Astral quests and other rules questions, Searching for answers Options

[Traks]

Last session left me with many questions to ponder about.

1. If people gather around one day and say "We wanna do astral quest NOW", what will they have to overcome to enter? There are some words about question they have to answer and stuff. What question/task do you, people, assign to players?

2. If players just wander around Astral, what difficulty should I give to quest?
Party with shaman, adept, gunbunny and mage.

3. If there is manastorm/vortex, and player receives 6L damage in few turns, if he can regenerate, does this damage fades away too? What about casting stun damage, does regeneration help?

4. How long it takes for manastorms to disappear? Hours? Months? Centuries?

5. Can mage bond allied spirit to his body, getting spirit powers (immunity to weapons and other small stuff)?

P.S. I now know why I chose those Shadowrun books. I have been programmed every time I come to this site - all 3 books are up there as topics when I enter :)