Brains, delicious brains.

>>6336210

In oreder to deny his nefarious heritage, our noble mind-flayer will consume only the brains of rats and small dogs.

To be non-evil an illithid would have to not hunt and feed on the brains of non-sentients. An illithid would have to be either insane or repentant to act in such a fashion.

Sentient brains are simply delicious to illithids and they gain all the memories, experiences and sensations of the creature by devouring them.

99.99% of D&D parties continuously kill enemies with intelligent brains. As such, he can indulge in brain eating with even more abandon than his evil kin, without ever performing an evil act.

As to what motivates him? He could be filled with a hatred of the Elder Brains, who, you know, EAT YOUR BABIES (this is canon) and consume the brains of adult mind flayers as well. In a very literal sense, Elder Brains are the enemies of humanity, but are literally the WORST enemies of the Illithid Race, moreso than all the Githyanki and Githzerai combined.

>>6336225
large dogs being too... large. Also, not very cost effective.

Do Halflings count under rats?

>>6336262
You bring up a good point, I've never been in or heard of a campaign run off of killing elementals. or... only vermin, or something equally crazy. Unless it was a mouse hunt campaign.

I would imagine any number of ambitious wizards would wet themselves at the thought of having the honour of being named the wizard that successfully created an individual Illithid, cut off from the mother brain.

tl;dr a wizard did it

>>6336275

Illithid Witch Hunter

>>6336275
to add to this, lets call him a nefarious ambitious wizard.

>>6336262
Eating people is not the same as killing them for a purpose. It's still evil even if it serves the greater good.

>>6336262
Killing people is ok but eating them isn't.

>>6336206
Your time displaced Illithids decide that subjugating every other race is not a feasible way to rebuild their empire since they lack the power they once had. Now you all of a sudden have a faction of Illithids that are neutral.

>>6336292
>>6336293
I'd imagine if this Neutral Illithid was travelling with 'goodish' people, they'd have qualms about him eating the enemies to death. Seeing as the whole extract process has to be done while they're alive right?

>>6336305

That would depend on who they were with and how they felt about it

>>6336305

I figure that people would get over it after a while.

>>6336292
But killing them for a purpose and then making sure the body doesn't go to waste is not evil.

If they have to consume the brain while the victim is still alive...I'll concede the point. But if they can slurp brains out of all the guys that they had already killed anyway? As long as they don't start looking for excuses to kill people and get a meal...not evil. Ask Heinlein.

Most Illithids are usually hyper capitalists in my settings, looking to gain potential profit out of absolutely everything. This, of course, includes people - hence why they're evil.

Perhaps this mindflayer is running a little project... He wants to try and become as filthy, stinking fucking rich as possible, with as many resources at his disposal at possible. However, he wants to see how capable he is of doing this using the system of the prey creatures - perhaps they would be more willing to cooperate if he used that, instead of dominating them.

When it comes to feeding, he understands that consuming the brains of common folk with result in lynchings. So, instead, he usually gets into positions where he has access to convicts or bandits, which he puts at his mercy and OM NOMs.

What exactly would the process of breaking free from an Elder Brain entail?

I guess it depends on how your DM handles alignments, but I think eating someone's brain while they are alive makes you evil. You can't be pure neutral while actively causing that kind of suffering.

>>6336305
Extract is not the only way they consume brains (low level illithids can't even use Extract in Savage Species), and I think if you look carefully in the MM that you can even extract the brains of corporeal undead and instantly kill them thereby (at least in 3.0). I'm willing to be proven wrong, but I know of nothing that says that an illithid's victim has to be still alive.

>>6336341

It's kinda like hanging around a smack addict.

You're exposed to their disgusting habit, it disgusts you as no doubt their general behaviour and attitude to their own habit does so too.

>>6336356
Convicts are people too; torture is evil, even if they deserve it.

>>6336206
Simple. Find a wizard to create Brain Tofu.

>>6336364
According to Lords of Madness brains can indeed be pickled and stored for later consumption. The only stipulation is that the brain must be extracted from a living creature.

>>6336364
My bad, I assumed they had to be alive. If they're dead then I don't see a problem.

