Physical Conditions of Limbo

Limbo's nasically a big, churning stew of creation, in which earth changes to air changes to water changes to fire, with no fixed duration, no apparent pattern. Most berks who haven't been there find it difficult to even imagine. that's because they're afraid of the concept of total chaos. they assume there has to be someplcae to stand, something to breathe, some way to see. Then they try to build up an image of the rest of the plane from those assumptions. Usually they end up picturing a sort of underwater universe with "chunks" of air, fire, and rock swirling around in it. Other sods imagine a vast airy space with pieces of rock, water and fire. Then they visuallize those bits changing to other elements now and again, and they think thatthey've got Limbo. As usual, they're completely wrong.
A better way to start is with a mental exercise. First, imagine being a free-floating mind, without physical needs. Now, in that free state, picture bing inside a good, thick stew. there's a dense sort of broth that's a mixture of meat and juices, potato starch, dissolved peas and carrots, and whatnot. As the mixture boils, bubbles of air pass through it, dissolving a bit into the surrounding broth, making it frothy. And chunks of partially dissolved meat and vegetables dance around inside the stew as well.
Limbo's like that. If a berk thinks of earth instead of meat, and fire instead of vegetables, and if he considers that there's no natural gravity, no universal up and down, he's beginning to get the idea. The basic nature of the plane is sort of a broth composed equally of all the elements, and there's chunks of purer form swirling around inside. Now add one more ingredient to the picture. Bits of the broth are constantly changing to make new chunks of purer elements, and those chunks are constantly dissolving back into broth. Sometimes they'll switch from element broth to another element to broth to another element so quickly it seems as if a fire turns directly to water, or earth directly to air.
How big are the chunks? Well, they're all sizes, from tiny as a grain of sand to huge as a continent. And in lots of places there are more chunks than broth. How pure are they? Some are nearly as pure as could be found on the Inner Planes. Others are combinations of things, often quite complex. Some are even like pieces of terrain from other planes. There's bits that look like they came from a prime world, complete with grass, bushes, trees, and other terrain, not to mention an envelope of breathable air and normal gravity to keep everything in place. And there's others that look like castles from the Elemental Plane of Fire, or undersea coral reefs, or lofty mountaintops, or whatever else a cutter can imagine.
That touches upon another important point about Limbo. While bits of terrain like things just described arise spontaneously, there is no permanency to them - they dissolve just as spontaniously. Sometimes they last a minute, sometimes a moth - sometimes more, sometimes less - but they always dissipate eventually. But Limbo's primal matter is extremely yielding to sentient thought. By focusing their thoughts, conscious beings can shape the matter around them into whatever terrain they will. And as long as they concentrate on it, it remains in that form, providing them with a safe spot to stand and breathe instead of floating, weightless and breathless in the primal soup. Old hands at planar travel are familiar with the dark of this and come prepared to deal with it. But the Clueless usually suffer from their ignorance. they step through a portal and land in Limbo's chaos, then panic and flounder about. Some poor sods actually die from chaos exposure before they can discover how to mold the local environment to something livable.
Now, most soulds wouldn't find it too surprising that the gods can shape Limbo to their will. after all, they're powers. They don't even have to concentrate to maintain it that way. What's more, their realms stay whole even when they leave for a while to go gallivanting through the Prime Material, or whatever. But the powers aren't the only ones with permanent domains. there are mortals maintaining entire cities on the plane too. mainly they're githzerai, who have adopted Limbo as their native home. There are also a few town belonging to all other sorts of intelligent races. Some of them are maintained by special watchmen who take turns concentrating on their existence. But in others - usually the larger cities - there are some individuals who can maintain terrain without conciously thinking about it. They're known as the anarchs, and obviously they're highly prized by their neighbors.
For a cutter with the ability, then, Limbo can be shaped to something downright comfortable. So, if that's the case, why isn't the plane one huge resort area? Well, things are never quite as simple as they seem. Sure, a body can make a personal paradise in Limbo, but keeping it's a different matter. See, just like most every place in the universe, Limbo has its share of monsters and raiders. And given that they're native to the plane, they're highly adaptable, and consequently very difficult to stamp out. Nevertheless, berks come here all the time to try.

