Encounters in the Plane of Shadows

[Greenfield]

Because you can use Shadow Walk to cross to other planes that Shadow intersects with, I can see something of what you say. It would resemble any Plane it connects to, at least in the areas where it intersects them. That would allow for a lot of other shadow scenes unrelated to any plane the characters are familiar with.

In my particular case, they're starting out in the Egyptian region of the Material and crossing to the "Land of the dead", Egyptian style.

By the book, some planes or sets of planes will have limited access. For example, when you Plane Shift to Celestia, you always land knee deep in the Celestial Sea. When visiting the Nine Hells, you always begin at the outermost circle, no matter where you were aiming for.

The "Land of the Dead", in almost any incarnation, has one entry point and one exit. Whether it's the Styx and Cerebrus (Greek) or the Fenris Wolf (Norse), you have to pass them to enter or leave. In Egyptian, it's the Nile (usually via golden barge), past Apophis and down to the Palace of Two Truths. Exit needn't pass Apophis again, but the entrance always runs that way.

Because of the land they're in and their destination I'm running very strong Egyptian themes.

I have a clear adventure laid out, but I hate railroads, and my group is easily distracted. I suspect that my Halloween adventure may actually take off sometime around Thanksgiving (US), if things continue at the current pace.

Short form: They decided to take the opportunity to track down an old foe and finish him off. He was in a "guest house" of an evil church (translation: a hiding place) right behind a city guard post. Party followed a messenger that was sent to him, hid in the shadow of the police station, and dropped a Fireball inside the moment the door opened to receive the messenger. Killed the messenger, of course, brought down the house (not fortified), and brought all street traffic to a halt. And oh yeah, it kind of drew the attention of the city guard and got them arrested. The messenger got Revivified thanks to the quick thinking of the party healer, but the other dead bodies and the small home burning to the ground still meant they were going to jail.

It was oddly funny. Maybe I'll tell the whole tale some time.

 

[Dioltach]

Here's a monster from the Plane of Shadows: the Five O'Clock Shadow. It latches onto a character's face; if the character is male and has CHA 12 or higher it confers a +2 CHA bonus, if the character is male and has CHA 9 or lower it confers a -2 CHA penalty. If the character is female it confers a -4 CHA penalty. The Five O'Clock Shadow can only be removed with a remove curse spell.

 

[Greenfield]

Ah, but what about female Dwarves? Would that be a + or a - for them?

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

1. The Staypuffed Marshmallow Man

2. The party, themselves, more specifically their shadow versions, reflections of them - concentrating and emphasizing their darker aspects; in the case of a Paladin, his would be a Doomguard, etc.

3. Have them find an anceint, sealed container, it should be elaborate and covered with both Fey and Norse runes. Within would be the Aether.

4. Shadow Elementals, Ice Elementals, Entropy Elementals... oh my!

5. A wrecked spelljamming Hammership, the crew are all Ice Zombies

6. A gibbering madman, espousing the coming of a Dark Herald

7. Shadow Wisps - like a will-o-wisp, but made up of shadow stuff

8. A coven of witches have built a shrine around an ancient, twisted tree made up of shadowstuff and nightmares