D&D 5E Help With Githyanki Adventure Idea

[ilgatto]

By the by, @Reynard, I just found this short and ancient thread on Fedifensor.

 

[Quickleaf]

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?

Oh boy. I have a pdf I've written for my own future campaign that's chock full of githyanki goodness. I can PM you a GoogleDrive link if that's alright?

Also I highly recommend Judd's Silver Swords of the Lichqueen (DMs Guild link) - very OSRish table with good ideas.

 

[Quickleaf]

No, and how would i?

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/dragon/19/DRA19_Fedifensor.pdf

is a link up on Wizards site.

Also! There are many old Dragon mags available on the Internet Archive. Direct link: https://archive.org/details/DragonMagazine260_201801/DragonMagazine067/page/n3/mode/2up

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/dragon/19/DRA19_Fedifensor.pdf

Look at their proto-Spelljammer ships! I forgot those!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Maybe a mix of two adventures from Saltmarsh: Salvage Operation and Tamreraut's Fate, but refflufed as astral ships instead of regular ships?

Part A)
1) The party is hired to salvage a derelict ship to recover a mysterious steel crate.
2) The ship is full of crazed undeads of both humans and 'yanki origin.
3) Once they find the steel strongbox, a great red dragon attacks the ship, the party must flee with their loot before the dragon destroys the ship (change the giant octopus for a red dragon)

part B)
1) the party escape to a nearby 'Zerai monastery.
2) During the night, weird 'zerai (in advanced stage of cerebromorphosis) attack the monastery in waves. The party must survive until daybreak.
3) The party must find the origin of the 'zerai by going deep into an astral rift to find the the wreckage of a 'zerai ship who once took an elder illithid as prisoner until it took control of the crew and started the process of breeding an elder brain in the rift. Now the party slay the illithid-possessed captain and destroy the nascent elder brain.

 

[Reynard]

Maybe a mix of two adventures from Saltmarsh: Salvage Operation and Tamreraut's Fate, but refflufed as astral ships instead of regular ships?

Part A)
1) The party is hired to salvage a derelict ship to recover a mysterious steel crate.
2) The ship is full of crazed undeads of both humans and 'yanki origin.
3) Once they find the steel strongbox, a great red dragon attacks the ship, the party must flee with their loot before the dragon destroys the ship (change the giant octopus for a red dragon)

part B)
1) the party escape to a nearby 'Zerai monastery.
2) During the night, weird 'zerai (in advanced stage of cerebromorphosis) attack the monastery in waves. The party must survive until daybreak.
3) The party must find the origin of the 'zerai by going deep into an astral rift to find the the wreckage of a 'zerai ship who once took an elder illithid as prisoner until it took control of the crew and started the process of breeding an elder brain in the rift. Now the party slay the illithid-possessed captain and destroy the nascent elder brain.

This isn't a bad adventure idea generally, but it doesn't seem to incorporate the PCs background in any way.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

This isn't a bad adventure idea generally, but it doesn't seem to incorporate the PCs background in any way.

Maybe the strongbox contains a way to regain his throne (proof of lineage or whatnot)? Like, the 'yanki PC himself is the one hiring the rest of the group to find the lost ship and get back his stuff. Like, the undead 'yanki crew in the derelict ship is actually from his House, but they double-crossed him and tried to get to the item before him?

Just spitballing here.

Now, how to take them from RA to space? That's a good question!

 

[Burnside]

Have you checked out Rrakkma, the githzerai/githyanki adventure WotC released digitally when Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes came out? P sure you can still get it as a PDF on DMsGuild.

 

[ilgatto]

Look at their proto-Spelljammer ships! I forgot those!

More voidjamming in Dragon 159.
@Reynard.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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.

Wow I guess I need to back up my CD copy of the archive sooner rather than later!