Toggle Theme

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen
Mastering the Wild / The First World

Hazards of the First World

Source Ultimate Wilderness pg. 130
In the First World, the terrain itself can be as dangerous as any denizen. The following are just a handful of hazards found on the borders of or within this fey realm. These hazards can also manifest on the Material Plane in areas where ley lines from the First World cross over and weaken the boundaries between realms.

Phantom Ring (CR 9)

Source Ultimate Wilderness pg. 130
Sometimes rings of mushrooms known as “fairy rings” mark thin spots that function as gateways into the First World. When fairy rings become corrupted due to pollution, the effects of curses, the machinations of evil fey, or other fell influences, they can become unstable and dangerous, becoming phantom rings. These circles of magical mushrooms function like a magical trap (Perception DC 25, Disable Device DC 30), though a character can use the Survival skill in place of Perception to notice the danger presented by a phantom ring.

A phantom ring typically occupies a single 5-foot square. A character entering a phantom ring must succeed at a DC 19 Will save or be drawn into a gap in reality between the Material Plane and the First World, caught in a fragmented shard of the Ethereal Plane where she is unable to fully pass into the First World or return to the Material Plane. The character is invisible and ethereal, and she can see a dim and warped image of the Material Plane she just left, but she is unable to move more than 30 feet away from the phantom ring, which remains the only thing that appears solid and real in this ethereal pocket dimension. The character is trapped within this realm as if she had been called with a planar binding spell.

After 1d4 rounds, a disembodied spirit emerges from the phantom ring into the pocket dimension to confront the trapped character. This spirit appears as a spectral fey version of the trapped character, and it is treated as an animus shade, save that it is chaotic neutral in alignment and can exist only inside the pocket dimension created by the phantom ring. The animus shade might be friendly and talkative, or it might be cold, aloof, and demanding. The trapped character can attempt to bargain with the shade for her release, either into the First World or back into the Material Plane, but she must succeed at an opposed Charisma check to successfully persuade her captor. If the trapped character succeeds at this check, she can return to the Material Plane or enter the First World, but if she fails the check, the shade immediately attacks her. If the shade manages to kill the trapped character, it can manifest in the Material Plane, whereupon it is free to spread mayhem and its phantom ring dissolves away into sludge.

A trapped character can bolster her chances of success when bargaining with the animus shade by offering a bribe of magic items or performing a service. Each animus shade’s desires for bribes or service should vary, generally representing strange distortions of the trapped character’s personality. For example, a trapped bard might be required to perform a humiliating display of self-mockery, or a barbarian might be required to undertake a diplomatic mission without resorting to combat. Services rendered to an animus shade take place in a mindscape and typically require three out of five successful skill checks to complete. Bribes must be in the form of a valued magical item worth at least 500 gp per character level of the trapped character. If the service or bribe is successful, the trapped character can roll her opposed Charisma check twice (applying a +4 bonus on each roll) and use the better of the two rolls as her actual result when resolving the opposed Charisma check against the animus shade.

A trapped creature can always opt to simply fight the animus shade, as both are on the Ethereal Plane, though neither can move more than 30 feet from the phantom ring. If the animus shade is slain, the trapped character reappears in the Material Plane and the phantom ring becomes inert for 2d4 days before becoming active again.

Once a creature escapes from a phantom ring, the hazard relocates to a random location within 1d6 miles.

Pixie Pollen (CR 2)

Source Ultimate Wilderness pg. 131
When strange spores or magical seeds from the First World sprout up through the planar verge, they can graft themselves onto existing flowering plants. Such plants flower profusely and in vivid colors of unearthly beauty, even blooming out of season. While this may be seen as a mark of divine blessing for their fecundity, this fey influence also infuses their natural nectar and pollen with a dreamy, soporific quality that entices the unwary to drowsy contemplation.

Animals, humanoids, and monstrous humanoids that come within 30 feet of a plant that exudes pixie pollen must succeed at a DC 10 Will save or become drowsy and inattentive of their surroundings, caught up in the loveliness of the flowers. Creatures that succeed at their saving throws but remain within the area must each attempt a new save once per minute to stave off the effects of the pixie pollen.

Affected creatures take a –5 penalty on Perception checks and a –2 penalty on saving throws against sleep effects; each such creature must attempt an additional Will save at the end of each round it remains within the area or become fascinated and unwilling to leave. If the fascinate effect is broken by an attack or through the help of an ally, a drowsy creature must attempt a new Will save each round to avoid becoming fascinated again.

In addition, each minute a drowsy creature remains within an area of pixie pollen, it must also succeed at a DC 10 Fortitude save or become fatigued (or exhausted if already fatigued). An exhausted creature that fails this save falls asleep for 1 minute, after which time it can attempt a new Fortitude save once per hour to awaken. Creatures with the Endurance feat can apply that bonus on their Fortitude save against this effect.

The effects of pixie pollen are supernatural, mind-affecting sleep effects.

Weeping Waste (CR 10)

Source Ultimate Wilderness pg. 132
There are places of desolation and loneliness in the wild— trackless regions without a trace of intelligent habitation to be found. In such places, the sense of desperation and isolation can crush the spirit of a sentient being, reducing victims to tearful hopelessness and unending despair, but few such regions are as dangerous as the weeping wastes.

A weeping waste can be found in any kind of terrain, though they are most common in deserts and plains. Always sizable, they might be a few miles across or might stretch on for hundreds of leagues. Some weeping wastes are shrouded in an endless, gray drizzle that chills and soaks to the bone, while others are utterly cloudless, with no change in the vast and empty dome of the sky above.

The sinister influence of the weeping waste blurs the horizon in every direction both above and beyond the natural bleakness of the land, obliterating any trace of mountains or natural landmarks more than 1 mile away unless the viewer succeeds at a DC 20 Will save; this is an illusion effect. A creature failing this save takes a –10 penalty on Survival checks to avoid getting lost. Spells that aid navigation such as know direction, locate object, or find the path (or the ability to sense direction and distance from a status spell) function in a weeping waste only if the caster succeeds at a DC 20 caster level check. Natural tracks left by creatures fade with astonishing swiftness within a weeping waste, increasing the DC to track by 1 for every minute that has passed since the tracks were made, rather than increasing by 1 every 24 hours.

The privations of surviving in the wild are felt more keenly in a weeping waste. A creature that fails a Survival check to avoid getting lost or a sentient creature with Intelligence of 3 or higher that fails a Constitution check or Fortitude save to avoid taking nonlethal damage from a cold or hot environment, hunger or thirst, or a forced march or other exertion must succeed at a Will save against the same DC. Non-humanoids gain a +4 bonus on this Will save. Creatures that fail this save are driven to melancholy and are affected as if by crushing despair, which persists until either the nonlethal damage is removed or the affected creature spends 24 hours outside of the weeping waste, whichever comes first; if no save is allowed to avoid nonlethal damage, no save is allowed against this crushing despair either. In addition to the spell’s usual effects, affected creatures cannot benefit from morale effects.

Even for creatures able to resist the depths of depression, traveling through a weeping waste instills an insidious loneliness and melancholy that leaves sentient humanoids desperate for friendly contact. They become blindly trusting, taking a –5 penalty on Sense Motive checks and a –2 penalty on saves against charm effects, and they take a –5 penalty on initiative checks if combat begins directly after they converse with an intelligent creature. This lonely desperation persists for 1d4 days after leaving the weeping waste.