotesquely fantastic palace in a swamp of unmitigated chaos called the Steaming Fen, and there she rules still today, though she rules a layer of the Abyss by the same name.

The Queen of Chaos breeds the spyder-fiends that crawl over the Steaming Fen using the stored life essence of her champion, Miska the Wolf-Spider, but she desperately desires to reignite the war between law and chaos. The vaati settled on the Plane of Air and are known as the Wind Dukes of Aaqa now, and though they are eternally vigilant the Queen of Chaos has been moving quietly and slowly across the multiverse.

Slaad Lords

When Primus, overlord of the modrons, cast the geometrically perfect stone into Limbo with the hopes of stabilizing the plane’s unordered chaos, he set into motion great events with unintended consequences. That stone absorbed the chaos of the plane, but instead of re-ordering and distributing it, the massive object held it, until it released it violently in the form of the slaadi – multicolored toad-like monsters of primal chaos. The Spawning Stone, as it is now known as, sits at the heart of the Sea Infinite now, continually creating more slaadi.

The hierarchy of the slaadi is vaguely color-based, with red slaadi spawning blue and green, and blue slaadi spawning red and green. Green slaad turn into gray and death slaadi, which is the pinnacle for most. But there is a top tier where a death slaad can undergo a transformation into a slaad lord. To date, only four are known to have done this, and each are unique creatures that have absorbed the chaotic power of Limbo to become incredibly formidable beings.

Ssendam, Lord of Insanity, is the oldest of the slaad lords. She floats through Limbo as a massive golden amoeba, but she can also take the form of a golden-skinned slaad around the Spawning Stone. She spreads madness and insanity everywhere she goes.

Ygorl, Lord of Entropy, is considered the most powerful the slaad lords. He resembles a huge, skeletal slaad with blackened bones, and he rides a brass dragon dracolich named Shkiv around the Sea Infinite. Ygorl lives within the Spawning Stone, in a great central chamber that changes dramatically based on the shims of the Lord of Entropy and the plane itself. He leads slaadi into battle, though most follow out of fear more than loyalty.

Chourst, Lord of Randomness, is the slaad lord that embraces the truly unpredictable nature of Limbo. If he approached a bridge, this massive chalk-white slaad lord would just as soon jump over it as cross it, and fighting him is an exercise in frustration. He doesn’t care at all about the slaadi on Limbo and rarely visits the Spawning Stone, instead content to drift around the Sea Infinite bringing randomness in his wake.

Rennbuu, Lord of Chaos, is the most cruel and sadistic of the slaad lords. He is tall with scintillating rainbow skin, and he always dresses in gaudy uncoordinated outfits. With a thought, Rennbuu can change the color of anything he can see, which also means he can instantly promote and demote a slaad of less than slaad lord status. He is also the only slaad lord to regularly travel outside Limbo though he maintains an impressively garish gallery in the Spawning Stone.

Speakers of Xaos

Chaos and wild magic are potent magical forces that defy traditional study. Thus, those that study them defy traditional definition. So suppose the Speakers of Xaos (pronounced like “chaos”), a group of scholars, wizards, sages, and priests that seek to truly understand Limbo and its unpredictable nature. They have a strong independence streak as well, and one of the tenets of the organization is that no one member has authority over another.

The only exception to this rule is the director of the College of Elemental Chaos, who runs the operations and resources of the Speakers of Xaos. Each member of the Xaos-Speakers is dedicated in their own way to studying the primordial power of Limbo, though there are many different approaches. Some look to the elemental collisions that occur constantly, seeking the link between Limbo and the Inner Planes, while others peer into the chaos storms to learn their mysteries.

The Speakers of Xaos are an eclectic and often eccentric group, but their ranks also include explorers. Anyone seeking greater understanding of chaos itself is welcome within the group, and the College of Elemental Chaos has a deep (if unorganized) library containing many treatises and intellectual works.

Trass Tarr

The unpredictable nature of Limbo is said to be the chaotic remnants of the multiverse itself, leftover soup from the creation of existence. That is one theory, but it is by far not the only one. Some believe that there is a connection between Limbo and the enigmatic Far Realm, where abominations of reality dwell outside the bounds and rules of the multiverse.

