User:Pbruce1110/sandbox

The Divine Campaign is a tabletop RPG campaign setting using D&D rules. Set in the underworld, players must conquer the trials of the nine circles of Hell a-la Dante's Divine Comedy.

Weapons
Archery kit Wind razor boomerang (2)

Spells
Craft Item Repair Light Damage (http://dnd.arkalseif.info/spells/spell-compendium--86/repair-light-damage--4090/index.html) Arcane Identify

Weapons
Wand

Weapons
Battle axe

Weapons
Warhammer

Weapons
Crossbow

Damnations
All natural 20's rolled are critical misses.

UNPLAYED: The Cavernous Mountain
There is a cave on the side of a lonely mountain. That cave is the only portal between the human world and the underworld. The cave is guarded by three beasts, Lonza, Leone, and Lupa.

DM's Note

These monsters can not be defeated.

They guard the entrance to the cave in the off chance that the party somehow gets off Charon's ferry and tries to just walk back to the mortal world. Fighting them will wind up with the whole party killed and back on the ferryboat to Styx. Consider this a prequel that will likely be totally unnecessary.

Always best to have a failsafe.

Lonza
A Leopard

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/leopard.htm

Leone
A Dire Lion

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direLion.htm

Lupa
A Dire Wolf

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Dire%20Wolf#content

PLAYED: Styx
Styx is a putrid river of rot at the mouth of the cave in the mountain. The water of styx is filled with the souls of the unrepentant, who drag any damned souls down when touched.

The only safe way across Styx is in the demonic boat, manned by Charon. Charon's boat can only be ridden by those who pay the fare.

Charon will ferry them across the river, but will not let them off the boat until the fare is paid properly.

PUZZLE: Charon's Fare
The travelers board a rickety canoe. They can hear it, and feel it moving, but can not see. There are metal disks over their eyes. The disks are coins, placed over their eyes to pay the fare across the river Styx.

When the damned identify the coins as coins, they fall from their eyes. The coins are old and the stamped images are faded and unidentifiable. The light is low, and they can not see the detail on the coins.

Charon's fare is not much: whatever coinage you have you must pay them, what matters is how you pay it.

The party has 10 coins, one for each eye. Charon requires all coins be given to him in two piles. Each pile must have an equal number of coins turned heads-up.

The party can not identify the coins by side, but must make two piles of coins as specified. They are informed that "right now" they have an equal amount of coins turned face up as face down.

They must make 2 piles with equal number of coins. Now, flip all the coins in one of the pile.

P1 : H T T T T P2 : H H H H T

By flipping P1 P1 : T H H H H P2 : H H H H T P1(heads) = P2(heads)

PLAYED: First Circle (Limbo/Pride)
The party exits the boat and stumbles into a foggy plane, as thought it was constantly a misty dawn. There is no clear vision.

All player vision is reduced to 10ft.

The first circle of the abyss, Limbo, contains the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, although not sinful, were not faithful. Limbo shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows; thus, the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. They lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive.

Players may interact with the wise damned. They will eventual speak to Virgil, who tells them that their physical forms are still in tact, they have a chance to return to life. In order to do that, they have to pass through the afterlife.

PUZZLE: Before the fall
There is a brass statue of a man sitting at a table. One arm is palm-down on the table as though it is pushing up on it; the second hand halfway between open and a fist held aloft by a steep arm, elbow resting confidently on the table.

He looks like he's ready to arm wrestle.

He is not ready to arm wrestle. Any attempt to arm wrestle him will result in a crushed hand and being thrown off a cliff for eternity.

A closer examination of the statue reveals that his face is tired and old. His arms - which on first glance look large and powerful - are clearly old and withered.

This man is not asking to arm wrestle, he is waiting for help to rise. Anyone who takes the statue's hand and helps him up will get to pass. When the party finally helps the man up, he draws a circle in the air and a gateway appears.

It is the entrance to the inferno.

FIGHT: The Guards of Hades
Among those damned to limbo were the warriors who refused to turn their coats when defeated in battle. These proude noble ones, while damned, serve as the guards between Limbo and the city of Dis. To pass without defeating the arm wrestler, you must defeat them.



https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Guard#content

The can not be defeated. The will crush you.

They will tell you tp stand down repeatedly. Standing down will cause the soldier to stand down as well and let him through to the entrance of the Inferno.

PLAYED: Second Circle (The dark gate)
When the party finally helps the man up, he draws a circle in the air and a gateway appears. It is the entrance to the inferno.

