What would you put in a party member with a gate to the Astral Plane in his chest?3.5

[celestialkin]

My players just did another of those "They did what?!" moments, which has lead to some interesting possibilities.

Some background before this gaming session:

• A player is playing a paragon juggernaut warforged.
• During his character creation he asked if he could have a homebrewed warforged component which was basically a bag of holding placed in his chest with a lockable door (the door being his front chest plating). I personally loved the idea, so I OKed it at double the bag of holding's price.
• Considering the warforged's impressive size and bulk I rolled a medium sized creature could fit through his hatch without much problem.
• The party has since placed everything from loot, to furniture, to dead party members in there (or should I say him?).
• The party member slowing turning into a vampire kept on joking about putting his future coffin (when he needs it) in there for convenience.
• The party is currently sailing on the boarder between the Plane of Water and the Plane of Air.

What happened this gaming session:

• The party and their ship crew spot an island drifting on the endless ocean.
• The party is disappointed when they near the island and discover that it is only about 6,765sqft big (roughly 33"x41" on our extra-large mat, or 165ftx205ft in-game), and the ground was only 10ft thick.
• Although it was not the salvation they were hoping for, they were pleased when they saw some trees on the island from a distance.
• Hoping to secure some much needed timber for ship repairs and ballista bolts the party lowers their plank and sets foot on the island with some followers.
• Unknown to the PCs this island was actually made by humans centuries ago to keep a slightly evil (although more annoying than anything) little imp sealed away. The imp was located on a small pedestal in the center of the island, in a small transparent red tinted glass sphere which looked like an empty crystal ball, but was actually a small pocket dimension/nondimensional space style prison.
• The warforged took the crystal ball, opened his chest (the player does a great job of always roleplaying this, while making a squeaky hinge sound), and PLACES THE SPHERE IN HIS CHEST/BAG OF HOLDING.
• For a 20 seconds my brain fries and I stare at the player with a blank look on my face in a "WTF" moment as a DM. When I snap out of it I open my DMG and reread the Bag of Holding entry.
• I decide to give the player a chance of surviving this, partly because all but one of the other PCs were within a 10-foot radius of him and this would have meant a near-TPK.
• So I decide on a high Fort DC to see if the warforged had the strength and vitality to keep himself from being torn apart and imploding into the Astral Plane.
• The warforged barely made the save.
• I reasoned that since the process had taken place, and the player had to make the save to keep from being ripped apart, this almost certainly meant that the gate to the Astral Plane had been created. Since the warforged had managed to keep himself intact through pure strength and will, I decided that his meant that the hatch in his chest which once held a modified bag of holding now held a gate to the Astral Plane.
• When they finished clearing out the island (it turned out that the trees they were after were actually awakened to guard the imp's prison, and they had appropriately sized weapons hidden within their leaves and branches) they decided to take a bit more than just the timber and large sized weapons... They had their followers spend the next month cutting up the whole island (again, it was only 10ft think) into 4ftx4ftx10ft pieces and transport it through the warforged into the Astral Plane. They used lots of metal rods they had found earlier to reinforce the structure. They also used some extra rope from the ship to tie it to the gate's frame.
  
  
  Yes, that is correct, they took the WHOLE FREAKING ISLAND.

Aftermath of all this:
As we were wrapping up loose ends and getting ready to call it a night the group decided to leave their followers working on a project with the remaining timber and some supplies from the ship, while in-game six weeks pass as their ship is getting ferried underwater through a portal linking two separate points on the Plane of Water. They instructed them to build a small cottage on the island for the party to live in.

So basically, the party now has an island and home akin to Master Roshi's Turtle Island (see image below) INSIDE ONE OF THE PCs....

Master Roshi's home named Kame House:



You'd think this would be enough for anyone, right? Well apparently not. The players left off discussing ideas for everything from creating a craft shop to forge weapons and armors, farming land for crops to sell for profit, farming fields of hemp since the warforged's stomach doesn't fall under the jurisdiction or boarders of any kingdom, to using the warforged as a Trojan Horse who could sneak whole armies into a city.

Even better, the card-dealing halfing with aspirations of becoming a "pimp" was trying to talk the warforged into allowing him to open a brothel in there, since again it would not fall under the jurisdiction of any kingdom or land.

The warforged now seems intent on "charging rent". Seriously...

There was even talk of founding an entire city! I suggested starting smaller like a hamlet or thorp, though.




So, anyway, please forgive the extremely long post. My point was that all this lead me to wonder what other people would do with a situation like this. What creative things would you come up with? What things would you ram into your party member? What would you use this party member for?

[AslanCross]

Two words: EPIC WIN.

Why don't my players do anything like this?

Seriously now: They basically have an infinite bag of holding.

1. Use him as a treasure vault for the party's entire hoard so they can access any of their stuff WHEREVER they are. Just make sure he doesn't die (though I guess you could open him up).

