Elder Brain Homebrew for my campaign

[Willowhugger]

This is a thread about trying to fix Blutespur to become more "Ravenlofty."

Here's what I did in my games....

(thanks to "Into the Mouth of Madness" and "Call of Cthulhu")

As a note, Bluetspur is also becoming part of the Nightmare Lands in a “Cluster”

The Elder Brain
Darklord of Bluetspur
Neutral Evil

(not sure what sort of levels to assign it)

Appearance: The Elder Brain’s “true” appearance is that of a bubbling, cavern filling, mass of brains. The brains are elf, human, dwarf, and other types of creatures. The thing constantly crackles with psionic energy and is tended by mindless slaves. How many of these are actually real and how many are not is a matter of question.

In his ‘projected’ appearance, the Elder Brain is a man who looks to be in his early forties with a slightly gaunt look to him. He dresses extremely conservatively and would seem like he would be at home in the upper class of Mordent. There is something ‘not right’ about the man and people in his presence are often known to see something fiendish in his eyes.

Personality: The Elder Brain treats the Illithids of Bluetspur like a mad god or ignores them completely. He is known to be tempermental, to lash out, and to consider those around him to be beneath his notice. He spends a great deal of his time sleeping and ignoring the affairs of his domain for his “dreams.”

‘Randolf Curwen’ is a man who is polite and cultured, even as his writing his absolutely putrid in its gorey overwrought prose. If called to task to defend his work, he takes the offended artist defense and insists that whoever is troubled by his work is unable to understand its deeper meaning. If they press, he can fly into insane rages.

History: The Demiplane of Dread is filled with individuals who have become monsters by their sins or by being victim of circumstance. The sins that drive the Demiplane include lust, wrath, gluttony, pride, and many more but they are profoundly human sins.

What sort of lord of a domain exists though for those who want to become monsters?

The Cult of the Mind existed on a Prime Material World that had long ago wiped out their monsters and buried their evils under the sands of time. It was a planet that still had its share of darkness, but it was profoundly human darkness.

Their leader, Randolf Curwen, was a man who romanticized monsters though and inscribed them in his books that were lurid fiction for the most part. Little did Randolf realize that a few monsters did still exist in this world and he was being used to speak about them.

His books drew a certain clientele to his door and they gathered to listen to his tales of horror and madness. The rich and powerful came to learn the secrets of the “Great Masters Beneath” and mental techniques to heal one’s soul. At first, Curwen merely bilked for their money yet something disturbed him. Privately, Randolf Curwen began to believe that his stories were true. Following his dreams, he traveled to a deep and forgotten cavern that he found the remains of the Illithid civilization that had been destroyed long ago.

The Elder Brain was dying of neglect and his race was destroyed yet it found a latent psionicist in Curwen, who could be molded to his will. The creature offered Curwen immortality, ancient lore, and more to bring individuals to join the great Brain in place of the lost Illithids.

Dressing in elaborate costumes that resembled Illithids, the people did indeed come to the Cult where they were shown grand and glorious visions of a new world to come by the Elder Brain. A world where the hollowness of their souls would be filled with a cause, a cause no sane human would follow, but a cause nonetheless.

The Elder Brain then revealed that the minds of the dead cultists would invigorate him, his plan. He would rebuild the world of the Ancient Times when the Illithids ruled the world and it would be through humanity. Not the humanity that they were of course, but a humanity that they would transform the rest of their race into.

With this revelation the Cult of the Mind’s members were taught how to use the ancient science and to control men’s minds with their own power. Instructed to go forth and conquer the world in the name of the new world. Finally, he revealed that they were already close to achieving their goal. Through Randolf’s books, the Elder Brain had gained access through the minds of all the people that his lives touched.

Randolf, who’d only wanted to tell stories and discover the origin of the dark world he‘d envisioned, fled in terror from its truth. He was dragged back by the now near-mindlessly devoted cultists who placed his brain inside the body of the Elder Brain.

The effect was not what the Elder Brain had envisioned for the minds of humans were fundamentally different from Illithids. The struggle between the individuality of Randolf Curwen and the Elder Brain resulted in a backlash through his works and countless people were killed psionically.

The Mists took notice of the butchery as Randolf’s madness consumed him and brought Bluetspur to the Land of Mists. Randolf Curwen found that he could no longer tell where the Elder Brain began and he ended even as all of his followers had become true Illithids. A fate that many of them welcomed even as they were repulsed by their lingering humanity while others were driven mad by.

The uncontrolled psionic power that Curwen possessed furthermore made the place a living hell for the few survivors of Bluetspur that quickly fled from the hell to other domains. Horrible monsters and nightmarish creatures were born from Curwen’s reading into the minds of other beings and his own fevered imagination. That was when he noticed that his followers still worshipped him and the memory of his ‘books’ as holy texts.

Current Sketch: The Elder Brain/Curwen finds himself surrounded by individuals who believe in his celestial glory and in a world that he half suspects is fake, given the sheer absurdity of creatures like vampires and other monsters. He desperately desires human companionship but knows that human beings could never relate to the alien thing that he’s become. Instead, he seeks to take their brains unto him and indulge vicariously in their experiences as well as seek those who are psionic in order to drain their mental energy that he can project himself into other lands.

