Shadowfell Traits
- Type: Parallel plane to Material Plane. Connects all alternate Material Planes.
- Physics. Normal gravity. normal time, infinite in size, magically morphic.
- Light. All light sources, including magical light, have half the normal radius of bright and dim light they emit. (e.g. a torch instead now only emits 10 feet of bright light and 10 feet of dim light)
- Light Spells. Any attempt to cast a spell whose function is to produce light (such as light or continual flame) requires a successful DC 10 ability check using the caster’s spellcasting ability modifier. On a failure, the slot is wasted and the spell fails.
- Enhanced Magic. Any spells which involve or act to produce shadow or darkness (such as the darkness or maddening darkness) when cast are treated as if cast at one level higher than the slot used and with their magnitudes and area of effects doubled. Spells of the Illusion and Necromancy schools are also treated as being cast as one level higher than the slot expended.
-
Shadowfell Despair
- 1/Day: When appropriate, a character not native to the Shadowfell must make a DC 10 Wisdom Saving throw or suffer one effect from the Shadowfell despair table. If a character is already suffering a despair effect and fails the saving throw, the new despair effect replaces the old one. After finishing a long rest, a character can attempt to overcome the despair with a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. (The DC is higher because it's harder to shake off despair once it has taken hold.) On a successful save, the despair effect ends for that character. A calm emotions spell removes despair, as does any spell or other magical effect that removes a curse.
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Features
Pervasive Melancholy
One of the common misunderstandings about the Shadowfell is the belief it is ever dark. The shadowy plane, contrary to myths, features both day and night. However, the Shadowfell’s sun is usually hidden behind clouds, low on the horizon, or pale and weak, seemingly unable to warm the realm. The moon too shines here, though it does so with the dull orange glow of a harvest orb. Day and night cycles are measured more by emotion rather than by light. During the day, feelings of depression and sadness hang in the air. At night, anxiety and paranoia are felt throughout the plane.
Aside from the unusual movements of celestial bodies, the Shadowfell’s influence is most felt in the plane’s atmosphere. The place is no warmer or colder than the world, but a constant sense of coolness, an uneasy chill in the joints and the dampness of the hair, persists even in the face of a bonfire. It gets worse at night, when each breath sends out a plume of mist, and a rime of frost settles across the ground.
Perhaps the most insidious effect the Shadowfell has is a mental one. Those who travel the plane pay a heavy emotional price. It begins with a banked enthusiasm, a quenching of the fires of optimism beneath the heavy weight of sadness. Failure seems assured, hopelessness dogs every step. Depression wraps its cancerous claws about the heart. Although this melancholy in no way interferes with the ability (or lack thereof ) to attain one’s objectives, each day is a trial of resolve. Travelers must ever steel their hearts against the powerful presence of sorrow.
Shadow Crossings
Similar to fey crossings, shadow crossings are locations where the veil between the Material Plane and the Shadowfell is so thin that creatures can walk from one plane to the other. A blot of shadow in the corner of a dusty crypt might be a shadow crossing, as might an open grave. Shadow crossings form in gloomy places where spirits or the stench of death lingers, such as battlefields, graveyards, and tombs. They manifest only in darkness, closing as soon as they feel light's kiss.
Few shadow crossings are continuously active. Most activate only under the right conditions, such as certain times of day, certain days of the year, or when various celestial phenomena take place—eclipses or new moons, for example. Travelers can also activate dormant crossing points using the Shadow Passage ritual, which is easier than creating a new portal or using the Planar Portal ritual. A more reliable access to the Shadowfell is one of the many portals connecting this plane to the natural world. Most such connections bear the indelible mark of the Shadowfell. Gloomy, cold, and dripping with shadow, these places are tucked away, hidden by shadows, and behind layers of myth and superstition. Sites where portals to the Shadowfell exist usually have strong ties to death. Crude shrines erected to Orcus and hidden temples to Vecna, for example,
might offer entry into Shadowfell.
Dark Mirages
One of the most distressing features of the Shadowfell is that it is a warped reflection of the Material Plane. A shadow traveler who enters the Shadowfell from her hometown may find herself in a dark, abandoned version of that town. The parallels are not exact, so her home may be on a different street, be built in a different style, or (most likely) lie in ruins. Other mirages are equally troubling, such as a huge dark castle where none exists on the Material Plane, or an ancient battlefield where a dungeon should be. Most troubling of all are the shadowy echoes of people the traveler knows, shadow creatures with the twisted but still recognizable features of loved ones. These shadow duplicates have no special abilities, but the effect is disconcerting nonetheless.
Sorrow of Memories
Shadow travelers in a place particularly familiar or meaningful to them must make a DC 15 Wisdom Saving throw to ignore such dark mirages. Those who fail are haunted and rattled by the similarities, suffering disadvantage on attacks and saving throws as long as they remain in a location familiar to them. Travelers who make their saves are unaffected by the dark mirages for the duration of their trip to the Shadowfell.
Dark mirages occur because the Shadowfell is so close to the Material Plane. The echo of an alternate Material Plane can also bleed through onto the Plane of Shadow, making the dark mirages more unsettling. Oracles and soothsayers sometimes journey onto the Shadowfell looking for enlightenment among the darkness, attempting to discover if such dark mirages are harbingers of the future.