>>6336380

Doing by 4e dickery, I would probably bet you can convince your DM to allow you to get brains off of enemies you didn't kill by extraction.

>>6336358
An excellent question, there's lots of sci fi that deals with the question of how an individual can escape a mind-controlling dystopia. The easiest is to do so while outside of the Elder Brain's telepathy range... if you have disloyal thoughts while within its telepathy range, you will be punished.

>>6336364
Just because they can use the attack doesn't mean that they gain sustenance from it. I can Bite a Fire elemental, that doesn't mean I can eat them.

>>6336398
sounds extremely fucking difficult. Like THX 1138 difficult, but with less robots and George Lucas.

... Ring of Sustenance?

>>6336370

What new-fangled free-thought is this bullshit?
In fantasy settings, I think it's more "guilty unless-you-can-prove-on-the-spot-before-the-sword-enters-your-belly innocent."

Also, bandits = instant nom noms.

>>6336407
Whoa. I think that would totally work. Using this you could RP being an addict of sorts. You want to eat brains because its awesome but you don't need to thanks to your ring.

>>6336407
....I bet it would work. But that'd also be like asking a meth addict to give up meth. He doesn't 'need' it at this point to survive, but fuck, it was fun when he did.

>>6336404
Conversely, just because a monster has a bite attack, doesn't mean he has to roll to hit and damage to eat a steak.

>>6336407
Oh sure why don't we just throw magic at a problem until it goes away.

>>6336420
>>6336422
lol unison bonus.

>>6336370
Its also definitely not torture if they're unconscious.

>>6336419
Hey, just because society and tradition say it's okay does not mean it's Good or right.

>>6336424
Depends on how tough the steak is.

>>6336433
In the same way that an Illithid eating brains isn't wrong. Mother fucker has to EAT.
We eat cows
They eat us.
It doesn't become "wrong" or "evil" just because we're on the menu. That's how he rolls, so that's how he rolls.

>>6336407
but braaaains arreee fuuuuuuunnnnn....

Illithid bondage games before brain eatery

>>6336444
Your argument is deceptively good. I say that because you're assuming Illithids are a part of the natural order, which they are not. They're aberrations that shouldn't exist.

>>6336305
"Excuse me my good fellows. I shall take charge of guarding our captive here. No no don't worry. I have everything covered. *cough* now if you would just come over here so we won't bother them from their sleep..."

>>6336458
hehe, thanks. But still, It's not their choice that they exist. And I assume that one's will to live won't allow for them to take their own lives upon this realization.

How often do they need to eat, anyway?

you could always just be Neutral Evil.

It's Neutral, and Evil!

It's like... everything good with a nine-point allignment system! (Assuming this is 3.0 or 3.5)

>>6336475
Minimum a brain per month.
Preferably a brain per week.
If your a fathead, two to three a week.

>>6336460

What happened to the captive?

He fell down some stairs.

But... we're in a forest?

....

You ate him didn't you?

That's a racist accusation based on bias

Did you or didn't you?

He fell down some stairs......

Okay my solution to this, and I haven't seen this earlier in the thread, is that the Illithid feeds only on the brains of the evil, and live out their racial need to perform evil acts through the memories of the brains they consume.

This could bring them to neutral since Justice (GOOD justice that is, not pure lawful) is good, and eating sentients is bad, so if the Illithid performs both at the same time then they are neutral on a good vs. evil axis. The problem comes in when you try to shift the Illithid towards Chaotic WHILE STILL MAINTAINING SAID BALANCE.

>>6336475
Ah, you got me. I'll admit defeat lol. I guess a neutral Mind Flayer would have to do what it takes to survive.

Isn't there some sort of "dupe item" spell that would allow him to replicate brains and then store them?

Also, Bag of Infinite Brains.

Have him consume the brain of an utterly obsessed collector/ weeaboo, its not disloyalty if you wander off onto the surface to catch up on your latest favorite series and soon you'll be too lazy to bother getting up and eat anybody.

>>6336507
walking a tight rope made out of the brains of the psychotic, deranged, and violent.

also as an interesting point, wouldn't a Schizophrenic's brain be an incredibly weird thing to consume?

