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The Plane of Gehenna

See this scar? This one here? I got it when I got impaled on a pikin’ spike after the cliffside I was on collapsed. I fell for days. Well, maybe not DAYS, but it felt like it. Fell and fell and fell, then finally got caught on a juttin’ piece of obsidian, sharper’n a behir’s claw. Thank the heavens I did, ‘cause otherwise I woulda kept falling, and ended up either burning to a crisp in one of ’em lava pools, or tumbling off into the void and ended up gods only know where. - Ginnaru Goldsnake, quoted in “An Abridged Guide to Gehenna” by Warvin Plinth.

Volcanic and Steep

The primary feature of Gehenna is its landscape. While the River Styx and its blood-red waters would be familiar to any planar traveller, the rest of the plane is a jutting mess of spikes, volcanic domes, steep cliffs, constant rockslides, and massive lava flows and magma pools.

The plane is unpleasant to just be on, as most of the Lower Planes are. Where the dangers and environs of the Grey Wastes vary based on your location - whether the dusty winds of Ashen Reach, the harsh spikes of the Field of Nettles, or the diseased atmosphere of the Wasting Plains - the plane of Gehenna is unpleasant no matter where you are.

The top layer, Khalas, is one enormous volcano, but of such immense size that what would be small jutting stones on a smaller volcano are massive mountains on this plane. The River Styx winds upwards to the mouth of the volcano, then vanishes “up” to Baator. Dozens of other, smaller rivers, not connected to the Styx, crisscross Khalas, crashing over waterfalls and sizzling at the bottom. Each of these rivers is inviting as a way to cool off from the intolerable and overwhelming heat, but they are all contaminated with the heavy metals produced by the constant volcanic activity. Anyone drinking from one will immediately regret it.

To travel across the plane requires constant vigilance, as the ground is incredibly unstable, and prone to collapse at any moment as new lava flows underground cut and then drain out of enormous caverns. Tunnels criss-cross beneath the surface, smaller now empty lava tubes, where the brave or foolhardy traipse looking for hidden treasures or paths down to the next level.

The air is hazy, sulfurous, and difficult to breathe.

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