Why do I court pain with such glee?
As when it comes to any large scale cultural stable, there's always a route of influence one can follow in order to pit see the evolutionary tract and genesis of modern entertainment or societal trends. Such is the case with the humble 'Role Playing Game' and the heart of Dungeons and Dragons that beats not-so-deep within that chest of theirs. That Tabletop game has remained one of the most well known and enduring pop-culture brands of all time, and unlike many with a history as long as theirs, Wizards of the Coast have endeavoured to forever keep Dungeons and Dragons resplendent with new editions, new content, and even iterations of their classic game system translated to new media. (Some of it is even good! The movies are not an example of that, however. Please stop with the movies.) My connection to Dungeons and Dragons is through the video game tracts, of course, thus I do find myself peeking in on what the original table top has going on for it in order to catch glimpse of things that could, or should, be disseminated to the other branches of DnD. And lately, oh boy have we seen a preview worth talking about.
The latter part of this year has seen plenty of teases from the tabletop side of DnD for quite the exciting reason, a new source book is in development and should be arriving before too long. Sourcebooks are essentially materials worth of DnD lore, be it characters, classes, historical events, or creatures that can serve as lore repositories for the thousands of Dungeon masters across the world as they make their games. Of course, part of the fun of DnD is that the adventure is your own and that anything read in a guidebook is subject to the whims of the DM and their decisions about whether or not it'll stay, but by putting out inspiration-sources every now and then, Wizards can help ensure that most stories still end up around the basic familiar framework that is Dungeons and Dragons. Maybe the game will be set on a homebrew new plane of existence, with brand new characters and world events, but if the creatures and combat are still somewhat based on the DnD source material, it's still their game deep down.
New sourcebooks can be exciting for everyone, a chance for whole new crazy concepts and ideas to help further enrich our imaginations or even, sometimes, to help expand upon our favourite DnD properties. The recent DnD campaign book 'Decent into Avernus', for example, was set within the city of Baldur's Gate, and at least partially touched upon events following those two games and acting as a prequel to the third. (So it's not all about feeding imagination, sometimes we get some cold, hard, lore bits) This coming book is not so story-heavy, however, 'Fizban's Treasure of Dragon' more acts as sort of a reference book which will go into great detail in explaining the many various different types of dragons that can appear within the DnD world, with some old favourites from previous editions of DnD bought back into the canon, and some brand new monstrosities drummed up from the pits for good measure.
Given the name of the game I'd imagine you don't find it too hard to imagine that Dragons are some of the most sought after creatures whenever it comes to expanding the lore, thus this has been a book of particular interest around the community. And for me, I've always been drawn to the narrative concept of 'dragons' and the typically final, sometime even pathos-heavy, role they serve within the 'hero's journey' archetype. And much more mechanically than that, I really like killing dragons in CRPG games, there's a primal thrill which comes from besting some huge, ageless, timeless beast with a motley crew of misfits that just can't be beat! So I'll admit to being interested in the new dragons, what kind of cool things they have going for them, and so a little preview of a couple aired in Dragon+ really caught my attention. Actually, it was one in particular. The one from the title. The Elder Brain Dragon.
So I probably just put a picture of the thing next to this paragraph. You see that? You've absorbed all what's going on there? Let me explain what you're looking at. So 'Elder Brains' are well known as the last stage in the life cycle for the Mind Flayers. (The lean, tentacle men from DnD that are based on Lovecraft's Cthulu) They are essentially giant brains, usually suspended above a pool of brine and baby illithid tadpoles, that serve as living centres of Mind Flayer cities. For how terrifyingly powerful just one of these brain eating monsters can be, going against an Elder Brain is like squaring up to an entire cities-worth of them, because often-times the hive mind of the Mind Flayer collective is centralised within the Elder Brain's sinewy neuro pathways, and so those blood-chillingly iconic psychic abilities are amplified tenfold from the brain. Now throw that ontop of a dragon and you have the worst thing ever.
You see, one of the only things that mark the weakness of an Elderbrain is the fact that for all of their power, they are immobile. They have to be kept forever suspended above a pool lest they are stranded. Also it's a brain, you typically don't want adventures whacking those with their pointy sticks. Only with the Elder Brian Dragon that is no longer the case. Fused with the being in some unknowable eldritch ritual, the guide describes the union thusly; "The Elder Brain forms a sac on the dragon's back and covers it with membrane and tentacles- it also extends tentacles into the dragon's brain to take control of it's body" So that's... horrible. One of the worst parts of this combination, if any of this is worse than the other parts, is that the dragon's breath now consists of a stream of brine with tadpoles. (significant because Illithid tadpoles are the things which worm into people's brains and begins to turn them into new Mind Flayers) This is an end of campaign boss even for a game based around Dragon Slaying, it's an Avengers level threat, it's the worst of the worst of the worst. And I want it in Baldur's Gate III.
For those who've somehow avoided it, don't worry I won't go into spoilers, but Baldur's Gate III has positioned itself heavily around the lore of Illithids, to the point where the logo is a Mind Flayers face sprawled around the roman numerical three. These tentacle lads are key to the story, their forced tadpole-fuelled metamorphism literally forms the main impetus for the first chapter of the plot and it very much seems like they're destined to be the final boss of whatever grand scheme is in wait for BGIII. But here's the thing, we've already seen Mindflayers in Baldur's Gate. 2 had a couple cities worth of them, and even a one-on-one fight with a an Elder Brain itself, and their species didn't even have a significant stake in that plot. So how will BGIII up-the-ante now that they have centre stage? How about by introducing an Illithid presence so horrifyingly powerful and unstoppable that no one in the Dungeons and Dragons community has ever faced it before? How about- the Elder Brain Dragon!
Of course, mechanically this would be a little weird as Baldur's Gate III has already been in full production for a few years and this Dragon book hasn't yet released but I have to think that Wizards of the Coast have lines of communication with Larian and it would be incredibly cool if the two studios envisioned this monster together. What's more, I'd seriously love to see something so gross envisioned in the cinematic style of BGIII, all grotesque and stomach-churning as it preens with the gaudy grace of a peacock, whilst stomping charred and malformed bones into the ruins of the Elfsong Tavern, all of which is just enough to make our adventurer seriously wonder "Am I really that invested in saving this place? Maybe it's just Baldur's Gate's time to go." (And god knows how much of a sucker I am for boss fights so tough that I tear my hair out) So there's my pitch. Either give us this as a final boss of the main game in BGIII or save it for DLC. (The latter proposition terrifies me, though, because if it's in the main game then Larian have to at least attempt to balance the thing.)
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