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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BLACKDIRGE" data-source="post: 924677" data-attributes="member: 1953">Howdy all, sorry for the lack of updates. Xavanax is an advanced beholder with the Ju-Ju zombie template from The Unapproachable East. In addition I have included a new beholder template similar to the hag coven at the end of the background material.Dirge*************************************************XavanaxAdvanced Ju-Ju Zombie BeholderLarge UndeadHit Dice: 15d12+3 (135 hp)Initiative: +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative) Speed: 5 ft., Fly 20 ft. (good)AC: 24 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +13 natural)Attacks: Eye rays +11 ranged touch, bite +7 meleeDamage: Bite 2d4+3Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5-ft./5 ft.Special Attacks: Eye raysSpecial Qualities: All-around vision, antimagic cone, fly, DR 5/slashing, turn resistance +4, immunities, undeadSaves: Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +11Abilities: Str 14, Dex 14, Con --, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 17 Skills: Hide +10, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (arcana) +16, Listen +17, Search +20, Sense Motive +11, Spot +21Feats: Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Toughness, Dodge, Mobility, Shot on the Run, Ability Focus (disintegrate eye ray), Ability Focus (finger of death eye ray), Ability Focus (flesh to stone eye ray)Climate/Terrain: AnyOrganization: SolitaryChallenge Rating: 17Alignment: Neutral EvilEye Rays (Su): Each of the ten small eyes can produce a magical ray once a round, even when Xavanax is attacking physically or moving at full speed. Xavanax can easily aim all its eyes upward, but its own body tends to get in the way when it tries to aim the rays in other directions. During a round, Xavanax can aim only three eye rays at targets in any one arc other than up (forward, backward, left, right, or down). The remaining eyes must aim at targets in other arcs or not at all. Xavanax can tilt and pan its body each round to change which rays it can bring to bear in an arc. Each eye's effect resembles a spell cast by a 15th-level sorcerer but follows the rules for a ray. All rays have a range of 150 feet and a save DC of 20, with the exception of the disintegrate, finger of death, and flesh to stone rays which have a save DC of 22. Charm Person: The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by the spell. Beholders use this ray to confuse the opposition, usually employing it early in a fight. The beholder generally instructs a charmed target to either restrain a comrade or stand aside. Charm Monster: The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by the spell. Beholders use this ray in the same manner as the charm person ray. Sleep: This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature with any number of Hit Dice. The target must succeed at a Will save to resist. Beholders like to use this ray against warriors and other physically powerful creatures. They know their foes can quickly awaken the sleepers, but they also know that doing so takes time and can delay an effective counterattack. Flesh to Stone: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be affected as though by the spell. Beholders like to aim this ray at enemy spellcasters. They also use it on any creature whose appearance they find interesting. (After the fight, the beholder takes the statue to its lair as a decoration.) Disintegrate: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be affected as though by the spell. The beholder likes to use this ray on any foe it considers a real threat. Fear: This works like the spell, except that it targets one creature. The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by the spell. Beholders like to use this ray against warriors and other powerful creatures early in a fight, to break up the opposition. Slow: This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature. The target must make a Will save to resist. Beholders often use this ray against the same creature targeted by their disintegrate, flesh to stone, or finger of death rays. If one of the former rays fails to eliminate the foe, this ray might at least hamper it. Inflict Moderate Wounds: This works just like the spell, causing 2d8+10 points of damage (Will half). Finger of Death: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be slain as though by the spell. The target suffers 3d6+13 damage if his saving throw succeeds. Beholders use this ray to eliminate dangerous foes quickly. Telekinesis: The beholder can move objects or creatures that weigh up to 375 pounds, as though with a telekinesis spell. Creatures can resist the effect with a successful Will save. All-Around Vision (Ex): Beholders are exceptionally alert and circumspect. Their many eyes give them a +4 racial bonus to Spot and Search checks, and they can't be flanked.Antimagic Cone (Su): A beholder's central eye continually produces a 150-foot antimagic cone extending straight ahead from the creature's front. This functions just like antimagic field cast by a 15th-level sorcerer. All magical and supernatural powers and effects within the cone are suppressed-even the beholder's own eye rays. Once each round, during its turn, the beholder decides which way it will