Ehellegul, the Elder Brain of Khazigur

Ehellegul began his conquest in 12046 as an Ulitharid from an established colony under the Ash mountains bordering Naarod in the northwest. The undercity beneath Khazigur is a hopeless maze of sewers, ancient ruins, refugee shanties and vermin lairs, connecting to the greater underdark at several key points which have for ages been manned and defended, for better or worse, by Ophitic Cultists and their Yuan-Ti masters. The Yuan Ti have long held that for their empire to rise, the empire of humanity must first be brought low. As such the Yuan Ti see the mind flayers and Ehellegul as a means to an end, rather than a bitter enemy, though in practice they have little patience for the brain-eating alien freaks.
Ehellegul has been able to exploit this permissiveness, and has used his significant powers of suggestion to overrepresent the Yuan-Ti threat in the minds of the state police, and to encourage greater aggression and boldness from the Ophitics, particularly the weak-willed human cultists who are already obviously susceptible to tempting suggestions. In turn the city has cleared away much of the Ophitic presence in recent months, allowing Ehellegul and his minions to exert much greater control and even to launch coordinated excursions and decoy attacks to probe the city's strengths and weaknesses.
Unfortunately he may have overplayed his hand, as the forces that allowed him to ooze into the city are now committed to ending the Mind Flayer threat and likely, his life; and as he is relatively young - just 44 years an elder brain, when lifespans of hundreds and even thousands of years may be the norm - his colony is not as deeply established as he might like, and significant gaps in his network still exist even inside the city.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Ehellegul is exceptionally sleek and fat for a giant brain under a gold-plated coating. The ready availability of dozens of vagrants at any time has boosted his physical and psionic reserves to a very high level.

Body Features

A gigantic brain in a gold coating with eight gigantic tentacles between 20 and 30 feet in length. He resides in what would be considered an excessively deep brine pool, at about 20' of depth, but can still reach 10' out of it. The slightly acidic (CON save DC15 or take 1d4 acid damage per round of contact/3d4 per round of immersion) pool is filled with tadpoles of various degrees of maturity, and is more than deep enough to drown in, especially in full armor, so going melee against Ehellegul is an excessively bad idea. At the same time, being 20' deep in a submerged alcove that breaks line of sight makes him impossible (full cover) or difficult (+5 to AC under 3/4ths cover, AC 17 total) to target with a ranged attack. But his blindsight 120' and telepathic awareness means he never has to see his enemies to attack them, even physically, though smacking people around with tentacles is a bit of a last resort. Dragging everyone underwater and eating their brain just before a death by drowning, however, is a delightful prospect for Ehellegul, and constitutes fun, trying to guess the last moment before they're done.

Special abilities

Psionics, at the highest possible level. Mind blasts like he invented it (INT save DC21), but much prefers the Dominate attack mode (Save DC24) and Daze (WIS save DC2119). Has access to 4 of the 5 defense modes but interestingly has no access to the psychometabolism (DEX) discipline at all.

Apparel & Accessories

Not exactly accessories, but the dozens of live tadpoles sharing his brine pool constitute an additional, insidious threat should anyone give them an opportunity to dig in. They're quite small, easily small enough to fit up a nostril or under the lower eyelid, and immersed or otherwise somehow vulnerable characters must make a DC12 dex save every round they're in contact with the pool or risk one getting in, at which point conversion can be cured within 20 minutes via cure disease or lesser restoration, within an hour with remove curse or greater restoration; after one hour the victim becomes a mind flayer totally and irreversibly under the control of Ehellegul.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Emerging from the Ceremorphotic Ceremony as an Ulitharid in 12027, Ehellegul lived in his parent colony amassing his own thralls and followers until setting out in late 12045 with designs on setting up a colony under the capitol city itself. This was a bold and aggressive choice, as the city bristles with defenses on the surface and underground, and moreover the passageways underground are so complicated and inscrutable that an enormous number of thralls had to be made simply to develop a workable, though still incomplete, map of it. He chose a subsurface abandoned hospital as his active lair, rather than the safety of a true lair in the underdark, driven by faint memories of a nautiloid or plane-shifting craft of some kind left behind in ages past, upon which the Wizard's College was founded. The lair has a connection to the college still and several of its students are under his sway, though he finds magic to be stupid and mostly unhelpful to his quest; he uses them instead to search for information about this craft. One thing they were able to find was a pearl 'eye' the size of a large cannonball which emits a constant magical-dampening field, which he has placed in the ceiling of his lair.
Ehellegul continues to work towards his goals of seizing proper control of the city and extracting and repairing the Nautiloid, if the main fuselage can be found - if it even still or ever did exist here.