The first of the circles of Hell – where the punishments of Hell proper begin. They find their way hindered by the serpentine Minos, who judges all of those condemned for active, deliberately willed sin to one of the lower circles. Minos sentences each soul to its torment by wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number of times.

In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust. These "carnal malefactors" are condemned for allowing their appetites to sway their reason. These souls are buffeted back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. "As the lovers drifted into self-indulgence and were carried sway by their passions, so now they drift for ever. The bright, voluptuous sin is now seen as it is – a howling darkness of helpless discomfort."

MONSTER: Minos


A monster based off of a Minotaur. He is the Saint Peter of hell, tasked with assigning sinners their "eternal" torment.

Minos has a serpentine tail that coils around the damned; the number of coils indicates the level of hell they sinners will spend eternity. He wears a Diadem on his head that is adorned with hideous bulls horns. He is evil, but hey - it's a living.

http://www.orcpub.com/dungeons-and-dragons/5th-edition/monsters/minotaur

PUZZLE: Stolas and Orbas


My dudes.

Stolas and Orobas are brothers and are crowned princes of hell. Narratively, they are Statler and Waldorf to Minos' Kermit. They heckle and bother the damned that await judgement, and can be too chatty for their own good. Neither can be defeated in battle - Stolas will swallow whole anyone who atempts to attack him.

Stolas is a large Owloid demon with unnervingly long legs and an accent like that high-and-mighty Tootsie Pop owl. He swallows the denizens of hell whole, and quickly regurgitates them in gross-looking pellets. The swallowed must do a series of throws to escape the pellet. Stolas can only swallow physical bodies, so the party of travelers are a welcome sight for the demon. He holds the knowledge of alchemy and astrology.

Orobas is a humanoid demon with the head of a horse. He is cursed with all knowledge of the present, past, and future.

Orbas must speak the truth whenever asked a question. But like...he's not going to tell anyone.

The travelers will be swallowed, one by one, by Stolas. It's quicker if they try to attack them. While they're escaping the pellets they will hear some information spoken by the Demons. All they have to do is ask the Demons how to get out of hell, and Orobas will tell them.

Lust
The damned lusters are whipped through the caverns of hell by powerful wind and boiling rain. Their bodies smash against stalactites as they fly. Wind razors slice and stab at the damned...including our heroes.

Beaten, tired old trees are scattered around this level of the Inferno. The trees are home to flocks of Blood Hawks, who tear at the flesh of all who try to hide from the storm beneath the tree branches.

Storm devils make flames of lightning.

The party will be affected by the storm, preventing them from resting. A perception check >13 will reveal a cave big enough for all of them to lie down. It's a trap.

Construct: Wind Razor
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/93651-wind-razor

Creature: Blood Hawk
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_SRD:Blood_Hawk

Monster: Storm Devil
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/65200-storm-devil

Cave of winds
The air in this cave is still and calm, seemingly a safe space for the travelers.

If they enter, Spartacus' living breath will reverberate on the walls, slowly becoming more powerful. Soon his breathing will cause powerful wind storms.

Who else is there
Gene Val Gene might see her mother.

Florenia might see her husband, that bastard.

Prince Aunslain sees only beauty and temptation.

Logan can only see themself in the face of all the damned.

Socrates sees a bunch of dead people being whipped around, their faces too burnt, cut, and decayed to identify.

What's hidden
The cave of winds is home to glowing orange fungi and green stalactites.

The fungi are pslazoi truffles. They can be used for unknown things.

The stalactites are full of arcane Necromancy magic. They can be used as a piece of crafting any necromancy spell below level 5.

The burnt sands crate black obsidian, which can be collected.

The branches of the burnt trees can be used as strong staffs, wands, clubs, or handles for weapons.

=Uplayed=

Third Circle (Gluttony)
In the third circle, the gluttonous wallow in a vile, putrid slush produced by a ceaseless, foul, icy rain – "a great storm of putrefaction" – as punishment for subjecting their reason to a voracious appetite. Cerberus, the monstrous three-headed beast of Hell, ravenously guards the gluttons lying in the freezing mire, mauling and flaying them with his claws as they howl like dogs. Virgil obtains safe passage past the monster by filling its three mouths with mud.

PUZZLE: Gluttonous Glob
A jelly/blob creature partway through a door. (About a foot sticking out.) Turns out that it's just the "tip of the iceberg" as it were, a little piece that had to go somewhere, because the 1000 x 1000 ft room on the other side is already packed completely full with this thing's enormous bulk.

