Portal Effects (Any System/Table I)

When in the course of exploring strange Portals, Gates or Nexus Points, such as those encountered wandering through the Kalaramar Drifts or similar such questionable territories, adventurers will sometimes find themselves crossing the thresholds of unknown, unmarked and previously undiscovered/unexplored apertures to elsewhere. Many portals, gates and the like have been password-protected, sabotaged, or rigged with traps to deter casual or non-authorized use. Others are damaged or faulty. Some are just cranky old things with bad attitudes who dislike anyone using them without first saying at least a simple 'hello.'

Not all such portals or gates are necessarily awake, aware or even completely functional. Sometimes everything works out quite well, other times it can be disastrous. In-between those dramatic extremes, when a random portal appears, and you don't have anything else handy, there is this very deliberately un-balanced random table. You might consider giving the players the option to take a set amount of damage (like say 3d6) or roll on this table instead...

Random Portal Effects (D20)

1. Everything that was green is now orange.
2. Everyone within 30' suffers 2d4 damage after a tremendous thunder-clap. Save to take no damage, but be deafened for 1d6 hours.
3. Make Save or all gear is inverted or reversed.
4. All ferrous metals are magnetized, including the iron in your bloodstream. All magnets cause those affected to suffer 1d4/minute of exposure. Wielding, holding or carrying the weapons/armor/items affected by this change counts towards the ongoing damage.
5. You now possess infra-red vision...unfortunately, you can no longer see in what you used to consider the normal visible spectrum. Save and this is only temporary.
6. All gems taken through the portal are now unstable explosives causing 1d10 damage per GP value.
7. All edible food is now toxic yellow sludge that does 1d6 on contact.
8. All who have passed through this portal now possess twin shadows. This might just be only a cosmetic effect.
9. Everyone passing through this portal has their hair fall out. Make a Save and it will regrow normally.
10. All magic items requiring charges are now fully recharged.
11. Everyone Healed to maximum hit points.
12. All previously inert organic matter is now alive and regenerates at a rate of 1 hit point/per hour.
13. All gunpowder passed through this portal has started to smolder...
14. Wands start to crackle and shimmer weirdly. In 2d4 minutes they will begin to sprout tendrils and branches, leaves will uncurl, and they will quickly take root within 1d10' of the portal. There are already 1d100 similar 'Trees' in the immediate area. A careful examination will reveal 1d4 seed-pods or acorns that will be harvestable. These seeds will grow into trees that will produce (1d12) raw wands every growing season, once mature.
15. Re-roll hit points, all results of 1=0, max. result=double points (i.e. a mage with D4 for hit dice rolls a result of '4' which would then be doubled to equal 8 hit points).
16. Hit Die type shifts upwards to next higher Die-Type (i.e. D4 is now d6).
17. Clerical magic above 2nd level no longer available. All clerics must Save or else be cut off from their Patron(s) for 1d100 hours.
18. Everyone in 60' radius takes 3d4 electrical damage. A random electrical discharge will erupt from the portal every 2d10 minutes for the next 1d4 days.
19. A Wandering Monster emerges from the opposite side of the portal simultaneous to the exit of the player characters. Roll normally for initiative.
20. Healing potions, devices and spells are inverted.

Displacement Effect (Random Table/Any System)

This Table is intended for the Assault of Chaos spell, but it can also be used in the course of an apportational or teleportational duel such as are sometimes fought in the Sepulchre-Arenas of Tsan Yian, certain instances of poltergeist phenomena, or at times when things get spatially-unhinged in the Kalaramar Drifts, for example.

