Mindflayer crime-ring

[StealthyRobot]

In my campaign I'm running, the Emperor has been kidnapped by a mindflayer arcanist. I need to work out the process of how he managed to get to the emperor while keeping his presence completely unkown. I've got inkling's of ideas, such as enslaving some thieves guild members for info, but he also needs to feed while above ground while not drawing attention. The PCs are most likely going to investigate either missing persons or the emperor, and I want them to actually have leads to find after some investigating. This kind of thing isn't exactly my forte, so as usual I turn to you brilliant minds for aid.
Any suggestions, ideas, or smudges are welcome

[Axorfett12]

Enslaving thieves guild members is a good start. I'd also reccomend a couple members of the emperor's personal guard, or the guard captain. That would allow the mind flayed to get close easier. I also would expect a hat of disguise or some other way of casting disguise self at will. I'm unsure of what spells the Arcanist get, but detect thoughts would make a lot of sense and allow him to disguise himself as a servant and gleam information from the guards.

As far as feeding goes, a hat of disguise goes a long way, but the power of society to ignore it's own blemishes should not be ignored. Almost every missing person should be some form of undesirable from the slums of the city. Prostitutes, beggars, people no one will miss. No one except the other prostitutes and beggars, who the players will have to question.

[grell]

but he also needs to feed while above ground while not drawing attention.


Can't add anything about the actual kidnapping but as far as feeding goes.

Any charitable organizations in the city? Turning a free clinic, shelter or hostel for the poor underclasses would be a nice sources of fresh brains who won't be missed.

Turning the local lay brother or clergy would feed into this and give an aura of respectability to the place as well.

Good luck.

[EvilAnagram]

Axorfett covers it pretty well, though I think you should probably think through why the mindflayer wants to kidnap the emperor. They tend to operate through mind control more than anything else, so sending in an intellect devourer makes more sense than kidnapping without any further context.

[Temperjoke]

I like the idea of the Mindflayer controlling minions to do the work, that is definitely in their character. Something to think about though is layers. If the mindflayer were to control large groups of people, that might make him more easily discovered. On the other hand, if there were a few influential people that he controlled, then there is a layer of separation between him and the lower minions, and can help hide better.

For example, the mindflayer controls the grand vizier, chief advisor, majordomo, whatever his title may be, of the Emperor; that means he can control the guards, and has obvious motives for wanting the Emperor to be missing, as well as being in a position to ensure the disappearance is kept secret from the main population (don't want to cause panic or rebellion after all). The Emperor is missing, maybe killed by the mindflayer, as opposed to controlled because the Emperor wasn't in a strong enough political position to actively control things without causing more rebellion, or the mindflayer could be planning to eventually replace the Emperor, maybe once the proper false evidence of who kidnapped him had been created. The mindflayer also controls the leader of the local gang that controls the slums, giving him control of that area; he controls the leader of the merchants guild, giving him influence over the markets.

As it was mentioned, he could easily feast on the so-called bottom dwellers of society, who go missing on a regular basis. Your story hooks are suspicious members of the three groups, depending on the party and who it access the easiest.

[StealthyRobot]

The Mindflayer kidnapped the king to bring him back to the elder brain for enslavement. (Regular mindflayers were unable to enslave him.)
A year later the emperor will return with some other people, having been taken prisoner by some bandits. Among them will be the mysterious new chief advisor, who is really just the mindflayer. From there the plan is to organize a large number of people to March on the "bandit camp", delivering a large stable food supply of tasty surface dwellers to the Ilithid colony while crippling the empire so that they may begin a new reign of terror.
So if you guys have any ideas for what might go down when the emperor walks into the capitol I'm open.

[Shining Wrath]

Is the setting one where actual slaves would be a possibility (i.e., not mind controlled thralls but people legally owned by other people)? An easy way to keep a mind flayer fed would be to buy cheap slaves - old, sick, injured, and so on - and eat their brains.

For a different slant, if he's got a secret lair where he can keep a king - he can also keep a troll in a cage. And eating a troll's brain doesn't kill it, since that's not fire or acid damage - so one troll can keep a mind flayer fed forever. The PCs find a troll in a cage, and it begs them to burn it because He Will Come Back and I Can't Take It Any More. A troll begging for the sweet release of death ought to be at least slightly unnerving.

[CaptainSarathai]

I had a pretty cool chapter in one of my campaigns based on Jack the Ripper, except that it was Jack the Mindflayer, so to speak. He was actually working (summoned from the Shadowfell) by a Necromancer who needed some souls to put together a Phylactery. The two worked out of a brothel that fronted their scheme - the Necromancer was the Madame. The flayer would bring in "willing" working girls, and if anyone was uncooperative or figured out the secret, he got to eat some brains for dinner. So of course, most of the people going missing were undesirables, mostly prostitutes - like Jack.

What made it hard on the party, was that they had been sent to help out an NPC investigator who was known to be a "little eccentric" - liked to drink, enjoyed the game equivalent of opium a bit too much, frequents the brothel... He quickly becomes lined up as the prime suspect, making it hard for PCs to decide if they can trust him. Add in a largely inept police force (jaded sergeant, incompetent junior investigators) and a vigilante gang of poor dock workers from the ghetto/neighborhood where the attacks are taking place, and you've got a lot of pressure on the PCs. How many of those NPCs were corrupted by the Mindflayer? Who knows?! I actually left it open-ended, so that the PCs weren't ever really sure how "right" their actions had been, even after defeating the Necro and Flayer.

You could probably do something similar with the court politics, rebel group, a high-powered advisor in the "controller" role, and some rebels as standins for the gang.

[hellgrammite]

Here is a thought -

Umber Hulks break into the basement of the royal palace and rogues sneak up and kidnap the emperor and escape through the hole. The mind flayer created a gem of greater repair for the rogues so the hole could be sealed (though it wasn't 100% effective, and some signs show imperfections/magic influence on the floor.)

[Finback]

What if the head mindflayer (headflayer?) is just so powerful, he can simply "blend in" - he creates a mental blindspot in people around him, so they just don't *see* him (at least, not as a mindflayer - "oh, there was a guy.. yeah.. kinda not too short, not too tall.. I think he had hair? Maybe it was a she. Can't remember what sort of clothes.."). Sure, in most situations, he errs on the side of caution - sticks to the shadows, hides away from prying eyes - you never know who *might* have a high enough Wisdom check.

But imagine the creepiness when the players start to think, he could be right there in the bar with them, and they wouldn't even realise.