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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 6197116" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Elemental Plane of Earth <img src="http://i.imgur.com/H54NgB1.jpg?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Crystal Cave by joshualim91 of deviantart    Due to limited visibility and miles of solid rock in all directions, the Elemental Plane of Earth is the least traveled of the Inner Planes (as for Fire, a lot of creatures have fire resistance/immunity).  The only creatures which can easily navigate the place need a burrow speed and certain forms of blindsense, blindsight, or tremorsense.  Colonists and planar travelers stick to the few pockets of natural caverns and excavated areas near extra-dimensional portals.  Given that most of these portals are located deep within the Material Plane Underdark, lots of dwarves, drow, illithid, and other such folk have built large “portal cities” around major trade routes.The Great Dismal Delve    One of the most powerful inhabitants on the Plane of Earth is the Dao, a civilization of wicked genies who seek to dominate and enslave all other civilizations.  Thanks to the efforts of xorn, earth elemental, and delver servants, the Dao created a continent-wide network of cities, mines, palaces, and territory on the Plane.  The most well-traveled extra-dimensional portals are located within the Delve, meaning that the Dao have effectively cornered the market on a lot of gems and precious metals (the Plane of Earth is theoretically infinite, but most places outside of Dao control are nowhere near as large of wealthy).    The Dao nobles are imperialistic jerks who love “collecting” rare objects and people from all across the Planes, meaning that they have lots of enemies.  This is the perfect opportunity for adventurers to visit the Plane.  The Delve is large and varied enough to have entire adventures in, and palaces the size of small cities can make for an interesting sort of dungeon.  Fortunately for the PCs, the Dao are far from unified, and a rival family is more than willing to provide assistance to adventurers if they’re going up against a hated foe.Tombs of the Primordials    The Material Plane is a very old world, full of long-forgotten empires and the ancestral legacies of sorcerous bloodlines.  In our world, the skeletons of cavemen, dinosaurs, and other ancient beings are buried beneath layers of soil and rock. In the world of Dungeons & Dragons, the presence of underground civilizations and portals means that the corpses of many prehistoric beings ended up in the museums of Underdark capitals and the Elemental Plane of Earth.    What does this mean?  Well, for starters, the Plane is home to the fossils of creatures too old to be remembered and located near the top layers of the Material Plane’s surface.  Many Plane of Earth natives revere these fossils with near-religious significance, believing them to be the legacies of powerful deities.  The Dao don’t care for the most part about their origins, and see the fossils as tools to be exploited.  The genies’ recent attempts at animating the fossils were disastrous.  Nobody knows what happened to the city in which they lived, but all traces of civilization vanished down to the last piece of dust.  Attempts at divination on the fossils (such as Speak With Dead) are unsuccessful as well, as the corpses prove surprisingly resilient to magic.  However, Detect Evil spells register an overwhelming aura.    The fossils take on weird, aberrant shapes.  They’re not “primordial” in the sense of dinosaurs.  Think of Lovecraft monsters, or the solidified forms of fungi and slime molds.The Forlorn Path    Most maps and routes through the Plane of Earth are portal-based, more so than the other three planes.  There is a widely-connected series of portals which runs through the Plane and connects to almost all other locations on the Great Wheel.  The network is located outside of the Great Dismal Delve, making it an effective means of avoiding Dao taxation, yet most people don’t use it.  The network became known as the Forlorn path due to the huge amount of lost travelers and failed attempts at colonization.    Adventurers know they’re on the Forlorn Path by the distinctive markings.  Tunnel ceilings, walls, and floors are covered in a web of interconnected runes.  Mundane and magical attempts at translation reveal that the runes are, without exception, cryptic warnings and prophecies of vague concepts.  “Beware those beyond the Wheel,” “The hungry pit grows,” and similar sayings are the most commonly encountered.  Circular doors are spaced along the tunnel at exact 20 mile intervals, and lead into vast caverns of abandoned cities.  The buildings are grey stone spirals arranged in perfect rows and columns of 500 by 500.  Furniture and tools designed for Medium-sized humanoid figures are present, but all of them are decayed and crumble at the slightest touch.    No monsters, not even undead or constructs, have been sighted in the Path’s entire history.  The primary danger is the environment itself.  A few reported effects from survivors include the changing of gravity without reason, partners collapsing into gibbering wrecks of insanity shortly after exiting, and the painful sensation of a swarm of insects tearing off one’s skin.  Despite these horrors, there is a lucrative trade of objects originating from the abandoned cities.  Every so often, an adventurer finds an artifact or wondrous item containing great magical power.  Such items are always unique and have effects unlike any other form of magic.  Even then, the items have the same “taint” as the Path’s environment, and their passage into planar markets usually ends in the death or insanity of the current and former owners.The Dungeon Master should use this as an opportunity to introduce new magic items into the game, preferably of a cursed or macabre nature.  It also gives PCs an interesting dilemma; the magic items they might find are powerful, unique, and in high demand.  But there effects can be disastrous, and selling them in a city will inevitably result in the deaths of innocents.  If they keep the items, they’ll eventually suffer negative effects.  Such items are usually too dangerous to just throw away, as they somehow find their way into the hands of evil folk.  Finding the way to destroy these cursed items can be an adventure in and of itself, from returning them to their resting place or braving the most inhospitable areas of the Great Wheel to find a suitable prison for them.Adventure Hooks for the Elemental Plane of Earth:•    It’s happened.  A Dao necromancer uncovered the means of animating the primordial fossils, and now he’s leading an army of undead alien monstrosities across the Inner Planes.  The creatures are mutable in shape and type, adapting to new terrain with frightening regularity.  He’s managed to conquer vast territories of the Great Dismal Delve, and is expanding into the other Inner Planes as well.  The PCs need to unite the disparate planar factions and genie-kind if they hope to contain the threat.  Destroying the threat is an even taller order, and may not be possible if the PCs dally for too long.  As for the Dao heading the forces… he might be a powerful spellcaster, but’s he still just a genie.  It won’t be long before the creatures gain enough power to break free of his control and incorporate him as a slave into the collective.•    A tunneling expedition of dwarves accidentally opened up a portal into the Forlorn Path.  Thanks to legends and hearth lore, they had the good sense to leave the area alone and seal up the area.  But this did not work; the Path’s runes are now spontaneously appearing in their city, and the laws of reality are unraveling.  The military and religious leaders can barely contain social stability as the number of insane dwarves rise and entire sections of town are quarantined from the spread of runes.  The PCs are hired to find a solution and safeguard as much of the population as possible.  To make matters worse, a raiding party of nearby derro believe that the runes speak to them and attack the settlement!•    A huge portal below a Material Plane city becomes active, sucking massive sections of town into a sinkhole leading to the Elemental Plane of Earth.  A band of Dao slavers triggered the collapse, and claim that the inhabitants are now officially within the territory of the Great Dismal Delve.  Attempts to free the citizens are repelled by an organized military force of Dao spellcasters and their enthralled minions.  The PCs, be they within the collapsed or safe section of town, are pulled into the battle as the Dao target the heavily-armored party as “potential aggressive and/or subversive elements.”</blockquote>

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