Physical Conditions - Fire (TIP)

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Those from the worlds of diluted elements must learn a number of things if they are to survive in the Elemental Planes. In the lifeless, boring expanse of the plane of Stone (Earth-the Editor), for instance, explorers who do not possess a plan for moving through solid stone will be lost the minute they arrive. Of course, the biggest obstacle to traveling the realm of Fire should seem obvious to even the most inexperienced traveler: They must discover a way to resist the heat and flames that their too-frail cold bodies cannot tolerate.
Many assume, for reasons which I do not fully understand, that the plane of Elemental Fire is an evil place. Perhaps the answer lies in the concept many races have regarding Hell, or perhaps it is because fire can be a destructive, ever-hungering force. Some even call my plane the Crematorium, which seems quite rude to me, truth be told. Do not assume that just because our environment is so hostile to your cool flesh, that we-the inhabitants of this realmare all evil.
: (It must be said, for all our good narrator's protestations, that many of the inhabitants of the plane of Fire are evil in nature. OJ course, many innerplanar natives tend toward evil, just as a fair portion are dedicated to the cause of good. And it should be said that unlike tile fiends of the Lower Planes, efreet, salamanders, and other inner-planar bashers aren't inherently, irrevocably evil. Good, or at least neutral, efreetiJor example-are more common than a body might think.- the Editor)
==Getting Here==
The plane of Fire is not only dangerous to nonnatives, but, I am told, it can very hard to reach. Few gateways lead here and even fewer lead out. Still, those who possess the determination can find their way into this vast, insatiable blaze. I leave mention of the well-documented portals of Sigil to others; instead, I will reveal a few of the lesser-known means of ingress that I have learned of from planar travelers.
In the tortured wastes of Carceri's lowest sphere there is an immense portal bound within a great ring of jumbled bones. Every one of these bones comes from an intelligent creature of some sort.
In order to open this magical conduit and thus travel to Fire, a creature must press a bone against the ring. This bone must be from some manner of intelligent creature. Further, it must be from a type of creature whose bones have never before been used to open the portal. If the bone is new to the gate, it is absorbed into the structure of the portal and the doorway opens. If this type of bone has already been used to open the gate, nothing happens.
So just how likely is it that any given type of bone works? Well, don't expect anything common to open the portal. The following chart indicates the chance that a specific type of bone causes the gate to open.
FrequencyRating	Chance toOpen Gate
Common 	1%
Uncommon 	2%
Rare 	3%
Very Rare 	5%
The Frequency Rating on the above table refers to the MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM entry describing the creature. Certain unique beings, like the dread Tarrasque, may provide a greater chance of success (as the DM wishes).
It is said that the yugoloths of Gehenna have their own gateway to the domain of Elemental Fire. This basalt-framed portal, if it does indeed exist, is rumored to stand within the dread Tower of the Arcanaloths. Unlocking this gate is very easy, one need only have a black heart (that is, be of evil alignment-the Editor) and carry an open flame.
The real problem, of course, is reaching it. Rumors claim that anyone foolish enough to enter the Tower finds either untold magical power or death. The latter seems to be the case far more often than not. After all, how many beings have you met with unlimited magical power?
Vortices to the plane of Fire are far more common than portals, though even these are few and far between. While expanses of water, air, and earth are common enough on the Prime Material and other such concentrations of fire are, sadly, almost unknown. Still, when a great blaze erupts (a vast forest fire or suchlike), the heart of the inferno sometimes creates a vortex to the plane of Fire.
Further, there are those who say that the magical fire that spews from the maws of legendary red dragons is drawn directly from the Elemental Plane of Fire. If this is true, it might be possible to use such a torrent of flame to make the journey. Whether it works or not, however, most agree that a flammable being would have to "barmytt to try it. I, on the other hand, would love to attempt the experiment-if only the flames of such beasts were their only threat....
==Hazards==
===Fire Fire And More Fire===
Any nonmagical or unprotected flammable material like wood, paper, cloth, and so forth instantly bursts into flames when it arrives here. Nothing like this lasts for more than a round. Anyone wearing items made of such material suffers 1d10 points of damage if they are not already shielded from injury by heat or flame. Magical items like spells scrolls or a cloak of elvenkind or such are allowed a saving throw vs. magical fire at a -6 penalty to escape such destruction.
