Everything You Need to Bring the Alien Cult of Thoon to Your Game. Thoon

Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy for personal use only. MIND FLAYERS OF THOON

Everything you need to bring the alien cult of Thoon to your game. Thoon ‘flayers work behind the scenes infiltrating settlements to mine their precious quintessence, used to spawn and power their construct enforcers.

This sourcebook presents ten unique monster designs...not just the same illithid with different weapons and gear, but newly imagined mind flayers, their henchmen and goons. There’s also a Thoon Thrall Template to expand your creature possibilities.

MIND FLAYERS OF THOON CHALLENGE PAGE Thoon Disciple 10 6 Shadow Flayer 8 8 Thoon Infiltrator 5 9 Thoon Thrall 1 11 Thoon Soldier 8 13 Madcrafter of Thoon 10 14 Scyther of Thoon 6 16 Stormcloud of Thoon 5 17 Thoon Hulk 13 18 Thoon Elder Brain 12 19 Frequently Asked Questions n/a 21 Working Thoon Into Your Game n/a 21

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All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Jeff Ibach and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. Version 1.0 2 Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy for personal use only. MIND FLAYERS OF THOON

AN INTRODUCTION TO THOON through selective breeding. While they mostly look like illithids with some minor changes, it’s WHAT IS THOON? their mindset and philosophy that has become Thoon is a name that could refer to a philosophy, twisted from the other plots and plans of their or an actual creature...maybe a mythic fiend. It normal kin. They went off to found their own en- might even be a demigod or full-fledged deity. clave in a hidden away place, and they’ve been We’ll likely never really know, because the only spreading out like a disease ever since. beings in the multiverse to have contact with Thoon are a select breed of mind flayers, and WHAT DOES THOON WANT? they’re not telling. It’s not so much about what Thoon wants, but what Thoon taught them they need, and it As the DM, you don’t really need to decide what opened their minds to a mystical substance Thoon is. Thoon is likely to remain beyond the called quintessence. Quintessence can be har- characters’ knowledge. It is difficult to learn about vested from creatures or objects by secret rituals Thoon is because the mind flayers themselves only the mind flayers of Thoon know. It’s like “The are incapable of describing it in detail, even un- Force” - some have it, some don’t, and some ex- der magical coercion. They honestly seem un- otic objects have it as well. able to comprehend questions such as “Is Thoon a god?” The mind flayers answer, “Thoon is Regardless, that’s what they are after. They can- Thoon, and Thoon is all!” Almost any question not do their construct spawning or power them about Thoon’s nature gets a similar response. with supernatural abilities without it. Luckily Thoon also taught them how to read an aura of HERE’S HOW IT IS. quintessence by using the detect magic spell Mind flayers, also known as illithids, are those which the madcrafters, stormclouds and infil- horrific brain-eating things living in the Underdark trators here know how to do. It reveals itself as a and in your Monster Manual on page 222. These dark, misty aura only they can see. creatures sure get around. They inhabit countless worlds and planes. One of the more interesting So, the Thoon mind flayers go about collecting it ways they can move around the inner and outer as best they can. They brought back a cute little planes are in amazing planar ships called nauti- organism from the Far Realm that they can plant loids that, as the name implies, look like giant inside a human cerebrum to turn them into shells or have a shell-like theme. “infiltrators”. These then carefully return to the towns or villages they came from to spy for Long ago one of these vessels was exploring an sources of quintessence or other things of inter- uncharted region of the astral plane when they est to their masters. They in turn, create “thralls” went “too far”. Did the ship go through a portal, or from other humanoids or creatures to serve them did they find a place where the boundaries be- as unquestionably loyal soldiers. tween planes were thin? Regardless, they soon found they had left the astral behind and entered Once they gather quintessence it takes the form a dimension called the Far Realm, a place of of an ethereal liquid which they place in large, alien nothingness outside the known universe egg-shaped storage chambers called matrices. (see page 68 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). All Matrices of quintessence have a strong aura any- manner of the most unspeakable horrors call this one can view using detect magic because of its place home and that is there they found Thoon. concentrated potency. There are no hard rules for this stuff because it’s a plot device to use on EventuallySample they returned to the prime material demand. Maybe the illithids file need to get it from plane…or were they sent back? They were gifted the Queen’s son, a diamond mine, or of all with alien knowledge on creating constructs in things, from one of your player’s characters! new ways and how to change themselves

3 Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy for personal use only. MIND FLAYERS OF THOON I am an infiltrator, WHERE THE HELL IS THIS FROM? working my way among an unknowing populace for Thoon originated from the talented authors at my Thoon masters. I con- Wizards of the Coast who penned the D&D trol the thralls. 3rd Edition “Monster Manual 5”. It does pre- sent a great alternate way to use mind flayers and their new minions in adventures and sto- ries. I’m a Thoon thrall. I’m Honestly, I’m not sure what the catalyst was. screwed. I live life Perhaps someone said “let’s see how many until awakened by an times we can print the word Thoon in the same book.” Because it’s in there 666 times, infiltrator, then I or if not, an awful lot. fight ‘till I explode.

The same thing goes for quintessence. It’s a mystical MacGuffin that could refer to the es- sence of the boat captain from the movie Jaws. If you’re wondering how you’ve never heard about this in D&D’s long history, its because until the Thoon mind flayers discovered it, no one else even knew it existed.

HIERARCHY OF THOON

I am a disciple of Thoon. I’m a mind flayer I am a Thoon soldier. that’s been granted I’m not too bright but I cleric spells and I am have mastered using the direct link to Thoon. quintessence to kill you.

I am a shadow flayer. I am a spy and hunter for Thoon through Samplethe disciples. file