Gender Identity

Male, but for no particular reason other than his original host happened to be a male. This is part of the weakness of mind flayers, that they are very intelligent but dreadfully unimaginative, because most of their memories and knowledge exist as disconnected information libraries rather than personal experiences; they are quite literally unable to learn new tricks unless they consume someone who knows those tricks.

Sexuality

None whatsoever, though he does enjoy using insidious forms of sexual humiliation and torture to flavor his food.

Failures & Embarrassments

Ehellegul overplayed his hand when he attempted to create a brainstealer dragon loyal to himself to serve as a distant outpost. This then forced the Shenanigators to take on the task of rooting out the Mind Flayer infestation; and in turn in his anger over what were ultimately small and petty losses, he killed rather than dominated the Governor, who would one day rise to be Autarch and in so doing deliver essentially everything Ehellegul would ever want, if only he could be patient and have a better grasp of human heirarchies. Instead he tried to scare off the Shenanigators and destabilize the city by killing its governor.
The response from the Autarch, the most powerful man in the world and the father of the slain Governor, was swift and terrible; his son was raised and restored via a greater resurrection spell, at the same time that the cavern entrance to the underdark cave where he was killed was sealed with over 40,000 gallons of cement and a hole bored over the underdark access point itself, plugged with 1,200 tons of molten lead poured down the hole. The Autarch has also committed significant special forces to the task of rooting out the elder brain and killing this colony, though with a more moderate hand as he understands that Ehellegul really needs more Mind Flayers and more food more than he simply wants to fight in a straight fight.

Intellectual Characteristics

Ehellegul is a thorough narcissist, to the point that he has had himself coated in a thin and flexible coat of semi-transparent gold from the melted-down treasures of his various victims; he claims this gives him an added degree of physical toughness and that it enhances the psionic signal he can put out. He is clever, but he is also at his core suffering from the same semi-disbelieving frustration and anxiety that all Mind Flayers suffer as having once been the masters of the worlds and now forced to hide in sewers and caves and command rats and mental defectives, forever nervous that the next visitor will be a Gith army.

Morality & Philosophy

Unbridled and often unrealistic selfishness.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

To control the world, beginning with the capitol city of the world empire; and to find and restore a Nautiloid to working condition with which to colonize the worlds once more.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

On the one hand (tentacle?) criticizes but on the other, fears magic; his psionics are the equal of virtually any magic effect, but his fear of magic has led him to implant a magic-dampening device in the ceiling above his brine pool that behaves as a 60' Antimagic field encompassing the entire room and his brine pool. The device is evidently from a nautiloid that crashed in ages past on the site of the Wizard's College; more 'pearls' of this nature exist. According to researchers at the Wizard's College, their purpose on the original craft was to assist in the navigation of the craft through planar spaces, using precise lines of magical force and dampening others.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes gold and gambling, both very unusual interests for Mind Flayers. Almost certainly a holdover from his (her?) original life which is completely forgotten but perhaps manifests in these unusual ways. He likes a good bluff, takes risks, and adapts his strategies to the circumstances when possible. He likes to win for the sake of winning.