Displacement Effects Table I

1. Target shifted 1d100' in a random direction.
2. Buried (1d10 x 1,000') below the surface. Save and a pocket has formed around victim with enough air for about 20 minutes. Fail the Save, there's no pocket.
3. Victim is instantly transported 1d100 miles in a random direction.
4. Target has been shunted over to an Alternate Timeline for the next 1d100 minutes.
5. Spontaneously elevated (1d10 x 1,000') above the surface. Roll Save for disorientation, fail and target passes out for the first 1,000' of falling.
6. Victim is instantly transported 2d100 miles in a random direction.
7. Victim has been shifted 1d4 years into the past.
8. Target shifted 2d100' in a random direction.
9. Victim is embedded inside a wall or other vertical structure within 1,000' of starting position. Save and there's air for 10 minutes, fail Save and it doesn't matter--body is integrated into the materials of the object.
10. Target has been shunted over to an Alternate World for the next 1d100 minutes. Save to avoid forming a Weak Point.
11. Victim is instantly transported 3d100 miles in a random direction.
12. Target shifted 3d100' in a random direction.
13. Swap positions with opponent.
14. Victim is instantly transported 4d100 miles in a random direction.
15. Target superficially bonded to outer layer of nearest vertical surface. Requires 2d6 minutes to break free but suffer 3d4 damage, Save for half damage.
16. Target shifted 4d100' in a random direction.
17. Reversed position.
18. Victim is instantly transported 1d100 x 1d100 miles in a random direction.
19. Target exchanges location with a quantum shadow from an intersecting probability string. Make the Save and one or both instances of the affected individual reverts to their native probability stream within 1d100 minutes, fail the Save and one or both instances of the target are cast adrift upon the vast oceans of uncertainty, unlikely to be seen ever again.
20. Target shifted 1d100 x d100' in a random direction.

Effects of Unknown Forces (Random Table/Any System)

This Table is intended to accompany the spell: Evocation of Unknown Forces, but it can certainly be used with similar spells and in other situations at GM whim, er um discretion.

Effects of Unknown Forces (D20)

