Burning Sky Effect

[Ormazd]

Maybe I just missed it somewhere, but is it ever explained what the real source of the fiery teleportation issue is? I know the Wayfarers find some ways around it at the beginning of the Fourth Adventure, but is there a real explanation of what is happening?

More to the point, does it end when the Torch is found or reactivated? Does it block planar travel? When the adventure says that long-distance teleportation leads through the Elemental Chaos, rather than the Astral Plane, why is that? and what are the effects (beyond flavor)?

Thanks; just trying to get a handle things.

O

PS Is the Burning Sky effect closely attached to the extended winter situation, as well?

 

[RangerWickett]

It's been a while since I wrote this, so bear with me if my memory's fuzzy.

The basic gist is that the Torch draws power from the elemental plane of fire (The Elemental Chaos in 4e). When the Torch was damaged, huge amounts of fire energy poured into whatever weird interstitial spaces lie between this world and others. So when you teleport, the route you take sends you through a roaring fire for a few milliseconds.

And because all the fire energy is pouring into that non-physical space, it's not reaching the world, which is causing the whole region to sink into a prolonged winter.

It gets fixed if the heroes manage to set things right in adventure 12. Even fixing the Torch doesn't undo the damage that was already done; it requires a bit more primordial of an effort.

 

[Ormazd]

Fair enough.

So it's safe to assume that all planar travel, not just teleportation, would encounter this fiery mess, barring some sort of protection?

In case anyone's interested, I'm asking because I'm planning some travel to/from the Feywild as well as the Nine Hells. I thought it might be a bit interesting to have the heroes experience some sort of elemental bleed-off from planar travel that was location specific. For example, in our next session, the Prince of Frost will be sending a bevy of fey creatures to the material plane in order to way-lay our heroes. I figured that there would be some dangerous and unpredictable cold effects that the creatures dragged with them on their journey from the Feywild through the Elemental Chaos. (I will likely frame this as some sort of fantastic terrain to spice up the combat a bit.) Does this make sense with the set-up?

O

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

IIRC, planar travel is affected as if diving through the relatively thin layer of elemental fire surrounding the prime material plane. which means they do get fried a bit on the way through.

I am running the game in Eberron, which makes your idea of dragging in a part of the plane quite reasonable, and I have done this once or twice. Having it be fantastic terrain and something useable in the encounter sounds like a very good way to go!