Astral Dreadnought (GAP)

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All right, here's the chant — avoid astral dreadnoughts.
Not enough information? Okay, berk, but remember — just avoid them and leave it at that.
Astral dreadnoughts might be one of the only native astral creatures, but even that is suspect. See, the chant is that these creatures are an extension of the Astral itself. This chant is most often repeated by those that believe that the conduits are living creatures, or part of some massive entity. If this is true (and most doubt it), then astral dreadnoughts are also a part of this entity.
One of the reasons that some folks suspect that to be the dark of the dreadnought is that it attacks only those astrally projecting, a practice some think pokes holes in the astral fabric (the color pools). These terrors do sometimes seem to be some sort of "bouncers in the astral tavern," as it were. Chant is that some berks have seen a dreadnought pass through a psychic windstorm without being affected, leading a body to believe that they know something about the Astral that most folks don't — or they are linked with it in some way.
Other folks have an entirely different view on astral dreadnoughts. They believe that these monstrosities are astral projectors themselves, coming in from some nightmarish prime-material world. They do trail a long tail not unlike a silver cord which, when cut, destroys the beast — just like any other berk (except that the dreadnought's cord works a little different — a body doesn 't need one of the githyanki's special swords to cut it, but it's much harder to sever no matter what weapon is used).
The thing is, nothing is more terrifying on the Astral Plane than an encounter with one of these beasts. Only mated astral dragons are more powerful, and the two never cross paths (besides, the dragons rarely leave their sparkling palaces). Even fiends and aasimon steer clear of them, though dreadnoughts seek out only astrally traveling sods. These huge, semi-humanoid monsters have gigantic claws that can cut a sod in twain and a maw that'd swallow a pit fiend whole.
Reportedly, the githyanki have made numerous attempts to communicate with these beasts, or failing that, mastering them with spells or psionics. They've hit the blinds every time. What's more, they discovered that those that aren't astrally projecting still shouldn't annoy a dreadnought - it'll tear just about anyone that gets in its way or is barmy enough to provoke it.
Astral dreadnoughts are about 30-feet tall. Their jaws gape open exposing many sharp teeth and they possess huge, pincerlike claws. Their armored carapace has a reddish tone from which one black, malevolent eye stares. Among other special attacks, the astral dreadnought is capable of inflicting 4d8 points of damage with its claws and 2d 10 points of damage with its bite. For further information, reference the astral dreadnought in the PLANESCAPE MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM Appendix II.