Page 41 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

through the creature’s body by the pulsations of the lung. Once by observing magic creatures like constructs or spellcasters,
the nutrients and oxygen provided by the fluid are completely by gazing upon ancient relics and minor magic baubles, and

consumed, the waste liquid drains back into the beholder’s by simply reading or studying spellbooks. It can even absorb
cavernous maw. It is then expelled or, more often, it dribbles magic from watching its own eye rays, recycling the power
out in a constant stream of foul-smelling drool. A beholder that back into its brain as it uses them.
goes without food grows more lethargic as its body begins to The amount of magical energy the eyes absorb is miniscule;
dry out. a beholder could study the same magic missile scroll nonstop
Anything a beholder finds indigestible is either vomited for months before the study would render the scroll useless.

back up and spat out or slowly absorbed into the lining of its The more powerful and permanent the magic is, the longer
it takes to absorb. Further, beholders build up tolerances to
stomach and eventually embedded in the inside surface of its
CHAPTER 3 THE EYE TYRANTS Reproductive System magic of the same variety. A beholder would gain much less
“skeleton.”
magical energy from studying a single pair of winged boots over
the course of a week than it would from studying an entire
library full of arcane tomes. A beholder that goes without
Beholders are gender neutral, and they become fertile only
once in their lives. During this period (which happens

within the first forty years of a beholder’s life), the creature a steady supply of new magic to study grows cantankerous
and paranoid. More than any sense of greed, this forces the
grows increasingly more erratic and paranoid in behavior. A creature to hoard magic items as treasure or to seek out ruins,
strange ovoid organ (6) below the back of the creature’s tongue dungeons, and other repositories of powerful magic.
grows large and swollen; this is the creature’s womb. A typical A beholder’s brain is quite large. Much of it consists of two
beholder gestates up to twelve young in its womb over a period lobes that descend down to the left and right like horns. These
of nearly six months, during which time it grows more and are known as dweomerlobes, and it is here that magical energy
more active and cantankerous. A pregnant beholder eats nearly is stored and amplified.

four times its normal amount of food for the first four months

of its term, storing up food reserves in its stomach, intestines, THE BEHOLDER’S MIND
and even its lung. During the final two months, the creature’s A beholder’s mind, like its body, is alien to the natural world

womb has swollen so large that its mouth becomes incapable of and actually consists of two separate, independent minds.
swallowing more food, and its tongue protrudes grossly from These minds can be categorized as the rational mind and the
its maw. A beholder is at its most paranoid during this time intuitive mind. Having two minds does not give a beholder any
and remains hidden in its lair until it gives birth. sort of tactical or magical advantage; if anything, it is perhaps
The birthing of new beholders is a sight that few have the monster’s greatest disadvantage.
witnessed, and by all accounts, it’s something that even The rational mind is a coldly logical machine that clas-

fewer would want to witness. When a brood comes to term, sifies information into forms and shapes that a beholder
a beholder’s jaw unhinges, and it regurgitates its womb out can assimilate. It stores plans, magical knowledge, personal
through the mouth. The creature bites the womb off, and it rationalizations, memories, and goals.

floats gently in the air. The young beholders are forced to chew The intuitive mind consists of what a beholder sees. It sorts
their way out of the gory mass to freedom; they are capable of what it observes to determine what can and cannot be passed

flight immediately, but their eye powers develop later in life. on to the rational mind. Here, a beholder keeps suppressed
Although a beholder gives birth to up to a dozen young at memories and suppressed knowledge, details of past failures,
once, only a handful survive. The parent observes its young and theories that would shatter its rational mind.
and decides which look most like itself. The others are eaten In the gulf that exists between a beholder’s two minds lurk
by the ravenous parent, along with the discarded womb, and its paranoia and xenophobia. Beholders are considered to be
the surviving young are forced from the parent’s lair within insane, but not all beholders suffer from the side effects of
the hour to fend for themselves. having two minds. In some, their rational and intuitive minds
work together to assimilate thoughts and plans without hiding
Central Nervous System truth and knowledge. These beholders are considered sane,
A beholder’s intense magical power and energy are gathered and they can interact with other creatures in a nondestructive
and directed in the internal organs that comprise its nervous manner, although they remain just as capable of cruelty and
system and brain (7). Some theorize that beholders gather magi- sadism as the more common variety. (See Beholder Society,
cal energy from the bodies of spellcasting creatures they’ve below, for more details.)
eaten, while others believe that they simply absorb ambient
magic from the environment.
In fact, a beholder’s vast store of magical power is directly BEHOLDER LIFE
connected to its eyes. Just as the creature’s braided optic nerves Theoretically, a beholder can live for more than a hundred

transmit light to the brain to allow sight, so do the eyes transmit years. In practice, though, only a few survive their first decade,
magic to the brain for storage and augmentation. A beholder since beholders spend their early years exploring and seeking
can absorb magical energy by looking at spell effects in action, a proper lair.
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