D&D 5E PC Illithid thralls

[werecorpse]

In a campaign I am GMing the party of 7 4th level characters were defeated by mind flayers. I decided that rather than a tpk the Mind flayers would turn the party into Manchurian Candidate style sleeper agents. I have told the Players that their characters have no recollection of meeting the mind flayers and lost some time on the adventure (a couple of weeks). They have a new friend and contact (an intellect Devourer in a half elf) and a reason to regularly return to the illithid location (to keep the programming solid).

I havent really decided what their Tentacled Masters want them to do apart from gather information and I'm coming here for ideas.

By way of background
1. the party has already encountered some Githyanki (known locally as Silver Reavers) who IMC come to this part of the world to age young Githyanki and hunt Mind Flayers - I plan to run the Githyanki Incursion later in the Campaign.
2. IMC illithid tadpoles originally came from the far realm and are a rare far realm creature able to survive out of the far realm but can usefully survive in the non far realm only via becoming some sort of mind flayer - the far realm doesn't obey time and space rules and so the idea that illithids time travelled at some point works as well.

Some of the PC's made int saves during programming or have had things happen that may damage the programming (been raised from the dead) and have some discomfort they can't quite describe - I do want them to eventually battle The Silent Ones - but first I want to mess with them : )

help me out with some twisted ideas.

 

[werecorpse]

So nothing then?
- Bump -

So far my ideas are:
1. To have them take an innocent NPC redshirt to their new masters who then gets eaten;
2. To replace the brain of the pet or hireling with an intellect devourer - which they will discover on the pet/hirelings death;
3. To have them believe they have been on an adventure against one thing but it's was really against another; &
4. To put them in a 'Hangover' style situation where they need to piece together what they have got up to in the last 24-48 hours.

Any expansion on these - or other ideas?

 

[Eltab]

- What were the PCs doing before they met the mind flayers? Have them continue (because that other BBEG might become a threat to the mind flayers at some time in the future if not distracted from his own schemes and plots).
- Carefully question the PCs about the githyanki they met; you can never be too careful about the race that brought down a cosmos-spanning empire from within. Maybe the PCs should be sent out to sabotage the giths' plans or equipment; not knowing different, it will be attributed to a bunch of obnoxious locals.
- The PCs are to become People of Power and Influence in their own societies. (This happens naturally through the process of adventuring.) Sometime in the near-to-medium future, each one will be introduced to his own personalized version of Wormtongue.
- The local kingdoms are set to get involved in the equivalent of a World War. The PCs are to help one kingdom become dominant over the others, with themselves as agents / advisors to the leader of that land. When the time is right, replace the leader with a suitable PC (whose code name is 'Caesar Augustus' or 'Octavian'). Craft a plan to consolidate the kingdoms into one empire. Implement said plan.
- Send the PCs off to fight something they haven't met before that is bothering / threatening the mind flayers. Then let them go back home and do their own thing. The deep programming will remain for whenever the mind flayers have another problem to deal with and they need a powerful pawn to do it.

It would help if we knew what other groups are active in your campaign, doing what. Give us some third parties that the PCs could mess with.

 

[werecorpse]

Thanks for the response. I like your suggestions. I hadn't thought about encouraging them to cause the kingdom to become an empire which they shadow control. That makes sense given that's what the illithids once had they'd like it set up again.

The PC's met the MF while on a simple body recovery mission. They succeeded and now are dealing with other threats.

My campaign has many many NPC players it is set in Greyhawk using an expanded Shackled City adventure path combined with a bit of Serpents Skull adventure path, lost city of Barakhus, some Scarlet Brotherhood, githyanki incursion, and a touch of a crumbled dwarf kingdom dealing with underdark war issues - it's a jungle based kitchen sink. I may incorporate some Lost Tomb of annihilation into it. i tend to run long term campaigns.

 

[Sunseeker]

The trick about Manchurian Candidates is that their rise to power always seems suspicious but at the same time pure and untouchable. Perhaps if the Githyanki seen to corrupt and conquer a nearby kingdom, they will simply aid the party's rise to power. An important noble who opposed the party will suddenly turn up dead but in a manner that cannot be pinned on the party. A particularly deadly dungeon is surprisingly easy, as though someone had been though shortly before them to clear it of traps and monsters.

The "Candidate" will see signs of interference in their activities but that interference will generally be to their benefit, but also clearly leading them in a specific path. A well-established Senator who they run against for local office suddenly goes mad, leaving the Candidate unopposed in the election. The Candidate should generally accept these events as the actions of some kind of benevolent benefactor. The Candidate should also of course have some supplicants who constantly remind them that their cause is righteous and that these "strange events" are merely the will of the gods manifesting in the Candidate's favor.

You'll really need to determine what the Illithids goals are. Typically the Illithids seek to conquer lands and then magically terraform them into more Illithid-favorable terrain and infest sentient creatures with tadpoles to make more Illithids. So if there's a kingdom nearby, I suppose the first order of business is to get their Candidates into a position to make the city more amenable to the Illithids existence and weaken them in various ways. Perhaps send the Kingdom to fight the Githyanki, while slowly mind-controlling more important members of the leadership. Maybe infest people more regularly to make more Illithids and then ya know, take the place over, or even present themselves as allies (after they've sent them to fight the Gith) against the Gith.