Stepping into Chaos

Now, keep in mind that the phrase "Limbo's roiling chaos" actually covers a lot of different terrain. So at one time, an entryway's end could be surrounded by a huge ball of fire, at another it might dump a sod inside a veritable mountain of stone, and so on. Obviously, some types of Limbo's terrain are more dangerous than others. Remember, too, they're prone to change unexpectedly, so a basher might get fried a bit, drowned a bit, and then buried alive for a while before gaining control of surroundings. Relaxing enough to control the environment under under those conditions can be difficult, to say the least.
Whenever characters are dumped unexpectedly into an uncontrolled hostile environment in Limbo, the DM should have them all make Wisdom checks each round to reshape the environment. Once someone succeeds, no further checks are necessary. That character gains control of their environment and shapes into a safe zone. (If more than one person succeeds on the same round, control goes to the one with the highest Intelligence score. In case of a tie, compare Wisdom scores to break it, with the highest winning.) Characters are subject to any damaging effects of the environment until they gain control of it. Of course, the DM is free to choose any of the following backgrounds for Limbo, including a temporarily nonhostile one (in case the characters are having too much trouble).

Primal Soup

Landing in the midst of "primal soup" of unformed chaos is dangerous in a couple of different ways. First, a berk can't breathe it, so there's the danger of suffocation. Fortunately, magic intended for underwater breathing does not work on unformed chaos. As a matter of fact, normal duration for such spells is doubled, because Limbo's primal matter is more easily turned to air than normal water is. Second, exposure to unformed matter of Limbo erodes a sod's own physical form, doing 1d6 lightning damage per turn of exposure. Protection from energy (lightning) is an effective defense against this effect.

Solid Earth

Ever wondered what it would be like to be buried alive? Sometimes visitors to Limbo get a chance to find out. Some poor sods have stepped through a portal or conduit into Limbo and wound up in an area of solid granite, or soil, or sandstone. Their biggest worry is suffocation, of course, unless they have an airy earth (the airy earth spell is a modified version of the Airy Water spell. Airy earth can manipulate earth instead of water, researching the spell takes a wizard 5 weeks and 500gp, the cutter also need to know the airy water spell to do so) spell handy or can change the earth pocket to more healthy terrain in a hurry.

Fire Pocket

This is a really unpleasant surprise to land in upon entering Limbo. It's not as bad as the Elemental Plane of Fire, but it still burns, and a berk can't breathe it without a fire breathing (modified version of water breathing, it allows the caster to breathe fire instead of water. Researching the spell takes a wizard 3 weeks and 300gp, the cutter also needs to know the water breathing spell.) spell or similar magic.
Some pockets of fire burn more severly than others. Most range somewhere between 1d6 to 10d6 points of fire damage per round, though some may be even hotter. Characters caught in a fire pocket are completely surrounding by flame, so they get no saving throws to reduce the damage.
Keep in mind that breathing in a fire bubble is certainly a problem, to say the least. Berks who try to do so without some sort of magic to help them out suffer double the location's normal damage rating. (Nasal passages, throat, and lungs are painful when scorched!) That's something they'll only ever try once. Trouble is, berks who don't breathe begin to suffocate.

Water Bubble

Stepping through a portal, conduit, or whatever into a bubble of water is basically like falling unexpectedly into a lake. It's certain that enough cutters have done that at one time or another during an adventure that they at least know enough to hold their breath. Problem is, there's no surface to swim to, so a soul needs to keep from breathing long enough to change into something more hospitable.
Just like a fire pocket, a water bubble can vary widely in temperature. Some poor sods have found themselves boiling inside one: others have been virtually frozen. The DM might want to impose some damage to characters to represent such temperature variations. A reasonable damage rating would be from 1d6 to 6d6 cold or fire damage per round.

Air Pocket

These aren't usually too dangerous or unpleasant, though they they can be a bit unsettling to the novice planar traveler. There's air to breathe (though its quality may vary from clear, to misty, to dusty, to hot and dry). Temperature may vary but it's unlikely to be so hot or so cold that it actually does any damage, and clothing helps to insulate a cutter from the effects for a few minutes anyway.
What's wierdest is the sensation of floating. Most bashers automatically tense up like a flying cat when they find themselves in an air pocket, expecting to fall. But there's no place to fall to. A body just hangs there in place. That makes an air pocket a mighty comfortable place to sleep, if the air is still and doesn't hang cutters together.

