D&D 5E DMs, do you ever have trouble thinking small?

[Mouseferatu]

It's a weird problem to have, but I find I have difficulty using certain monsters on an "adventure" level. What I mean is... Well, let's use mind flayers, which I love, as an example. I have no difficulty figuring out plot ideas using mind flayers that are meant to drive a whole campaign, or at least a massive portion of it. Blotting out teh sun, infiltrating and taking over a major city, that sort of thing.

And I have no trouble using them as glorified random encounters, where the PCs accidentally stumble into Illithid territory and have to find a way to escape.

But when I try to come up with a single adventure based around mind flayer schemes and efforts--or maybe a subplot involving two or three separate adventures, but still nowhere near the focus of the campaign--I find the idea well dry. I have trouble thinking of what a small or localized mind flayer plan would look like.

The creatures that do this to me tend to be the "mastermind" sorts. The mind flayers, liches, aboleths, that sort of thing. Big, campaign-long scheme? No problem. Short, adventure-length scheme? Derp.

Is it just me, or does anyone else have similar issues? If so, which creatures throw you the way these guys throw me?

And also, uh, if anyone wants to suggest ideas for short-term (1-to-3 adventures-worth) schemes for mind flayers, liches, and aboleths, that'd be great, too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A short term plot involving Mind Flayers could be as simple as survival. Imagine 1-2 cut off from their main group for whatever reason, they need food & water, and that little town down in the valley looks like a possibility...

IOW, The Thing, Alien, Tremors, The Ghost & The Darkness.

A lich could easily be the hidden patron who wants the party to find a rare book or two. Now, this could easily scale up to campaign level machination, but it doesn't have to. But boy oh boy, when the reveal is made...

An Aboleth...I could see as an aquatic Fagin, using its slaves to steal and assassinate in a river city. Think Dr. Who's "Vampires of Venice" combined with Oliver Twist.

 

[MNblockhead]

A prison break or steal/recover a macguffin style adventure would work well for a 6-8 hour adventure in an illithid colony. Make it a smaller, remote colony rather than a huge, sprawling settlement. Using the or being inspired by the Illithid colony map in Volo's guide is a good example of a colony of a size that makes for a nice challenge 6-8 hour (1 or 2 session) adventure.

 

[Zardnaar]

There was an old 2E adventure called To Cure a Kingdom, and it had a Mindflayer who was causing diseases. Solo type level 6 or so IIRC.

 

[ScaleyBob]

I have similar problems with just about any encounter I plan for my PCs. What begins as maybe a single encounter becomes a full session, which then becomes more, as I add layer after layer on to something, or have more and more ideas which then expands the original idea until what was meant to be small diversion becomes yet another major plotline in a campaign. Suddenly the groups like level 7, and nothing's really been resolved. Such are the joys of being a GM.

As for the original question I did manage to restrain myself recently with an Illithid encounter, where there was a single Mind Flayer living in a tomb/burial mound that had a small itinerant population mining village built over it. The Illithid's influence meant that no-one in the town could talk directly about the tomb (which the PCs were looking for), so after a wild goose chase through a swamp, they finally worked out/got it explained in words of one syllable by some lizardfolk, and headed into the Tomb to find what was there. I ended up 'legenderising' the Illithid so to make a single Mind Flayer a challenge to the Party.

It was living there for several reasons - there was a Chuul storage facility in the swamp (cue Aliens style encounter when the PCs discovered it), it was a refugee/explorer due to unfortunate events in the Underdark, and having a town with an itinerant population meant that people wouldn't question people going missing as they Illithid fed upon them.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I like these, but I want to take it a step further.

What about an adventure where it's about what the mind flayers are trying to accomplish? The idea of one or two trying to survive, or a McGuffin hunt in a hive, are both cool (and I'm definitely adding them to my file), but what about an adventure that's driven by a local colony trying to do something/make something happen? Where they're acting, rather than reacting to circumstances?

 

[Quickleaf]

It's a weird problem to have, but I find I have difficulty using certain monsters on an "adventure" level. What I mean is... Well, let's use mind flayers, which I love, as an example. I have no difficulty figuring out plot ideas using mind flayers that are meant to drive a whole campaign, or at least a massive portion of it. Blotting out teh sun, infiltrating and taking over a major city, that sort of thing.

And I have no trouble using them as glorified random encounters, where the PCs accidentally stumble into Illithid territory and have to find a way to escape.

But when I try to come up with a single adventure based around mind flayer schemes and efforts--or maybe a subplot involving two or three separate adventures, but still nowhere near the focus of the campaign--I find the idea well dry. I have trouble thinking of what a small or localized mind flayer plan would look like.

