FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Hoping the community ca help me brain storm a break-a-prisoner-out challenge.
I'm planning an adventure where the party has accepted a mission to infiltrate a Mind Flayer colony. This is a 5th edition campaign.
In one area, there is a transformation chamber and in one of the cells there is a Githzerai Zerth. I don't want to go into all the background details, suffice it to say that freeing the Zerth can provide them with a helpful ally for the rest of the mission.
My problem is how do the Mind Flayers keep the Zerth prisoner (he can planeshift at will once a day). *snip* I'm very open for other suggestions.
My approach to this would be: the Mind Flayers have used psychic surgery to amputate the Zerth's plane shifting abilities. Depending on where you want to go with the Zerth's role in the campaign, a Greater Restoration or Regeneration spell might or might not be able to restore him.
A "crippled" Zerth confined to the Prime Material plane is kind of an interesting thing IMO.
Naturally, this solution isn't workable with MM Mind Flayers because they can't actually do sophisticated things with psionics. You'd need to invent at least vague rules for what psionics and psychic surgery are or are not capable of, even if those rules are just, "Elder Brains can permanently disable Plane Shifting on unconscious Zerths with no save."
And yes, I would use the exact same approach to imprison a wizard: cut out his tongue and/or cut off his hands. Medieval to the max.