Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.
The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we travel the sights of Blackcleave Cliffs
Blackcleave Cliffs
Blackcleave Cliffs are an affront to nature. The fact that they exist at all is proof that the multiverse has a sick sense of humor. Anyone traveling there, unless of a fiendish nature, feels immediately put off, and celestial creatures have been known to die within hours of being exposed to the area.
Lay of the Land
The Blackcleave Cliffs do not exist in the mortal worlds of the Material Plane. Instead, it lies on the border edges between the Abyss and Pandemonium. Where the thousand-foot cliffs drop off, into the abyss, pathways on one side leads into Pandemonium, and the maddening winds of that horrific plane can be heard howling through the cliffs. No one knows where the top of the Blackcleave Cliffs lead, as no creature has ever returned from there. Rumors have it that ancient obyrith or qlippoth created it, but this is unverified as even finding any of these elder races has become impossible in the modern age. Regardless, what is known is that anyone who has ever gone there has never returned. And the gods have repeatedly told mortal races not to ask about it.
The soil itself resembles broken blackened bones, with the bones of enormous creature sticking out at odd angles, some so large that entire cities have been built inside hollowed-out bones. On occasion these move about, seemingly of their own free will, especially on the Abyss side. Things are not better on the Pandemonium side, as the winds of that plane fly through the hollowed-out bones, causing the whole area to sound like the world’s largest pipe organ, but with discordant tones that jar and grate at the ear drums of anyone listening. Some mortal bards claim that this is the inspiration for the infamous bagpipes.
Furthermore, the ground “bleeds” a slimy, dark oil, that corrodes any kind of metal that it comes into contact with, though more valuable metals take longer, hours for copper and brass, days for iron and steel, and months or years for gold and platinum. As such, buildings are either created of these metals (leading to many foolhardy adventurers going here in the hopes of gaining a fortune) or are constantly renewed.
Dangers
The area is dangerous due to its inhabitants, which come from the Abyss or Pandemonium – in effect Blackcleave Cliffs is a place for “retired” fiends to settle, as they seem to find the environment and view to be comforting. Some spend time here simply to recharge their batteries, and many powerful demons have a “summer home” here, where they often spend decades contemplating their next move. Any kind of fiend can be found here, as there’s an informal truce hanging over the place, though those with Lawful alignments find it too chaotic for their tastes. The one exception is a single devil, a unique Balor “artist,” who studies Blackcleave Cliffs as inspiration for his sculptures, sculptures that are made out of flesh crafted mortals, stitched together, so that the screams of their pain can always be heard, and through which he somehow grants them immortality (short of death from violent means).
Kim Frandsen
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