MONSTER: Cerberus
A three-headed dog, they have to fight him. Here he is, that good lil guy.

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Cerberus_(5e_Creature)

Fourth Circle (Greed)
The Fourth Circle is guarded by Plutus, the deity of wealth in classical mythology. Although the two are often conflated, he is a distinct figure from Pluto (Dis), the classical ruler of the underworld.

Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth circle. They include the avaricious or miserly, who hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. The hoarders and spendthrifts joust, using as weapons great weights that they push with their chests:

Some kind of temptation or puzzle?
Maybe like tempt them with items?? I don't know yet.

Fifth Circle (Wrath)
In the swampy, stinking waters of the river Styx – the Fifth Circle – the actively wrathful fight each other viciously on the surface of the slime, while the sullen (the passively wrathful) lie beneath the water, withdrawn.

Entrance to Dis
In the distance, Dante perceives high towers that resemble fiery red mosques. Virgil informs him that they are approaching the City of Dis. Dis, itself surrounded by the Stygian marsh, contains Lower Hell within its walls. Dis is one of the names of Pluto, the classical king of the underworld, in addition to being the name of the realm. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels. Virgil is unable to convince them to let Dante and him enter, and Dante is threatened by the Furies (consisting of Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone) and Medusa.

Sixth Circle (Heresy)
In the sixth circle, heretics, such as Epicurus and his followers (who say "the soul dies with the body") are trapped in flaming tombs. Dante holds discourse with a pair of Epicurian Florentines in one of the tombs: Farinata degli Uberti, a famous Ghibelline leader (following the Battle of Montaperti in September 1260, Farinata strongly protested the proposed destruction of Florence at the meeting of the victorious Ghibellines; he died in 1264 and was posthumously condemned for heresy in 1283); and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Guelph who was the father of Dante's friend and fellow poet, Guido Cavalcanti. The political affiliation of these two men allows for a further discussion of Florentine politics. In response to a question from Dante about the "prophecy" he has received, Farinata explains that what the souls in Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing the future, not from any observation of the present. Consequently, when "the portal of the future has been shut", it will no longer be possible for them to know anything. Farinata explains that also crammed within the tomb are Emperor Frederick II, commonly reputed to be an Epicurean, and Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, to whom Dante refers to as il Cardinale.

Wrath trap
A two-hundred foot steel wall blocks the way. Handholds are razorblades of sharpness.

Violence trial
A room with a man hanging at the far end, his wrists and ankles in shackles, chained to the wall and over the door. Walking closer to him tightens the chains (like a rack). He screams in pain and begs for mercy every time they tighten. Could be an illusion- you decide how much to mess with your characters' sense of right and wrong.

Because they were violent, this is the pain they inflicted on people.

I'm...not really sure what the solution is here.

Canto XII The Seventh Circle, divided into three rings, houses the Violent. Dante and Virgil descend a jumble of rocks that had once formed a cliff to reach the Seventh Circle from the Sixth Circle, having first to evade the Minotaur (L'infamia di Creti, "the infamy of Crete", line 12); at the sight of them, the Minotaur gnaws his flesh. Virgil assures the monster that Dante is not its hated enemy, Theseus. This causes the Minotaur to charge them as Dante and Virgil swiftly enter the seventh circle. Virgil explains the presence of shattered stones around them: they resulted from the great earthquake that shook the earth at the moment of Christ's death (Matt. 27:51), at the time of the Harrowing of Hell. Ruins resulting from the same shock were previously seen at the beginning of Upper Hell (the entrance of the Second Circle, Canto V).

Fraud
The creature is Geryon, the Monster of Fraud. They must fly down from the cliff on the monster's back.

Eighth Circle (Fraud)
Canto XVIII Dante now finds himself in the Eighth Circle, called Malebolge ("Evil ditches"): the upper half of the Hell of the Fraudulent and Malicious. The Eighth Circle is a large funnel of stone shaped like an amphitheatre around which run a series of ten deep, narrow, concentric ditches or trenches called bolge (singular: bolgia). Within these ditches are punished those guilty of Simple Fraud. From the foot of the Great Cliff to the Well (which forms the neck of the funnel) are large spurs of rock, like umbrella ribs or spokes, which serve as bridges over the ten ditches. Dorothy L. Sayers writes that the Malebolge is, "the image of the City in corruption: the progressive disintegration of every social relationship, personal and public. Sexuality, ecclesiastical and civil office, language, ownership, counsel, authority, psychic influence, and material interdependence – all the media of the community's interchange are perverted and falsified".

