d20 Ronin Arts Six Unexpected Planar Gates.pdf

Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons ® Player’s Handbook, Third Edition, published by Wizards of the Coast. ®

Six Unexpected

Planar Gates

by Philip Reed

On our world, a considerable amount of time

has passed since I wrote Six Planar Gates and Six

Living Planar Gates . Those two short PDFs, each

of which presented exactly what their names

described, were a lot of fun for me to write and it

is now time for a third release in the series. By now

I suspect everyone reading this is familiar with the

way in which these work so I’ll just shut my trap

and get on to the good stuff.

O PEN G AME C ONTENT

All of the text of this PDF is presented as open

game content. While this means absolutely noth-

ing to your campaign it does give other publishers

permission to use this material as long as they fol-

low the open game license (see the end of this

PDF).

A BOUT THE A UTHOR

Philip Reed has been working professionally

in the roleplaying game industry since 1995. In

that time he has worked for such companies as

Steve Jackson Games, Green Ronin Publishing,

and Atlas Games. Today Philip spends his days at

home running Ronin Arts, writing and designing

new games, and playing whatever his favorite

game is at this exact moment in time. To learn

more about Philip Reed – and Ronin Arts – please

visit www.philipjreed.com and www.roninarts.com .

NOTE: The use of the word “unexpected” in

the title of this PDF is more to make the product’s

title a little more interesting than it is an exact rep-

resentation of what you’ll find in these pages.

After all, many of the planar gates I’ve written

prior to this release can most certainly be classified

as “unexpected.” You have been warned.

First, though, the usual “Learning About the

Gates” section you’ve grown to expect.

L EARNING

A BOUT THE G ATES

At the DM’s option, the player characters may

make a Knowledge (the planes) check in order to

determine exactly what they know about the vari-

ous planar gates presented in this PDF. Each of the

gates described herein includes a Knowledge (the

planes) DC against which the character must roll.

The exact understanding of a particular gate

depends on the character’s roll. Consult the fol-

lowing table.

Knowledge

Base

Has heard of the gate.

Knows the history of the gate.

+10

Knows where the gate is located.

+15

Knows how the gate operates.

+20

Knows where the gate leads.

ignated as open game content. You may not distribute this PDF without permission of the

author. Dungeons & Dragons® and Wizards of the Coast® are Registered Trademarks of

Wizards of the Coast and are used with permission.

Number of

Rounds Since

Ability Was

Gained

Negative Effect

Suffer 1d4 points of damage.

Shaken and suffer 1d4 points of damage.

Stunned, suffer 1d4 points of damage, and suffer 1 point of Wisdom damage.

Sickened, suffer 1d4 points of damage, and suffer 1 point of Wisdom damage.

Nauseated, suffer 1d4 points of damage, and suffer 1 point of Wisdom damage.

Unconscious, suffer 1d4 points of damage, and suffer 2 points of Wisdom damage.

B LOOD OF THE

E XPERIENCED T RAVELER

Knowledge (the planes) DC: 30

Though many do not realize it, travel between

planes leaves its mark on those that journey from

plane to plane, no matter the means of conveyance.

Whenever the blood of one that has recently

jumped between planes is spread over the eyelids

of another, both individuals are instantly returned

to the plane from which the blood donor arrived

from. This need be only a small drop of blood,

enough to cover each eyelid, and the traveler must

have made the journey no less than twenty-four

hours before his blood is drawn and used in this

way.

F OOTSTEPS IN THE

B REATHING S TREAM

Knowledge (the planes) DC: 25

Far to the south of the greatest cities, beyond

the jungles and past the mountains, there exist a

network of interlinked streams and rivers, the

waterways winding their way across hundreds of

miles of open plains and scattered forests. Within

these lands are numerous villages and the remains

of a once-great civilization that was obliterated,

wiped from the face of the world by a planar storm

that is the source of a thousand bedtime stores used

to entertain children across countless planes of

existence. The storm, it is said, was brought about

by the marching of the helqathas, an extinct race of

planar dwellers that was enslaved and forced to

march across the lands of an unimaginable number

of planes before they were finally slaughtered,

their remains scattered through 999 different pla-

nar gates.

It was during this time, during the final march

of the helqathas, that the people of the race were

forced to walk across the lands that are now cov-

ered by streams, rivers, plains, and scattered

forests (for at the time the streams and rivers were

a single giant body of water that has sense been

fragmented and broken into the streams and rivers

that you see today). Within one of the streams in

this region the footsteps of the helqathas still

remain, the planar storm that created the stream

infusing the footsteps with a planar power so great

that the footsteps are forever carved into the earth.

It is said that any that walk within these footsteps

– following the very path taken by the helqathas –

will gain the ability to shift to any other plane that

the helqatha were forced to march across. This

ability bathes the character in a green aura, easily

seen by all that remains attached to the character

and cannot be removed by any means until the

character invokes the ability and wills himself to

another plane of existence. If this ability is not

used immediately after it is gained, the character

begins to suffer as the planar energy attempts to

consume his body. (See table above.)

Damage effects are cumulative. A character

that does not use this gained ability before he is

rendered unconscious is automatically shifted to a

random plane of existence once he falls uncon-

scious. He will awaken 4d6 rounds after arriving

on the new plane.

G AUNTLETS OF

E BAKAR S CYE

Knowledge (the planes) DC: 19

Ebakar Scye was the general of the planes,

supreme commander of the forces of evil during

the great planar wars that marked the end of the

previous existence and the birth of today’s worlds.

