Paraversal Planes: Vhonj

Vhonj is a plane made up of interconnecting strands of filamentous landscapes -- Landstrands -- predominantly scalding hot purplish deserts facing the Jewel-suns and scathingly frigid mountainous regions that are turned outwards into the cold, black void. Each of the myriad of interlocking, interlacing land-strands are tangled around a cluster of hot, jewel-faceted suns. In the deep distance there appear to be other, rival clusters of faceted suns surrounded by their own tangled skeins of terrain.

The air is hot, but breathable. The gravity is close enough to normal to not be an issue. The sun is a massive, faceted object that never sets. The sands are dozens of shades of purple. Time passes normally enough, and eight hours is still eight hours, so recovery of spells and healing follow the usual time restrictions, you just don't get any darkness on the sunny side of a Landstrand is all.

A typical Vhonjian 'land-strand'

Vhonj is an old, old place grown bitter and desolate with age and neglect. The days of great empires have come and gone long ago and only scattered ruins, buried tombs and obscure reliquaries remain as monuments and reminders of those who have gone before. Colossal statues and massive idols rear drunkenly out of the hot purple sands of the sunward deserts, each one pitted and eroded into untrue shapes by the erratic caress of the grit-laden winds. On the colder, forlorn and ice-shrouded darkward side of things entire mountains that have been molded and reshaped into strange bas reliefs of incredible scale that few prying eyes have beheld in millennia.

Transplanar Migrations of Pilgrims come to Vhonj, and those who prey upon such, as well as those who would protect them for a price. Bandits, grave-robbers and looters of all sorts and types wander the hot sands and frigid wastes of Vhonj looking for abandoned tombs, forgotten crypts, and whatever pickings they might come across--for this is a realm noted for its peculiar, often unforeseen opportunities for those engaged in their sordid trades. It is not for nothing that the quadrolophic sages of Palza refer to Vhonj as the 'ossuary of secrets.' The Land-strands of Vhonj are encrusted and piled with multitudes of inhuman  mortuaria, alien cenotaphs and strange geomantically-aligned  barrows pre-dating most of the currently active species, known worlds or legendary civilizations. Beings have been leaving dead, deceased and defunct things here for longer than anyone can accurately estimate. Other entities have been pilfering these graves for almost as long.

Few Weak Points offer passage to this plane, though use of certain Amethysts are rumored to be able to make a Weak Point resonate to Vhonj well enough to provide temporary access. The most common means of travel to Vhonj is via a Synchronocitor, though there are rumors of Cthonic Vortexes at the junctures of underground rivers and the inverted ley-lines of the Interior Cavern-systems of the land-strands.

Vhonj (Paraversal Plane)

Vhonj is a plane made up of interconnecting strands of filamentous landscapes, predominently scalding hot purplish deserts facing the Jewel-suns and scathingly frigid mountainous regions that are turned outwards into the cold, black void. Each of the myriad of interlocking, interlacing land-strands are tangled around a cluster of hot, jewel-faceted suns. In the deep distance there appear to be other, rival clusters of faceted suns surrounded by their own tangled skeins of terrain.

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This Map is Designated Open Game Content

Vhonj is an old, old place grown bitter and desolate with age and neglect. The days of great empires have come and gone long ago and only scattered ruins, buried tombs and obscure reliquaries remain as monuments and reminders of those who have gone before. Colossal statues and massive idols rear drunkenly out of the hot purple sands of the sunward deserts, each one pitted and eroded into untrue shapes by the erratic caress of the grit-laden winds. On the colder, forlorn and ice-shrouded darkward side of things entire mountains that have been molded and reshaped into strange bas reliefs of incredible scale that few prying eyes have beheld in millennia.

Pilgrims come to Vhonj, and those who prey upon such, as well as those who would protect them for a price. Bandits, grave-robbers and looters of all sorts and types wander the hot sands and frigid wastes of Vhonj looking for abandoned tombs, forgotten crypts, and whatever pickings they might come across--for this is a realm noted for its peculiar, often unforseen opportunities. It is not for nothing that the quadrolophic sages of Palza refer to Vhonj as the ossuary of secrets.

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Open Source Terrain, Environmental Effects

& Encounter Tables for Vhonj

Octoscholar

Octoscholar

No. Enc.: 1d4 (2d6)

Alignment: Neutral (Chaotic)

Movement: 90'

         Swim: 90'

Armor Class: 8

Hit Dice: 4

Attacks: 1-4 tentacle, bite or spells(some use weapons)

Damage: 1d3 per tentacle/1d4 bite/ byspell or weapon

Save: F2

Morale: 9

% Liar: (2d10 per HD as %)

Cold and calculating, unforgiving and given to sorcerous feuds amongst themselves over the most arcane bits of trivia. The Octoscholars have had a long-standing multi-planar cold war with the various offshoots of the primordial serpent people, especially the tube-born clone-descended serpent men who no longer even remember the long ago rule of their now nameless Queen.

Octoscholars are the sages of their particular sub-species of Octopoidal Degenerates and as such most of them know 2d4 random spells and will possess 1d4 random magic items(usually [30%] scrolls, [30%] rings or [30%] wands, but sometimes[10%] weapons). Their areas of expertise tend to be quite esoteric and wide ranging, often veering into areas of restricted scholarship, forbidden knowledge, primal arcana or even more troubling fields.

Octoscholars have an innate ability to spew forth a cloud of clinging, inky darkness (as Darkness spell, only an actual cloud of suspended ink droplets), or to Befuddle Laymen with their grossly arcane and convoluted pseudo-scientific discourses, lectures and rants (effectively a Confuse spell). They also use their natural ink to inscribe scrolls and to form sigils. They have a rather fine sense of touch and are extremely dexterous, enabling them to pick pockets, open locks, or disarm/set traps just like a thief.

Their ink becomes a more potent poison the angrier they get.

For a small fee (X3 the going rate) an Octoscholar will attempt to decipher and translate ancient inscriptions, old journals and spell-books, or scrolls. They always reserve the right to make copies for their own use, of course. If they roll over their % Liar score, they complete the translation honestly and with no hidden pranks or spurious gibberish to complicate matters or cause things to fail, explode or melt-down spectacularly.

They also have a base (20%) chance to cobble together some infernal contraption or improbable device, if sufficiently motivated. It is left to the GM/DM as to what constitutes 'sufficiently motivated,' in this instance.