Canto XIX
 * Bolgia 1 – Panderers and seducers: These sinners make two files, one along either bank of the ditch, and march quickly in opposite directions while being whipped by horned demons for eternity. They "deliberately exploited the passions of others and so drove them to serve their own interests, are themselves driven and scourged". Dante makes reference to a recent traffic rule developed for the Jubilee year of 1300 in Rome. In the group of panderers, the poets notice Venedico Caccianemico, a Bolognese Guelph who sold his own sister Ghisola to the Marchese d'Este. In the group of seducers, Virgil points out Jason, the Greek hero who led the Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece from Aeëtes, King of Colchis. He gained the help of the king's daughter, Medea, by seducing and marrying her only to later desert her for Creusa. Jason had previously seduced Hypsipyle when the Argonauts landed at Lemnos on their way to Colchis, but "abandoned her, alone and pregnant".
 * Bolgia 2 – Flatterers: These also exploited other people, this time abusing and corrupting language to play upon others' desires and fears. They are steeped in excrement (representative of the false flatteries they told on earth) as they howl and fight amongst themselves. Alessio Interminei of Lucca and Thaïs are seen here.
 * Bolgia 3 – Simoniacs: Dante now forcefully expresses his condemnation of those who committed simony, or the sale of ecclesiastic favors and offices, and therefore made money for themselves out of what belongs to God: "Rapacious ones, who take the things of God, / that ought to be the brides of Righteousness, / and make them fornicate for gold and silver! / The time has come to let the trumpet sound / for you; ...". The sinners are placed head-downwards in round, tube-like holes within the rock (debased mockeries of baptismal fonts), with flames burning the soles of their feet. The heat of the fire is proportioned to their guilt. The simile of baptismal fonts gives Dante an incidental opportunity to clear his name of an accusation of malicious damage to the font at the Baptistery of San Giovanni. Simon Magus, who offered gold in exchange for holy power to Saint Peter and after whom the sin is named, is mentioned here (although Dante does not encounter him). One of the sinners, Pope Nicholas III, must serve in the hellish baptism by fire from his death in 1280 until 1303 – the arrival in Hell of Pope Boniface VIII – who will take his predecessor's place in the stone tube until 1314, when he will in turn be replaced by Pope Clement V, a puppet of King Philip IV of France who moved the Papal See to Avignon, ushering in the Avignon Papacy (1309–77). Dante delivers a denunciation of simoniacal corruption of the Church.

Canto XX


 * Bolgia 4 – Sorcerers: In the middle of the bridge of the Fourth Bolgia, Dante looks down at the souls of fortune tellers, diviners, astrologers, and other false prophets. The punishment of those who attempted to "usurp God's prerogative by prying into the future", is to have their heads twisted around on their bodies; in this horrible contortion of the human form, these sinners are compelled to walk backwards for eternity, blinded by their own tears. John Ciardi writes, "Thus, those who sought to penetrate the future cannot even see in front of themselves; they attempted to move themselves forward in time, so must they go backwards through all eternity; and as the arts of sorcery are a distortion of God's law, so are their bodies distorted in Hell." While referring primarily to attempts to see into the future by forbidden means, this also symbolises the twisted nature of magic in general. Dante weeps in pity, and Virgil rebukes him, saying, "Here pity only lives when it is dead; / for who can be more impious than he / who links God's judgment to passivity?" Virgil gives a lengthy explanation of the founding of his native city of Mantua. Among the sinners in this circle are King Amphiaraus (one of the Seven Against Thebes; foreseeing his death in the war, he sought to avert it by hiding from battle but died in an earthquake trying to flee) and two Theban soothsayers: Tiresias (in Ovid's Metamorphoses III, 324–331, Tiresias was transformed into a woman upon striking two coupling serpents with his rod; seven years later, he was changed back to a man in an identical encounter) and his daughter Manto. Also in this bolgia are Aruns (an Etruscan soothsayer who predicted the Caesar's victory in the Roman civil war in Lucan's Pharsalia I, 585–638), the Greek augur Eurypylus, astrologers Michael Scot (served at Frederick II's court at Palermo) and Guido Bonatti (served the court of Guido da Montefeltro), and Asdente (a shoemaker and soothsayer from Parma). Virgil implies that the moon is now setting over the Pillars of Hercules in the West: the time is just after 6:00 A.M., the dawn of Holy Saturday.

