If You Build It They Will Play: Hedrons

I started playing Magic: the Gathering with the Antiquities set...so 1994, I guess? I've always found many of the game's Planes fairly interesting and Zendikar is among them. In the setting, a geomancer, created these floating monoliths or Hedrons, to imprison the game's riff on the Great Old Ones known as the Eldrazi.

Since the Craglands have been dealing with the threat of expansion of the Far Realms I decided to use the Eldrazi as a change of pace.

The Hedron appears, passing through a newly formed Rift, moments after an unexplained explosion within a nearby mine and immediately begins floating at about 15' in the air where it remains stationary and vibrates at a frequency that is just barely audible, DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check.

The Rift, which appears as a night-black oval set into the ground, is a slightly larger than an average human and is 15° cooler than the rest of its environment. Looking directly into the Rift requires a DC 12 Wisdom Saving Throw which causes a level of Exhaustion on a failed roll.

Anyone who succeeds on a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check knows what the Hedrons are and that they are rare on this Plane. If the total is a 15 or higher then it is known that the Mage King Suleiman III of Khersia wrote that our Plane and Zendikar's were somehow linked during the sinking of Hem-Hoomod, the Ivory Seat of the Woodeel Empire, which marked the end of the 7th Age and the beginning of our current one. With a total of 18 or higher it is known that Ur-Hukar, the High Vizier to the Ivory Seat, came upon the Invector Prima, a foul tome devoted to the Higher Ungods, the name of the Eldrazi during the 7th Age, which corrupted him body, mind, and soul. If the total is 20 or higher then it is know that that Hussars of Vim use a strange form of magic to detect, track down, and destroy Hedrons and then cleanse the area via the Meteor Swarm spell.

Dungeons & Shivan Dragons: Sword of War and Peace for B/X D&D + Old School Essentials

Sword +3, War and Peace

Grants special benefits of healing and protection from against fire and evil creatures.

▶ Healing a living subject: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

• Healing: Restores 3 hit points of damage. This cannot grant more hit points than the subject’s normal maximum. 

▶ Protects against evil: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

• Save bonus: Gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against attacks and special abilities of affected creatures.
  
• Defense bonus: Affected creatures gain a -1 penalty to attack the wielder.
  
• Magic protection: Affected enchanted, constructed, and summoned creatures cannot attack the wielder in melee but may make ranged attacks against them.

▶ Protects against fire: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

• Normal fire: Unharmed by non-magical fire.
  
• Save bonus: Gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws versus fire-based magical or breath attacks.
  
• Fire-based damage: Is reduced by 1 point per damage die rolled. (Each die inflicts a minimum of 1 hit point damage.) 

Dungeons & Shivan Dragons: Living Twister

The Boar God Ilharg is the bringer of the End-Raze of Ravnica, as prophesied by the druids of the Old Ways from the Gruul Clans.

The druids believe that civilization will never be eradicated by scattered raids and petty skirmishes. They cling to the idea of a coming apocalypse, the End-Raze, when Ilharg's hooves will trample every brick and stone of Ravnica's soaring skylines to rubble. The world will return to a state of nature in which the lawless code of muscle and savagery will reign once again. With the growing unrest between the guilds of Ravnica, the ascension of Domri Rade as guildmaster, and the start of the War of the Spark it is thought that the time of the End-Raze has come. 

The living twisters are harbingers of the End-Raze and Gruul druids are eager to bring it about.

Dungeons & Shivan Dragons: Phyrexium

This is an expansion of a much earlier article presenting the metal known as phyrexium that I had created for 7th level DnD Next playtest game. Now that Ravnica and Theros are settings for DnD I decided to further explore Magic: the Gathering's lore.

Phyrexian Angel wielding a phyrexium weapon.
Art by sunnykoda

   
   The metal phyrexium was created by Thran artificers after settling the plane of Phyrexia. It is a metal matrix composite of titanium, sliver hide, glistening oil, fanatical hatred of Dominaria, and the shard of a powerstone. Scholars heatedly debate if the process to create the foul composite can be replicated outside of the plane of Phyrexia since slivers are believed to be extinct.

   Phyrexium armaments are +1 magic weapons that deal necrotic damage due to the powerstone radiation within them.  However, they are +2 magic weapons while on Dominaria because of the fanatical hatred of the plane used to forge them.  When a phyrexium weapon scores a Critical Hit on a creature they lose 1d4 Hit Dice. If they have no Hit Dice remaining they gain Disadvantage on Death Saving Throws until they recover at least 1 Hit Die.