Atlas of the Planes

Colothys, the Fourth Layer of Carceri, prison to liars.

Colothys, fourth layer of Carceri, home of those banished from civilized planes for their lies and deceit. Those
who come prepared to face the endless mountains must watch their words more than their grip.

Table of Contents
 Introduction
 Discovery
 Survival
 The Locals
 Conclusion
 Mysteries

Introduction
Yes, that's right, I have escaped the Tartarean Depths of Carceri! And from one of the lowest layers,
for that matter! Who am I? Well, I'm not surprised you don't recognize me, since I am a
doppleganger.
It's true what they say, that you can only escape Carceri when you have become stronger than your
captor. And so Carceri, the Prison Plane, is full of prisoners, both the living and petitioners, and even
the Titans, tossed down there by Zeus in the ages of myth. All who live there yearn to escape, but
they have been banished there for their betrayals.
What they don't always say is what it means to be "stronger." See, I bet you thought of physical
strength, and that's definitely the option the Titans tend to go for, but honestly you can also be
intellectually strong, or emotionally strong, or any other variety of strength.

Discovery/Travel
So, you're thinking of going down to Colothys? Well, take it from me, you'll want some information
before you go down. Who to listen to, who to avoid, and how to survive. And of course, how to get
there!
Now, this part isn't a secret: Imagine a spherical nesting doll, full of smaller spheres. Each sphere is
a layer in Carceri, and the whole plane is an infinitely long string of these spheres.
Carceri keeps you in until you have become stronger than whoever sent you there. If you were sent
down through trickery, then clearly you weren't as clever as your banisher! And trust me, there are
more ways that I can count to get tossed down into Carceri. So first it's up to you to figure out how to
become better than your foe, and second you have to find one of the few doorways out.
If you're going down to Colothys on purpose, you'll probably have passed through the first three
layers, and the portals out are all on the top layer, Othrys, so I'll leave the location of the exit for
another time.
Of course, if you are just crazy enough to go into Carceri on purpose, then there is no other captor to
best, and Carceri lets you out no problem. That is, if you survive.
Almost all doorways into Carceri are one-way, but the paths between layers are all two-way. Carceri,
being shaped the way it is like an infinite string of nesting dolls, each pearl-doll 6 layers deep, you
can imagine that the way to climb up or down a layer is to climb up or down until you hit the next doll,
typically searching through caves or digging tunnels yourself. Unfortunately, each layer above the
one you're on is invisible, so when you try to leave, you just have to climb as far as you can, then go
searching around for the exact location of the portal from one to the next.

Survival
So, why did I escape? Was it just to get away from the other dopplegangers in Colothys? Trust me, if
you were there, you'd know how tenuous survival is, both from the locals and the environment.
Everyone knows that Colothys, my home sweet home, is a layer of the tallest, steepest mountains
and deepest ravines in all the planes. The mountains crisscross around the sphere of the layer, with
no respite. Each grey mountain stretches hundreds of miles high, from root to peak.
Now, if you're one of those thrill-seekers who will climb a mountain just 'cause it's there, don't get
any cocky ideas. Colothys is the plane of deceivers and liars, and the mountains are no different. It's
hard to even trust your own senses. Sometimes a handhold that was there one second has vanished
by the time you try to get your foot in it, or a flat outcropping is as slick as ice and more dangerous to
rest on than the sheer walls.
Not all walls are perfectly shear, honestly. Climbing is certainly possible, if you keep your wits about
you. You could be spending days on steep rocks, with little vegetation except for razorvine, which is
inedible, and the occasional tree, growing sideways out of the walls, so you'd better come prepared
with your own resources. If you're lucky, you'll be able to catch some skittering creatures to eat. At a
glance, the mountains are dead, but most wildlife has amazing capacity for hiding. Some, like the
large cave spiders that skitter and build their own caves out of stone-like web, use that skill to
pounce on unwary travelers. If you can catch one before it catches you, it can serve for a meal.
Truth be told, the mountains also make a great hiding spot for the more cowardly demons, aiming to
flee from the Blood War. Keep your eye out especially for Quasits, shapechanger demons who fit in
perfectly to the atmosphere. They're often more afraid of the demon overlords than they are of
anyone else, and they'll pounce on anyone who thinks might turn them in. And then of course, there
are the other demons, who do an annual scouring of the mountains for Quasits or other demons who
have escaped. You definitely don't want to run into them.
On the other hand, if you don't want to brave the cliffs, you could always fly. The winds don't take
you off course thatoften. In fact, most of Carceri is much easier to handle with the ability to fly.
Although, if you're not careful, above the highest peaks gravity fades, and if your magic were to fade
as well, you would drift in the red-tinted space for all eternity.
The sky, should you have a moment to gaze up to the peaks, is dark, darker than you'd be used to
from the upper layers. All light comes from the neighboring pearls on the string of Carceri, but
deeper inside the plane, the neighboring lights are further, and dimmer. Here, the shadows are dark
enough to cause issues, especially near the "equator" furthest from either neighboring pearl, but the
harsh red light is generally enough to see by once your eyes adapt.
The inhabitants of the plane, mostly petitioners and dopplegangers, tend to collect in villages. The
mountains are solid rock, but sometimes caves form, and those make the basis of a "town." Building
material is scarce, but the occasional aptly-named razorvines that grow up the cliffs are sturdy
enough to form bridges, to to be woven together to make a wicker for platforms (as long as you're
wearing thick soles).
The locals have learned the art of easily disassembled structures, as rock slides are not uncommon,
and can take away an entire village if caught unprepared.
So, the secret is to have thick boots, a flying carpet, plenty of climbing gear, and a wand of Feather
Fall, and then you're good, right?
Wrong. Trust me, the real danger is in...

