The GenCon Demo

The GenCon Demo
By Monte Cook

This was the demo game run in the Planescape tower at the Gen Con® Game Fair in 1997. I've cleaned it up so as to present it as a short adventure that can be used to introduce low-level, Prime Material characters to the Planescape setting. A working knowledge of the setting is needed (but without the boxed set, why would you want to run this adventure anyway?). A copy of Guide to the Astral Plane or the Planescape Monstrous Compendium I would be nice, but they're really not needed.

The characters inteneded for this adventure are primes, standard classes/races, about third level.

The PCs have been hired by wizard to deliver a book to another mage named Grelaris (the book describes the manufacture of certain obscure potions). Grelaris lives in a city the PCs have never heard of, called Sigil. The wizard instructed them to watch out for someone named Nargeni, who may try to stop them. Their patron told them that if they pass through a certain narrow ravine, they will find Sigil. He won't tell them more about the city than that.

In particular, he doesn't tell them that in the center of the ravine is the invisible entrance of an astral conduit. The conduit leads to the Outlands, near a portal to Sigil.

The adventure starts as the PCs pass through the ravine. The going is difficult, and it becomes obvious that no one has passed through the area in many years. The DM may even want to include an encounter here with a rare, magical beast like a doppleganger or something planar like some eyewings or hellhounds-something the players have maybe heard of or gone up against, but the characters haven't.

As they proceed further, the ravine becomes very narrow-only about 10' across or less. If they press on, they suddenly find themselves spiraling through a silvery tube at incredible speeds. Without knowing it, they've entered the conduit.

Just as suddenly as it started, the trip stops. However, they're not where they should be. Nargeni has used an arcane spell to disrupt the conduit (called conduit pierce), essentially creating a hole in the tube and dumping the PCs right into the Astral Plane.

The PCs have a few rounds to get their bearings in the Astral. The DM should use this time to describe the Silver Void, the distant, star-like lights, and other strange sensations before Nargeni attacks. Nargeni is a rutterkin tanar'ri who really wants the book that the PCs have. The DM should vividly describe his twisted humanoid form and distorted, horrible face. He cries in pain when he moves or strikes in combat.

NARGENI QUICK STATS:
HD: 4 (30 hp)
THAC0: 17
AC: 0
Intelligence: 10 (300 feet per round movement)
Damage per attack: 1d6 (thrown triangle bladed weapon) or 1d6+1/1d6+1 with claws
Special Abilities:

Fear by touch
Telekinesis (3/day)
Darkness 15'R (at will)
Infravision (at will)
Gate 1d8 manes
MR: 10% Rutterkin

Nargeni threatens the PCs at first, but doesn't hesitate to attack if they don't immediately surrender the book. His tactics include using his darkness 15'r ability around himself (he can see within it) and gating manes to attack the PCs. In hand-to-hand, he attempts to use his fear touch on those who don't have the book (to get rid of them) and then slay the character that carries it.

The DM should remember to utilize some of the strange mechanics of the Astral Plane:

Intelligence score becomes Strength score
Wisdom score becomes Dexterity score
Movement rate is Intelligence score times 30 feet per round
Missile weapons have doubled ranges, but the maximum range is 200 yards, because that is the range of sight (things get blurry and misty after that).

MANES QUICK STATS:
HD: 1 (5 hp)
THAC0: 20
AC: 8
Intelligence: 3 (90 feet per round movement)
Damage per attack: 1d2/1d2 (claws) and 1d4 (bite)
Special Abilities:

All within 10' when it dies make a poison saving throw or suffer 1d6 hp damage when the manes explodes into a cloud of acidic vapor
MR: 10% Manes

Once the PCs defeat the fiend(s), they have to figure out what to do next. The nearby conduit has an obvious rent in its side. Perhaps they can repair the conduit somehow? Attempts at doing so, or at even getting back in the conduit, fail.

If the PCs explore, they come upon what appears to be an Astral island in the shape of a giant (30' across) hand. This is the hand of a dead god, but they don't know that. Lying in the palm is an obviously wounded githyanki warrior. Describe his skeletal form and pale yellow skin. Describe is ornate armor and weaponry. He's been wounded in a battle with some mind flayers. If they help the githyanki in any way, they will offer them help as well. If they mention the conduit, he'll instruct them in the method of repairing the hole and re-entering the conduit.

GITHYANKI QUICK STATS:
HD: 3 (3rd level fighter, 27 hp max, currently at 4)
THAC0: 18
AC: 3 (banded mail and shield)
Intelligence: 13 (all githyanki move an incredible 2880 feet per round in the Astral--a movement rate of 96)
Damage per attack: 1d8 (longsword)

At the conduit's other end, the PCs wind up in a dry, rocky ravine not unlike the one they left back on the Prime. This place, however, is on the Outlands. The DM should point out that there is no sun here, but it is light and warm. Nearby, there's a small wooden building that looks to be a traveler's inn. No sign marks it as such, but it has a homey feel to it.

Bariaur Inside the inn is a portal to Sigil. The portal is the doorway back into the kitchen. The key is a lit candle. The innkeeper, Talpheniar, knows all this and shares the information freely-to all those who buy drinks. He's a good-aligned bariaur who uses a smattering of the cant ("basher," "dead-book," some of the other easy words) and gladly tells newcomers the basics of Sigil, including:

Its odd shape
Its central location and access to portals
The factions
The Lady of Pain

When the PCs pass through the portal, the DM should describe the sights, sounds and smells of the strange city. The geography of the place makes all the streets around the PCs run upward, as if on incline and that they can even see the streets and such above them. Initial encounters might include a run in with a Harmonium patrol or a tiefling pick-pocket. Give them the feeling and flavor of the place before some kind soul directs them to the kip of Grelaris and the end of the adventure (such an encounter might make for a good climax anyway-but further combat is probably undesirable until they get a chance to rest).