ties on the surface rarely offer strong defenses againstattacks from the air. Red dragons ridden by knight
saccompany the vessels, serving as outriders and shocktrips lo pave the way for the githyanki warriors to de-scend en masse.In battle, the githyanki use mobile
tactics combiningpsionics and magic to devastate
their foes. They hithard, setting bu ildings aflame and killing all in theirpath, to foster a panic a mong their victims that cripplesany hope of an organized defense.Because the git
hyanki strike to plunder rather thanconquer, raid
ers linger over their target for no more thana few
hours. By daybreak the attackers are gone, pur-posely leaving behind enough s urvivors to rebuild theruined community-so that the githyanki might visit theplace years or decades late r and lay it low all over again.THE HELMTo enable them to traverse the skies
and travel betweenplanes, each githyanki ship is powered
by a helm, amagical device in the form
of a throne-like chair thatconverts psychic energy into motive force.THE GITH ALPHABETThe gith use a written language
composed of alphabeticsymbols arranged in circular clusters called tir'su. Each"spoke"
on the wheel corresponds to a letter of the alpha-bet. Each cluster of characters represents a single word,and multiple tir'su connect to form phrases and sentences.Githyanki and githzerai both speak Gith
, but each racehas a distinct dialect and accent.
Similarly, the two racesof gith differentiate
their language by how they write it.Githyanki
write a tir'su clockwise, start ing at the top.Githzerai use the same letter symbols but write their tir'sucounterclockwise, starting from the bottom.CHAPTER 4 I CJTIJ AND THEIR ENDLESS WAR
A gish, a githyanki w ho excels as both a warrior a nda spellcaster, most commonly occupies the helm. A gishuses its combination of abilities to pilot the ship and alsotake part in the inevitable battle that awaits the vessel atthe end of its voyage. The rest of a ship's
crew is madeup of warriors who manage the craft's w
eapons andserve as lookouts.ASTRAL SK
IFFAn astra l skiff
is operated by a crew of three and carriesup to
a dozen passengers. The githyanki employ thiss mall vessel, 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, for patrols inthe Astral Plane and for quick raids in pursuit of specificobjects on the Materia l P lane. A skiff has a top speedof 15 miles per hour. It lacks weapons aside from thosecarried by its passengers and has a limited amount ofstorage space.ASTRAL BRIGThe astral brig is the
standard githyanki military vessel.It requires a crew of five a nd can transport up to s ixtypassengers. A brig is 90 feet long and 30 feet wide, withtwo levels below
decks for quarters and storage space.It is equi
pped with two ballistae, each one operatedby
a pair of crew members, and has a top speed of 12miles per hour.PLANAR RAIDERThe largest of the githyanki s hips, the planar raiderserves as a mobile headquarters during a major attackon the githyanki's e nemies. It
needs a crew of ten andcan carry more than a hundr
ed passengers. A planarraider can travel up
to 12 miles per hour. It is 40 feetwide and 120 feet
long, with two levels below decks, andis equipped with
three ballistae and a catapult.