1. Every sentient entity within the area of effect of this spell has 1 point of WIS forcibly ripped from them (inflicting an additional 2d4 damage). The accumulated WIS is then aggregated into one nascent proto-consciousness that is entirely intuitive, instinctive and highly empathic. It also now knows how to take what it needs from those around it in order to become more than it already is and might decide to rip off INT or CHAR to become a more well-rounded personality. This feral egregore has 1 HD per every increment of 6 points of WIS it has to start with.
2. Everything caught within the sphere of effect is now rendered permanently transparent (roll 1d100 for percentage). It might sound like fun at first, but as the victim's eyes become transparent, they lose a corresponding amount of their ability to see within the normal spectra. A kind GM might allow those affected to adjust their visual sensitivity into some other range, such as infra-red or ultra-violet or whatever. Perhaps they gain the ability to see across the planes or gain a permanent form of clairvoyance in lieu of normal sight...
3. Save or become petrified. You're not 'really' petrified, but rather have been shifted into a much slower-moving temporal stream. Your body resembles nearly immutable stone that endures throughout the ages to those who view it on the original time-line. The effect might eventually wear-off, but only after some really extreme period of time, unless someone figures out some clever way to circumvent the temporal differential.
4. Everything goes blindingly white. A vast cacophonous roar shakes you to your very bones. Then it is totally quiet for 1d6 minutes after which it starts to snow within the area of effect for the next 1d6 hours. That is all.
5. Each living thing within range of this spell loses 1 HD that is extracted under excruciatingly painful circumstances by the writhing, slithering energies of something ultra-organic, but operating on an entirely other sequence of planar spectra. All the extracted HD are then compounded into a weird gelatinous mass of poly-cellular goo that requires 1d30 rounds to fully gestate/incubate/develop within its egg-sac, after which time a wet and very hungry abomination combining one or more features from everyone who contributed a HD to its creation process (typically in the most lurid, disgusting ways possible to describe with a straight face or in your best drop-dead serious HPL-tone) chews its way out of the amniotic caul-pod and starts looking around for its mother...and something to eat.
6. Everyone re-rolls WIS on 5d6, discards the lower two results and replaces their original score. Then each character so affected must make a Save or lose consciousness for 1d4 hours, after which time they awaken to a new life with a new personality, and no memory of their past life. The old memories and identity might be recoverable (like via certain spells), but could easily require an adventure or two in and of itself. There are those who deal in such matters, beings who barter in souls, trade in memories, or peddle new identities, as well as those who recover old identities, for a price.
7. It's all purple. Deep, dark purple. Oh, and all the air is screaming off into the void that is all deep, dark purple and empty, except for you.
8. Those caught within the area of effect can no longer see the color green. Save or this is a permanent effect.
9. Everyone within range of the spell's effect must roll a Save or have their eyes morph into wet, flabby masses of looping tendril or feather-like antennae that extend nearly a foot outwards from their skull. Each of those affected now has a permanent True Seeing spell always in effect, however they cannot bear exposure to bright lights as their new ocular appendages are extremely sensitive things.
10. The entire zone of effect of this spell has slipped out of alignment with the planar plenum and the whole thing is now sliding precipitously across one adjacent plane after another, picking up speed as it does so, until at last it reaches sufficient velocity to break free of anything you might know or recognize as reality, never to be seen again. Anyone so desiring can, of course, leave the accelerating elliptical area of effect, but will find themselves left on some other plane, dimension or place. Each minute they hesitate before jumping adds 1d4 to the amount of damage they will take when they finally do jump, unless they opt to ride this thing out...then it's a one way trip to oblivion, unless the GM decides to intervene.
11. Everyone within the zone of effect has had their skin and a small amount of their flesh commingled with everyone else. Cutting free will take 3d6 damage over the course of 3d4 rounds, with a need to either make a CON check or a Save in order to not pass out in the course of extracting one's self from this disgusting mess. Once free, another Save will be needed to avoid bleeding to death. If anyone stays interconnected like this without cutting themselves free, they will be conglomerated into a single macro-organism within 3d6 hours. It is a painless process, however the final conglomerate being will only retain portions of any one contributor's memories, abilities, or attributes...and it will most definitely not be human any longer. Oh, and it will certainly be quite hungry.
12. Everyone hands their character sheet over to the person to their right for the rest of the session. Players must succeed on a Save for both their old character and the new one in order to switch back. They can attempt this only once per session.
13. The zone of effect becomes a permanent storm with winds that lash out for 2d4 damage per round and a constant 30% chance of random lightning strikes for another 3d6 damage. See the Damned Things Tables for additional fall-out from the storm, and there is a base 5% chance that this place has become a temporary Weak Spot or Weak Point in reality, allowing things to cross-over from strange places and times. (This would be a great time to whip out one of those handy random tables of monster encounters from Mutant Future, Humanspace Empires, or some other game...)
14. Each mind within the zone of effect has been swapped into the body of someone or something else who was likewise caught within the range of this spell. Roll randomly.
15. All beings within the zone of effect must make a Save or be forcibly transmogrified into a living shadow of themselves. Their ability to assume a limited form of materiality will depend on their ability to derive substance from those they drain of hit points by a touch attack, or possibly other sorcerous solutions mostly known within Tsan Yian...
16. All those affected have malleable features, essentially their faces mold like putty, for the next 1d6 days. Yes, they will stay that way if you're not careful.
17. You all wake up with a headache, you've lost 1d4 HD, all your stats are re-rolled, and you may be an entirely other class and possibly even another race or gender now...and your memories of what happened are cloudy and painful, so it's probably best to get moving. This place just doesn't feel right to you and the sooner you get away from it, the better.
18. Those affected have had their bones transformed into translucent crystalline material much more akin to carbon than to calcium. Each of them gains one additional Hit Die, heals at twice the normal rate, and now has the ability to store spells in their bones as though they were walking, talking rings of spell storing. There are quite a few 'interested parties' who'd dearly love to get hold of such lovely bones as those the player characters now carry around within their formerly worthless hides...
19. Everything goes black --very dramatically-- and each person caught within the spell's zone of effect finds themselves facing an exact duplicate, a deranged, slavering, completely insane contra-replica hellbent on killing and devouring the original so that they can go forth from this place in their stead.
20. No one will ever know what really happened. Roll up some new characters...