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Message: <blockquote data-quote="anest1s" data-source="post: 5621716" data-attributes="member: 94230">Ingredients:Remedial Enchanting-That is needed to cure the past Champion.Puzzlebox-That holds the Remedial Enchanting outside the Demiplane.Slave Auction Block-Where slave Giths are sold.Grasping Horrors-The illithids that the adventure is about.Reluctant Champion-The past Champion.Bag of Holding-The way to the Astral Plane.The Call of  The ProcreatorA short adventure for low level characters, designed with 3.5e D&D in mind, but adaptable to any edition. Can be used as an intro to a much bigger campaign, depending on players decisions. Intro Very few beings know that Mind Flayers come from the future. But how they came to exist at the first place? The PCs are going to witness part of their making, and maybe part of their fall.  Hooks<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After looting the remains of a battle between Giths and Illithids</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After meeting the past Champion who gifts it to them</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After searching an old tomb and finding it there</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gaining it by any other imaginable way</li> </ul> the PCs come to possess what looks like an ordinary bag of holding.  The adventure starts there.  Background A powerful ancient wizard long ago started a crusade against the illithids, trying to save the humanity from the inevitable extinction . By terrible and evil magic he studied the minds of humans and illithids, gaining a horrible reputation doing it. He became a lich to avoid insanity and gain the longevity he needed. He then formed his master plan against the Flayers. Naturally, he needs now the help of the PCs.   One Strange InvitationAny PC with any ranks on Concentration, upon touching the bag realizes that it has an outside pocket he hadn't noticed before, closed with a decorative Gamboge coloured button . Inside is a book. Any other PC will notice it if it is shown to him, but someone with psionic powers can't perceive neither the pocket or the book, even if it is literary rubbed on his face. This is a protection against illithids.  The first page reads:(Optional: Who is Terhans background can be discovered if you let the PCs more time to decide, and resources to do so)  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">By turning the     page, they learn that they have to turn the bag inside out, and     follow the Gamboge. They are warned that they should hurry.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">By not turning     the page, the next day the book, the pocket and the magic of the     bag, all dissapear.</li> </ul>   If they follow the instructions, they are thrown to the astral plane like trough astral projection-but their bodies are stored within the bag, and the bag then dissapears. Then they have to follow the Gamboge coloured pools. If one PC dies in the Astral Plane he loses one ability point from a stat of his choise and everyone is forced back to the material plane. Practically this bag is almost as good as astral projection, but for the low level PCs this is needed. This works only for the PCs sinse the bag chooses its owners.  In the astral plane, feel free to pull random encounters, so that the PCs will get used to that plane. The bag after the end of this adventure may lose its power gradually - make sure the PCs know how to survive till then.  Back in the FutureAfter the PCs find their way around the Astral Plane, they arrive to the small Demiplane they were invited to. They find themselves on a small island within a dark lake, in a giant lightless cave. A portal is behind them, while a natural bridge connects the island to the nearest side of the cave. Anyone touching the mass of the liquid takes 1 INT damage per round  Small black tentacled creatures are levitating in and out of the lake constantly, in a hypnotizing pattern. On the wall of the cave where the bridge leads, lies a sceletal figure embedded on it. This is Terhan. This cave is his brain. In a brief talk with the PCs, thet learn that   <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The illithids came from the future     after their near destruction</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They think they will dominate all,     and will if allowed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He studied them when they first     appeared</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He was great enchanter and     necromancer</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He became cruel and unhuman trying     to cover his inability to fight them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He found a loop to destroy the     illithids.</li> </ul>He explains that the illithids traveled back here to make sure they will survive. However what if they fail at the future, exactly the way they failed before, even with the help they have already given themselves? Then they are effectively trapped in a time loop, while the rest of the world goes on without them.    He is here to make this happen.  (The following information can be attained by agreeing to fight with him, or with a Diplomancy check.)  