Beth Lyons

Beholders, Theory and Practice

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Beth

Beholder in action

There’s this thing you gotta know about beholders. They have this middle eye, the big one, and it sends out an anti-magic ray, like all the time. Sure they blink, or in theory, they blink, but I don’t think I’ve seen it happen. Not that I’d ever seen a beholder in person before today. But man, do I hear about them. Like at least once a week someone’s gotta talk about how their friend was turned to stone by a beholder. Snore. I mean it’s an exciting story, once. After a couple dozen recitations, well, it loses something.

So here was a real life beholder. I was hanging towards the back. Old Buzz here likes life a little too much to be out there mixing it up with a monster. That doesn’t mean there’s not stuff I can do. I am a cleric, yeah?

Brus snuggles

So I came up beside Sadi, laid my hand on her quiver of arrows and blessed ’em. Knowing her, she’ll aim for the eyes and maybe I can give her a bit more “umph” with my spell.

As I’m finishing my spell, I hear this soothing voice talking. “Hello, little bear. Come here. I won’t hurt you….. That’s right. Good little bear…. Stay.”

Yeah. Creepy. That’s the thing about beholders. They are truly evil. Like why not just eat Brus? No, instead let’s make Ian real nervous and worried about his companion. That is so messed up.

All those nights around the campfire, Acgar would talk about the spells that a beholder possesses. Each of those eye stalks has a spell. And you can’t keep an eye on all of them. They wiggle around and suddenly — it’s looking right at you. Are you gonna explode or pee your pants? Or go give it a hug, like good old Brus there.

Some species are different, but Acgar says that the garden variety beholder usually packs these spells: destruction, flesh to stone,  sleep, slow, charm animals, charm humans, finger of death, fear, levitate, and inflict serious wounds. Wow. That’s a lot of hurt wiggling around waiting to go off.

Sadi hits

And don’t forget the big eye, with the anti-magic doo-dad. When he’s looking at you, your magic’s no good. I know Indira’s got a little summon monster spell up her sleeve, but how’s she gonna cast it with him looking at her?

And then, while I’m thinking this, Sadi goes and SMACK! She lands an arrow right in that middle eye. You can’t tell, but that anti-magic stuff? Done. Finished. Adios.

I heard Indira give a small cheer and then she moved into the room to take on the beholder.

….. to be continued.