The Locals
So now we come to the crux of the issue, and the honest answer to your question. Why did I
escape?
Hardly anyone knows it, but Colothys is the true home of the dopplegangers. No one knows who
trapped our forefathers there, but it makes sense, if you think about it. Carceri, the home of
betrayers, and Colothys, the home specifically of lies and deceit. In fact, I suspect that we are the
way we are because we come from Colothys. It shaped us, so we can form our own shapes to better
trick and deceive. And that's exactly what you can expect from Colothys.
So did I flee my community, such as it was, because I was tired of the deceit? No, of course not! It's
part of who I am!
No, the truth is that I believe that my people can have a better life out of Carceri, on the material
plane. Long ago, other dopplegangers managed to escape, and quickly spread and populated the
Material Plane. So, I'm sure you're at least somewhat familiar with us. Now imagine the paranoia we
dopplegangers cause, muliplied by, well, the population of a small village.
The Colothys dopplegangers have no conception of truth. Just as much as their faces are lies,
crafted to make you believe, so much is every word out of their mouths. You might be reminded of
the devils of the Nine Hells, who will twist words to bind the souls of the unwary, pushing the truth to
the limits to get their ways. The twisting words of the inhabitants of Colothys are definitely similar,
except the dopplegangers have no qualms with lying to get what they want.
And yet, when everyone lies, there's a kind of truth to be found, and that kernel of truth is enough to
form a bond of society. They may lie, but they all know it, and they cope. There is no malice in their
conversations, despite their lies, at least not much more than elsewhere. They treat every
conversation like a game, trying to perceive the truth in the words, while lying to prevent the other
from gaining any valuable information. If you want to survive even a single conversation on Colothys,
you must be at least as clever as your verbal sparring partner.
Honestly, the community is tenuous, and everyone gets caught by another's lie sometimes. As with
any other inhabitant of Carceri, the dopplegangers are all trying to escape. As much as they try,
though, I truly believe that they need each other to succeed, to become somehow more clever than
whatever banished us to this plane in the first place, and the lies are what bring them down. Of
course, they can't do otherwise. The very fabric of Colothys prevents it. Even travelers from other
planes feel it eventually. Their words become more clever and believable, but they soon find that
they have trouble speaking their minds honestly, no matter how good or lawful they were.
(After 1d2 weeks in Colothys, players gain advantage on deception checks and disadvantage on persuasion
checks until they leave Colothys. Failed persuasion checks become laced with lies which they didn't even mean
to say.)
If you recall, Colothys, like all the other layers of Carceri, is an infinite string of pearls. It's a bit hard
to generalize something infinite, isn't it? But trust me, one doppleganger village is just like another.
More or less. Sometimes, some community-minded dopplegangers will choose to keep their faces
from day to day, rather than changing them constantly like the rest, and try to build up a real town.
They believe, like I do, that community will make them strong. The biggest problem is the rockslides,
and the betrayal that inevitably comes when someone changes their mind. It always happens,
throughout the entire plane, that everyone, somehow, will have their plans dashed, either by
someone else, or by themselves. That is how Carceri keeps you.
I've neglected to further mention the petitioners. They are, more or less, no different from the
dopplegangers. Petitioners in general are the spirits of the dead, sent to live a second life in the
plane that most aligns with their traits. Carceri petitioners, of course, were betrayers in life, and
remain so in death. Each layer of Carceri affects its petitioners differently to help them survive.
Colothys is no exception. The Colothys petitioners have grown hoofs that allow them to keep their
balance on the sheer cliffs, travelling as easy as a mountain goat. Dopplegangers wandering the
mountains often will take a similar form, but have greater flexibility to change their shape to help
them cling to the mountain walls. Dopplegangers and petitioners both lie equally, and frequently live
together, since one is just as untrustworthy as the other. If anything, the petitioners trust the
dopplegangers less, because at least petitioners don't change faces.
Honestly, they can be racists somewhere else if that's how the feel about it.
The Colothys villages will occasionally get travelers from other layers of Carceri. Each layer
specializes in a different type of betrayal, so you can imagine the Colothys locals are skeptical of
anyone from outside. It isn't unheard of for the rare traveler from the lower layer Porphatys, home of
betrayers of society and social bonds, to come and try to insert themselves into society, only to
come running down the mountain later calling the beginning of a landslide. When everyone packs up
and flees, the betrayer will stalk through the remaining structures and steal anything left behind,
before vanishing into the night. Travelers from the Prime Material, in their ignorance, or typically met
either with confusion, as the locals are likely to continue assuming everything they say is a lie, or
with glee, as they make perfect marks for swindlers.
Despite the lying and prevaricating, those dopplegangers or petitioners who are willing to deal with
coin and trade are not usually also cheats. On the other hand, there is no real government as such,
since votes could not be trusted, and raw power becomes nothing when the rocks come falling.
Travel
And so now you might have figured out why I escaped, and maybe even how. If not, then let me tell
you the truth, in plain words.
As I said, I believe that the lying and the conflict is the only thing keeping dopplegangers down. But I
knew that someone, sometime, left and managed to spread dopplegangers to the material plane.
This also meant that whoever banished dopplegangers isn't still seeking them out and sending them
back. So, if I could figure out how to escape, how to better myself to become stronger than this
absent foe, I could bring everyone else with me, and we could establish a true society of
dopplegangers out in the safer planes, a doppleganger paradise.
And so I climbed, and remembered my roots as I did. A rockslide had forced my tribe, such as it
was, to relocate, and I had had enough. I grabbed my things, and while my comrades in lies took a
path along the mountain, I climbed up, scrabbling one foothold at a time. I was lucky and found a
carved path, but the natives know never to trust those to their ends. We dopplegangers, especially
the ones native to Colothys, aren't very powerful with magic, so I couldn't just fly up.
Eventually, I neared the summit, and rested there for a while. I didn't quite pick the best spot,
honestly, and had to fight off a giant spider, but I managed it. It took me a few "days," though the
light never changes, checking any cave I could find, until I found one that had a portal to Minethys.
You can tell by the howling winds that are normal there leaking through.
I left Colothys, passing through Minethys and Cathrys and eventually reached Othrys, the outermost
layer. I had learned the locals' deceptions along the way, and how to see through them, and realized
the truth of the matter.
Most of us believed that dopplegangers may not be the strongest in any capacity besides deceit, but
they can become anyone who is. The truth is that we banish ourselves and each other, only by
becoming emotionally strong enough to be ourselves can we leave.
Or something like that.
But now that I'm out, and have mostly found the capacity for truth, I never want to go back. Those
liars can find their own way out. Maybe if I tell enough travelers my story, then word will get to them.
But gods do I love being the only shapechanger in town.

Mysteries
Most encounters in Colothys will be social encounters rather than combat ones. At first, it could be
fun to have the players try to survive clinging on to the mountains, but eventually it will get tiring, and
they should find a village, where the real fun begins.
Roleplaying a Colothys inhabitant could be hard. I would prepare some lies or personalities
beforehand. The key, I think, is to make the NPCs be confused as to why the players take them at
face value. If the players are getting frustrated, you can rely more heavily on Insight checks.
Here is an example of how a conversation with a native, encountered "on the road," might go:
Traveler: "Ho, friend, what is your name?"
Native: "My name costs a pretty penny, traveler. What can I do for you?"
Traveler: "Where is your village?"
Native: "Why do you want to know?"
Traveler: "I'm looking for somewhere to rest in this harsh terrain."
Native: "Of course, the villagers love strangers, especially ones with coin. Will you be able to pay for
your services?"
Traveler: "Well of course, I came with some gold and gems, as well as some raw materials in my
pack to trade with."
Native: "Well, if you're looking for respite, just head up the mountain another mile." (In all likelihood,
there is nothing up there, or else it is the lair of a cave spider or other monster. The Native is likely
planning to go in once the traveler is dead to collect his pack.)
A smarter traveler would have been more guarded, and asked for clarification on whether the village
was actually in that direction, or would have asked which direction the Native had come from and
was going, to figure that one of the two directions was the real location of the village.
A more benevolent native would have sent the traveler to a safer location, but still not the location of
the village, just because it is so against its nature to answer such a straightforward question
honestly.

Why go to Colothys?
Most obviously, against their will. This is the ultimate way to deal with particularly deceptive
murderhobos. Want consequences for lying to the authorities? Banish them to Colothys.
If this is the case, let the players try to figure out in what capacity they need to become stronger than
whoever banished them. It could be the perfect way to get them to roleplay. You can then come up
with whatever excuse you want to have them be able to escape, if they're having trouble coming up
with their own. For example, if they've learned not to be so trusting (a likely outcome), you can say
that they've become stronger in wisdom and experience.
Alternatively, where there are hidden places, there are secrets. The knowledge of people within
Carceri rarely escapes. It is possible that someone on Colothys has the answer to some important
question, but only gives it out in riddles and lies. Maybe the players can get them out of Colothys,
and they'll feel a bit more like telling the truth.
Or maybe the unnamed doppleganger narrator of this piece has had a change of heart, and wants to
help free the dopplegangers. He's recruited the players to go there and see if they can stop them
from bickering and lying long enough to form an escape plan.

Possible Hooks/Adventures/Social Encounters

 Someone has carved a flat path through the mountains. In the realm of liars, who can say
what lies on the other end.
 Someone comes skiing down the side of the mountain, shouting about an immanent rock
slide. NPCs don't seem to believe him. Do the players? A perception check might notice that
the rope he's tied off to only goes so high up the mountain, so he can't have come from very
far away. Or maybe he just lost a tie-off?
 Drums echo across the canyons. The armies of the Blood War are marching through the
valleys! Will the players stay out of sight, or lose their grip and be swept away to fight? Or, if
they're flying, be seen and assumed to be a devil spy and shot down?
 The players come across an abandoned cave. A safe spot to rest. But a child's voice is
echoing from deeper within. A doppleganger child is injured, or is it just trying to buy some
sympathy to lead the players astray?
 Someone claims that a portal to Minethys, the next layer up, was found in a cave near the
village. Some people want to go there to get away from the mountains, but others are worried
that the terrible sandstorms there will incite a rockslide and want to block off the portal.
 The village is running low on razorvine. It creeps up the mountains, but they've used all of it
nearby. Can the players help, or is this, like everything else, a trap? This can lead the players
to the Garden of Malice (Manual of the Planes, and probably other places), a beautiful
hanging gardens, a stark contrast to the rocky mountains, where all the plants are animate,
often awakened, and extremely evil and hostile.
 Most dopplegangers don't like visitors, and are spiteful of their freedom to travel. One, or a
small group, might pretend to be the the PCs, and anger enough other locals to get them
kicked out, or thrown off a cliff.
 Obviously, any other doppleganger encounter would be appropriate as well.

Possible Random Combat Encounters:

All encounters on the mountain will probably be much harder if the PCs are climbing, and probably
easier if they are flying.
 A Cave Spider (Giant Spider, with advantage on stealth. They can handle razorvine without
issue, and wrap up their prey in it or fling it at enemies, giving their web attack an additional
1d6 slashing damage.)
 1d4 Quasits, who will attack as soon as they think the players have seen them.
 1-2 Chasmes, flying through the mountains seeking out escaped Quasits
 A lost Stone Giant. It is also very likely to attack if it sees something it thinks it can eat.
Though there are caves, the interior of the mountain tends to move and shake, and is less
hospitable to digging creatures than the elemental plane of earth. Though they might not frequently
live there (and none would choose to), they have no problem surviving, as they can climb and dig for
brief periods without issue.

The reformed doppleganger narrator is still getting used to telling the truth. I hope his constant
qualifiers of "honestly," "trust me," and "the truth is," weren't too annoying.
I found surprisingly little official publications on Carceri. I primarily got information from the various
DMGs, the Manual of the Planes, and Planes of Conflict.
In case it seems new, I invented the part where Dopplegangers are native to Colothys, but it makes
a lot of sense to me. They always seemed kind of like outsiders.
Write your own Atlas entry!