Shadowfell

A grey echo of the mortal world, as if seen through ash. The same hills and rivers are there, drained of colour, and its towns are ruins or empty shells. One slips in through places of deep shadow or grief, a crossroads on a moonless night, a door in an old tomb, or by spell; leaving means finding such a place again. The longer one stays, the less anything seems to matter.

Light
Dim
Going
Slow

Hear it

Hazards

  • Grey despair. A slow weariness of the heart. Travellers stop caring whether they eat, talk or go on. D&D 5e (House rule): At the end of each long rest here, each creature makes a DC 10 Wisdom save. On a failure, it has Disadvantage on ability checks until its next long rest; after three failures in a row it also gains 1 Exhaustion.
  • Weak light. Torches throw only a small halo, and beyond it the dark is thick. D&D 5e: Away from a light, the place is in Darkness, which blocks sight like a thick fog: anyone trying to see into it is effectively Blinded. Darkvision turns it into dim light, in shades of grey, within its range.
  • Roads that turn back. Landmarks shift when nobody looks. A party can walk all day and camp where it started. D&D 5e (House rule): Each day of travel, the guide makes a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. On a failure, the day brings no progress.
  • Wounds that will not close. Cuts stay grey and open, and sleep mends little. D&D 5e (House rule): A creature that spends Hit Point Dice here regains only half the hit points rolled.

Adventure hooks

  1. A widow went through a door in a tomb to find her husband in the grey towns. Her daughter wants her brought back before she stops wanting to come.
  2. A party member’s shadow has started to lag a step behind, and then to stay put. It wants to remain in the grey lands, where it feels at home, and it is willing to negotiate.
  3. A grey village keeps a market where people trade colours: a red ribbon buys a night’s shelter, a yellow flower a guide. A merchant from the living world has been bringing paint, and prices have collapsed.
  4. Someone in the living world has been sending dead friends’ voices to the party through the mouths of crows. The crows come from the grey lands, and the sender wants a meeting there.

What may happen

  1. A town very like the last one the party passed through, every door open and every table laid. There is nobody in it.
  2. A raven with white eyes follows the party. At dusk it speaks one word: a name, said as if it should mean something to one of them.
  3. A line of silent mourners carries an empty coffin. As it passes, the coffin turns slowly toward one of the party.
  4. A single red flower, the only colour for miles. Picked, it stays red for a year.
  5. One of the party notices that their shadow follows them a step late.
  6. In a broken keep, a lone knight still keeps watch. He asks for news of a war that ended centuries ago.
  7. A slow black river and a hooded ferryman. His fare is a happy memory, which he takes for good.
  8. A pale peddler sells lanterns that burn without oil and give a warm, true light.
  9. For a moment a doorway shows the mortal world in full colour, with birdsong. Then it closes.
  10. A cold wind full of whispers runs through the camp, and every flame shrinks to a blue spark.
  11. Travellers at a fire share their food with the party. It tastes of nothing, and they no longer remember their own names.
  12. An orchard of grey apple trees in fruit. The apples are sound and crisp, and taste faintly of ash.
  13. A chapel bell swings in its tower, rung by nobody, and makes no sound at all.
  14. In a ruined manor every portrait faces the wall, except one, freshly painted, that shows a member of the party.
  15. A woman in grey waits at a window for a husband who will not come. She asks the party to tell him, if they meet him, that she has stopped waiting.
  16. Thin grey horses stand harnessed to a hearse with no driver, patient, as if waiting for a passenger.
  17. At a crossroads an empty gibbet creaks and its rope sways with no wind. Someone has left fresh bread beneath it.
  18. An inn whose fire gives no warmth. The innkeeper, a tired man, serves soup and asks only for a story with a happy ending.
  19. A stone bridge runs out over a black lake and stops halfway. Footprints lead to its end, and none come back.
  20. A grey wolf made of mist walks beside the party for an hour, never closer, never further.
  21. A girl on a doorstep cradles a cracked doll. She says the doll knows the way out, if somebody mends it.
  22. The same words are written in ash over a whole wall, in a hundred different hands: I was here.
  23. A black coach stops beside the party. Behind the curtain, a courteous voice offers shelter at its master’s house for the night.
  24. A deep well answers whatever is called down it with the last words of someone who died nearby.
  25. Across the grey moor, a single window glows with warm candlelight. However long the party walks, it comes no closer.

Creatures

  • Shadow (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/2)
  • Nightmare (a fight to fear, Challenge 3)
  • Wraith (deadly, Challenge 5)

To bring back

Ghost Light, Death Hound Skin, Deathlock Heart, Ectoplasm Portion, Fog of the Veil, Hag Brain, Howler Fang, Meenlock Claw, Phase Spider Egg, Bodak Eye, Shadow Mastodont Eye, Shadow Veils, Skullfire Essence, Banshee Dust, Black Lotus Petal, Death Knight Ashes, Lich Dust, Nightmare Tainted Soul, Shadow Dragon Gland, Silence of the Void, Vampire Dust

Other planes

Feywild, Ethereal, Astral, Elemental Fire, Elemental Water, Elemental Earth, Elemental Air, Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, Hades

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

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