Winds of Thought (GAP)

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Wisps of thoughts, lost memories, forgotten ideas, minor musings, subconscious fears, important concepts - these things are drawn to the Astral from the planes it touches. Psychic energies generated by thinking creatures drift unbidden onto the Astral Plane every moment, where they gather and collect.
As mental energy swirls, congeals, and interacts, it forms what planewalkers have always called the psychic wind. The wind moves through the Astral, but it doesn't really feel like wind to a traveler. One planewalker (whose name is now forgotten) described it aptly as the plane itself rebelling against the thoughts that make up the wind. The moving, active mental energy disrupts the normal fabric of the plane, itself primarily a construct of the mind.
When the psychic wind strikes, it occurs in an area stretching anywhere from 3-300 (3d 100) miles in diameter, or at least what passes for such in the nonspace of the Astral. From the outside, this affected area looks much like a storm on the Prime Material Plane - dark, roiling skies, punctuated by occasional flashes of energy. Within the storm, everything grows dark (travelers can use fire or magic to create light, but infravision does not work). It remains dark but calm for two to three minutes, after which everything in the area begins to vibrate, warp, and distort. These effects last for up to 30 minutes. Activity during this time is virtually impossible, for all senses (including orientation) are useless, betrayed by the warping effect of the wind.
==Ill Effects==
Travelers caught in the psychic wind face great danger. Once within the affected area, any berk who tries to escape'll probably hit the blinds. No one can keep any sense of direction, and normal astral movement doesn't always work. The best plan is to simply "ride out" the storm as best as possible. This usually requires a fair amount of luck. Unlucky victims might find themselves, when the storm is over, in an area of the Astral completely different from that which they occupied before the storm. Others are forced into nearby (or not so nearby) color pools.
Sometimes worse than the physical relocation that occurs are the mental effects of being assaulted by these stray thoughts given motion and substance. The psychic wind can buffet a basher's mind with so many mental images and thoughts that the sod's brain becomes overloaded and shuts down completely.
There is no shelter (aside from Celestian way homes) from the psychic wind. The mental storms can affect even permanent, fixed objects like the floating islands or the dead gods themselves. They have only a tenth of the chance that an individual character has of being tossed about the Astral, but they can be moved. Obviously, inanimate objects are immune to the mind-influencing effects of the psychic wind. 
Psychic winds always blow somewhere on the Astral. A typical traveler has about a 2% chance to encounter one on a given journey, but if this happens, there's only about a 40% chance that he's actually caught in it.
The effects generated by the wind can be determined on Table II. Location effects are generated for the entire planewalking group, but mental effects are handled individually.
 Table 2: Effects of Psychic Winds
Location 	Effects (Physical Travellers)
01-40 	Diverted 1d6 days off course
41-60 	Diverted 3d10 days off course
61-80 	Completely lost
81-00 	Sent through random color pool
Location 	Effects (Astral Travellers)
01-40 	Diverted 1d6 days off course
41-60 	Diverted 3d10 days off course
61-80 	Completely lost
81-97 	Silver cord damaged, returned to real body
98-00 	Silver cord snapped, traveler slain
Mental Effects	Mental Effects
01-40 	Stunned for 1d6 rounds
41-50 	Affected as a confusion spell for 3d8 rounds
51-60 	Unconscious for 1d10 hours
61-80 	Affected as a fear spell for 2d10 rounds
81-90 	Affected as a feeblemind spell for 1d20 hours
91-95 	Temporarily insane for 1d4 days
96-99 	Comatose for 1d 100 days
00 	Permanently insane
==Beneficial Effects==
In the vast scheme of things, the chance of learning some vital or even relevant bit of information in the psychic wind is almost nil. Nevertheless, everyone's thoughts go into the Astral, so the potential to become privy to information on a topic of interest always exists. The DM makes the ultimate decision as to whether this happens and what details to include, but it should be extremely rare — probably never more than once to a single character ever. The dangers of the psychic wind should always be far, far more prevalent than any possible benefit.
Despite the difficulty, individuals who call themselves "thought stalkers" purposely seek the winds and ride through them. These barmies protect themselves with mental defense spells, magical items, or psionics (all of which work, apparently, to varying degrees) and seek to gather as many random thoughts as they can so that they can use or sell any valuable information they find.
==Storms==
Despite the terminology used, the psychic wind described above isn't a true storm. As dangerous as a normal encounter with the psychic wind is, a psychic storm is much more horrible. These very rare occurrences result directly from an influx of dangerous thoughts from some other plane. "Dangerous thoughts," in this case, are those of strong fear, hatred, or other emotion found in great amounts. When a great disaster strikes, a huge battle occurs, or some unique event results from belief (like the passing of a gate-town from the Outlands to another plane), the ripple of thought carries to the Astral and forms a true storm of psychic wind.
When this occurs, a huge, almost immeasurable section of the Astral is affected. The storm carries with it the same threats as those detailed above (adding 20 to the location and mental effects rolls), as well as the ability to literally tear the Astral asunder. If a psychic storm strikes, there's a 10% chance that it rips a hole in the plane itself. This causes everything within 10-1,000 (Id 100 x 10) yards to be thrust from the Astral to a random plane that touches it and tears a like amount of matter from the other plane and deposits it on the Astral. If no matter is near enough to be moved (on either or both sides of the hole), the hole remains open for Id4 days, functioning as a gateway between the two planes. The Astral repairs this rent by forming a color pool that leads to the affected plane.
==Breezes==
Not all psychic wind occurrences are devastating and deadly (though most are). Sometimes, a body'll find himself on the Astral and a thought will come suddenly to him. This notion's often accompanied by a slight shudder of the plane itself, but no other visible effect. Any basher who has experienced this has felt a psychic breeze. That is to say, they've experienced a psychic wind so minor that it does not carry with it the normal effects attributed to the psychic wind.
These stray thoughts are virtually always unintelligible or meaningless little memories or musings along the lines of "I'd better watch that," or "I've got an itch." The disturbing part about these thoughts is that a body knows they aren't his.
==Winds of Future and Past==
Because the Astral Plane exists outside of time, the thoughts and memories that form psychic winds don't always have to be from a time concurrent to those experiencing them. That is to say, thoughts from the distant past or the future (relative to the traveler in the storm) can buffet a victim caught by the psychic wind. This facet of psychic wind does not actually change the effects of a normal encounter, but it does open up the possibility of gaining images or ideas from the distant past or those that haven't even yet been conceived.
This is the only facet of temporal displacement that occurs on the Astral. Only thoughts are not subject to the harsh, unavoidable regime of time — physical beings (even those projecting astral forms) and objects (all matter) obey the rules of time and do not ever move forward or backward.