Description

Publisher's blurb:

The green elderbrain glows eerily in a pool of ooze, tentacles reaching out between stone platforms and metal grates. Pillars hold up this underground lair, while smaller rooms form a veritable maze around the entrance.

Pools of green liquid filled with larvae wait near the carved face of a mindflayer god, while further in various containment canisters line the walls… but what’s inside them?

Adventure Seed

While walking the city streets you’re approached by a portly man wearing a black coat and leather gloves. He seems a little nervous as he approaches you, but quickly explains that his master has sought you out from far away and wishes to have dinner with you at the best tavern in the city; The Ocean’s Bounty. He wishes to discuss an incredibly lucrative business arrangement that requires someone of your particular skills...

Before leaving, he tosses you a small coin purse that jingles with the sound of gold and gems, claiming you’ll receive an even larger purse should you join them at dinner.

When you arrive at the tavern the portly man is waiting for you at the door. He invites you in, but the tavern’s completely empty—apart from a shadowy figure close to the fireplace, sitting in a large wooden chair engraved with the likeness of an octopus.

They motion you over, and as you approach you see he is a man of pale complexion, with a jewelled necklace and large, gem-encrusted rings on his hands.

Once sitting, he begins discussing philosophical topics such as free will, eventually getting around to his need of experienced sell-swords for a thesis he is in the midst of creating. He is researching mindflayers, creatures of malicious intent, domination and selfishness.

He thinks these creatures are not inherently so, but that the elderbrain takes away their free will by passively warping the minds of those that sleep within its domain; causing them to crave dominion over others at all costs. But to prove his theory, he needs you to infiltrate a colony and dispose of the brain so that he may study the results via one-way scrying devices. In return, he will pay great riches, including rare magical artifacts.

WHAT’S GOING ON? The man who has hired you is not what he seems, if you search for information about him around the city you will find he is a wealthy benefactor to many noble charities, and owns many properties around the city including the tavern called The Ocean’s Bounty. What you will not discover is that he is a mindflayer in disguise. He wears a powerful magical amulet that changes his appearance so that he may walk among humans, as well as a plethora of other magical rings and items.

The strange thing about this mindflayer however, is that he is not like the others. He acts with kindness and concern over what is moral, and he wants to know why. Why do his brethren all act in unison with their desire for dominion, but not him? Is he just an aberration? A freak within his own species, or is there more to it? What is free will, truly?