Physical Conditions - Ice (TIP)

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At its heart, the Paraelemental Plane of Ice is an immense glacier without base or surface. It is a region of incredible cold and darkness. In many ways, it combines the excessive pressure of the plane of Earth with the torturous extremes of temperature found in the plane of Fire. Numerous cracks, fissures, and chasms abound here, for the paraplane constantly shifts, buckles, and reforms. Traveling through these regions can be especially dangerous, for the slightest misstep can bring down an avalanche of snow and ice. Those of you forced to trod along on your big clumsy feet should probably bring a staff, spiked boots, or something else to give you a better grip-at least, that's what I would do.
==Getting Here==
It may be that the best way to reach the paraplane of Ice is to enter one of the adjacent planes (either Air or Water) first. From there, you can set about traveling until you cross from one region into another. But there are other options.
Portals spring to mind as an obvious answer, but very few of them lead to the paraplanes or quasiplanes. Still, a determined planewalker can find one. It's said that a portal exists that links Cania, the eighth layer of Baator, with my frigid home. In fact, I can confirm that this is so. Others claim to have used a gate between Ice and Muspelheim (a fiery layer of Ysgard), though why a portal would link two such different places is difficult to fathom. Further, at least two frozen layers of the Abyss supposedly offer portals leading to the paraplane of Ice. One of these layers-I believe it's the 566th, known to many as Soulfreeze-is thought to have a two-way portal, though the key to activate it is a mortal soul, which is destroyed in the process.
Occasionally, a great enough concentration of ice opens a vortex that connects a location on the Prime Material Plane with the paraplane of Ice. In most cases, these are found in glacial or arctic regions. Once in a very long while, such a vortex opens at the heart of particularly ferocious blizzard or deep beneath a frigid sea.
==Hazards==
Survival in the paraplane of Ice is not easy, particularly for you mortals. Numerous hazards, both organic and inorganic, can slay a newcomer before he knows what's hit him.
===Freazeing===
My home paraplane is amazingly cold. There's really no other way to put it. Travelers who come here had best be ready to deal with this, or they won't last long. Those without an immunity to cold or magical protection from the temperature suffer 1d6 points of damage per round. By using nonmagical protection from cold-such as wearing clothing made to withstand extremely cold weather, covering all exposed skin, and keeping out of winds or open watersmart folks can reduce their pain to a mere 1d6 points of damage per tum.
Worse yet, the temperature doesn't remain steady, so some areas of Ice are much colder than others. In fact, certain spots are so cold that no amount of nonmagical protection staves off damage from the environment, and that damage is twice normal for those without protective gear and clothing.
And it gets colder still. Deep within the paraplane, some areas are so cold that energy, even light, freezes. Vision becomes impossible, for light doesn't travel to meet your eyes. As I mentioned before, words and thoughts can also freeze, meaning that trying to speak or think clearly requires a successful saving throw vs. petrification. Go far enough into the paraplane and eventually even ice freezes. Here, even those immune to cold suffer 1 d6 points of damage per round. Furthermore, new ice forms at the rate of about a foot per minute, making the "ground" extremely unstable as the ice grows and grows.
===Breathing===
On the Precipice, the air is plentiful, if cold. Below the surface, the paraplane is a solid block of ice, so breathing can be a problem. The only ways to get around this are by using magic or by holding your breath-and the latter is a shortterm solution, to say the least.
Of course, elemental pockets of air can provide relief. Fissures, cracks, and other openings in the ice often have a thin atmosphere as well. This gradually leaks out of the ice itself and has a 75% chance of being thick enough to sustain life like yours. Still, many creatures native to the paraplane-like, say, members of my race-have no weakness such as a need for air.
===Vision===
Unless you have some manner of special eyesight, like a ring of infravision, you won't be able to see a lot in the paraplane of Ice. Like the Elemental Plane of Earth, the place is a vast mass of solid matter. Of course, you can see normally in fissures, caverns, and the like if you carry a source of light. However, items like lanterns and torches work only in spots where the atmosphere is thick enough to breathe. Further, while fire might seem an obvious boon, it presents two possible problems.
First of all, fire melts ice and snow. (If you need me to tell you that, stay home.) Under the surface of the paraplane, this can invite trouble. Even a torch can create an icefall-or at least douse the bearer with frigid water that refreezes almost instantly.
Secondly, in the coldest portions of the paraplane, fire freezes. When this happens, there is a 50% chance that the flame becomes a solid chunk of cold, icelike fire, and a 50% chance that it becomes cold.fire-a black-burning flame that radiates powerful cold instead of heat and provides little or no light.
Rumors speak of special lenses made in the frozen city of Teliggin that allow their wearers to see sounds while in the paraplane, since the cold makes noise itself move more slowly.
===Pressure===
Just like the plane of Earth, the paraplane of Ice constantly tries to fill in voids (whether there's something else in them or not). Thus, the rules presented on that subject in the chapter on Earth apply here as well. Briefly, those entombed within the solid ice below the surface suffer I d2 points of damage per tum. Constructed passages seal within I d6 days, although Ice certainly has more natural open areas than does the plane of Earth.
===Other dangers===
The greatest dangers of the para plane of Ice are the cold and the lack of air. If you can deal with those problems, you're generally doing all right. Still, you should plan for the following potential troubles.
AVALANCHES. You've got to be careful when moving through the many fissures and cracks that lace the paraplane, or near the precarious frozen cliffs on the surface. Any sudden and loud noise, like an explosion or the casting of a lightning bolt, can cause a dangerous shower of ice and snow to fall from the walls and ceiling or from the peaks high above. Anyone caught in such a collapse must make a saving throw.
SINKHOLES. From time to time, an area of ice thaws slightly until it becomes a mire of slush. To the untrained eye, it looks just like the rest of the ice all around it. But anyone who steps into the mire plunges beneath the surface. These sinkholes can be very difficult to escape from, for their edges are nothing but wet ice and, thus, terribly slippery. Victims wearing heavy winter clothes are likely to drown (as the weight of their gear pulls them under) or freeze (if they shed some clothing to stay afloat).
TRUE COLD. A "true cold" area of the paraplane is a region in which more than just water or flesh can freeze. A substance, energy, word, thought, or even a concept like "goodness" or "nearness" can freeze solid, taking on the form of a strange ice crystal. While frozen, the item, thought, or what- ever it is has no power or meaning. Some outsiders enjoy scouring the true cold areas of Ice for frozen ideas, which they take back with them. Once removed from the frigid temperatures of the paraplane, the prizes thaw, usually within a specially prepared container. Then, they might be used somehow to power a magical item or an esoteric scheme, or simply sold for profit. I've heard that Sigil's Great Bazaar offers anything a buyer might want, but I'll wager that even some of the most jaded planars are surprised to find distilled "chaos," bottled "sadness," or liquid "left" for sale.
==Moving About==
On the Precipice, travelers may employ their mountainclimbing skills on the icy peaks. Within the depths of the plane, conditions mirror those of the plane of Earth. The majority of the ice has the consistency of soft rock and presents the same difficulty as described on page 34.