Dungeon Master's Guide

ETHEREAL CURTAINS
d8 Plane Color of Curtain
1 Material Plane Bright turquoise
2 Shadowfell Dus ky gray
3 Feywild Opalescent white
4 Plane of Air Pale blue
5 Plane of Earth Reddish-brown
6 Plane of Fire Orange
7 Plane of Water Green
8 Elemental Chaos Swirling mix of colors
Traveling through the Deep Ethereal to journey from
one plane to another is unlike physical travel. Distance
is meaningless, so although travelers feel as if they can
move by a simple act of will, it's impossible to measure
speed and hard to track the passage of time. A trip
between planes through the Deep Ethereal takes 1d10
x 10 hours, regardless of the origin and destination. In
combat, however, creatures are considered to move at
their normal speeds.
ETHER CYCLONES
An ether cyclone is a serpentine column that spins
through the plane. The cyclone appears abruptly,
distorting and uprooting ethereal forms in its path and
carrying the debris for leagues. Travelers with a passive
Wisdom (Perception) score of 15 or more receive 1d4
rounds of warning: a deep hum in the ethereal matter.
Travelers who can't reach a curtain or portal leading
elsewhere suffer the cyclone's effect. Roll a d20 and
consult the Ether Cyclone table to determine the effect
on all creatures in the vicinity.
ETHER CYCLONE
d20
Effect
1-12 Extended journey
13-19 Blown to the Border Ethereal of a random plane
(roll on the Ethereal Curtains table)
20 Hurled into the Astral Plane
The most common effect of an ether cyclone is to
extend the duration of a journey. Each character in a
group traveling together must make a DC 15 Charisma
aving throw. If at least half the group succeeds, travel
is delayed by 1d10 hours. Otherwise, the journey's travel
time is doubled. Less often, a group is blown into the
Border Ethereal of a random plane. Rarely, the cyclone
rears a hole in the fabric of the plane and hurls the party
into the Astral Plane.
E THEREAL PLANE ENCOUNTERS
_lost encounters in the Border Ethereal are with
eatures on the Material Plane whose senses or
abilities extend into the Ethereal Plane (phase spiders,
:or example). Ghosts also move freely between the
:=:rhereal and Material Planes.
In the Deep Ethereal, most encounters are with other
~ve lers , particularly ones from the Inner Planes (such
...: elementals, genies, and salamanders), as well as the
- casional celestial, fiend , or fey.
FEYWILD
Stepping into the portal was like settling into a warm bath,
though the chill didn't jade from the air. At first everything
muted-the roar of the river around the rocks below, the
ch irp ing of frogs and crickets on shore, the evening bustle of
th e town behind him . ... A moment later, the world erupted
into vibrant life. Frogs and night birds sang a chorus; the air
was awash with autumn scents; the moonlight painted the
flo wers in iridescent blue, silver, and violet; and the rushing
of th e river became a complex symphony.
-James Wyatt, Oath of Vigilance
The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of
soft lights and wonder, a place of music and death. It is a
realm of everlasting twilight, with glittering faerie lights
bobbing in the gentle breeze and fat fireflies buzzing
through groves and fields. The sky is alight with the
faded colors of an ever-setting sun, which never truly
sets (or rises for that matter); it remains stationary,
dusky and low in the sky. Away from the settled areas
ruled by the seelie fey that compose the Summer Court,
the land is a tangle of sharp-toothed brambles and
syrupy fens- perfect territory for the unseelie fey to hunt
their prey.
The Feywild exists in parallel to the Material
Plane, an alternate dimension that occupies the same
cosmological space. The landscape of the Feywild
mirrors the natural world but turns its features into
spectacular forms. Where a volcano stands on the
Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscrapersized
crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the
Feywild. A wide and muddy river on the Material Plane
might be echoed as a clear and winding brook of great
beauty. A marsh could be reflected as a vast black bog of
sinister character. And moving to the Feywild from old
ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the
door of an arch fey's castle.
The Feywild is inhabited by sylvan creatures, such
as elves, dryads, satyrs, pixies, and sprites, as well as
centaurs and magical creatures such as blink dogs,
faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker
regions of the plane are home to such malevolent
creatures as hags, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.
SEELIE AND UNSEELIE FEY
Two queens hold court in the Feywild, and most fey owe
allegiance to one or the other. Queen Titania and her
Summer Court lead the seelie fey, and the Queen of Air and
Darkness, ruler of the Gloaming Court, leads the unseelie fey.
Seelie and unseelie do not directly correlate with good and
evil, though many mortals make that equation. Many seelie
fey are good, and many unseelie are evil, but their opposition
to each other stems from their queens' jealous rivalry, not
abstract moral concerns. Ugly denizens of the Feywild, such
as fomorians and hags, are almost never members of either
court, and fey of independent spirit reject the courts entirely.
The courts have warred at times, but they also compete in
more-or-less friendly contests and even ally with one another
in small and secret ways.
CHAPTER 2 I CREATING A MULTIVERSE
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