Today ENterplanetary DimENsions takes off to the endless skies of Gaseous Guncalta!
Illustration by NASA.
If there ever was any landmass to this planet it is long since gone, torn apart into nothing by the awesome winds that dominate the tumultuous core. Visitors aplenty have come and settled Guncalta despite the challenges, taming its upper atmosphere with massive platforms that float above a terrible danger hidden by the clouds. There’s wealth enough to be taken from this semi-substantial world for those daring enough to try however, with whole cities thriving on the risky work and a few lucky gas miners coming back up from below with their greatest wishes fulfilled.
As a maelstrom Guncalta was an impossible place for life to take hold naturally but it does have denizens aside from those floating in its uppermost reaches. Elementals akin to the wind find the gas planet to be an ideal home, the most powerful of them dwelling further towards the core—said to be the same place where some of them are reborn after being slain by the unforgiving winds found there.
Planar Traits. Guncalta has the following planar traits and the Narrator should make use of the darkness, dense smoke, extreme cold, falling, heavy precipitation, and strong winds encounter elements. When it is possible to do so, noticing one of these encounter elements before it is too close to avoid requires a DC 18 Perception check.
Table: Guncalta Vehicles
Thick, tightly-woven sheets of silk and thin rods are carefully set into this backpack (AC 9, 6 hit points). While wearing a parachute, when you are falling you can use your reaction to pull on the ripcord to deploy it. Your rate of descent slows to 30 feet per round, and by making a DC 15 Dexterity check on your turn you can move up 5 feet horizontally for every 5 feet fallen (up to a maximum horizontal distance equal to half your Speed).
When landing with a deployed parachute you make a DC 20 Acrobatics check or become restrained by it (escape DC 15), or on a failure by 10 or more you also fall prone, are blinded while you are restrained, and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage.
Pressure suits appear different depending on where they are made but they always have an airsuit and pressure helmet.
Airsuit. A suit of armor is needed to utilize this leather and alchemically-tailored slip, but once integrated it hermetically seals the wearer from the outside. While wearing a suit of armor equipped with an airsuit, you have advantage on saving throws made against pressure. A fine or masterwork airsuit does not require integration into a suit of armor to be worn.
Pressure Helmet. This glass, leather and metal contraption fits over the head with a clear plate in front of the face. While wearing a pressure helmet, you gain advantage on saving throws against gasses and vapors. A pressure helmet cannot be disarmed.
In addition, you can connect the pressure helmet to a specialized fine or masterwork air safe (see Aquestio), providing enough air for up to 1 hour of breathing for a Medium-sized creature (or 2 hours of breathing for a Small-sized creature).
Aeromagic. While falling or flying on Guncalta, spells from the air school are cast using a spell slot of one level lower than normal (minimum 1st-level). In addition, when a creature with class levels and an air-focused archetype (or at the Narrator’s discretion air-focused class features, such as a sorcerer with Manifestation: Hurricane) finishes a long rest on Guncalta it regains all of its Hit Dice, and when it expends Hit Dice to regain Hit Points on a short rest it rolls twice, taking the higher result.
Challenges: Blinding blizzard, hail storm, haze
Creatures: None
This vast area around Guncalta doesn’t contain enough breathable air for any creature (making it a place easy where it is easy to suffocate) nor contain substantial heat (making it extremely cold). Air vehicle checks made in an enchanted vehicle have advantage in the exosphere.
Challenges: Cursed temple, dense fog, thunderstorm
Creatures: Dust mephits, ice mephits, spark mephits
To dissuade the dangerous elementals below most hovering habitations float in this area, troubled only by the occasional visitor from underneath, light weather events, and elementals too weak to survive any further down.
Challenges: Hail deluge, sandstorm, tornado
Creatures: Air elementals, invisible stalkers
The greatest barrier to gas miners trying to earn their fortunes on Guncalta is commonly referred to as the Storm Wall, a moniker fitting for the maelstrom that greets anyone falling down towards the core.
Challenges: Hoar frost, primordial tornado, wild magic zone
Creatures: Djinni, giant air elementals, invisible renders
Though there is breathable air below the stratosphere it is carried by strong winds so swift that they empty the lungs. Unless protected by a pressure suit a non-elemental creature is only able to hold its breath for half as long as normal while in the troposphere. Most gas miners don’t fly below here, choosing to collect the planet’s rare gasses more slowly than try to wrestle the maelstrom just beneath.
