The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna is the Outer Plane in the Great Wheel cosmology model representing alignments between neutral evil and lawful evil.
The first layer flows with rivers and waterfalls of boiling hot water, heated by the volcanic activity of Khalas. Part of the River Styx flows through the layer, forming spectacular, huge and dangerous waterfalls.
The Teardrop Palace is the realm of Sung Chiang, God of Thieves. It is a massive nautilus-shaped pagoda housing the largest black market in the universe: everything found here being stolen from the Great Wheel and beyond. Prices are high and the place is not without danger, but it sells a lot of exotic goods. Pickpockets and other thieves abound in this market.
Important locations in the market include:
The Colosseum of Fools, run by a Harvester Devil, Zaffan, who gets recruits for the Blood War through his business.
The Brass Cat gambling den, run by Bau Feng.
A warehouse on the River Styx, run by Analax Noctis, which appears to be connected to the Black Lotus (they had been seen receiving mysterious packages from some Black Armoured men)
Mara, an information broker who ran the Broken Mirror Bookstore, was a contact for the Church of Pelor in the Teardrop. After their agent was compromised, she went into hiding in a dungeon under her store, until she was located by the Pelor Strike Team. Her current location is unknown.
The Teardrop Palace was visited by the Pelor Strike Team when they were attempting to locate a missing agent who was hunting for information on the Black Lotus (30)
The second layer of Gehenna. Hotter than the first layer, Chamada always flows with massive amounts of magma. The layer has very little in the form of usable surface: the ground always bursting open and erupting or being covered in lava and vision-blocking ashes.
A report from the fated's library indicates that the Black Lotus Fortress is a strange structure, shaped like a giant black lotus, magically protected from lava somehow as it floats on a volcanic lake some distance from “Nimicri”, a town on Chamada, the second layer of Gehenna.
Namer Duchal, who wrote the report, said his party travelled from a gate which he learned about from Parts and Pieces which led to a cave full of Fire Spiders in Chamada (rather than the Teardrop Palace, as intended).
Travelling from there in the direction of Nimicri, it took three days to reach a basalt bridge over a river of lava pouring down the mountainside. Upstream of the lava river was a huge reservoir that it fed from. Duchal's party could see something that looked like a massive black lotus flower floating on the lava. It was tethered to the shore to prevent it from flowing away, and from the size of it, it looked as big as a fortress.
Later Ylem, the Modron Wizard, tried to scry on the palace for the Party (looking in the same area as the report above mentioned), but failed due to anti-srying magic. Ylem felt that trying to overcome the anti-scrying magic by regular means would be too difficult, and recommended two options:
One was using the Great Orrery in the Cathedral of Primus in Regulus, the Modron Realm in Mechanus. This device is a perfect model of the Outer Planes, down to the finest detail. However, it might be difficult to gain access to it, as access is strictly controlled, and Dash-A is an exile.
His second recommendation was the Observatorium, which exists in a demiplane with links to the Astral, and sometimes Prime Material, Planes. According to legend, the machinery within…when operated properly…can allow the user to scry perfectly on any location in the multiverse, and even to teleport there if desired. The location of the Observatorium is in constant flux, but can be tracked down.
Perry at the Church of Pelor tracked down more information on ways to bring the Army in Ysgard to the Black Lotus Fortress, as payment for the Party retrieving the document regarding the Ship of Chaos (25, 31)
The found that access to the fortress is restricted. Two obvious paths exist. The first is a narrow trail that criss-crosses the surface of Chamada, passing through at least half a dozen checkpoints before arriving near the fortress. The other is climbing over the surface of Chamada's volcano, passing through an area covered by “Arshardalon's Tongue”, a dangerous and unpredictable river of shifting lava.
A potential third route exists, discovered by the Pelor Strike Team. At least once a month, a group of Black Lotus soldiers arrive in Sung Chiang's “(the teardrop palace)” on Khalas, the first layer of Gehenna. There they receive some mysterious shipment from Noctis, a Yugoloth merchant, before leaving. The path they follow is unknown, but there may be a route back to the Black Lotus fortress there.