The elemental war

Hey guys,

    I hinted at this war in the writeup of Pumii.  Of course, it was written
during lunch (go fig!), and was a blast to write.  It's a bit on the
light-hearted side, with a few gamer jokes ;)  Enjoy!

The War of Burning Tides



            Conflicts abound on the so-called Elemental Planes, but they
rarely affect the Prime Material Plane, and even less so the great void
known as wildspace.  One conflict, however, has boiled over into wildspace,
leaving behind many small worlds created by conflicting elemental forces.

            The War of Burning Tides began as a dispute between two
elemental lords over a game of cards.  The quick thinking of an elemental
lady prevented a full-scale war, instead shifting it to a series of "contest
battles" to be fought in wildspace.  The last battle has yet to be fought,
so thus the war remains inconclusive.



The Players

            The chief antagonists of the War of Burning Tides are Hurn the
Brimstone Sultan and the Lunii Tidal Prince.  Their two empires are
deadlocked in the war, using wildspace as their battleground.  They
sometimes hire out other elementals as mercenaries, but Hurn and Lunii
remain the key players in the war.



Hurn, the Brimstone Sultan

            A monster of fire and glowing coals, Hurn is believed to be an
extremely powerful Efreeti.  He is constantly angry, though he can never
really tell why.

            Hurn was insulted and embarrassed when Lunii accused him of
cheating.  The fact that he *was* cheating only further embarrassed him, and
he let his temper (and pride) get out of hand.  He has almost completely
forgotten why the War of Burning Tides was started, and that there's a final
battle to fight.  He has bigger issues to worry about instead of some silly
game.or so he tells himself.



Lunii, the Tidal Prince

            Lunii is a tall, pale humanoid of great girth.  His mood changes
from calm and cold to a raving lunatic with the cycles of the moon.

            Lunii was in one of his lunatic moods when he accused Hurn of
cheating.  Of course, Lunii was cheating as well, having slipped an illegal
card in his deck.  He also had a bit too much to drink that night, which
only made things worse.  Lunii constantly frets about the final battle, as
he lost the last five battles in a row.  He thinks that Hurn is cheating
again, and refuses to finish the game until he has some edge over his rival.



Brez, the Princess of Zephyrs

            This creature appears as a blue winged elf, not unlike a sylph.
She has sapphire-blue hair that she dyes auburn.  Brez wears a flowing,
pastel dress, an act of defiance to irritate her mother (who constantly nags
Bez; "why can't you wear see-through silk garments like your sister?").

            Brez it the chief architect of the War of Burning Tides.  It was
her suggestion that the war be a series of contests fought in wildspace.
Her reasons for tricking Hurn and Lunii into fighting their battles in
wildspace instead of the Inner Planes are simple: she knew that a full-scale
war would spill over into her own realm, causing a great deal of damage.  By
moving the war to a neutral ground, the Inner Planes escaped the worst of
the conflict.



Carbron, the Lord of Diamonds

            This elemental lord appears as a giant made of granite.  He
prefers long coats made of black leather.

            Carbron is in charge of creating the battlefields for the War.
He got sucked into this duty mainly because Brez asked him to, promising to
allow him to court her.  Naturally, he jumped on the proposition before he
thought it through.  Now, he's stuck doing most of the grunt-work in the
War, although he does now have several elemental ladies interested in him
after he was seen with on several occasions with Brez on his arm.



Sheem, the Caliph of Vapor

            Hailing from the Plane of Steam, Sheem is a lanky, clumsy
humanoid.  He is usually found hanging out with Carbron, who he hangs around
with in hopes of meeting other powerful elemental lords.

            For his part, Sheem has little to do with the War.  He sometimes
sells the services of his armies to one side or the other, but has little
impact on the war.  Generally, all of the other elemental lords use him to
fetch them snacks and drinks and otherwise treat him as an unwanted kid
brother that just won't take a hint.



The War

            The War began over, of all things, a card game.  Hurn, Lunii,
Brez, Carbron, and Sheem (actually, Sheem was getting drinks and snacks for
the lords) were playing a game of cards when Lunii accused Hurn of cheating.
Embarrassed and insulted, Hurn returned the accusation with one of his own.
As creatures of great pride, the argument turned to threats of war.  Brez
offered a compromise: the two would fight a series of battles in far-off
places (namely, wildspace), where the damage would be minimal.  After a set
number of battles were fought, the winner of the majority of these conflicts
would receive an apology from the loser.  The terms were agreed to, and the
war fought under these "civilized" terms.

            There have been no less than 20 major battles.  The battles
usually begin with Carbron and Sheem creating a battlefield in the middle of
space.  Armies of fire and water teleport in and have at one another.
Sometimes, mercenary forces are also used.  The forces are almost even at
the onset, with each general carefully choosing his troops to best counter
the expected army of the opposing general.  The winner is determined by a
predetermined set of victory conditions, such as destroying certain units,
holding key parts of the battleground, capturing banners, and the like.

            After the battle, both sides pack up and leave.  The
battleground is simply left behind; usually, it becomes a minor world or
asteroid cluster to be claimed later by natives to wildspace.  Each side has
won an equal number of battles; the last (and final) battle has yet to be
fought; neither side is quite ready to fight it.  Neither Hurn nor Lunii are
willing to risk losing the last battle, and have found excuses to put it off
for a thousand years.



How to use the War

            The main purpose of the War of Burning Tides is to create all
kinds of new minor worlds for spelljammers to visit.  The DM is free to
place these worlds wherever he chooses, and may adjust to the number of
battles to suit his campaign (keep in mind that both sides have won an even
number of battles, so the last battle determines the winner).  Optionally,
the DM may choose to fight the final battle, with the PCs as mercenaries for
one side or the other.  Such a conflict is beyond the scope of this article,
but should be a truly vast and terrible battle (perhaps it creates a whole
new, full-fledged world as the battleground, one a peer to Toril or Oerth).



Adam