Trass Tarr was one such cleric who believed this. As a human priest of a god of knowledge, he sought to unravel the mystery of the multiverse, and his studies led him to the Far Realm. He saw a great web of connections from that mind-blasting place to everywhere, but no stronger link did he find than in Limbo itself. Trass Tarr came to the Ever-Changing Chaos and sought to find proof of the link between it and the Far Realm.

His knowledgeable god imparted a means by which Trass Tarr could cast his mind across the multiverse divide and into the Far Realm. Called the Mind-Cylinder, this great metal device would house Trass Tarr’s formidable intellect and refract it so that he could see into the Far Realm. It worked, too well unfortunately, and Trass Tarr was driven irrevocably insane from the experience.

Trass Tarr’s body withered away quickly but he remained contained within the Mind-Cylinder. He created guardians to protect the precious item, and expanded its size by mentally commanding the primordial soup of Limbo itself. Now he floats forever in the Storm Eternal, casting his insane thoughts out. The githzerai know of him and have tried to help him regain his sanity, but Trass Tarr is too far gone. But his experience has left him with some of the only first-hand knowledge of the mysterious and dangerous Far Realm.

Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith

The githzerai came to Limbo as refugees after a bloody revolt against their mind flayer masters. The gith race was split ideologically. A large number of them followed the teachings of their leader, Gith, who saw bloodshed as the only way forward. But another voice rang up, Zerthimon, who advocated against the path of tyranny and darkness. Zerthimon was killed during the brief but bitter civil war as the two sides battled ferociously.

Shortly after Zerthimon’s death, his most prized pupil rose up to assume the mantle of leadership. Menyar-Ag led the githzerai people – named after their leader – away from the githyanki and across the planes. They settled quickly in the chaotic morass of Limbo, establishing their civilization to honor the principals of Zerthimon. Menyar-Ag took the role of Great Githzerai and was bestowed the full name of Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith.

He still rules the githzerai of Limbo, though only the strongest psionic and arcane powers keep his incredibly frail body alive. He hasn’t physically left the confines of Shra’kt’lor for generations, though his spirit has traveled the length and breadth of the Storm Eternal and the planes beyond. Menyar-Ag has a host of attendants that spread his will and commands and the ancient githzerai leader never sleeps. He prepares his people for the eventual return of Zerthimon, a long-prophesized event, and wages a never-ending war against githyanki incursions and mind flayer plots.

Menyar-Ag’s beliefs are rigid but the wizened leader is not above flexibility when the opportunity presents itself. He has opened the gates of Shra’kt’lor to a small number of merchants and travelers that wish to trade with the githzerai, and his zerths and anarchs keep a watchful eye on the croaking hordes of slaadi in the Sea Infinite. He can be a great ally to those whose purposes align with the githzerai.

Creatures & Denizens

The sheer variety of monsters found in Limbo defies easy classification. Many of these creatures are cosmetic variations of existing monsters, including unusual colorations and slight alterations (claws becoming massive paws that deal bludgeoning damage instead of slashing, a tail that develops a blade to inflict slashing damage instead of bludgeoning, etc.). The new monsters represent those unique specimens that only Limbo could produce – primal elementals, flavabeeks, flux wurms, and more

Aberrations

The vast majority of monsters swimming and living in the great primordial soup of Limbo defy easy categorization, but most fall under the broad grouping of aberrations. Flavabeeks are fish-like monsters with bird-like attributes that let loose psychic squawks at targets it finds interesting, while kleetarn are octopus monsters with prismatic bodies with a deep curiosity and a wild aura that causes magic to breakdown around it. Lucknucks are small mischievous lizards with an uncanny ability to change luck, both good and bad, a skill it uses to mess with anyone and everyone it comes across.

Flux wurms are enormous crocodilian worms that swim and bite through Limbo as well, creating mayhem wherever they go. They can appear almost anywhere but most of their activity is thankfully restricted to the Wurmways.

Slaadi. Slaadi are the best known native inhabitant of Limbo, mainly due to their voracious and dangerous attitudes towards all outsiders. Slaadi come in distinct colors, each with their own abilities, but they call originate from a massive rock in Limbo known as the Spawning Stone. It is said that Primus, the god of supreme law and order that rules over the modrons on Mechanus, placed the stone in the Ever-Changing Chaos in an effort to stabilize it, but the result were a gibbering horde of monster toad beings – slaadi. Several powerful slaad lords grew out of that chaos, each with distinct motivations and desires, but overall the slaadi remain potent forces of ultimate destructive chaos that wash out from Limbo on a regular basis.

