Highly Non-Canon Take on the Rainbow Bridge
by Ville LähdeSome background: in our "Twin Campaigns", started in 1988 and continuing to this day, the Known World has been embroiled in a destructive war for a long time. Recently Alfheim was attacked as if from nowhere by hordes of invaders in various points of the forest. The PCs went to help, and just in time managed to prevent the destruction of Feador and all available knowledge of the Rainbow Bridge. The PCs had smatterings of prophecy referring to this crisis and the Rainbow, and the elves could put two and two together. The dark enemy, whom the clan had fled from, seems to be using the Bridge to attack Alfheim. The PCs have to try to travel via it and attack the enemy. The do not know who Moorkroft is, and they are unsure about his relationship with their main enemy (Moorkroft is an ally).
So: basically CM7 "Tree of Life" but substantially/completely rewritten to work for a highly powerful CM-level PC group. I expecially changed the Rainbow completely. I wanted to make it challenging but also uncanny, something with which to introduce new vistas to the players, as in our campaign we have not strayed into other planes (etc.) very much or nearly at all.
I will not go into details, as a lot of it is too campaign-specific, but I thought a general description might offer inspiration for othere.
The Rainbow Bridge is formed by a series of pocket planes that have to be traversed in order (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red), with Portals in between. Moorkroft has formed alliances with some creatures living here, and he can control the positions of the portals to make travel for his troops safe through the Rainbow Bridge. The PCs have no such control, and travel is both hard and dangerous. Only the violet or the red portal offer exit. Leaving the Bridge by any other means (Teleport etc.) is impossible.
The Violet World:
This plane is filled by violet mist, with no gravity, no ground, no directions nor distinguishing features. Fly or Travel spells are required for moving here, but the mist is breathable. However, living here is hard for anyone without Survival spell: every day, one has to save vs. paralysis -4 or be overcome with terror and madness (somebody is following them, sinister whispers all around, death awaits), with -4 to all activities until they leave the mist. On the other hand, this madness is the only way to gain knowledge: the whisperers talk about Grelial's Fortress, Ollul's Garden and Essior's Rest.
These three are crystalline structures (think: the Citadel in Elquest), connected by a badly dilapitated crystal road. Note: the mist plane is so vast, that without learning about the names of the three locations and using Find the Path, Lore (etc), it is virtually impossible to find them.
Olluls's Garden: A lone Kryst lives here. If approached in a calm, friendly and respectful manner, it can tell about the healing powers of Essior's Rest and warn about the restless dead in Grelial's Fortress. If especially friendly, it can offer a salve for curing Turn to Stone (3 doses).
Essior's Rest: Peaceful halls where sleepers dream about the violent land in older times, when strange unearthly elves prospered here (the builders of the bridge?). Sleep here will cure all kinds of madness, including the terror of the violet mist.
Grelial's Fortress: This ruined fort holds the portal to the Indigo World. The portal is guarded by two Banshees.
The Indigo World:
This is an endless, bottomless sea. There is gravity. People arriving through the portal without Survival or Water Breathing can quickly die unless they manage to return through the portal. Fly or Travel is needed in order to move effectively: swimming in armour is of course not possible.
The sea is a home for three ancient creatures: the Whale, the Octopus and the Leviathan, abducted here in the mystical past from the oceans of the world. Usually they do not bother each other, but as someone (Moorkroft) has been "twisting the world", the Leviathan has become restless and angry. This is no threat to the Whale, but the Octopus has suffered some property damage (see below).
The PCs will meet the whale first, as its song can be heard a long way away. Speak with Monsters is necessary for communication (the Whale is so vast and ancient that it does not qualify as an "Animal"), or some other innovative way: Spock in "The Voyage Home" comes to mind, but the PCs have no Vulcans at hand. The Whale is curious and talkative. It has been here always, and remembers the Feadiel elves passing through "a while ago". "Just now" somebody is twising the world, forcing the portals to meet each other periodically. The Whale lacks the attention span to investigate further, but perhaps the Octopus knows?
The Octopus lives in – yes – the Octopos's Garden, where it sculpts strange statued our of kelp. The Octopus will immediatly try to communicate the PCs by wrapping its tentacles around the head of one PC. The result is attack-like: WIS check -4 or temporary insanity, but a successful check allows communication. (If the Octopus is killed, the PCs are in trouble, although it can be Raised.)
The Octopus is afraid of the Leviathan: it has left the Abyss and has wrecked his garden many times. The Octopus asks the PCs to drive the Leviathan away, but not to kill it. This is important! The sea needs all three! If the PCs succeed, the Octopus will direct them to a stong sea current that passes the Portal.
You can make the Leviathan as powerful as you want: the key thing is to make it deadly enough to challenge to most powerful PCs, but on the other hand vulnerable enough that it can be killed. This is a difficult balancing act: how to inflict enough damage to drive the beast in the the depth but not to kill it?