Virtues & Personality perks

Though evil, he is not usually psychotic or a killer for the joy of killing; he has his goals and is perfectly fine with anyone who supports them or assists them. As such he has permitted the Wizard's college a modicum of freedom despite their location almost directly above his lair; they want to learn better psionics, he wants their information, and while he could use telepathy and domination to wrest it out of them, that would of course be a short term arrangement and he understands it's much easier to simply let them work with him of their own accord. At the same time, he has manipulated several of them to help him acquire food and additional vessels for ceremorphosis, which they rationalize in various ways.

Vices & Personality flaws

He can be angered into making strategic mistakes that a more level-headed being might not resort to. His murder of the Governor (who recovered) was a real screwup; if he had kept his cool and simply taken slow control of the man, the empire could literally have been his. But perhaps he'll get another chance - perhaps in fact, he knew the Autarch would raise his son and that his son would be, of necessity, unconscious for quite some time during that process. Perhaps that was his plan all along?

Personality Quirks

Very unusual for a Mind Flayer being, Ehellegul loves gold. The host he was made from must have been a banker, gambler, or other money-obsessed person, but not a miser, as Ehellegi insisted on the very non-miserly act of melting down and slowly coating himself in a layer of solid gold, thin enough to show his brain structure through the metal and flexible enough to move with him, and to be parted to join with the brains of dead mind flayers in his colony.

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Current Location

Khazigur

Year of Birth

12027 ADE 59 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Ehellegul began life as an unremarkable tadpole in a colony in the Northwest of Khazig province, undergoing ceremorphosis in an otherwise unremarkable host but emerging not as a normal Mind Flayer, but an Ulitharid.

Gender

None

Eyes

none

Hair

A multitude of stiff gray sense-hairs

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Under the gold coating, greyish-pink.

Height

4'5"

Weight

300lbs

Ehellegul - Khazigur's Elder Brain

Large aberration, neutral evil

Armor Class 12

Hit Points 300

Speed 5ft Swim: 10ft

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STR

15 +2

DEX

10 0

CON

20 +5

INT

21 +5

WIS

19 +4

CHA

24 +7

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Saving Throws INT +10, WIS +9, CHA +12

Skills Arcana +10, Deception +12, Insight +14, Intimidation +12, Persuasion +12

Damage Immunities Charm (see below)

Senses Blindsight 120', Passive Perception 14

Languages Common, Deep Speech, Undercommon - understands but can't speak; Telepathy 5 miles with any intelligent being.

Challenge 14

At will: Detect Thoughts: <C> For the duration (concentration 1 minute), you can read the thoughts of certain creatures. When you cast the spell and as your action on each turn until the spell ends, you can focus your mind on any one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature you choose has an Intelligence of 3 or lower or doesn't speak any language, the creature is unaffected.
You initially learn the surface thoughts of the creature--what is most on its mind in that moment. As an action, you can either shift your attention to another creature's thoughts or attempt to probe deeper into the same creature's mind. If you probe deeper, the target must make a Wisdom saving throw DC19. If it fails, you gain insight into its reasoning (if any), its emotional state, and something that looms large in its mind (such as something it worries over, loves, or hates). If it succeeds, the spell ends. Either way, the target knows that you are probing into its mind, and unless you shift your attention to another creature's thoughts, the creature can use its action on its turn to make an Intelligence check contested by your Intelligence check (+5 if it succeeds, the spell ends.
Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of its thoughts, so this spell is particularly effective as part of an interrogation.
You can also use this spell to detect the presence of thinking creatures you can't see. When you cast the spell or as your action during the duration, you can search for thoughts within 30 feet of you. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 2 feet of rock, 2 inches of any metal other than lead, or a thin sheet of lead blocks you. You can't detect a creature with an Intelligence of 3 or lower or one that doesn't speak any language.
Once you detect the presence of a creature in this way, you can read its thoughts for the rest of the duration as described above, even if you can't see it, but it must still be within range.
Levitate: <C> 10 min. One creature or loose object of your choice that you can see within range rises vertically, up to 20 feet, and remains suspended there for the duration. The spell can levitate a target that weighs up to 500 pounds. An unwilling creature that succeeds on a Constitution saving throw (DC20) is unaffected.
The target can move only by pushing or pulling against a fixed object or surface within reach (such as a wall or a ceiling), which allows it to move as if it were climbing. You can change the target's altitude by up to 20 feet in either direction on your turn. If you are the target, you can move up or down as part of your move. Otherwise, you can use your action to move the target, which must remain within the spell's range.
When the spell ends, the target floats gently to the ground if it is still aloft.

