ASTRAL RIVERS, LAKES AND FISHING
Vast streams of colorful astral material wafts into Wildspace from the Astral Sea, creating rivers and lakes of starry material. The motion of planets in a realm prevent these streamers from forming in planetary paths, so they tend to create veins that stretch above and below the planetary plane of a Wildspace realm. The larger rivers produce their own air envelope and centrally-pulling gravity well. They are usually filled with an assortment of space guppies, feeding kindori, scavvers and other spacesea creatures. In some places, these confluences gather into great lakes, usually bobbing with asteroids or other terran objects caught in the grip of the streamer's gravity.
Because these rivers and lakes produce both an air envelope and gravity well, spelljamming ships are slowed to tactical speed when they are approached. These areas are easily avoided by ships at spelljamming speeds as their currents are languid and predictable, and are out of most major travel lanes. However, ships needing to restore their food stores, or which ply in astral sea food trade need only take a short divergence to reach these areas and conduct themselves in a wide range of fishing activities - from singular pole fishing to using nets to sweep the rivers and in some unsavory cases, hunting kindori and the other vast beasts of the astral rivers and lakes like the seaborne hunters of old.
The rules for rod-based fishing can be found in the Astral Adventurer's Guide. Net fishing in an Astral River or lake requires a fishing net and a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check per net. A successful check gathers 5 lbs. of fish (5 meals worth), plus an additional 5 lbs. per point the check was succeeded by. A failure with a natural roll of 2 indicates the net is tangled or otherwise damaged and must be repaired (at least 1 hour's work) before use. A failure with a natural roll of 1 indicates an encounter with a predatory fish of some sort (usually a scavver) that attacks the crew or vessel.
Harpoon hunting for Kindori and other colossal creatures - such as Astral Krakens, Dreadnoughts or the like, use the normal ship-based and personal combat rules; hunting down such colossal beasts is not a task for the weak of heart!
ASTEROIDS, COMETS AND OTHER CELESTIAL AND INFERNAL BODIES
A wide variety of space debris tumbles through Wildspace, ranging in size from small pebbles to moon-sized asteroids and other objects. Free-floating rocky debris, for the purposes of this game are termed Asteroids, and they are relatively unmoving from their position, allowing them to be revisited over and over. An asteroid must be a minimum of at least 50 feet across to produce an air envelope and gravity plane that can interfere with spelljamming. Over the many years floating in Wildspace, asteroids surprisingly fill their air envelope with fresh air. Ships sometimes take advantage of this to replenish fouled air by merging with the asteroid's air envelope. It takes approximately a week for an asteroid to clean its own fouled air envelope if otherwise left alone.
Comets and other moving objects are an occasional hazard in Wildspace. Luckily, these objects generally not moving at Spelljamming speeds and are easily detected by vessels and avoided. In rare occassions though, these fast-moving objects may either be undetectable, masked or actually alter course to seek out collision with spelljamming vessels, such as Murder Comets (see Boo's Astral Menagerie). Generally speaking, known obstacles can be automatically avoided. In some cases, a ship may be forced to pass through such an obstacle (such as the Rain of Tears, a meteor shower near Selune's moon port in Realmspace), which forces the ship to tactical speed to manuever through the area. Other unexpected obstacles can generally be avoided with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Spelljamming Vessel) skill check. In rare cases, dangerous obstacles may seek out nearby spelljamming ships, drawn to such ships by magic or sentience. In such cases, an opposed Wisdom (Spelljamming Vessel) skill check may be required to avoid the obstacle, with failure indicating interception, which slows the vessel to tactical speed.
Beyond asteroids, astermines, comets, meteor showers and other objects in Wildspace, two additional space phenomena are worth pointing out.
The first are celestial temples, generally dedicated to gods of the sky, sun, stars or moon. In spelljamming realms, temples to these gods may exist, either as part of a larger port or possibly as a freestanding edifice. Most are open and welcome to peaceful travellers, offering services, spells, berthing and/or places of worship for those travelling through Wildspace. Modrons, oddly, have scattered outposts throughout wildspace, where they observe celestial mechanics and in rare cases may act as drydocks for spelljamming ship repairs - though usually at the cost of a mandatory attendance of one of the Modron's conferences on celestial mechanics.
The second phenomena are the smattering of infernal realms sometimes found in remote and forbidding places of Wildspace. Whether a foul temple to a fiendish power, prison for such beings or the touchstone for an infernal incursion, these realms are generally found in obscure areas and reek of their infernal inhabitants. In one exceptional case, there is a known temple to Asmodeus in a realm replete with corsairs and pirates, a great floating city colloquially known as Hellsport, in which all manner of pleasures and items can be found - many of which are highly illegal in other realms.
Conversely, there are cautionary tales of a forgotten realm whose planets were overrun in a demonic incursion brought on by own inhabitants foul practices, its planets now hellish realms and its sun devoured by an apocalyptic entity that still hungers for all that draw near it. Likewise, spacer tales speak of other realms in an enternal war between celestial and fiendish forces, with the very planets in contention by rival forces.
