D&D geeks, I need a bit of help regarding mind flayers

[NewJeffCT]

I'm working on designing my upcoming gaming sessions, which includes a possible encounter with a mind flayer.

However, I don't have access to the Monster Manual right now (3.0 or 3.5) and mind flayers are not in the SRD.

But, my question is - if the players find a dead NPC whose brain has been sucked out by a mind flayer (sorry Orsino...), are there telltale signs leftover - a collapsed skull, or four suction marks on their head? Something else? Or, is it something that is easily hidden/disguised?

I ask because I was hoping to surprise the players with the mind flayer down the road and have them paranoid that somebody is looking for them - with people they know mysteriously dying and all. I supposed if the mind flayer wanted to cover its tracks, and there is a collapsed skull or suction marks, it could just take the head of the dead NPC to cover its tracks?

Thanks

[DarkTirade]

1. From what I've read

I think the mind flayers actually stick their tentacles under the skin to suck the brains out... so there would just be a few marks on the face and some matching ones in the skull. You might try to pass it off as claw marks or something. :shrug:

[NewJeffCT]

4. of course

if the PCs try to Speak with Dead... they might get an answer.

[DarkTirade]

5. Can the dead speak when they have no brains?

Is Speak with the Dead a spiritual thing, or do they raise the body temporarily to speak with it?

[NewJeffCT]

11. good question

wast thinking of that myself.

[Orsino]

7. And to cover its tracks, a mind flayer might crush the skull with a boulder...

...making the death look like an accident. It could lop off the head entirely, and hide it elsewhere.

This could be part of a murder mystery. A series of such deaths make it look as though a crazy serial killer at work, when it's jreally a cautious mind flayer trying not to panic a community.

[NewJeffCT]

8. well, it will be in a city of 50,000

that the "murder" will happen... so, the head taking will likely be part of it.

[DarkTirade]

9. In the end, there can be only one.

:yoiks:

[Carnea]

2. Hope this helps.....

[NewJeffCT]

3. cool, thanks

I have my 1E MM somewhere at home.

[SoxFan]

6. The old Drow modules?

If memory serves me correctly, they play a role in those Drow-centric modules from the early '80s.

[Lethe]

10. well no brain is a dead ringer for a mind flayer

decapitation would be the best way to hide it.....

if you really want to make a nasty enemy, make the mind flayer a lich too!

[NewJeffCT]

14. The 4E monster manual

Says that mind-flayers crack open the skull like a clamshell and eat the brain...

[khashka]

12. Forget the manual

make it up as you go along. Best DM I had would switch things around. Even switching games from moment to moment. Challenging and hella fun.

[JCMach1]

13. Exactly, if the party are wusses, make it a geriatric mindflayer

on his last legs!

[NewJeffCT]

15. They're a pretty tough party

Last session, the level 6 party polished off a chain devil (kyton) in one round, while also fighting the evil half-fiend cleric that summoned the chain devil

[Orrex]

16. I stopped playing around the time T$R fucked up and got bought out by WotC

But I swear that I remember seeing a picture of a mind flayer latching onto someone's skull from behind and holding on, with the tentacles wrapped around the face, forehead, etc. The idea was, I suppose, that the illithid chomped through and sucked the brain out the back.