The Illithid God-Brain (NPC)

Canon Information

The Illithid God-Brain is giant brain floating in a briny pool. It is the darklord of Bluetspur.

Contact with Psionicists

The darklord of Bluetspur is an illithid elder brain, a massive conglomeration of the brain of every dead illithid, merged together into a new, living, entirely alien entity. This creature has the memories and psionic strengths of every brain joined to it, but it is trapped; powerless to do anything but float in its subterranean saline pool, surrounded by the slithering forms of barely sentient illithid tadpoles. It is a vast intelligence robbed of the ability to directly experience the world around it. The Elder-brain tries to feed this craving by searching the minds of those around it. The Elder-brain can read the mind of any creature in its domain, and on rare occasions it can sense the minds of individuals beyond the borders of Bluetspur. It can only sense the most powerful of these minds, those of characters with psionic abilities. If the Elder-brain senses such a mind, it may decide to try and integrate this mind into itself.

The chance of the Elder-brain detecting the use of psionic abilities is not great. The DM should note the highest number of PSPs a psionic character uses in a single round in any given day. The percentage chance of the Elder-Brain noticing the character is equal to half this sum, rounding fractions up. Alternately, the DM could make this check in any round when the character rolls the Power Score when using a psionic ability. The percentage chances are the same, equal to half the PSPs the character spends that round.

Once a roll determines that the Elder-brain has taken notice, the alien intelligence will attempt to abduct the psionic character with the intent of adding his mind to its own. This is a gradual process, during which the Elder-brain slowly superimposes the reality of Bluetspur over the area the psionic victim occupies. The Elder-brain uses the psionic character's own mind as the conduit for this process; in the beginning, this course of events can be dismissed as an overactive imagination. However, with time the psionic character is at risk of slipping entirely into Bluetspur; and only the anchoring presence of other human minds can save him.

Each time a roll determines the Elder-brain has noticed the use of a psionic ability, the PC in question acquires a level of Dire Attention. Once a PC acquires a new level of attention, the DM should not make another check for a game week, giving the effects of each level time to manifest. However, after that week, the chance of drawing the Elder-brain's attention rises: the PC adds his level of Dire Attention to any future checks. (A PC at level 2 adds 2% to any Dire Attention checks.)

(These numbers correspond to the notes in the research journal above).

Level 1: The psionic PC suffers from brief, unsettling waking dreams, where hints of the reality of Bluetspur momentarily superimposes itself on the scene. These visions are often only half-glimsed, last only a few seconds, and typically only affect the PC during calm moments. Other than disturbing the character, these subtle flashes have no game effects.

Level 2: The psionic PC has a longer hallucination, this one lasting up to a minute. These events are still all in his mind, and will have no permanent effects, although they might call for a Horror Check. The psionic character has a nightmarish vision of alien creatures (the illithids) coming for him, but this vision fades quickly, and ends instantly if another person enters the scene. At this stage, the presence of other people can still force Bluetspur to retreat back into the recesses of the psionic PC's mind.

Level 3: The psionic PCs suffers from more hallucinations along the lines of the one mentioned above. However, these visions are now semi-real; they end only under two conditions. One: the presence of another mind will still instantly end the vision. Two: if the victimized PC suffers any damage (hp loss), be it from the illithids coming for him, or from any other source, the shock is enough to block out Bluetspur's reality. Whenever the PC suffers a hallucination, a Horror Check is called for.

Level 4: Bluetspur's reality presses heavily upon the psionic PC's world. Whenever the psionic PC is at rest, whether or not he is sleeping, he can sense the presence of the alien entities all around them. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see them; at the limits of his hearing, he can hear their gibbering, rasping noises. Sometimes, when he closes his eyes, he can feel their damp , soft flesh pressing against him. However, the PC does not suffer any direct attacks as in levels 2 or 3; the Elder-brain is massing its forces for one more strike. The PC must make a Madness Check as the intelligence of the Elder-brain scratches at the borders of reality.

Level 5: The Elder-brain comes for the character, the reality of Bluetspur superimposes itself on the PC's location. The brightest of lights dims to a dull glow, and a lightning storm rages to life. The other people around the psionic PC appear to be illithids, and the PC interprets any action on the other characters' part as attack from the illithids. Although anyone else present can see the strange lights and the lightning, they cannot sense the illithids, nor can they really help the PC in any active way.