face, and whether the antimagic cone is active or not (the beholder deactivates the cone by shutting its central eye). Note that a beholder can bite only creatures to its front.Flight (Ex): A beholder's body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows it to fly as the spell, as a free action, at a speed of 20 feet. This buoyancy also grants it a permanent feather fall effect with personal range.Immunities (Ex): Xavanax is immune to magic missile and electricity damage.Undead: Xavanax is immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and disease. He is not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain, or death from massive damage.There are few creatures more paranoid and xenophobic than the dreaded beholder. Unlike many other evil monsters the “Eye Tyrant”, as they are sometimes called, finds the company of all creatures even its own kind repugnant and unwanted. Fiercely territorial, beholders defend their lairs and the surrounding area with an unassailable zeal that has spelled certain doom for many an adventuring band. This aggressive nature is doubly evident when a beholder encounters another of its kind in its home territory. These encounters lead to epic battles that often result in the death of both beholders, and for this reason, the arrogant and over confident eye tyrant, fears little beyond its own kind. On the rare occasion that a group of beholders can put aside their natural tendencies for a while and cooperate they can form a powerful but little known magical coterie, the Beholder Syndicate. A syndicate contains three beholders who have enacted an ancient and obscure ritual handed down over the millennia by the malignant beholder deity known only as the Great Mother. The ritual allows the three beholders to link minds and when needed function as a single being, combining their formidable intellects and willpower into a staggeringly powerful super mind. In addition the bizarre magic of the syndicate joining grants its members a host of additional magical powers on top of their already vast array of abilities. These “Syndicates” often control vast criminal networks in large cities or rule over various human beholder cults. One such syndicate, headed by a powerful beholder named Xavanax controlled the thieves’ guild in the Faerunian city of Baldur’s Gate. For decades Xavanax along with the other members of his syndicate Xevox and Xezex manipulated the guildmaster of the Angry Knife thieves guild, compelling the aging thief to mount daring raids on city nobles and authority figures. Xavanax was obsessed with the accumulation of magical items, specifically seeking those that might prolong his life, and the Angry Knife guild saw to it that a steady influx of stolen goods found their way into Xavanax and his Syndicate’s horde. Paranoid to a point that even other beholders found him irrational, Xavanax feared that the end of his life was drawing near and desperately sought a way to stave off death. So desperate was Xavanax that the innate caution of beholder kind was overridden when his two associates offered him just the solution he was looking for. Xevox, the youngest beholder of the Syndicate was a devout follower of Gzemnid, and obscure beholder deity with dominion over illusion and trickery. Xevox had grown tired of Xavanax’s paranoia and sought a way to dispose of the elder beholder. Xevox knew that he stood no chance against Xavanax in a stand up fight and so after lengthy prayer and meditation he received the answer from his fickle god. Xevox knew he would need help to see his scheme come to fruition and enlisted the aid of Xezex the third member of the beholder triumvirate. Xezex was intrigued with Xevox’s plan, which was to transform Xavanax into a death tyrant, a mindless undead beholder that could be controlled with ease. The transformation would of course break the magic of the Syndicate but would provide its two surviving members with a powerful weapon against their enemies. Although the three beholders were linked via a group mind, Xevox and Xezex were able to keep their plan a secret due in large part to Xavanax’s obsession and unwillingness to focus on anything beyond the accumulation of magic and lore that would increase his life span. When Xevox approached Xavanax with the lie he had concocted regarding a possible transformation into undeath and immortality, Xavanax was eager and receptive to the young beholder's words. Xevox twisted the truth of the death tyrant ritual, advising Xavanax that he would be transformed into a lich-like state that would increase his power tenfold. Xavanax ordered Xevox and Xezex to immediately begin preparation for the ritual, not even bothering to question the two subordinate beholders motives in increasing the personal power of their leader far beyond the scope of their own abilities. Xavanax was truly blinded by his fanatical obsession and ultimately it led to his downfall and the collapse of the entire syndicate. The ritual was rather simple, requiring little more than the freshly slain corpse of a sentient creature, which would be consumed during the ritual, and a few crude utterings in the ancient “dark speech” which had been taught to Xevox by his patron deity, Gzemnid. Xavanax was more than eager to enact the ritual, and on the 4th day of Uktar took his place in the center of a mystic circle cut into the stone