Chains of Asmodeus

Random Encounters in Maladomini

Objective in Maladomini

M1: Outer Streets

Reaching the market is easier said than done. The convoluted streets of the abandoned city it nestles within are fraught with peril around every turn. Desperate lost souls and minor devils, cut loose from the hierarchy of the Nine Hells, throng there—most bitterly seeking the unique service the Eye Market can provide but unable to pay the fee. Every hollow shell of a building hides a nest of wretches preying on each other, scrabbling in the mulch, or descending into the monster-haunted and unsound sewers of the place in the hopes of finding something of value.

A variety of gangs preside over this layer of scum, extorting prices of souls, flesh, and labor from those on their turf. This being the Nine Hells, of course, it isn't a dog-eat-dog chaos, but a knife-edged dance of diplomacy, custom, and expectation. Every gang is the heart of a web of alliances and carefully negotiated territorial arrangements, all of which contain hidden get-out clauses and exceptions that allow them to be shrugged off at any moment. The devils live strung between two poles, constantly living as though their word is their bond, yet ready to exploit loopholes to betray their fellows at every step.

M2: Ganglands—Ilkatar's Territory

Ilkatar's people are abishai and pay at least lip service to Tiamat, in her lair far above. Of all the gangs, they value mortal treasure most, hoarding gold and gems and tithing to their great mother. They're by nature cruel but lazy, easily appeased with gifts or service.

M3: Ganglands—Memnoriac's Territory

Memnoriac was once one of Baalzebul's architects, a pit fiend of great status and power. Like all such, his perceived 'failures' eventually led to his downfall, and now he squats with his ragbag of followers in the city he designed and will never complete. The single most powerful devil in the ruin, he is tormented by the collapse of his final project and has become a Baalzebul in miniature. Those under his control are constantly re-edifying the buildings around him, raising them up and tearing them down as he seeks his own minuscule perfection.

M4: Ganglands—Jacelisk's territory

Jacelisk is a recent addition to the landscape, a tiefling archmage who brought her band of wicked companions to the Market for its particular services. Now, under the influence of recently installed eyes, she sees herself as the liberator and protector of the city she resides in, a great and adored hero. In truth she is as vicious as all the rest, with the added problem that her perceptions make her profoundly unpredictable—sometimes nobility itself and sometimes brutal enough to impress a full-blooded devil.

M5: The Slums

Closer to the shattered dome of the Eye Market itself is a whole town within a town, a wretched slum of shacks and sheds thrown up with materials salvaged from the abandoned construction works. Here is a morass of pathetic minor devils and travelers who mob any newcomer, desperately trying to sell them all manner of trash—broken weapons, ruined shreds of garments, cracked mirrors, the most meagre of worthless costume jewelry. To the uninitiated the whole desperate circus seems utterly inexplicable. Many will trade junk for equally valueless junk, rubbish passing hands in a constant round of meaningless commerce. Their grotesque parody of trade seems readily exploitable by anyone coming in from the outside, but there is a curious malaise on the streets around the Market. Deal too much with the trash hoarders and you might find yourself getting sucked into their game, desperate to make the next big trade or to acquire some filthy piece of detritus, valuing the junk just because everyone around you does the same.

A remarkable number of the denizens of this slum are damaged, victims of Baalzebul's construction works where safety is never a concern. Crooked and whining imps and other lesser devils roost or slither everywhere, proffering fistfuls of slimy muck, desperate to get in on the ground floor of the city's nonsense economy.

M6: The Eye Market

[image: Vaness inspects his wares.]

The proprietors, Vaness and Fling, offer a service unique in all of Maladomini—in all the Nine Hells, in fact. They offer relief from the appalling oppression of the infernal landscape. They offer a glimpse of happiness and wonder, positive things, that benefit Fiends and mortals alike. A bizarre gem to find in such a corrupted setting. Except, of course, nothing in the Nine Hells is as good as it appears.

Vaness is a beholder of exceptional size, his pinkish hide puffed-up and corpulent. His central eye has been replaced by a lens of ruby quartz that, it is said, focuses magic rather than negating it. In his workshop, using telekinesis and extremely fine-scale disintegration, he crafts the eyes that are the Market's stock in trade. Fling, in contrast, is an alhoon (see Monsters of the Multiverse), a mind flayer long gone on their peculiar path to lichdom. It acts as surgeon, implanting Vaness' creations and connecting them to the brains of its patients/ customers. They make a strange and jarring pair, not least because of their manner. Vaness and Fling strike the unwary as an old married couple, constantly bantering back and forth, making jokes at one another's expense, and exploding into arguments that settle almost instantaneously. It seems impossible that either creature could actually form a real bond, but to all intents and purposes the pair seem genuinely attached. Which often serves to lull visitors into a false sense of security. Vaness and Fling have not survived the Nine Hells for so long by being nice. They're as ruthless and powerful as any other infernal magnates, able to defend themselves physically if need be, but preferring to rely on their minions, treaties with the gangs and, if necessary, protection from Akrekarn and his posse. Moreover, anyone going to deal with them to actually gain new eyes should be very careful what they're agreeing to. Vaness and Fling have a flare for crooked bargaining that some devils could learn from.