Mixed Elements

This is a catch-all term for a whole lot of different things. It could be fire and air mixed (like the inside of an oven): depending upon the temperature, a basher might at least be able to breathe. Then sometimes it's mud. Other times, it might be air with a bunch of floating rocks. (There's one tale of a berk who entered Limbo and wound up hanging in an air pocket with his head encased in a boulder. Eventually he gained control of the situation and concentrated until the rock turned to air.) Yet other times, it might be air and water swirled together, or - stranger yet - water and fire. It might be meadow, complete with trees and grass, or a dark cavern with a pool. As a matter of fact, it could be any kind of thing that doesn't require intelligence to design it. That is, it has to be something natural, not artificial. With those parameters, though, the possibilities are endless.
Each of these mixed terrain types imposes its own troubles on a basher, even the most innocuous examples. In their case, the trouble is that they look normal, fooling the ignorant into relaxing. But they could erode at any moment, and a clueless berk isn't likely to realize that until after it's happened. For the other mixed element examples, their problems can be xtrapolated from the headings above.

Domains

Occasionally, a basher entering Limbo actually sets down in an area that some intelligent being has imposed its will on and made stable. Usually these domains are cities of the githzerai, just because there are more of them than any other type. But sometimes a cutter ends up in some other city, or in the realm of some power.
Now, just because a traveler wind up in a domain that doesn't mean that it was actually the one cutter was headed for. Remember, Limbo's portal outlets and conduits like to hop around, so a body might wind up in a completely different domain from what was intended. But at least a domain is steady enough for a cutter to catch her breath. Getting to the intended destination can be sorted out from there - after dealing with the locals, of course.

Traveling within Limbo

It shouldn't come as any great surprise that getting about from domain to domain in Limbo is a bit troublesome. What with everything boiling around in this vast stew, a basher's destination doesn't stay fixed like on most planes. It tumbles through the primal chaos, sometimes coming closer and sometimes moving farther away. What's worse, cutters can't peer through the primal soup to spot their intended destination and keep track of it. Constant motion and lack of visibility mean that basher's can't plot a route by landmarks either. Next, even if travelers could see where they're going in the distance, there's still the problem of crossing the intervening space.
Given thes problems, how does a bashe rget about? Well, there are a few possible answers to that question.

Portals

One way of getting from location to location within Limbo is for cutters to use a portal to Sigil, then another back to their destination. It sounds like a simple procedure, but there are a couple of troubles to it. First, the Limbo end of Sigil's portals is usually unstable. Unless an anarch specifically fixes one in place, it'll wander all over the plane, latching onto archways willy nilly. Second, as anyone but clueless berks can testify, a trip across Sigil is an adventure in itself. So this method isn't used a lot, except by those souls with the clout to hold portals for their own use and keep them fixed in Limbo.

Conduits

Limbo has lots of conduits, perhaps more than any other plane. New ones are constantly appearing and old ones disappearing in the boiling of Limbo's primal matter. this means that it's fairly easy to find a conduit at any particular time. But as always, there's a catch. The problem with Limbo's conduits is that, like its portals, they're constantly moving about, so thge one a basher used this morning to step from githzerai fortress to a friendly power's realm may lead back to a totally different spot this afternoon, perhaps into the primal soup. Worse yet, it might even pop a berk through to the 37th level of the Abyss!
The moral is, when using conduits in Limbo, a berk better "Look before he leaps."

Paths

Unlike most other planes, Limbo's too changeble to have many regular pathways from place to place. There's a few spots, however, where the plane's primal matter swirls in vast whirlpools that reach distant parts of the plane. Apparently, these whirpools are some sort of focus points for Limbo's flux, because the slaadi say that most have been in existence from time immemorial. It's a rare event for a new one to come into existence or an old one to pass away.
The Guvners like to argue over whether these whirlpool pathways reach seperate layers of the plane, or whether Limbo is just all one big confusing layer. On the one hand, they are planar pathways, which would suggest that they lead to other layers, and historically, scholars have labeled five different layers for the plane, based on major realms it possesses. On the other hand, at different times Limbo's various towns and realms can be found on the far end of different whirlpools, which means that if there are different layers, these areas of habitation don't pay them any mind.
What's most important to a cutter is that the whirpools can serve as a means of travel through the plane. The slaadi use them regularly to shorten the distance from one spot to another. Adventurers can do the same, if they can just figure out where they lead to.

Astral Travel

As every cutter with any experience knows, a body can use the Astral Plane for quick travel among the Outer Planes - given the right spell or ability to access it - but the Astral only contacts the upper layer of each plane. The uncertain nature of Limbo's layers makes astral travel guesswork, however. sometimes astral traveling bashers can get to anyplace they wish on LImbo. Other times no destination they wish for seems available. Is it that the desired locales are rising and sinking through planar layers? Or doeas Limbo only contact the Astral sporadically? Nobody knows. the only thing certain is that sometimes bashers can get where they want, and other times they can't.