of their underground layer with Xevox’s disintegrate ray, while the young beholder chanted the words of power that would grant Xavanax everlasting life. The ritual worked but the outcome was not what either Xavanax or Xevox expected.As the dark energies summoned by Xevox swirled within the circle of power, Xavanax felt the life essence draining from his body and panicked. So afraid of death was the elder beholder that even the everlasting promise of undeath unnerved him completely. Frantic, Xavanax fled the circle just as Xevox finished his last guttural incantation. The culmination of the ritual caught Xavanax half in and half out of the mystic circle and his body was smote with crackling black arcs of negative energy, killing him instantly. Xevox and Xezex, after they had recovered from the chaotic end to their ritual, floated over to the lifeless orb that was Xavanax. Xevox grinned as he saw the limp eyestalks of Xavanax suddenly stir and began writhing slowly, his plan had come full circle, he and Xezex now had a near unstoppable force at their disposal, an undead beholder. But as Xezex drew closer to the slowly awaking abomination he had created, something strange and unforeseen tugged at the edge of the beholder’s brain. He could still feel Xavanax’s mind through the union of the Syndicate, a bond that should have been broken once Xavanax was transformed into a death tyrant, a mindless creature. Sudden realization flooded through Xevox and he shut his central eye to negate his continual antimagic cone, snapping his most deadly eye stalks towards Xavanax’s crumpled form; but he was too late. The magic of the ritual had indeed transformed Xavanax into an undead creature but not the death tyrant that Xevox and Xezex had been hoping for. Xavanax’s mad flight from the circle at the end of the ritual had flawed the dark magic that had coalesced within and had left Xavanax's mind mostly intact. Momentarily stunned the newly undead beholder had lain silent while the minds of his two former associates filled his own with their excited thoughts. Rage burned within Xavanax as the plans of Xevox and Xezex, laid bare by the magic of the syndicate, revealed what had truly been in store for him. Xavanax lay quietly, moving his eye stalks in his best imitation of a mindless thrall and waited for Xevox to approach. The young beholder foolishly floated in to examine his handiwork and as he realized that his plans had failed tried to bring his eye stalks to bear on Xavanax, but the elder beholder had been waiting for him and was far faster.A pale line of hellish green fire shot from Xavanax’s 4th eyestalk, immolating Xevox in flickering jade flames. The flames died almost instantly leaving a solid stone replica of Xevox hanging in the young beholders place, mouth agape in fear and confusion. For half a heartbeat the stone beholder hung suspended 10 ft from the ground before finally succumbing to gravity and smashing to countless pieces on the unforgiving granite floor of the subterranean chamber. Xezex who had witnessed the short exchange between Xavanax and Xevox watched in stunned horror as the thing that was once Xavanax rose from the ground and turned its great, burning central eye upon him. Dread filled Xezex and he raced towards the ceiling to escape the effects of Xavanax’s antimagic cone. Poised above his undead adversary, Xezex panned his body to bring all his eyes stalks to bear on Xavanax and unleashed a fusillade of rays upon the advancing beholder. With a grace the belied his scarred and withered body, Xavanax dodged most of the deadly lines of magic while the few that struck him seemed to have no effect on his newly undead form. Helpless with fear and the seemingly ineffectiveness of his eye rays, Xezex attempted to flee but was struck from behind by an unerring ray from Xavanax, as dashed towards the circular egress in the chambers ceiling. Xevox’s body was momentarily outlined in a fiery yellow light before vanishing completely, leaving only a small pile of dust to bear witness that he had ever existed at all. Uncontested Xavanax floated from the chamber his mind awhirl with pain and loss. His thoughts were a jumble and the staggering mental faculty he had always relied upon was suddenly and horribly gone. Xavanax fled the underground complex that had served as the home of himself and his syndicate for nearly a decade, retreating to the lightless tunnels of the underdark to ponder the ramifications of his new and terrible existence. Description & TacticsTwisted by the awful magic of the Death Tyrant ritual, Xavanax’s body has been horribly changed. Caught as he was halfway in and halfway out of the magic circle at the end of the ritual, one side of Xavanax’s body remains mostly undamaged, the sickly gray pallor of death is still evident on the his undamaged side but it is nothing compared to the half of his body that remained in the circle. The “dead half” as Xavanax refers to the scarred portion of his body is an aesthetic atrocity of terrible magnitude. Half of Xavanax’s body appears to by slowly sliding away from his undamaged side. The blackened shriveled flesh hangs in one great slough, twisting the beholder features into a slack jawed frown that would evoke sympathy and even pity if it did not belong to such an evil and terrible creature. Xavanax’s great central eye also bears the mark of his