Adventure Hooks
on the Elemental Plane of Fire
We conclude Magmin Week with an examination of the magmins’ home plane. After all, it was just a short time ago we released The Traveler’s Guide to the Elemental Plane of Fire, and I’m sure that now with the addition of 2 weeks’ worth of supplemental content and an awesome book, you are all wanting to go run off and explore the Plane of Fire to write your own legends across the elemental planes. But what to do? If you are stuck on ideas for your planar adventures, then this Top Ten is for you as we look at ten potential adventure hooks for the Plane of Fire.
1. Explore an azer ruin. Dotted across the Plane of Fire are the remnants of the azer’s once mighty and ancient civilization. These dread ruins, haunted by old ghosts and crumbling golems, are often as much trouble to reach as to explore, most being located in remote, hostile environs that make the rest of the Plane of Fire look downright hospitable. Despite the challenge in reaching the ruins and the dangers that lie within, these ancient towers and fortresses offer the treasures of lost glory and ancient knowledge to tempt even the most cautious of heroes.
2. The grand crusade. The planes are often a place of intense conflicts of ideas, and religion is no exception. On the Plane of Fire, the efreeti religion stands strong and proud, dominating many aspects of life and culture on the plane, but recently invading forces from the Material Plane, supported by powerful outsiders, have begun to chart a brutal war of conquest and conversion against the efreeti and the faithful of Issum. This tense atmosphere provides plenty of potential for conflict and excitement as PCs aligned with one faction or the other desperately engage in battle after battle for the moral future of the Plane of Fire.
3. Salamander slave rebellion. The Plane of Fire is no stranger to slavery, especially where the salamanders are concerned, as they have long been used as labor or forcibly conscripted into efreeti armies. Recently, an ex-slave named Erumslur has decided to orchestrate the release of every salamander in the City of Brass, but he needs your PCs’ help to do it. Armed with a bare-bones organization of ex-slaves, idealists, and xenophobic salamander patriots, Erumslur has enough trouble keeping his contingent from killing each other, let alone mounting a successful resistance. Only with the aid of true heroes might he see his goal succeed.
4. What lies beneath the waves? Much of the Plane of Fire is given over to a great lava seas, difficult for many of the plane’s denizens to brave—not just because of the obvious destructive nature of lava, but also because of the terrible monsters that make the lava seas their home, including dragons and the famed lava serpents. However, some claim that if one were to descend far enough into the endless depths of the lava seas, they could find several wonders, including sunken treasure from countless destroyed merchant ships, under-lava kingdoms populated by lava mephits and magmin, and a border with the Plane of Earth where one could travel directly between the two planes without need of magic. Which of these things, if any, are real, is largely unknown, through there are no shortage of interested parties looking to hire adventurers for deadly dives.
5. The spear of Karthak. A mighty artifact once belonging to the azer clan of Karthak has been found in the keeping of a mighty red dragon in a remote cave of the Teeth of Soraak. This spear was said to be capable of slaying elementals in a single mighty blow, a fact the clan once used to subjugate the fire elementals that now ruthlessly ravage their lands. Both the elementals and the azer of Clan Karthak are willing to pay handsomely for the spear, which will surely provide ultimate victory to the side that possesses such a weapon. Acquiring the spear won’t be easy, though, as the mountains are treacherous, and even if the cave can be found, the heroes will still have a dragon to contend with.
6. The Hollow Sun. Where it is not obscured by thick clouds of smoke, much of the sky of the Plane of Fire is filled with roiling balls of fire, resembling countless tiny suns. Among visitors to the planes, a rumor persists that one of the blazes, out of the tens of thousands that must exist, is a hollow ruby sphere filled with wondrous arcane treasures. The latest to obsess over this wild claim is a gnome called Elmswater Tarnriver, who has set up a heat-warded outpost to study the sky fires and find her treasure. She is eager to pay for surveyors to explore the plane and report on weather patterns.
7. Going shopping. The City of Brass is one of the largest and most spectacular cities in all the multiverse, and boasts the finest shopping anywhere. A simple trip through the bazaar could prove an adventure in and of itself, as the PCs are faced with choosing between exotic magic weapons, massive automatons, lava-ready boats, and other wonders. They may even be employed to purchase dangerous goods from unsavory characters by those unable or unwilling to do so on their own.
8. The Prince of Fire. Also known as the Lord of Fire, this entity is said to be a fire elemental so elder and powerful that he could easily overthrow the efreet and their church, ushering in what some refer to as a purer age. He is something of a legend, said to be the rightful ruler of the Plane of Fire and a source of balance necessary to ensure that nature operates correctly. However, this Prince of Fire has been mysteriously missing, according to those who believe the tales. Most believe him to be nothing more than a mere rumor, and only a few worried individuals have bothered to search for him, or believe in his existence.
9. The pretender to the throne. Sometime after the PCs arrive on the Plane of Fire, they find it thrown into a state of turmoil. The efreeti sultan’s cousin has proclaimed him a pretender to the throne, claiming he can prove that, with a stricter reading of the family tree, it should be him and not his cousin who is sultan. The claim, though officially denounced as ludicrous, seems credible enough that it just might be true, and tensions are running high. In fact, the sultan’s cousin was murdered by a powerful djinni noble who has been impersonating him ever since, seeking to stir up trouble on the Plane of Fire. Can the PCs uncover this plot before the plane descends into civil war?
10. Lost mephit. The PCs have been sent to the Plane of Fire to fine a mephit for extremely powerful, extremely insistent, and somewhat mad wizard, Ignatius Propan, who has forced them to track down his mephit who escaped to the Plane of Fire. Try as they might, however, the mephit is always one step ahead of them, and leads them into ever more dangerous and improbable adventures as they try to find her.