Ethereal Plane

It’s said that for those lost in the Deep Ethereal, the warm glow of the Radiant Citadel’s Auroral Diamond will provide a path through the misty surroundings to a place of safety.

 

Reflections of the Material Plane

A character can see into the Material Plane from any point on the Border Ethereal. This is something like peering through a cracked and dirty pane of glass. From some angles, the material world can be seen clearly; from others, it is distorted and warped out of all proportion; from yet others, it appears monochromatic and wreathed in mist. This close relationship between the Material and Ethereal Planes causes other phenomena. Tenebrous wisps of ectoplasm catch on the tiny impressions in the Ethereal Plane caused by physical objects passing through it. If a wall is built in the Material Plane, it can be seen through the rolling ethereal fog. Wait long enough though and these mists will form into an ethereal duplicate of the wall. This wall is only slightly more solid than any other piece of ectoplasm, but it can be seen without having to peer into the Material Plane. Over time, the ethereal landscape forms into a ghostly reflection of the real world. If the real-world object were to be destroyed or moved (say, if the wall were demolished), then the ethereal duplicate would slowly dissolve back into freefloating mist. This process takes some time, so it is possible to glimpse what the landscape used to look like by examining the local Ethereal Plane. The time taken for an ethereal duplicate to form depends on the nature of the object. For example, a character comes across the ruin of a castle and wishes to learn who once dwelled there. The castle was destroyed six months ago, but stood for sixty years prior to its destruction. The ethereal duplicates of the wooden outbuildings have long since faded, but the stone structure of the castle itself will endure for five years before dissolving. The character might find duplicate suits of armour or other metal fittings, but only if their real-world counterparts had been in the same place for at least twelve years. While exploring, the character finds an ancient shield on the wall, bearing the crest of the castle’s owner. The real-world version of this shield may have long since been shattered, but its ethereal duplicate still exists for a time. Like items shaped of ectoplasm, ethereal duplicates have a little solidity. Pushing through them requires a Strength check at a DC equal to the AC of the real-world item; a character may add his Wisdom or Charisma bonus (whichever is higher) to this roll. Dissolving ethereal duplicates are even less resilient – reduce the DC by 1d10 points. Failing the Strength check means that the character loses five feet of movement, but can try to move through the obstacle again if he has movement left. A character can pick up the ethereal duplicate of a sword and wield it against a ghost, but the duplicate will dissolve in 1d10 hours. The ethereal duplicates of magical items usually have no special properties – reduce the bonus of the item by three, or the caster level by twelve, so a sword +5 would create an ethereal duplicate sword +2, while a wand of fireballs with a caster level of seven would create an entirely non-magical duplicate. Only permanent items create ethereal duplicates, and remember a moving item does not create an ethereal duplicate at all. That sword +5 would have to be left on a shelf for a month to produce an ethereal duplicate, and the duplicate would only exist for a few days before dissolving if the sword was moved. Violent weather or major discharges of energy on the Material Plane can also cause the local ethereal duplicates to dissolve. Roll percentile dice; if the result is lower than the damage inflicted by an energy attack, the ethereal duplicates within a radius equal to the damage x 5 dissolve within 1d10 rounds. Ethereal duplicates only exist on the Ethereal Plane. Any attempt to remove them from their home plane causes them to instantly dissolve.  

Ethereal Duplicates

Material Time to Form Time to Dissolve Living creatures Never – Most plants One year One day Trees and bushes One year Two weeks Fabrics, most common items Six months Two weeks Gold, silver, gems One month One month Iron and steel One month Two weeks per year of existence Wooden buildings Six months One month Stone buildings Three months One month per year of existence Lead Instantaneous One year per year of existence Other substances 22 – (object AC) (Object AC – 10) in months

• No Gravity: Individuals on a plane with this trait merely float in space.

• Sparse Life: Life is widespread, but sparse. Plant life exists in scrublands and small copses and vast herds of animals are unknown.

• Static Weather: Weather does not change here. While there might still be clouds, storms, winds and other such phenomena, they are as unmoving as mountains and rivers. Meteorology becomes geography.

• Minor necrotic bias: Undead are common.

Though largely empty, the Ethereal Plane is not without perils. The endless roiling mists make navigating the plane a near-impossible task. Even when traversing the Border Ethereal, adventurers must take care not to become lost and find themselves in the Deep Ethereal with no way out. Beyond finding oneself lost amongst the fog, there are certain other dangers that travelers of the Ethereal Plane need to be aware of:  

Ether cyclones

  Ether cyclones are powerful storms of ethereal essence that rove across the Deep Ethereal. If they cannot be avoided, these twisting cyclones can impose significant setbacks on travelers in the Ethereal Plane. At best, getting caught in a cyclone will extend the duration of your journey. At worst, you could be hurled to a random location on one of the planes that border the Ethereal Plane, including the silvery expanse of the Astral Plane. Most ether cyclones don't physically harm adventurers, though there is a rumored standing storm known as the Keening Gloom from which no one who has entered has ever returned.     When traveling the Ethereal Plane, travelers with a passive Wisdom score of 15 or more receive 1d4 rounds of warning before suffering the cyclone’s full effect, which can be determined with a d20 roll after consulting the ether cyclone table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Monsters

  The occasional phase spider or ghost may take notice of a traveling party of adventurers, and nefarious creatures like night hags use the Ethereal Plane to intrude on the dreams of mortals.   Due to the Ethereal Plane’s nature as a connection between other planes, most creatures found here will be travelers themselves, likely a wandering Fey, fiend, or even a djinn from the bordering Elemental Planes. A traveler in the Deep Ethereal might also encounter a citizen or scout from the Radiant Citadel, the only known hub of civilization, culture, or trade within the Ethereal Plane.

Traveling in the Ethereal Plane

An adventurer might seek to travel to the Ethereal Plane for several reasons. A creature on the Ethereal Plane cannot be seen or heard by someone on the Material Plane, allowing it to be used strategically to avoid enemies. Similarly, a creature in the Border Ethereal can bypass solid objects on the Material Plane. This makes infiltrating a location without proper defenses against extraplanar incursions all too easy for creatures that can travel between the Ethereal and Material Plane.   Those brave enough to travel to the Deep Ethereal can use the Ethereal Plane as a gateway to travel the multiverse. Curtains of vaporous color are scattered throughout the Deep Ethereal that, when passed through, can lead travelers to regions of the Border Ethereal connected to one of the Elemental Planes, the Material Plane, The Feywild, or the Shadowfell. This makes the knowledge of how to safely travel the Ethereal Plane a powerful bargaining chip for purveyors of extraplanar travel.