1/day: Dominate Monster: <C>You attempt to beguile a creature that you can see within range. It must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw DC19 or be charmed for up to 1 hour. If you or creatures that are friendly to you are fighting it, it has advantage on the saving throw.
While the creature is charmed, you have a telepathic link with it as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence. You can use this telepathic link to issue commands to the creature while you are conscious (no action required), which it does its best to obey. You can specify a simple and general course of action, such as "Attack that creature," "Run over there," or "Fetch that object." If the creature completes the order and doesn't receive further direction from you, it defends and preserves itself to the best of its ability.
You can use your action to take total and precise control of the target. Until the end of your next turn, the creature takes only the actions you choose, and doesn't do anything that you don't allow it to do. During this time, you can also cause the creature to use a reaction, but this requires you to use your own reaction as well.
Each time the target takes damage, it makes a new Wisdom saving throw against the psionic effect. If the save succeeds, the effect ends.
Plane Shift: 1 Action, instantaneous. The elder brain is transported to a different plane of existence. Ehellegul will choose a hideout it has had minions prepare for it in the city of Sigil. Up to 4 other targets will be taken along if grappled and they fail a DC24 CHA save.

Innate Abilities:

Creature Sense. The elder brain is aware of the presence of creatures within 5 miles of it that have an Intelligence score of 4 or higher. It knows the distance and direction to each creature, as well as each one’s Intelligence score, but can’t sense anything else about it. A creature protected by a mind blank spell, a nondetection spell, or similar magic can’t be perceived in this manner.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the elder brain fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Resistance. Advantage on saves vs Spells and spell effects; see also psionic defense modes..
Telepathic Hub. The elder brain can use its telepathy to initiate and maintain telepathic conversations with up to ten creatures at a time. The elder brain can let those creatures telepathically hear each other while connected in this way.
Charm Inversion: As long as the Elder Brain is maintaining the appropriate defense mode (Wisdom/Tower of Iron Will or the applicable mode for other similar effects), the elder brain can sense and automatically reverse charm effects and other mind-based magical attacks; the caster must make their save using the Elder Brain's psionic attack mode save DC rather than their own DC, and if they fail, the effect is applied to them as if the Elder Brain cast it on them.

Psionics:

• Psionic Power Point pool: Max 48 points.
• Recharge rate: 5 points per hour.

Attack Modes - 1 point per attack

• Telepathy (CHA) + 7, Dominate CHA save DC24 or 5d8 psychic damage + charm 1 min. Recharge 4-6
• Clairsentience (INT) +5, Mind Blast INT save DC 21 or 5d8 psychic damage + stun 1 min. Recharge 4-6
• Psychoportation (WIS) +4, Daze WIS save DC19 or 5d8 psychic damage + paralyzed 1 min. recharge 4-6
• Psychokinetics (STR) +2, Drain Vigor STR save DC15 or 5d8 psychic Damage + Unconscious 1 min. Recharge 4-6