Canto XXI


 * Bolgia 5 – Barrators: Corrupt politicians, who made money by trafficking in public offices (the political analogue of the simoniacs), are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, which represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals. They are guarded by demons called the Malebranche ("Evil Claws"), who tear them to pieces with claws and grappling hooks if they catch them above the surface of the pitch. The Poets observe a demon arrive with a grafting Senator of Lucca and throw him into the pitch where the demons set upon him. Virgil secures safe-conduct from the leader of the Malebranche, named Malacoda ("Evil Tail"). He informs them that the bridge across the Sixth Bolgia is shattered (as a result of the earthquake that shook Hell at the death of Christ in 34 AD) but that there is another bridge further on. He sends a squad of demons led by Barbariccia to escort them safely. Based on details in this Canto (and if Christ's death is taken to have occurred at exactly noon), the time is now 7:00 A.M. of Holy Saturday.  The demons provide some savage and satirical black comedy – in the last line of Canto XXI, the sign for their march is provided by a fart: "and he had made a trumpet of his ass".

Canto XXII One of the grafters, an unidentified Navarrese (identified by early commentators as Ciampolo) is seized by the demons, and Virgil questions him. The sinner speaks of his fellow grafters, Friar Gomita (a corrupt friar in Gallura eventually hanged by Nino Visconti (see Purg. VIII) for accepting bribes to let prisoners escape) and Michel Zanche (a corrupt Vicar of Logodoro under King Enzo of Sardinia). He offers to lure some of his fellow sufferers into the hands of the demons, and when his plan is accepted he escapes back into the pitch. Alichino and Calcabrina start a brawl in mid-air and fall into the pitch themselves, and Barbariccia organizes a rescue party. Dante and Virgil take advantage of the confusion to slip away.

Canto XXIII


 * Bolgia 6 – Hypocrites: The Poets escape the pursuing Malebranche by sliding down the sloping bank of the next pit. Here they find the hypocrites listlessly walking around a narrow track for eternity, weighted down by leaden robes. The robes are brilliantly gilded on the outside and are shaped like a monk's habit – the hypocrite's "outward appearance shines brightly and passes for holiness, but under that show lies the terrible weight of his deceit", a falsity that weighs them down and makes spiritual progress impossible for them. Dante speaks with Catalano dei Malavolti and Loderingo degli Andalò, two Bolognese brothers of the Jovial Friars, an order that had acquired a reputation for not living up to its vows and was eventually disbanded by Papal decree. Friar Catalano points out Caiaphas, the High Priest under Pontius Pilate who counseled the Pharisees to crucify Jesus for the public good (John 11:49–50). He himself is crucified to the floor of Hell by three large stakes, and in such a position that every passing sinner must walk upon him: he "must suffer upon his body the weight of all the world's hypocrisy". The Jovial Friars explain to Virgil how he may climb from the pit; Virgil discovers that Malacoda lied to him about the bridges over the Sixth Bolgia.

Canto XXIV


 * Bolgia 7 – Thieves: Dante and Virgil leave the bolgia of the Hypocrites by climbing the ruined rocks of a bridge destroyed by the great earthquake, after which they cross the bridge of the Seventh Bolgia to the far side to observe the next chasm. The pit is filled with monstrous reptiles: the shades of thieves are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards, who curl themselves about the sinners and bind their hands behind their backs. The full horror of the thieves' punishment is revealed gradually: just as they stole other people's substance in life, their very identity becomes subject to theft here. One sinner, who reluctantly identifies himself as Vanni Fucci, is bitten by a serpent at the jugular vein, bursts into flames, and is re-formed from the ashes like a phoenix. Vanni tells a dark prophecy against Dante.

Canto XXV Vanni hurls an obscenity at God and the serpents swarm over him. The centaur Cacus arrives to punish the wretch; he has a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulders and snakes covering his equine back. (In Roman mythology, Cacus, the monstrous, fire-breathing son of Vulcan, was killed by Hercules for raiding the hero's cattle; in Aeneid VIII, 193–267, Virgil did not describe him as a centaur). Dante then meets five noble thieves of Florence and observes their various transformations. Agnello Brunelleschi, in human form, is merged with the six-legged serpent that is Cianfa Donati. A figure named Buoso (perhaps either Buoso degli Abati or Buoso Donati, the latter of whom is mentioned in Inf. XXX.44) first appears as a man, but exchanges forms with Francesco de' Cavalcanti, who bites Buoso in the form of a four-footed serpent. Puccio Sciancato remains unchanged for the time being.

