My Astral Plane

[Corlon]

Alright guys, my characters are up at 9th-10th level, and they've pretty much mastered the whole "teleport around places, kill the bad guys, make powerful friends" shtick.

One of them is in fact the king of a powerful city state, and another knows many powerful wizards and can call on favors.

I figured I'd throw em a new curve with the astral plane. They'd probably have to go there because of how the plot is twisting anyways, but to make it interesting I thought I'd make up a new sort of astral planes as opposed to what's described in things like the manual of the planes.



My idea is that every plane (prime, elemental planes, etc.) all have a land mass (called a "port")attached to them on the astral plane. The astral plane is these various landmasses and the rest is essentially a huge ocean. The sky is just a large grey void (looks sort of like an overcast day). Each material plane may have multiple portals to the astral, but all these portals link to the one land mass that is connected to that plane. The landmasses are relatively small, a Huge metropolis being what's attached to the entire prime material plane. Each plane has it's own ethereal and shadow plane (except for the astral, which is just what it is). The water isn't really water per se...it's more of a silvery liquid stuff.

Spells: Spells work normally except for transportation spells. Dimension door transports the characters the distance they wish, but in a random direction. Teleport is an equally risky maneuver (except we're dealing with HUGE distances here, and because most directions you teleport will land you in the huge "ocean" as opposed to the landmass you're trying to get to, it's just not generally worth it.)

All planar travel spells lower than 9th level (plane shift is the only one coming to mind) can transport a person from the astral to his plane, or from any plane (other than the astral) to the "port" of their plane.


The basic idea was to have a place the characters could (and probably have to at some point) travel that they aren't the powerful ones, and where the worlds work differently because of inherent differences in the environment.


I guess what I'm wondering is:
1)how do you like the basic concept?
2)what weird properties should the "silvery substance" that forms the ocean have?
3)any other spells I should change or problems you forsee with the changes currently made?
4)what should the plane be called? I ask this because I've been informed by one of my players that "astral" which implies dealing with the stars doesn't really fit with a huge endless ocean.
5)any other comments you guys have?

 

[Sigurd]

I'd have them kill an agent of a creature on this plane and have it summon them to take his place or find a replacement. A relatively benign power of teleporting them back to the plane repeatedly might convince them that they still have to personally pay some debts.

Especially if they have good alignments it is quite a pickel if they are indeed responsible for the situation. Not all their actions can be made up for out of the coffers of the city state.

 

[Corlon]

Kill an agent? Let's not keep it singular here .

Summoning specific people is difficult I believe.

But yes, they are of good alignment...at least none of them are evil (I believe both the figher and cleric are LG, the wizard may be TN or NG or something, I'm not quite sure )

 

[Sigurd]

So if they were brought into a morally ambiguous situation where they killed someone in their way they might still have to answer for his absense. It might even be an outwardly evil creature in the service of Good - such things have happenned.

Not all vengence is warfare some is simply bookkeeping.

"You have left me with no Avatar! Until you can replace him I have a list of tasks for you."

No Way We're out of here! <Zapp>

<reZapp> Rinse and repeat

We will give you money!!!!

"That is a pleasant start......"


We'll give you magic


"lovely, pile it over there....."

"Now my generous servants.... You have left me with no Avatar! Until you can replace him I have a list of tasks for you."
​

Remember that they inhabit a universe where they might draw attention to themselves. If they have morals others might actively use those morals to control them. Eventually they will get so powerful that they will become 'players' in the greater scheme of things -- what will they do if they are manipulated?

There is a great story of the Thor and Loki in Jutenheim where Thor appears to be a weakling. Illusions keep him from seeing the effects of his actions. The story is sometimes told as a tale of how the great handle humility.

Importantly, the world they visit seems very normal to them. I'd make the plane where they have no power very normal. Give them a desk as a clerk, have them tend orc wounds - see what happens


S

 

[Corlon]

interesting ideas.


Anyone got ideas for the silvery substance or the name?

 

[Corlon]

I'm thinking for the substance, just make it strange stuff that people always see figures in whether there are actually things there or not. There'll be weird astral merfolk that can see through the silvery stuff, but for the most part, unless you use magic, you can't see through it. I'm also gonna make it undrinkable, but other properties would be interesting. I don't want it to be overly poisoness or give awesome beneifts or something, because then everyone in the astral would use it for everything...maybe make it deal d2 cold damage, or sonic damage, wouldn't that be an interesting twist to the natural world?

ie...bump...

 

[JDowling]

It could still be the "Astral plane" ("Astral ocean"?), perhaps the connection to stars is that you navigate by the stars that you see above the silvery ocean. (or is the sky blank? have you thought about what you see when you look up?). Otherwise - stars are silvery, the ocean is silvery, thus: The Astral Ocean.

As somewhat obvious labels:
The Silver Sea
The Great Ocean
The Edge of the World (or Beyond the Edge of the World, w/e)
The Archipelago of Worlds

just tossing some ideas out there. Thinking that whoever first discovered it would discribe it in some fashion as above and that discription might have stuck as a name.

EDIT: as to the stuff itself
You might considor it acting much like murcery does (except that boats float on it, I have no idea if anything would float on murcery or not) in that it can penetrate your skin and poison you (slowly or quickly, up to you).

EDIT2: =P
I might just make transportation spells not work at all on ThePlane. Why not? On other planes they work by harnessing some of the power from ThePlane, so they simply don't function properly there.

Spells that point in a direction wouldn't necessarily make sense, True North, or whatever it's called. Either that or True North functions instead to always point back to your home plane's island.

 

[ThirdWizard]

What do you envision the denizens to be like? What races for that matter? Will the usual Astral inhabitants be present, in their normal incarnation or changed?

I can see trade among different planes as being a thriving business, and piracy too. Trade and transporting adventurers might be really big business since teleports don't work. Larger landmasses might have the bulk of their territory ignored completely, not caring about the landlocked areas. Who knows what might live there.

I could so see the githyanki being pirates.

 

[Corlon]

I have thought about that a bit.

There is huge trade between the landmasses, but in the case of prime material plane there are only two known portals. One connects to my equivalent of the underdark (controlled by the draw), and the other connects to "The Empire" which is a self sufficient society with an incan socialistic system set up, and with a high amount of control of EVERYTHING. The portal is sort of like an airline (passports and stuff), and you aren't allowed to bring many objects to the prime (according the the empire, the drow don't let much of anythign through).

There are merfolk adapted to the silvery stuff, which trade with people. I figured the giths would have a plane that had since been taken over (I have a way for planes to infest and take over other planes), and they've since been living on the astral ocean, a race without a home..

The silvery oceans are filled with dangerous creatures adapted to life in it (including a strange race of aquatic destrachans).

The landmasses generally have mainly the races of the plane that the landmass attaches to, and for most cases the masses aren't large enough to have huge "landlocked" spaces, but that is an interesting thing for the characters to investigate.


I had thought the sky would just be overcast light all the time with just gray sky, but having key stars that shine through the grey to allow navigation would be an interesting idea.


The teleports not working was made to have the characters contemplate transportation, and perhaps have to make deals to get affordable transportation.

The biggest factor is I'm thinking no one on the astral plane will be lower than level 5, making the characters level of 9-10 an above average level, but still making them not the ones running things.

 

[Corlon]

my last bump till I let it drift into the abyss .