How would you react?

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Lets say you are an assasin. A very experienced and feared assasin. You love killing folks for money... But it's more than just a business, it's the thing you do best, your very reason for being. Outside this, you are a cold, jaded and cynical individual - couldn't care less about anyone else.

The last contract you accepted was to bump off the head of a thieves guild in some backwater town. Simple stuff.

Unfortunately this fellow was more than he seemed. An Illithid! He managed to stun you and then turn you into his thrall. For the last couple of years you've been used as the face of his thieves guild, giving the orders and doing the legwork. Everything's been a little hazy and confusing...

You've been instructed to go meet a bunch guys and talk them through some stuff. As soon as you get close to the preachy looking guy with the holy symbol, your mind is your own again. Everything snaps into focus and you've got free will again!

What do you do now?

Oh, one tiny complication, you're pretty sure Mr Illithid will be watching you through his Crystal Ball...

From a rules POV - NE Assasin - long term thrall of a mindflayer, enters the area of a clerics Magic Circle vs Evil. If I've read it right, the mind control effect is supressed while he's in the circle. Is this right? Does he know it's only down to the magic circle?

 

[Telperion]

Lets say you are an assasin. A very experienced and feared assasin. You love killing folks for money... But it's more than just a business, it's the thing you do best, your very reason for being. Outside this, you are a cold, jaded and cynical individual - couldn't care less about anyone else.

Not to mention just slightly selfish and egoistic, as all experienced assassin's should be...

The last contract you accepted was to bump off the head of a thieves guild in some backwater town. Simple stuff.

Unfortunately this fellow was more than he seemed. An Illithid! He managed to stun you and then turn you into his thrall. For the last couple of years you've been used as the face of his thieves guild, giving the orders and doing the legwork. Everything's been a little hazy and confusing...

Where the heck did all my experience go? Why didn't I do any background work on this backwater guild of thieves? Sure, it might look easy, but that doesn't mean that I should start acting like a wet-behind-the-ears newbie.

You've been instructed to go meet a bunch guys and talk them through some stuff. As soon as you get close to the preachy looking guy with the holy symbol, your mind is your own again. Everything snaps into focus and you've got free will again!

What do you do now?

Depending how you interpret the side-effects of Thraldom this guy isn't going to have much of free will or personality left after a couple of years. It isn't like you are really acting on your own, but just obeying the commands of a hideously powerful mind that has you permanently clutched in its grasp. That sort of thing tends to wear on a personality and psyche of anyone under the Illithid's power.

Well, assuming I haven't been converted into a halfwit idiot when the Thralldom is suddenly suppressed I would probably worship the ground the cleric walks on and follow him where-ever he goes. PCs, especially clerics, have this funny thing about wanting everyone to worship them, so being useful, obeying the cleric and generally going along with whatever the party wants is plenty enough. In the meanwhile I would be seriously interested in finding out how to get rid of the Thralldom.

Oh, one tiny complication, you're pretty sure Mr Illithid will be watching you through his Crystal Ball...

Thralldom is a level 9 psion power, and that means the Illithid can pull a whole lot more then a simple Crystal Ball. I would be very interested in finding some epic level (= extremely powerful) characters and sending them after the Illithid. After that is done I would probably no longer be under the effect of the Thralldom, and could do as I wanted.

From a rules POV - NE Assasin - long term thrall of a mindflayer, enters the area of a clerics Magic Circle vs Evil. If I've read it right, the mind control effect is supressed while he's in the circle. Is this right? Does he know it's only down to the magic circle?

Well, assuming the Assassin has some Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (religion)...or something equalent he could probably reason it out before the cleric (with that wonderful magic circle against Evil) moves too far away. If he can't figure it out the assassin is just out of luck until the cleric comes closer again. I would imagine the Illithid would be very interested in killing the cleric ASAP when it detects a disconnection in the Thralldom - link. If it regains control of the assassin it will most likely stay away from the cleric and assassinate the cleric before any more complications.

 

[shilsen]

Yes, the mind control effect is suppressed. And unless the assassin has enough ranks in spellcraft and/or knowledge (arcana or dungeoneering), he shouldn't know exactly why it is suppressed.

He should still have enough info to know that he was mentally controlled in some manner. But since he shouldn't know why it's suppressed now, he's likely to leave the circle at some point at have the mind control snap back on. If he knew why it's been suppressed, I'd say that he should come up with a story about how he was mentally controlled by an illithid and needing the party's (that's who I assume the bunch of guys are) help. Of course, the problem is to communicate it to the party without being detected by the watching illithid.

But all of the above is probably negated by the fact that he is very unlikely to know why the control is suppressed.

 

[Steverooo]

What do you do now?

Oh, one tiny complication, you're pretty sure Mr Illithid will be watching you through his Crystal Ball...

From a rules POV - NE Assasin - long term thrall of a mindflayer, enters the area of a clerics Magic Circle vs Evil. If I've read it right, the mind control effect is supressed while he's in the circle. Is this right? Does he know it's only down to the magic circle?

Obviously, he wants pay-back. He knows the Illithid is still watching, but what can it do? He would probably know, and if it isn't a spellslinger, then he's probably pretty confident that it can't affect him at a distance...

What does he know? That he's been controlled, and now isn't. If he has no knowledge (Arcana) and/or Spellcraft, then he may not know why. If he does, then he can figure it out...

If he doesn't know why control dropped, then the first order of business is to pump these adventurers for information, and find out. Then he'll try to get the control removed, permanently, even if it means casting in his lot with the PCs, telling them what's up, and using the Cleric to shield him against the Illithid... What's he got to lose?

After that, revenge is the order of the day. He will seek to destroy the Illithid as soon as possible, promising the PCs whatever (the Guild Treasury, for example) in order to get them to aid him.

Once the Illithid is dead, and he's free for good, the PCs (and the Guild) mean nothing to him. He will be more interested in getting paid, and in tracking down whoever got him into this mess, and killing them, too, for his troubles!

After that, he may well return to the Guild, which he has been running for years, anyway, and setting up shop on a permanent basis. Contacts and Underlings are good things... He'll find someone else to be HIS Face-man, though, and do all of HIS leg-work, from now on. He'll probably concentrate on recruiting some likely Wanna-Bes to begin training as assassins. He already knows the capacities of all the "boys" in the Guild!

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Hmmm. If I were the assassin, no matter how enraged I was at the mind flayer, I think I would cut my losses and go. That is one beast that I would certainly want to pay for making me its puppet but would not about to even try on my own. Maybe that is the kind of thing where I hire/dupe/trick/beg some PCs to help me take out this evil beast!

 

[Berandor]

Here's what I would do:

After years of thralldom, the assassin is overwhelmed and left alone at the sime time. His mind freaks out, he falls unconscious.
That leads to the cleric being surprised and hopefully taking the guy in, caring for him until he comes to senses - still in the magic aura.
Then, a recovering assassin can tell about his plight, and get the cleric's friend to help him take revenge. Bloody, sweet revenge.

The ilithid will know sooner or later that something's up when he can't enter the assassin's mind again, so it's not like telling the guys will ruin a chance for subterfuge.

Edit: I know how to spell assassin, btw.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I thought I could spell Assasin too. Doh!


I really like the idea of the assassins mind being overwhelmed by it's newfound freedom. Collapse in a heap and gibber!

I suspect the cleric would take them in and try to tend them, although there's no absolute guarantee.

The healing process could be fun. Soon as the cleric leaves the room, the control will snap back in. Lets hope he doesn't leave him alone before he can get some answers out of him!

Although, it may be a moot point - always possible the cleric/knight (fist of raziel) might turn off their constant magic circle while going for a meeting with dubious types. It might be a little too showy!


I'm pretty sure the assassin didn't have any ranks in spellcraft - not really his thing. Did check and while he's not high enough level to cast it yet, it is on his spell list... Wonder if that should that make a difference?

 

[Steverooo]

Maybe give him an INT check, once he's done gibbering?