>>6336520

Too easy to use magic.

We are pursuing alternate methods.

Its worth mentioning that in the Celestial Planes, ALL animals are both sentient and good aligned. Sentient good aligned wolves chase down, kill, and eat sentient good aligned sheep, who can fully communicate with each other and hold no illusions about the other's sentience. Guess what? Its still good.

Fuckers gotta eat. There is no creature in existence who is not entitled to sustain its own existence, and there is no kind of creature whose feeding (as in what sustains them) is inherently evil. (No, succubi & other fiends don't eat souls, at least for nutrition)

>>6336527

It tastes like salty rainbows!

>>6336533
See
>>6336458

>>6336520
It'd be like eating the exact same, goddamn apple, every week. Sure, it meets the nourishment need with actually being a brain but... boring.

>>6336507
Chaotic Neutral. Illithid stealths into regions ruled by evil hierarchies appears suddenly in the midst of a meeting and rips the brain out of the head honcho before disappearing into the night.

Assassinating for goodness but without any forethought or real plan for how to help other than killing off BBEGs and using brutal and inhuman means to do it.

>>6336445
That pic remembers me a NPC in a campaign I played long ago. Illithids did had gender as our DM omit all the parasitic genesis and even the Elder brain element, making them some sort of humans corrupted by the Far realm. The NPC in question was a female bard who use her mind control powers for make people think she was the greatest musician in the realm, the funny thing even being neutral good she used to devour the brains of critics and boyfriends who cheat her.

I think it's as easy to include an Illithid PC in a campaign as it is to do a Vampire PC (assuming sun isn't insta kill for vamps)

Alignment issues are retarded.

>>6336543

Give a starving man a cracker and its the best damn cracker of his life.

Just so long as the brainmuncher doesn't overdo it, then he'll get used to it...

Though that won't mean he won't take the opportunity to indulge himself whenever such an occasion arises.

>>6336556
sparkle, sparkle.

>>6336542
see
>>6336475
Also, I'm working on this reaper figure as we speak.

>>6336556
But if you want to RP a functioning member of a group, and not an asshole, you've gotta think about alignments (in the sense that your actions and motives have to mesh or at least be tolerable to other PCs).

>>6336563

I didn't say sunlight doesn't affect the vampires, I just said it doesn't intakill them.

>>6336527
Exactly. Like a man with a penchant for spicy or sour food, or both at the same time, this Illithid would experience the very outer limits of Illithid cuisine. All the while serving justice, in a manner of speaking.

And no, this wouldn't drive them insane or evil, regular Illithids don't become good or kind hearted by consuming hundreds of lawful good brains.

>>6336542
Nature is neither good nor evil, try again.

>>6336570
What I meant was, you can't apply the same rules for animals and outsiders as you do to aberrations.

>>6336568

And now i'm even more handsome

>>6336567

This is why the 3.5e alignment system sucks. Seriously, maybe the Illithad justs likes money and the shit it can buy, and gets tied up into the world saving bit.

What about... an Illithid druid?

>>6336569
If that were the case, we should just throw paladins at Illithids till they reform.

This is from Guide to the Underdark Web Enhancement (3.5). page 2.

Disconnected Pair
An old adage states “If you think it’s impossible, it happens in the Lowerdark.” Indeed, Strangeness knows few or no bounds in the deep realms. One of the most peculiar and unexpected oddities is a partnership between an illithid named Ralayn and a beholder named Tobulux. Both were cast out of their communities because neither held to the moral and ethical philosophies of their kindred—that is, both are neutral good. Together, they’ve honed their survival skills and made a home in the Lowerdark, where few bother to persecute them. Ralayn is an illithid body tamer 9, and Tobulux is a ranger 1/cavelord 3.

>>6336588
When he says you damn kids should get off his lawn you'd better damn well get off his lawn.

NO!

>>6336586
I think it depends on how you treat alignments. I think of them as a general outlook on life. Opinions can change just like alignments.

>>6336588

Scout goes native.

Done.

>>6336588
A reason to have the squid as an animal companion for once?

>>6336599

Except 3.5e had far too much shit that cared about alignment for it to be fluffy and inconsistent, and be good.

