Githyanki are Such a Cool D&D Monster

I recently did an encounter in our Out of the Box Encounters style for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in our weekly newsletter. I thought it would be fun to expand on the encounter in its own post. The concept for the encounter is a small scouting party’s unsuccessful search and retrieval mission for a larger force to which they’re attached. Their orders are simple — scout and report back — but they take the opportunity for a little personal gain. The githyanki command doesn’t want their presence known until they are ready to strike so these scouts are in hot water if they can’t clean up their mess quick.

Falling Treasures and Shooting Stars

This scouting party decided they can get away with a little light pillaging. Thus far they’ve been successful. Unfortunately for them on the last foray, a lucky shot tore a hole in one of their satchels where they carried their Astral Vessel Beacon. This magical device sends a signal to a planar ship, spelljammer vessel or even a fleet of those types of vessels to plane shift to the beacon’s location. On this occasion the object falls from the tear and activates accidentally. The last thing this scouting party wants is for their commander to know they’ve been shirking their duties. Along with erroneously calling them to the Material Plane means the scouting party faces some serious consequences. In addition to reprinting the encounter here and linking to the encounter on D&D Beyond I’ll expand some of my ideas.

Introduction

You can get Monstrous Compendium Vol 1: Spelljammer Creatures for free. These Spelljammer monsters represent challenge ratings from 2-16. Reading through the different monsters in there the star lancers really intrigue me between the art and lore for the creature. I wondered what if adventurers encounter a group of githyanki mounted on star lancers. What would this look like?

The catalyst for the encounter is the loss and need to recover the Astral Vessel Beacon. Depending on what kind of encounter you as the Dungeon Master want and how the players initiate the encounter you can adjust the countdown and therefore how long it takes for whoever is on the other end of the Astral Vessel Beacon. If the encounter focuses on combat then less time means the githyanki are more desperate. For an encounter focused more on social interaction then the Astral Vessel Beacon can count down from the highest count.

Environment

Plains, fields, or roads near a town

Suggested Level

• Deadly for four 7th level characters
• Hard for four 8th level characters
• Medium for four 10th level characters
• Easy for four 12th level characters

Monsters

• 3 Githyanki Warriors
• 3 Star Lancers

Treasure

40 cp, 50 sp, 26 gp, 11 pp, a diamond worth 50 gp), four bloodstones worth 50 gp each, a carnelian worth 50 gp, two moonstones worth 50 gp each, an onyx worth 50 gp, spell scroll of produce flame, spell scroll of armor of Agathys, spell scroll of chromatic orb, two potions of healing, Astral Vessel Beacon

Description

While the party is traveling, making camp, breaking down camp or currently at camp they witness a strange occurrence. The character with the highest passive Perception notices a brightly glowing object falling from the sky. A moment later three leather scroll cases containing a spell scroll of produce flame, spell scroll of armor of Agathys and spell scroll of chromatic orb, a pouch of 40 cp and the Astral Vessel Beacon hit the ground very close to the adventurers. In fact so close it nearly missed them. They can easily pick up the items. Perhaps they even land in the middle of the party or right beside a character, narrowly missing them.

Closer inspection of the glowing object reveals a pyramid of gray-white stone about 6 inches high with a rune engraved on each side. The glow of the pyramid pulses at a regular interval. Unbeknownst to the raider scouting party in the skies above one of their satchels was torn during their last raid. In their jostling flight from the raid for these items fell out and the pyramid — an Astral Vessel Beacon — activates. The scouts use this magic item to signal their raiding ship, currently flying through the Astral Sea, when an suitable target presents itself for a raid. In 1-100 minutes (your choice) an airship will plane shift in from the Astral Sea. A short countdown leans into combat since the githyanki desperately seek to deactivate the beacon as quickly as possible and they’ll aggressively pursue this course of action. A longer countdown allows the scouts more time to negotiate.

The githyanki raiders need to get the beacon back as fast as possible and deactivate it before anything gets plane shifted. They were on a scouting mission and took the opportunity to do some raiding while out. This goes against their mission orders and none of them want their disobedience discovered — especially the activation of the beacon. There will be military disciplinary actions taken if their commanding officers show up.

