Mind Flayers?

[JQP]

Let's talk about Mind Flayers. I know about most of the source book and Dragon material (Illithiad & 3 associated adventures, Lords of Madness, Unveiled Masters, Savage Species, Underdark books, various Monster Manuals etc., Astromundi Cluster, etc.)

How about more adventures? Anybody got a website with good MF stuff, campaigns or adventures against or as MFs (I've seen the Zografos stories here)? Are there any D20 adventures or campaigns published with MFs as central characters? Are there any Dungeon Magazine issues with MFs as central characters?

 

[Delta]

Remember that mind flayers are WOTC protected product identity -- i.e., not released under the OGL. It's not possible to make third-party d20 adventures or campaign settings with them. You'll have slim pickings.

 

[demiurge1138]

In Dungeon Magazine, the adventure "Hall of Harsh Reflections" (part of the Age of Worms AP) had a mind flayer as its end-boss. The current adventure trilogy on the Wizards website, starting with "Touch of Madness", looks to have illithids in it in a big way. Monster Manual 5 devoted a hell of a lot of page count to the illithids of Thoon, a Far Realm Entity with a lot of repercussions for mind flayer plots.

As sort of a tangent to the topic, I've used illithids a lot in my own homebrew adventuring, so much so that I've had to stop myself lately from bringing them where they don't belong. The first illithid I ever used in a plot was my most powerful, the paragon illithid assassin Yarrik Zan from my Epic Lovecraft-meets-Faerun mashup. A filthy sadist and collector of unusual arcane implements, he crossed paths with the party after coming across the Jacinthe Blade, a weapon capable of rendering the defenses of a god useless. Zan viewed it as little more than a trophy, whereas the party was after it in order to bump off Cthulhu (and maybe a few Lords of the Nine as a warm-up).

In my Eberron game that died too early, I had planned the illithids and their cult of the Dragon Below beneath Sharn to be a big element. At the end of an adventure the party had in the Fallen district of Sharn, an illithid appeared to them in a dark alley, mind blasted the entire party and kidnapped the (one-armed) cleric. The next day she awoke in an inn with no memory of the past twelve hours and a new arm. Sadly, the party got TPKed before they could ever figure out what was going on there...

Demiurge out.

 

[Ydars]

The only totally MF centred adventure I have seen is "Speaker in Dreams", which, now I think about it, is very strange considering how much WOTC have gone out of their way to protect this IP.

 

[EricNoah]

There was a Dungeon Mag adventure that featured a mind flayer prison.

 

[JQP]

Remember that mind flayers are WOTC protected product identity -- i.e., not released under the OGL. It's not possible to make third-party d20 adventures or campaign settings with them. You'll have slim pickings.

Yeah, I forgot about that, obviously.

In my Eberron game that died too early, I had planned the illithids and their cult of the Dragon Below beneath Sharn to be a big element.

A fellow MF lover. Just curious, what was the deal with that immunity to everything but a special metal thing? Did you keep that in your campaign? I own no Eberron but that seemed kind of dumb to me - MFs are supposed to be all brain and no brawn; get past their brains and they're all skinny and squishy underneath their robes; immunity to everything but x seems too brawny to me.

The only totally MF centred adventure I have seen is "Speaker in Dreams", which, now I think about it, is very strange considering how much WOTC have gone out of their way to protect this IP.

Yeah, seems like they protected MFs just out of caution, not because they had any plans for them. Me, I'd at least produce one campaign devoted to them to see how it went over (even if it was just a Dungeon series], because MFs are just too cool.

There was a Dungeon Mag adventure that featured a mind flayer prison.

That taxed my Google-fu to the limit but I think I found it, thanks:

http://www.enworld.org/archive/index.php/t-122661.html

The adventure that went along with the CotSQ is the "Spiral of Manzessine" by David Noonan in Dungeon Issue #94

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

There is also a 2E book called "the Illithiad," IIRC that has a lot of great background info. Mechanically, you'd have to update it, but its good source material.

 

[kenobi65]

The only totally MF centred adventure I have seen is "Speaker in Dreams", which, now I think about it, is very strange considering how much WOTC have gone out of their way to protect this IP.

It's not just mind flayers; there's a handful of monsters in MM that don't appear in the SRD, and thus are considered IP.

 

[Voadam]

A couple early d20 modules had mind flayers in it when everybody was working under the draft srd (which included mind flayers) and the gentlemen's agreement, it wasn't until the full srd was released more than a year after 3e released that mind flayers were specifically not allowed anymore without explicit separate permission.

Banewarrens by Malhavoc Press has some mind flayer villains.

Shadows Under Thessaline by Monkey God Press/(Highmoon Media now for the pdf) has some MF themes.

Paradigm Concepts Inc. (the guys who do Arcanis and a bunch of race/monster books) got permission to do a whole sourcebook on mind flayers, I forget the name of it though.

Back in the 2e days I remember seeing a website documenting a campaign with an illithid world invasion where normal D&D creatures were turned into tentacled monstrosities similar to the ones detailed in the old 1e dragon magazine article.

Everquest RPG had some mind flayer like things, as did Into the Black by Bastion Press, Minions/Complete Minions by Bastion Press, Possessors by Phil Reed, Lion's Den Press' classics of fantasy (maybe its called iconics of fantasy I forget) and probably some other d20 variants for the same rough niche.

 

[demiurge1138]

A fellow MF lover. Just curious, what was the deal with that immunity to everything but a special metal thing? Did you keep that in your campaign? I own no Eberron but that seemed kind of dumb to me - MFs are supposed to be all brain and no brawn; get past their brains and they're all skinny and squishy underneath their robes; immunity to everything but x seems too brawny to me.

Ah yes, byshek. I liked giving them crazy DR, because it meant that they could survive more than a round or two if the fighter passed his save v. mind blast. Besides, it tied them closer thematically to the other Xoriat-based aberrations. Greater survivability + greater thematic links = good decision by my thinking.

Demiurge out.