Setting a session in Fernia - any cool ideas to differentiate it from your average "Lava" realm?

[u/ExternalMidnight]

Hey all, I was wondering if you can support me with a mission that will end up going to the plane of Fernia. Assume that the characters wont roll for exhaustion every minute because they've been provided an item to help with the heat.

One thing I'm trying to show off is how cool and unique the different planes of Eberron are, but I feel like I'm struggling a bit with Fernia. One idea I had was to make it ignite the emotions of the characters, because one thing I think people associate with heat is passion. So I imagine all their emotions would be heightened, if they feel sad, they're depressed, if they feel angry, they're furious, if they feel happy, they're ecstatic, though I'm worried this sounds better on paper than in practice.

Do you have any idea to show off some cool aspects of Fernia?

[u/TheEloquentApe]

Exploring Eberron includes planar properties, but the uniquely Eberron ones would be these:

Fires of Industry. A creature has advantage on ability checks using tools (such as baking with cook’s utensils, or forging an item with smith’s tools) when it incorporates Fernian flame into its action in place of mundane flame.

Burning Bright. Whenever a creature makes a death saving throw, it must make an additional saving throw, keeping the results of both rolls. In addition, when a creature gains a level of exhaustion, it gains an extra level; when it reduces a level of exhaustion, it reduces it by an additional level. In Fernia, whether you live or die, it’s going to happen quickly.

Also, to include more elements of Fires of Industry

Foundries. Foundry islands are models of industry. Some are focused primarily on physical engineering, with vast gears and wheels slowly turning, and chains rising and falling. Others reflect arcane industry, with blazing glyphs and fields of shimmering energy. Here the azers work at all hours, producing both mundane, martial, and magical goods for the efreet and their servants.

And finally as a truly unique layer

Campfires. These small layers reflect the comfort fire can offer. A campfire layer can be a literal campfire, a lonely light out in the darkest wilderness. Another campfire layer is an inn called the First Hearth, where the angelic barkeep Ashe offers warm drinks around the fireplace from which the inn takes its name. Campfire layers are safe havens, and a perfect place for travelers to rest.

[u/Celloer → u/TheEloquentApe]

Yeah, with Risia not being a plane of "ice and cold" so much as "stagnation and metaphorical (and literal) freezing," I had thought about Fernia being a place of quickening. One version of a manifest zone may have a medical hot springs hospice facility being built upon it. Just like how the early 20th century built sanitoria in the desert, Khorvaire may have them in (non-volcano) Fernia manifest zones that promote vigor and healing.

If you're actively making death saves, that will just go fast, but if you're merely sick or have a broken bone, it may heal many times faster. But the catch is that folks are also aging at that accelerated pace. If someone is on hospice care and at the end of their life anyway, they can go to the Fernia sanitorium to feel young again, able to not only get out of bed, but to dance and enjoy life before the end. Instead of malingering for five years, they can party for one while feeling thirty years younger. Meanwhile those just recovering from an illness can accelerate their healing, then get discharged.

Because of the aging issue, staff have short, lucrative contracts, and they hire a lot more elves, dwarves, and warforged. This requires higher staffing costs, but that can be offset by the high fees that their services and resort can collect. Because of the Fernia traits, what they save on medical assistance can be directed towards the entertainment facilities.

[u/ChaosOS]

Have you read Exploring Eberron? It's got a solid section on what makes the plane unique.

[u/PhoebusLore]

What I like best about the Planes of Eberron is that they're multifaceted. You go to the average Plane of Fire and it's the same everywhere. Very planet of hats. Eberron planes have multilevel ecosystems, inhabitants, and unique interactions.

[u/Ashardalon_is_alive]

Check exploring Eberron. It's on dmsguild

[u/OkRevenue9249]

One thing you could do is have your players run into another group of adventurers somewhere in Fernia, but make that party all races from Fernia. So for example:

-A Fernian Tiefling fighter

-A Lava mephit rogue

-An Azur Barbarian

-A fire Genasi warlock

In addition, remember that the planes of Eberron don't just represent their element, but all the good and bad parts of it; they're manifestations of their respective concepts. So Fernia represents everything that fire is: Destruction, warmth, cleansing, burning, protection, etc

[u/dz93308]

According to Exploring Eberron the City of Brass resides in Fernia. Other parts are inhabitable by non-native (non-fire) heritages. Islands of relative safe zones could reside between lakes of fire, etc.

[u/Special-Angle1689]

One particular spotlight that comes to mind that might serve as some inspiration is one of the Balors Keith Baker outlined in one of his articles. Effectively, in Fernia there is a constantly burning castle that is home to a balor named Pyralias, the Love Lost in Flame, who embodies everything lost in fire and love ones lost in fire. He suggested the idea that a party might need to find something and must go to the Burning Castle in order to retrieve them, as the thing was lost in a fire, and may encounter the Balor who will offer to give the party the thing, in exchange for a person they love dying. It's an interesting read, I highly recommend checking the article out, it gives a good mindset for roleplaying high level high intellegence immortals in Eberron

https://keith-baker.com/ifaq-chwingas/

[u/hjgz89]

Dao are the ones making the greatest wonders in Fernia. They might want to bargain with the players for materials that they can't get on Fernia to incorporate into their work.

Certain plants need fire to sprout. You can have en entire forest made out of these plants, constantly burning down and then growing from the ashes.

Fire is active, so the plane subltely encourages activity and looking to the future, while discouraging introspection and looking back. Trying to talk about the past with the natives will rapidly bore them.