The raiders are in stealthy pursuit of these objects as they dive for it while invisible. Characters who succeed on a DC 19 Wisdom (Perception) check feel the rush of air caused by the githyanki warriors astride their star lancers under their Invisibility Cloak rapidly diving towards the fallen objects.

The githyanki warriors are equipped with shields and lances in addition to their normal gear. They have AC 19 when using their lances while mounted. If they find themselves dismounted they draw their greatswords.

The githyanki’s plan is for one of them to jump off its star lancer near the Astral Vessel Beacon, grab it and then remount the star lancer to get away, casting misty step if needed to make the quickest path possible for success on this plan. If one of the characters is holding the beacon the githyanki must use an action to grasp the beacon to separate it from them by making a successful opposed Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the character that has it in their possession.

Characters who notice the githyanki in time, either before or after one retrieves the Astral Vessel Beacon, can attempt to negotiate with the raiders with a successful DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check. This check is made with advantage if the characters indicate a willingness to return the lost objects. The githyanki are open to parley if the Astral Vessel Beacon indicates there’s time and they believe they’ll get it back before the plane shift occurs. This is their primary objective.

Complications

If the Astral Vessel Beacon isn’t turned off then a vessel or even an entire fleet connected to the raiding party could appear with questions for whoever has the object. They might view their arrival as an opportunity for a raid, too.

If combat ensues then any of the raiders who survive and get away aren’t going to be happy with the adventurers and might come back later looking for payback.

No matter what happens the Astral Vessel Beacon is a heavily sought after magic item and the adventurers may have to fight to keep it from other interested creatures following this encounter.

Astral Vessel Beacon

Wondrous item, very rare

An Astral Vessel Beacon is a gray-white pyramid 6 inches high and engraved with runes, carved from the petrified flesh of a dead god from the Astral Sea. When you touch an Astral Vessel Beacon in a specific sequence it sends a magical signal to a vessel or fleet to which the beacon is connected. Spelljammer vessels can use this signal to plane shift to the location of the beacon. When you use your action to activate the beacon it begins to pulse with a soft glow and shed dim light in a 10 foot radius, and a spelljammer vessel or fleet appears d100 minutes later. You can cancel the signal and prevent this arrival by using your bonus action to end the beacon’s signal. The pulsing light of the beacon quickens as the arrival draws closer.

Once the Astral Vessel Beacon sends its signal it can be used to do so again for 7 days.

In addition you can conduct a 10 minute ritual to connect the beacon to a new vessel or fleet. This ritual, as well as how to operate an Astral Vessel Beacon, is typically imparted to any creature given such an object to handle.

I added this encounter over at D&D Beyond too. Here is a link if you’d like to add it to your collection and run it for your next D&D game.

More D&D Plot Ideas

The introduction of the Astral Vessel Beacon could be used to kick off an adventure without a scouting party. The adventurers find the object and it activates. One way of handling this circumstance is the device malfunctions. Instead of bringing an astral vessel to the beacon, it brings the party to the ship.

• How will the characters get back home?
• Can the party negotiate with the captain and crew for their safety and freedom?
• Is the captain amenable to bribery with treasure or service?
• What is going on when the party arrives?
  • Is the ship engaged in a raid?
  • Is it docked at an astral port?
  • Is the ship engaged in ship-to-ship combat?
• Is this a way to kick off a series of planar adventures?

The other way to use the Astral Vessel Beacon all on it’s own is that it works as intended. Now the players are standing beneath an astral ship or maybe a fleet of astral vessels.

• Do the adventurers flee to warn the world?
• Will they attempt to spy on the new arrivals?
• Are these astral raiders now tracking the adventuring party?
• What if the group or a character attempts to join the crew of these newcomers?

Thinking about this encounter and githyanki reminded me of a video we did a while back. In our Don’t Use This Monster Use This One Instead series Nerdarchist Ted and I discuss frequently used monsters and look for different ones with similar concepts to deploy instead. In the video below we talk about how githyanki make a cool substitute for drow.

*Featured image — WizKids 12″ resin statue faithfully recreates the githyanki featured on the cover of the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio book. Follow the silver cord to get your hands on this for your own collection here.

New videos all the time at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel