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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 6197118" data-attributes="member: 6750502">The Negative Energy Plane <img src="http://i.imgur.com/Muqx8fu.jpg?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The city of Death's Heart, in all its dark glory. (Courtesy of Gothic Wallpapers)    The Negative Energy is much like the vacuum of space: a giant void of black nothingness with an environment hostile to all life.  However, the overall temperature and atmospheric pressure is equivalent to a Material Plane environment, meaning that your body won’t tear itself apart or freeze to death here.  Even so, the utter lack of features and solid ground in 99.99999% of the Plane means that an infinitesimally small portion is inhabited by any sort of non-Energon beings.Death’s Heart    For most people, the Negative Energy Plane is actually a hollow spherical city of gothic spires and citadels populated by the undead.  The black sea of anti-life surrounding it is more of an afterthought.  The vast majority of extraplanar travel goes through the realm of Death’s Heart, and it’s wide assortment of necromantic equipment and trade items means that most necromancers and undead are content with sticking to this one area of the Plane.    Undead creatures of all kinds populate this city.  Death’s Heart is surprisingly open to the presence of living beings, as most undead creatures still have some form of connection to their "old lives."  In addition to vampires, liches, and wraiths, there’s a small community of still-living necromancers, priests of deities of death, and people seeking to pass of their mortal coil “to a more powerful state of being.”  Even then, they’re only tolerated by the city at large and the city’s more xenophobic political factions are advocating for additional restrictions on travel.    Death’s Heart is just recovering from a brutal civil war, and is currently unified under the administration of the vampire minotaur Kavchor.  Knowing that hostilities still linger below the surface of society, Kavchor’s slowly rebuilding the shattered economy through trade and connections to other planar realms.  He’s also seeking an outside enemy to turn the city against so that they’ll spend more time unifying for the oncoming threat instead of scheming against each other.  To this end, he’s currying favor among the expansionist elements of Death’s Heart who want to spread their rule to Material Plane worlds, but just enough to stop short of full-scale invasions.    Kavchor’s playing a dangerous game; since he doesn’t plan on living up to most of his high-minded promises, it won’t be long before some powerful faction drums up enough hatred and resentment to start another civil war.  He also has powerful enemies within the city as well: opposing him are isolationist groups who fear of foreign influence in their Plane, and the demon lord Orcus who seeks to absorb the city into his Abyssal layer.  Whether from infighting or being forced to spearhead an extraplanar invasion, war will soon come again to Death’s Heart.Castles Perilous    In addition to the necropolis of Death’s Heart, the Negative Energy Plane is also known for its large number of prisons, commonly known as “castles perilous.”  These gulags come in all shapes and sizes, but the most well-known of them are hewn from magically-enhanced stone and share architectural similarities with Material Plane fortresses. A lot of evil factions use these buildings to hold captured forces of good, usually ones too powerful and well-known to be guarded in more conventional planes.  Kill a Paladin or Cleric, and his spirit goes to the Upper Planes to join the Celestial forces.  Keep them indefinitely imprisoned, and their souls never escape.  Since the Negative Energy Plane has no dominant planar faction, these prisons don’t run the risk of falling into enemy hands due to some geo-political shift in territory.    The castles have entirely undead staff and guards, with a singular two-way portal to serve as a strategic choke-point in the event of a prison break or riot.  The Portal usually leads to whoever currently owns or helped build the prison.  The warden is skilled in soul-related necromantic spells such as Magic Jar, and the “cells” consist of rooms studded with thousands of onyx gems.  Unwitting adventurers can easily mistake these areas for treasure hordes, confusing the building’s high security and secrecy with a vault.The Doomguard    The Doomguard is a planar faction dedicated to the spread of destruction, entropy, and oblivion.  The Doomguard believes that the Multiverse is flawed, and that a newer, perfect world will arise out of the ashes of the old.  To this end, they seek to hasten the end of its existence by any means necessary.  They see great potential in the Negative Energy Plane, and their headquarters is located in a crumbling citadel in its black void.    It would be a mistake to say that the Doomguard relishes death or undeath; on the contrary, they are fundamentally against the extension of one’s existence solely for the means of avoiding destruction.  A significant portion of the faction’s members are living creatures, and thus build their outposts and fortresses in the pockets bereft of negative energy (Doldrums) on the Plane.    In recent years, the Doomguard has spent significant resources in the creation of huge planar portals located around key areas along the Great Wheel (national capitals, sites of historical/religious significance, etc).  When activated, these massive portals will shift a great chunk of the land into the Negative Energy Plane.  Sometimes the inhabitants will immediately die as the entropic essence of the Plane overwhelms their bodies, but other times they’ll safely land in a Doldrum.  A messenger for the Doomguard will tell the survivors that the dead did not give their lives in vain, and that their deaths were but one part of a great plan for the birth of a perfect Multiverse.  Before leaving, the Doomguard will accept any willing recruits who do not wish to perish when the Doldrum’s barrier fails.    This has deservedly earned the Doomguard the reputation of dangerous terrorists and genocidal madmen.  The faction has responded by hastening their plans by building more portals.  It’s only a matter of time before the next catastrophe strikes…Adventure Hooks for the Negative Energy Plane:•    An ally important to the PCs has passed on, their soul nowhere to be found.  Investigation reveals that powerful necromantic magic has placed the soul far beyond planar boundaries.  It is said that the Curator, a powerful undead Elder Brain, can locate the soul by reaching into the “consciousness of the afterlife.”  The Curator is located in the city of Death’s Heart, and he doesn’t part with his information freely.  He’s also a thorn in the side of Mayor Kavchor, who fears that anyone capable of such great knowledge can learn his many secrets.  The PCs will have to deal with finding the Curator while outsmarting Kavchor’s thugs.•    The Doomguard has forcefully shifted a Material Plane city containing a holy site of Pelor.  Massive extraplanar armies are stationed around the planar rift and preparing for an invasion, but there’s no way such a large amount of troops can move through the Plane and survive.  The PCs are called upon to strike into the portal and somehow manage to return the city to the Material Plane.  The Doomguard will violently react to any attempts at rescue and do their best to stall the PCs until they can move the city out of the Doldrum.•    A shadowy patron hires the PCs for the greatest heist of all: a castle perilous belonging to Nerull, the God of Death!  First, the PCs will need to sneak into the innermost layer of Carceri into the deities’ realm.  Then, they must locate the portal leading into the castle perilous.  Next, they must instigate a prison takeover and keep it out of Nerull’s forces long enough for reinforcements to arrive and shift the castle to the patron’s home plane.  The patron’s cagey as to why exactly he wants access to Nerull’s coveted prison, and how exactly he’ll avoid the deity’s retribution.  Could it all be a trap?</blockquote>

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