transformation into undeath, burning with an infernal red glow that seethes with rage and power.While still a very intelligent creature, undeath had dulled the great beholders wits, and this loss of mental capacity infuriates Xavanax. The undead beholder realizes that he has gained much personal power, and finally has no fear of death in any natural sense, but still he frantically searches for a way to restore his lost cognitive ability. The search for magic has begun again but this time Xavanax searches for ways too increase his intelligence and has been successful to some degree. An ancient tome found in the lair of young black dragon that had the misfortune of running into Xavanax while he wandered the lightless tunnels of the underdark, lifted the beholder’s intelligence once it was read and fully absorbed. Xavanax has plans of returning to the tunnels beneath Baldur’s Gate and regaining control of the Angry Knife thieves’ guild, rebuilding his power base and manipulating the unfortunate guildmaster into stealing the magic he needs to replenish his lost intellect.The few adventurers who have encountered Xavanax would tell you (had they survived) that the undead beholder prefers a direct frontal assault and a quick display of power to pacify any threats that might arise. Xavanax prefers the more direct and deadly eye rays such as, finger of death, disintegrate and flesh to stone over those that charm or confuse and has found ways to bolster the power of these favored attacks. If these rays fail to harm his opponents, he will switch tactics and attempt to charm a powerful melee type and turn him on his companions. Xavanax has been alive for over two centuries and in that time has slain hundreds of opponents. He is a near tactical genius and uses all of his abilities in the best manner possible, focusing his antimagic cone on spell casters while blasting melee types with his deadliest eye rays. Unlike most beholders, Xavanax is filled with a near fanatical blood lust once he enters battle and will fight to the death even if the odds seem against him. So far his direct merciless approach has served him well, but tales of an undead beholder haunting the sewers of Baldur’s Gate have begun to trickle to the surface and the number of eager adventurers seeking fame and fortune in Xavanax’s lair has increased. It is likely that Xavanax will meet his end at the hands of one of these adventuring bands but until that time is it hand the bodies will pile up beneath the deathless terror of Xavanax.Beholder SyndicateA beholder syndicate, much like the hag coven, is a joining of three separate individuals to create a more powerful whole. Accomplished with an obscure ritual known to very few of the dreaded eye tyrants, the rite of joining has been handed down by the Great Mother to ensure the dominance of her offspring. Used widely eons ago the Syndicate is a small remnant of a time when beholders were not so insular and xenophobic, working together towards a common goal and terrorizing the planes with vast armies of floating death orbs. Those halcyon days are long gone, the power of the beholder nation broken before the dawn of recorded history by near constant battles with Gith and Illithid-kind, but some of that ancient knowledge and power remains in the minds of a few select beholders. The syndicate requires three willing beholders one of which must lead the syndicate while the other two accept subordinate positions, no easy thing to the proud and egotistical beholder. The leader must have at least 15 hit dice, possess a minimum 18 INT and have knowledge of the “dark speech” a blasphemous language of utter evil. The rite requires the sacrifice of a 10 sentient creatures with at least 10 hit dice or levels that are to be subjected to each of the ten beholder eye rays at one-hour intervals, while a continuous chant by the leader continues through out the ten-hour duration. The sacrifices must be slain by the eye rays outright or forced to commit some suicidal act under the compulsion of one. Not surprisingly the cruel and inventive race of beholders have even devised many ways in which a person can be killed by the usually non-lethal sleep ray. Once all of the sacrifices have been slain the chanting continues for one more hour and if the ritual was performed correctly the three beholders are joined at the culmination of the ritual. A host of new powers, detailed below, are now available to the three beholders.·    Each beholder in the syndicate grows an 11th eyestalk within a week of completing the ritual. This extra eyestalk has the following powers usable at will: detect magic, detect good/evil/law/chaos, detect poison, see invisibility, eye bite, and true seeing. These abilities are as the spells cast by a sorcerer of the beholders level.·    Each beholder gains an SR of 10 plus the lead beholder’s hit dice·    +4 inherent bonus to CON and WIS.·    +4 deflection bonus to AC·    All saving throws for syndicate beholder eye rays increase by +2·    All beholders in the syndicate can communicate telepathically with each other up to a distance of one mile.The death of any beholder in the syndicate causes the immediate loss of all powers for any surviving beholders associated with the joining. The syndicate adds +2 to the CR of each beholder member.</blockquote>

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