We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Our game is switching from 5e to Godbound. The characters were up to 12th level and Godbound is a fun system for powerful D&Dish folks.
The group voted for the Winter World to be their next adventure and so I started prepping and daydreaming about how I’d alter Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They had killed a Mind Flayer that was living under the Rock of Bral last adventure and foolish me, I did not ask if that was the end of it.
It was not the end of it. Kuru’s run-in with an aboleth’s mind control has left its mark; he doesn’t like cthonic mind control beasts. Shit got personal. Then Shepherd, the Corpseflea, jumped into the Mind Flayer corpse. I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the treasure tables…


Nice thing about using the AD&D Monster Manual (and the Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio) is that I get to use its treasure tables. I rolled, not knowing that there is an automated option. I decided the Mind Flayer kept bodies whose brains it had eaten in its Bag of Holding, doing some light, non-necromantic hobby-mummification for fun.
It seemed like the Sigil 6 wanted to put an epilogue on the slaying of the Mind Flayer from last week, talk to Prince Andru of Bral, maybe get a reward and then leave. I had described Andru’s honor guard as haughty elves in red and gold livery. They were turned away at the bridge to the prince’s palace, leading them to believe that this Mind Flayer wasn’t working alone. Even Jusko’s Leadership Word couldn’t penetrate, furthering the theory that some greater power was behind it all.
Shepherd is a corpseflea, a little spark of sentience that can jump into corpses (taken from the cool af 5 Torches Deep: Heritage supplement). I was straight-up eager for him to jump into the Mind Flayer body. He did. I asked for a Spirit Save and it was a fail. He wouldn’t be able to jump out at will. I got to describe the sense of communal consciousness and connection to the other Mind Flayers in his pod, especially the two others on the Rock of Bral, who he had grown up with from tadpoles. Getting to describe shit like going from primate bodies to something really alien is fun.
My vision of Mind Flayers is that they operate on science fiction logic. When Shepherd-in-the-Mind-Flayer saw their Githyanki-renegate ship captain, he could see the botched breeding cycle of a fine servant species. I described his friends as deliciously sentient. He was able to access his memories easily, not getting vague flashbacks like when he is in primate corpses.
He reached out telepathically to another Mind Flayer and learned that when the first Mind Flayer whose corpse he was riding had died, one Mind Flayer went into the astral plane, seeking reinforcements. The conversation didn’t go well and the third Mind Flayer suggested Shepherd go to the Elder Brain to regain his connection and focus rather than seeking out this primate-like individualism.

Shepherd knew that when they went astral, their body was stowed in a secret area by some Mind Flayer thralls. They secreted back onto the Rock of Bral through Trundle’s almost-constructed Well of Worlds.
Behind the scenes, I rolled an Intelligence check for the third Mind Flayer. He succeeded. The Monster Manual said these things are geniuses. His friend is acting weird and reinforcements might be far away. They are surrounded by enemies. It moved the helpless Mind Flayer whose body was left behind while it went into the Astral Plane.
The thralls were a trap; they unzipped their skin and combined to become some combination of Voltron and John Carpenter’s The Thing. I statted it as a Hulking Abomination from Godbound, which suggested it have access to a Word – I chose Undying from Endurance. The fight was going rough and then Kuru, who can steal Gifts, stole the creature’s Undying. The beast flipped out and killed Kuru the next round but he had Undying. When Jusko finished the creature, screaming Kuru’s name like a killing word, Kuru popped back up, regenerating despite haven taken a cthonic tentacle through the skull.
It was a fun fight and I have just barely gotten my feet under me. This is going to be fun.

What now? Now I’m going to roll up the treasure of the remaining Mind Flayers on treasure tables B, S, T and X. Let’s see what these Lovecraftian assholes are working with.
We’ll get to the Radiant Citadel some day…I think.

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