Darklands
Although supernatural energies extend throughout the Shadowfell, some places are stronger in shadow than others. Called darklands, these regions are not reflections of the natural world; they are unique manifestations of gloom. Desolate places, they leech life and vigor from the living. Color pales further in their vicinity and everything appears in shades of gray. Light found in the darklands is only that which travelers carry, and even then, its dulled and wane. Darklands are most often unstable and short-lived. Certain bleak areas, however, do solidify into permanent realms. These regions are among the most dangerous in the Shadowfell, because permanent darklands attract powerful undead, nightwalkers and worse. Most travelers avoid them at all costs.
Darklands Traits
- Necrotic Affinity: Any spell or attack that deals necrotic damage deals an additional dice of necrotic damage, and creatures have resistance to radiant damage.
- Reanimation: Living humanoids killed in darklands reanimate as zombies 3d6 minutes after death. Some powerful humanoids may rise as more powerful undead. Gentle repose or complete destruction of the corpse prevents a dead creature from reanimating.
- Recalcitrance: Spells and abilities to control or command undead in darklands automatically fail. Undead already controlled or commanded by spells and abilities prior to entering darklands are unaffected.
Necromantic Seepage
Pools of necromantic seepage are one of the most disturbing features in the Shadowfell. They bubble up from fissures in the ground or out of rifts in the air. The seepage is a thick black fluid, the congealed essence of shadow warped into a corrupting and rotting presence. Samples of the seepage removed from the pool dry after 1 minute, becoming black harmless flakes dispersed by the faintest breeze. In liquid form, however, necromantic seepage is lethal. Any living creature entering a space containing necromantic seepage contracts a terrible disease known as soul rot.
Soul Rot
The creature must make a DC 15 Constitution Saving throw or be afflicted with the Soul Rot disease. The creature cannot regain hit points from rests, has disadvantage on attack rolls, and its hit point maximum decreases by 10 (3d6) for every 24 hours that elapse. If the disease reduces the target's hit point maximum to 0, the target dies, and it rises as a wraith. The disease lasts until removed by the Lesser Restoration spell or other magic.
Umbral Taint
The Shadowfell’s lands as a whole are gloomy by dint of its psychic signature, but certain areas emit a presence far more awful. When a powerful undead creature is destroyed, it leaves behind a stain to mark its fall. These areas are colder than the normal coolness pervasive in the plane. Also, they are infused with the memories of the creature destroyed. This corruption can lend power to other undead creatures.
An area of umbral taint typically takes tip the space occupied by the powerful undead whose demise created it. Attacks that deal necrotic damage used in a space of umbral taint have advantage on attack rolls. Undead in a space filled with umbral taint gain the following regeneration 5 for every 5 CR the monster had before it died.
CR Regeneration
0 - 4 Regeneration 5
5 - 9 Regeneration 10
10-14 Regeneration 15
15-19 Regeneration 20
20-24 Regeneration 25
25-30 Regeneration 30
Shadow Quakes
The Shadowfell is a morphic landscape, but in general it moves slowly. Over the course of a week the landscape may alter sufficiently to be unrecognizable, although someone continually observing the plane wouldn’t see it actually moving. But the Shadowfell has its own version of earthquakes that can prove deadly to the shadow traveler.
Shadow quakes tend to be dramatic but localized, having the same effect as an earthquake spell within a 100-foot radius. Flying and incorporeal creatures are unaffected. The shadow quake can also break the effect of a shadow walk spell. The spellcaster must make a Concentration check (DC 15) to maintain control of the spell. If the caster fails, the spell's targets are stranded on the plane as if lost or abandoned. It is still possible to return to the Material Plane by casting another shadow walk or locating a shadow vortex or other portal. The shadow quake can also break the concentration of a spellcaster concentrating on a spell. The spellcaster must make a Concentration check (DC 15) to maintain control of the spell. If the caster fails, the caster’s concentration is broken and the spell fails.
Random Encounters
Whenever the characters take a rest, on a 1d20 roll of 18-20, the characters encounter one of the following. (Not all encounters are necessarily combat encounters or meant to be fought)
Table 1. Shadowfell Rest Encounters
d100 Encounter
01—05 Astral portaI
06—07 1d6 Bodaks
08—09 2d4 Cloakers
10—16 Darklands
17—18 Nightmare (with shadow blend trait, as Shadow Mastiff)
19—20 Ephemera, umbral banyan (reflavored Tree Blight, 1d4 STR drain at start of each turn with Root)
21—23 Necromancer trader (A necromancer with a Cadaver Collector)
24—25
26—27 Nightwalker
28—29
30—32 4d6 The Wretched
33—35 2d4+2 The Lost
36—38 The Lonely
39—41 1d4 The Hungry
42—44 1d2 The Angry
45—47 Necromantic seepage with 4d6+4 Zombies
48—50 The Hungry, The Angry, The Lonely, The Lost, The Wretched
51—55 2d4+2 Shadow mastiffs
56—58 1d4 Cadaver Collectors roaming a battlefield
59—61 Balhannoth in its Lair
62—63 Shadow quake
64—66 Skull Lord and three death knights riding Young Red Shadow Dragons high in the sky
67—76 3d6 Shadows
77—86 Necromancer with 3d6 Zombies and 2d4 ghouls
87—96 A lone Archmage (any evil alignment)
97—98 2d4 Wraiths
99 A Lich with several oddities for trade.
100 Dread Emperor with four chained children travelling to a Shadowfell city.
Table 2. Shadowfell Encounters (Levels 5-10)
|
Table 3. Shadowfell Encounters (Levels 11-16)
|