3.5 Haversack + Bag of holding = boom or fizzle?

[Harlot]

Hi again

Need some help on this one.
I'm the DM. In my campaign the party has obtained an evil magical relic which the bad guys want and absolutely should not get their hands on.
Last session, the party was apprehended by cityguards working for the evil side and asked to hand over the relic. As a last resort the group cleverly (?) took the haversack, in which the relic was held, and put it in a bag of holding. Some questions arise:

1) I ruled that placing a Haversack in a BoH sent them all to the astral plane, like if it had been a bag of holding in a portable hole. But I am not sure if that is actually what would happen. The group certainly thought so, and that was my initial verdict as well, but now I am not so sure. Would that verdict be correct?

2) Assuming it is correct, what happens to the haversack, the bag of holding, the contents of both bags and, most crucial, the relic? I think relics cannot really be destroyed except maybe with Mordekainens disjunction or the like?

3) If the relic is not destroyed in the blast (assuming there is a blast) where does it go? Is that for the DM to rule or is there an obscure rule for this somewhere?

4) How do they return from the astral plane?

Thank you in advance for your time and anwers.
/Harlot

[OldTrees1]

1-3) Unspecified by the rules & your ruling is enough.
4) Travel from the Astral to the Material plane without magic is tricky. There are natural portals in the astral and some of those lead to the material plane. Alternatively they could try to find civilization(although I only recall Githyanki on the Astral).

[Segev]

Technically, the rules say nothing about anything special happening if a bag of holding is placed within another bag of holding. Handy Haversacks specifically reference the bag of holding as what they are in terms of their extradimensional storage. Therefore, per the RAW, nothing special would have happened.

That said, you've ruled otherwise, and that's fine. It sounds like it'll do fun things.

What happens to items in the bag(s)?
They go with you. The relic and everything except your bag of holding and handy haversack make it through just fine, though they're probably floating around you and may be scattering in every direction, depending on the violence of the transition. The bag and haversack are destroyed (assuming, again, you're treating it like a portable hole going into a bag of holding; the other way around just loses the bag, hole, and contents, leaving everybody there).

If you ARE doing it the other way around - bag into hole, not hole into bag - then the contents - including the relic - are "forever lost." There's no way to retrieve them beyond an epic quest to find where, exactly, in the Astral Plane the items wound up and then going to get them. Through whatever hazards there might be.

If the relic is not destroyed, where does it go?
If everybody's going through together, it's floating there, unless you rule that everybody and everything was scattered. In which case, the whole party is separated by transfinite space and will have to figure out how to find each other as well as a way home.

Returning from the Astral Plane requires finding a color pool. The trouble is, those can go...anywhere. If you've sent the party to the Astral Plane, you have an adventure ahead of you, unless they have plane shift or similar magics of their own.

[Gildedragon]

1) nope for two reasons a) BoH and HH are same "tech"; placing one within the other is like placing a BoH in a BoH. The extradimentional space of the inner may be inaccessible while it is in the latter tho, b) BoH PH effects are specific to BoH and PH, not the general rule. Similar interactions do occur but they are specifically called out.
2) contents are dumped into the astral; BoH and HH are destroyed
2.5) nope. They can be destroyed as normal magic items. Artifacts are the tough fellers
3) see 2
4) planeshift; portals (or is it color pools?)

[Aleolus]

According to a strictly RAW reading, only Bags of Holding and Portable Holes trigger bad things when one is put in the other AFAIK. That being said, doesn't the Handy Haversack state that it functions as a BoH? So then, putting a BoH In one would be no different then putting one BoH in another one.

That being said, your houserule for this situation is perfectly reasonable and acceptable. Getting back from the Astral plane will be a pain for the party though

[MisterKaws]

I assume it's a Handy Haversack, since a normal haversack would just enter a bag of holding and stay there. 3.5 has no rules on this, so you could either do the "Destroy both containers and suck everything nearby into Astral Plane" approach, or Pathfinder's "The haversack just disables itself while inside" approach; just remember to be consistent on it.

[Harlot]

Thanks for fast replies.
Clarification; yes a Handy Haversack, not just an ordinary haversack, and the Handy Haversack was placed in the BOH.

So if I go with gut-decision/house rule and say it went BOOM, the lvl. 5 party is sucked into the astral plane, with no Haversack, no BOH, the contents of both including the relic scattered everywhere, and so are the party members. Maybe leagues and leagues apart, with no real way to find each other. They cannot planeshift.

Oh this is FUN!!!

[Gildedragon]

You could always have a Gith ship be around. Regroup the party and their gear like that.
But now you got them on a planehopping excursion.

Q: with this sort of interactions. What is your ruling for BoH in ropetrick

[Harlot]

You could always have a Gith ship be around. Regroup the party and their gear like that.
But now you got them on a planehopping excursion.

Q: with this sort of interactions. What is your ruling for BoH in ropetrick

A: IDK as noone in the group EVER used rope trick. That said, I think I'd warn the players not to put one extradimensional space into another...

The thing is, we all of us assumed what would happen was the party getting sucked out to the astral plane, as a DM I think their solution and escape was incredibly clever. So I'd rather go with this idea, regardles of the hassle, than change it to 'nothing happened anyway as pr RAW.' (or rather, as not written anywhere and so not applicable.)

[OldTrees1]

A: IDK as noone in the group EVER used rope trick. That said, I think I'd warn the players not to put one extradimensional space into another...

The thing is, we all of us assumed what would happen was the party getting sucked out to the astral plane, as a DM I think their solution and escape was incredibly clever. So I'd rather go with this idea, regardles of the hassle, than change it to 'nothing happened anyway as pr RAW.' (or rather, as not written anywhere and so not applicable.)

Nothing happening doesn't fit your campaign world (as evidenced by what you would do for rope trick) while your current plan does fit your campaign. Keep track of how they escape the astral, if it is interesting please post it here later!

[Harlot]

Nothing happening doesn't fit your campaign world (as evidenced by what you would do for rope trick) while your current plan does fit your campaign. Keep track of how they escape the astral, if it is interesting please post it here later!
I would, but I am off rotation for the next 6 months or so (exams + have to sort of rewrite parts of the campaign!) so it'll be a long wait
Thanks again for help and feedback
/Harlot