Canto XXVI

'Brothers,' I said, 'o you, who having crossed a hundred thousand dangers, reach the west, to this brief waking-time that still is left unto your senses, you must not deny experience of that which lies beyond the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled. Consider well the seed that gave you birth: you were not made to live your lives as brutes, but to be followers of worth and knowledge.'
 * Bolgia 8 – Counsellors of Fraud: Dante addresses a passionate lament to Florence before turning to the next bolgia. Here, fraudulent advisers or evil counsellors move about, hidden from view inside individual flames. These are not people who gave false advice, but people who used their position to advise others to engage in fraud. Ulysses and Diomedes are punished together within a great double-headed flame; they are condemned for the stratagem of the Trojan Horse (resulting in the Fall of Troy), persuading Achilles to sail for Troy (causing Deidamia to die of grief), and for the theft of the sacred statue of Pallas, the Palladium (upon which, it was believed, the fate of Troy depended). Ulysses, the figure in the larger horn of the flame, narrates the tale of his last voyage and death (Dante's invention). He tells how, after his detainment by Circe, his love for neither his son, his father, nor his wife could overpower his desire to set out on the open sea to "gain experience of the world / and of the vices and the worth of men". As they approach the Pillars of Hercules, Ulysses urges his crew:
 * Ulysses tells how he and his men traveled south across the equator, observed the southern stars, and found that the North Star had sunk below the horizon; they sight Mount Purgatory in the Southern Hemisphere after five months of passage.

Canto XXVII Dante is approached by Guido da Montefeltro, head of the Ghibellines of Romagna, asking for news of his country. Dante replies with a tragic summary of the current state of the cities of Romagna. Guido then recounts his life: he advised Pope Boniface VIII to offer a false amnesty to the Colonna family, who, in 1297, had walled themselves inside the castle of Palestrina in the Lateran. When the Colonna accepted the terms and left the castle, the Pope razed it to the ground and left them without a refuge. Guido describes how St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order, came to take his soul to Heaven, only to have a devil assert prior claim. Although Boniface had absolved Guido in advance for his evil advice, the devil points out the invalidity: absolution requires contrition, and a man cannot be contrite for a sin at the same time that he is intending to commit it

Canto XXVIII


 * Bolgia 9 – Sowers of Discord: In the Ninth Bolgia, the Sowers of Discord are hacked and mutilated for all eternity by a large demon wielding a bloody sword; their bodies are divided as, in life, their sin was to tear apart what God had intended to be united; these are the sinners who are "ready to rip up the whole fabric of society to gratify a sectional egotism". The souls must drag their ruined bodies around the ditch, their wounds healing in the course of the circuit, only to have the demon tear them apart anew. There are divided into three categories: (i) religious schism and discord, (ii) civil strife and political discord, and (iii) family disunion, or discord between kinsmen. Chief among the first category is Muhammad, the founder of Islam: his body is ripped from groin to chin, with his entrails hanging out. Dante apparently saw Muhammad as causing a schism within Christianity when he and his followers splintered off. Dante also condemns Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, for schism between Sunni and Shiite: his face is cleft from top to bottom. Muhammad tells Dante to warn the schismatic and heretic Fra Dolcino. In the second category are Pier da Medicina (his throat slit, nose slashed off as far as the eyebrows, a wound where one of his ears had been), the Roman tribune Gaius Scribonius Curio (who advised Caesar to cross the Rubicon and thus begin the Civil War; his tongue is cut off), and Mosca dei Lamberti (who incited the Amidei family to kill Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti, resulting in conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines; his arms are hacked off). Finally, in the third category of sinner, Dante sees Bertrand de Born (1140–1215). The knight carries around his severed head by its own hair, swinging it like a lantern. Bertrand is said to have caused a quarrel between Henry II of England and his son Prince Henry the Young King; his punishment in Hell is decapitation, since dividing father and son is like severing the head from the body.

Canto XXIX


 * Bolgia 10 – Falsifiers: The final bolgia of the Eighth Circle, is home to various sorts of falsifiers. A "disease" on society, they are themselves afflicted with different types of afflictions: horrible diseases, stench, thirst, filth, darkness, and screaming. Some lie prostrate while others run hungering through the pit, tearing others to pieces. Shortly before their arrival in this pit, Virgil indicates that it is approximately noon of Holy Saturday, and he and Dante discuss one of Dante's kinsmen (Geri de Bello) among the Sowers of Discord in the previous ditch. The first category of falsifiers Dante encounters are the Alchemists (Falsifiers of Things). He speaks with two spirits viciously scrubbing and clawing at their leprous scabs: Griffolino d'Arezzo (an alchemist who extracted money from the foolish Alberto da Siena on the promise of teaching him to fly; Alberto's reputed father the Bishop of Siena had Griffolino burned at the stake) and Capocchio (burned at the stake at Siena in 1293 for practicing alchemy).

