Epic Level Handbook

Advancement: 33–66 HD (Gargantuan); 67–112 HD(Colossal)Bizarre creatures best known for their unpleasanthabit of harvesting humanoid brains, whatever thewishes of their current owners, neh-thalggu (alsocalled brain collectors) endlessly prowl for additionsto their collections.Truly hideous in appearance, brain collectors havebloated, yellow-orange, oily bodies that spout dozensof short, writhing tentacles. Ten slightly longer tentaclesframe its lampreymouth, whichis filled with rowafter row of jaggedred teeth. Abovethe gaping maw arefour large, yellow,red-irised, bulgingeyes, behind whichcluster a number ofsquirming bulgesabout a foot across.These bulgeshouse the humanor humanoid brainsthe brain collectorhas harvested todate (up to thirteenbrains at a time),which it uses topower its own special abilities. Itmust discard oneof its currently“banked” brainsin order to replaceit with another.The creaturesmove withsurprising agilityon twelve segmentedcrablike legs(larger specimens have eighteen or even twenty-fourlegs, juveniles but six). Brain collectors lack fixed internalanatomies and can rearrange organ functions at will,making them very difficult to kill.Brain collectors hail from a distant reality known tosages only as the Far Realm or Nightmare Dimension.Occasionally juveniles (Large, 10 HD, AC 20) are encounteredin isolated locations, but fully grown specimenssuch as the one described here are quite rare. Both typesvisit mundane realms in order to harvest the brains theyneed to fully access their abilities. A juvenile will seizeany brains of characters 5th level and higher as opportunityarises, but an adult absorbs only the brains of arcanespellcasters of at least 15th level, passing along rejects toits less fussy mind flayer retainers. A creature whosebrain has been harvested by a brain collector cannot beraised, reincarnated, or resurrected while the brain is inthe creature, because the collector preserves and drawsupon the soul and basic personality of the creature for aslong as it retains the brain. A brain collector might be bargainedwith for the return of a specific brain, but only inexchange for a better (higher-level) specimen.Brain collectors typically attract a retinue of 1d4+1mind flayers, drawn by the desire to study the aberration’stechnique in extracting brains with ranged attacksand its ability to access the arcane brainpower of theassimilated brains.Some sages haveascribed the illithids’attraction tosimple self-interest(the illithids get toclaim the rejectsthat do not meetthe neh-thalggu’sdemanding specifications),others toan affinity almostamounting to worship.On rare occasionsa neh-thalgguis accompanied bya single paragonmind flayer swornto its service.Neh-thalggus’own language is asilent sign language“spoken”with their writhinghead-tentacles.They can also communicatetelepathicallywithany creature thathas a languagewithin 100 feet.COMBATNeh-thalggu are cunning and powerful, vigorously harvestingnew brains whenever they can do so withoutundue risk.Poison (Ex): A neh-thalggu’s bite injects a debilitatingpoison (DC 32) that damages the victim’s Constitution.She loses half her current Constitution immediatelyon a failed save and must save again 1 minute lateror lose half of her remaining Constitution. If the charactersurvives, she heals the ability damage at the normalrate (1 point per day).Head-Tentacles (Ex): The long, whiplike tentaclesthat frame either side of a brain collector’s face candeliver a dangerous touch attack that, if successful,causes the target to dehydrate and wither (2d10 points ofCHAPTER 5:MONSTERS207