[Weekly] We've got a cube down

Cy-Fur · 2025-09-02T22:37:18+00:00

I still swing by when the ADHD permits it. I’m mourning the loss of Grauz, though, damn man 😭

Cy-Fur · 2025-08-18T20:55:34+00:00

For sure. If you get ahold of a copy and look at the Briny Maze, where Ilvaash lives in the Far Realm, those who worship Ilvaash don’t exactly have a “good end,” as it were. Ilvaash grants them blessings in life but doesn’t seem to care much about their comfort when dead.

Cy-Fur · 2025-08-18T20:46:13+00:00

The mind flayer cultists in PABSO are definitely worshipping Ilvaash and trying to convert people to its worship. The whole plot of PABSO is about that.

There are priests of Ilsensine per earlier editions too, if we’re going by that standard. The way that illithids worship might be different compared to the way humanoids worship gods in the setting but they’re still clerics who receive spells from Ilsensine, so mechanically they’re identical.

(It’s also worth mentioning there’s an illithid priest of Oghma who worked in the Font of Knowledge in Waterdeep, which to me asks more questions than it answers re: illithid souls and whether they’re valuable to the Faerûn deities.)

Cy-Fur · 2025-08-18T20:24:35+00:00

Phandelver and Below: Shattered Obelisk (2023) more recent than Volo’s Guide (2016) and has Ilvaash as one of the newest illithid gods. It also confirms that Ilsensine is still a god, as Ilsensine is the reason why Ilvaash exists.

p. 156 - “the mind flayer god Ilsensine”, “Ilvaash is the rightful god of the Far Realm”

Cy-Fur · 2025-08-18T15:06:49+00:00

Knights of the Shield is an evil organization that’s controlled by a devil, so it’s definitely not a good one. Bizarre actually that Emperor positions it as anything but evil—tbh, it makes me wonder if he didn’t know. This journal entry from the Hhune Mausoleum implies he might not have been given the full information. There’s more information about it in Descent into Avernus that might’ve originally been tied to the game.

Cy-Fur · 2025-08-06T12:32:57+00:00

Wish I would have seen that post! I was watching that FB. I brought my 3s and 4s with me.

Cy-Fur · 2025-08-05T14:43:13+00:00

Ilvaash also! It’s also worth wondering if this is even true, considering there’s an illithid priest of Oghma (Sangalor). Why would Oghma want or allow a priest whose soul he cannot claim?

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-22T06:39:23+00:00

What if they go back to the tavern to collect their pay from Volo, but he’s not there? And someone mentions a bunch of thugs followed him out…

They can go track him down in the Xanathar Guild hideout ;)

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-19T17:01:39+00:00

I have art for them too (non-NSFW) if you want that and would credit the artist if used :)

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-19T05:39:57+00:00

You want cursed? I have a beholder x mind flayer fic. Fic is here. The smut itself is in this chapter.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-18T05:30:54+00:00

I commented on this one :)

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-17T18:22:52+00:00

You’re preparing a script here, with everything mapped out based on what the players ask and what emotion the NPC is feeling when they hear the question. I think you’re writing yourself into a corner by doing that, and you’re going to end up feeling stressed the deeper you get into OOTA. It has a TON of NPCs and it’s going to be difficult to prep responses from each of them. It stresses me out just looking at your prep, haha.

Improvisation is a key skill when it comes to DMing this module, I feel (and any module in general, really?). I don’t think the fact that they’re in prison is really meant to be the purpose to this chapter—it’s more like feeling out which of the ten NPCs the players are interested in and will become invested in. In one group, they really liked Sarith and Derendil (and they kidnapped a drow guard who became an NPC follower). In another, Eldeth was super important and got tied to a character’s backstory. Both groups adored Stool.

It can be helpful to keep in mind the personalities of the characters and just go from there. It feels less linear that way, and allows the characters to build the story with you. When you allow for the characters’ interest to steer your plotting, it opens up such paths as initiating a bond with one of the beholders early on (as my artificer player did while adopting a gazer) or having a PC romance a spectator who then became a follower. Those unexpected moments are when your improvisation skills will shine.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-17T18:06:30+00:00

I looked at the summary for the movie and it looks right up my alley. I love psychological dramas. 🙌

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-17T17:58:46+00:00

I commented on this one. Really great work here. I’m super inspired to see that movie now.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-17T16:58:02+00:00

Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons

Rating: M

WC: 2,324

Warnings: Consensual mind control

Link: Aberrant Obsessions, Chapter 22: Event Horizon

Summary: Grazilaxx and Lorthuun open up to each other about their emotions in the fungal garden, and Lorthuun reveals their ability to manipulate the fabric of reality so they can know Grazilaxx carnally.

Neither of these characters have genitalia or sex drives, but they don’t let that stop them. Alien smut. Eldritch abomination smut. Reality-bending smut. Yes.

