Manual of the Planes

CHAPTER 5:THE TRANSITIVEPLANES56Material Plane, even if it’s pitch-black. Light sources donot expand the 60-foot vision limit on the Ethereal Plane,nor do alternate methods of sight such as darkvision.Blindsight used on the Material Plane does not revealEthereal Plane creatures, but a creature with blindsighton the Ethereal Plane can detect other ethereal creaturesat its normal range.To viewers on the Ethereal Plane, objects on the MaterialPlane are foggy, indistinct, and almost translucent.Such objects block line of sight and provide concealment,but not cover. An ethereal observer can’t seethrough a wall on the Material Plane unless he pokes hishead through it first.An ethereal character whose eyes are totally within aMaterial Plane object cannot see.Ethereal SolidsIn general, movement on the Ethereal Plane is unrestrained.Travelers can journey to the center of theearth or high into the sky (though slowly and limitedby available food and water). There are, however, permanentobjects on the Ethereal Plane that can blockmovement for ethereal creatures. Ethereal solids arehard to the touch and feel real, even if they have noapparent reality on the coexistent Material Plane.Often these ethereal solids are the result of activities inthe coexistent Material Plane. There are several types ofethereal solid.Force: Force effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane andaffect the creatures therein. A wall of force, for example,prevents an ethereal creature from passing through it. Ingeneral, an ethereal traveler sees what a Material Planenative would see. Depending on the spell, this might benothing at all.Ethereal Objects: These objects have been constructedon the Material Plane, then shunted (usuallymagically) to the Ethereal Plane. A chest of valuables canbe sent onto the Ethereal Plane with a vanish spell, forexample, or a creature might have been turned to etherealstone by a medusa’s gaze.Larger objects exist on the Ethereal Plane, too. Forexample, a wizard might seek privacy from extraplanarinterlopers in her personal library. She turns a 20-footby-20-footslab of stone ethereal, then builds her MaterialPlane library on the spot coexistent with the slab.Or, through a deity’s favor, a powerful baron moves anentire mountain onto the Ethereal Plane and builds hiskeep where the mountain used to be. Ethereal intrudersencounter a stone block in the first case and amountain in the second—both impassable objects forwould-be spies.An ethereal object, if forced to manifest on the MaterialPlane, cannot reappear where it had vanished from ifanother object occupies that space; if so, it is displaced tothe nearest area that can hold it. In the second exampleabove, the mountain does not reappear in the space thekeep occupies. As long as the keep is taller than it is wide,the mountain is shunted to the side if forced to appear onthe Material Plane. But if the shortest direction for themountain to reappear is straight up, then the baron has anew problem.Dead Magic Areas: A traveler using magic to reachthe Ethereal Plane cannot move into an area with thedead magic trait without returning to the Material Plane.On the ethereal landscape, dead magic areas appear asmassive black blots.Gorgon’s Blood (Optional): You can create new typesof ethereal solid if you like. For example, old legends statethat the blood of a gorgon can be used to prevent etherealcreatures from passing through a wall. This legend persistsdespite the fact that a gorgon’s normal attack, unlikethe petrification effect of the medusa or cockatrice,cannot affect the Ethereal Plane directly. A wall with thegorgon’s blood mixed in the mortar or the plaster acts as awall of force against ethereal creatures but remains anormal wall in all other respects. A pint of gorgon’s bloodcan proof a 100-foot-by-100-foot surface, and a typicalgorgon can provide 16 pints of such material.Heavy Metals (Optional): Metal might be able todisrupt ethereal travel as well. A plating of gold or leadalong a wall blocks ethereal movement. It costs 500 gpto cover a 10-foot-by-10-foot area with gold and 100 gp tocover it with lead.Plants (Optional): For a more dramatic change, youcan decide that ethereal creatures cannot pass throughliving things, including plants, on the Material Plane. Awizard’s ivy-covered hut is proof against ethereal intruders,for example. Those making their lairs in living treesare similarly protected, as ethereal intruders find thatthe life force of the plants themselves keeps them at bay.This option conflicts with the description of the etherealjaunt spell.CurtainsShimmering curtains connect the Ethereal Plane to variousInner and Outer Planes. Just like portals, etherealcurtains create conduits through the Astral Plane. Whilethey can be detected from the Material Plane (with a trueseeing spell, for example), ethereal curtains can be enteredonly from the Ethereal Plane.Ethereal curtains function like the color pools of theAstral Plane, but they always turn travelers solid whenthey reach the destination plane (whereas it’s possibleto project an astral form through an astral color pool,creating a new body on the other side). Travelersstranded on the Ethereal Plane can use an ethereal curtainto go elsewhere.Ethereal curtains are almost always stationary. They areimmune to all but the most violent of ether cyclones (seebelow). Well-known ethereal curtains may be guarded,worshiped, or exploited by those with interest in theplane on the other end.Curtains can also lead into demiplanes. While a demiplaneusually connects to the Astral Plane, one mayhave an entrance onto the Ethereal Plane. This iscommon among demiplanes used as prisons, because