Howler's Crag

Hearsay

From Howler's Crag a cutter can talk to any-one in Pandemonium, living or dead, mad or sane. What's more, if a cutter standing on top of Howler's Crag can shout, howl, or scream the name of her home in Sigil loudly enough to drown out the noise of the wind, the Crag transports her there. It's one of the easiest portals, and one of the few out of Pandemonium.   The Crag's built on the grave of a power whose followers once ruled the planes, a power of travelers, portals, and planewalkers. The power was a phoenix, and the chant goes that it and its followers were not immortal, but controlled the secrets of reincarnation. The other powers grew so jealous of this nameless one that they cast it into Pandemonium, and destroyed its followers and petitioners. When it died it became the Crag, and the remnants of its divine spark give the stone its magic.   Cutters say that the Crag attracts barmies, werebeasts, and outlaws the way honey attracts flies. Sure, anyone's a bit touched in Pandemonium, but something about the Crag brings the dangerous ones from all over the realm. Shouters are the most common, but years ago an order of mystics called the Brotherhood of the Phoenix took up residence in a series of burrows. Some stories say that the Brotherhood has long since died out, but others say that they remain at the Crag, digging below it to recover their power's body.

Description

Howler's Crag is a jagged spike of stones standing in the center of Cocytus, the second layer of Pandemonium. These plains lie at the center of an immense cavern, and the Crag itself is a form of message service between the various points of Pandemonium.   The Crag itself don't look like much. It's a jumbled pile of stones, boulders, and carved portions, as if a giant's palace had collapsed in on itself. The Crag's top is a mostly level platform about eight feet in diameter, with a low wall surrounding it.   The lower reaches of the Crag are riddled with small burrows, some of them connected. Each cell contains a single hard stone bench, three small niches or shelves, and a small altar. Many of the cell walls are completely covered with alphabets, strange psalms and liturgies, and strings of numerals. Most of these are indecipherable, and the rest seem related to the phoenix-god that the mystics worshiped.   The tip of the Crag constantly glows with a bluish faerie fire, making anyone standing here a prime target for enemies nearby. There's been reports from time to time of bandits that trap their victims at the top of the Crag and then demand large ransoms to let them come down safely. Some say that these bandits are the renegade mystics that once controlled the Crag and that they have somehow turned to evil. Everyone in Pandemonium claims that the mystics have been deader; for years; any that might suspect otherwise have kept their bone-boxes shut.   The real chant's that the Crag don't teleport a sod, no matter how loud she yells. The dark's that anything yelled at the top of a basher's lungs from Howler's Crag is heard by the intended recipient, no matter where that recipient is in the multiverse (and a basher can only yell to one body at a time). 'Course. most berks ignore what they hear on the wind, for fear of going barmy, and sometimes messages go to the wrong place, almost as if mephits, imps, and quasits were in charge of a messenger service. So it ain't dependable; not much in Pandemonium is.

Special Features

There's few spots on Cocytus where a rich cutter can buy a thick cloak and a cup of brandy to ward off the chill of the winds of Pandemonium. Near the Crag there's only one, but it's an excellent one. The inn's called the Laughing Mug, and it's a rare oasis against the wind and the cold, a bit strange but comfortable.   The chambers of the inn itself were painstakingly carved into the stone ground of the layer, underground and secure against the wind. The stairs down are marked by a single bright yellow lantern, and the rusty iron door at the bottom can be secured with heavy bolts in times of danger.   The innkeep's name is Fat Worold, though he's thin as a needle, and he bites every coin for fear of forgers. Fat Worold claims to know a trick to make the air spirits of the Crag obey a cutter, but he doesn't sell it cheap. Take a fat purse.   The only other shelter at Howler's Crag is within the Crag itself. These're little more than shallow stone cells with a single entrance, scant shelter from the eternal winds. Fat Worold tries to warn travelers away from them, since rumors say that the mystics' ghosts sometimes appear there. Others say that the mystics live on in secret caverns and tunnels hidden beneath the Crag, and that Fat Worold is their link to the outside.