BEHOLD AND BE NOT AFRAID: The Mistaken Divinity Of The Beholder

 

The Eye from
The Baleful Gaze of Tabaldak's Geas
my 2025 Appendix N entry

This post by Gus L. over at All Dead Generations dovetails with a thought I had about a beholder kin which I used in my Appendix N Jam entry The Baleful Gaze of Tabaldak's Geas

The Secret of Bone Hill Is The Specter

The Specter is one monster I really like from L1:The Secret of Bone Hill. I imagine it's one of the first published "kin" of the beholder. It can be summoned by a magic-user using monster summoning V (~14th level magic-user to cast) and 3 small eyes from a beholder.

Stats-wise, it's HD 4+4, AC 15, and guards a magic item or something of at least 15,000gp in value. It has a few notable abilities as one might expect:

• Magic resistance of 5% (1:20) to all spells cast at it
• Its central eye can reflect 1 spell cast at it back to the caster
• Its four smaller eyes can cast: cause serious wounds (2d8+3), paralyzing ray (5d4 rounds), telepathy (implant suggestion), and create food & water.

Mana From (Approximately) Heaven For The (Hijacked) Masses

Create food & water really got my gears turning because why would some extraplanar monster need that spell? Sure, we could argue that a guardian being would pack in their own meals, but meh the hobby generally has allowed demons not to have to eat unless they want to. And how does create food & water align with this creature's main mission of guarding magic items?

What if this mini eye of terror is using create food & water to lure other dungeon creatures into protecting it- a sorta dungeon mutualism. Like ants that farm aphids. This allows the eye to extend its reach and power in a given location when it can't leave the thing it is guarding. 

This is why the orcs in the dungeon have a burning eye on their shields. Not because of some dark lord; they've just found god. And god is on the 4th level.

When this effect is combined with telepathy and paralyzing ray, or as an alternative fear, this mimics the "DO NOT FEAR ME!" feel of biblical angels. And now you have a reason for a dungeon faction- a cult of the eye.

But how large could this cult get? My preferred D&D, BX, separates the spells into create food and create water, but uses the exact same text. So let's calculate how many "normal humans" this spell can support. The text says:

Volume: Food sufficient for twelve humans and twelve mounts for one day is conjured.

If a standard mount is a horse, they require 6 times as much food as a single human (according to internet searches), so 1 horse equals 6 humans. So, 12 + (12 x 6) is ~84 humans- a true lair's worth!

Example

Thank goodness for the words of Sister Mary, the only blue-eyed one among us (a favored sign she says), who began writing the angel's rules down in a book she found once it started speaking to her heart directly. Take only the food and nothing more!- it directs.

And so each day the procession begins at noon. Two open the door. Mary announces our presence. Take only the food and nothing more! We respond in kind. Then four of us shuffle forward on hands and knees to retrieve the shields laden with sweet meats, fruits from divine gardens, and crystal goblets of water more crisp than any wine.

This is how we've escaped the horrible strife between the Wolf and the Hound? It was Mary who led us to the sorcerer's tower where she worked as a child, but no one has seen the wizard since before the war. Many say the holy eye drove him out, unable to stand the gaze of the divine.

It was Mary who pushed beyond the foryer once food ran low and the sickness began. She found the inner sanctum that held the angel. Praise THE EYE! Proof the gods smile on us as long as they don't touch the flaming sword, it hovers above-- but no worries Sister Mary says the chosen one should be arriving soon...very soon...