Humanoids

The unstable nature of existence in Limbo makes permanent settlements less permanent, so there are only a handful of regions populated by humanoids. The Hall of Fate and Luck is one of the few stable regions and also serves as the gambling hub of the plane, and perhaps the multiverse as a whole. A large family of halflings, the Highrollers, run the hall which appears as an enormous sphere with multiple interior layers.

Changelings. The exact origin of the shapechanging changelings is the subject of some debate among sages that care about these things, but there is a sizable population in the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. Most live and work in the Hall of Fate and Luck, but they maintain smaller outposts all across the primordial soup of all layers. Some function as guides and wardens to the wilder places, keeping routes free of slaad incursions, while others just look to master their own abilities amidst a plane that offers no end of inspiration.

Githzerai. Long ago, the mind flayers controlled a vast empire and held a race as key servitors and slaves. Eventually, this race rebelled and broke free, and during that process a schism opened between two different ideologies. They became known as the gith, and one side of that schism rejected the hatred and wickedness of their masters and sought to find a new home. They are the githzerai, and they settled in Limbo – an odd choice on the surface, but one that provides ample opportunities for them to hone and perfect their psionic abilities. The other side are the githyanki who remained in the Astral Plane and chose the path of cruelty and malice. The two sides remain at odds with one another, forming rivalries that often end in bloodshed, but they can usually put aside their differences when they must hunt down illithid forces anywhere in the multiverse.

Hazards & Phenomena

The unpredictable nature of Limbo presents a number of unique challenges to visitors, not the least of which are the hostile native inhabitants such as slaadi and flux wurms. Chaos storms and elemental collisions are common occurrences and can wreak havoc on an unprepared group, especially since they tend to arrive at the most inopportune time.

Chaos Storm

During one of the frequent chaos storms, the muted colors of Limbo’s primordial soup brighten and thrum with energy as the extraplanar force ripples around. Chaos storms encompass an area as small as 100 feet in diameter up to 100 miles, or even beyond.

Creatures that are not native to Limbo caught in a chaos storm find themselves teleporting randomly around. A creature that starts its turn in a chaos storm must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, they teleport 1d6 x 5 feet in a random direction and suffer 13 (2d12) psychic damage. A successful save prevents teleportation and damage. Unattended objects are teleported at the same rate as creatures, though they do not suffer psychic damage.

Within a chaos storm, any spell of 1st-level or higher that is cast triggers a wild magic surge. Refer to the Wild Magic sorcerer origin for the specific table.

In addition, once per minute, the chaos storm forces a random transmutation to occur (see below), further altering the landscape.

Elemental Collision

Limbo is tied intrinsically to the Inner Planes, and this deep connection pulls in elemental forces at random. Often, these are nothing more than naturally occurring features – islands of stone or mud, floating lakes and rivers, windstorms, balls of fire or ice, and other elemental components. Some are large enough to be considered their own realms, but most are small and innocuous. At least, until they collide together, releasing a wave of elemental energy.

These elemental collisions can cause serious damage to creatures and objects. When an elemental collision occurs, determine its size, location, and type on the below tables. The explosion is close enough to the characters to cause some discomfort, and all the creatures in the area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw, suffering full damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The collision’s size determines the number of damage dice, the location determines the Dexterity save DC, and the type determine the damage type.

The damage dissipates after its initial shockwave ends, though there could be a new elemental feature nearby that may change a battlefield (a new river or island, for example).

Power of the Mind

The primordial soup of Limbo can be shaped and manipulated by those that focus their efforts. This can be done to achieve one of three distinct effects: moving objects, transforming objects, or stabilizing terrain.

To move objects, a creature on Limbo can take an Action to make an Intelligence check while mentally targeting an unattended object on the plane that it can see within 30 feet of it. The DC depends on the object’s size: DC 5 for Tiny, DC 10 for Small, DC 15 for Medium, DC 20 for Large, and DC 25 for Huge or larger. On a successful check, the creature moves the object 5 feet plus 1 foot for every point by which it beat the DC.

