Styxfalls
Location: Abyss / Layer 4—Grand Abyss / Upper Vorago
The Styxfalls are the manifestation of the River Styx within the Grand Abyss. This branch of the Styx cascades down the Hag’s Rock face of the Grand Abyss in a torrent of black, stinking water, its flow fractured by jagged promontories and precarious shelves. The waterfall is an unrelenting force of chaos, its dark waters gleaming with an unnatural oily sheen as they plunge into the abyssal depths below. Surrounding the falls is a constant mist, thick and choking, that carries with it the river’s memory-erasing properties in a gaseous form. The entire area is cloaked in an ominous opacity. For planewalkers, crossing the Styxfalls is a near-impossible challenge. The falls themselves are untraversable—even by the marraenoloths, those yugoloth ferrymen who typically navigate the Styx with ease. The fractured promontories and ledges around the falls are slippery and unstable, making any attempt to cross them a gamble with oblivion. Those who must pass through this region often rely on powerful magic to shield themselves from the memory-sapping mist, or to teleport across its perilous expanse.
The Styxfalls draws opportunistic predators into its mists, preying on disoriented travellers or scavenging for those who succumb to the falls’ dangers. Although many of the monsters have themselves lost their own identities to the mists, and remain here as shells of their former selves, purely hunting on instinct.
In many ways, the Styxfalls epitomize the Abyss itself: chaotic, hazardous, and utterly unforgiving. For those who venture near this manifestation of the River Styx, preparation is paramount. Protective magic against poison and enchantment is essential, as is a means of rapid escape should things go awry. Even then, survival is not guaranteed—many who approach the Styxfalls find themselves lost in its mists forever, their memories scattered like droplets in its endless cascade.
Sources: Jon Winter-Holt
