D&D 5E Help With Githyanki Adventure Idea

[Reynard]

In my local group, three of us have been rotating the GM seat. We started with me running Rappan Athuk 5E, and are still ostensibly doing that, but recently we have tired of the dungeon a little and have been going farther afield.

Soon, it is my turn behind the screen again and I want to do something focused on on of the other PCs (whose player is not one of the GMs). He is playing a githyanki exiled prince (a wizard by class) who originally joined up to search RA for powerful magic to eventually retake his rightful position.

I am hoping to brainstorm some ideas for a cool adventure that brings the party (7th level; maybe 8th by the time I run this) into the Astral Plane and into this conflict within the PC's githyanki house. I want to use some illithid elements since almost all of the PCs have played BG3. And I definitely want them to have to face a red dragon in some form.

The player doesn't have a lot of backstory written and is okay if I add elements, so I have a decent amount of room. I expect the adventure to last maybe 6 3-hour sessions via Fantasy grounds, so it can't be too expansive, and I would rather it introduce elements and leave some thing unresolved in the end 9so we can go back to it if we want).

So, whatcha got?

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I recently been throwing around an idea using some of those elements you listedn and also Ferrus Dragons - gigantic dragons that do not follow either Bahamut or Tiamat but hate Red Dragons for murder of their rightful ruler. A concept like a group of Illithids trying to get a Ferrus Dragon to slaughter Gityanki house during an attempt to kill said house's red dragons and squash their eggs.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

When in doubt for noble house intrigue, go to Shakespeare. King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and the history plays are full of intrigues and NPCs you can steal and mix and match.

I'm not sure what a githyanki Falstaff would look like -- they'd probably be hard to identify as a knock-off -- but I bet they'd be interesting. A former friend of the PC's, now laying low in court, but a willing ally once the PCs arrive.

The githyanki are already pretty mystical, as is the Astral Plane, so the Weird Sisters seem doable, especially given the matriarchal nature of the githyanki.

And Hamlet gives us a prince in trouble. Maybe the PC's mom and uncle/stepfather pushed the prince out for some reason.

 

[ilgatto]

(...)
So, whatcha got?

Have you checked Fedifensor, in Dragon 67?

 

[Reynard]

Have you checked Fedifensor, in Dragon 67?

No, and how would i?

 

[ilgatto]

No, and how would i?

Hmm... A quick search doesn't tell me whether the Dragon Magazine Archive is still for sale somewhere.

RPG geek Dragon Magazine Archive.

 

[Reynard]

Hmm... A quick search doesn't tell me whether the Dragon Magazine Archive is still for sale somewhere.

RPG geek Dragon Magazine Archive.

If you can find a copy of the archive, it is probably hundreds of dollars. Given the trouble cuased by that archive for TSR, I don't expect we will see it reissued anytime soon, or even classic Dragon or Dungeon mags added to DMSGUILD.

 

[ilgatto]

If you can find a copy of the archive, it is probably hundreds of dollars. Given the trouble cuased by that archive for TSR, I don't expect we will see it reissued anytime soon, or even classic Dragon or Dungeon mags added to DMSGUILD.

Trouble?

 

[Reynard]

Trouble?

Yeah. TSR failed to realize they had not bought the perpetual rights to some of the content in the magazines and therefore "reprinting" them in the Archive caused a bunch of lawsuits. The most impactful one was KenzerCo, who had not given permission to reprint Knights of the Dinner Table. So they ended up getting a D&D license for Kingdoms of Kalamar as well as rights to parody 2E for "Hackmaster 4E" as settlement.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It is a shame that WotC hasn't gone back to the well of old Dragon and Dungeon adventures to reprint more of them. Fedifensor was a classic -- the first astral plane adventure! -- and it would be a great inclusion in a book, say, inspired by the adventures of Baldur's Gate 3.