D&D Adventures 13: Beholder

Vellurith is the ancient game that powerful Beholders play. Whether by luck or by design, multiple goals of Vellurith are accomplished. Each winner, for their reward, were given a prophetic revelation by a spectral beholder visage: The uplifting of Beholder race is coming and only the best, strongest of their kind needs to be left alive for the next stage. Not seeing any of their kind worthy plus the potential of being the next progenitor of the new generation of Beholders means one thing: Each Beholder wants to kill the rest of them.

Beholder, a D&D enemy so iconic that it was on the cover of Monster Manual for D&D

And thus, the War of Eyes begin.

The world of Fearun is shaken in an event that rivals ones like the Time of Troubles.

This is an open idea that can be used in many, many ways. Not all goals are accomplished at the same time. So, there is an initial phase where there are only a couple of beholders who were given the revelation. In later phases, there are several, which starts the War of Eyes.

So, you could use the first phase when there isn’t much going on. In fact — maybe the party can be tasked with killing one of the beholders playing the game, to prevent the War of Eyes from happening. You can also use the later phases, which can be incredibly influential on the world.

Goes without saying, it could be a campaign that starts in the early phases, maybe the party even succeeds killing the first beholder who receives the revelation, but then learn there are others — so the campaign could be going after Vellurith players.

Since beholders rarely work together, they would end up recruiting or forcing all sorts of enemies, making the campaign or relevant quests very colorful, allowing use of a wide range of enemies.

I’m listing some more ideas below

What might be done by different beholders in this period:

• Start cults, activate existing cults
• Hoard magic, political power, find allies in other races
• Sic adventurers or other potential enemies on other beholders
• Disappear for a while, to let others kill each other

Plot Twists:

• It isn’t Great Mother who speaks, but Xroon. Having ascended, he sees how beholderkind is faulty and knows Great Mother is unlikely to interfere. Does he hope beholders to understand their folly? Is it hatred against them? Is there another plan?
• It isn’t Great Mother who speaks, but an enemy of beholders.
• It isn’t Great Mother who speaks. A beholder who might or might not have accomplished a Vellurith goal lies about the revelation and spreads the word. Maybe they just want the social statue that comes with goal accomplishment and does not think about the consequences, maybe there is a goal