Café de Nuit

Isolde wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 8:49 am i would rather use the appearance of this miniature and remake the monster into a unique horror (that is the nemesis of mind flayers and still potent as a monster against the heroes but not as an energy drainer/mind blaster etc) than use the 8 levels per round drained the adventure offers.

Perhaps Illithid, Abomination?

some brutalizer that likes eating mind flayers the most. That can also yaggol-ize (so cretinism) them if they survive the encounter.

https://www.completecompendium.com/cata ... 05/yaggol/

They would not really become yaggols instantly, but they would lose half their magic resistance, all spells and psionics and become cretins with an intelligence of 5 to 7.

After a 2 to 6 months they would fully become yaggols. Regaining some things, and changing forever.

Something like that.

Isolde wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 9:21 am some brutalizer that likes eating mind flayers the most. That can also yaggol-ize (so cretinism) them if they survive the encounter.

Thoughts of Darkness
PCs: "Start the breeding program!"

The Elder Brain would develop an obsessive fear of being yaggolized...

This could be the only way to defeat him as he would become a cretin with very limited powers.

From elder brain mind (Int 20) to gully dwarf mind (3-9 for the gully dwarves but in yaggolization it would be 4+1d3 for 5-7)
https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/eldebrai/

https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/dwargull/


The stupidity of gully dwarves is legendary. To a gully dwarf, any number greater than one is “two”, which simply means “more than one”. In spite of their dull minds, gully dwarves take themselves quite seriously. They tend to have inflated ideas of their own importance, and puncturing their egos is almost impossible.

YAGGOLIZED ELDER BRAIN

Elder Brain, Yaggolized
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Subterranean
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Low (5-7)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 4
MOVEMENT: 3, Sw 6
HIT DICE: 20
THAC0: 9
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d10+10/1d10+10
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Mind blast, Swallow whole
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Camouflage
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 50%
SIZE: H (10' diameter on prime)
MORALE: Champion (15)
XP VALUE: 9,000

Yaggolization mutates an elder brain in all aspects, within the span of a single hour, with no warning to mind flayers other than a strange "static" transmission of dull psionic energy. The changes are dramatic, permanent and irreversible.

The yaggolized elder brain is a huge, fibrous mass of cretinous brain tissue. It has a circular mouth with no jaws or teeth, two muscled arms, similar to those of a brain golem, with large fists and peculiar membranous skin. It has two huge eyes, covered with thick skin. It can now move on the ground with hundreds of semi-hard insect-looking legs for traction. By using its arms it can also swim.

Their skin is chameleonlike, shifting in color and pattern to match the background. The possible color changes range from brilliant rich green to a scarlet orange, encompassing various shades of browns, greens, and yellows. They possess three fingers on each hand, weirdly jointed so that any one can oppose the other two. Its skin is thicker, its brain structure is gains muscular functionality and the creature is mobile.

Elder brains sense the world via sight, touch and taste only.

Combat: Although they have lost much of the intelligence, yaggolized elder brains are still incredibly dangerous and brutal in combat. They are extremely hard to spot if hidden against a natural background – one that falls within the color range of their powers. Elves have a 50% chance of noticing them, all others have a 20% chance. The elder brain must be within 30 feet before they can be spotted. If not detected, the elder brain automatically attacks with surprise.

Once in combat, an elder brain attacks with its brain-tissue formed fists, delivering powerful blows.

The yaggolized elder brains have lost nearly all the great mental powers of mind flayers. Thus they have no innate spell or psionic ability and possess only a crude mind blast. This affects those within a radius of twenty feet around the creatures. All within the area must roll a successful saving throw vs. wand or suffer 10d6 points of damage from the intense mental agony the creatures radiate. Their own kind (including the more advanced illithids) are immune to this effect. The mind blast places a great strain on the creatures; they must wait an hour before attempting it again. Furthermore, it dazes them for the round immediately after. They can take no actions as they recover their cretinous wits.

They are able to swallow prey whole, up to medium sized, on an unmodified attack roll of 20 (struck by its fist the victim is grabbed and thrown into its now open orifice); any victim swallowed must save vs. paralyzation or be paralyzed (anesthetized) for 5-20 (5d4) rounds. It then secretes digestive fluids to absorb the food inflicting 1d10 points of acid damage per round. If dealt more than 10 hit points of damage from within it spews the victim out.

The yaggolized elder brains are extremely savage and ferocious. At the same time, they are not so stupid as to fight against hopeless odds. They freely retreat from battles that go against them. When they can, they take swallow and do not digest prey immediately (dinner for a later date). Failing this, they seek to kill as many as possible to provide a large quantity of fresh meat for themselves.

Habitat/Society: The yaggolized elder brain is the doom of its illithid community, serving as a source of absolute chaos and madness. All mind flayers, including brain golems and other related creatures, it once ruled over are now in a permanent state of confusion, as if affected by the spell of the same name. There is no saving throw or magic resistance roll against this. Thralls fall under a state of confusion as well but regain their sanity once a saving throw versus spell is made. This roll is made once per hour. If they can live through the first hour, make the save, and the later chaos they may survive and flee from their now utterly insane tyrants. A yaggolized elder brain lives only for eating.

Ecology: Yaggolized elder brains eat their once obedient thralls, but mostly soft fleshed creatures. Their favorite prey, however, is mind flayers, and brain golems are not excuded. Nor are other elder brains, if it can somehow overcome them.
Mind Flayer yaggols are also eaten by a yaggolized elder brain.

Yaggolization can occur via ingestion of the flesh of a vampire illithid or injury by a vampire illithid. There is no saving throw. The briny pool of the elder brain can be polluted enough as to infect the elder brain if a fist-sized quantity of vampire illithid blood, or flesh, is poured in it.

[opinions, suggestions, criticism, any other ideas?]

So you create a sub-plot where the High Master Illthid captures, or has preserved remain of a recently slain one, a vampire illithid and uses it, one way or another, to attack the Elder Brain. But he will not know just how dramatic the effect of the attack will be and what chaos it will bring. Lots more details to add but its going to in general be like this.

This way you have vampire illithids that are bane to illithids, they can still fight heroes but not with 8 levels drained per round per illithid, and you can also have the heroes fight the elder brain if they manage to help the High Master in his plot.

Bluetspur also works as an invading planetoid turned-spacecraft, out to harvest human brains . Spelljammer style.

Isolde wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 9:45 am Bluetspur also works as an invading planetoid turned-spacecraft, out to harvest human brains . Spelljammer style.

You may then be interested in Dread Space by Black Feather (Lucius from this forum is one of them). In Dread Spce Bluetspur is the Demiplane's moon.

that sounds great, i was thinking more of a wandering predator moon with the slogan "its a cookbook " but i will check it out .

Mephisto of the FoS wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 12:20 pm Dread Space by Black Feather (Lucius from this forum is one of them). In Dread Spce Bluetspur is the Demiplane's moon.

How is the feel of bluetspur there and the atmosphere of this spelljammer/ravenloft amalgam by Lucius? I like the idea alot. How cohesive, aesthetic-wise is it? This sounds great.

Lucius, if you are reading this, have you made a Thoughts of Darkness version for "The Dread Space" or are you considering it?

What do you think about the adventure in general?

Isolde wrote: ↑Thu Mar 13, 2025 3:57 am
How is the feel of bluetspur there and the atmosphere of this spelljammer/ravenloft amalgam by Lucius? I like the idea alot. How cohesive, aesthetic-wise is it? This sounds great.

Lucius, if you are reading this, have you made a Thoughts of Darkness version for "The Dread Space" or are you considering it?

What do you think about the adventure in general?

I'm glad the idea caught on. It was a different concept, but one that some fans had already considered over the years.
The version of Bluetspur presented in The Dread Space isn't much different from the official version of the domain. One of the main changes follows a long-standing fan vision of placing the domain on the moon.
When I came up with the concept for Dread Space, my first act was to ask Gabriel Jansen (of the Hour of the Raven channel and a member of Black Feather) if he would like to do this version of the domain.
The most significant change, however, concerns the God Brain. He created an extensive and original background for the darklord, narrating his past before he became what he is today (well, a brain).

Regarding Thoughts of Darkness, we haven't done anything in Dread Space, but I'm working on a Black Feather adventure that will take place in Bluetspur and will in some way touch on the areas of the classic adventure.
The adventure will take place in 763 BC and will be part of a series of 3 adventures linked to a larger product that we're currently finalizing.

Is there any other adventure like this? It says 12-15 level but even a 24-30 level party may fail and any character above 30 one must consider either a demigod or an avatar. What other adventure suggests a party composition of a level that is impossible to play it?

The High Master Illithid could be an ulitharid, an "enlightened one", although the monster appeared in Dungeon#24 in 1990 (while Thoughts of Darkness was published in 1992), I believe an ulitharid is appropriate for the High Master Illithid.

https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/ulithari/

A ulitharid's mind blast is also much than more deadly than its common counterpart. It has the same area of effect as a normal mind blast – a cone 60 feet long, 5 feet wide at its point of origin, and 20 feet wide at its terminus – but those who fail to save vs. spell with a -4 penalty become feebleminded (as per the 5th-level wizard spell).

the early version from the magazine (click on image for the full version)