Inquisitors of Interdiction
The Infinity Counters
Location: Abyss / Grand Abyss [Wandering]
The Inquisitors of Interdiction are a bold, if slightly barmy, group of planewalking explorers on an extended mission for the Fraternity of Order. They’ve taken it upon themselves to plumb the infinite depths of the Grand Abyss, attempting to cataloging its countless layers and determining which should be marked as “interdicted“—legally sealed off from lawful planar traffic due to their extreme danger or potentially disruptive influence. Their mission is both ambitious and perilous, and their attrition rate is high, nonetheless membership of the group is something of a rite of passage for the (admittedly uncommon) adventuresome members of the Guvners.
The group is led by Archivist-Magistrate Liriel Dendrin (prime elf wizard [she/her] / Fraternity of Order / LN) a stoic elf with a streak of bravery wider than the Grand Abyss itself. Liriel is renowned for her meticulous nature and unshakable commitment to rules. Despite this, her detractors call her reckless for leading expeditions into the Abyss, and point to the significant number of Fraternity explorer-scholars that have fallen along the way. Liriel is driven by the belief that even the chaotic horrors of the Abyss can be codified and understood if one has the patience—and courage—to try.
Liriel’s inner circle includes:
- Adjudicator Vynra Thal (planar human cleric of Tyr [she/her] / Fraternity of Order / LG), a motherly priest of Tyr who specializes in detecting lies and enforcing truths. Her magic often keeps the group alive when negotiations turn sour. And if that fails, her holy mace is a good second option.
- Blade-Archivist Seventythree (planar rogue modron champion of obedience [they/them] / Fraternity of Order / LN), a pedantic rogue modron who serves as both protector and enforcer. Seventythree’s body is inscribed with runes of law that glow faintly in chaotic environments and can even stabilise them, making them a walking symbol of order. They are immune to mind-controlling effects, which is extremely useful when encountering lou-mara and other demonic beings who try to possess their foes. Seventythree’s knowledge of combat tactics
- Scribe-Executor Jarn Klythe (planar tiefling thaumaturge [he/him] / Fraternity of Order / LN), a superstitious cutter with a knack for planar cartography and an encyclopedic knowledge of Sigil’s portals and the gates of the Abyss. Jarn’s maps are legendary among planewalkers, and copies (and forgeries) can be acquired in the markets of Broken Reach. He’s also an expert in demonology. His knowledge of tanar’ri, obyrith and qlippoth lore, customs, and weaknesses are second to none, which allows the group to anticipate, avoid, amd overcome all manner of conflicts with the local flora, fauna and fiends.
Using faction mimirs, these planewalkers document every gate they come across, dipping into layers to determine whether or not they have been recorded in the faction archives, and assessing the dangers beyond. The mimirs of the Inquisitors are enchanted with contingency spells which are intended to whisk them and their darks away to safety should the worst happen to the group.
The Inquisitors view adventurers with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. While they appreciate, and offer, assistance in surviving the Abyss’s dangers, they often clash with more chaotic or mercenary types. Adventurers might find themselves hired as guides or muscle but could also face interrogation if their actions threaten to destabilize an already tenuous situation.
Their adherence to the law means they’ll enforce contracts and agreements to the letter, even in the Abyss. This rigidity can lead to tension with cutters who see flexibility as necessary for survival in such a chaotic plane — but is does make the Inquisitors one of the few trustworthy groups a body’s likely to meet in the Abyss.
The Morality of the Chasm
You might expect these lawful fish-out-of-water to flounder here in the Abyss. And you’d be wrong. As well as their mission to catalogue, the Inquisition are even attempting to impose order on a realm that actively resists it.
Chaos may rule here today… but every step we take carves order into its bones.
—Archivist-Magistrate Liriel Dendrin
When encountering battles between tanar’ri factions, the Inquisitors must decide whether to remain neutral (as law, and frankly good sense, dictates they should) or intervene to prevent greater chaos. More than once Liriel has played off one fiendish faction against the other, using the confusion this causes to slip away undetected.
On rare occasions, the Inquisition encounter planewalkers who may be found trapped in Abyssal layers. In each case, Liriel must weigh her duty to catalog and classify against the moral imperative to rescue these beings, knowing their presence in the Abyss is a violation of natural order. However, the Inquisitors have a policy against assisting petitioners, for no matter the torment they may be enduring, they are here because of the will of the powers.
Deciding whether a layer should be interdicted involves evaluating its potential for harm versus its utility as a planar resource. The Inquisitors must weigh questions about the nature of evil itself—can a layer’s inherent malevolence be mitigated by careful preparation, or is sealing the layer off the only logical solution? Meanwhile, the Abyss itself seems to actively undermine the Inquisitors’ efforts with unexpected storms, rockfalls, gates which shift unpredictably. Yet this resistance only strengthens the resolve of the Inquisitors. They celebrate every new classification, or interdiction, as proof that law can impose itself upon chaos.
With all this adversity, the Inquisitors have cooked up novel ways to defend themselves against the myriad dangers of the Grand Abyss. through a combination of meticulous preparation, magical expertise, and sheer stubborn adherence to their lawful philosophy. The Inquisitors are scholars first and foremost, and their greatest weapon is knowledge. Before venturing into any layer of the Abyss, they exhaustively research its known properties, inhabitants, and hazards. Using planar charts, demonological tomes, divination magics, and records from historical expeditions, they try to anticipate potential threats and develop abjuration strategies. Similarly, understanding the hierarchies and weaknesses of tanar’ri they might encounter is essential. This allows the Guvners to exploit rivalries between demonic factions or avoid particularly dangerous entities. The Inquisitors are well-versed in the dark tales of ancient obyriths and qlippoth that still haunt the Abyss, and Jarn carries all manner of wards and sigils designed to repel these primordial horrors.
Runes of Interdiction: These are powerful glyphs imbued with axioms of law that disrupt chaotic energies. The Inquisitors inscribe these runes on their armour, weapons, and even the ground around their camps to create zones of temporary stability. When triggered, a rune can act as a binding spell to banish Abyssal horrors back to their home layer. Of course, if they’re already on their home layer then this strategy is ineffective. [PF2e rules. Range: 30 feet. Effect: The target of a rune of interdiction must make a Will save against users class DC. Critical success: No effect; Success: Target is stunned for one round; Fail: Suffers an additional 6d10 force damage; Critical fail: Additionally banished to home plane/layer for 24 hours.]
Despite their preparation and discipline, survival in the Grand Abyss is never guaranteed, and the Inquisitors of Interdiction frequently return to Sigil to recruit new members to replace fallen allies. The chaotic nature of tanar’ri and qlippoth ensures that no plan survives unaltered. Yet for every setback—every ambush survived or portal destabilized—the Inquisitors take solace in their mission: proving that even in the heart of chaos, there are rules that can be exploited.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt