You can use this alien intelligence to unsettle your players, building tension before you release it in a pulse-pounding encounter.

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Only the faint glow of the bioluminescent fungi that covered the cave walls lit their path.

The party approached with cautionthe tiefling wizard cast light on the tip of her staff, the halfling rogue hid in the shadow of the half-orc paladins billowing cloak, and the human ranger nocked an arrow.

The wizards light cast its golden rays upon a nightmarish abomination, a rubbery-skinned being with the body of an emaciated human, topped with a bulbous head bearing four writhing tentacles.

A mind flayer. It stood before them and raised its bony hand to its temple, preparing to shatter the adventurers feeble psyches with a psionic mind blast.

You managed to conjure an atmosphere of dread while the heroes didnt know what the monster was, but as soon as they saw the creatures face, they knew they could kill it.

And so they did. If the characters win initiative against a mind flayer like they did in the scenario above, the fight will probably be over very quickly, leaving everyone disappointed.

I love them because theyre the DD experience in microcosm; mind flayers are a mixture of horrifying adrenaline and B-movie camp, just like a DD game with your friends is a mix of epic adventure and funny out-of-character joking.

Most of the time, both mind flayers and DD games will exist as a mixture of the serious and the silly.

However, there are times when you want to dig deep into the seriousness of your game and plunge your players into a game of eldritch horror.

Heres how.

In the Cthulhu Mythos, Cthulhu and the other Elder Gods and their spawn are not frightening because they are giant monsters.

They make us feel small and insignificant compared to their alien unknowability.

Eldritch horrors are scary because theyre weird and disgusting, and so very different from ourselves.

To play a mind flayer like an eldritch horror, you need to make the players feel that it is not just inhuman, but that it is not of this world.

They lack emotions.

They are a hive mind controlled by an elder brain.

They consider themselves superior to all beings, viewing their inferiors as little more than thralls and food.

They speak telepathically, invading the minds of any creature within 120 feet of it, even if they dont share a language.

Unlike a haughty dragon or a stupid ogre, no creature can taunt a mind flayer into attacking stupidly.

They have no ego to bruise, only the ruthlessly efficient mind of an elder brain.

When encountering a mind flayer, there are often more nearby.

Even if adventurers encounter a mind flayer separated from its kin, the elder brain and all its siblings can see as if through its eyes.

Use Your Mind Flash Game 3