Increased Pressure. At the end of each minute spent less than 100 miles above the core of Guncalta, a creature must make a Strength saving throw (DC 5 + 1 per previous successful save). On a failed save, it takes 10d6 bludgeoning damage – 1d6 per 10 miles it is from the core. Huge or larger creatures automatically succeed on this saving throw.
Challenges: Killing cloud, malfunctioning planar portal
Creatures: Djinni nobles
All the best rare gasses can be found in strange pockets of contained tempests in the world’s center and the lucky few able to survive it make a killing by mining them—or get slaughtered in the process. At the start of each minute a creature is in the Guncalta core, roll 1d20 and refer to Table: Guncalta Core Winds to see where the incredibly powerful storm spits it out into the troposphere (relative to the direction in which it entered). A creature with a fly speed can make a DC 20 Athletics check to decrease or increase the result by an amount equal to its proficiency bonus (up or down), with advantage if its fly speed is 60 feet or greater. Elementals automatically succeed on this check.
Severe Pressure. At the end of each minute spent less than 50 miles above the core of Guncalta, a creature must make a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + 2 per previous successful save). On a failed save, it takes 10d6 bludgeoning damage – 1d6 per 10 miles it is from the core. Gargantuan and Titanic creatures automatically succeed on this saving throw.
Table: Guncalta Core Winds
Capable Staff. Acquiring and maintaining a gigantic floating settlement is no small matter and the entities with interest enough to do so have staff that make sure it’s a profitable venture. The people in charge are typically an ascetic grandmaster or master thief always assisted by an archpriest. Actual industry (the securing, sorting, and trading of captured gasses) are overseen by alchemists aided by the managerial administrations of high priests. Daredevil soldier squads and striders equipped with parachutes maintain security—ever ready to respond to threats, jumping into their guncalcutters and guncalgliders with a moment’s notice.
Really Rare Reagents. Extremely valuable gasses can be captured from the lowest atmosphere of Guncalta using an air safe (see Aquestio) modified with a DC 15 tinkerer’s tools check. Locating a source of rare gas requires a Survival check (DC 19 in the troposphere, DC 14 in Guncalta’s core), and it can be gathered from once each minute in the troposphere or once each round in the center of the planet (roll 1d8 and refer to the Really Rare Reagents table). An air safe full of a rare gas is worth 400 gold unless a critical success was rolled on the search to find it (in which case air safes gathered from it are each worth 1,000 gold).
Table: Really Rare Reagents
Illustration by NASA.
If there ever was any landmass to this planet it is long since gone, torn apart into nothing by the awesome winds that dominate the tumultuous core. Visitors aplenty have come and settled Guncalta despite the challenges, taming its upper atmosphere with massive platforms that float above a terrible danger hidden by the clouds. There’s wealth enough to be taken from this semi-substantial world for those daring enough to try however, with whole cities thriving on the risky work and a few lucky gas miners coming back up from below with their greatest wishes fulfilled.
As a maelstrom Guncalta was an impossible place for life to take hold naturally but it does have denizens aside from those floating in its uppermost reaches. Elementals akin to the wind find the gas planet to be an ideal home, the most powerful of them dwelling further towards the core—said to be the same place where some of them are reborn after being slain by the unforgiving winds found there.
Planar Traits. Guncalta has the following planar traits and the Narrator should make use of the darkness, dense smoke, extreme cold, falling, heavy precipitation, and strong winds encounter elements. When it is possible to do so, noticing one of these encounter elements before it is too close to avoid requires a DC 18 Perception check.
