Ephemeral Rift (5e Hazard)
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Ephemeral Rift[edit]
The ephemeral rift is a vaguely circular region that can vary widely in size, whose diameter ranges from as small as 5ft to as large as a mile. Within the space, wormholes and vortexes and all sorts of portals to who knows where crop up more often than the undead on a patch of desecrated earth. These regions are most commonly created as a disastrous outcome from a teleportation spell gone awry, with the size of the mishap scaling directly with the resulting ephemeral rift. From the outside, ephemeral rifts can easily be identified by visual phenomena such as vortexes that distort vision through them, and space that contracts and expands in ways that it really should not be. Ephemeral rifts last for one day after the event for every foot in diameter the distortion field is.
When a creature first enters the ephemeral rift, or whenever a creature starts its turn within the rift, it must make a DC(10) Dexterity saving throw to avoid being swallowed by a happenstance wormhole. On a failure, the creature is affected by a teleport spell, which applies 3d10 Force damage to the creature and teleports them to a random location anywhere on the plane. Creatures who traverse completely through the rift by means of teleporation are considered to have touched it and must make the Dexterity saving throw to safely pass.
Planar ephemeral rifts. On occasion, a special type of ephemeral rift can form from magical accidents involving interplanar travel. Planar ephemeral rifts are connected to a particular plane, and when a creature fails its Dexterity saving throw against this type, they get affected by the plane shift spell instead, which transports them to a random location on the plane associated with the planar ephemeral rift.
Planar ephemeral rifts are more easily identifiable because the qualities of the plane they are connected to tend to seep through to the surrounding area: A planar ephemeral rift connected to the Shadowfell may cause light in the surrounding area to become subdued, for instance, or a planar ephemeral rift connected to the elemental plane of fire would spew ash and lava into the nearby landscape.
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