Physical Conditions - Air (TIP)

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==Physical Conditions==
The Elemental Plane of Air is an infinite vista of brilliant blue sky clearer and sweeter than any expanse of earthly air. It's so pristine that a body's vision (whether standard or infravision) extends twice as far as normal.
==Getting Here==
Getting to the Boundless Blue isn't as difficult as reaching some of the other Inner Planes. With so many folks interested in traveling here, a great many routes have been established over the years.
First off, a number of portals are known to exist between the Elemental Plane of Air and the rest of the multiverse. With the exception of those found in Sigil, these are often in remote and difficult-to-reach places. Sometimes, however, even a prime world'll have a portal to one of the cities that floats through this plane.
Chant is that a portal to Air can be found atop the highest branch of Yggdrasil, the World Ash. A steady wind ripples from the portal, keeping the green leaves of the greatest of all trees tossing happily to and fro. Supposedly, the portal allows two-way passage, placing it among the more friendly rips in the fabric of the multiverse.
High above the endless landscape of Arborea stand the great pillars and towers of the Greek pantheon. It's said that among these structures, a body can find not one but two portals to the Elemental Plane of Air. Each is opened with a different key, and the portals are linked so that both must be opened at the same time. Of course, since they're located many miles apart, it takes great coordination (and a bit of luck) to open both doorways at once.
Mount Celestia also hides several portals to the Boundless Blue. At the heart of Jovar, the Glittering Heaven, sits a massive stone ziggurat. While those who ascend this structure find themselves entering the seventh layer of the Mount, there is another secret here. Buried deep in the ziggurat is a portal to Air, its existence kept dark by the Jovian archons who dwell there. Well, somewhat dark, anyway. Actually, the portal's a poorly kept secret. Still, its exact location isn't known, and what key might open the doorwayand just why the archons wish to keep it to themselves-is anyone's guess.
There's another portal (sort of) in Mercuria, home of Bahamut, the Draco Paladin. In this layer, the greatest of all dragons dwells in an immense palace, the scope of which few primes can imagine. When he wishes, Bahamut can command one section of his fortress to fade away, carrying all within it to the Elemental Plane of Air. Once adrift in the Boundless Blue, the floating citadel travels wherever its master wishes. Bahamut can order the structure to come and go at will, even if he's not aboard it. 
'Course, a body can't forget that one important way to reach the plane of Air-as is the case with all Elemental Planes-is through a vortex from the Prime. Vortices that lead to Air aren't as uncommon as those leading to many of the other Inner Planes. They are, however, often more difficult to use, as they tend to drift about, blowing back and forth in the wind. So even after a spiv manages to find one of these handy little doorways, it can take all his skills to catch up to it.
Vortices to the Elemental Plane of Air are most commonly found in one of two places. Those that appear high in the atmosphere are called floating vortices. As a rule, they can be reached only by creatures that have some magical ability to fly-a powerful fly spell, an enchanted carpet, or some other such device. Animals, monsters, and others who depend on wings, gas bags, or similarly mundane methods of flight generally can't ascend to the height at which these vortices are found.
In addition to being very high in the air, floating vortices appear only at the center of great expanses of clear blue sky. A basher won't see a cloud mass or mountain peak anywhere in the vicinity. And since they're almost invisible, these vortices don't stand out very well from the air around them (which is, of course, more or less invisible to the average sod). It's a good thing that they're permanent-despite the fact that they tend to wander just a bit in the breeze. I'd guess that two or three floating vortices exist on any prime-material world, but who can safely say for sure?
The other common type of vortex linking the Prime with the plane of Air is generally referred to as a whirling vortex. The reason for this is obvious: They're found at the heart of a tornado or whirlwind. Some folks'II tell you that every twister has a vortex at its core, and they may be right. The problem with this theory, though, is that whirlwinds move so fast and are so difficult to explore that no one's ever been able to answer the question one way or the other.
Even getting to a whirling vortex is a problem. After all, graybeards have estimated that the winds of a tornado can reach 300 miles per hour-only a fool or a titan would get in their way. Some people believe that a lot of the junk that floats through the Boundless Blue got yanked in through whirling vortices. They contend that these great maws sweep across the countryside and suck everything they roll directly over into the plane of Air. And whatever they don't roll directly over just gets ripped to pieces. 
