Ok, so our campaign has kinda suddenly taken a hard left turn. GM and players are looking for ideas.
It has been mentioned many times that it is my character's fault. It was late, I was tired, and forgot about a rule that 5E has kept in place. So ... Bag of Holding, Handy Haversack, and unique McGuffin that our party
must have (well at least 5 of 6 must have) is now blasted into the astral plane. We need to figure out how to go get it.
This isn't where the GM expected the campaign to go, so he currently has absolutely nothing prepared. He is looking for inspiration.
All that we (both as players and PC's) think we have learned about the astral plane so far. (Not even sure if this is all true.)
- Beings there don't age. Or at least don't die of old age. (Can they grow up?) Not sure if that is only beings native there or if it will include us when we get there.
- Can breath. Unknown if food/water is commonly available or even necessary.
- Movement is by though. (We are not a cerebral group, could be problems.)
- There are occupied waystations, islands, cities, and kingdoms floating about.
- There are ship-like craft for moving about. Not sure why that is necessary though.
- There are powerful and super intelligent beings there. Some of nearly infinite size.
Nice setup! Good questions. I'm going to approach them with a bit of artistic license, building on the lore I know of the Astral in D&D.
There is a ship that appears when the Northern Lights are in the sky called
The Dreaming Hawk, inlaid with iridescent materials and sails that seem to blend into the cloud twilight mists. Her crew consists of men and women with metallic hued skin and opalescent eyes who are quick to speak of their dreaming life as if events and characters from their dreams are real. These men and women (of all races) cannot step foot on shore, however, or they will suddenly and rapidly age, dissipating into dust. They are led by Senefer Yarrowvein, a moon elf captain of indeterminable age whose long hair has turned to pure strands of silver; she is said to know the ancient sea paths that cross over into the Astral when the moon is either at its full zenith or a darkened new moon rises in the sky. Silver mists absorb
The Dreaming Hawk and all its passengers at these times, transporting them to the Astral, where the crew run out the side sails hidden behind the iridescent inlay.
Captain Yarrowvein has a steep price for passage, however – long ago, she lost the ability to dream in the elven trance during a battle with illithids, and she requires passengers give her one of their dreams which is lost forever. In this way, she staves off the madness that could consume her were she to go without dreams/trance for too long. In the lower decks, her crew whisper that Yarrowvein possesses ancient elven secrets to bestow immortality or extremely long life, which would theoretically allow her crew to leave the ship, go ashore, and lead normal lives. Most discount these baseless rumors and are loyal to Yarrowvein, but the seed is planted for mutinous scheming among the discontented.
How could we navigate or find our McGuffin?
The McGuffin is imprinted with the psychic residue from each of its past owners; on the Astral Plane this manifests as created pockets of reality which embody the themes of each past owner's interaction with the McGuffin. If a duke once had it, but misused the McGuffin's power leading to his knights souring and betraying him in a critical battle in which he was slain, perhaps the psychic echoes manifest as tangible illusions of the critical battle, replaying that moment of betrayal. As the PCs navigate it, they must discover whose dreamscape they are in (a living descendant of the duke, perhaps, who doesn't understand the full family history?), and unearth clues hinting at the duke's misuse of the McGuffin. When the PCs awaken the dreamer / dispelling the false notion, a wispy glowing trail leads to the next psychic echo.
What spells or magic items would be most useful there?
As a realm of pure ideas, the Astral responds to what its inhabitants believe to be true. Being able to manipulate or convince others to believe a certain way – whether through judicious use of spells/magic items, skill checks, or clever roleplay – could be of benefit in certain scenes.
Since native inhabitants may have extremely fast movement speeds,
slow or other spells hindering/restraining them could be helpful.
If there were some way – this would need to be homebrewed – to cause time to elapse in a part of the Astral Plane, that could be potentially devastating to creatures with defined lifespans like githyanki, as time rapidly catches up with them. This could also be useful if you're using the AD&D ruling that wounds don't heal and casters don't regain spell slots because rests don't happen without time; such an item/spell would allow natural healing & resting. However, later versions of the Astral dropped this severe effect, so you can decide which version you prefer in your game
If the PCs will be using color portals to leave the Astral for other planes, then either a guide (maybe a mimir?), notes about which colors lead to which planes, or a converted spell like
analyze portal / portal sense would be useful. Truesight/
true seeing should probably work as well.
Any magics that won't work there?
In 5e there aren't any spells I know of which are specifically called out as not working in the Astral. However...
In older editions, extradimensional spells/magic don't work on the Astral (e.g.
leomund's tiny chest, demiplane, bag of holding). That's really up to you as DM which version you prefer.
I'd argue that
time stop wouldn't work on the Astral if you go with the "there is no time on the Astral" thing, which I think is one of it's defining features.
As
DMDave points out, there are also several spells which stipulate "on ground" or "on the ground" in the spell description (e.g.
evard's black tentacles, arcane gate, cloudkill, cordon of arrows, destructive wave, earthquake, etc). If the PCs are in an area of the Astral without any solid ground, I'd rule that those spells cannot function.
What are we likely to encounter?
- Githyanki, some of which train creatures native to the plane such as spectral hounds & white drakes (can't recall name at moment).
- "Outsiders" like fiends and celestials (esp. astral devas, couatl, and shedu).
- Grim guardians against intrusions from the Far Realm.
- Far Realmsian horrors like illithids, brain collectors, and dhour.
- Psychic entities bereft of body, with the ability to possess.
- Colorful astral sailors (e.g. Captain Yarrowvein and The Dreaming Hawk, the Aperusa/Vistani of Spelljammer, gnomes using thought-driven contraptions).
- Rival NPCs with silver cords projecting via the astral projection spell.
- Members of the Athar planar faction, which believe the gods are false, merely powerful beings (perhaps even ascended mortals) but unworthy of worship.
- Creatures/NPCs that fled here to escape a curse that is dependent on time – the Astral Plane allowing them to find a workaround to the curse.
- Astral whales, astral streakers, astral searchers, kodragons, and other magical beasts native to the Astral Plane.
- Dead god isles.
- Psychic winds.
- Dreamscapes – if you're willing to stretch the interpretation of the Astral to encompass the Plane of Dreams.
Any reliable ways to find/make allies?
Creatures aren't in the Astral Plane by accident just drifting around lost in thought. Sentient creatures should have clear motivations – stop horrors from intruding through an ancient portal (or help them intrude), gather clues of what befell their mysteriously missing civilization, evade discovery by Vlaakith the Lich-Queen, liberate the dreamscape of a comatose ally who is being deceived by a shapeshifted green slaad to allow the ally to waken, prevent the reemergence of an ancient evil by cultists performing rites on the dead god's corpse, hunt the last astral whale as a trophy for Dispater's throne room, etc. Leaning into the creature's motives or otherwise finding common ground is the best way to make allies.
Ideas, suggestions, cautions, laughs, well wishes?
Good luck! The Astral Plane is a tricky one to differentiate from normal worldly adventuring.
