Page 51 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

itself simply observes them rather than watching the entire here in peace, without the presence of a single hive mother
city as a whole. or overseer. Their hatred is held in check by an even more
Of course, the multiverse is infinite, so some beholder hive ancient and more powerful race that has hidden plans for

cities across the planes conform to other rules. Three examples the city.
of alternate beholder hive cities are described below. In a remote corner of an unknown world on the Material
In the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting, located deep below the Plane lies the massive beholder hive city of Kaggash. This
desert Anauroch in a great bell-shaped cavern, lies the city surface city is of unprecedented size, with a beholder popu-
of Ooltul. Nearly 450 beholders and beholder mages live lation of about two thousand, and is located on a volcanic,
mist-shrouded island. Rumor holds that ten or possibly more
allied hive mothers jointly rule Kaggash.
CHAPTER 3 THE EYE TYRANTS The beholder hive city Kaggash This massive spire is honeycombed with
Somewhere on the cold, barren slopes of Mungoth, the third
layer of Gehenna, looms the beholder hive-tower of Uldinath.

tunnels and is home to a hive of nearly three
hundred half-fiend director beholderkin

bonded to bonespears (Fiend Folio page
24). Uldinath is ruled by Tchkarthu,

a half-fiend elder orb and 20th-level sor-
cerer. Tchkarthu desires to gain the power
to command beholders as a hive mother
does, and given its resources, it might

just find what it seeks.
LAIRS
A typical beholder lair
consists of a winding maze
of passageways bored
through solid rock with
disintegrate eye rays.
These tunnels tend to
be perfectly smooth
and round, with a 10-
foot radius. Beholders
know that their ability
to fly gives them a dis-

tinct tactical advantage,
so most lairs incorporate
a large number of vertical
shafts. This hinders intrud-
ers attempting to penetrate
the lair and keeps prisoners
from easily escaping.
A typical lair consists of three
to five additional chambers. The far-

thest chamber from the entrance is the
beholder’s personal quarters, where the
creature sleeps and studies any magic
treasure it has accumulated. Beholders are
too arrogant to incorporate escape tunnels
into their quarters; doing so only invites an
invasion on multiple fronts. In any case,
a beholder can quickly create its own
escape tunnel, if need be, with its
disintegrate eye ray. Between the

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