The Astral Travel Thread

[Dalebert]

Congratulations! You've gotten your hands on a Robe of Stars. You can now physically travel to the astral plane at will and back again.

Why would you want to do that, you ask? Uhm... Well so you can go to the astral plane... and... then back.

I read over this in the PHB. So many questions. The city of Sigil is there, right? It's up in the sky. Do you need to be able to fly to get to it? Is it accessible from above or you have to enter through a gate? The Lady of Pain controls it and can ban you. Why would she? How do you avoid p***ing her off?

What do folks know about this? What have you done there?

[Lawful Good]

My first intinct is to

1. Shift over
2. Steal a githyanki silver sword
3. Profit

Besides this, I'm sure there are other things. From the Forgotten Realms wiki:


Upon entering the Astral plane you saw a silvery color pool nearby—a portal to the Prime Material plane you came from. Astral projecting travelers saw their silver cord leading back to this pool. Color pools appeared as two-dimensional circles about 10-60 feet (3 to 18 meters) in diameter and only visible from one side unless you had some way to detect invisible objects. Pools of different colors were portals to the different Outer planes. Each Outer plane had its own unique color but your home portal was always a metallic silver, rippling like mercury in a pan. Color pools could be used to view the destination plane before stepping through by mentally concentrating on the nearby pool until it became transparent. A viewer could also move (with some limitations) the portal's viewpoint by concentration.[12] Astral projecting travelers formed a new physical body (with silver cord attached) when they stepped through a color pool to their destination plane.[8] The new body was formed out of local materials so the greater the similarity between your home plane and your destination, the more your new body looked like your original one.


So it could be used as a more powerful Plane Shift, I guess. This fluff seems really cool, but I wonder what would happen to your other body on the Material Plane.


Sigil can also, according to lore, only be entered or exited through a portal. Hence it's nickname "The Birdcage". So I dont think you would be able to shift into it. It seems to be a great way to shift into an otherwise unreachable plane.

[DragonSorcererX]

2. Steal a githyanki silver sword

This is a really, really bad idea...

[INDYSTAR188]

This is a really, really bad idea...

What do you think might happen? Just got the inspiration to have the pc's find one...

[JellyPooga]

What do you think might happen? Just got the inspiration to have the pc's find one...

Well the 'Yanki get sort of possessive about their shiny swords and don't like it when they lose one and when a 'Yanki doesn't like something he gets kind of...warparty-ish...and when a 'Yanki warparty goes somewhere, they have a tendency to get a bit...kill-y and enslave-y and they don't discriminate over who gets in the way...like entire villages, towns, cities...words like "holy crap", "aaaargh", "genocide" and "whoops" start getting bandied around when the Githyanki invade a Prime looking for one of their Silver Swords. Definitely brown-trousers time.

edit: Oh yeah, they're best buds with Red Dragons too...that should probably say something about the kind of approach they take to things. When someone can "call in a marker" for a favour from a Red Dragon (any Red Dragon, mind), you probably don't want to get on their "black list".

[INDYSTAR188]

Well the 'Yanki get sort of possessive about their shiny swords and don't like it when they lose one and when a 'Yanki doesn't like something he gets kind of...warparty-ish...and when a 'Yanki warparty goes somewhere, they have a tendency to get a bit...kill-y and enslave-y and they don't discriminate over who gets in the way...like entire villages, towns, cities...words like "holy crap", "aaaargh", "genocide" and "whoops" start getting bandied around when the Githyanki invade a Prime looking for one of their Silver Swords. Definitely brown-trousers time.

edit: Oh yeah, they're best buds with Red Dragons too...that should probably say something about the kind of approach they take to things. When someone can "call in a marker" for a favour from a Red Dragon (any Red Dragon, mind), you probably don't want to get on their "black list".

They're also way to powerful for a low-level adventure too. I wonder how I can work all this into something to challenge my level 6 party.... How cool would it be if the Githzerai came and helped them escape or something... getting more and more awesome here! To circle back, maybe they help the party get to the Astral plane but then what?

[Dalebert]

So apparently you can travel around looking for portals to other places. I read that but then I read Sigil had portals to all the planes and I got confused. I somehow assumed there was only one portal to each of the other planes and they were all in Sigil. I guess the ones in Sigil are just convenient because they stay put in a convenient location.

I believe Sigil is IN the astral plane. It's gated and secure and the LoP can ban you whenever she wants.

[EvilAnagram]

You travel to the Astral Plane so you can steal a githyanki ship and shift the campaign into a high-level magical space-pirate adventure. Why else?

[DragonSorcererX]

You travel to the Astral Plane so you can steal a githyanki ship and shift the campaign into a high-level magical space-pirate adventure. Why else?

Well, you may never encounter Gith there, the Astral and Ethereal Planes are really big...

[EvilAnagram]

Well, you may never encounter Gith there, the Astral and Ethereal Planes are really big...

That's why you bring a paralysed Elder Brain as bait.

[JellyPooga]

I believe Sigil is IN the astral plane. It's gated and secure and the LoP can ban you whenever she wants.

Sigil isn't in the Astral Plane, it stands in the center of the Outlands; it's the axle around which the Great Wheel spins, a great ring, floating above The Spire; a column of rock of infinite height. The only way to get to Sigil is through a portal and the Lady of Pain controls them all, giving her complete dominion over The Cage which was devised to contain her. Not even the Gods can challenge her power there, yet she can never leave; an eternal prisoner, but warden also.

[Lawful Good]

Sigil isn't in the Astral Plane, it stands in the center of the Outlands; it's the axle around which the Great Wheel spins, a great ring, floating above The Spire; a column of rock of infinite height. The only way to get to Sigil is through a portal and the Lady of Pain controls them all, giving her complete dominion over The Cage which was devised to contain her. Not even the Gods can challenge her power there, yet she can never leave; an eternal prisoner, but warden also.

Hmmm. I thought the outlands were part. Oh well.

Now I want a sci fi gith space astral pirate game :smallfrown: