Issue 2: New Sites & Towns for Elysium

Not to bust on the King Weslan idea (as I like the idea of someone building his castle in this ideal location but while he still retains his Prime biases - I HAVE to put traps in it and a series of defenses" - only to have him mostly forget that it is there due to his happiness with simpler things); but this raises the question, for me, of what kind of challenge would you put in such a castle? I could see traps, but after a while PCs get tired of those. Stocking it with monsters seems a bit out of theme for the plane.
I do see some humor in the king giving the PCs carte blanche to loot the place and some general directions that end up leading to some death trap. When they return, the genuinely apologetic king says that he truly forgot that he built that in there.

I defined the plane around the themes of healing and life (opposing the themes of the Grey Wastes), so the few ideas I have center around these themes:

Darwin
An area where “healing” creates adaptive mechanisms by mutating visitors (if one goes swimming, he might end up growing gills; he might grow an extra limb if hands are full). The mutations are obvious and unsettling. There is no means to “cure” a victim short of powerful Wish level magic

Po-Coti
A city in the ocean built on stilts upon some low-laying, sometimes submerged, islands. This idyllic Polynesian community is known for its fish and pearl trade. It is also near an oceanic portal making it a prime location for sailing traders. There is an area nearby where the water is semi-breatheable allowing one to dive and swim underwater for much longer. This is quite useful for cultivating their pearl beds (but for obvious reasons, the residents tend to keep this secret to themselves and just let outsiders believe the natives have an innate ability)

The Fountain of Youth
It is uncertain if this location actually exists and many natives regard it as a myth. But if found, what is the price for restoring one's youth? What is the risk? (Possibly lose knowledge/memories they had gained during the years that are washed away?) If the rumors are true and it does exist, it only works for the truly good
[Personally, I would allow it to negate any magical aging from undead, etc. with no risk; but if used for more selfish reasons, one must roll to see if it affects one at all and if there is some cost/side effect]

Merlin's Cave
Nothing much on this one except that I thought about placing the tomb wherein Merlin was trapped by Morgan le Fey somewhere on this plane (whether it was always there, whether it shifted there or whether it exists paritally in Elysium and the Prime, I haven't decided) But I imagine that the idea that such a potential magical cache would PCs foaming at the mouth in anticipation

Elysium seems like a plane where folks go to gear up for an adventure and it's the ultimate safe place to go to to recover afterward. So things like inherent bonuses to stats or granted powers from a deity (even those who may not follow a particular power may benefit if the god can further their goal by doing so) would be appropriate. Too much though and it would be meddling and would invite retaliation.

Likewise, gifts for adventuring (the proverbial "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this", or Galadrial's phial). When a power charges one of the faithful to retrieve an esoteric item like a teardrop of sunlight, this is where the item is granted to some worthy adventurers for some epic undertaking.

The Tavern I mentioned earlier would make for a good meeting place, where people could gather and relax and be relieved of the burdens that may be weighing them down before they head off to the underworld the next morning. A restful night spent there might give the adventurer's temporary hit points that last until they're used. Or it might give a blanket bonus to skill checks for a day or maybe until a person decides to use it.

I'll have to give this some more thought, though I'm not sure if any of this will be useful for the next issue.

Elysium is a place where all except those who hold evil in their hearts are potentially welcomed. So really, you could bump into many different types of people on the plane, from the lawful and the chaotic, true neutrality and good folks of all stripes. The plane, out of all the Upper Planes, is probably the most cosmopolitan.

Anyway, going more with my point about Elysium hosting places that assist the heroes in reaching their goals. I have in mind a cave pool (or some other natural location) that, when visited and some sort of sacrifice is made (days worth of fasting and temporary hit point damage that lasts as long as the fasting was for, loss of hit points, something else along those lines), allows the visitor to cast a single divination (and only divinations that reveal information, not cause harm to others). My initial thought was to have it so that days spent fasting (or some other measurable sacrifice) = level of spell cast, and that the cave can only be utilized one time for each visitor. XP costs, material costs and whatever else would be ignored for the casting of this one spell.

I'll keep thinking on Elysium sites. This one is harder than it would first seem.

Heh...we should probably put a thread up in the main area of the forum to explore the topic properly. I've never had a good handle on Elysium.