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metalbear
2008-09-02, 03:37 PM
I was reading Lords of Madness the other day and I was wondering what would happen if the mindflayer ate an Aboleth's brain? I know that normally a mindflayer cannot successfully grapple a gargantuan creature (such as the aboleth) with it's tentacles, but when I was looking at what happens when an aboleth is out of the water for too long (its dex slowly dwindles down to 1 while it's natural armor climbs from it's slime hardening into some variety of a cocoon). Would a mindflayer be able to extract the aboleth's brain at this point? And if it could would it receive any extra benefits from eating this enormous, powerful, psionic, intelligent, and full of ancient memories brain?

Draken
2008-09-02, 03:41 PM
Read the mind flayer's description in the same book. They don't learn anything from the brain. At best he will see a good movie of the creation of all that is then be forced to stop midway because the brain is way larger than he is.

hamishspence
2008-09-02, 03:41 PM
More nutrition, maybe? They apparently favour brains of adventurers over slaves because of experience improving the nutrition from brain.

kamikasei
2008-09-02, 03:43 PM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.

arguskos
2008-09-02, 03:45 PM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.
:smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin: This wins. Sorry, this thread is no longer accepting applications. Put the keyboard down and walk away.

-argus

Lochar
2008-09-02, 03:54 PM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.

May I quote this?

Fiendish_Dire_Moose
2008-09-02, 04:33 PM
I was reading Lords of Madness the other day and I was wondering what would happen if the mindflayer ate an Aboleth's brain? I know that normally a mindflayer cannot successfully grapple a gargantuan creature (such as the aboleth) with it's tentacles, but when I was looking at what happens when an aboleth is out of the water for too long (its dex slowly dwindles down to 1 while it's natural armor climbs from it's slime hardening into some variety of a cocoon). Would a mindflayer be able to extract the aboleth's brain at this point? And if it could would it receive any extra benefits from eating this enormous, powerful, psionic, intelligent, and full of ancient memories brain?

Well, whatever adventuring party witnesses this, immediately dies due to insantiy and the mindflayer gets a good meal.

Hal
2008-09-02, 04:44 PM
Epic indigestion?

LibraryOgre
2008-09-02, 05:04 PM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.

That's great. I agree, it winz at least 1 intarnetz.

Person_Man
2008-09-02, 05:29 PM
Wow. A context appropriate coding-Cthulhu joke. Well played kamikasei.

amanamana
2008-09-02, 05:35 PM
eeeeeeeeewwww...

Jimp
2008-09-02, 05:59 PM
I think it would be like crystal meth for mindflayers.

black dragoon
2008-09-02, 06:07 PM
They like to savor there meals experience So I guess it'd be the ultimate dining experience for a Flayer. I guess imagine the most awesome meal you've ever had and multiply by fhtgahn and add in a little meth...:smalleek:

Fiendish_Dire_Moose
2008-09-02, 06:09 PM
They like to savor there meals experience So I guess it'd be the ultimate dining experience for a Flayer. I guess imagine the most awesome meal you've ever had and multiply by fhtgahn and add in a little meth...:smalleek:

Minflayergasm?

When a mindflayer orgasms, seven worlds are destroyed.

Shadow_Elf
2008-09-02, 06:12 PM
More improtantly... what would happen if a renegade mind flayers ate the Elder Brain?. It is a brain. In its entirety. That's got to count for something...

Flickerdart
2008-09-02, 06:23 PM
More improtantly... what would happen if a renegade mind flayers ate the Elder Brain?. It is a brain. In its entirety. That's got to count for something...
Its own brain grows to colossal sizes and its body deteriorates, making a new Elder Brain. I'm sure they have it all figured out.

Shadow_Elf
2008-09-02, 06:32 PM
Problem is, the Elder Brain is, uh, huge. And the fact that the Mind Flayer would be eating its own consciousness is sort of paradoxical isn't it? Since, you know, the Elder Brain is what lets them go all "hive mind" all over everything. So therefore, it includes the current thoughts and memories of every mind flayer it is bonded to, simultaneously, in addition to its own thoughts. So the mind flayer would be consuming its own thoughts of consuming the brain as it was thinking them and consuming it... ugh.

Inhuman Bot
2008-09-02, 06:56 PM
Not all mind flayers are connected to one brain. Also, they can survive without an elder brain, with alot of pain and difficulty. I belive he meant that this mind flayer was not a part of the elder brain it was eating's community.

Fiendish_Dire_Moose
2008-09-02, 07:01 PM
When a mindflayer eats an Elder Brain the DM rolls a percentile.