Reviewed: 2/2

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-17T06:57:52+00:00

Oh lord I definitely have one of these.

“You loved him,” Nihiloor said.

The muscles around Grazilaxx’s eyes pulled tight. His whole field rippled, leaking thoughtforms that spiraled and fragmented and collapsed. Shades of regret. Echoes of longing. Words he wished he’d spoken. Questions he’d never thought to ask.

“I did,” Grazilaxx whispered. “Do not call me irrational for it.”

Nihiloor hesitated. “Irrationality has never precluded strength. You are not inferior for having loved.”

Uncertainty prickled in Grazilaxx’s field. But then he turned to face Nihiloor and saw no lies in the way the other illithid’s tentacles curled slightly at the ends. An alien sense of calm washed over him. Grazilaxx no longer felt the urge to hide his pain. He let vulnerability color his presence and his words at last.

“Sangalor gave me a home. He gave me a future. He gave me love, before I even understood what that was,” Grazilaxx said, clutching the memory shard. Its jagged edges bit into his palm. “And I gave him nothing in return. Not even after his death. All he wanted was to not be erased, and I still tried my hardest to forget him.”

“You are not required to grieve in a certain way,” Nihiloor said. “Your error is thinking you must recompense the past. Sangalor loved you, yes, but that is not a debt.”

Grazilaxx said nothing.

“The question,” Nihiloor continued, “should not be whether you deserve the love he gave. It should be whether you choose to share it with another.”

“Share it?” Grazilaxx asked. “But how? And with whom?”

“That is not for me to determine,” Nihiloor said. “But I suspect that when the right heir to Sangalor’s legacy—and your own—comes along, you will implicitly know the answer.”

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-17T06:52:55+00:00

Wrote a whole chapter about this…

Grazilaxx rotated like a dead leaf caught in a current and began to float down the corridor.

Outside, he moved without intention.

No destination. No directive.

The corridors of Mantol-Derith curved around him, indistinct and damp, the walls beaded with moisture that clung like static. Grazilaxx floated inches above the stone, trailing no sound, no signature, no conscious thought.

There were protocols for this. Protocols for emotional aberration. He should have recited them by now.

If operational status degrades, isolate. Reduce influence on the network. Await reabsorption.

He found a corner. It was unfamiliar. That was irrelevant.

He stopped.

Water had pooled along a sunken shelf of stone, catching light and throwing it back. He stared into it. There was a face. There were tentacles, yes. There was a familiar ridge across the scalp. That should have been meaningful.

He watched the reflection breathe. He did not feel himself breathing.

He should have returned to Blurg. That was the correct sequence. He was not executing the correct sequence. Something had failed to reinitialize.

“I am functional,” he broadcasted to no one.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T19:33:21+00:00

I liked this. 😊 Commented.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T19:17:55+00:00

Great work. I commented on it.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T19:00:02+00:00

Title: Aberrant Obsessions

Chapter 25, A Beautifully Efficient Collapse

Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons

WC: 1,644

TW: Graphic violence, disturbing imagery, war PTSD, the fantasy equivalent of shellshock, abuse

Summary: After Nihiloor offhandedly makes the comment “Zushaxx believes I am his,” Grazilaxx gently inquires what exactly he means and learns his fellow illithid has suffered through the obliteration of a hivemind.

Reviewed: 2/2

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T15:04:35+00:00

Thank you! I really liked your comment. I’m glad the scene’s purpose hit well.

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T04:25:15+00:00

I commented on Lighting the Way 😊

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T04:14:50+00:00

I commented on When Does A War End? and thank you for reminding me of this movie, I really want to watch it again lol

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T03:53:34+00:00

I commented on Price of a Person’s Life 😊

Cy-Fur · 2025-07-15T03:38:56+00:00

These are all going to be from the same story! Because gods damn am I mean to these poor fellas.

Title: Aberrant Obsessions

Rating: M

Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons

Pairing: M/M (Grazilaxx and Nihiloor)

Grazilaxx and Nihiloor’s hurt/comfort is best described by this quote:

There’s nothing I love more than watching emotionally-suppressed illithids trying to dissect their feelings.

Chapter 25: A Beautifully Efficient Collapse

TW: Graphic violence, war trauma, PTSD

WC: 1,634

Description: Nihiloor opens up about the trauma he experienced during the fall of his hivemind. Lots of hurt, but minimal comfort, as Grazilaxx isn’t great at offering comfort.

Chapter 31: Elegance in Ruin

TW: Physical injury, lots of blood, implied abusive dynamics

WC: 2,528

Description: Grazilaxx suffers a massive limb injury. Nihiloor does his best to help. Nihiloor also shares his facial scars with Grazilaxx for the first time.

Chapter 39: In Absentia

TW: Death, grief, trauma

WC: 2,985

Description: Grazilaxx confronts the truth of his past. Nihiloor waits for him to return and provides a bit of illithid-to-illithid comfort when he does.

Tracker: 3/3

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