Dis is the second plane of the Nine Hells. The second plane of the Nine Hells is largely flat, with here and there a bare hill or tor (rock structure) rising smoothly up out of the plains. Its sky is a thick, smoky-hued green without clouds, occasionally lit up by high lightning flickers and faint thunder. The black and cold waters of outward from the moat surrounding the city of Dis, which is the seat of the archdevil Dispater.
The city of Dis, built of unrusting iron, stands on an island in the center of a lake where the rivers meet. The waters are poisoned and give off odiferous (carries) vapors, sometimes visible as smoky wisps or plumes. Over the plains sweep ceaseless, fierce winds, tumbling many lemures helplessly through the air to strike repeatedly against the ground or each other. There is a small chance that a land-based traveler trying to stand or move against the wind will be swept off his or her feet (greater chance if mounted or standing on an exposed position).
Aerial travelers will find the wind unpredictable and savage, so that unless they have spent years learning to maneuver in constantly changing winds, they may lose speed, lose control, else the ability to fly.
Erinyes, being native to the plane, can navigate with comparative ease in the gale, and some of these devil-types are always aloft, buffeting lemures for sport and watching for intruders. Erinyes earn increased power on the plane of Dis through the favor of Dispater, who rewards them for unswerving loyalty (he often arranges tests or traps for his servants) and for missions diligently and well accomplished. When an erinyes encounters intruders in Dis, it will usually fly near to observe clearly their numbers and appearance, and then head straight for Dis to inform the pit fiend Baalzephon, Dispater himself, or one of Dispater’s other commanders.
A lemure arises when a mortal soul is twisted by evil and banished to the Nine Hells for eternity. The lowest type of devil, lemures are repugnant, shapeless creatures doomed to suffer torment until they are promoted to a higher form of devil, most commonly an imp.
Almost certainly the erinyes will encounter others of its kind while on this journey, and these it usually informs in passing of the intruders and their location, so that said intruders will likely suffer attacks from odd bands of erinyes before any organized force is sent out from the Iron City. If a group of erinyes encounters intruders, all but one – the messenger to Dis will immediately attack. They may not seek to slay the intruders outright, for Dispater, like all archdevils, is always alert for beings or items that can help maintain or improve his own position, and no erinyes deliberately courts his wrath by destroying something Dispater might have liked to have.
The Iron City itself is a dismal place of eyrie-riddled towers, zombies, garbagechoked streets alive with rot grubs (and a black pudding here and there), and ironbarred cells full of chains and torture implements. Abishai, imps, and spined devils, plus occasional barbed devils, hellcats, and rakshasa, throng the dark, reeking streets.
The island on which the city is built rises sharply in elevation toward the center, and on this rocky knob is the “infernally grand” palace of Dispater, many towered and terrible. It is fashioned of stone (unlike the rest of the city) and furnished with iron, carved bone, and stone. Its terraced approaches are adorned with trees fashioned of iron. The palace is off limits to those without a reason for being there. Erinyes can be seen frequently flitting in and out of the palace’s high, arched windows (presumably to give or receive information). There are many caverns beneath the palace, known as “the pits of Dis,” where prisoners live in unmanacled savagery, fighting for the edible garbage that falls into their lightless realm down shafts from the palace above.
