Mind flayer tentacle arrangement?
- Thread starter lukelightning
- Start date
eris404
Explorer
Gez said:
Thanks!They aren't in the SRD, so I couldn't look them up (I'm at work right now). However, I rather like the idea of them having more or less tentacles, now that I think of it - might be a neat little detail for the next campaign world.
This was actually a neat thread; it gave me a lot of ideas.
If I remember my 1st ed MM it was the tentacle that extracted the brain. IMC I decided that there were several tentacles, but only 4 could attack in a round. I further ruled that the tenacles sort of phase in and out of the material plane (kinda like blink) and coud reach inside and pull out your brain without leaving a hole, but I digress.
I struggle to picture in my mind how floppy, rubbery, ol' tentacles can force their way through flesh and the skull to extract the brain.
Yes, yes, I own the Illithiad and it describes that the tentacles excrete a "flesh-desolving" enzime at its tip, but still I struggle to believe.
The skull is a pretty hard bone, you know. I think an illithids tentactle would not only have an ultra-powerful flesh-and-skull dissolving enzyme, but also have razor-sharp, scaple-like tips on the end.
What do other's think?
Do I need to change to decaf coffee, too, and just say: "Hey, it's a fantasy game; stop fussing over the fine detail!"
Thanks.
Yes, yes, I own the Illithiad and it describes that the tentacles excrete a "flesh-desolving" enzime at its tip, but still I struggle to believe.
The skull is a pretty hard bone, you know. I think an illithids tentactle would not only have an ultra-powerful flesh-and-skull dissolving enzyme, but also have razor-sharp, scaple-like tips on the end.
What do other's think?
Do I need to change to decaf coffee, too, and just say: "Hey, it's a fantasy game; stop fussing over the fine detail!"
Thanks.
Pure Puppet
First Post
SuperFlyTNT said:
A quick glance at the Mindflayer entry in the MM reveals that Illithids eat CREATURE brains. Nowhere does it say anything about PEOPLE brains.
So a Mindflayer paladin or something would probably buy some sheep from a farmer. He gets delicious sheep brains, and his companions get mutton.
Or, you know, not.
genjitsugaming
First Post
Mechanics of Brain-eating
Many many years ago an issue of Dragon (I think it was issue 135; which ever it was, it had a witch and a scarecrow on the cover) had an article on illithids which I have always treasured called "The Sunset World." It had the following to offer on the subject of brain extraction, written from a more scientific viewpoint:
(The following is not a direct quote)
The illithid reputation for brain eating is actually a habit not of nutrition but of reproduction. Illithids are actually omnivores who eat a wide variety of vegetable and animal foods, although they do evince a culinary preference for both the raw and prepared brain.
An illithid's tentacles contain small detachable organisms, which attach to a creature's flesh when the tentacle strikes firmly. The illithid then telepathically directs this corpuscle to burrow through the skull (which must be done at extremely close range, hence the impression that the illithid must maintain hold on the creature) until it reaches the brain, whereupon it disrupts all higher brain function, leaving the victim effectively braindead. Once undisturbed, the illithid uses portions of its mouthparts like a bone saw to open the skull and inserts a tadpole-like larva, which wraps its tentacles around the brainstem and takes over the host's autonomic functions. The parent illithid then brings food for the host body and the larva lives off of its bloodstream as a parasite for several months, growing inside the braincase until it bursts the skull completely apart and emerges as a fully developed illitihid about two feet high; it will complete its growth later.
This is a nice, pseudoscientific take on the "ceremorphosis" idea presented in the Fiend Folio and elsewhere. The issue also contained a sister article on fauna of the illithid "homeworld."
Regarding the appearance of illithid tentacles around the mouth, I prefer the illustration from one of the Spelljammer Core books, the Concordance of Arcane Space I believe, which shows an illithid with its four tentacle splayed open to reveal a mouth of interlocking teeth; the tentacles are in a square arrangement, pointed out diagonally.
Many many years ago an issue of Dragon (I think it was issue 135; which ever it was, it had a witch and a scarecrow on the cover) had an article on illithids which I have always treasured called "The Sunset World." It had the following to offer on the subject of brain extraction, written from a more scientific viewpoint:
(The following is not a direct quote)
The illithid reputation for brain eating is actually a habit not of nutrition but of reproduction. Illithids are actually omnivores who eat a wide variety of vegetable and animal foods, although they do evince a culinary preference for both the raw and prepared brain.
An illithid's tentacles contain small detachable organisms, which attach to a creature's flesh when the tentacle strikes firmly. The illithid then telepathically directs this corpuscle to burrow through the skull (which must be done at extremely close range, hence the impression that the illithid must maintain hold on the creature) until it reaches the brain, whereupon it disrupts all higher brain function, leaving the victim effectively braindead. Once undisturbed, the illithid uses portions of its mouthparts like a bone saw to open the skull and inserts a tadpole-like larva, which wraps its tentacles around the brainstem and takes over the host's autonomic functions. The parent illithid then brings food for the host body and the larva lives off of its bloodstream as a parasite for several months, growing inside the braincase until it bursts the skull completely apart and emerges as a fully developed illitihid about two feet high; it will complete its growth later.
This is a nice, pseudoscientific take on the "ceremorphosis" idea presented in the Fiend Folio and elsewhere. The issue also contained a sister article on fauna of the illithid "homeworld."
Regarding the appearance of illithid tentacles around the mouth, I prefer the illustration from one of the Spelljammer Core books, the Concordance of Arcane Space I believe, which shows an illithid with its four tentacle splayed open to reveal a mouth of interlocking teeth; the tentacles are in a square arrangement, pointed out diagonally.
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