THE EYE TYRANTS
CHAPTER 3
Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 11), prestidigitation, speak with animals (burrowing mammal only, duration 1 minute). Wizard Spells Prepared (caster level 11th; prohibited schools abjuration and enchantment): 0—detect magic, ghost sound (2) (DC 16), light, read magic; 1st—color spray (2) (DC 17), identify, silent image (2) (DC 17), Tenser’s floating disk; 2nd—darkvision, locate object, minor image (2) (DC 18), mirror image, whispering wind; 3rd—arcane sight, gentle repose, major image (2) (DC 19), tongues (2); 4th—illusory wall (2) (DC 20), Otiluke’s resilient sphere (2) (DC 18), scrying (DC 18); 5th—persistent image (DC 21), Rary’s telepathic bond, wall of stone (DC 19 to avoid entrapment); 6th—legend lore, permanent image (DC 22). Spellbook: Ilirik’s spellbook contains only those spells he has prepared; these are the few spells Sekarvu allows Ilirik to keep. Possessions: Small dagger, headband of intellect +2, 4 potions of cure moderate wounds, 2 potions of lesser restoration, 2 potions of neutralize poison, spellbook, simple robes.
7. SEKARVU’S INNERMOST VAULT (EL 15)
This large chamber is quite impressive; the walls and ceiling are covered with intricate carvings depicting beholders eating humanoids, and vast fields of mushrooms with writhing tendrils. On the ceiling above, the image of a single immense beholder watches everything. Two large, uneven stalagmites protrude from the floor along the northeastern wall, and to the south stand several well-made statues of powerful-looking adventurers and fearsome monsters. In the center of the room sit numerous desks, each of which is covered with mounds of papers and books.
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This chamber is Sekarvu’s personal lair, and where it spends the majority of its time. If the PCs have not yet encountered the beholder, they find it here. Sekarvu keeps an additional pair of charmed ropers here as guardians; these are the two “stalagmites” to the northeast. Their positions allow them to attack anywhere in the room with their strands. In addition, Sekarvu defends its lair with ferocious rage. The prospect of defeat is as alien to it as is the concept of friendship, and it fights to the death. The tables in the center of the room are covered with Ilirik’s spell research notes from the past several years. Sekarvu spends much of its time studying these notes and basking in the magic they represent. The DM can place any number of new, unusual, or unique arcane illusion spells in this mass of notes. The statues to the south are the remains of creatures petrified by the beholder. None of the statues retains its original form, though, for Sekarvu has used its disintegrate eye ray on them to sculpt them into finer poses or to change their faces to look more like its own visage. If any of these bodies are restored to flesh, they die immediately. If a creature is raised, its personality, statistics, and purpose are left to the DM. The southernmost statue, a halfling with a large central eye for a face, sits over a small hollow in the ground (Search DC 25
to discover). The PCs must move the 300-pound statue before they can investigate the hollow, which contains Sekarvu’s treasure. Inside the hole is 8,025 gp, 521 pp, 15 gems (worth a total of 5,510 gp), a bottle of air, a +1 bastard sword, a pair of boots of the winterlands, pipes of haunting, and a sword of subtlety. Sekarvu, Beholder: hp 93; Monster Manual page 26. Sekarvu’s feats and skills are slightly different than those of a standard beholder, as detailed below. Skills and Feats: Craft (sculpting) +10, Knowledge (arcana) +17, Listen +18, Search +21, Spot +22; AlertnessB, Disintegration Finesse†, Flyby Attack, Great Fortitude, Iron Will. † New feat described on page 44.
CULT OF THE HUNGRY EYE Akeni was born a servant to a powerful drow family deep underground, but her personality was anything but servile. When she was caught in an affair with the house matron’s mate, she killed the matron and her own paramour and fled, eventually stumbling into the lair of a powerful beholder mage named Ormathulak. Akeni knew immediately that the creature was just the ally she needed to wipe out her hated family. Ormathulak found her difficult to charm, but just as it was about to kill and eat her instead, the drow pledged her loyalty to the beholder in return for its support. Ormathulak was impressed with her bravery and imperious attitude and agreed on one condition: She must submit to the test of the Hungry Eye. Akeni agreed, and after a grueling 20 hours of torture and grafting, she emerged with a beholder’s eye grafted to her forehead and a newfound adoration for both Ormathulak and the Great Mother. Ormathulak promised to help her destroy her family’s house if she would first aid the beholder in the creation of a large network of cult bases on the surface. Akeni agreed and set out for the surface world without a second thought. She took the first three letters of her patron’s name as her surname and has since established no fewer than nine beholder cults. She left each cult in the care of a charismatic individual who’d been fully brainwashed and converted to her cause. Her tenth cult is nearing completion and is based in the Lost Gull, a roadside tavern perched atop a sea cliff. Akeni has converted the owners of the tavern along with most of its regular patrons, but none of them are charismatic enough to serve as a proxy leader. As soon as she finds her proxy, though, she plans to return to Ormathulak to report her success.
ADVENTURE HOOK The PCs can become involved in the machinations of the Cult of the Hungry Eye in many ways. They might simply stop at the Lost Gull for a drink, or they might arrive seeking a regular patron who hasn’t come home for several days. Akeni takes note of any charismatic PC and tries to kidnap him or her and use her magic to convert that character to her cause. As the PCs approach the tavern, read or paraphrase the following description.