The Jeweled Eyes

In their workshop, assisted by a blind workforce of grell and grimlocks enslaved by Fling's mental powers, Vaness and Fling remove the natural eyes of their clients and replace them with the jeweled creations from Vaness' workshop, granting a whole new perspective on Maladomini. A simple thing, in a way, and yet priceless. Vaness' eyes allow his patients to see the layer the way it was meant to be. When a newly altered customer wakes from the surgery, the dome above them is complete, its ceiling ornate and painted with frescoes of surpassing loveliness. Vaness and Fling are elegant and dignified, the master-surgeon and the genial artificer, surrounded by their immaculate staff. Outside, the spires of the city reach towards a glorious golden sky, and beyond that there are great verdant forests, jeweled castles that would melt the heart of a Fey queen, a world of glory and wonder such as the Nine Hells have never known.

The true power of the eyes is that these things aren't illusions, to those who can see them. Those towers can be scaled, the woods bear fruit that truly sates hunger. Instead of the poisonous sludge of Maladomini, the streams now run with sparkling claret liquid that tastes like the finest of wines and brings instant relief and freshness to the drinker. To live in the plane visible through Vaness' eyes is to be truly blessed.

The Eyes for Sale table lists the different types of eyes that can be purchased. These eyes do not require the wearer to attune to them, even if they normally would. In addition to the abilities mentioned, each set of eyes also makes the wearer no longer require food or water (because it is always abundant for them), and the weather affecting them is always pleasant (never too hot or too cold; they're immune to nonmagical fire or cold damage). Finally, no terrain is ever considered difficult for them. These effects persist even after the wearer leaves Maladomini.

The Truth Is Ugly

Of course, there are drawbacks. The ancient and wondrous beasts that once roamed the forests of Maladomini are long extinct, but they're most certainly there to those with eyes to see. And this being the Nine Hells, they're frequently hostile. Many eye-bearers have been killed and devoured by glorious and majestic monsters that their companions can't even see, let alone fight. Moreover, everyone who leaves the Eye Market having conducted business with Vaness and Fling becomes a target. All those waiting outside would give a great deal more than their eyes to get hold of such things, even though the services of Fling would still be required to implant them. Overcome with wonder, many new patients are easy marks for muggers and back-street surgeons.

The chief question about all of this must be why Baalzebul puts up with any of it. Vaness, Fling, and Akrekarn maintain a careful charade where the two put-upon artisans are constantly under threat from the devil, about to be turned in to the layer's archdevil unless they can come up with the latest bribe or protection instalment. And yet it never quite happens, and somehow the peculiar pair are permitted to run their business, which seems to make a mockery of everything that Baalzebul is constantly, futilely trying to achieve in his domain.

The most persuasive reason is that the eyes, for all their vaunted promise, are a curse. The wearer is at first overwhelmed by the beauty they see, delighted to walk in a 'Hell' that is suddenly restorative and pleasant. Except the truth always creeps in. Those who wear the eyes can stave off reality only so far. In their dreams they see the truth of it, the ruin and the ugliness. Day by day the understanding grows that everything they see, that they could now never live without, is only a sham, however real it is to them. The knowledge torments them, and they're driven to their own hopeless attempts to achieve a lasting perfection. In this way they share in Baalzebul's private misery, and perhaps that is enough reason to keep Vaness and Fling around.

A seditious whisper suggests that there is another reason. That Baalzebul, lord of temptation, feels the hook of their services in him. The idea that he could see Maladomini as he wishes it to be, the great blueprint he constantly fails to build, eats him up constantly. So that he is constantly on the point of ordering Akrekarn to obliterate the Market, but never quite gives the order, because what if...

Whenever a roll on any encounter table is called for, a character possessing eyes from the Eye Market must also roll on the following encounter table. If multiple characters possess these cursed eyes, they all share the same result. If any of these encounters result in combat, only the characters with cursed eyes can see their attackers or target them, and only they are harmed by the abilities of their attackers. Other characters may only provide support, such as healing, to the afflicted characters. Any characters that die outright, or are reduced to zero hit points, in these battles, immediately have their eyes removed and the attackers disappear.