Canto XXX Suddenly, two spirits – Gianni Schicchi de' Cavalcanti and Myrrha, both punished as Imposters (Falsifiers of Persons) – run rabid through the pit. Schicchi sinks his tusks into Capocchio's neck and drags him away like prey. Griffolino explains how Myrrha disguised herself to commit incest with her father King Cinyras, while Schicchi impersonated the dead Buoso Donati to dictate a will giving himself several profitable bequests. Dante then encounters Master Adam of Brescia, one of the Counterfeiters (Falsifiers of Money): for manufacturing Florentine florins of twenty-one (rather than twenty-four) carat gold, he was burned at the stake in 1281. He is punished by a loathsome dropsy-like disease, which gives him a bloated stomach, prevents him from moving, and an eternal, unbearable thirst. Master Adam points out two sinners of the fourth class, the Perjurers (Falsifiers of Words). These are Potiphar's wife (punished for her false accusation of Joseph, Gen. 39:7–19) and Sinon, the Achaean spy who lied to the Trojans to convince them to take the Trojan Horse into their city (Aeneid II, 57–194); Sinon is here rather than in Bolgia 8 because his advice was false as well as evil. Both suffer from a burning fever. Master Adam and Sinon exchange abuse, which Dante watches until he is rebuked by Virgil. As a result of his shame and repentance, Dante is forgiven by his guide. Sayers remarks that the descent through Malebolge "began with the sale of the sexual relationship, and went on to the sale of Church and State; now, the very money is itself corrupted, every affirmation has become perjury, and every identity a lie" so that every aspect of social interaction has been progressively destroyed.

Central Well of Malebolge


Dante and Virgil approach the Central Well, at the bottom of which lies the Ninth and final Circle of Hell. The classical and biblical Giants – who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery – stand perpetual guard inside the well-pit, their legs embedded in the banks of the Ninth Circle while their upper halves rise above the rim and can be visible from the Malebolge. Dante initially mistakes them for great towers of a city. Among the Giants, Virgil identifies Nimrod (who tried to build the Tower of Babel; he shouts out the unintelligible Raphèl mai amècche zabì almi); Ephialtes (who with his brother Otus tried to storm Olympus during the Gigantomachy; he has his arms chained up) and Briareus (who Dante claimed to have challenged the Gods); and Tityos and Typhon, who insulted Jupiter. Also here is the Giant Antaeus, who did not join in the rebellion against the Olympian Gods and therefore is not chained. At Virgil's persuasion, Antaeus takes the Poets in his large palm and lowers them gently to the final level of Hell.

Ninth Circle (Treachery)
At the base of the well lies a large frozen lake: Cocytus, the Ninth Circle of Hell. Trapped in the ice, each according to his guilt, are punished sinners guilty of treachery against those with whom they had special relationships. The lake of ice is divided into four concentric rings (or "rounds") of traitors corresponding, in order of seriousness, to betrayal of family ties, betrayal of community ties, betrayal of guests, and betrayal of lords.


 * Round 1 – Caïna: this round is named after Cain, who killed his own brother in the first act of murder (Gen. 4:8). This round houses the Traitors to their Kindred: they have their necks and heads out of the ice and are allowed to bow their heads, allowing some protection from the freezing wind.
 * Round 2 – Antenora: the second round is named after Antenor, a Trojan soldier who betrayed his city to the Greeks. Here lie the Traitors to their Country: those who committed treason against political entities (parties, cities, or countries) have their heads above the ice, but they cannot bend their necks.
 * Round 3 – Ptolomaea: the third region of Cocytus is named after Ptolemy, who invited his father-in-law Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banquet and then killed them (1 Maccabees 16).Traitors to their Guests lie supine in the ice while their tears freeze in their eye sockets, sealing them with small visors of crystal – even the comfort of weeping is denied them.
 * Round 4 – Judecca: the fourth division of Cocytus, named for Judas Iscariot, contains the Traitors to their Lords and benefactors. Judecca is completely silent: all of the sinners are fully encapsulated in ice, distorted and twisted in every conceivable position. The sinners present an image of utter immobility: it is impossible to talk with any of them, so Dante and Virgil quickly move on to the centre of Hell.