>>6336594
Never heard of that one before. Tyme to scour the interweb.

>>6336609
Examples?

>>6336616

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/undetectablealignment.htm

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/usePsionicDevice.htm

Stuff like chaos hammer..

>>6336444

I have moral objections about killing and eating cows

>>6336654

I have moral objections to not killing and eating cows.

>>6336654
Cows are Neutral Evil. Your objection means you must be evil.

>>6336445
Female illithids, not only give awesome blow jobs but also can read you mind for know what you really want.

>>6336676

They are hermaproditic

>>6336672
This better be bullshit.
Otherwise, I'm damn glad we've rounded all the bastards up and are slowly whittling away at their population.

>>6336683

Nah, we are raising more to kill brah.

>>6336681

In my fanfic, the white race is killed off to..... wait a sec.

Oh right, everything humonoid has tits.

>>6336676
She'll blow your mind?

>>6336681
Its canon that there are also male and female mind flayers, and people who have mind flayer ancestors.

>>6336689

OH GOD

>>6336690

Izat because of the human with the mind flayer brain thing?

>>6336690
Lords of Madness was pretty clear about the whole tadpole fuck-raping your brain, and slowly transforming you into a genderless squid fucker who loved to fuck-rape other brains and eventually join a super fuck-raping brain in a giant fuck-rape pool where tens of thousands more tadpools wait to fuck-rape other people.

THE POINT IS, genderless.

>>6336704
Relax, you can omit that canon and substitute it for a more appealing one, like someone Anon said before about them being a human subspecies generated by the influence of the Far realm. Also, who can resist to squid face girls?.

>>6336728
....I withdraw my previous fuck-rape case.

>>6336728

In other words. Just ignore it and create a porno.

>>6336728
Someone with a high Will save?.

>>6336744

It's cheesecake, man, cheesecake.

Also.... beefcake?

Why not? Good aligned party members frequently kill things they deem "evil" then loot their corpses and homes. They have to eat, so does the Illithid. Knock one the enemies out, drag them out of sight and munch down on Brain 2 go.

>>6336741
And the most awesome thing of a mind flayer girlfriend is if you want to do a menage a trois or an orgy, sure she will help with her mind control powers.
"Okay, hun, I want those blonde twins, that brunette milf...".

>>6336783

She will probably do something a bit more... subtle, as you can't eat everyone you have sex with.

>>6336728
>>6336783
>>6336797
So I take it sex with Illithids has become the new topic now.

>>6336797
Good idea. If your character is a necromancer, you can use the "rests" of the orgy for create some basic undeads.
However, I was thinking more about a good aligned illithid girlfriend.

>>6336817
I think we've agreed that eating brains isn't an evil act, as they need to eat to live. Just like humans and neutral evil cows.

I guess it's now about sex with them.

>>6336843

By subtle, I meant it literally.

Some minor mental twickin' and mind scan, not full on mental hacking.

Ok, so we've decided that devouring someone's brain while they're kicking and screaming causes suffering and agony and is therefore pretty Evil.

But what about devouring someone's brain if they're unconcious? A neutral mind flayer could subdue enemies with nonlethal blows and THEN devour their brains. They still count as alive, of course, so it gets proper nutrition.

He doesn't like to eat 'em when they're still squirming because he gets squeamish.

>neutral evil cows

Fuck I KNEW THEY WERE UP TO SOMETHING!

>>6336850
quite.

So other than oral capability, I can only imagine that the fact that their practically lubricated 24/7 is a big hit with all the other humanoids.

>>6336857
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood you.
By the way, if they can vary the degree of mental manipulation, that means they also can decrease and increase the duration and the intensity of sexual pleasure transmitted by the brain?.

>>6336882
Blow Job + Mind Job.

I don't see a down side.

Don't they have beaks or lamprey like mouths?

>>6336882
....well aren't you a smar/tg/uy.

Although, I thought the mindflayers ability to control people was levels of dominance, controlling emotions seems more bardic in nature.

>>6336888
You'd have to assume they have some sort of serious hardware under the tentacles, skulls aren't going to open themselves.

>>6336897
Maybe they have a squid like beak, but doesn't mean the inner parts of it wouldn't be soft.

>>6336897
now imagine what it could do to the unassuming dick.

If I remember right their saliva/mucus softens bone and they push through that to slurp the brain up.

>>6336920
....NOW IMAGINE WHAT THAT COULD DO TO AN UNPROTECTED DICK.

>>6336927
Ring of Protection as a cock ring.

>>6336927
And what if the beak is in fact retractile and their mouths work as a leech?, then that means they will have a suction power similar to a octopus' tentacle suction cups.

>>6336934
Seems like something all good male adventurers should have. Considering how it's normal for players in the campaigns I end up being in lose their genitals more often than not to tragic mishaps. Everything from halflings who thought they had bite attacks, to acid pools, to trees.

An octopus suction cup can rip flesh if it wanted to.

>>6336968
It seems this keeps switching between 'amazing blow jobs' to 'eunuch world'.

>>6336968
Then don't make your Illithid girlfriend get angry and maybe she will not hurt your cock. After all, she can establish a telepathic link with you and know when she is giving you pleasure and when she is hurting you.

Except the fact her body and tentacles are covered in slime and you could end up on the menu. Also reproduction is dine by implanting a tadpole in your head that will eat your brain and turn your body into a squid head.

And whit those tentacles a Illithid girl could also massage your prostate while giving you a blowjob?.

Mind Flayer Paladin, he prayed really hard and his God of Good and Justice filled fed him Holy Energy, freeing him from his hunger for brains, and freeing him from his Giant Brain overlords.

Or: Mind Flayers used to be good, but then most of them where tricked into being evil by Giant Evil Brains, you are one of the surviving members of your original race, you must stop your evil kin.

All this thread give me an idea for create my home brew variation of Illithids, with mammalian like reproductive behavior, the ability to change pigmentation color (like octopuses) and females with dem giant tits and dat huge ass.

Fuck your semi-faux-American-Christian morals.

Neutral squidface grapples an Orc and wants to eat the brains?

LET HIM. Who the fuck cares. Pelor is a fucking faggot.

- Dwarf-who-doesn't-give-a-flying-fuck

>>6337103
Another interpretation is to play up the parasitic angle, having them retain most of their host's body. The actual illithid parasite life form is hermaphroditic, but the body itself retains the sexual traits. They could reproduce both asexually (by creating new mind flayer parasites) and sexually (by fucking)

>>6337142
Excellent, sir.

>>6337168
I always wanted a Mindflayer girlfriend. That way I know she loves me for my mind....

>>6337187
A mindflayer female may can be attracted to a human male by two possibilities, by his intelligence or by his imagination.
So, their the perfect kind of monster girlfriend for a fa/tg/uy.

>>6337222

>> assuming that fa/tg/uys are intelligent and/or imaginative

>his intelligence or by his imagination.
>/tg/

>>6337238
You're going to be raped by a homosexual male Illithid.

>>6337291
Explain this outrage!.

>>6337294
imokwiththis.jpg

>>6337294
I'm OK with this.

>>6337341
>>6337347
OKwiththismind

>>6337291
>>6337238
>implying implement implications

Bump

>>6336206
I once came up, as a GM, with a Neutral Illithid as a Psion Mentor. He came to conclusion that a reestablished Illithid empire would grow so big that it would deplete its resources. So he got the idea of creating a brain tissue substitute harvested from cancerous (selfreplicating) humanoid brain tissue. Storing this growing mass of edible, yet bland food for him, he used his Psionics to create faux brains by copying and printing memories on the brain go, similiar the way we make faux surimi or tofu burger. His people exiled him for this. Nowadays he lives in an enclave with other strange humanoids living from his still growing brain substitue food.

>>6336225
We will name him louis <.<

>>6337359
>Impling

Illithid party. Problem solved.

I played Illithid in a gestalt game once. A simple ring of sustenance and you don't need to eat no more. That character was level 30 gestalt, though, and pretty much obsessed with certain artifacts, that would grant him immortality. He had found out what happened with elder brains from a successful raid on a paralling Mind Flayer community. Their brain made some rather interesting revelations before it's death. Of course most of those that found this out got purged, but he managed to escape and mind blank his way out of the scrying.

