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Matter over Mind

FrdNwsmFrdNwsm Member Posts: 1,069
MC and Co. had discovered a bridge guarded by a group of Cute-Toes, and gleefully rushed forward, anticipating yet another fish fry. Suddenly they emerged into an underground cavern and WHAM! They were promptly knocked unconscious by a series of psionic blasts. WTH? OK, this was an unpleasant surprise indeed. Why were there fish people guarding a bridge to a mind flayer den? Hired security guards perhaps; the exact reason was probably unimportant. Survival was now the primary concern.

An ugly looking Ogre informed everybody that they were now gladiators who would fight for the amusement of the mind flayer hoi-polloi. A first engagement with some umber hulks proved laughably easy. The next pairing would be harder; they were scheduled to fight some Yankee Gits in the next room. Hey, the door to their room was open! The Gits offered to ally against the Flayers, to which suggestion the party promptly agreed. The Gits apparently had some power vs the Flayer's mental abilities. Who knew?

When the combat started, the Gits were able to hold the flayers at bay. MC's fellows naturally assumed that the mind flayers in the audience were the targets, and began peppering them with missiles and spells, only to have the Gits scold them! MC's job apparently was to secure the exits, and kindly get your butts in gear while the Mexican Standoff was in force. The party headed for the far door, while wondering what the heck a "Mexican" was.

Having no clear idea what they were doing, MC's crew bumbled around trying this and that. They grabbed some red stuff and shoved it into vials, which came in handy later on when they met some slaves tied into some machines. The gunk went in, and the slaves were free and awake! Hurrah! Time for a general slave rebellion? Um, no. These guys were totally cowed, and basically said "come back and let us know when you have taken out the overseers, so that we can run away like cowards". Sheesh, what a useless bunch. Not even worth the trouble of freeing them.

And meanwhile, the party had run afoul of some mind flayers with their Umber Hulk guards; there was an unacceptable level of losses, as several people had their brains eaten! That rod of resurrection would get a serious workout unless better tactics were employed. Luckily, the group had a couple of decent intellects, and plans were laid for the inevitable next encounter.

The new tactics worked like a charm. Band after band of Ilithids and their chums were defeated. A couple of odd mind control circlets were found; apparently it was possible to reverse roles and mentally dominate the Ilithids for a short time. This came in handy when opening certain locked doors. Aha! The door to the exit was opened! At which point the Gits magically reappeared, said "Thanks, we're heading home. Oh, and you guys can kill the Big Boss brain for us, we have a train to catch". Yet another wimpy bail-out by supposed allies! Arg!

Well, this made MC mad. I mean, really really really mad! He worked himself into a state, then kicked down the last door and beat the snot out of the Boss Brain, while everybody else took out his flunkies. All the doors flew open, and the way back to the caverns was cleared. Whew. The freed slaves also reappeared, making tracks for the horizon; the dust cloud did not settle for days. And we had a bottle of Brain Blood, with little grey bits floating in it. Gross. Toss it in the bag of Holding with some other souveniers from the trip, like the Hand of Dace, a couple of Sahuagin hearts, notes from Irenicus' Journal, Neb's nasty Cutter and a bunch of other crap that has outlived its usefulness. (MC collects knock-knacks from his trips, and uses them to decorate the common room at the Copper Coronet).


[For the sake of brevity I omit the various fights with Mind Flayer groups, which were all mirror images of one another. Discussion of tactics to follow.]





Post edited by FrdNwsm on
BlackravenJuliusBorisov

Comments

  • FrdNwsmFrdNwsm Member Posts: 1,069
    edited May 2015
    Some scenario problems and a suggestion for anti-Mind Flayer tactics. I'll toss up a spoiler alert, although I seriously doubt that there's anyone who doesn't know most of this.

    I found the scenario design to be a little confusing. It wasn't always entirely clear exactly what we were supposed to be doing. You enter a room with some barrels full of red stuff. If you don't actually click on these, you have no idea you can collect it into vials. What do you do with it? How much do you need? No clue; apparently there is an endless supply of what, by description, sounds like red colored liquid mercury. 5 vials? 10? I grabbed 20 just to be on the safe side. You enter a room with some slaves hooked up to some machines. Again, if you don't click on these you have no idea that you can pump the fluid from the other room into them.

    You have exactly 4 Ilithid control circlets; these are only good for 1 use each, casting the equivalent of dire charm, which doesn't last all that long. If you use it on one Ilithid out of a group, the others will kill him before he can open any doors for you, so they are best used on single Ilithids. You then have to run the thing to the locked door before the control wears off and it becomes hostile again. There is a rod of domination, which I assume can be used to also control an Ilithid, but by the time you find it, most of the Flayers have been killed off. Someone said that there is a room off to the South that continually spawns single Ilithids, but I had no way of knowing that.

    Similarly, the Brine that grants immunity to psionic blasts is found fairly late in the scenario, which sort of defeats the purpose. By that time you will have discovered how to defeat the Mind Flayers without it. You will also have discovered that in Slayer form you can simply kick doors off their hinges. This makes controlling an Ilithid less vital.

    As for tactics: one Mind flayer alone is no problem. They are pretty squishy in melee; one psionic blast might stun or confuse a couple of your party but the others will be able to kill it before it does the brain eating thing.

    4-5 flayers plus Umber Hulks to run interference can do a number on your party, however. I used summonings to combat them ... lots and lots of summonings. Skeletons for the first wave; I had Anomen, Neera and Imoen pack 2 animate dead each. Since you can have 5 summoned critters active at one time, that leaves a sixth in reserve for when one gets killed. The flayers will waste time trying to psionic blast them and eat their brains; both attacks are ineffective since they have neither minds nor brains. They have to be destroyed physically. The Umber Hulk guards are good at chewing up skeletons, so the party will take these out first from a distance with missile weapons and then start peppering the Flayers.

    If needed, other summonings can follow. I have an efreet bottle, a flesh golem manual, staff of air elemental summoning, black spider figurine, the gals usually have a monster summoning or spider spawn available, and Jaheira always has summon fire elemental ready. Just keep throwing stuff at them to keep them occupied with close-up melee while you pepper them from afar with ranged weapons.




    Post edited by FrdNwsm on
    JuliusBorisov
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