1-25: The Univierse implodes due to such a paradox.
26-50: An Angel gets its wings.
51-75: It creates Chuck Norris
76-99: It becomes an Elder Brain.
100: Absolutely nothing happens and the mindflayer goes to bed with a stomach ache.

Siosilvar
2008-09-02, 07:08 PM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.

Sig'd for excessive amounts of win.

Sinfire Titan
2008-09-02, 07:45 PM
OP: You asked the wrong question. In SS, there is a PrC that allows a Mind Flayer to gain some of the abilities of the mind it just consumed. Consuming an Aboleth's mind would grant a benefit based on the level of the Savant who ate it.

@ kamikasei: Imagine that on Zanzibar's gate control console. Now laugh at the thought of the Gravemind and Cthulhu having dinner over the human race.

EvilElitest
2008-09-02, 07:52 PM
if we want to be honest for some reason, then i don't think anything will happen if the mindflayer eats the Aboleth's brain, however if things happened visa versa...........
from
EE

LibraryOgre
2008-09-02, 10:38 PM
More improtantly... what would happen if a renegade mind flayers ate the Elder Brain?. It is a brain. In its entirety. That's got to count for something...

Sales of Pepto-Bismol that dwarf the GNP of many nations?

LongVin
2008-09-02, 10:44 PM
What we need to do is cross an Aboleth with a Mindflayer to develop a hybrid of the two.

Ascension
2008-09-02, 10:53 PM
What we need to do is cross an Aboleth with a Mindflayer to develop a hybrid of the two.

Yes, yes, yes! This needs to be done.

And we need to get Thoon involved. A Thoon Abolethflayer. The end of the world is at hand.

revolver kobold
2008-09-02, 10:53 PM
More improtantly... what would happen if a renegade mind flayers ate the Elder Brain?. It is a brain. In its entirety. That's got to count for something...

I think that would cause some kind of reality-feed loopback.

Collin152
2008-09-02, 10:59 PM
This reminds me of somethign I'd been meaning to ask:
Suppose a Mindflayer grappled an Ettin or Hydra with all them tentacles. It only gets the one Brain, right? So the thing is still alive?
And a Hydra could... not heal off losing a brain?

AslanCross
2008-09-02, 11:36 PM
Problem is, the Elder Brain is, uh, huge. And the fact that the Mind Flayer would be eating its own consciousness is sort of paradoxical isn't it? Since, you know, the Elder Brain is what lets them go all "hive mind" all over everything. So therefore, it includes the current thoughts and memories of every mind flayer it is bonded to, simultaneously, in addition to its own thoughts. So the mind flayer would be consuming its own thoughts of consuming the brain as it was thinking them and consuming it... ugh.

The Elder Brain isn't a hive mind. It's more of a psionic Big Brother that's constantly reading your mind, but it's definitely not the mind flayer's own consciousness. Mind Flayers aren't simply extensions of the Elder Brain. Besides, good luck to the hostile mind flayers on trying to get even close. That's a 20th level Sorcerer (or Psion depending on what version you use).

Or maybe that's what the Elder Brain wants us to think.

Regarding the Multi-headed creature losing a brain to an illithid: It's still alive. The Extract ability explicitly says it's not an instakill against a multi-headed creature. I don't know about an Ettin, but a hydra will probably grow back the brain.

Colmarr
2008-09-03, 01:44 AM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.

Ok, I admit it. I just don't get it.

I gather from later posts that it's a Cthulhu reference but is there more to it?

Thrud
2008-09-03, 02:14 AM
Ok, I admit it. I just don't get it.

I gather from later posts that it's a Cthulhu reference but is there more to it?

IA! IA! Cthulhu ftaghn!

If you didn't understand that, then by all means pay no attention to the tapping slithering sound that seems to be coming from outside your window.

And that is not a tentacle, it is just a figment of your imagination.

(and no, there isn't really a way to explain it beyond that, I am afraid, other than to say pick up some of the works of HP Lovecraft. There are some good anthologies out there.)

Fri
2008-09-03, 04:00 AM
It parodied 'divide by zero' error, replacing 'zero' with ftahgn.

Ah, I've just killed another joke. "Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it."

bosssmiley
2008-09-03, 04:02 AM
Divide by fhtagn error. Please restart the game world.

Acknowledging your WIN!

Aboleth brain = Illithid LSD... ("Duuuude! We have to dump this in the water supply, we can turn on the whole of Lugarno!")

You know, that could be the basis for a whole genre of Illithid stoner movies: "Dude, Where's My Nautiloid?", "Xarold & Thoonmar get the Mindblast", "The Big LeBrainski", "Qusweeck & Phlon, Up In Mist"...

kamikasei
2008-09-03, 05:07 AM
May I quote this?