Aerial Artifice
Some people choose to travel on personal conveyances (magical or natural) but most instead utilize flying vehicles. Hot-air balloons are common for travelers with the least resources as only enchanted craft are capable of reliably staying afloat, though most settlements have services devoted to the task of ferrying passengers or renting out ships for gas mining expeditions.Guncalta Vehicles
The guncalcutter is a wondrous metal contraption carried aloft by magical workings hidden in its underbelly, usually featuring a hardened glass airtight covering (AC 15, 20 hit points) on its top to protect passengers from the environment. A smaller version of it is faster and more affordable but is usable only by the pilot, easier to shoot out of the sky, and has little capacity to carry anything other than its sole occupant.Table: Guncalta Vehicles
Vehicle | Size | AC | Hit Points | Speed | Crew | Cost | Supply | Special |
Guncalcutter | Huge | 14 | 100 | 80 feet/8 mph | 1 | 16,500 gp | 60 | Armed (Cannon ×2), Three-Dimensional |
Guncalglider | Large | 15 | 50 | 100 feet/10 mph | 1 | 6,000 gp | 5 | Armed (Ballista), Personal, Three-Dimensional |
Parachute
Cost 150 gold; Weight 50 lbs.Thick, tightly-woven sheets of silk and thin rods are carefully set into this backpack (AC 9, 6 hit points). While wearing a parachute, when you are falling you can use your reaction to pull on the ripcord to deploy it. Your rate of descent slows to 30 feet per round, and by making a DC 15 Dexterity check on your turn you can move up 5 feet horizontally for every 5 feet fallen (up to a maximum horizontal distance equal to half your Speed).
When landing with a deployed parachute you make a DC 20 Acrobatics check or become restrained by it (escape DC 15), or on a failure by 10 or more you also fall prone, are blinded while you are restrained, and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage.
Pressure Suit
Cost 150 gold; Weight 25 lbs.Pressure suits appear different depending on where they are made but they always have an airsuit and pressure helmet.
Airsuit. A suit of armor is needed to utilize this leather and alchemically-tailored slip, but once integrated it hermetically seals the wearer from the outside. While wearing a suit of armor equipped with an airsuit, you have advantage on saving throws made against pressure. A fine or masterwork airsuit does not require integration into a suit of armor to be worn.
Pressure Helmet. This glass, leather and metal contraption fits over the head with a clear plate in front of the face. While wearing a pressure helmet, you gain advantage on saving throws against gasses and vapors. A pressure helmet cannot be disarmed.
In addition, you can connect the pressure helmet to a specialized fine or masterwork air safe (see Aquestio), providing enough air for up to 1 hour of breathing for a Medium-sized creature (or 2 hours of breathing for a Small-sized creature).
Airborne Aeromancers
As a planet of nothing but air Guncalta is awash with mana easily exploited by mages specialized in the magical arts of storms and winds.Aeromagic. While falling or flying on Guncalta, spells from the air school are cast using a spell slot of one level lower than normal (minimum 1st-level). In addition, when a creature with class levels and an air-focused archetype (or at the Narrator’s discretion air-focused class features, such as a sorcerer with Manifestation: Hurricane) finishes a long rest on Guncalta it regains all of its Hit Dice, and when it expends Hit Dice to regain Hit Points on a short rest it rolls twice, taking the higher result.
Calamitous Core
Guncalta’s atmosphere is dominated by roving storms that most floating settlements avoid and static navigation is an impossible task—unless measured by distance from the world’s core. Few as they are, even the elementals that roam from down below are themselves known to go up as far as two atmospheric levels to avoid tumultuous weather patterns.Exosphere
Distance to Core: 1,000 miles to 500 milesChallenges: Blinding blizzard, hail storm, haze
Creatures: None
This vast area around Guncalta doesn’t contain enough breathable air for any creature (making it a place easy where it is easy to suffocate) nor contain substantial heat (making it extremely cold). Air vehicle checks made in an enchanted vehicle have advantage in the exosphere.
Thermosphere
Distance to Core: 499 miles to 300 milesChallenges: Cursed temple, dense fog, thunderstorm
Creatures: Dust mephits, ice mephits, spark mephits
To dissuade the dangerous elementals below most hovering habitations float in this area, troubled only by the occasional visitor from underneath, light weather events, and elementals too weak to survive any further down.
Stratosphere
Distance to Core: 299 miles to 100 milesChallenges: Hail deluge, sandstorm, tornado
Creatures: Air elementals, invisible stalkers
The greatest barrier to gas miners trying to earn their fortunes on Guncalta is commonly referred to as the Storm Wall, a moniker fitting for the maelstrom that greets anyone falling down towards the core.
Troposphere
Distance to Core: 99 miles to 50 milesChallenges: Hoar frost, primordial tornado, wild magic zone
Creatures: Djinni, giant air elementals, invisible renders
Though there is breathable air below the stratosphere it is carried by strong winds so swift that they empty the lungs. Unless protected by a pressure suit a non-elemental creature is only able to hold its breath for half as long as normal while in the troposphere. Most gas miners don’t fly below here, choosing to collect the planet’s rare gasses more slowly than try to wrestle the maelstrom just beneath.