Defense Modes - 1 PPP per mode per hour (

Advantage on saves against: Unconsciousness Stun Paralysis Charm

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Actions

Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: 4d8+2 normal bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Huge or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape STR check DC 15) and takes 1d8+5 psychic damage at the start of each of its turns until the grapple ends. The elder brain can have up to four targets grappled at a time.
Mind Blast (See Special Abilities: attack modes)
Psychic Link. The elder brain targets one incapacitated creature it can perceive with its Creature Sense trait and establishes a psychic link with that creature. Until the psychic link ends, the elder brain can perceive everything the target senses. The target becomes aware that something is linked to its mind once it is no longer incapacitated, and the elder brain can terminate the link at any time (no action required). The target can use an action on its turn to attempt to break the psychic link, doing so with a successful DC24 Charisma saving throw. On a successful save, the target takes 3d6 psychic damage. The psychic link also ends if the target and the elder brain are more than 5 miles apart, with no consequences to the target. The elder brain can form psychic links with up to ten creatures at a time.
Sense Thoughts. The elder brain targets a creature with which it has a psychic link. The elder brain gains insight into the target’s reasoning, its emotional state, and thoughts that loom large in its mind (including things the target worries about, loves, or hates). The elder brain can also make a Charisma (Deception) check 1d20+12 with advantage to deceive the target’s mind into thinking it believes one idea or feels a particular emotion. The target contests this attempt with a Wisdom (Insight) check. If the elder brain succeeds, the mind believes the deception for 1 hour or until evidence of the lie is presented to the target.

Legendary Actions

The elder brain can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. It can take only one legendary action at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The elder brain regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Tentacle. The elder brain makes a tentacle attack.
Break Concentration. The elder brain targets a creature within 120 feet of it with which it has a psychic link. The elder brain breaks the creature’s concentration on a spell it has cast. The creature also takes 1d4 psychic damage per level of the spell.
Psychic Pulse. The elder brain targets a creature within 120 feet of it with which it has a psychic link. Enemies of the elder brain within 10 feet of that creature take 3d6 psychic damage.
Sever Psychic Link. The elder brain targets a creature within 120 feet of it with which it has a psychic link. The elder brain ends the link, causing the creature to have disadvantage on all ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws until the end of the creature’s next turn.

Lair Actions

When fighting inside its lair, an elder brain can use lair actions. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), an elder brain can take one lair action to cause one of the following effects; the elder brain can’t use the same lair action two rounds in a row:

• The elder brain casts wall of force: <C> 10 Minutes. An invisible wall of force springs into existence at a point you choose within range. The wall appears in any orientation you choose, as a horizontal or vertical barrier or at an angle. It can be free floating or resting on a solid surface. You can form it into a hemispherical dome or a sphere with a radius of up to 10 feet, or you can shape a flat surface made up of ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels. Each panel must be contiguous with another panel. In any form, the wall is 1/4 inch thick. It lasts for the duration. If the wall cuts through a creature's space when it appears, the creature is pushed to one side of the wall (your choice which side).
  Nothing can physically pass through the wall. It is immune to all damage and can't be dispelled by dispel magic. A disintegrate spell destroys the wall instantly, however. The wall also extends into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel through the wall.
• The elder brain targets one friendly creature it can sense within 120 feet of it. The target has a flash of inspiration and gains advantage on one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw it makes before the end of its next turn. If the target doesn’t or can’t use this benefit in that time, the inspiration is lost.
• The elder brain targets one creature it can sense within 120 feet of it and anchors it by sheer force of will. The target must succeed on a DC24 Charisma saving throw or be unable to leave its current space. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Regional Effects

The territory within 5 miles of an elder brain is altered by the creature’s psionic presence, which creates one or more of the following effects:

• Creatures within 5 miles of an elder brain feel as if they are being followed, even when they are not.
• The elder brain can overhear any telepathic conversation happening within 5 miles of it. The creature that initiated the telepathic conversation makes a DC 19 Wisdom (Insight) check when telepathic contact is first established. If the check succeeds, the creature is aware that something is eavesdropping on the conversation. The nature of the eavesdropper isn’t revealed, and the elder brain can’t participate in the telepathic conversation unless it has formed a psychic link with the creature that initiated it.
• Any creature with which the elder brain has formed a psychic link hears faint, incomprehensible whispers in the deepest recesses of its mind. This psychic detritus consists of the elder brain’s stray thoughts commingled with those of other creatures to which it is linked.

If the elder brain dies, these effects immediately end.

11,500 XP