Sheol
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
Sheol is the soul-forge of agony and the final oubliette of the Crawling King. Nestled within the cold, airless vaults of Krangath, buried deeper than mortal maps can fathom, this realm is less a kingdom than a living prison, an endless tangle of caverns, stone cysts, and shifting labyrinths, each designed to break the will and body of its captives.
There are no walls in Sheol that are not also instruments of restraint. The rock itself is Torog’s flesh and will, shaping into manacles, cages, and barbed corridors at his whim. It is said that those who die here are not released into the River Styx but are instead absorbed into the Crawling King’s domain, their screams joining the eternal chorus that echoes through the halls.
To the faithful, Sheol is the perfect cage—a work of divine craftsmanship where no chain can be broken, no gate can be opened without its master’s blessing. To outsiders, it is a place where hope is a dangerous illusion, and the only freedom is death… if Torog allows it.
Torog’s form is rarely seen in full; he manifests as a massive, worm-like silhouette crawling through the stone, or as pale, many-jointed arms emerging from the walls to seize prey. The rock itself shifts under his will, forming new prisons or sealing escape routes in an instant.
Geography
Sheol is an endless Underdark without surface or sky. Its landscape is a nightmarish blend of natural cavern and constructed dungeon, the two so intertwined that they are inseparable.
- The air is thin, stale, and scented faintly with iron and stone dust.
- The light is nonexistent except for the faint bioluminescent gleam of fungi and the dull, glistening sheen of wet stone. Even magical light is dimmed to one-tenth its normal radius.
- The sound is constant, low reverberations—sometimes the groaning of stone under strain, sometimes the dragging of unseen chains.
- The terrain is narrow crawlspaces open into echoing halls large enough to contain entire fortresses. Torture devices are carved directly into the rock: iron maidens fused with stalagmites, racks stretching across chasms, and walls studded with barbed spikes.
Notable Locations
The Crucible Gates
A massive stone maw lined with jagged “teeth” of basalt, this is the only known point of entry to Sheol. Prisoners arrive here bound and gagged, and the gates seal behind them with the grinding sound of continental plates shifting.The Chains Eternal
An immense shaft descending beyond mortal sight, threaded with hundreds of suspended chains. Many are used to hang prisoners in suspension for years, while others serve as bridges for the jailers. The chains themselves are alive with Torog’s will, coiling or constricting at a thought.The Stone Womb
A claustrophobic maze of crawlspaces so tight that passage requires hours of writhing through jagged stone. Torog is said to use this place to “rebirth” his favored prisoners, forcing them through the stone until their bodies break and reform.The Oubliette Abyss
A pit whose bottom is said to be nowhere. Those cast into it are erased from all memory save Torog’s, their souls becoming tools or materials for the construction of new prisons.The Gauntlet Halls
An enormous torture arena where the faithful reenact The Gauntlet holy day. Pain here is spectacle and offering alike, with victors “rewarded” by being returned to their cells to heal for the next round.Inhabitants
Petitioners
The souls of Torog’s worshippers often arrive in their prime, bodies unscarred, only to be “improved” over centuries of captivity. These petitioners may serve as jailers, torturers, or living testaments to the endurance of pain.The Caretakers of the Wretched
Divine healers who mend flesh not out of mercy, but to prolong suffering. Their surgical chambers are sanctified as holy ground.The Harbingers of Torment
Masters of agony, armed with sacred implements of restraint. Each Harbinger’s skill is so precise that they can keep a victim alive for decades without diminishing the intensity of their pain.Other Denizens
Stonebound Sentinels, which are gargantuan statues hewn from the living rock of Sheol, brought to grim life by Torog’s will to stand eternal watch as unyielding wardens of his domain. Another are the Chain Wraiths, who are the restless dead, once prisoners who perished in bondage, their souls forever shackled to the very chains that claimed their lives. There also some Beholders and other aberrations, who sometimes take up residence in the forsaken shrines scattered through Sheol, their presence tolerated only for as long as they provide the Crawling King with sufficient amusement.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal, but passages twist and reorient unpredictably; creatures without exceptional spatial sense may lose track of orientation. |
| Time | Slower 4 times than the Prime Material Plane; In addition, prisoners often lose all sense of it within days due to total sensory manipulation. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite |
| Morphic Traits | Divinely Morphic (Only deities, or demigods can alter terrain) |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil. |
| Magic | Spells with the Darkness or Earth are automatically Extended and Empowered; Teleportation and Planar Taravel are impossible without Torog's explicit will; Spells of the Conjuration (Teleporation) fail automatically; Freedom of movement effects are suppressed. |
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