by Daniel Acaba (Kindred of the East | Kingdoms of Torment | Resources)
Art by: Justin Banks
Well here goes. I brain stormed one night for original hells to throw at my players. Most if not all had read The Thousand Hells source book, so I wanted to hit them with a surprise. Now my game was a Year of the Lotus one that consisted of a wide variety of characters, not just Kuei-Jin. Thus, I made hells to appeal to each of them. This is one of three in a small series of hells I’ve made.
Yama King: Hoshoku, the Great Spider
Imbalance: Yang
Throughout history, animals have been slaughtered and destroyed in the name of expansion. Some were killed for money, some were killed defending their homes and some others were killed simply to feed the growing number of humans. Only the arrogance of humanity could lead them to the erroneous assumption that there was no repercussion for their forceful subjugation of nature.
Even the arrival to this Hell is nothing gentle. A soul awakens naked, in the midst of a burning hot desert. The "sun" shines down on this domain nonstop, never setting and never giving a moments respite from the heat. The poor souls lost here, can feel this skin boiling under the sun. It doesn’t take long before the smell of burning flesh fills the air . . . your own flesh. The boiling heat literally begins to sear the bone from the flesh of those unfortunates caught under it, with no shelter to protect oneself from it. The desert is so expansive that one has no chance in coming across another person or animal. One is totally alone as long as they dwell there, left only to lament their sins that got them here and the unbearable heat.
Occasionally, a searing desert storm will rip across the desert. These storms are of a ferocity and intensity, unlike anything any mortal is likely to ever have experienced or will experience again (should they escape that is). The lucky ones simply disappear, never to be heard from again. The unlucky ones "live" through this violent storm, although they’d wish they had somehow perished again. Their skin is flayed and torn, wholly missing in some places. This allows the searing hot sand to get into their wounds and cause even more pain. It’s almost like salt in their wounds. In some rare cases, limbs have been lost to these Hell Storms.
This is unfortunate as mere minutes after appearing in the Hell, the P'o soul is instantly consumed by an unbearable hunger that drives them to feed. There is no effect to not feeding, but the pain is enough to drive a soul insane. As one would expect, as the souls slowly go insane, they rapidly lose their aversion to feeding. This compels them to seek out others to feed from. Shortly as this realization comes to them, they begin to hear screams of the wounded and dying of this realm, as they are killed over and over again. Rare is the P'o who can resist searching to find out the source of these sounds.
In the center of this Hell, is a great jungle. Filled with various animals that are hellish mockeries of their mortal representatives and a heavy sweltering heat, this is still the safest part of the Hell. Well . . . in theory it is. For within this jungle, lies the Yama "King" itself, along with other P'o souls and the various wildlife. One must fight constantly to survive here and rest is likely to lead one to death. Of course, the easiest prey would be the unarmed ones . . . Sadly that is only other P'o souls. Due to this, the few P'o who escape this Hell, have difficulty coming past the chih-mei stage, due to the depredations they have committed to survive here, their P'o is stronger than normal.
However . . . rumors do surface occasionally. Some who can remember their escape from this Hell speak of committing atrocities of various sorts to escape. The first speaks of a hidden tear in the imperfect fabric of this realm, which lies somewhere near the Great Nexus, Hoshoku's personal lair. Only with a bloody, cannibalistic sacrifice of another P'o to the guardian of the realm, can one make it through this gate. The other, more common rumor speaks of something even more depraved. They speak of lone souls who refused to enter the jungle, for a variety of reasons. These P'o wandered the wastes, embracing their own madness and feeding . . . on themselves. They devour their own body, dealing with the pains caused by the blistering sand as it gets into the cuts and wounds they tear in themselves as they feed. Only after the P'o has suffered enough and sacrificed any of its remaining humanity, can the battered and beaten soul make escape from this Hell. The amount of time required for this varies in the stories from seven to fourteen days. But some have to question this. It seems all too convenient. Almost as if someone decides to let out those souls who have willingly damned themselves further. Only the Lord of this Hell can know and if he does, he’s not exactly telling.
Making up the vast majority of this Hell, the Jungle is the lair of the Yama King and its servants. It is also the only respite from the heat of the barren wastelands that surround this Hell. This fact alone is enough to drive most P'o into the jungle in search of food and shelter.