2. Raiding dragon hoards has never been so easy.

3. What if the Githyanki sense the rather large amount of matter floating in the Astral Plane and INVADE the Material Plane THROUGH A PC'S CHEST?

4. Any sensitive people whom the PCs have to transport safely would definitely be safer inside this guy's chest.

5. Incubate dragon eggs.

6. You practically have a permanent Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion.

7. Good place for the party's prepared spellcasters to rest and prepare spells, even in the field.

[Merlon]

Sphere of Annihilation: At 35% probability, he can upgrade his status from warforged to walking planar rift.

As for ideas what to do with current configuration.... Well.... Keith Baker has told many times that warforged evolve. Therefore, if he wants to be a walking gateway, then it leads to many interesting choices in future. Say, mechanical expanding, to make the gate in his chest bigger for better loading. Lifting mechanism. Installed guillotine for githyanki raiders trying to crawl through....

Get him to take a level or two artificer and imagination is limit.

Ah, but i must make your warforged a bit sad. He is only a gate now. To astral plane. Therefore he cannot ask rent for something that resides in that particular plane. He can charge for using the gate though. Get somebody to cast "Genesis" inside him. That'll be somewhat fun

[jcsw]

What this needs is more decanter.

[Merlon]

Why does it need a Decanter? Thinking of waterfall-type entrance from the chest of Warforged?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I'd try to get it re-directed to my MMM, so that I would have a permanent one. The Astral Plane is too risky.

If that didn't work, I'd use Wall of Stone and Fabricate to make a castle with no door, and Leadership to staff it fully with defenders and servants.

[jcsw]

Why does it need a Decanter? Thinking of waterfall-type entrance from the chest of Warforged?

You can't ever have too much decanter. I wonder if you could also place an auto-resseting trap of bless water for a holy water factory.

Hell, you could store ALL your tippy-esque factories in there. Along with some people to stack and sort the hilarity that ensu- I mean the produce.

[Jayabalard]

1. Use him as a treasure vault for the party's entire hoard so they can access any of their stuff WHEREVER they are.

That's a really horrible idea; plenty of things can just stumble across your stuff if you just stash it in the astral plane.

[Jack Zander]

Try and get the thing to suck everything inside of it when you open it and you can have a Miroku style weapon of mass destruction.

Just stay away from those damn bees.

[wadledo]

Of course, the fact that he will never see the inside of it might cause a little tension.
And he'll have a bunch of random people crawling through his chest, which could make one feel mildly uncomfortable.

[jcsw]

Try and get the thing to suck everything inside of it when you open it and you can have a Miroku style weapon of mass destruction.

Or he could be kirby...

[shadow_archmagi]

Step one: Open numerous decanters of endless water inside the astral plane.
Step two: Close warforged chest to prevent water from escaping.
Step three: Wait for some time.
Step four: use Greater Lake Attack as needed.

[Deth Muncher]

Step one: Open numerous decanters of endless water inside the astral plane.
Step two: Close warforged chest to prevent water from escaping.
Step three: Wait for some time.
Step four: use Greater Lake Attack as needed.
Step five: ????
Step six: Profit!

Fixed it for ya.


But really, this is SUCH a bad idea! Astral Rifts aren't good by any means! This means ANY inhabitant of the Astral Plane goes: "Hm, a portal. Better go through that." And suddenly Mr. Warforged has creatures POPPING OUT OF HIS CHEST.

Bad times.

[shadow_archmagi]

Fixed it for ya.


But really, this is SUCH a bad idea! Astral Rifts aren't good by any means! This means ANY inhabitant of the Astral Plane goes: "Hm, a portal. Better go through that." And suddenly Mr. Warforged has creatures POPPING OUT OF HIS CHEST.

Bad times.

I'd assume the rift only exists if he has his chest open. You'll probably want to make some sort of magic bubble, so you can use it for storage, Greater Lake Attack as needed, and also only have to deal with amphibious creatures that can puncture whatever you were using to keep your stuff dry.

[Flickerdart]

I think you should give him a dial that switches where the portal leads. Did someone say Negative Energy Plane cannon?

[Chronos]

OK, here's what I'm wondering. The party obviously has access to some means of planar travel, since they're on the elemental planes. What happens when Mr. Warforged decides to visit the island in his belly, via Plane Shift or the like?

[Uncle Festy]

@^: That's not the bad part. What happens when he tries to go through said portal?

Ok.
Step one: Cast permanent superior invisibility on the warforged.
Step two: Have everyone go in the warforged.
Step three: Super awesome secret ninja attaaaaaack!!!!!!

[AstralFire]

OK, here's what I'm wondering. The party obviously has access to some means of planar travel, since they're on the elemental planes. What happens when Mr. Warforged decides to visit the island in his belly, via Plane Shift or the like?