Unprotected water and other fluids instantly boil away into vapor. Those exposed to these boiling liquids or the cloud of superheated steam they release suffers 2d10 points of damage. Magical fluids (which do not include holy water) may make a saving throw vs. magical fire, although a -4 penalty is applied to this check. Water of any type, including ice, may never be conjured to this plane.
Nonmagical or unprotected nonvokanic stone melts into magma in 2 rounds and then boils away into vapor 2 rounds after that. This inflicts 3d10 points of damage on anyone in close contact with such material. Living creatures made of stone, such as earth elementals or golems, suffer 1d10 points of damage from the heat each round. Volcanic stone, which includes basalt, obsidian, and pumice, is immune to the heat of this plane. Magical stone of any type can survive with a successful saving throw vs. magical fire (with a -2 penalty).
Unprotected or nonmagical metal items heat to the melting point in only 2 rounds. This causes 4d10 points of damage to those in contact with the metal, and may potentially disable limbs and the like (as per the heat metal spell). Magical metal items can escape this fate with an unmodified saving throw vs. magical fire.
Creatures of flesh and blood suffer damage each round that they spend exposed to the heat and fire of this plane. The severity of their injuries relies upon their natural Armor Class as indicated on the chart below.
NATURAL AC	DAMAGE PER ROUND
10 to 8 	6d10
7 to 5 	5d10
4 to 2 	4d10
1 to -1 	3d10
-2 to -4 	2d10
-5 to -7 	1d1O
-8 to -10 	Nil
Magic is, without a doubt, the best protection a nonnative can have. Spells like protection from fire or magical trinkets like a ring of fire protection are nothing short of necessities here. Of course, a fragile, flammable outsider has to be careful, because the minute his protection expires, he likely to do the same.
===Breathing===
Again, I tum to the opinionated Filiag Highthumbs for the nonnative's point of view:
: "What passes for an atmosphere in the plane of Fire isn't really fit for man or beast. Forget the fact that it's superheated. If you've lived long enough to be worried about breathing, then you've obviously got something to protect yourself from the fires.
: "The problem with breathing in the plane of Fire is that the air here a mixture of toxic gases (many of which are .flammable and in the process of burning). Beyond that, the stuff is very thin and chock-full of poisonous vapors. The net effect of all this is that a body must make a saving throw vs. breath weapon each round or suffer 1d10 points of damage. This saving throw can be avoided by holding your breath, but that's only a delaying tactic at best. And when your lungs give out and you have to start gasping in breaths, this imposes a -2 penalty on your saving throw.
: "A body can protect himself from this danger in any number of ways. Anything that slows or prevents poisoning retards or negates the effects of this danger. Spells such as breathe fire or magma or airy fire are sure protections. Likewise, a planewalker who doesn't need to breathe doesn't need to worry about it."
Of course, when I travel to a nonburning plane, I can breathe normally (perhaps with a little discomfort), but it is probably improper to boast....
===Vision And Senses===
No one lacks for light in the plane of Fire. The blaze here provides all manner of beautiful illumination in almost any conceivable color, from the yellow of a campfire to the blue of an eternal flame. Despite all this illumination, though, flame is much harder to see through than air for those not blessed with flamesight.
Creatures not native to this plane find the range of their vision reduced to only 120 feet. Native creatures can see twice as far in most cases. At the market in the glorious City of Brass (see below-the Editor), a nonnative can acquire special glasses that improve vision. These spectacles have lenses fashioned from smoky quartz, giving nonnative creatures vision to a range of 240 feet.
Needless to say, infravision doesn't work in the plane of Fire. The whole plane is so awash with heat that the difference between one place and another is insignificant.
===Elemental Pockets===
In many of the Inner Planes, elemental seepage is a dangerous phenomenon. In the plane of Fire, these pockets can offer flammable explorers a refuge from the relentless inferno that surrounds them. The problem, however, is that such pockets are generally only slightly more resistant to the realm than the average "planewalker." Thus, these refuges are fleeting things at best. We of the plane do not care for these pockets and do not mourn their passing. They dilute the purity of Fire-although the pockets of magma and smoke are more tolerable than say, those of earth and water. Of course, showing the true superiority of flame, earth and water become magma and steam here!
And, of course, explorers are not the only people-or things-looking for respite from the heat. Countless predators (salamanders, fire snakes, flame spirits, hell hounds, phantom stalkers, fire giants, and so on) watch any safe haven the way a lion watches a water hole in the Beastlands.
But Fire does not tolerate other substances, and so these pockets tend to be consumed in time. On the average, an elemental pocket is consumed at a rate of 20 yards per day. Thus, a pocket 400 yards in diameter gradually dwindles in size until it is utterly consumed in 20 days, while a pocket 1 mile across (that's 1,760 yards) lasts 88 days.
What does that mean for the very large pockets? Well, a pocket 10,000 miles across (or 17 .6 million yards) lingers for 880,000 days. That's just shy of 2,410 years. To the average human, that might seem an eternity. In the scope of the multiverse's eternal fires, however, it is but a blink of an eye. 
Pockets of ash, magma, smoke, and radiance are consumed at slower rates than normal. Because of their close relationship to elemental Fire, they bum away at a rate of only 10 yards per day. The reverse is true of those elements tied to water. Elemental pockets of water, ice, steam, ooze, and salt are consumed at a rate of 40 yards per day.
===Other Dangers===
Once you poor, frail mortals have dealt with the basic difficulties of simple survival, you may wish to consider two unique hazards found within the plane of Fire.
DETONATION. From time to time, a cloud of deadly, explosive vapors manages to coalesce before ignition. When something finally triggers the blast, a powerful explosion rips through the area. To determine the size of the blast area, the Dungeon Master should use the table presented on page 14 for elemental pockets, dividing the results from that table in half.
These events can pose a threat even to creatures like myself, although true fire elementals, it is said, do not fear even these eruptions. An explosion like this requires everyone in the area to make a saving throw vs. breath weapon. A failed save results in 2d IO points of damage while a successful one cuts this by half. Creatures not naturally immune to or somehow protected from heat and flame suffer twice the normal damage from this blast. 
SHADOW FIRE. Shadow fire is a strange and deadly phenomenon found only in the Elemental Plane of Fire. To the naked eye, regions of shadow fire look just like the rest of the plane. However, a closer examination with magic like true seeing indicates that something is amiss. The size of a shadow fire pocket can be determined just as for elemental pockets.
Regions of shadow fire are far cooler than those flames surrounding them. To those of us who are physically adapted to existence in the plane of Fire, they are dangerously cold. Indeed, even creatures that are magically protected from flame and heat are vulnerable to the chilling effects of shadow fire. 
Creatures native to this plane, like a salamander or fire elemental, suffer 2d10 points of damage for every round spent in a region of shadow fire. Nonnative beings that have been magically or otherwise protected from fire and heat suffer 1d10 points of damage each round. Ironically, creatures without any protection from heat and flame find regions of the cursed shadow fire to be cool sanctuaries that cause them no harm at all, although it is doubtful that they would survive the rest of the plane long enough to reach such safety.
==Moving About==
Traveling from one place to another in the Elemental Plane of Fire should be fairly simple. After all, a definite up and down exists here, although nonnatives may find wading through a boundless region of flame very unsettling.
The "surface" of this plane is composed of highly compressed fire. In appearance, it is rather like a brightly burning coal, although its consistency is about the same as that of water. It is therefore possible to swim through this sea of flame just as one would paddle through some distastefully cool mountain lake. Some enterprising souls have even created sailing ships that ply the flames as more common ships might sail atop water.
This layer of liquid flame is only about 15 feet deep. Beneath it lies a layer of even more highly condensed fire. This has the appearance of white-hot metal and is as smooth as glass to the touch. Beings heavy enough to sink beneath the layer of liquid fire may walk upon this surface.
Flying through the atmosphere above our blazing sea is not as easy, however. The atmosphere is so thin that wings, gas bags, and the like cannot provide enough lift to raise a heavy body above the surface. Of course, magical means of flight still function, and creatures such as fire bats, elementals, and we efreet can move wherever we like throughout any of the plane's environments.