Getting Around (TIP)

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Naturally, the immediate concern for any innerplanar traveler is survival. But once a cutter's figured out how to keep himself alive, he's got to learn how to move around in his new environment with getting lost (in either sense of the word).
==North is North, Ain't It?==
The concepts of "north and south" or "east and west" don't mean anything in the Inner Planes. A body won't be able to tell one direction from another without help from a native source.
Chant is that an item called an elemental compass lets a traveler find his way around the Inner Planes. While it doesn't indicate "north" or anything like that, the compass points toward the various elemental frontiers. Thus, a body in the plane of Air can use such a device to determine which direction will lead him to the paraplane of Smoke or the quasiplane of Lightning.
These widgets can be found in Sigil's Great Bazaar or in many of the markets of larger outer-planar burgs-particularly those with known portals leading to an Inner Plane. Buyers should be careful, however, because many a swindler has left a gullible sod stranded in the Inner Planes with a compass so useless that it might as well say "north" and "south."
Planewalkers can also try to hire a native to lead them safely and surely (as detailed below), but without a guide or a compass, it's almost impossible to get around the Inner Planes. Many sods're used to some of the Outer Planes or the Astral, where they just need to think about their destination and they get there one way or another. Not here. No matter what a body thinks, believes, or feels, it won't move him an inch closer to his goal. Maps can be useful, but only in planes like Earth where there's a path to follow or recognizable landmarks to spot. For example, the fabled obsidian maps of the plane of Fire are helpful only if a basher can tell where the Plain of Burnt Dreams ends and the Sea of Searing Waves begins-and of course, it all looks like fire, even to the best planewalkers.
Sometimes, folks living in the Inner Planes create minor magical charms called beacon seeds. When swallowed, these pebblelike seeds guide the swallower to a particular destination on a particular plane. No matter where he is in the plane, the eater always knows how to get to the keyed location. Natives often give these to newcomers or visitors so the sods can find their way back when they invariably get lost. Occasionally, the high-ups of an inner-planar burg, seeking to attract new merchants or wealthy tourists, mass-produce the seeds and distribute them freely in places like Sigil.
And then there's the story of the berk who took the name beacon seed literally and planted one in the ground. Chant is the seed either grew into a magical bush that literally sprouted golden leaves, or gave rise to a creature like a shambling mound that eventually devoured the poor planter. One or both tales're probably screed, but that's the way of the chant.
==Elemental Guides==
All of the Inner Planes are infinite worlds unto themselves. Traveling within or between them can ue a difficult and time-consuming endeavor. Guidelines for getting around a given plane appear in that plane's chapter, later in this book. Still, certain considerations apply to the Inner Planes as a whole. The most important of these regards the hiring or use of elemental guides.
An elemental guide is a native of a particular Inner Plane-usually an honest-to-goodness elemental, mephit, or other such creature. Some, however, are humans or other nonnatives who've called kip in the plane for most or even all of their lives (after all, few Inner Planes lack communities of displaced planars who've learned to live in the environment). A group of travelers can hire one of these guides to lead them to a given destination in the plane, though the advantages of securing such a guide can extend far beyond mere direction.
Movement with the aid of an elemental guide is far swifter and more accurate than independent travel. Because the Inner Planes are infinite, a lone planewalker can journey forever without reaching his destination. An elemental guide, on the other hand, can bring a body to any given point in its home plane in 100 to 1,000 ( 10d 100) hours. It can also lead a basher to the border with another plane even more swiftlysuch a trip lasts only 10 to 100 ( 10d 10) hours.
At the DM's discretion, some of the more powerful native guides can confer a certain level of protection to a traveler. While a body is in physical contact with the guide, he's unaffected by the natural environment of any plane in which the guide can survive. Thus, a cutter who's hired an elemental guide from the plane of Fire can move about there without feeling the searing kiss of its deadly flames, and he's safe in Magma and Radiance as well.
Naturally, the cost of hiring an elemental guide can be quite high. And to make matters worse, few of these creatures have any interest in gold or the like. Exactly what type of payment an elemental creature expects is determined by its nature. For example, an air elemental might demand fragrances and perfumes, while a fire elemental might insist upon rare fuels it can consume. In all cases, however, the value of such payments will not be less than 100 gold pieces per hour of service.
==Safe Havens==
Wherever a cutter goes, it seems that someone's been there before him. Now, that impression obviously isn't always true-if there's any doubt, just look up the definition of "infinite" -but it sure can feel that way. The Inner Planes're no different. Even in the most hostile of environments, some hasher's long ago tumbled to a way to survive there and call it home.
Sure, this can be unsatisfying to the intrepid planar explorer who wants to get everywhere first, but it can also save his life. Where a basher finds other planewalkers or nonnative residents, he's sure to find what he himself needs to survive, whether it's clear air, fresh water, or some sort of protection against the harsh surroundings.
Throughout the Inner Planes, a traveler might find anything from humble waystations to entire cities of humans, elves, dwarves, githyanki, or just about anything else the DM can imagine. Some of the more interesting sites include Hoard, a reputed city of dragons in the quasiplane of Mineral; Yuhnmoag, a mind flayer fortress in the paraplane of Ooze; Slaan, a glass-covered lizard man burg in the paraplane of Smoke (chant says it was built by something other than lizard men, but no one knows what); Xigg Mannaric, a secret gehreleth outpost/laboratory floating through the quasiplane of Lightning; and Deathdelve, a fantastically large orcish mine dug out of a portion of the Elemental Plane of Earth.
'Course, while a cutter might hope to find solace in these and other places, he'll hit the blinds if he expects to get help for free. The Inner Planes exemplify survival and harsh reality, and those who call it their home, whether by birth or by choice, usually adopt the same ideal. A body who needs aid or refuge should expect to pay far more than he would just about anywhere else in the multiverse (except, perhaps, the Lower Planes, but who goes looking for aid there?).
An interesting example of potential assistance is a blood named Captain Soot (Pl/♂ human/F 12/N), who pilots a magical ship, the Ebony Queen. Soot sails the Inner Planes like eighteen individual seas and knows each like a well-seasoned sailor on the Prime knows the waters of his own world. He's respected among even geniekind, all of whom have pledged him safe passage through their realms. Soot's not a guide as such, but he does carry passengers, at a cost of 200 gold pieces per person and 300 gp per 100 cubic feet of cargo-and that's just to go from one neighboring plane to the next.
==The Ethereal Plane==
The Ethereal Plane extends its noncorporeal borders to each and every Inner Plane (as well as to the Prime Material). Thus, it's one of the best ways to travel to the Inner Planes in general, or to move from one Inner Plane to another. Fact is, numerous intelligent elemental creatures use the Ethereal as a neutral ground upon which to meet or parlay.
The Ethereal Plane has two parts: the Border Ethereal and the Deep Ethereal. The Deep Ethereal is a place far removed from any of the planes that the Ethereal touches, with its own qualities and parameters. But on the Border Ethereal, which intersects by each Inner Plane in turn, a planewalker can experience a fraction of the environmental dangers associated with each plane. For example, bashers traveling through the Border Ethereal where it touches the paraplane of Magma find movement a little slower and may suffer a slight amount of heat damage. (For more information, refer to the PLANESCAPE accessory A Guide to the Ethereal Plane [2633].)
Bloods can use the Ethereal to move "through" an Inner Plane without suffering its severe environmental dangers by crossing required distances on the Border Ethereal rather than in the plane itself. This can be tricky, but those accustomed to becoming ethereal on the Prime Material Plane can do it with relative ease.
It's not completely safe, of course. Most inner-planar creatures aren't aware of ethereal objects or travelers, but some-including some genies, powerful elementals, and other beings-can see into the Ethereal and won't allow an ethereal planewalker to trod through their territory unchallenged. For the most part, however, being ethereal's a good way to avoid notice and conflict.
Speaking of conflict, many creatures in the Ethereal usually avoid the elemental border areas, since the crossover environments cause damage or at least difficulty. Devourers, phase spiders, terithran, and others stick to the Deep Ethereal or the Prime part of the Border. However, some beings, such as the ghosts of those killed in the Inner Planes, certain nathri tribes, plasms, and various genie races frequent the border areas that intersect the Inner Planes.