Centre of Hell
In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin (personal treachery against God), is the Devil, referred to by Virgil as Dis (the Roman god of the underworld; the name "Dis" was often used for Pluto in antiquity, such as in Virgil's Aeneid). The arch-traitor, Lucifer was once held by God to be fairest of the angels before his pride led him to rebel against God, resulting in his expulsion from Heaven. Lucifer is a giant, terrifying beast trapped waist-deep in the ice, fixed and suffering.

Lucifer retains his six wings (he originally belonged to the angelic order of Seraphim, described in Isaiah 6:2), but these are now dark, bat-like, and futile: the icy wind that emanates from the beating of Lucifer's wings only further ensures his own imprisonment in the frozen lake. He weeps from his six eyes, and his tears mix with bloody froth and pus as they pour down his three chins.

Virgil goes on to explain how the Southern Hemisphere was once covered with dry land, but the land recoiled in horror to the north when Lucifer fell from Heaven and was replaced by the ocean. Meanwhile, the inner rock Lucifer displaced as he plunged into the center of the earth rushed upwards to the surface of the Southern Hemisphere to avoid contact with him, forming the Mountain of Purgatory.

Satan/Dis/Pluto/Hades
A monster

Lonza
A Leopard

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/leopard.htm

Leone
A Dire Lion

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direLion.htm

Lupa
A Dire Wolf

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Dire%20Wolf#content

Minos
http://www.orcpub.com/dungeons-and-dragons/5th-edition/monsters/minotaur

Cerberus
A three-headed dog, they have to fight him. Here he is, that good lil guy.

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Cerberus_(5e_Creature)

Charon's Fare
The travelers awake aboard a rickety canoe. They can hear it, and feel it moving, but can not see. There are metal disks over their eyes. The disks are coins, placed over their eyes to pay the fare across the river Styx.

When the damned identify the coins as coins, they fall from their eyes. The coins are old and the stamped images are faded and unidentifiable. The light is low, and they can not see the detail on the coins.

Charon's fare is not much: whatever coinage you have you must pay them, what matters is how you pay it.

The party has 10 coins, one for each eye. Charon requires all coins be given to him in two piles. Each pile must have an equal number of coins turned heads-up.

The party can not identify the coins by side, but must make two piles of coins as specified. They are informed that "right now" they have an equal amount of coins turned face up as face down.

They must make 2 piles with equal number of coins. Now, flip all the coins in one of the pile.

P1 : H T T T T P2 : H H H H T

By flipping P1 P1 : T H H H H P2 : H H H H T P1(heads) = P2(heads)

Before the fall
There is a brass statue of a man sitting at a table. One arm is palm-down on the table as though it is pushing up on it; the second hand halfway between open and a fist held aloft by a steep arm, elbow resting confidently on the table.

He looks like he's ready to arm wrestle.

He is not ready to arm wrestle. Any attempt to arm wrestle him will result in a crushed hand and being thrown off a cliff for eternity.

A closer examination of the statue reveals that his face is tired and old. His arms - which on first glance look large and powerful - are clearly old and withered.

This man is not asking to arm wrestle, he is waiting for help to rise. Anyone who takes the statue's hand and helps him up will get to pass. When the party finally helps the man up, he draws a circle in the air and a gateway appears.

It is the entrance to the inferno.

Stolas and Orbas


My dudes.

Stolas and Orobas are brothers and are crowned princes of hell. Narratively, they are Statler and Waldorf to Minos' Kermit. They heckle and bother the damned that await judgement, and can be too chatty for their own good. Neither can be defeated in battle - Stolas will swallow whole anyone who atempts to attack him.

Stolas is a large Owloid demon with unnervingly long legs and an accent like that high-and-mighty Tootsie Pop owl. He swallows the denizens of hell whole, and quickly regurgitates them in gross-looking pellets. The swallowed must do a series of throws to escape the pellet. Stolas can only swallow physical bodies, so the party of travelers are a welcome sight for the demon. He holds the knowledge of alchemy and astrology.

Orobas is a humanoid demon with the head of a horse. He is cursed with all knowledge of the present, past, and future.

Orbas must speak the truth whenever asked a question. But like...he's not going to tell anyone.

The travelers will be swallowed, one by one, by Stolas. It's quicker if they try to attack them. While they're escaping the pellets they will hear some information spoken by the Demons. All they have to do is ask the Demons how to get out of hell, and Orobas will tell them.

Gluttonous Glob
A jelly/blob creature partway through a door. (About a foot sticking out.) Turns out that it's just the "tip of the iceberg" as it were, a little piece that had to go somewhere, because the 1000 x 1000 ft room on the other side is already packed completely full with this thing's enormous bulk.