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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 6197111" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Elemental Plane of Air <img src="http://i.imgur.com/69O57.jpg?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />“Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor.”~Bill Shankly    The Elemental Plane of Air is the safest of the Inner Planes to visitors from the Material; it’s not dominated by the crushing pressure of earth or the scorching heat of fire, but by breathable air upon an infinite expanse of sky.  All creatures, visitors and natives alike, are capable of limited flight simply by willing their bodies to “fall” in one direction.  Such a method of transportation is clumsy and awkward in comparison to true flight (which all of the natives possess), but this ability makes the Elemental Plane of Air the most traveled of all Inner Planes.Skyships    Lots of travelers from the Material Plane are uncomfortable with the “open” void of sky and feel relatively unprotected and overwhelmed.  For an easy frame of reference, many visitors construct airborne vehicles shaped like sea bound ships for travel.  In addition to providing living space, cargo storage, and limited protection from attackers, these “skyships” are specially designed to use the Plane’s unique nature by manipulating and changing the air currents around itself.  Skyships can generate powerful gales for transportation, windstorms for combat and self-defense, and “buffer currents” to slow down incoming projectiles.  It generally takes more wind power to move heavier ships, but ships with large mass can move surprisingly fast due to subjective directional gravity.    Many raiders make their lairs on the Elemental Plane of Air, using such ships to attack passing ships.  Some of the wealthier “sky pirates” have mechanisms which allow them to Plane Shift.  More than a few pieces of floating earth on the Plane are actually havens for these cutthroats, and have more than enough people and ships to attack small fleets.The Djinn    The Djinn are some of the more well-known inhabitants of the Elemental Plane of Air.  Borne of the element of air as humans are borne of flesh and blood, the Djinn’s solid form is actually a “lower-powered” state; the ability to become gaseous or a living whirlwind is regarded by these proud beings as their true majesty, although they are cursed to remain solid for 23 hours of the day.    Djinn live in territories ruled by a king, noble family, or a council of the most powerful of their kind.  The territories can be as small as a single city-state on a floating island, or as large as a nation with dominion over a hundred thousand subjects.  Almost all rulers of Djinni-kind (known as Noble Djinni) are capable of granting Wishes to people who perform some great service to them.  To prevent abuses of power, the Nobles can only grant Wishes to those not of their kind (non-Genies).  Despite this limitation, Noble Djinn are overall more powerful than their “lowborn” counterparts and many even have class levels.  The average Noble is well aware of their status among the Planes, and most live in fortified citadels enchanted with anti-planar travel spells to prevent summoners from calling and enslaving them.    Most Djinn on the Plane live on floating islands full of life and vegetation, both for the aesthetic value and easy point of reference for travel.  Even the smaller settlements with no Nobles are richly decorated; shining stones pave the streets and colorful flowers grow in household gardens.  Clothes, curtains, and carpets are made of fine fabrics from across the Great Wheel, and the local marketplace is always brimming with fantastic and rare objects.  Capital cities and the homes of nobles are truly the stuff of legends: feel free to go wild with the most magnificent examples of fantasy cities.  Throw in a giant clock tower attended by gear-driven golems or a statue made of living, moving stone as an example of the splendid magnificence of the Djinn.    Djinn cities are very cosmopolitan and accepting of visitors (with the exception of their mortal foes, the Efreet).  The City of Jewels, the greatest known city of Genie-kind, rivals the City of Brass as a planar metropolis and has portals all over the Multiverse to facilitate travel and trade.  Scheming nobles, saboteurs for the Efreet, lowborn gangs in the slums, and adventurers on all manner of dangerous quests provide plenty of action and suspense in the City of Jewels!Cloudscapes    More than a few clouds are solid enough to hold heavy objects in the Plane.  Originally designed by Cloud Giant settlers, these huge objects make use of powerful magic to exist in a state of varying density.  A central orb of frozen water serves as the “control panel” for the cloudscape, with which a person can alter its density, shape, and speed and direction.  Cloudscapes charged with lightning can be truly deadly instruments of war, and are prized by Djinn and visitors alike for their destructive powers.    Many cloudscapes are used as conventional “dungeons,” used by powerful people to store treasure, imprison people, and a form of mobile living space.  Air and Storm Elementals can gain great power by fusing with a cloudscape’s central orb and extending its consciousness to the entire structure.  Some of the most legendary Elementals are actually giant, sentient cloudscapes.Adventure Hooks in the Elemental Plane of Air:•    A particularly sadistic Storm Elemental has gained control over a cloudscape and uses it to terrorize floating island villages.  He’s absorbed many buildings and incorporated them into the structure, often with entire families trapped inside.  The Elemental suffers from a giant ego, and boasts that nobody is capable of seizing control of the cloudscape.  He offers the PCs to come into the cloudscape and best his trials.  If they win, they get a mobile cloudscape fortress.  If they lose, well the Storm Elemental kills them.    PCs venturing into the cloudscape (whether to rescue the families or show up the Elemental) will have to deal with shifting rooms, limited visibility, rogue electrical attacks, and lesser Air and Storm brethren of the Elemental.  Are the adventurers up to the task?  Can they conquer this confusing dungeon?  Tune in next time on Dungeons & Dragons!•    A floating island, long torn away from the Material Plane, floats among others of its kind in a flying archipelago on the Elemental Plane of Air.  It contains ancient ruins from a long-forgotten civilization of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, and may possess knowledge critical to the PCs (blueprints for a powerful artifact, hieroglyphs that are the final part of a prophecy, etc).  The PCs are hired by a patron to visit the ruins.  Unfortuantely, the patron works for the Queen of Chaos, a Demon lord who fought against the Wind Dukes long ago and wishes to rid the Multiverse of their influence.  The Queen’s agents will wait until the PCs cleared the ruins of its guardians and traps.  Then they’ll move in for the kill and find whatever secret lies in the temple’s catacombs.•    Hot on the trail of a fugitive with something important, the PCs track his location to a floating island in the Elemental Plane of Air.  Unfortunately for them, the island’s home to a gang of sky pirates who now “own” the fugitive.  The pirates’ captain is aware that the fugitive has something of great value, and won’t accept any coin the PCs have in exchange (and flashing gold around is a sure way to get attacked in this place).  Instead, he’ll auction off the fugitive to the highest bidder.  The enemy factions in your campaign also want whatever the fugitive has and can pool more wealth than the PCs’ collective pockets.  The PCs must break the fugitive out and fend off a horde of pirates, sabotage the auction and/or eliminate rival bidders, or somehow get the information/object of value before he’s taken out of their grasp.</blockquote>

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