This is the second article of the Illithid War
As a matter of course, the Illithid tried to plant several colonies (basically, massive seeds) over Avamor. One of these fell in the arctic ice and died due to the extreme cold. Another three fell into various oceans, but were destroyed by the Dragonmagi, adventurers, or some of the more powerful creatures that live on the ocean floors (can anyone say, "Leviathan"?) while they were still "young." Two that fell on the southern continent were destroyed by the Dragonmage Verilon (a battle which contributed greatly to his insanity) and the Thri Kreen. One fell on the eastern side of the Escarpment, south of the Silver Forest, but was destroyed by the Elves and Dwarves within hours of its arrival (an undertaking which led to the self-imposed exile of Elven Prince Iayz Lih'ahier). Yet another fell in the Desert of Dreams, unnoticed by anyone save those few creatures that live there. Those governments that were aware of the problem at the time assumed that it was solved. For the Illithid, those other seeds, and their fledgling colonies, were sacrificed in order to help conceal the presence of the more successful Desert sprouting - even if it was planted in very poor soil and would take years to develope any significant ability to defend itself. During this time, secrecy was the Illithid's greatest asset. They used their time to begin infiltration of various governments and began burying or destroying any information that might lead to their home nest. They were very, very successful.
Several events occurred which gave the mind flayers a generous boost. First was the destruction of the Empire of the Hartland by Dread Lord Hazuer. Second was the continual flareups of conflict between Avernia and the Kingdom of the Shattered Lands. Third was the Witch-King Atu'an's seeming immortality, as he survived every attempt by multiple parties to end his existence. By himself, Atu'an kept the Freelands, Diaun, Dandria, Ralkstag, Caer Shalun, the Silver Forest, and Chakka-Kandr tied up. Fourth was the return of the Dwarves, known as the Servants of the Gods among the Kathnyri, to the Ironheart Mountains. All these events, and their consequences, kept all the interested parties too busy to follow up on reports of unusual deaths or disappearances.
Finally, a prophecy - called The Prophecy of the Seven - taken from a tome written by King Ular of Tesh (the Books of the Phoenix) came to light. This was the auspex the campaign began under - fulfilling this Prophecy.
My campaign world is very psionics-weak. I've made several attempts to incorporate psionics into it, and it has failed each time. I used the Illithid for several reasons. First, my own take on them would throw off veteran players. Second, I de-emphasized their psionic abilities. This is why my version of the Illithid is a lot physically tougher than the standard AD&D critter. Third, with the victory over the Illithid, psionic abilities will shortly be removed entirely from my campaign world.
For your own use, feel free to modify the listed mixes of psionic powers to suit your own campaign. Remember, these creatures can modify their own bodies and minds to suit any given task - so long as they have the time to adapt. Below are a couple of early ideas I tossed around. Feel free to use them yourself - just remember to give me credit!
Cloudwalkers - Have the Illithid establish their Hive on a cloud island. This would require Spawn and Illithid with flight capability. I rejected this idea early, since it would have made the Illithid far too tough for my PCs to handle. One of the good guys' greatest assets was the Dragons - which gave them tactical and strategic air superiority over the Illithid swarms. As aerial creatures, the Illithid would have decimated the Dragons in the War, ensuring their victory.
SeaSpawn - Several Illithid colonies fell in the oceans of Avamor. I debated having the surviving colony be aquatic. But as with the Cloudwalker idea, this would remove Draconic air power from the Allies' side. Besides, if the Illithid managed to incorporate Leviathans, Kraken (they're a lot tougher in my world than the standard AD&D stats), or, may the gods help them, a Sahaugin city, then it would've been a very short campaign. Oceans, especially those of Avamor, teem with life - which the Illithid view as raw materials for creating their own creatures. This would've given the budding Hive far too much manpower (creaturepower?) from the outset. Id've literally been able to drown the Allies' armies in Spawn.
For Avamor-originated life forms (not altered by the Tae-esh-naree), incorporation took about 1+ month(s)/HD, if the organism was captured alive. The usual range was 1 month/HD for something like a doppleganger to 4 months/HD for a Dragon. Those beings evolved from the Tae-esh-naree experiments (which is the vast majority of living things on Avamor, including all the known sentient races but Dragons and Unicorns), incorporation was measured in days or weeks. Actually growing these spawn was measured in days, taking longer for creatures with new abilities. Note that the Illithid could grow several thousand such organisms at once (exceptions being Battlecrabs, Floaters, and clones). When they started being able to produce Spawn with magical abilities, growing those took weeks. The Illithid showed no evidence of being able to incorporate extra-planar creatures (ta'anarii, gith, etc). Other notes about the incorporation of specific types of creatures are given under their description.
This ends the second article of the Illithid War.
Copyright 1998 by Guardian (RemoveThisTextGuardian(at)avamor(dot)net).