A creature can also use an action to make an Intelligence check to alter a nonmagical object that isn’t being worn or carried. The same rules for distance apply, and the DC is based on the object’s size: DC 10 for Tiny, DC 15 for Small, DC 20 for Medium, and DC 25 for Large or larger. On a success, the creature changes the object into another nonliving form of the same size. Roll on the Random Transmutation table to determine the object’s new material. A specific material can be selected, but the DC is increased by 5 for such attempts.

Additionally, a creature can use an action to make an Intelligence check to stabilize a spherical area centered on the creature. The DC depends of the radius of the sphere. The base DC is 5 for a 10-foot-radius sphere; each additional 10 feet added to the radius increases the DC by 5. On a successful check, the creature prevents the area from being altered by the plane for 24 hours, or until the creature uses this ability again.

Random Transmutation

Limbo has the unpredictable ability to change unattended objects and geographic features into something else, turning rocks to diamonds, diamonds to fire, fire to ice, and ice to steam. There is no order to the transmutations and they can happen frequently or rarely, depending on the chaotic whims of the plane itself.

When a random transmutation occurs, choose an unattended object or terrain and then roll on the below table. The target retains its general shape, and in the gravity-less realms of Limbo an object that transforms into a liquid can retain its form while on the plane.

One quirk of the transmutation process of Limbo is that any object subject to the transmutation immediately crumbles to nothing when taken out of Limbo. Exceptions exist, of course, including powerful relics and artifacts, but many a traveler has found their bag of rocks that became a bag of diamonds turn suddenly into a bag of dust when leaving Limbo.

Sites & Treasures

Strange sights and stranger occupants fill the primordial expanse of Limbo, enough to entice any adventurer to seek out its wonders. Of course, plenty of danger accompanies the strangeness, but treasure and secrets hide there as well. Enterprising travelers seeking a break from the mundane can do no better than the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo.

Beacon Pillars

Traveling through Limbo is difficult at best. Sites move about at random and no path is the same from time to time. Maps are worthless which has led to a great many frustrated explorers. The githzerai developed the idea of beacon pillars which can be positioned on known sites, each unique and enhanced with magic to attune to locate object spells at greater distances. By placing a beacon pillar in a community, site, or fortress, the githzerai are able to hone in on the exact location regardless of what Limbo does, providing a path and a (somewhat) stabilizing effect.

The githzerai have shared the construction of beacon pillars with friendly natives of Limbo, including the Speakers of Xaos and the Highroller halflings at the Hall of Fate and Luck. Mostly they are used to connect the githzerai sites, and they are careful not to share too much information with total strangers. In order to find a beacon pillar, the caster must know the configuration of the desired pillar and then cast locate object on Limbo.

College of Elemental Chaos

The Speakers of Xaos are a loosely organized collection of wizards, clerics, sorcerers, and explorers, each dedicated to studying and understanding the nature of chaos itself. No better place to look than Limbo, so the founders of the group built the College of Elemental Chaos on a stabilized island of stone amidst the churning soup. The site sprawls over three large wings around a central hub, which is dedicated to the library, with offices and meeting spaces spread between the wings.

Members of the Speakers of Xaos have full access to the library at the College of Elemental Chaos, which is full of good resources with an absolute lackluster organization system. The librarians are beleaguered students who must endure several years of library duty before moving to a more permanent residence. All manner of Speakers come and go at all hours, and since the only requirement for library access is to be a member of the Speakers of Xaos, people pull volumes off the shelves frequently.

The wings are dedicated to the individual members who pursue their own interests and studies. Rarely do Speakers work with one another on their larger projects, though social times at the college bring about lengthy discussions and dissertations on the nature of chaos in general. Speakers are more likely to seek outside assistance with their research, and most are foolhardy enough to brave the dangerous elements of Limbo’s darkest recesses in pursuit of knowledge.

Font of Wildest Magic

Wild magic has spread across the multiverse, seeping into the bloodline of individuals of all types and imbuing them with unpredictable sorcerous powers. All of that chaotic magic stems from Limbo, and some planar scholars have pinpointed it down to a specific site known as the Font of Wildest Magic, though whether this is truly the source of all wild magic in the multiverse is a matter of some debate.

The Font of Wildest Magic appears as a great never-ending spout of brilliant multicolored energy, transforming spontaneously from gas to liquid to solid and back to gas again in a scintillating plume hundreds of feet high. The spout originates from a cloud of black and white vapor containing ribbons of negative and positive energy that fuels the endless massive outpouring. Magic is inherently unstable in an around the Font, creating wild magic surges with any spell cast (even cantrips). The Font floats freely in the Elsewhere, like much of Limbo’s features, though a handful of Xaos speakers from the College of Elemental Chaos have dedicated their lives to tracking and understanding its power.

Gibbering Horde

Sound travels strangely in Limbo. Sometimes a whisper echoes for miles around, and other times a shout dies down after only a few dozen feet. This random effect inflicts all sound differently at different times, making it difficult for travelers to identify the massive Gibbering Horde before it arrives.

Nonsensical gibbering and wailing surrounds this titanic roiling mass of pink and purple ooze, originating from countless mouths spontaneously growing and disappearing all along its bulbous shifting form. It’s believed the Gibbering Horde originated as a gibbering mouther, or some variation, as its effects are similar, but the scale and enormity of the thing dwarfs any known mouther in the multiverse. The Gibbering Horde rolls over elemental power, absorbing it all into its pulsating bulk, though chunks break off and atrophy about the same rate.

Where did it come from? Is there any sentience behind the Gibbering Horde? Attempts at magical insight have been met only with mind-shattering insanity. Some scholars theorize that a portal to the Far Realm exists in the heart of the Gibbering Horde, and it’s as good a theory as any. For those that can withstand the gibbering, the mass can be walked upon and has a relatively stable environment considering Limbo – minus the mouths, some small and others titanic, that emerge to bite and swallow any poor unfortunates that come close enough.

Great Red Tempest

Chaos storms rage across Limbo with alarming frequency and irregular potency. Most are relatively small, flaring to life and then dying just as quickly as they started, but some have grown so massive that they are permanent moving features of Limbo. The Great Red Tempest is one of them, many miles in diameter, though it is unique because of the great number of slaadi that swim about its broken elemental chunks hungry to feast on unsuspecting prey.

Dozens of earthen islands float amidst the swirling vortex within the Great Red Tempest, and an unusually large number of them contain items and treasures pulled from across the multiverse. Tales of these riches draw travelers into its depths, where they often find a grisly end at the claws and bites of slaad swarms.

Hall of Fate and Luck

The greatest gambling center in all of Limbo is the Hall of Fate and Luck, floating randomly in the Elsewhere. The entire building, nearly a mile wide, is shaped like a sphere made of stone, diamond, fire, or nearly anything else, as panels on the outside spontaneously transform according to the whims of the plane itself. Inside, every single game of chance in the known multiverse can be found and played.

The Hall of Fate and Luck is run by the Highrollers, a clan of halflings who are said to have the backing of some pretty potent patrons (gods of luck are rumored to dwell or frequent the hall). They employ all manner of creatures from across the multiverse, paying them well to act as game masters, hustlers, and guards. Coins and magical items flow through the Hall of Fate and Luck at an alarming rate, but the Highrollers always seem to come out on top. The hall also features first class eating dining options and luxury rooms for rent, all for more coins than most Material Plane residents see in a year.

Inside, the gambling hall has five levels, each closer to the sphere’s center than the previous. Each layer holds similar games but the stakes become progressively higher. The first and most easily accessible layer plays with coins, while the second plays with magic. Few who reach the lower levels speak of their games, but it is widely assumed that lives, secrets, and souls are the final three commodities to be gambled with, though the exact order is known only to the Highrollers and those that prove they have the capital to play.

Labyrinth of Baroness Razza

Ripped from the Material Plane by chaotic sorcery, the castle and sprawling under-labyrinth of Baroness Razza floats through Limbo on wild primordial winds. Hundreds of years ago, the baroness was an ambitious sorceress looking to harness her innate wild magic to greater effect, and to that end she built a secret laboratory beneath her castle’s estate. She withdrew into her complex completely, embracing madness in her experiments, and generations later her planar dabbling resulted in a great portal opening up to Limbo. The castle, labyrinth, and all living residents were pulled into the chaotic maelstrom.

