Citadel Cavitius
Fortress of necromancy on the borders of the Empty Winter of Ash and the Great Nothing
Let me tell you about Citadel Cavitius, that skull-shaped eyesore in the Empty Winter of the Plane of Ash. This place was the original hangout of the Doomguard on the border between Empty Winter and Great Nothing. Chant goes they loved it there, mostly for its fantastic “falling-apartness,” until Vecna, that one-eyed, one-handed sack of god-lich, came a-callin’. He claimed the place faster than you can say “Abyssal Maw.” They say he turned the whole lot into his zombie servants, so he did. But it’s the Doomguard, eh? They probably relished the decline into a state of true entropy. You know, philosophically speaking and all.
Now Vecna vanished a few years back, didn’t leave a forwarding address or nothin’, but the place still reeks of him. No surprise that, seein’ as he fancied himself the would-be god of all undead—whether we wanted him or not. Presumably the place has seen some proper mumbo-jumbo dark research that’s left that stink of corruption.
So what’s the chant now? The Doomguard reckon they might reclaim it. Chat goes they sent a few scouts—who came back talkin’ about ghosts and ghouls, but no sign of the lich himself trying to stop them. So now the Sinkers are chattin’ up their old mates, the Heralds of Dust, to reclaim their dreary dream home from the undead left behind there. Good luck with that, is all I’ll say. There’s talk that the place is gettin’ rejected by both the Plane of Ash and the Negative Energy Plane. Think of it, a fortress so messed up, even the planes themselves are tryin’ to spit it out!
Ah, the fun bit? The temporal higgledy-piggledy goin’ on there. See, Vecna left a lasting impression, like a blood stain you can’t scrub out. Different rooms in that place are their own jigsaw puzzles of time and space. In one timeline, Vecna might be an ascended Power, in another, he’s just a lost sod lookin’ for his hand and eye.
I’ve even heard tell of an adventuring party, who reckoned they’d take on Cavitius, and ended up causin’ more chaos than an armanite in a china shop. Last heard, they got sealed off somewhere even the Lady of Pain would want to avoid. Another bunch of berks, necromancers this time, got all frustrated with Vecna and sided with some dark entity named Yuzq’Thogorn. Don’t ask me to spell it twice, cutter.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the place is on the verge of becomin’ its own demiplane, where time, space, and morals have no meanin’. Vecna or no Vecna, the place is a powder keg of dark magic, negative energy, and dodgy chronology.
So, go ahead, berk, take a jaunt to Citadel Cavitius if you’re itchin’ for some self-destructive “adventure.” But don’t say this bone-picking planewalker didn’t warn ya. And hey, if you do make it back, come tell me all about it. I could use a good laugh.
Canonical Sources:
- Inner Planes [2e] p112
Sources:
- Doomguard Netbook by Ken Lipka
- Manual of the Planes [5e] p128
- Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