In the cataclysmic arcane disaster that consumed

the previous existence, a handful of creatures and

items managed to escape the destruction and

became the first inhabitants of the infinite number

of worlds and planes that were created in the dis-

aster. One of these surviving items was the

gauntlets of Ebakar Scye.

The gauntlets have been whispered about for

thousands of years but have never been found. It is

said that they are black metal gauntlets, each

weighing as much as a single warrior, and the

gauntlets are so dark in color that they absorb the

light from their immediate area and cause every-

thing within 20-feet of their location to fall under

the effects of darkness . Anyone sliding his hand

within one of these gauntlets is immediately

destroyed; his body ripped apart by unimaginable

forces and his dust-like remains consumed by the

gauntlets. Only by placing both hands within the

gauntlets at the exact same time are the gauntlets

activated, their power transporting the wearer to

any plane of his choosing. Once activated the

gauntlets vanish, stranding the user on the plane of

existence that he has chosen. Where the gauntlets

travel to at this time is unknown.

G AZE OF THE T WISTED

S TATUE

Knowledge (the planes) DC: 15

In the crumbling ruins of the City of the

Sleepless there are statues. Dozens of statues. All

in the form of a young woman clothed in robes and

holding a torch high above her head. Many of

these statues are in disrepair, limbs shattered,

heads missing, and abused in more ways than we

need concern ourselves at this time. But for all of

the destruction that has been caused to the city and

the statues, there stands a single, untouched statue

at the mouth of a cavernous building in the heart of

the city. The statue looks to the east, surveying the

rising sun, torch outstretched as if to show the sun

where the world is once each day so that the sun

can always find the lands it is meant to bathe in

light. It is a beautiful statue, though those that hap-

pen to step within the bounds of the statue’s gaze

find that it is more than simply a work of stone.

When the city was new the statue was a means

of transportation within and without the city. By

placing a hand on the outstretched torch and look-

ing into the statue’s eyes one would be immediate-

ly transported to the base of another statue of his

choice (so long as he could visualize the desired

location). Unfortunately, such simple means of

movement soon deteriorated the people of the city,

leaving them weak and lazy to the point that they

built more statues, some even having statues with-

in their home so that they need not walk from

room to room. This laziness, you’ve no doubt

deduced, led to the destruction of the city and its

people. A forgotten force of invaders devastated

the city, enslaved the people, and quickly moved

on to their next conquest, leaving behind a ruined

pile of rubble.

The last functioning statue, damaged in the

invasion, now constantly stares at a wide area in

the city, teleporting any living being that it sees to

the base of a random, still functioning statue.

There are currently twenty known statues still

functioning across the planes of existence. Their

exact locations are left to the desires of the DMs.

P LANAR R AINS

Knowledge (the planes) DC: 15

Not so much a specific gate as a type of gate,

planar rains are a type of planar storm that can

appear on almost any plane of existence and at any

time. Planar rains are a downpour of liquefied

arcane energy that wash over small areas (no larg-

er than a single building) and completely absorb

the affected area, leaving behind a vacant spot as

the affected building, crowd of people, circle of

trees, herd of animals, or what have you is trans-

ported to Treasure Valley, a small demiplane that is

a picturesque landscape in which those that are

snatched from their world are forced to live out

their existence (powerful magic, or divine power,

is needed to escape this demiplane).

The people of Treasure Valley live as best they

can, for the most part getting along. About a dozen

times each day something new appears and, fortu-

nately, the gods seem to smile on the people of

Treasure Valley because thus far everything deliv-

ered to the demiplane has been friendly and/or a

source of food and drink. Some of the people have

started small farms in order to supplement the food

and drink (oftentimes in the form of an inn or tav-

ern) that the planar rains deliver.

S IXTH C ELL ON THE

R IGHT

Knowledge (the planes) DC: 20

In the dungeons beneath the tower of the city

there exists a single cell that is not what it seems.

Any that look upon the cell see nothing out of the

ordinary; it is small, dank, sparsely furnished, and

more than likely the current home to a number of

rats, bones, and maybe even one that has been

imprisoned for a crime. Shackles and chains hang

from the stone wall and the smell of death is ever

present in the cell (more so than adjacent cells,

many jailors would tell you if asked). The sixth

cell on the right, though to all appearances simply

another cell for the criminals held within the dun-

geons, is in reality a powerful portal to another

world.

It was in the earliest days of the city, when the

tower above was but one of many that connected

the walls of a castle, the sixth cell on the right was

used for dark practices in which the sorcerers of

the castle communed with evil gods, vile demons,

and lying devils. For decades the sorcerers of the

castle held their dark rituals, transporting evil into

the world and tapping into the evil to further their

own needs. This continued rather routinely until

the unfortunate night in which the sorcerers sum-

moned a being far more powerful than they could

control, a being so powerful that it shattered the

castle above, killed hundreds within the city, and

so defiled the sixth cell on the right that it was for-

ever changed into a permanent connection to the

creature’s domain.

Today the sixth cell on the right is a planar

gate that can be accessed by simply chanting the

name of the creature – Zal’kill – while standing in

the center of the room. Chanting this name over

and over, in darkness lit only by a single red can-

dle, causes the room to collapse in on itself and

swallow all within it, spitting them out on the lone-

ly shores of a river of tar on the demiplane of

Zal’Null, home of Zal’kill. To return one need

only leap into the river of tar while carrying the

eye of a recently slain dragon. Without the eye, or

if the eye is not fresh enough, leaping into the river

of tar is suicide.

Zal’Null is a plane of heat, fire, and boiling tar.

Zal’kill has not returned to this plane for hundreds

of years and today it is uninhabited though there is

nothing to say that the creature will never return to

its home.

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