Ecstatic with the result, Baroness Razza gave herself fully to the wild magic. She hunted down the living servants and experimented on them in the bowels of her floating, gravity-less labyrinth. Great evil has been worked on within the halls, but also great magical discoveries and breakthroughs. Multiple living spells have originated from Baroness Razza’s labyrinth, and a host of other strange and bizarre creatures and creations haunt the confusing and constantly shifting complex.

Baroness Razza – her life extended through magic and warped sorcery – wanders the countless laboratories and halls of her labyrinth. Her insanity is deep and her desires wicked, but she has a great deal of knowledge on how magic works in Limbo and how wild magic specifically operates.

Lake of Icefire

The building blocks of existence float throughout Limbo, pulled from the Inner Planes and elsewhere to form islands and pockets of elemental energy. Any one of these can spontaneously transform into another element, so stable sections are rare and usually held together by powerful thoughts. One of the exceptions is the Lake of Icefire, a strange mass of swirling red and blue that is as much fire as it is liquid and as hot as it is cold.

The borders of the “lake” are formed by crystalline rocks of varying hues, but the bulk itself floats in Limbo’s primordial soup in the Elsewhere. The site is unique because of its combination of two elements – ice and fire – that resist the random mutation effects that ripple throughout the plane. Even chaos storms avoid the site. The waters of the lake hiss, crackle, and pop as energy bubbles appear and burst with irregular frequency. Its depth varies, from as shallow as several feet to as deep as three hundred, and unusual creatures are known to frequent its unusual waters. These creatures are all immune to fire and cold, something that anyone approaching the lake would benefit from as well.

Shining Monastery of Bur’lk’aas

Amidst the swirling miasma of the Storm Eternal, the githzerai have established dozens of citadels, strongholds, and monasteries, claiming the chaotic territory as their home after escaping the clutches of the illithids long ago. The most important of these sites are protected and stabilized by githzerai anarchs who have long studied the powers of the mind in order to control the seething chaos around them. Rarely does an anarch fail, but when they do the result is often a blight upon the land. So it is with the Shining Monastery of Bur’lk’aas.

Long ago, it was an adamantine beacon of learning and wisdom under the tutelage of Bur’lk’aas, a githzerai anarch renown for his patience. His inner power was reflected in the sturdy walls of the monastery, which glowed constantly, giving the site its name. Disaster struck when a warband of githyanki knights astride powerful red dragons savagely attacked in order to obtain the secrets held within Bur’lk’aas’ library.

The fighting was intense, and in the end the githzerai anarch – seeing his forces depleted and the end coming near – decided the knowledge in the monastery could never fall into githyanki hands. The Shining Monastery erupted with pure light, disintegrating everyone in and around the floating adamantine structure. Bur’lk’aas and the attacking forces were obliterated and the Shining Mastery was consumed. Or was it? Travelers in Limbo have reported sighting the luminous structure phasing in and out of existence. To date no one has been able to set foot on it, but Zaerith Menyar-Ag has quietly sent out teams to find out if the Shining Monastery can be recovered.

Shra’kt’lor

The capital of the githzerai across the multiverse is Shra’kt’lor, a great and ordered fortress-city that holds the largest concentration of githzerai. It is the social and political hub for the displaced sons of Gith on Limbo and stands as the greatest fortified site in all of the plane. Magical and psionic defenses are well-maintained and prevent unauthorized access into its titanic adamantine walls. Six layers of defenses sit between the outside and Zaerith Menyar-Ag, each maintained by a supremely powerful githzerai anarch personally chosen by the ancient leader.

There is very little organized trade the githzerai conduct, but visitors that prove they are not hostile are welcome within the first layer of Shra’kt’lor. No chaos storm or random transmutation occurs within the limits of the fortress-city. Well-guarded libraries hold vast sums of knowledge gathered by the githzerai over the generations they have spent in Limbo, though their physical needs are met by meager supplies – water and simple bread are all that most githzerai desire, so inns and taverns carry these and little else.

Much of Shra’kt’lor is dedicated to the disciplined military might of the githzerai. Generals, monks, spellcasters, and zerths meet regularly to discuss plans for pushing back mind flayer and githyanki advances across the multiverse. The streets of the fortress-city are clean and sparse, a stark contrast to the raw chaos of the plane around it. It is a supreme challenge to maintain the stability of Shra’kt’lor amidst Limbo’s primal forces, and some believe Zaerith Menyar-Ag holds a dark secret beneath the fortress-city’s deepest citadel that fuels the power of the anarchs.