Basically, he played puppetmaster behind the team, guiding their process towards his own needs. I got the party paladin to fall. Twice. And he didn't ever find out I was an Illithid.

He reached immortality at level 45. The whole party was "Wtf just happened.". (Both players and characters.) He was all like "Cya suckers."

We had a bartender Illithid named Ethan spring up in a number of our campaigns.

Knowledge and mating!

Mindflayer hybrids are when the parasite infant fails to meld successfully in host, the result is a Normal Body with a Mindflayer body, who still needs to eat brains.

That being said, I don't understand why eating brains is considered Evil, as opposed to killing people. I also don't know the rules for eating brains for Illithids, as opposed to killing said person, than eating brain.

>>6340008
>Mindflayer brain

>>6338673

That's actually a fantastic idea.

ITT: Racial alignments are stupid.

>>6340050
Indeed

Neutral Illithid...

They finally gets that they don't become immortal trought the Elder Brain (hive mind).

Illthid: "hey, Monica, where did you put the Nachos?"

Elder Brain:"eeeh..."

According to D&D canon, killing sentient beings in a horribly painful way is only okay if they are niggers or allegory for niggers (dark elves, orcs, people who worship an evil god, people who practice necromancy, basically anybody who has phat loot and doesn't like the players).

Alternatively, you could go outside of the strictest interpretation of the canon in order to make a game that's enjoyable for the people actually participating in the game.

>Racial alignments are stupid.

This, also 9-point AD&D alignments are stupid. Even stock fantasy characters should be too complex to be pigeonholed in such a simple way.

>>6340194

It's not the pigeon holed that's a problem, it's that the pigeon hole eats you.

>>6340194

I'm fine with the concept of alignments as it gives you a groundwork for cementing your character's pesonality BUT the standard version doesn't take into account so many obvious mortal paradoxes that it's practically worthless.

I tend to use alternates in my campaigns like Elemental-zodiac signs in oriental games or the Myers-Briggs scale for modern games.

Pull a Dexter

If you must hunt and kill (and in this case, suck brains) people, do it only to evil villains and lawbreakers who deserve it.

Neutral Illithid: Yeah, I don't really give a fuck about your godawful scheming. I'm only here out of boredom and lack of alchohol. Also, Elder Brains are wankers.

He must be the scruffiest, most drunken and doped up Illithid who ever lived, gambling and fighting in bars. He eats Drow, Yuan-Ti, Orc etc brains.

>>6340338

Oh, yeah, he takes a sort of drug that cuts him off from the Elder Brain for a week or something.

I tend to categorise my characters on a map of "does the end justify the means" (lawful-neutral-chaotic) and "selfish or not" (good-neutral-evil).

No-No-GodNo-OhNo-NoNoNo. Illithids are evil.

>>6341669

You just bamped a thread.

Clearly, you want Mind Flayer Sexings.

rolled 5, 15, 9 = 29

>>6336225
That is dangerously close to mary sue territory.

Make him come from a planar background with little contact with his own kind and where the people treat him not too differently (they have to put up with much weirder things than illithids every day).

Thinking outside of Illithid society is a crime, and many Illithids flee from it. Most Mind Flayer Sorcerers are solo because the Mind Flayer society believes magic distracts the mind.

Employed as an illithid mover for Haugrax and Son's Moving, your illithid is moving a baby grand piano to the second floor when all of a sudden it comes tumbling down onto his head.

He awakens a moment later believing he's a reborn human hero trapped in a foul form for some unknown divine purpose.

BEHOLD SQUAXIS THE PURE, MIND FLAYER PALADIN!

>>6341845
that halfling is seriously stacked.

At the outskirts of an undertown, near where the deep-gnomes sit, do I make a camp, and do I listen quietly amongst the thoughts that dance just at the edge of hearing. At the outskirts of the town, no more than a thousand rich, do I listen to the quiet songs and grim humor of a people who fight every day for survival, against people, and things, horrible and dark.

Like I had been, at one time.

