Mind Flayer Dragon Article Discussion Thread

[BOZ]

OK gentlemen… we have one more week to finish the article and send it in. I think we’ve come along quite nicely in the first week or so. The draknor, illithocyte, and nerve swimmer are done as far as I can tell. The gohlbrorn and mind worm are just about done. The voor larva and ustilagor should be done in a day or two, and I hope to get on the brainstealer dragon today to get that one moving as well.

So, while we shouldn’t have anything to worry about as far as making the deadline, we do need to keep putting in work every day to make sure it gets there on time.

 

[BOZ]

I don’t remember if Jason Bulmahn or one of the other Dragon editors contradicted this anywhere, but in the Dragon Writers Guidelines, the wordcount for a Creature Catalog article was listed as 8,000. Currently, with all the text that we have written, we are at 7,566 – cutting it very close! we have 444 words left to use, which should be more than enough to write a few paragraphs of introductory text. (the above count includes the source and psionic references I posted)

What I want you to do before that, if you possibly can, is to look over the monsters in the other thread. Make sure that they make sense, both statistically and text wise, and that everything they have fits well. If there’s anything that’s clunky, we can ditch it – these monsters can afford to loose a little “weight” in the word count. Spend 30 minutes or so on this, if you can. I will try to do the same.

That’s all for me tonight.

 

[BOZ]

updated the monsters in that thread with some of Shade's suggestions and a few of my own. i could really use another pair or two of eyes to look over all that stuff... sometime this afternoon, i will start work on the introductory text.

coming along really well so far.

 

[BOZ]

OK, now that the monsters are complete, it’s time to work on the flavor text.

Given the arrangement of monsters here, I think the theme of our article is essentially “foes and friends (well, slaves) of the mind flayers,” and thus our introductory text should follow suit. It should be brief, and due to space concerns, it absolutely must be less than 500 words.

We should make mention of the common races traditionally known for dealing with the mind flayers: Derro, drow, githyanki/githzerai, svirfneblin, grimlock, and kuo-toa. We should also mention every monster we can think of that appears in some official 3E source that has to do with mind flayers. I’d say stuff like aboleths, neogi, far realms stuff, duergar, certain ExPsiHB critters, chuuls, fiends, brain collector, elder brains, brain golems, ropers, ether scarabs (all suggested in another thread) might be worth a mention. Maybe we can mention things that haven’t yet been converted, but I’m a bit sketchy on that. And I have it on good word from, oh, someone, that the ulitharid and urophion might maybe just be appearing in the near future somewhere. Maybe. but you didn’t hear that from me, it’s just a rumor.

I did have a chance to look at the Pazuzu article, and if you’ve seen it, you’ll notice that the introductory text is only one paragraph (or two?) so that should suffice for us. If you’re not sure how long 500 words is, it is this long; we just need to make the text smaller than that.

word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word word

 

[Shade]

Man, I hope you used cut n' paste.

Here are some of the critters I can think of associated with flayers:

-Illithid grafts (Fiend Folio p. 212, Underdark p. 77)
-Illithid symbionts (Dragon Magazine #308, p. 54)
-Voidmind Creature template (Monster Manual 3, p. 187)
-Elder brain (Underdark, p. 84)
-Brain golem (Fiend Folio, p. 85)
-Duergar, Psionic (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 195)
-Githyanki, Psionic (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 198)
-Githzerai, Psionic (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 199)
-Intellect Devourer (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 202)
-Mind Flayer, Psionic (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 204)
-Neothelid (Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 204)
-Half-Illithid Template (Underdark, pg. 90-91)
-Larval Flayer (Dragon Magazine #318, p. 91)
-Paragon Mind Flayer (Epic Level Handbook, p. 208)
-Alhoon (Illithilich)(Monsters of Faerun, p.89)
-Neogi (Monster Manual 2, p. 158)
-Battle Intellect Devourer (Dragon Magazine #303, p. 81)
-Skeletal Intellect Devourer (Dragon Magazine #303, p. 81)
-Quaggoth (Monsters of Faerûn, p. 75)
-Grimlock (Monster Manual, p. 140)


I'll post more as I locate 'em.

 

[Shade]

Illithid Prestige Classes:

Illithidkin (Dragon Magazine #296, p.48)
Illithid Savant (Savage Species, p. 77)
Soul Eater (Book of Vile Darkness, p. 66)

 

[Knight Otu]

Illithid Body Tamer PrC- Underdark 35

Elder Brain - Underdark 84
Half-Illithid/Mindwitness - Underdark 89
Ineffable Horror?? - Underdark 91

Several illithid-related items as well.

 

[Shade]

Some text for the intro:

Of all the iconic creatures of D&D, the mind flayers are probably responsible for the creation or transformation of the most other creatures. Whether escaped slaves, the results of breeding and magical and psionic experimentation, or thralls of their elder brains, the illithids have created many dangerous beings. Through their tyrannical ways and fondness for slavery, they've also made many foes, while their chosen environment is the home to many dangerous predators. This article introduces a few more creatures that fall into one of these categories.

 

[BOZ]

cut and paste! Damn, I knew there was an easier way... it took forever to type "word" over and over.

heheh

we can make a sidebar out of your lists; who knows, the editors might just make use of it. of course, that would cut down on our intro text... ah, but who cares, let's go for it. I wish Filby or Alzrius or one of those other listy-guys were paying attention right about now...

there's also psthtic (sp) from XPH, whatever page

we'll get to writing up some text, and whatever critters are not mentioned somewhere in that or the monster entries (neothelids and intellect devourers are both mentioned and point back to the ExPsiHB, so no need to mention them twice) will go into the sidebar list. if they want to add Lords of Madness monsters, that's cool too.

I'll give some thought to your text and some responses in a bit.

Edit: maybe some critters in this post?: http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2015864&postcount=12

 

[BOZ]

That might be “breaking the fourth wall” a bit more than I wanted – a good article knows it’s an article, but might not mention it too much.

How about something more like this:

The illithids, or mind flayers as they are better known, are one of the most powerful forces of the subterranean underworld. Nearly every other sentient race, both above and below the surface knows the mind flayer as either a friend or foe – in most cases, foe. The mind flayers are also probably responsible for the creation or transformation of more other creatures than any other race. Whether escaped slaves, the results of breeding and magical and psionic experimentation, or thralls of their elder brains, the illithids have created many dangerous beings.

Through their tyrannical ways and fondness for slavery, they've also made many enemies. Certainly, the three-way rivalry between the mind flayers, drow, and kuo-toa for dominance of the deep world is legendary. The race from which the githyanki and githzerai sprung was enslaved by the mind flayers for centuries; a fact that neither race has forgotten nor forgiven. They must also contend with other sworn enemies, such as the svirfneblin, and the many dangerous predators that call their chosen environment home. Certain evil races, such as the duergar, derro, and grimlocks, are sometime allies, sometime enemies, and sometime slaves.

Presented here are a variety of creatures that were created by the mind flayers, hunt in their lands, or regard them as bitter foes.


I’m also going to scan through the Illithiad today to see what sort of information I can add/fix from the above.