At the Center of this immense jungle lies the Great Spiders lair. As there are strands and layers of webbing all over this Hell, it’s only fitting that they must have some sort of point of origin. This is it. An outdoor area, it is covered in thick webbing in an intricate pattern that makes navigating it difficult and the likelihood of one of the strands being disturbed immensely high. Should a foolhardy traveler disturb the network of webs, he has just announced himself to Hoshoku and must face those consequences. Once one has managed to make it past the outer layer of webs, they can see the true face of the Nexus. It’s a huge dome made of spun webbing, with hundreds upon hundreds of spun cocoons. Inside each of these is a P'o soul that has been captured and fed is being upon by the gluttonous Yama King. Once they have been drained of their essence, they begin to metamorphose into Servants of Hoshoku. Appearing as nothing more than oversized spiders, they immediately move out to set up their own small domains in the Spider Jungle.
This Hell is littered with those who abuse nature. Be it a worker who clear cuts a forest, a poacher who hunts animals only for money, or a careless trapper who leaves his traps behind and this results in animal deaths, all are subject to judgment by Hoshoku. However, at times, he delights in gathering souls from those who eat their own kind, cannibals, and setting them loose in the jungles. He relishes the horror of the victims of these men and women. The horror at knowing their end comes not by the hand of some servant of the Yama king but one of their own.
In addition to the P'o souls, this Hell is littered with nearly any animal that could conceivably survive in a jungle type environment and even some that cannot. Indeed, the environment changes these animals, making them more hideous, monstrous and powerful than their earthly equivalents. Any victims of these monsters wake up outside the jungle, in the midst of the great desert, hungrier than ever.
Other than these predators, there is also the Servants of Hoshoku to contend with. These immense spiders hunt down P'o souls at their Masters’ behest and bring them back to feed his immense hunger. These souls who are devoured are judged by Hoshoku and those deemed wicked enough are transformed into the animals that litter this realm.
Hoshoku was originally a spirit in the service of the August Personage of Jade. Although, he was created by Heaven to serve as a guardian, he chose to become a defiler and spirit of Hatred. The story is one of a fall from grace, but one must not feel sorry for this spirit. Once a spirit has fallen, there is no redemption.
The Great Spider served as a guardian of the Beast Courts for some time, keeping balance between the then Wan Xian and the Hengeyokai. However, he found his patience strained at times. He felt a kinship with the Kumo and sought to keep them safe, albeit out of the way. But these ferocious monsters refused to acknowledge Hoshoku. They saw him as an interloper, trying to steal away their worship from their triumvirate Gods. But nonetheless, he persisted in his endeavors.
In time, things got strained. He developed a small but secretive following amongst the Kumo, while working to maintain a strict balance between the Beast Courts and the Wan Xian through his intermediaries. After a generation had passed, he sought to finally integrate his followers into the Beast Court. He granted the Sentai of Kumo who was loyal to him one of his servants as a totem to help guide them. The group approached a gathering of the Beast Courts . . . and was summarily slaughtered to the last child.
Hoshoku was outraged. He lashed out immediately and attempted to slaughter the Beast Courts, by manipulating some of the then fallen Wan Xian, the Wan Kuei, to attack the Beast Courts. In his righteous anger, he slew every member of the gathering that had killed his precious Kumo followers. He would have moved on to slaughter the rest of the Xiong Ren, were he not stopped by the heavy gaze of the August Personage of Jade. Incensed at one of his own aides, acting so base, he levied a heavy punishment on his wayward scion. For his treasonous actions, he was cast out of the Heavens, fallen to the pits of Yomi.
Thrashing in anger, Hoshoku refused to be denied. He tore at the very essence of Yomi in his anger, tearing away some of the lands of weaker Yama Kings and pieced together a realm of his own from these shards. Once his work had been complete, he retired to the middle of his new abode and rested. He would have his revenge no matter how he had to do it.
By biding his time and gaining power, Hoshoku believes he will one day grow powerful enough to strike down all those who had wronged him in the past. The Hengeyokai of the Beast Courts and the August Personage of Jade will both feel his wrath. Hoshoku has no designs on the Throne of the Demon Emperor, but he seeks to unravel all that the August Personage created. Feeding off this destruction he intends to cause, he will then face and destroy the one who unjustly punished him.
