Mithrengo
Mithrengo, now there’s a place as embodies the chaotically wonderful jigsaw puzzle of Pazunia, a fortress standing there stubborn like an old wart refusing to budge from your thumb. You can feel the place has seen more than its fair share of history, each iron plate telling a tale of battles won and lost, a mosaic of victory etched in the very iron and stone that clads its gargantuan body. The vibrant reddish plains serve as a dramatic backdrop for this monolith.
Inside it’s a marvel of complexity and chaos, it is. There’s more stairs than sense, with pathways that lead nowhere and rooms forged for powers only know what reasons. It’s a place where the abnormal becomes the norm, where ‘grotesque’ is the architectural style of choice. Yet in this mayhem, it stands resilient, guarded fervently by unyielding adamantium gates, which tell tales of grandeur through their intricate engravings depicting the glorious Blood War victories of the tanar’ri.
The current lord of this demented dominion is the tanar’ri Emesis (planar nalfeshnee tanar’ri [she/her] / CE), a creature that embodies the raw and ruthless spirit of Mithrengo. She’s a horrid thing to behold, a hodge-podge of grotesqueries merged into one — a bloated form with a goat’s head, bear claws, vulture wings and boar’s tusks. Her very presence seems to suck what little beauty can be found in the surroundings. Oh, she adorns herself with riches, this one, trying to gild the grotesque with glittering jewels that do naught but enhance her absurdity. Her disdain for those below her is as apparent as her hideous visage, a master of the fortress who fancies herself a grand overseer of this chaotic realm. Her voice, slow and measured, attempts to impose a semblance of order, a façade of control in a place where chaos reigns supreme. They say she claimed Mithrengo for herself after a party of prime heroes stormed the fortress and killed its previous occupants, a bunch of priests exiled from Sigil’s Temple of the Abyss. Maybe they are good for something after all, those primes. Incidentally, they say there’s a portal to Sigil somewhere in the fortress.
But I digress. That berk Emesis has got an ego bigger than her fortress, always prattling on about some imminent attack, too self-absorbed to spare a moment for the lowly souls serving under her rule. But that’s tanar’ri all over for you, cutter. She’s the self-proclaimed Guardian of Intelligence, the Orchestrator of Grand Schemes, yet one can’t help but wonder if she’s nothin’ more than a puppet, dancing to the tunes played by greater forces, dwelling in the shadows of her grand, insane abode.
And don’t forget the curious involvement of Red Shroud in her rise to power, that succubus from nearby Broken Reach with a mind as sharp as a blade, and intentions as clear as mud. There’s a sense of uneasy alliance between the two strange bedfellows, which I suspect is a cold war brewin’ with Broken Reach as the grand prize. There’s a palpable tale of intrigue, betrayal, and power, a slice of Abyssal politics that weaves through the halls of Mithrengo.
Source: The Abyssal Situation wiki, Michael Knight, Rip Van Wormer, Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