I do not use a fire for the life-blood of the earth keeps me warm, not a thousand yards distant in some parts. I do not need a fire amongst the wells of heat that keep me content, and I often bask in the quiet beauty of the running water, which often keeps me hydrated, for the tentacles do often get chapped in drier climes.

I know it is not common for an illithi... a mind-flayer to be near others, nor is it common for one to spend time alone - but I've never been really that common, even in the spawning pool, even in the change when I took the lovely form of the fae-like girl and made it my own.

I've never been common. Learning the harsh lessons and devouring the thoughts and grey-matter had always been a delightful chore and, even now I salivate at the thought of the tender meat and untarnished thoughts fueling me.

>>6338673
CLEVER BASTARD

Now, don't get me wrong. I am a monster. I am a terror of the darkness, a beast that is horrific, one whom devours the thoughts and mind of someone to live. But does that make me evil? To be forced to consume another's Id and Ego, in order to survive? Am I flawed, for I am made to do what my biology made me to do?

I say not. I say that I am not evil, to be forced to do this. But how I do it - therein lies the rub. For all must eat to live - but how one gains it's nourishment is different, and there is a way to do it both right and wrong.

Well, right and wrong is so simple a concept. Shall we say - there is a way to do it that is beneficial to ones survival, and a way that renders one hunted by the denizens who have every right to fear me.

I prefer my interpretation, thank you.

Now, I'm sure you are wondering why I would care? Indeed, I possibly should not care how one views me. Why care what the races, indeed the lesser races they are, think of me?

Well, as a saying goes: "A single kobold might die easy, but a thousand can conquer an orc tribe."

Or was it: "An orc dies easy, a thousand conquers a city."

I forget, it's not important.

What is important is the lesson - that I may be a city, and any single elf, dwarf, human, or even drow might be a kobold in compare - but a hundred of them, a thousand of them, are as a tide washing over sand. I would be crushed, even if I devoured a hundred minds. It's this lesson, learned, studied, and observed - that lead me down the first steps. Or threw me down the first set of stairs.

It began with an experiment. An observation of the breeding pits, showed me a little spark of curiosity, which fed into me and made me ever so curious about the thralls. Perhaps an unhealthy interest - does one take interest in the rothe? Does one care for the mushroom? Perhaps I am perverse.

Would not be the first to think so. But, in observing, an older female showed an act of mercy to a younger female, and in that act, loyalty read on the face of the younger for the elder. Loyalty - which lead me to pursue and learn in the vast tomes and libraries of the species, for experiments and mental studies. Indeed, loyalty was a concept that was alien...

But useful.

An experiment was thus set up - of my own doing, and I showed a moment of mercy upon a thrall, who broke a dish - an expensive dish - upon the ground. Even before the other of my kind, I spoke in the defense of this lesser, and perhaps it was the shock that let me take her, and see to her in my own.

Fear radiated from her like the scent of rothe roasting. Indeed, I salivated at the thought of that tender mind, but I chose to pursue knowledge, and I told her to remember this act. She was sent back, and I resumed my studies and this grand experimentation.

GUYS NO! DON'T DO IT!

ILLITHIDS MUST REMAIN INHUMAN MONSTERS

WE TRIED DOING THE SAME THING WITH VAMPIRES AND LOOK WHERE THAT GOT US!

Nuff said

>>6342203

Someone please post that vampire/faggot pic.

I'm a WoD fag, and believe me, my "humanized" vampires are motherfuckers.

>>6342203

>Implying that Twlight's fail is due only to fucking around with vampire mythos.

Bullshit.

Besides, they can never be a fan girl fetish.

Ah, what an experiment it was. I would see this slave every day, and she would cringe - it was only proper - but the fear did not radiate as strongly when I was around. I did nothing to bring her harm, and even allowed her to have extra of the feeding, that she may grow a bit stronger. She did, the extra bits helped nourish her, and she, a captured, seemed to take to me as an abused dog would to a kind hand. She took to me, and I claimed her as my own - a personal servant to see to my personal affects. Her name was Nylia.

Another thrall came to notice this - and I repeated the same act - an error given to a merciful resolution - a kind hand to stay death - and loyalty which ran deep as long as I was viewed as a protector. I let it be their choice, then, to tell me who was planning which, I let them tell me what things there had been. And though I would not give them their greatest hope (freedom, ah, such a thing), I did grant them a measure of comfort and security.