Increased Pressure. At the end of each minute spent less than 100 miles above the core of Guncalta, a creature must make a Strength saving throw (DC 5 + 1 per previous successful save). On a failed save, it takes 10d6 bludgeoning damage – 1d6 per 10 miles it is from the core. Huge or larger creatures automatically succeed on this saving throw.
Guncalta Core
Distance to Core: Within 49 milesChallenges: Killing cloud, malfunctioning planar portal
Creatures: Djinni nobles
All the best rare gasses can be found in strange pockets of contained tempests in the world’s center and the lucky few able to survive it make a killing by mining them—or get slaughtered in the process. At the start of each minute a creature is in the Guncalta core, roll 1d20 and refer to Table: Guncalta Core Winds to see where the incredibly powerful storm spits it out into the troposphere (relative to the direction in which it entered). A creature with a fly speed can make a DC 20 Athletics check to decrease or increase the result by an amount equal to its proficiency bonus (up or down), with advantage if its fly speed is 60 feet or greater. Elementals automatically succeed on this check.
Severe Pressure. At the end of each minute spent less than 50 miles above the core of Guncalta, a creature must make a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + 2 per previous successful save). On a failed save, it takes 10d6 bludgeoning damage – 1d6 per 10 miles it is from the core. Gargantuan and Titanic creatures automatically succeed on this saving throw.
Table: Guncalta Core Winds
1d20 | Movement |
1–4 | The creature is restrained and takes 27 (6d8) thunder damage. |
5 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved north and up. |
6 | The creature takes 9 (2d8) thunder damage as it is moved north. |
7 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved north and down. |
8 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved east and up. |
9 | The creature takes 9 (2d8) thunder damage as it is moved east. |
10 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved east and down. |
11 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved south and up. |
12 | The creature takes 9 (2d8) thunder damage as it is moved south. |
13 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved south and down. |
14 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved west and up. |
15 | The creature takes 9 (2d8) thunder damage as it is moved west. |
16 | The creature takes 13 (3d8) thunder damage as it is moved west and down. |
17–19 | The creature is battered by devastating winds that deal 27 (6d8) thunder damage and send it back the way it came. |
20+ | The creature is in a calm spot amid the maelstrom. |
Hovering Habitations
Ranging from the elegant to the utilitarian and serving purposes ranging as far as industry or luxury and everything between, Guncalta is home to a number of settlements typically buoyed in the thermosphere (though a few can be found in the upper stratosphere they are always well fortified and greet with animosity). Whole societies are built upon the work of gas miners capturing rare elements drawn from the troposphere or direct from the planet’s core, though it’s unusual for more than half of one of these cities to daily risk their lives undertaking the dubious task.Capable Staff. Acquiring and maintaining a gigantic floating settlement is no small matter and the entities with interest enough to do so have staff that make sure it’s a profitable venture. The people in charge are typically an ascetic grandmaster or master thief always assisted by an archpriest. Actual industry (the securing, sorting, and trading of captured gasses) are overseen by alchemists aided by the managerial administrations of high priests. Daredevil soldier squads and striders equipped with parachutes maintain security—ever ready to respond to threats, jumping into their guncalcutters and guncalgliders with a moment’s notice.
Really Rare Reagents. Extremely valuable gasses can be captured from the lowest atmosphere of Guncalta using an air safe (see Aquestio) modified with a DC 15 tinkerer’s tools check. Locating a source of rare gas requires a Survival check (DC 19 in the troposphere, DC 14 in Guncalta’s core), and it can be gathered from once each minute in the troposphere or once each round in the center of the planet (roll 1d8 and refer to the Really Rare Reagents table). An air safe full of a rare gas is worth 400 gold unless a critical success was rolled on the search to find it (in which case air safes gathered from it are each worth 1,000 gold).
Table: Really Rare Reagents
d8 | Amount Gathered |
1–3 | 1 air safe |
4–5 | 2 air safes |
6 | 1d4+1 air safes |
7 | 1d4+3 air safes |
8 | 1d6+4 air safes |