Unlike most lords, Curwen can walk other lands for roughly a day for every level of psionicist that he’s absorbed the life-force of. He accumulates these greedily and has visited several domains as a “reclusive” author of truly demented (some domains say pornographic) science-fiction/horror. Doctor Van Ritchen and Doctor Illhousen both suspected the author of evil, given the sheer number of people driven mad by his works since his books still possess the quality of allowing him to use his powers on readers. The death of one and dissapearence of another has made matters considerably easier for him but the Weathermay Sisters are still contemplating a “Van Ritchen’s Guide to Nightmares and Aberrations.”

In addition to this work, he often has Illithids with their brains placed in human bodies or disgusing themselves with their psionics, moving through the Core in order to find (or create) the types of individuals he needs. Daculd Heinroth found himself often well paid by mysterious individuals with odd equipment but their relationship has recently soured. The Dark Lord of Bluetspur also has made a serious enemy in the Nightmare Court given they dwell in the same circles and both have ‘ridden into the other’s territory.’

The Elder Brain, finally, also creates many creatures for Bluetspur that are purely psionic constructs to amuse himself. Many of these things are actually from memories of a time before his own. Drow, Duegar, Driders, and other monsters are all “figments of his imagination” and join plenty of more peverse aberrations like beholders or Deep spawn. These never last long but are for all intents and purposes, ‘real.’ He also instructs his Illithids to work tirelessly on a suitable vessel for his essence that is more human like. This is destined to failure as long as he’s darklord.

Combat: The Elder Brain rarely needs to defend itself but usually wields its awesome psionic power against whomever opposes it. It would take a Dark Lord of equal power, like a member of the Nightmare Court, to oppose it in that realm. Those immune to psionics would find the creature largely helpless but it would take days to chop the thing to pieces. It can also regenerate spectacularly well.

[Hell_Born]

Interesting notion, I salute your talents. One little question that's been nagging me. I read in several places that the Ravenloft Illithids sometimes transplant the brains of their own into human (possibly demihuman?) bodies, adding a little Biomancy to make the 'host' body more suitable for the Illithid intelligence. What I'd like to know is what would happen if such an "Altered" (I think that's the term) produced a child for some reason or the other?

(I apologise for asking but I lack Denizens of Darkness, so I'm in the dark about such creatures.)

[Willowhugger]

Interesting notion, I salute your talents. One little question that's been nagging me. I read in several places that the Ravenloft Illithids sometimes transplant the brains of their own into human (possibly demihuman?) bodies, adding a little Biomancy to make the 'host' body more suitable for the Illithid intelligence. What I'd like to know is what would happen if such an "Altered" (I think that's the term) produced a child for some reason or the other?

(I apologise for asking but I lack Denizens of Darkness, so I'm in the dark about such creatures.)

I believe that the child would be fully human. The operation is solely into the brain and not into the DNA. There's certainly possibilities for "half-illithids" but they're most likely to be the children of failed experiments than cross breeding.

[Gemathustra]

A "half-illithid" referred originally to a monster, or humanoid that was selected to be implanted with the larval illithid, which then consumes the host's brain and transforms it.
Some half-illithids are actually the results of successful experiments, like that one skin-thief illithid was in that fiction in one of the Quoth the Raven issues.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

That's strange - the process described is the exact same for cerebromorphisis - the process by which a humanoid is turned into a true mindflayer, which is the only way an illithid can be born.

Second edition rules stated that just about every humanoid creature can be cerebromorphed - with the notable exceptions of svirfneblin gnomes and lizardmen.

Lizardmen could be transformed with immature lavae, resulting in a viscious psionic lizard thrall, and the gnomes could be made into a grotesque scout creature. There was also a breed of cerebromorphed Roper, which created a devestating gaurdian for illithid communities.

[Willowhugger]

Cool.

Basically, my idea for a "Horror Novelist" was alittle different the Juste. While everyone loves Scanea, its limited only to the players ability to play out a story in a story.

The madness of Randolf Curwen is one that he's able to create his horrors and terrors in reality and send them out. It also explains in a Ravenlofty way, the existence of plenty of underdark creatures in "Thoughts of Darkness."

Plus, I love the idea of someone publishing books that can potentially suck out your soul.

[Scipio]

Cool.

Basically, my idea for a "Horror Novelist" was alittle different the Juste. While everyone loves Scanea, its limited only to the players ability to play out a story in a story.

The madness of Randolf Curwen is one that he's able to create his horrors and terrors in reality and send them out. It also explains in a Ravenlofty way, the existence of plenty of underdark creatures in "Thoughts of Darkness."

Plus, I love the idea of someone publishing books that can potentially suck out your soul.

I'll assume you've seen In the Mouth of Madness, right?

[Willowhugger]

I thanked it at the start of my work

so yes.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Ah, now there was a movie.
What a way to start the story - a novelist who can inspire mass random violence. I like your explanation for this kind of mindlessness.

[Jester of the FoS]

For stat reference generic Elder Brains are in the Forgotten Realms book Underdark.
The God Brain, I imagine, would be beyond all those.

[Scipio]

I thanked it at the start of my work

so yes.

Oops, no more scanning for me, lol.

[The_God_Brain]

For stat reference generic Elder Brains are in the Forgotten Realms book Underdark.
The God Brain, I imagine, would be beyond all those.

Oh yes...far, far beyond...


tremble

[Gemathustra]

For stat reference generic Elder Brains are in the Forgotten Realms book Underdark.
The God Brain, I imagine, would be beyond all those.

Oh yes...far, far beyond...


tremble

In other words, The God Brain of Bluetspur is to Elder Brains what Bill Gates of Microsoft is to rich computer nerds.