Anyone know what 'm talking about, or am I losing my mind?
You werent mad ;)
-I vaguely recall something of a Mind Flayer that, in it's quest for understanding the culture of non-Mind Flayers, has given up eating brains. It was also missing a tentacle or two, I believe. I think it appeared in a sidebar, and in a 3e era product.
-You aren't insane, though I am not sure if this rogue individual was in any way related to Candlekeep.
-Thus far, it isn't in (or, rather, I didn't find it in):
The FRCG
Underdark
Champions of Ruin
Champions of Valor
Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark (I didn't check that hard, however)
18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric) :P
Just weird...
I'll have to re-read the stuff on the Skullport one... perhaps he stayed at CK at some point, and it's a 'flashback' scene in a novel I'm recalling.
But how a squidhead could resist all those wonderfully juicy brains in candlekeep baffles the mind.
Ask Ed!
But how a squidhead could resist all those wonderfully juicy brains in candlekeep baffles the mind.
-He's a vegan.
That scribe (and the priest of Oghma Sangalor and Cern aswell) would feel lonely without the Brainpool Overmind nearby though. What about his former megolomanic instincts? He most definately must have some twisted scheme that gets him all obsessive over trivia. It must really like reading from books aswell though he could he use a servant and read his mind.
I'm trying to find a pic of 'Edna' from Futurama for her, but I can't seem to locate her...
Friggin' useless Internet...
Wasn't there also one with a femal 'persona' that worked fror the Kraken Society?
-Ventress.
-Ventress.
Who was also featured in Elaine Cunningham's "Starlight & Shadows" trilogy.
I have no record of one actually living there though, but I can really only say that it's not mentioned in any sourcebook. If there is a mind flayer at Candlekeep, it must be in a novel or an author answer somewhere.
There's an Exalted Mind Flayer Monk in the Book Of Exalted Deeds, but that's Core.
Off-topic, there's an aboleth who ate a dwarven runemaster, a High Old One Of Dumathoin, absorbed his personality and became a LN priest of Dumathoin. A similar thing might happen to a mind flayer, I wonder. Do flayers absorb memories and personalities of brains they eat?
Perhaps one of the monks of Candlekeep once found itself at the mercy of an illithid and, after the process of ceremorphosis, the resulting new illithid derived from the monk's form was affected by a bout of partialism. This has resulted in the new illithid slowly developing a partial personality [partialism] based around that of the monk it once was.
There was a man who somehow went through ceremorphosis and survived with his original consciousness intact. Cant quite remember where I read this. I believe he drank a special potion beforehand, but I could be wrong. Anyway, he was mentally human but physically illithid.
That was Strom Wakeman, author of the The Illithiad. In the 2e companion adventures for that tome, it was revealed that Wakeman had been turned into an illithid but had used a mixture of herbs and drugs to retain his own mind through ceremorphosis. He fed not on brains, but on ambient psychic energy [he had a psionic power that allowed him to go without eating]. Supposedly if he ever actually ate a brain, the illithid consciousness he was keeping suppressed would come to the fore, eliminating Wakeman.
Perhaps one of the monks of Candlekeep once found itself at the mercy of an illithid and, after the process of ceremorphosis, the resulting new illithid derived from the monk's form was affected by a bout of partialism. This has resulted in the new illithid slowly developing a partial personality [partialism] based around that of the monk it once was.
-While this is, in theory, possible, I don't see the monks of Candlekeep being particularly welcoming to said Illithid.
That was Strom Wakeman, author of the The Illithiad. In the 2e companion adventures for that tome, it was revealed that Wakeman had been turned into an illithid but had used a mixture of herbs and drugs to retain his own mind through ceremorphosis. He fed not on brains, but on ambient psychic energy [he had a psionic power that allowed him to go without eating]. Supposedly if he ever actually ate a brain, the illithid consciousness he was keeping suppressed would come to the fore, eliminating Wakeman.
-Poor guy.
-While this is, in theory, possible, I don't see the monks of Candlekeep being particularly welcoming to said Illithid.
Perhaps.
Though, should the monk-illithid used as an example in my post above visit Candlekeep, 'tis likely he/it would attempt to gift a new tome [of no less than 10,000 gp value] to the library in order to gain entry -- since he/it is aware of Candlekeep's laws regarding visitors to the monastery.
Besides, there are the Gatewarden’s five underofficers who are quite capable of dealing with any potential threats that this particular monk may pose should its illithid-personality become the dominant aspect of its form.
After all, if Dragons can get in (and they do), why can't other creatures that behave themselves? Candlekeep in not just about books, its about knowledge... and what better way to learn about other species then to have them up-close?
I think curiousity would win-out over caution, in the case of a Vegan Illithid - the opportunities to learn about Mind Flayers would be just too tempting.
And on the flip-side of the coin, an Illithid reads minds... just think how curious THEY must be about us. We would seem as alien to them as they to us. There have been several examples in canon of Mindflayers that have moved away from tradition to 'enjoy' the company of other races (there was one hanging out with humans in Calimshan, in that RAS novel).
I think given the opportunity, an Illithid could learn to control it's hunger if it had something to gain, and a scholarly one (like the one I'm looking for) would be on his best behaviour given a chance to peruse the vast library of candlekeep.
I've found in RW that when you take people out of their 'group', they behave much better and become more sociable. This goes for everyone - people will act the way their peers expect them to act. Take that peerage away, and you can get them to act differently. An Illithid may not be human, but it's still a person, and can reason for itself. If they find they have common cause with a group not of their race, there's no reason why they wouldn't act accordingly.
-Intellect Devourers, now they'd be the scourge of any library or scholarly venue.
There was Sangalor of the secrets (LN, Illithid cleric of Oghma) living in Skullport.
You werent mad ;)
in what source is that plz?? thx
Cernd Shattermind is a LN half-illithid dwarf living in Iltkazar. He was the victim of failed ceremorphosis, and has vestigial tentacles (which he hides under his beard) and some illithid psionic abilities. Not quite a full illithid though.
in what source is that plz?? thx
Cernd is detailed in Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark.
I don't think it was the Liriel books... that was the other Illithid... and it wasn't in the cale novels either.
Hmmmm.. I'm trying to recall any other times Skullport has been in a novel (I remember at least one in a comic, but I already checked that).
Hmmmm.. I'm trying to recall any other times Skullport has been in a novel (I remember at least one in a comic, but I already checked that).
Dream Spheres features Skullport somewhat. As does Thornhold. And Easy Betrayals too.
I haven't read any of those Sage mentioned, and I don't think I read Realms of the Underdark (although I may have - I'll have to check).
After reading up on that last one (in Und), I'm starting to suspect more and more that my sunconscious 'blended' the lore of several of these neutral-types together.
Although I still have that nagging memory...
Although I still have that nagging memory...
-As do I (though not one relevant to Candlekeep), so...I recall it being written very much like the Spellfire sidebar in the FRCS, with the author not revealing itself to be a Mind Flayer until the end.
-As do I (though not one relevant to Candlekeep), so...I recall it being written very much like the Spellfire sidebar in the FRCS, with the author not revealing itself to be a Mind Flayer until the end.
The weird part is I remembered reading it years ago, after coming across it a second time about a yar ago.
That double-memory is what I find so confusing.