Spells

Using the teleport spell can be a bit dangerous. If the spell succeeds and the caster rolls "On Target," there's no problem. A "high" roll means the caster ends up at some completely different location (DM's choice). A "Low" result means the caster is teleported directly to the nearest hazardous locale. That could be anything from the centre of a skirmish between slaadi and githzerai to an erupting volcano.
Plant Door and Transport via Plants are even more useful, at least for travel to familiar places. In fact, there's no need to worry about finding a plant type to match one at the destination. A caster who knows the plants at the target point can have an associate imagine one into being from Limbo's broth at the point of departure. (caster's can't do this themselves, because they can't cast the spell while concentrating to maintain the proper terrain.) One really good thing about these is that they are not affected by Limbo's chaos when cast by a cleric.

"Overland"

Whena ll else fails, cutters can always just set out across Limbo's "countryside" in what they percieve to be the direction of their goal. As they travel, they'll have to extend their bubble of controlled terrain to the front, letting it erode away behind them.
The good thing about this mode of travel is that the terrain generated by the cutters' imaginations, so it can be level, smooth, and pleasant going all the way.
There's a couple of problems with this, though. For one, Limbo's an infinite plane like any of the others, so this sort of travel can be extremely time consuming. Magic that allows flying, or really swift steeds, can help a lot. Slaadi and anarchs can even swim in the primal soup, without suffocating or dissolving away.
But most berks don't have that option. They have to maintain terrain about them. Unfortunately, they also have to sleep sometime, and they can't concentrate on maintaning the terrain while they do. This makes the job of camp guard extremely important, so sleeping companions don't wind up smothering in primal chaos.
Finally, no matter how pleasant the landscape, a cutter has no control over encounters. Limbo's crawling with slaadi and other native beasties, and they'' overrun a basher's pathway given half a chance.
Considering all this, it's no wonder that most travelers use some other method rather than the "overland" approach.

Guidons

For many of these travel types, it's necessary to recognize the destination from far away. How's a basher to find the direction through the Astral Plane without percieving the final locale, for instance?
That's what guidons are all about. Most every burg a cutter could want to travel to has a magical obelisk in the centre of town, maintained by an anarch just for ectering travelers. These guidons resonate to the locate object spell regardless of range, each with its own particular magical vibration. So cutters can cast the spell and use it as a guide on a sidestep jaunt through the Astral Plane. Or they can cast it, then peer down the mouth of nearby conduits till they find one headed their way. Or they can cast it and launch out cross-country through the plane, if that's their desire.
Some locales even sell trinkets with locate object cast permenently upon them, to serve as guidon compasses. But be warned, these items sometimes malfunction when deep in the soup (5% chance per day, not cumulative), leading their owners astray for a while before locking back on target.
Adventuring parties should keep in mind that one of the worst things that can happen to them is losing their wizard, cleric, or guidon compass while out in the soup. It can be hellaciously hard for nonmagic-using types to find a way back to inhabited locales.

Controlling Limbo

Introducing: Chaos-Shaping
Obviously, Limbo can be downright dangerous for berks who aren't prepared for its chaos. But its elemental stew responds to a cutter's will, allowing bashers to create safe pockets around themselves. Just how much it responds depends upon the individual. Addle-coves and leatherhead fools can only maintain a few square yards of the simplest types of terrain, barely enough to set up camp and rest in. But powerful anarchs are able to maintain entire cities, and that without even devoting their full attention to the task.
The chart below shows what type of terrain and how much of it a basher can maintain by concentrating on the task, based - in this case - on the character's Intelligence score. While concentrating to maintain terrain in this way, berks can't cast spells, make attacks, make skill checks, and they lose any dexterity bonus to Armor Class. About all they can do is walk and talk (but they won't be great conversationalists). Anarchs are the exception, of course, as explained in a moment.

Passive chaos-shaping score	Radius of Terrain Generated	Type of Terrain Generated
0-12	none	none
13-15	10 feet per score point	simple (flat meadow)
16-20	10 yards per score point	complex (hills, trees, streams)
21-28	100 yards per score point	artifical (buidings, streets)
29+	1 mile per score point	includes native animals

Intelligence for concious maintenance, Wisdom for unconcious maintenance by trained Anarchs.

Anarchs

Anarchs have an innate ability to hold chaos matter in a useful form, without really concentrating on it. Like everyone else, they have to focus their attention to first shape the chaos, using their intelligence attribute rating. But once it's in a desirable form, their subconcious mind maintains it, as reflected by their Wisdom attribute rating. That means they can keep terrain in existence and still do other things, like cast spells, make attacks, and so on.
'Course, not all anarchs are equally adept, any more than all cutters are equally good with a sword. Some have just raw talent: others have trained themselves to some amount of skill with their natural talent: and some others devote themselves to becoming real chaos masters.

