Plane of Shadow

Description
It is the toxic plane of darkness and power. It is a hidden place that hates light. It is the frontier of worlds unknown. The Plane of Shadow is a darkly lighted dimension that is both coterminous to and coexistent with the Material Planes. It overlaps the material Planes much as the Ethereal Plane does, so a traveler can use it to cover great distances quickly. The Plane of Shadow is a world of black and white; color itself has been bleached from the environment. It otherwise appears similar to the Material Plane it is closest to.

The sky above, for example, is always a black vault with neither sun nor stars. Landmarks from the Material Plane are recognizable on the Plane of Shadow, but they are twisted, warped things - diminished reflections of what can be found on the Material Plane. Despite the lack of light sources, a variety of plants, animals and humanoids call this plane home. The Plane itself is highly morphic, and parts continually ebb and flow into other planes. As a result, precise maps are worthless. Precision is a lost cause here.

Shadow Traits
The Plane of Shadow is in many ways the dark duplicate of the Material Plane. Much is similar, but there are significant differences. It has the following traits.
 * No Gravity
 * Normal Time
 * Infinite Size
 * Magically Morphic: Spells using the shadow or nether keywords, or referencing the Shadowfell, modify the base material of this plane.
 * No Elemental or Energy Traits: However, some small regions (called Darklands have the minor negative dominant trait.
 * Mildly Neutral-Aligned
 * Enhanced Magic: Any magic with the shadow or nether keywords deals maximum damage and treats any immunity as resist 30.
 * Impeded Magic: Spells that use or generate light or fire fizzle when cast. A spellcaster must succeed on the appropriate skill check of DC 15 + Item/Power level. Even on success, the effect of that light source is halved.

Shadow Links
Travelers typically access the Plane of Shadow via portals or with spells/rituals. The most common spell is shadow walk, but others exist. Also, sometimes vortices between the Plane of Shadow and the Material Plane appear, allowing travel back and forth. These vortices generally last 1d6 days.

Shadow Inhabitants
While the Plane of Shadow is not evil in of itself, it is home to a wide variety of foul creatures that hate the light and the living. There are also native versions of much of the flora and fauna found on the Material Plane, but they tend to be dark and twisted variants. Several dangerous monsters call this plane home, and many especially like to hunt near vortices. Stories of towns and castles sucked into the Plane of Shadow abound, and such places are foul and twisted by the toxicity of this plane.

Movement and Combat
Movement is normal on the Plane of Shadow, but travelers can cover great distances on the corresponding Material Plane by by using the Plane of Shadow. Those who know the ways wander the plane seeking portals to other planes. Other travelers are thrill-seekers, looking for adventure.

Most Material Plane creatures in the Plane of Shadow got there by means of the shadow walk spell. With this spell, the caster moves into the Plane of Shadow, moves in a particular direction for a certain amount of time, and steps back onto the Material Plane. For every ten minutes spent walking when using shadow walk, the traveler moves seven miles on the Material Plane. Speed has no effect on this.

Shadow travelers may seek out alternate Material Planes or portals to other planes. It takes 1d4 hours to reach a portal that will either go to a plane or another Material Plane at random. When away from the coexisting Material Plane, the terrain grows extreme. Trees are massive, mountains become cliff-like barriers and rivers become raging torrents.

Shadow Combat
Combat in the Plane of Shadow is normal, aside from the above noted limitations of vision and magic. The area is suffused in eternal night, and creatures without darkvision are at a severe disadvantage. As noted, nonmagical light sources don't work and magical ones require luck and skill to work.

Features of the Plane of Shadow
The Plane of Shadow is no more or less dangerous than the Material Plane. Certain areas are dangerous, the natives may be hostile, but the plane itself is not deadly. Unlike on the Astral Plane and Ethereal Plane, there is food and water. The food is dark in color and dripping black blood, and the water is ichorous and thick, but they have any. The air here is perfectly breathable and a native from the Material Plane could live here for several years once he or she got used to the darkness and the ever-present slight chill.

But over decades, the plane is toxic to nonnatives. Creatures from elsewhere gain new abilities and vulnerabilities to match their adopted home. Vision here is like vision on a moonless night. Bright lights, even at half effectiveness, are beacons for other denizens of this plane. If a light source is in place, double the chance of encounters (to 92-100). Everything here is cool, but not cold. Even a fire gives off less light than normal.

Dark Mirages
One of the most distressing features of this plane is that it is a warped reflection of the Material Plane. A shadow traveler who enters the Plane of Shadow in her hometown may find it a dark, abandoned version of that town. Her home is likely on a different street and may look completely different, or be in ruins.

Other mirages are equally troubling, such as a huge dark castle where none exists on the Material Plane, or an ancient battlefield strewn with corpses 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 they are still distressing.

Shadow travelers in a place particularly familiar or meaningful to them take an attack, Level + 5 vs. Will. Those who are hit are haunted and rattled by the mirages, suffering a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, defenses and saving throws as long as they remain. Those who are not hit are unaffected for the rest of their trip.

Darklands
On the Plane of Shadows, patches of darkness exist that are even darker than the shadows themselves. Negative energy infuses those places. Whether the negative energy comes directly from the Negative Energy Plane or its a byproduct of the high concentration of undead shadows and life-draining forces is unclear. These regions have the minor negative dominant trait. Luckily, these areas are easily recognized. They are more desolate and bleak than their surrounding areas, and plants are dead and desiccated from the negative energies. Natural vortices will never open in these regions. These regions are most common where undead gather, like battlefields, unconsecrated graveyards and necromancers' lairs.

Astral Portals
The Astral Plane is coterminous with the Plane of Shadow, so magic portals can create conduits through the Astral Plane. A Material Plane traveler who cannot reach the Outer Planes normally can use the Plane of Shadow to find the Astral Plane, and travel from there.

Shadow Quakes
The Plane of Shadow is a morphic landscape, but it generally moves slowly. Over the course of a week, the landscape may alter sufficiently as to be unrecognizable, although someone continually observing the area would barely notice. But this plane does have its own version of earthquakes that are deadly. Shadows quakes tend to be dramatic but localized. A shadow quake also breaks the effect of a shadow walk spell.

The Shining Citadel
This legendary fortress may or may not exist, but it is the talk of planar travelers everywhere. The legend contends that the Plane of Shadow is artificial, created by a long-forgotten creature with the power of a deity. Once a mere demiplane, the Plane of Shadow has at its heart a Shining Citadel of color and light. To power this citadel, members of an order venerating the plane's creator sucked the life, light and color from the rest of reality. This was the Plane of Shadow born. None have found the Shining Citadel, but it is said those who never return from a visit to the deepest regions of the Plane of Shadow have found it.

Shadow Encounters
Creatures found on this plane may be natives - lumpish creatures made of shadow itself. Others are creatures from the Material Plane who have fled the world of sunlight for one of eternal night. Roll once per hour, 96-100 is an encounter.