My plan was working well. I learned much - and found that, even though they might have been cattle, their usefulness was more akin to a dog. To treat them with favor would inspire them to lay their throats on a blade, and give me a measure of my own security.

After all, if I were to perish, there would go their comfort, their care, their safety.

This little act gave me an idea. A philosophy, if you would. I took of them the accepted gifts, and used them, and rewarded them. Each small act built up, and built up, and built up. And this little experiment did not but prove to be my survival.

>>6342286
I like this.

The thralls revolted. The expeirment had taken many years by this point, and my most favored, Nylia, was grey at the temples when she came to me, armed with a sword, and told me to hide. Of course, as expected, I was horrified to see her with a weapon and grabbed at her with my thoughts, ready to destroy her for her treachery - but what it came to be, when she shook off the effects with a will I did not know she had - she put the blade to my throat and proclaimed that I had given her mercy - and it was to be repaid.

The city burned, and horrific fires took many a quarter - as the stone was itself set to flame. Adventurers, dark and determined and beautiful in their way, took the city, and poured a powerful acid into the pool of the elder-brain, severing its thoughts from our own. They slew the great mind, and silenced a hundred thousand bits of the minds that had come before, but in doing, I was given a relapse into this stat eof mind - where it may be cold and silent, but I am no longer as ... fretful.

That is not to say they did not find me, in my laboratory, with Nylia, and that large brutish half-orc who I had given the gift to. Both sat at a table with me, and I dictated to them and gave to them my things, that it may be remembered, and sought after, that my research may continue. Consigned to death, I would not dignify my fears with the mammilian flailing about and screaming.

And when they came for me, when their arrows were drawn and the gleaming blade of Carsomyr who gave off a flame likened to the terrible star so high above, I stood, and waited, hand upon my staff.

I waited, as they entered, as they saw my two thralls quietly gathering the books, scrolls, and journals. They entered and I chose to face my end with my tendrils low and my red eyes staring.

I think it confused the simple creatures, for they lowered their weapons, and I was allowed to breath a moment more than I had planned.

I was given leave to go - but I had little way of surviving. They showed me a town, a population, and sent with me a letter written in the tongue of the people here. The note was given, and I was given leave to take the outskirts - for when the woman and her half-orc mate came, they came to visit, and even told me the name of their child. And I was even allowed to hold the babe - though I saw fear in the eyes of Algernon.

The babe was... to hold the life that I had been allowed and inadvertently helped create was...

A squirming mass of pink and brown flesh with two small tusks that were rather dangerous looking. How she breast-fed was well beyond what I wanted to imagine.

The child was named Ilyx, apparently, after me, a memory of the light in the dark time. A touching gift, but I was never one for nostalgia of the better times.

So, you might wonder what this has to do with you, what this has to do with me, and what this has to do why I'm holding your skull in my hand right now, hm?

Well. I've found use for these gnomes. I help them. I tend to them. I show them what I've learned and even gift them with my great magic, as my apprentice Ilyx can attest to. And you, you dark skinned elven pile of rothe-droppings, you made the mistake of getting in the way of my plans.

My many, many plans.

>>6342150
Interesting

>>6342610
>>6342600
>>6342413

Bravo.

>>6336568

Remember, dracula "Hated the sun." He wasn't actually hurt by it, but it did cause pain.

>>6342661
>>6342668
I live to please.

>>6342610
I enjoyed this, nicely done.

>>6342690
I thought that sunlight just deprived him of all his vampiric powers? Or was that in addition to the pain?

>>6343849
I always am glad someone enjoys my simple work.

Very well written, GreyKobold. My hat is off to you for that well done bit of writing.

He's an ambitious wizard. Illithid society frowns upon wizardry, seeing it as inferior to their psionics. Any illithid who shows too much interest in wizardry is usually cast out of the society as a pariah. Simple as that, your character is not concerned with the affairs of people or even with morals, he simply wants to study magic.

>>6344193
Or, as he prefers to put it: "A student of theoretical energy application"