The PC under attack must make an immediate Madness check as the Elder-brain reaches out to his mind. As a note, if any other characters touch the mind of the PC in question (such as with psionics or spells), they too must make a Madness Check. If such a character fails his Madness check, he suffers all the normal results. In addition, the character has drawn to Elder-brain's attention to himself; and the character immediately gains 5 levels of Dire Attention, putting the second character in the exact same predicament the original PC faces. Any characters drawn into such a situation at the same time can see each other as human, and can help each other, if possible.

The PC must defend himself from the nightmare-illithids. There is one illithid for each character present; indeed, these mind flayers have superimposed themselves on the other minds present. They are totally real to the PC; any damage inflicted by the illithids is real damage, and other characters may be able to see wounds spontaneously appear on the PC's body. Each round, the psionic PC is allowed to make a Wisdom check. If the PC succeeds at this check, he flashes back to reality for that round, and may be able to communicate with other characters, get his bearings, etc. However, the Wisdom check must be made every round until the attack is resolved, and failure means the PC slips back into the superimposed Bluetspur reality.

The player running the PC psionicist should be taken aside, and the DM should jump back and forth. To the rest of the PCs, the psionicist is delusional, reacting to alien horrors that just aren't there. To the psi. PC, the others' actions should be translated into illithid attacks. If he doesn't resist, thinking it all a fantasy, the wounds inflicted on him should suddenly become visible to all the PCs. The player should realize that this is a dream no longer, and he must defend himself from the nightmare-illithids alone.

The attack can be resolved in one of three ways:

1) The PC defeats the illithids. The DM should run combat between the PC and the illithids normally, but any damage the PC does to an illithid is also applied to the character the illithid has replaced. If the PC defeats all of the illithids, the Elder-brain will withdraw, seeking easier prey. The scene will return to normal, and the PC loses all of his level of Dire Attention. However, the Elder-brain always lurks at the edge of consciousness, and continued use of psionic abilities may attract it again someday.

2) The PC is defeated by the illithids. The other characters see the PC's body suddenly spasm, shuddering to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. If the others examine the body, they find the PC dead, his face a twisted mask of horror. If they examine the body very, very carefully, they may even discover the cause of death: the PC's cerebellum has vanished, the brain cavity filled with briny fluid. Oddly, the spell Speak With Dead produces no results...

3) If the PC flees from his companions and is alone for even a moment, his loses his connection to his own world and is drawn bodily into the domain of the Elder-brain. The PC would find himself alone in Bluetspur, in the illithid complex deep below Mt. Makab. The illithids, dreadfully real this time, would extract his living brain, and integrate it into the Elder-Brain to add to its power. The psionicist would be alive forever, trapped in the consciousness of an alien intelligence.

Multiple PCs suffering a simultaneous attack (as described above) can aid each other, but cease to anchor each other to reality: if three PCs in a room join minds so they can all face the illithids, they will all simply find themselves in Bluetspur.

The Gothic Challenge

It is difficult to identify with the God-Brain or otherwise see any faintly flickering flame of humanity in it. Yet such is required of the gothic villan. Not unrelated is the matter of what precisely an elder brain could do that would distinguish it from its peers sufficiently for it to be picked out for imprisonment by the Dark Powers.

One possible answer follows:

The Illithid god-brain was once a human psion named Seldrid, whose city of Thaan was besieged by the illithid. In his struggle against them, he began to admire them, and believed that the war between their races would hone humankind into a superior race. When the illithid faltered long short of this goal, he sought them out and discovered that their elder brain was dying. In the interests of forging his supreme race, he betrayed his own people and was assimilated into the elder brain. He then used his knowledge of the Thaani defenses to conquer them and have their leading psionicists' brains added to his gestalt as well. Thus, he and the entire illithid civilization were transported to Ravenloft, and the former psion became darklord of Bluetspur. However, he can no longer experience feelings and emotions directly, nor can he stray from the briny pool in which he rests.

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Domains of Dread Thoughts of Darkness The Forgotten Children Download Now!
		Thoughts of Darkness - p53
		Domains of Dread - p85 Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - p69 Thoughts of Darkness - p6,pp51-53
		Secrets of the Dread Realms - p7 Domains of Dread - p85 Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp34-35,69-70 Thoughts of Darkness - p7, pp50-53 The Forgotten Children - pp19-20 Download Now!
		Lord Elder Brain Illithid God-Brain, The Illithid God-Brain