The creatures that do this to me tend to be the "mastermind" sorts. The mind flayers, liches, aboleths, that sort of thing. Big, campaign-long scheme? No problem. Short, adventure-length scheme? Derp.

Is it just me, or does anyone else have similar issues? If so, which creatures throw you the way these guys throw me?

We've all got our weak points as DMs Mine are remembering the dang rules!

And also, uh, if anyone wants to suggest ideas for short-term (1-to-3 adventures-worth) schemes for mind flayers, liches, and aboleths, that'd be great, too.

Aboleth – Finding a New Religion: Moorhan Yuris, a farmer of Deep Creek, has grown disillusioned with the false promises of the Deep Lake God, and secretly has begun praying to an agricultural deity his grandmother taught him about. While the village elders know there is only the way of the Deep Lake God, Moorhan worships in secret until he manages to beseech the aid of a traveling priest who passes on word to the PCs at a tavern. The priest, Alasar Brassholm, asks the PCs to help him spread the faith in the small village of Deep Creek; they'll need to defend the priest & Moorhan from cultists, prove that the aboleth is deceiving the villagers with illusions, take down shrines to the aboleth defended by chuul, and aid the priest in erecting a holy temple over the former sacred site where the Deep Lake God once appeared to its followers.

Lich – Chess, No Strings Attached: Lichdom seemed like a winning prospect to the archmage Zevera Elgornast – a former aristocrat – but lately she has become frustrated with her witless minions who are unable to offer her a single rousing game of chess. While trading for magic items (and possibly night hag soul gems), she happens upon the PCs (possibly she'll be disguised) bidding for a magic item she is interested in. Zevera offers to resolve the matter with a friendly game of chess. Should she win, the PCs will back out of the auction. Should the PCs win, Zevera will back out. She takes the time to engage in extended discourse. However, Zevera's magic subconsciously influences the chess board, the pieces on it connected by sympathetic magic to members of her family's court; taking a pawn might lead to the death of one of her family's footmen or serfs, while taking a bishop might lead to the death of a priest allied with her family. All the while, Zevera evaluates the PCs as potential servitors or sacrifices...down the road.

Mind Flayer – Going to Rrakma: A troupe of 24 githzerai led by the zerth Umeah hunt the mind flayer arcanist Sql'klth and its green slaad ally Quomble, who have been stealing dead githzerai to experiment on, accessing "memories" of their afterlife. Umeah's grim troupe is known as a rrakma band, sworn to slay Sql'klth at any cost. However, Sql'klth has bonded its life-force to that of its grimlock slaves, which it attempts to awaken with psionic powers using the soul energy of slain githzerai (who Sql'klth regards as a failed experiment); slaying Sql'klth in its Underdark rebout before breaking the bond with the grimlocks will kill the slaves...or drive them irrevocably insane. Umeah, however, is trapped in vengeful tunnel-vision, unless the PCs can present another way to her and the rrakma band.

 

[MarkB]

How about a Mind Flayer fine cuisine outlet. A disguised Mind Flayer operates a prestigious university on the surface world, which attracts and nurtures the finest minds in the realms. Secretly, the top 10% graduates of the university are kidnapped and sent down to the main Illithid colony far in the Underdark for consumption as gourmet meals.

The Mind Flayer employs a cadre of Doppelgangers to cover up this activity. They assume the identities of the victims for a few weeks and act out being rebellious teenagers striking out for the far reaches of the continent to make a name for themselves. Only a few disappearances are actually questioned, and even in those cases, the last sighting of the missing person in question was far from the university, booking passage on some long, potentially dangerous journey/

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I like these, but I want to take it a step further.

What about an adventure where it's about what the mind flayers are trying to accomplish? The idea of one or two trying to survive, or a McGuffin hunt in a hive, are both cool (and I'm definitely adding them to my file), but what about an adventure that's driven by a local colony trying to do something/make something happen? Where they're acting, rather than reacting to circumstances?

Ever see 30 Days of Night? Predator? Anything about going on safaris or involving Spring Break or other youthful, hedonistic holidays? Stargate Atlantis?

Now, imagine a ship (oceanic, air, Spelljammer) of Illithids simply going out for an extended hunt, both for pleasure and training. They pick a town and just start killin'. And this has happened before, so unless the heroes take out the ship...

Not deep enough?

Suppose the raids serve the purpose of destabilizing relations between certain political factions because they disguise the nature of the attack? Maybe...leaving bodies of slain captives in certain uniforms among the ruins? That way, their predations go relatively unnoticed (or, more accurately, misattributed), and their power grows...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or perhaps a rogue illithid has set himself up, Dr. Frankenstein-like, in a mountain stronghold, sending minions out into the countryside to retrieve bodies for its experiments in doing things like achieving Alhoon statue, and creatimg brain golems, or to kidnap the living for food and the creation of more minions.