• An anarch's raw talent shows up as the ability to breathe and swim in unshaped chaos matter, the background soup of Limbo, without suffering suffocation or physical erosion. All slaadi have this innate ability, but rare members of more typical humanoid races do as well.
  Consequently, sometimes bashers just visiting Limbo discover that they this innate ability. It typically shows up first when they get dumped into the soup and find themselves perfectly comfortable with it. Only characters of chaotic alignment have any chance of discovering this ability, however, and then only if they pass a Wisdom check and fail a Wisdom saving throw against paralyzation. (Younger, less experienced characters are more apt to discover the ability than older ones, who are more set in their ways.)
• Characters who discover that they have the raw talent may then further develop that ability by picking up the chaos-shaping. The chaos-shaping proficiency is available to all character classes and races, with one big qualification: It can only be learned from someone who already has it. This means learning from a githzerai, but they're real hesitant about teaching outsiders. However, it's just barely possible for a basher to find a locale of some other, more friendly race in Limbo - halflings, elves, dwarves, or some other race - and learn it from one of them.
  The chaos-shaping proficiency allows characters to use their Wisdom attribute score to unconciously maintain terrain they have shaped, as long as it's something natural. For example, according to the table above, a cutter with a chaos shaping score of 24 for concious maintanance could shape chaos into a chunk of terrain with a 2.400-yard radius, complete with hills, streams, trees, and even buildings and streets. If the cutter is an anarch who's learned the chaos-shaping proficiency and also has a chaos shaping score of 24 for passive maintenance, the natural stuff - hills, streams, and trees - can be maintained unconciously, though the artifical things - buildings and streets - fade away unless concentrated upon.
• Master anarchs can do much more than this, because they devote their lives to shaping chaos. To become a master anarch, a basher must be a member of the githzerai Anarch's Guild. That cuts out most everybody but native githzerai, though there have been a few cases of cutters being adopted by the race after performing some wonderful service for them, or other such stuff.
  Sect members are taught secret insights into chaos, allowing them to unconciously maintain even artifical constructions (provided they were bright enough to compose them in the first place - and anybody less bright isn't allowed into the sect). What's more, the secrets they learn allow them to add their proficiency bonus to both their Intelligence and Wisdom for purposes of determining how far the radius of control extends, and how comples it can be. That's how even mortal githzerai are able to maintain chunks of terrain of a size rivaling the realms of local powers. And in cases where two or more anarchs are actively competing for control of a chunk of terrain, it's adjusted Intelligence (Intelligence plus proficiency bonus of chaos-shaping) that's used to determine the winner.

Miniflux

Now, from what's been explained so far, it might seem as if hanging around in a stabilized area of LImbo would solve all a basher's problems concerning chaos. But that just ain't the dark of things. Even the best and brightest of anarch's can't keep track of every little detail. And though many of the powers might be able to, they don't want to impose their will over absolutely every object within their purview. After all, this is the Chaos side of the Great Road, and individualism is in high regard here. If a power or a master anarch was to keep track of every item owned by every soul in the terrain, it would be too much like Mechanus - there'd be no mystery to life.
So even Limbo's stablest regions are subject to a phenomenon usually referred to as miniflux. Basically, what miniflux means is that even in stable areas, little things tind to get forgotten and fall prey to chaos, either dissolving away or changing to something else entirely. So a cutter's possessions are that cutter's responsibility to maintain. 'Course, in this case, maintain doesn't mean just keep well oiled and in good repair: it means keep in existence. Here's a case where even non-anarchs use their subconcious powers. Luckily, a body doesn't have to concenttrate on keeping normal possessions intact. For most cutters, their sword or spell spellbook is so much an extension of their own self-image that it's always in the back of their mind, so it's automatically maintained. Clothes being worn are the same way.
What's a problem is all the little extraneous items a basher doesn't think about very often. For example, how often do people actually think of the coil of rope they stashed in their backpack at journey's beginning, or the material components they've packed for a rarely used spell? In LImbo, by the time they recall it, it may have changed to something else entirely. To represent this, any tima a character decides to use an item that hasn't been used for some time, the DM may choose to have the character make a Wisdom check against miniflux.
For sould who dwell on the plane, miniflux can be really troublesom when it comes to items around the house. While a body's away tending business for a few hours, the dining room table might turn to chalk, the bedroom cushions to mushrooms, and the keg of ale in the kitchen to dust - or worse, fire.