Adventurer's Guide to the Planar Travel - A Magic Item
The Adventurer's Guide to Planar Travel is perhaps the most useful and the most damning method of traveling the Planes of Existence. But don't let the unassuming, coffee-stained leather cover fool you. The Guide is not some theoretical text written by academics who have never left the sanctuary of a library. It is a manual that serves as a concierge travel service for those lucky enough to possess it. Unfortunately, the Guide can also be a one-way ticket to potential cataclysm, a little side note that you may not find out until it is too late.
The genius of the Guide is its brilliantly literal, while being frustratingly simple. It takes the impossibly complex, shifting magic behind planar travel and presents it with the clarity of a tavern menu. Bored on the Material Plane and want to explore? Just tap the name of the plane your heart desires, and a beautiful, expanding map obligingly highlights every single portal, each marked with a neat little golden square. You're granted an all-access pass to planes others can only dream of, bypassing ancient magical wards, annoying toll collectors, and using what kings and demon lords thought were their private backdoors. The book even politely recommends you read the margin notes before popping over, lest you materialize at the bottom of an ocean or in the palace of a demon lord. The Guide is considerate like that.
It's when you start to read the scribbled notes that a sense of dread should, if you have any resemblance of self-preservation, begin to wash over you. The margins are a collection of information, stories, and warnings. Some are useful, like "This portal delivers you inside the dwarven mountains, depositing you ten feet above a lava flow. Good luck." Others are less so. Some are complaints about the local cuisine. Other ramblings are those of madmen. It's those passages that are easy to chalk up to the ravings of the unprepared or individuals prone to overreacting.
That is, until something goes wrong.
Access to unlimited travel throughout the cosmos comes at a cost, and it always collects. Flipping through the frantic scribbles of past owners, you start to see the pattern: dire warnings about "mental strain" that have been aggressively crossed out, as if the last person to write it decided blissful ignorance was preferable to the truth. Because every time you use this magnificent source of information to access a portal, you are effectively rolling the dice. You're not just following a map; you're trusting a text of unknown origin that, if you research its history, has a twisted sense of humor and a legacy of cataclysm.
Explore the multiverse in all its terrifying glory. But remember, with great power comes not just great responsibility, but the chance you'll suffer the consequences of using it. And remember to have a quill and ink at the ready. You'll probably have some notes to add.
Adventurer's Guide to the Planar Travel
Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement)
This 4" x 6" pocket notebook has a dark coffee-brown full-grain leather cover that is aged and well-worn. A long leather strap wraps around the book, keeping it closed. Attached to the inside front cover is a parchment map of the entire plane. The map can expand to 25.5" x 36.75" and, when opened, will show a list of all the known planes in glowing gold letters. When you touch the name of any of the planes, the map will morph into that Plane of Existence, along with all the planar portals and teleportation circles located on that plane, each designated by a golden square.
The remainder of the book is broken down by Planes of Existence, with each chapter providing notes on the portals on that plane, including what each looks like and where it is located. In addition, there are passages on the surrounding areas for many of the portals, including such information as local accommodations, restaurants, taverns, and guilds. Other notes tell of potential dangers and horrors. Some notes describe the historical importance of the portal or circle and its location, while others describe what lies directly on the other side. One page talks about the mental strain that using the guide takes on you, but most of those notes have been crossed out. The annotations are in different handwritings and languages, with some items crossed out, others circled, and some have comments critiquing the original author's notes.
Portals. The Adventurer's Guide to Planar Travel contains an up-to-date list of planar portals for every known plane, their location, and their exact destination point. As portals close or are destroyed, the map automatically adjusts to reflect these changes. Any notes inside the book about a portal that is no longer in existence also disappear from the book. For shifting portals, the map will update to show their new positions when they move. You can make any notes you wish inside the book, but you will be unable to draw on the map by any normal or magical means.
Free Passage. The book serves as a passport for you and your companions, granting free passage through all portals. Any costs associated with using the portals are waived, as are any access commands you need to open or use a portal. The book also contains every sigil sequence for any permanent teleportation circle. The first page of the book recommends you read any notes about the portal or circle you are traveling to learn about your destination’s location.
Spells. While attuned to the book, you can cast the following spells (save DC 18) from it:
Planar Binding
Plane Shift
Thunder Step
Word of Recall
Catastrophe. Each time the Guide is used, roll a d20. If you roll a 1 on the die, the completed transportation of you and your companions results in some manner of catastrophe. Below are some catastrophe suggestions.
Travel Alert. You have alerted planar law enforcement to the illegal use of the Guide, and they have sent a guardian to your arrival location to take possession of the Guide by any means necessary.
Closure. Your destination portal or circle was either closed or destroyed before the map could be updated. You are teleported to a random location on the Astral Plane.
Plane Of Earth. Your use of the Guide has opened a tear on the Material Plane. Earthquakes, meteor storms, and other natural disasters strike a 1-mile radius of your destination area.
The Abyss. A Demon Prince from the Abyss senses your use of the Guide, and he wants it for himself. A gate opens within one minute of your arrival, with a Balor emerging to kill you and return to the Abyss with the Guide.
Spatial Rift. Your destination portal or circle is, in reality, a static spatial rift. You and your companions are each sent to a random plane of existence.
Madness. You are afflicted with Indefinite Madness. Roll on the Indefinite Madness chart to determine the effects. You cannot be cured while attuned to the Guide.
Destroying the Adventurer's Guide to Planar Travel. It is said that there is no way to destroy the Guide as it is a part of the very fabric of the multiverse. Some scholars believe that if the Guide is placed into a Portable Hole and then the Portable Hole is thrown into a Portal whose destination portal has been destroyed, the Guide, the Portable Hole, the Portal, and everything within 1 mile will be instantly destroyed.
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