It's not a demiplane, it's just a door to the astral plane. So it'd be like taking a door and frame to a bedroom off the wall and placing it inside the room itself.

The door is presently useless at the moment, but still functional.

Now, if he contained a demiplane inside of him, that would be dangerous.

[Flickerdart]

@^: That's not the bad part. What happens when he tries to go through said portal?

Ok.
Step one: Cast permanent superior invisibility on the warforged.
Step two: Have everyone go in the warforged.
Step three: Super awesome secret ninja attaaaaaack!!!!!!

I can see it now.

whum whum whum whum whum footsteps, but you can't see anything...then people fall out of the air and kill everyone in the room.

[icefractal]

Opening a brothel in there seems like trouble; two words ... party crashers. Imagine in a middle of adventuring:

BBEG: And now ... prepare to face my FLYING DEMON SHARKS!
Party: You'll never win, BBEG!
* Juggernaught's chest opens from the inside, Githyanki sticks his head out *
Githyanki: Hey, you know we're out of booze in here.
* Everyone stares at him *
Githyanki: Well? Oh, and I'm borrowing some of your furniture, my new pad on Pandemonium needs it.

[BobVosh]

Ah, but i must make your warforged a bit sad. He is only a gate now. To astral plane. Therefore he cannot ask rent for something that resides in that particular plane. He can charge for using the gate though.

I'm imaging a paragon juggernaut warforge with a toolbooth attached to its chest. Then a halfling looking rather like a midget A Pimp named Slipback jumping out throwing coins into the booth at the same time. Then trying to get people to climb into his gigantic friend to have some fun.

If I were evil I would try to destroy oceans by dropping the warforge into them with the chest saudered open.

[Dr Bwaa]

This is awesome. Also, weren't you the guy who got his players wandering the edge between the air and water planes for a year a month or so ago by doing something (almost) equally cool?

[thegurullamen]

If I were evil I would try to destroy oceans by dropping the warforge into them with the chest saudered open.

How many Decanters would it take to negate that?

[celestialkin]

This is awesome. Also, weren't you the guy who got his players wandering the edge between the air and water planes for a year a month or so ago by doing something (almost) equally cool?

Thank you.

And yes, that was me. Sadly (for me at least), one of the players (the "pimp") pulled a vizier card from a Deck of Many Things this very same game. So they ended up with a Star Trek: Voyager like shortcut through the Plane of Water to the "air breathers". Some of the advice you guys gave me turned out quite useful, though.

Also, thank you for remembering that. It makes me glad that something I posted was noticeable enough for someone to notice.

How many Decanters would it take to negate that?

And that brings up the question: How many would it take to overflow an ocean?

[AslanCross]

That's a really horrible idea; plenty of things can just stumble across your stuff if you just stash it in the astral plane.

True, but if they have a stronghold tied to the gate, they could hire guards. (Assuming they don't take it themselves.)

[BobVosh]

What does the gate look like on the astral plane? Is it just a floating hole? Do you see an hollowed out half a chest with a way out? How big is this chest hole anyway?

Also I forgot to mention, I would totally store laffy-taffies in there. Vital. Nothing freaks out NPCs like the warforge opening his chest, showing there is a crazy island home in his stomach, pulling out candy, and then eating it.

[Xanos]

Am I the only one who sees the epic possibilities of suprice attacks from his chest? =p
The rest of the party crawl through, and jump out in case of emergencies.
Following that thought, why not store an army in the, in due time? Make him a trojan horse!

[Hal]

But really, this is SUCH a bad idea! Astral Rifts aren't good by any means! This means ANY inhabitant of the Astral Plane goes: "Hm, a portal. Better go through that." And suddenly Mr. Warforged has creatures POPPING OUT OF HIS CHEST.

Bad times.

Sure, but it means that the random encounter tables just became much more exotic and unpredictable.

[Burley]

If I were the Warforged player, I would seek out the tired and trodden upon, the meek and the unrested. I would offer them sanctuary inside my chest cavity, on the island home I have created. Then, when I have amassed a fair following of those indebted to me, I will put my hands inside the gate, allowing it to suck me in. From there, I will rule the people as a benevolent god.
As for protection: Genius Loci (CM). I'll get a scroll of something.

[Dr Bwaa]

1) Find another warforged
2) Build a Bag of Holding into HIS chest
3) put a nondimensional space in there
4) if he survives, proceed to step 5. If not, return to step 1.
5) Repeat steps 1-5 until you have sufficient Warforged Матрёшки (Matryoski--those Russian nesting dolls)
6) Nest Warforged within one another, along with weapons, props, etc, etc, and so forth.
7) Enjoy.

Alternately, store a few hired Wizards/Sorcerers in there with instructions to prepare nothing but empowered Disintegrate or other line attacks, and instructions to fire those attacks immediately straight out of the Gate every time it is opened.