The Blue World:
This is an Air World, a bottomless void filled with powerful winds. Fly spells allow one to stay stationary in flight, but moving around requires Travel spells. The only way to travel for most PCs is via a bridge that connects the two portals (there is gravity here). Still, the high winds are troublesome, so some precautions are needed (a rope connecting the PCs, using spikes etc).
In the middle of the world is a Wall, an uncanny sight: it spans endlessly to the right and to the left, and it seems to go down further than the eye can see. The road runs through the wall, via a Keep of the Cloud Giant Atorox. "None Shall Pass!" are his favourite words. Moorkroft has rewarded him handsomely, so he and his family will not allow passage for anyone without proper credentials. He is greedy, though, so offering some extremely powerful magic items might be a way to avoid a fight.
Atorox's defences are awesome:
He has magical devices that can create a storm in an instant, allowing his 5 Thunderheads to be released in full strength from the "aviary" of the keep. The gate of the Keep is tremendously strong, but a Knock Spell works, of course.
Atorox himself is an ancient Cloud Giant (+3 aging modifiers) and the most powerful mage of his people.
There are three other giants, his wife and two children, living in the castle.
Note: the Giants are not fanatical followers of Moorkroft, so they do not want to fight to the death. Much can be learned from them, and Atorox has a good supply of various potions etc.
The Green World:
This world is a forest of a kind, but again without ground or sky. Everything is filled by branches, leaves, trunks and roots. (Think: the "Green" in Swamp Thing.) Moving through the forest is very hard and slow going. The atmosphere is hostile, dark and sinister. The forest hates them.
The Guardian of the forest is a Gakarak, and it will repeatedly attack the PCs until they are dead. Not that the Gakarak's teleport and regenerate abilities make it nearly impossible to kill it in this environment (barring a lucky Disintegrate). On the other hand, if it is killed, the PCs will have a hard time finding the Portal (Lore spell is one possibility).
There are at least two good ways for victory:
- If the PCs can convince the Gakarak that they are friends of the Feadiel elves, friendlier communication is possible (the Gakarak is not allied with Mookrfot and hates him and the way the mage keeps "twisting" his forest).
- If the PCs start burning the forest and threaten do do more damage, blackmailing the Gakarak to help might work.
The Yellow World:
This world is a desert. There is a sky, with a bright "sun" shining constantly – so, no night here. Everywhere it is dangerously hot and dry. Many spells are inoperative: Purify Food & Water, Create Water, Create Food, Call Lightning, Control Temperature, Summon Weather, Control Winds, Growth of Plants, Ice Storm, Weather Control.
The PCs are plagued my mirages and have to success in CON checks or become fatigued quickly. It they do not have ample water supplies, they are in trouble.
A ferocious tribe of Manscorpions lives in the desert. They will attack anyone that enters their land. But if subdued, they can tell the PCs about the Pyramid.
The Pyramid is guarded by four dangerous Sphinxes. They can offer no riddles, just death. They are utterly committed to protecting the Portal.
Within the Pyramid, the Portal is guarded by two Bronze Golems.
The Orange World:
This plane is strange, and unlike the previous one, requires creativity and wits.
Initially, the PCs enter a world of orange hue – no sky, no ground – criscrossed by a network of deeper orange rhizomes. Amongst the network, strange orange tentacled spheres are moving. Soon, they are attracted to the PCs. The spheres are virtually invunlerable, except a few things like Disintegrate, Wish, Teleport, Dimension Door or +4 or better weapons (still, AC -10). If a tentacle touches PCs, they will have to Save vs Death Ray -4 or disappear.
Those who disappear will find themselves in endless featureless orange, where perceiving movement is impossible. They are inside the rhizomes. The spheres are visible as indistinct ghost images, but otherwise it is just endless orange. The other Portal is situated in the rhizome network. So the PCs will have to realize where they are (e.g. Truesight will reveal the rhizome walls and thus allow them to perceive movement), and then they will have to locate the Portal.
The Red World:
This is a world of Fire. So, Fire Protection or Survival is needed to avoid 1d8 DMG/round. The PCs appear on a pedastal in the midst of a busy bazaar. If they are protected against fire, nobody pays any attention. But writhing in agony sure will attract some.
The bazaar is populated by thousands upon thousands of beings:
- Fire Elementals: blobs of living fire with pseudpods, the common people
- Efreeti: artisans, bad-tempered, hate the Helions
- Helions: sages, philosophers, negotiators, facilitators
- Phoenixes: nobles, sublime
- Fire Fundamentals: "birdlife", eaten by all
- Fire Salamanders: scavengers
The beings speak their own languages, but elven or dragon languages work in most occasions.
"The Sheikh", an Elemental Ruler, is the chief of the Bazar, and he controls the Portal. He is so powerful, that direct assault would most likely be disastrous, especially as the fight would eventually have the whole city descend upon the PCs. The Portal is locked by a key held by the Sheikh.