Supplements For A Mind-Flayer / Underdark Campaign

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey y'all,

I'm thinking about running a campaign for a single player, who expressed interest in an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. This immediately got me thinking of running an "escape from the mind flayers" opening, followed by "escape from the Underdark." But then I got to thinking, and I think you could have a lot of fun with good ol' fashioned paranoia, too. Stories like, "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," and "The Manchurian Candidate" would all resonate well with this style of game. Does anyone know of any supplements that might help with this?

Specific things I'm looking for:

• Running a mind flayer cult. Just saying "Eh, they have as many minions as they need" reduces tension (and thus, drama) and verisimilitude. I'm looking for what kind of goals a mind flayer cult might have, the kinds of minions they'd recruit to accomplish those goals, and how they'd go about accomplishing the goals themselves. Bonus points for how to incorporate this easily at the table.
• Running an Underdark pointcrawl. Specifically, I'm looking for a structure or procedure of play that goes over how the players move from point to point, what they could find along the way, and what resources they use.
• How mind flayers' interests on the surface would clash with other aberrations such as beholders, etc.

Sources I have access to:

• Lords of Madness (3rd ed)
• Volo's Guide to Monsters
• Out of the Abyss

If you don't know of any supplements, please feel free to chime in with interesting ways you've seen cults or mind flayers done in the past, any information on cool Underdark locations, hazards or NPCs, or any potential issues with running Underdark campaigns / mind flayer-heavy campaigns.

Thanks!

[ventoAureo]

Veins of the Earth is an excellent setting book that has tons of Underdark material in it. The monsters might be a bit too abstract and their statblocks aren't really 5e ready, but it has excellent writeups and interpretations on many Underdark races, a great cave generator for Underdark caverns, and lots of neat setting information.

[Sparky McDibben]

That's outstanding - thank you so much!

[Rule-Of-Three]

The Illithiad (2e) is both essential and one of the best "monster" race exposé modules published. In the same vein, the Menzoberranzan box set and Drow of the Inderdark go a long way towards fleshing out two dominant powers of the deep.