Re: Mirrorspace: Melodya (Planet) Part 4

From: "SUBSCRIBE REALMS-L tauster" <chefseehund@???.de>

>>A few elite Mindflayers underwent a series of psionic alterations to
>>prevent others from penetrating their thoughts by arcane or psionic means.
>>They were "equipped" with something like a "second mind", a curtain that
>>concealed their true throughts. Most Illithid went insane: they could not
>>bear a permanent split personality. But after countless attempts, enough
>>Mindflayers were available. They were introduced to the cattle above, and
>>again the plan was a complete success.

>The Aboleth would have known this before - and
>had come
>up with a plan like the split personality. It would be sure to say that
>almost every
>attempt to block the mindreading would have been discovered, so a second
>personality
>was needed, one that held none of the secret details of the masterplan, no
>knowledge of
>the Mindflayers masters and different memories.

>It took me some time until I came up with the idea, and even when writing I
>wasn´t
>completely convinced. Now, while writing and explaining the idea more
>detailed, I find it
>a tad better than at the first time. but if you have a better alternative
>I´ll be happy to
>rewrite the passage!

I've got an idea for you that might fit in. How about instead of the "second mind" of the
Illithids being "just a curtain", it is something else: an implanted personality sucked
out of a kidnapped dancer. The reason that no one is suspicious of these minds is, that
they are *not* Illithids. As far as the "second minds" know, they are the same person they
were before implantation.

*************

Over the months the Mindflayers drugged people and brought them to the Aboleth. The
Aboleth would then suck out the minds of these dancers and implant them into the
Mindflayers.

In the first experiments these people became aware of what had happened to them. The drugs
pacifying them had been in their body and as their life force entered the Mindflayer they
woke up inside a living hell. Their screams of fear and despair overwhelmed their
Illitihid hosts and drove them mad. After a lot of trial and error, the Aboleth learned
that a "second mind" in a drugged Illithid could be kept in ignorance of what had happened
to them. However, in a drugged state the Mindflayer itself was useless. As soon as the
drugs were reduced, the "second mind" would wake up too, with predictable results.
Eventually the Mindflayers were taught to mentally simulate the intoxication required to
keep their "second mind" under control, before it was implanted. The Aboleth's plans could
finally be carried out.

Fanatical dancers, whose lives revolved around both drinking and dancing, were chosen.
Life is foggy for them now. All they seem to remember is the dance. Occasionally a nagging
sense of "wrongness" springs to mind, but they soon dismiss this. Tonight is for partying.
They can worry about more mundane problems tomorrow.

***************

If the split personality Mindflayers were done this way then you would be able to use this
for an interesting NPC. A dancer that *has* become aware of the death of their body and
imprisonment of their mind, but has fought back instead of being driven mad.

****************

Somehow one dancer managed to escape from the drunken state early on and listen to the
mind that trapped them. Instead of madness this dancer's soul was consumed by
determination. How *dare* they do this to him? He would kill them for this. He would kill
as many as he could before they killed him. No! Wait! He couldn't do that. He must warn
the others. He must live long enough so that *all* of this would stop.

The "dancer" and the "Illithid" struggled for control, and for some reason unknown even to
the dancer, he managed to win the struggle. He is constantly looking for a way to warn
other people about the evil plot. However, he knows that the normal Illithids watch the
"Duel Mind" Illithids, looking for the signs of madness. He must pick his moment, if he is
to have any hope of success. Being discovered and killed would mean that hundreds or
thousands of  innocents would die. For now he must ignore the death that occurs around
him! He must wait! He must survive! He must succeed!

For now he lets the Mindflayer mind (that he now controls), carry on with its duties. His
dancing is filled with sorrow and hope. Sorrow for what he must let the Illithids do,
while he waits. Hope that he will be able to find someone to help him among the Illithid
prisoners. One day he will be able to fight his way out of the trap and end this evil
dance-of-death once and for all.

*****************

I don't know if the PCs would trust this character because they would never know if the
"Mindflayer" could fight against the "dancer" and get back to the surface. But if they got
into trouble, during your campaign, they might not have a choice.

I'd recommend using standard Mindflayer stats but replacing Wisdom and Intelligence with
the stats of a human or demi-human NPC. They should also have access to any skills that
they had before the transformation.

I hope that some of this is useful to you.

Loving your work! ;-)

David "Big Mac" Shepheard