This article is part of a series for both the April 2020 RPG Blog Carnival and the 2020 Blogging A to Z Challenge.

Ulgrotha, whose name means «Garden», was a small backwater plane, far from Dominaria. The majority of the plane is a Dead Zone, a cursed place that strips way not only the mana but the very life of everything touching it. This effect doesn’t extend in the deep sea and on its surface, provided to remain at large from the shore. Only a small portion of the plane, on the edge of the Greater Sea, was spared from the devastation caused by the Apocalypse Chime, since it was close to an extraplanar rift opened by an ancient planeswalker, deep under the surface. The steady flow of mana kept the area alive and not drinking; an oasis on a plane thirsty for energy. The inhabitants call this region the Homelands.

Most of the humans drifted to the Northern Plains, where they would found the country of Aysen, while goblins and orc found a home within the mountains to the South, naming them Koskun Mountains. The mountain range was already inhabited by the minotaurs, that lived secluded within the vales of the Kher Ridge; they continued with their lives in much the same fashion, relatively unaffected by the dramatic turn of events. Bordered by the Dead Zone, the Sea, and the Koskun Mountains, the eastern swamps were for the most part unpopulated, at least until the arrival of the dwarves first, and Baron Sengir later, who would transform them into his Dark Barony. One forest at the western base of the Koskun mountains still contained many creatures and monsters, some indigenous to the plane, others summoned and left behind. A small island near the Homelands coast also didn’t have the draining effect found elsewhere in the world.

Ulgrotha has a planar portal, which is located in the abandoned dwarven city under Castle Sengir. Where it leads is unknown, although Ulgrotha’s dwarf population emigrated from beyond it. Another portal leads from Dominaria’s Sursi to the Koskun Mountains.

«No secret is forever…»

For your campaign

Feroz’s Ban was a magical shield around the world of Ulgrotha erected in 3910 AR to keep planar entities from harming the plane and its inhabitants.

After witnessing what planar breaches could do to the fragile balance of the plane, Feroz and his wife Serra decided it was time to do something. On their isle, the two settled down to work. Studying the sole mana stream available to the plane, ancient tomes on spell construction, and analyzing one of Serra’s artifacts, a device that could cast an incredibly strong barrier of force, they endeavored for nearly a year. Then, on the night when the flow of mana was at its strongest, for it was solstice on the world where the mana came from, Feroz cast a powerful spell, his Ban, that sealed Ulgrotha off from the other planes. The plan was a complete success, as it prevented Ulgrotha from being visited from, scried upon and even detected by other planes.

New magic item: Everlasting Bottle

Wondrous item, legendary

If a spell scroll containing a spell with a duration different from instantaneous is placed inside the Everlasting Bottle, when you cast such a spell, it has the following effects on it:

• Its range is 30-feet radius sphere with the bottle as its center.
• Its duration becomes permanent.
• Its saving throw DC is 19.
• If the spell has a target, it must be selected from within the range. If the target affected moves beyond that range, it automatically succeeds on the saving throw and the spell ends for it. At that moment, you can select a new target within the range of the spell.

There must be millions of examples of persistent blessings and curses in fantasy literature. I just wanted a generic way to explain them in a campaign… and a way for players to take advantage of such a powerful effect.