Page 48 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

be mistaken for a live beholder; a DC 30 Spot check reveals the perfect in mind and body as the Great Mother. Each beholder
truth but offers no additional protection from the beholder’s vividly recalls its birth not as the event occurred, but as if it
eye rays. had been spawned personally by the Great Mother herself.
A beholder can reflect and amplify any of its eye rays off the Each beholder also believes to the core of its being that it

surface of the mirror, effectively firing the ray from the location personifies the closest approximation the flesh can hope for
of the mirror rather than from its eye. The beholder needs line in replicating the true majesty of the Great Mother. All others

of sight to the mirror, but not line of effect. If it fires a ray at are pretenders that must be destroyed, for each moment that
an object it cannot see from its actual location or the mirror’s another beholder lives is an insult to the Great Mother. To a
location, the target gains the benefit of total concealment. It beholder, there is no greater way to demonstrate its faith than

is possible for a beholder to redirect its eye ray attacks around to slaughter and kill.
numerous corners if multiple sphere mirrors are used, as long
as no two mirrors are more than 60 feet apart. A beholder must LANGUAGE
use a standard action to focus on a sphere mirror, and can use All beholders can speak Common, mostly so they can inter- TYRANTS THE EYE CHAPTER 3

only one eye ray per round when employing this magic item. rogate and menace anyone they capture alive. Beholders find
Attacks made against the beholder’s reflected image do not it crude and debasing to speak in this language (or any other

harm the beholder, although they might damage the mirror nonbeholder language), as if the mere act of speaking in
itself, which has hardness 10 and 30 hit points. another creature’s language acknowledges that race’s creativity
A beholder cannot use a sphere mirror if its central eye is and intelligence. For this reason, beholders prefer to speak in
open. their own native tongue.
Strong illusion; CL 13th; Craft Wondrous Item, project image; The language of beholders is difficult, but not impossible,

Price 91,000 gp; Weight 20 lb. for humanoids to understand and speak. Beholder is a guttural
language that incorporates plenty of lip-smacking, gurgling,
and slobbering. A lengthy conversation between two beholders
BEHOLDER SOCIETY that don’t immediately try to kill each other can quickly douse
Although beholders are dangerous, powerful creatures, one the surrounding area with drool and worse.
factor above all others has played a key role in preventing Strangely, the beholder language does not include a word
them from establishing dominance over large portions of the for the name of their species. The term “beholder” is an

world. Beholders are, by any definition of the word, insane. appellation granted to the race by those they deem inferior.
Spawned from an insane deity and spending all their days Each beholder finds the idea of belonging to a beholder “race”

filled with hate and wrath, beholders have minds that are disgusting, assuming that it is a one-of-a-kind representation

as fragmented as any intelligence can be. This insanity does of the Great Mother. On the rare occasion that one beholder
not breed chaos; rather, it drives each beholder to adhere to a befriends another, it typically refers to the other by its own
strict pattern that forces it to consider all other forms of life name, perhaps the greatest way it can respect another.
inferior and insulting. Beholder names are long, complicated, and slobbery to

As a result, beholders are hateful and aggressive in their pronounce; a beholder typically names itself within the first
relations with all other creatures. Ironically, it is toward other year of its life. Sample beholder names include Blorghathus,
beholders (and especially beholderkin) that this hatred is the Gazriktak, Irixis, Ixahinon, Khuxristul, Kreskalat, Murlbal-
strongest. A beholder typically views nonbeholders as a neces- bluthk, Qeqtoxii, Sespetoxri, Sikrewxes, Vhalantru, Xanathar,
sary evil—stock to gather and command in its never-ending Zommist, and Zulnethrak. Rarely, a sane beholder that estab-
quest to eradicate other beholders and their ilk. Although a lishes itself as the leader of a guild of lesser beings adopts a
beholder is completely logical and organized in its efforts, its more easily pronounceable name formed in the language of
goals remain insane. its minions. Sample names of this type include Cinderglare,
Eyebiter, Gobblegut, Manglecramps, Orbius, and Slatherjaw.
RELIGION
Beholders almost never become clerics. They lack the inter- RELATIONS WITH
est to devote their lives to higher powers, and in truth, their OTHER CREATURES
minds simply cannot conceive of doing so. The fact that their A beholder (sane or otherwise) tends to place members of

antimagic eye disrupts their own magic is another reason they nonbeholder species in one of five categories.
avoid the clerical path. Yet beholders are not atheists; they live Powerful: The creature in question is something that the
every moment in constant devotion to an ageless entity known beholder admits is equally powerful or even more powerful
as the Great Mother. than itself. This category is by far the smallest, and beholders
From birth, beholders know that they came not from their avoid these creatures completely rather than confront them.
parent, who disavows them and turns on them as an enemy, Examples include storm giants, outsiders with more than 16 Hit
but from an ancient being known as the Great Mother. To Dice, powerful liches or vampires, most dragons, and deities.
beholders, the Great Mother epitomizes the truth. All else is Dangerous: This category includes creatures that the
imperfection, and as a result, each beholder strives to become as beholder admits can cause it grievous injury or disrupt its
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