There are times, when game mastering, that you spin up worlds and adventures which enrapture your players and are talked of fondly for years to come.
At least, that is the hope. What we seem to remember most is not the clever setup by the game master, but rather the audacious, imaginative actions of the players.
We had such an event at my table recently. My players just completed a quest in which a misunderstanding led them to banish the very thing they sought to the Elemental Plane of Earth. It was shocking, hilarious, and infinitely more exciting than what I had planned.
I will share with you both the tale of misadventure and my version of the Plane of Earth.
It all started with a simple quest…
Table of Contents
The Quest
Three destructive creatures of land, sky, and sea had awoken. The characters were tasked with finding and defeating these creatures to put the elements of the islands back in balance.
Inspired by the anime Suzume (perfect film for a plane ride), I decided that when the creatures were defeated they would transform into a stone sphere or point that, when placed on a special plinth, acts as an anchor that stabilizes the associated element.
The party knew there was a huge elemental monster wrecking havoc, and they also knew they needed to find an arcane stone ball to place on a plinth. What they did not realize was that the monster was the same thing as the stone ball, and so they banished the monster to a different plane to look for the stone ball without distractions.
With the Land Anchor completely removed from their plane of existence, a massive rift split open in the ground, and the jungle vegetation began to die. The characters hastened to the Elemental Plane of Earth to find the monster and right their mistake.
What I had set up as a relatively low-stakes boss monster fight was suddenly a dire situation; the ground was literally falling apart beneath the characters’ feet.
Getting There
Our campaign setting is the Smoldering Isles, and it is essentially fantasy Hawaii. These islands are closely connected to the elements, with entrances to the Planes of Air, Fire, and Water in plain sight.
The entrance to the Plane of Earth was unknown to the characters. Fortunately, they had hired a scholar to translate a druidic text for them, and so they received the following information:
Few know the Isle of Moving Shores has a tunnel to the Elemental Plan of Earth at its center. Many years ago, an aarakocra named Chureee explored this island and returned with tales of dao and earth genasi living in opulent palaces of gold. He wrote that the dao were most unpleasant and tried to take his rations.
Chureee stole a sack of gems and fled back to Inu Piko. He died the following day from a dao curse. None have returned to the Isle of Moving Shores since.
The characters sailed to the Isle of Moving Shores with the help of a sea orc pirate who knew a safe place to drop anchor among the treacherous rocks. They used scrolls of Fly to reach the top of the island’s steep 300 ft cliffs, narrowly avoiding plummeting to their deaths by rocks thrown from disturbed earth elementals.
Based on the translated text, the characters concluded that the dao would be interested in gifts of fine food and drink from the city. They approached the village of gem-encrusted dome huts holding pineapples and bananas above their heads. Though two dao challenged the characters, they fought only long enough to realize that the food was at risk of being crushed in the process.
A genasi woman named Jumiyya agreed to guide them through the Elemental Plane of Earth in exchange for the characters transporting her and a few friends to a city where they could start new lives.
The party was now ready to enter the elemental plane.
The Elemental Plane of Earth
My version of the Elemental Plane of Earth is an endless realm of stone, unconsolidated mineral material (regolith), and likely the occasional aquifer stream. Many areas have pockets of large caverns where various creatures dwell. Gravity is generally down, except when it is not.
The genasi guide Jumiyya advised the characters that the best way to survive the Elemental Plane of Earth is to be faster than the monsters that want to crush, eat, torture, or otherwise detain you for their own amusement.
The party knew the Creature of the Land that they sought had power over vegetation and caused prolific masses of vines to grow around it. This allowed me to leave moss and plant breadcrumbs that led to the elemental creature they sought.
This section of the Plane of Earth contains the following denizens:
- A city of dao on the other side of a locked sapphire gate.
- Stone scorpions that want to catch and eat prey.
- Sentient singing stones that are mysterious and at times portentous.
- Mud oozes that want to smother and digest prey.
- Mud mephits that want to watch creatures be eaten by mud oozes.
- Gargoyles that smoke, play cards, and take cruel pleasure in killing flesh creatures.
- Korreds who really really do not anyone to steal their resources of iron, gold, and diamonds. Actually, they would generally prefer if other creatures did not exist.
- Bulettes that want to resolve their internal territory disputes and will crush anything that gets in the way.
- Earth elementals that are hostile towards everything they do not understand (e.g. player characters).
- A Golem that wants to meditate on its many years of service to its now-dead master in peace.
- Many cockatrices that want to bite, petrify, and devour anything that moves.
- And of course, the Creature of the Land and the various vines and plants it has created.
Stat Block: The Creature of the Land
The Creature of the Land is my version of the MCDM Principle of Growth from Flee, Mortals!, a huge centipede monster made of the elements earth and water. It represents the might of the land flourishing and rampaging out of control.
The cavern with the Creature of the Land was a place where gravity was distorted, such that whatever surface you walked on was “down”. This allowed the characters to walk on the ceiling and avoid the tangle of vines covering the floor.
As players do, they wanted to take a short rest on the ceiling before facing the final boss. I had them make a luck roll to see if they could rest undisturbed. They rolled a critical failure: they were resting against the same column of stone that the Creature of the Land was, which they realized when they saw hundreds of little centipede feet moving next to them.
It was a good battle. They did fine without taking a rest.
Conclusion
Here closes another chapter of a tale: unexpected, adventurous, and happily epic. No one would have remembered the scenario as written. Everyone will remember the time they almost destroyed the world by banishing an elemental anchor to another plane.
This is an example of tabletop roleplaying games at their best, when the player actions can meaningfully influence the course of the game. I would enjoy hearing unplanned tales from other tables as well.
Until next time, keep exploring.
(Post cover image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians.)
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