Spawning Stone

Law and chaos have been at odds since the formation of the multiverse, and thus the planes of Limbo and Mechanus have sat at opposite ends of the axis for just as long. Limbo is the ultimate expression of pure chaos and randomness, whereas Mechanus is clockwork precision given definitive form and function. And on Mechanus, the modron entity Primus has sought to enforce order upon the multiverse, and it started with Limbo.

Primus constructed a massive geometric orb of mathematical beauty and then hurled it into the chaotic maelstrom of Limbo. The goal was to enforce order upon the Ever-Changing Chaos, and for a brief moment it worked. And then it collapsed like a house of cards, and from that collapse the entire slaad race was birthed. The geometric orb twisted, mutated, and re-shaped itself into the Spawning Stone, sending forth legions of croaking toad-like slaad of all kinds. Primus’ experiment failed and its hubris created the destructive slaadi that push against the very fabric of order in the multiverse.

The Spawning Stone sits at the heart of the Sea Infinite, defining the region of Limbo as much as Shra’kt’lor sits at the “center” of the Storm Eternal. The massive pulsating stone is riddled with caves, tunnels, and passages, with countless slaadi moving in, out, and around it at all times. Some of the powerful Slaad Lords dwell within the Spawning Stone as well. The general level of chaos around the region prevents the toad-like aberrations from organizing any formal resistance, but intruders are considered fair game by all of the creatures. Treasures and secrets exist within the Spawning Stone, however, including some hinting at the true power and reach of Primus itself. Few have braved the croaking hordes to find them, however.

Steaming Fen

Law and chaos have long existed as opposing ideas, but once long ago they also formed the banners behind titanic armies in a sprawling war for the soul of the multiverse. The Blood War between the devils of the Nine Hells and the demons of the Abyss is an extension of this never-ending conflict, but it is only the most recent. Law and Chaos stood as swords and shields once, and in that war the Queen of Chaos was a powerful force.

The War of Law and Chaos ceased with the destruction (or imprisonment, depending on the stories) of the Queen’s greatest general, Miska the Wolf-Spider, at the hands of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, using a powerful tool called the Rod of Seven Parts. The Queen of Chaos retreated to her original lair on Limbo, the Steaming Fen, where a swampy landscape stretches out in an ever-expanding sphere of grotesque disease and stench. She managed to take over a layer of the Abyss during her expansion efforts in the war, which is also known as the Steaming Fen, and a permanent link exists between the two sites.

The Queen of Chaos’ realm on both planes is populated by horrid spyder-fiends, chaos beasts, and monstrous mutations. The Queen herself dwells in the sludge-like heart below the Steaming Fen itself. Limbo’s lair is a vast ooze-filled cavern of multicolored fungus and fetid pools, which the Abyssal side stands as a grotesque pyramid of filth and rot.

Wurmways

Flux wurms are a feared threat on the Limbo for natives and travelers alike. Their affinity towards lightning and nasty bite can end most creatures before they have time to react. Nowhere in Limbo are they more prolific than the Wurmways, a cloud of semi-solid vapor and earthen material hundreds of miles across. The flux wurms tunnel through the cloud as easily as purple worms digest earth and stone, but the Wurmways is riddled with lightning flashes and illuminate and hide at the same time.

Several explorers from the Speakers of Xaos have sought to understand the purpose behind the Wurmways. They’ve gone in through the massive tube-like tunnels and discovered a maze of crisscrossing paths with numerous pools, fires, and other pockets of elemental power all around. Flux wurms are a constant problem along with dangerous lightning blasts that range in color along the rainbow spectrum. The explorers have also uncovered naturally occurring gemstones unlike any seen in the multiverse. Are they the result of flux wurm droppings? Or a naturally occurring part of the Wurmways themselves?

Several specimens sit on display in the museum at the College of Elemental Chaos, but no other expeditions have been scheduled since the last one. The interior organs of the previous expedition members were all transmuted into tiny flux wurms as a result of the Wurmways chaotic power and they were all eaten out from the inside. No one has sought the treasures in the Wurmways since.