By all means. That was a lot better received than I expected...

Triaxx
2008-09-03, 05:39 AM
*sigh of relief*

At least the Catgirl collary didn't trigger.

Mushroom Ninja
2008-09-03, 07:43 AM
This reminds me of somethign I'd been meaning to ask:
Suppose a Mindflayer grappled an Ettin or Hydra with all them tentacles. It only gets the one Brain, right? So the thing is still alive?
And a Hydra could... not heal off losing a brain?

Hmmm... I'd never thought of that...

Ascension
2008-09-03, 08:50 AM
The hypothetical mindflayer paladin who keeps coming back up with the "Is it ever good to eat brains?" question might be able to get away with keeping an unconscious hydra around and simply eating its brains all the time.

Person_Man
2008-09-03, 09:31 AM
The hypothetical mindflayer paladin who keeps coming back up with the "Is it ever good to eat brains?" question might be able to get away with keeping an unconscious hydra around and simply eating its brains all the time.

Well, there are a lot of different ways you could play a Paladin. I had a player who insisted on eating the hearts of his enemies because his clan believed it made them stronger. He was very much a Klingon slay your Evil enemies and uphold your honor type of paladin. Of course, most people play Paladins like Jedi for some reason, and if that's the way you choose to go with it, then it would be ridiculously wrong.

hamishspence
2008-09-03, 09:36 AM
Cannibalism? Not really the sort of thing paladins are supposed to do, according to Book of Vile Darkness.

Drascin
2008-09-03, 10:22 AM
I would guess he would get incredibly high after a little chewing - a brain with millenia of experience must be overwhelming to the average 'flayer. Then, after he slept it off, he'd probably cut it into very small pieces, and start selling it to other illithids to get them addicted to it, thus creating the first brain-based drug cartel. The shady mind-thralls breaking nonpaying "customers"'s tentacles will come later.

hamishspence
2008-09-03, 10:26 AM
hee hee hee.

Heroes of Horror suggested the possibilty that telepathy (which might tap slightly into empathy) could be like a drug: like this for illithids, and raised the possibility of an orgy/murder/cannibalism session for thralls, with illithids floating overhead getting high on the emotions/thoughts of their victims.

HoH was pretty good at coming up with Nightmare Fuel.

EDIT: OOPS.

Lyndworm
2008-09-03, 11:00 AM
Cannibalism? Not really the sort of thing paladins are supposed to do, according to Book of Vile Darkness.

Hydras aren't Intelligent, so eating one isn't cannibalism in any sense unless you're aslo a hydra, which a mindflayers certainly aren't.

Zack

hamishspence
2008-09-03, 11:24 AM
"eating the hearts of his enemies" the term enemy is used more often for intelligent adversaries, though it can be for unintelligent monsters. But, made as a general statement, it rings alarm bells.

SleepingOrange
2008-09-03, 11:28 AM
Cannibulism:
noun
The tendency to throw up after eating someone

PLEASE NOTE: This is not intended to be insulting, merely a slightly amusing tangent off of a typo.

Jayngfet
2008-09-03, 12:14 PM
I wonder what happenes if an aboleth eats a mindflayer who's eaten by an illithid.

FMArthur
2008-09-03, 04:08 PM
In a real game with a real DM? A BBEG is born. Otherwise, nothing happes. :smallsigh:

Flickerdart
2008-09-03, 04:24 PM
I wonder what happenes if an aboleth eats a mindflayer who's eaten by an illithid.
Mindflayer = Illithid. It's a different word for the same beastie.

This gives me an idea...a multi-headed Illithid. They're Medium, right? That leaves room for one extra head...so much for a super-tentacled creature of doom that, by RAW, cat eat a brain if it can latch on with 4 of its dozen tentacles...

AslanCross
2008-09-03, 04:30 PM
"Dude, Where's My Nautiloid?", "Xarold & Thoonmar get the Mindblast"

A second internet has been won in this thread.

SurlySeraph
2008-09-03, 06:17 PM
You know, that could be the basis for a whole genre of Illithid stoner movies: "Dude, Where's My Nautiloid?", "Xarold & Thoonmar get the Mindblast", "The Big LeBrainski", "Qusweeck & Phlon, Up In Mist"...

http://adamncopeland.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/blank-picard_facepalm.jpg

No. Please, oh Pelor, no...

Inhuman Bot
2008-09-03, 06:55 PM
http://adamncopeland.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/blank-picard_facepalm.jpg

No. Please, oh Pelor, no...

I second this.