Whirling vortices aren't like most vortices. While they're more or less fixed in the plane of Air, they tend to wink in and out of existence on the Prime Material. For proof, just look at the tornadoes created by these channelsafter all, they don't usually last for more than a few minutes, do they?
==Hazards==
Compared to the other Inner Planes, the Elemental Plane of Air is about as safe as a mother's arms. There aren't any geysers of magma or jets of flame waiting to incinerate an unsuspecting sod. In fact, most of the dangers a planewalker'II encounter in the Boundless Blue are likely to be imported from other realms. But this isn't to say that a body can't get himself lost by the hazards of the plane itself.
===Storms In Air===
Without a doubt, the greatest hazard of the Elemental Plane of Air is the wind. Now, it's virtually impossible to find a place in this realm that isn't subject to a continual breeze, but that's not usually a threat to life and limb. From time to time, however, a breeze builds into a wind, a wind into a gale, and a gale into a tempest. When this happens, a body can get thrown off course and any conveyance he's using can be torn apart rather quickly. It doesn't take long for one of these storms to whip up, and they often dissipate just as fast. They can linger for a long time, however, sometimes moving along and sometimes staying in one place. The DM can use the following table to determine the wind velocity at a given location.
1D20 ROLL	FORCE 	VELOCITY (MPH)	ADJ.
1-2 	calm 	below 2 	+3
3-4 	light breeze 	3 to 7 	+2
5-6 	moderate breeze	8 to 18 	+1
7-8 	strong breeze 	19 to 31 	0
9-10 	light gale 	32 to 39 	-1
11-12 	moderate gale 	40 to 47 	-2
13 	strong gale 	48 to 54 	-3
14 	light storm 	55 to 60 	-4
15 	moderate storm 	61 to 66 	-5
16 	strong storm 	67 to 72 	-6
17 	hurricane 	73 to 176 	-7
18 	whirlwind 	177 to 238 	-8
19 	cyclone 	239 to 299 	-9
20 	tornado 	300+ 	-10
This table indicates the die roll (on 1d20) to produce a given velocity of wind. The force and velocity columns are primarily intended to provide reference points for the DM. The last column indicates an adjustment that can be applied to saving throws (for beings or items), attack rolls, proficiency and ability checks, or anything else that the DM feels is in order based upon the situation. Sharp-eyed bloods'II notice that the calm areas of the table actually provide bonuses, which the DM can use to reflect the calm, soothing nature of the plane.
Weather conditions in the Elemental Plane of Air are far less predictable than patterns on the Prime Material. As such, a storm may last for only minutes, or it may continue to howl for weeks, months, or even years. Changes in wind speed (when they do come) generally occur very rapidly. As a rule, the shift in velocities takes place over the course of a single turn. Thus, a given place can jump from a light breeze to a full force gale or hurricane in only ten minutes. The DM can use the following table to determine the duration of a given wind condition.
1D20 ROLL	DURATION OF CURRENT CONDITIONS
1-2 	1d6 rounds
3-4 	1d6 turns
5-6 	1d6 hours
7-8 	1d6 days
9-10 	1d6 weeks
11-12 	1d6 fortnights
13-14 	1d6 months
15-16 	1d6 years
17-18 	1d6 decades
19-20 	1d6 centuries
===Maelstroms===
Maelstroms are related to the winds, gales, and storms described above, but they deserve special mention. A maelstrom is a whirling vortex of air, possibly created when a small crack opens between the Elemental Plane of Air and the Quasielemental Plane of Vacuum. Most primes describe a maelstrom as looking like a great circular tornado that has turned on itself and is trying to devour its own tail. 
Anything or anyone that drifts into the fringe of a maelstrom must make a successful saving throw vs. paralyzation or be drawn in. A berk caught in a maelstrom suffers damage each round until he either escapes (by means of a bend bars/lift gates roll) or is rescued by those outside the vortex. Folks trapped in a maelstrom are unable to cast spells or attempt similar actions due to the churning of air and collisions with other items trapped in the vortex.
The DM can use the following table to determine the size of a maelstrom, as well as the damage that it inflicts each round.
1D10 ROLL	DIAMETER 	DAMAGE PER ROUND
1 	1d1O x 10 yards 	1d10
2-3 	1d10 x 100 yards 	2dl0
4-5 	1d10 x 1,000 yards	4dl0
6-7 	1d10 x 1 mile 	8d10
8-9 	1d10 x 10 miles 	16d10
10 	1d10 x 100 miles 	32dl0
Chant has it that there's a single Great Maelstrom, thousands of miles across, at the exact center of the Elemental Plane of Air. 'Course, since the plane is infinite, it can hardly be said to have a center. Thus, if such a titanic maelstrom really does exist, it could be located almost anywhere. Odds are that any poor sod who finds this thing will be hardpressed to get away with his skin intact.
==Moving About==
Once a body's made it to the plane of Air, he's got to figure out how to get from one place to another. If he can fly, that's not such a problem-he can just pick a direction and start flapping. But for those who don't have any way of moving about in the air, things can be a little harder. There's no gravity in the Elemental Plane of Air. That doesn't mean, however, that a body can just float about in midair, carried on the winds. When a traveler arrives in the plane, the first thing he usually does is convince himself that a certain direction is "down." He can't help it. Thus, he'll start to fall in that direction if he doesn't have something to grab onto or can't think of another direction as down (though the latter solution's really just a temporary one, of course ... ). If a body can't control his impressions of up and down, this can spell disaster (see below).
So how's it done? Well, in order to convince himself that a new direction is down, a body must roll a successful Wisdom check. (Natives to the plane-or those similar-need not make this roll. To them, up and down are disposable concepts that can be abandoned and redefined from round to round.) The DM should apply a modifier to the roll, based on the individual's familiarity with the plane of Air.
FAMILIARITY WITH AIR* 	MODIFIER
None at all 	-6
No firsthand experience 	-4
Research, but no experience 	-2
Brief firsthand experience 	O
Some firsthand experience 	+2
Extensive firsthand experience	+4
Practically a native 	+6
: * or another Inner Plane with similar physical laws.
Once a body begins to fall in a certain direction, he keeps going until he either hits something or changes his mind about which way is down (with another Wisdom check). Bloods call this "taking the eternal plunge," because a person could theoretically fall forever, as there is no ground for him to strike. Anyone taking the plunge falls at a rate of 1,000 feet per round. If he hits another object, he suffers 1d6 points of damage for every 10 feet he fell, to a maximum of 20d6 points. This is extremely dangerous, of course, but a clever cutter can use it to his advantage-as long as he doesn't hit anything, it's a pretty snappy way to get around.
When a falling sod begins to near his destination, he needs to consider the problem of landing. If he's got a little warning, this isn't a problem-he just changes his opinion of down a minute or so before landing, bleeds off his current speed, and touches down as lightly as a feather.
For example, suppose that a being is falling at a rate of 1,000 feet per round. As he nears his target, he decides that what was down is up and what was up is now down. For the first round, this acts as a breaking force, because his speed in the original direction is being countered by the pull of gravity. 'Course, if the sod makes his change a little too late, he can still hit the ground at a fair speed, since it requires a full round to come to a stop. Conversely, if he tries to stop too early, he'll come to a halt above the ground, hang there for a second, and then start to fall away from his destination.
As tricky as this sounds, it quickly becomes second nature to inner-planar travelers. An experienced planewalker can do this sort of thing without much chance of mishap. The actual landing can be ticklish, however, and novice flyers are required to make a Dexterity check to avoid a crash landing. Here's a good rule of thumb: A body is required to make a Dexterity check to land safely only until he manages to do it successfully twice in a row. Once this happens, the DM can assume that the basher can "fall" where he wants to fairly safely. The whole thing's pretty unnerving, though, so most folks simply use a spell, a magical item (flying carpets are very popular), or a mount.
The real top-shelf bloods know that a body can just convince himself that there's no down at all. This requires extensive experience in moving around in the plane (DM's discretion) and a Wisdom check made at a -6 penalty. Chant is, some folks've developed a means of training bashers to do this, in effect creating a one-slot nonweapon proficiency based on Wisdom that lets a basher float in the plane, fall where he wants, and stop safely. But even with all that, it's still not nearly as maneuverable or as easy as a nice, handy fly spell.