I love illithids. Don't we all? When looking through the Astromundi Cluster boxed set, I came across the Sunslayer and the illithid's motives. This has given me an idea for a dynamic campaign, but there are non-SJ materials needed, and it takes a while to explain. Bear with me, and I'd like some feedback. This idea is still in the fetal stage. Note my names for some things are going to be very generic, so bear with me.
Materials I'm drawing from: Astromundi Cluster; Night Below; I, Tyrant; The gates of Firestorm Peak.
This all takes place in GenericSpace on its main planet, Erth. Far below the crust, the Aboleth (night below) are attempting to build a massive tower to extend their powers of domination across the world and thus enslave all of Erth. Employed by the aboleth to some extent are the illithids, who act as go betweens.
Now the illithids have been secretly planning with the beholders (whom the aboleth know very little about), and have a plan. Queqtoxii (the renegade elder orb beholder from I, Tyrant) has rediscovered blueprints for making the gigantic beholder-shaped planet destroying ship. Q wants to overthrow his hive mother and use the illithds to help build it. The illithids agree.
Madreus (gates of firestorm peak) operates in a nearby mountain with links to the Underdark. He has been contacting an alien Far Realm as his source of power. This mage has the ability to disrupt the rising of the Beholder Ship, and so the illithids have been making negotiaions with him to keep him out of this.
Now here's its releveance to SJ:
The beholders knock off their hive mother, and Q builds the ship. Madreus, if alive, allows it to fly, and it is met in Wildspace by a contingent of nautiloids and dreadnoughts, its illithid escort. Q decides to test his ship on Erth, and as the weapon is charging, the illithids use a flaw they built into the design to disable the weapon, and use traps and such built into the ship to kill off the beholders. After weeks of battle, the illithids now have the most powerful ship in the Known Spheres (not counting the Spelljammer). The illithids take their illithid ships and dock them in the Great Tyrant, and use normal tyrant ships instead to simulate the appearance of beholders. Using this, the gather the parts of the Sunslayer (the ones that aren't in astromundi). Then they go to astromundi and destroy its primary sun, leaving in its wake a vicious war between beholders and all the other races.
Then the illithids in the Great Tyrant ship go sphere to sphere, killing suns and enslaving planets. Those planets that don't surrender are destroyed.
The PCs start as groundlings. There should be two or three PC groups. One gets pulled into the Night Below campaign, and in the end of that kill off the aboleth (which is good for the Illithids). Another group goes through I, Tyrant. They help Q take over the hive, and if they kill him, another ambitious beholder takes his spot. The third group goes through the Gates Of Firestorm Peak. If they're successful, they stop Madreus and he poses no problem to the illithids. If they fail, then the illithids still have a contract with Madreus. At around 12th level the PCs will all meet back together, and they'll see the Great Tyrant rise. One of the PCs (preferrably female, it just seems better) has discovered the plot of the illithids in part, and rallys the others into taking to space. The PCs do so immediately. In space they seek to stop the illithids.
What weapon could the PCs use against the illithids? An elven fleet? A mulit-race navy? The Spelljammer? A Witchlight Marauder?
These options will each present themselves to the PCs, who will pursue one with their little fleet of ships. Then it all ends in an incredible space battle between illithid and PC, perhaps with some PCs boarding the ship and trying to disable it from within.
