Acheron's 1st Circle

Area Key

NOTE: All circles include The Lost Caverns
1st Circle: The Gauntlet
2nd Circle: Corridors of the Dead, The Warrens
3rd Circle: Path of Souls, Arcador (the city of vampires)
4th Circle: Dreamland Shrine, Temple of Dragons

5th Circle: City of Angels, The Sprawl, Chasm of Judgment
6th Circle: The Stronghold, River of Souls, Pit of Acheron, Cavern of Souls
7th Circle: Capital City, Path of Fire, Oubliette
8th Circle: Shrine of Fire, City of Demons, Shrine of Chaos, Haunted Mine, Lake of Fire
9th Circle: The Deadly Warrens, The Great Abyss

1st Circle

1st Circle:

Acheron is a subterranean underworld made up of a network of vast caverns, some of them huge enough to support great cities. Each level of Hell, however many tiers it may have as it progresses into Acheron's depths, is called a circle, being that each level consists of a planar circuit of Acheron which forms a layer around the axis spike of the abyss boring into its depths to the pit and core of the abyss.

Acheron's Gauntlet:

This area is called the Gauntlet, and its network of corridors and chambers are full of traps, puzzles, dangerous challenges, and monsters which must be faced and defeated in order to continue to the next corridor, or chamber. There are only two doors in the Gauntlet, one near the beginning (opens into the lost cavern), and one at the end (leading into the Corridor of Gates).

The Corridor of Gates:

This is the corridor one enters when they leave the gauntlet. There are seventeen doors here and fourteen of these doors leads to planar kingdoms. The two doors at the end of this long, straight corridor, lead to the Lost Caverns of the 1st Circle, and to the Path of Guardians which takes one further into Acheron.
(See Locations, Three Kingdoms page if description of one of these regions is needed)

Path of Guardians:

These are the corridors and halls where many of Acheron's guardians post a watch for intruders. Some chambers off these corridors are used by the guardians for training with each other. There is one door and stairway here which leads to the Warren on the second level. There is one main passage which leads to the Cavern of Elements, although it is difficult to determine what path intersects and which one is the main passage.

Cavern of the Elements:

Also called the cavern of science; every known element but light (not including electrical and fire) can be encountered here. These are also chambers where various elemental items can be found and manipulated to counteract opposing or unlike elements. There are also elemental creatures and spirits, intelligent machines, and even androids (some of them monstrous) roaming and dwelling in this cavern which were created out of the elements in the cavern. This cavern leads to the chamber of doors and path of guardians.

The Chamber of Doors:

eleven doorways in decahedron chamber are guarded by a warren of pigmy demons (6 quarrels). Each door leads to a specific place. The chamber is entered from a spiral stairway from the level above which retracts when the weight on it is relieved. Nothing defines one door or wall from another and the chamber is perfectly symmetrical. Choose a door or roll 2 d6 for door (2-12).

Stairway of the Dead:

A long, winding, often dangerously steep stairway which leads from the chamber of doors and lower levels to the corridors of the dead.

Lost Caverns of the 1st Circle:

Vast caverns where only monsters, spirits, and solitaries dwell.

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