If asked about the lake, he explains that he is creating the first Mind Flayers here. He grands them the powers they already have, and the weaknesses that will lead to their fall. Weakness to the Sun. Weak links with the Arcane, and its side of enchantment. Hunger for mental energy. Weakness to the undead.   He tries to find how the world will be when they will fall, and create them weak enough to do fall. He tries to make them weak enough, so he can battle them until then.  He pushes the creatures into the Lake, that feeds them- and then examines them one by one. Then he changes them. Somehow those creatures believe in him, and from having enough followers he is close to becoming a god. Not that he is not powerful enough anyway.  He plans to send them back into time, when he will be able to.  Possibly he is the one that made the Mind Flayers. But even if he stops, someone else will have to make them- the evidence is that they exist.    Then he offers them to become his Champions, sinse he can't leave the cave and he needs help. He is willing to nagotiate some kind of payment for their service.If they refuse, he will make them swear thet they will never talk about it. And if they try to break their promice their memories will be lost, by a powerful spell he casts on them.   If they agree and then try to betray him, the same will happen- but he will also promises revenge.  From now on, they can talk to him by writing on the book, and he can reply through it.  One Old Deal  He and his last Champion had a deal. That when would feel that his servitude time was over, he would be granted a normal life again. Now, after aions of serving, he wants to fight no more. He wants to live the mortal life he missed living.    Right now he is an undead too though, and with the secrets he knows this is impossible. The PCs have to transport Terhans magic out of this Demiplane, with the help of a magic puzzlebox they are given, to the Material Plane, where the last Champion is trapped, and activate it in front of him.  (Optional Quest: Finding the Champion may prove difficult. He can't just stand there waiting for the PCs to save him after all.)  The puzzlebox carries two powerful spells. One that will restore the past Champion back to life, and a powerful enchantment which will erase his memory for ever. They are stored within the box in the form of music, which plays after the cube is solved (solving it is like winging a music box, and after playing the cube is unsolved again). The box looks like a d6, having pressing points equal to the number of an actual dice side each side. There are 3 ways to solve it. Roll a dice and see what number is up, then hand out sodukus with a number of boxes equal to the other sides (if 1 or  6 is rolled, you hand out one 2*2, one 3*3, one 4*4, and one 5*5 sodukus). Or an intelligence check to solve each soduku DC3*side. Or if they roll the cube like a dice in the ground it is solved by itself. The nature of the dice reflects the nature of the multiverse, and thus it has the properties of a d6. After its solved, 1d6 ability points are given to the PCs and drained from the past Champion. That is their reward.  If they have decided to never return to Terhan, the invitation is withdrawn. The puzzlebox is gone along with the bag. The illithid slave market  He explains then to the PCs how important the rebellion of the Giths was, against the illithids. However it is still unknown how it ever was possible for them, to overcome the mind control of the illithids. He suspects that the Giths are a time paradox, like the Mind Flayers. However its risky to let it happen by chance- the reality might change. He asks the PCs to travel to a parallel dimension, where probability is reality. There, they will buy Gith slaves, from the Mind Flayers that prevailed there. Then they will return with the outcome of their research.(Optional Quest: The PCs have to help him cast the spell in some strange way, its not something trivial after all)    After the spell is cast, they find themselves in a parallel world, in Mind Flayers bodies. They have to find their way to the Slave Auction Block, and buy some of the most broken minded Gith slaves. They have to act fast and act naturally, or they risk getting discovered by an elder brain. How they will get the info about the Giths is the hard part. They have to steal an illithid mind recording device, and record their mindstate. Good PCs may feel they have to save the giths of that dimension, but thats impossible. After that, they have to return, along with their sample.Of course the sample can't follow them back. But the needed information is recorded within their minds, from where Terhan can get it if they agree.  What happens next  If the PCs never accepted the invitation, nothing really happens.If they saved the Champion but they refused to take his place, they keep their memories. This allows for a different kind of plane-hopping campaign, because they have already been introduced to the Astral Plane. If they agreed to join him, then they have to fight the illithids in many ways. They will have to interact with other strange creatures and organizations, to try to make piece between Githzerai and Githyanki, etc. Many things need to be done after all for the illithids to fall. To follow this path to the end, the PCs will have to become undead at some point.  (Optional: Terhan returned from the future and poses as the God of the flayers, supporting his own past plans from within)</blockquote>

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