It's dead, how is it still flying.
- Thread starter Jaxom
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Jondor_Battlehammer
First Post
I think that it would fall just as a PC would after having the Fly spell run out. But since that isn't where this thread is going...
Since they continue to float, and decomposition would A) decrease weight, and B) create gas all on it's own, they would just go higher and higher. At a certain level, bacteria would stop growing, thus the body would stop rising and decomposing at the same time. Now go back throu time, and think of all the Beholders that have died, and then just drifted away. Apply the above formulae, also taking into account wind currents and the like, and you would have masses of Beholder corpses floating throu the sky at high altitudes and clumping together. As wind and and the stray bird bring dirt and vegetable matter into this clump, it forms it's own pocket ecosystem, growing ever larger above the clouds. Bam! The origin of floating islands. You see, even high magic can have a reasonable explanation.
Oh, BTW, cool visual.
Since they continue to float, and decomposition would A) decrease weight, and B) create gas all on it's own, they would just go higher and higher. At a certain level, bacteria would stop growing, thus the body would stop rising and decomposing at the same time. Now go back throu time, and think of all the Beholders that have died, and then just drifted away. Apply the above formulae, also taking into account wind currents and the like, and you would have masses of Beholder corpses floating throu the sky at high altitudes and clumping together. As wind and and the stray bird bring dirt and vegetable matter into this clump, it forms it's own pocket ecosystem, growing ever larger above the clouds. Bam! The origin of floating islands. You see, even high magic can have a reasonable explanation.
Oh, BTW, cool visual.
Last edited:
Crothian
First Post
Jondor_Battlehammer said:I think that it would fall just as a PC would after having the Fly spell run out. But since that isn't where this thread is going...
Since they continue to float, and decomposition would A) decrease weight, and B) create gas all on it's own, they would just go higher and higher. At a certain level, bacteria would stop growing, thus the body would stop rising and decomposing at the same time. Now go back throu time, and think of all the Beholders that have died, and then just drifted away. Apply the above formulae, also taking into account wind currents and the like, and you would have masses of Beholder corpses floating throu the sky at high altitudes and clumping together. As wind and and the stray bird bring dirt and vegetable matter into this clump, it forms it's own pocket ecosystem, growing everlarger above the clouds. Bam! The origin of floating islands. You see, even high magic can have a reasonable explanation.
Oh, BTW, cool visual.
I think we just found the ancient Beholder Flygraveyards.
So, we have a place where high flying birds, perhaps even Rocs, can stop by and get a bite to eat. That is a cool visaul.
I have the 2E "I, Tyrant" that had all sorts of relatively interesting, but mostly useless information about beholders. If you choose to use these "rules", then here goes:
Beholders create an internal gas called tiusium, that is lighter than air and allows them to float non-magically. It is stored in small pockets around it's shell, so while piercing them may release a small amount of gas, it has no effect on a beholder's movements. The largest pocket is located above it's skull, allowing it to float upright, though it may choose to float upside down if it wants to. It turns by way of small "air thrusters" controlled by it's lungs. The only reference I can find about dead ones is that normal burial procedures for beholders involve digging a big hole in the ground and other beholders using telekinesis to lower it into the hole. That would indicate that the do indeed float after death.
Also, when it dies, it's skin turns to stone within hours, so the fly issue with floating beholder graveyards will be a moot point.
Beholders create an internal gas called tiusium, that is lighter than air and allows them to float non-magically. It is stored in small pockets around it's shell, so while piercing them may release a small amount of gas, it has no effect on a beholder's movements. The largest pocket is located above it's skull, allowing it to float upright, though it may choose to float upside down if it wants to. It turns by way of small "air thrusters" controlled by it's lungs. The only reference I can find about dead ones is that normal burial procedures for beholders involve digging a big hole in the ground and other beholders using telekinesis to lower it into the hole. That would indicate that the do indeed float after death.
Also, when it dies, it's skin turns to stone within hours, so the fly issue with floating beholder graveyards will be a moot point.
hammymchamham
First Post
Thanks to all for the idea of a floating beholder graveyard. I'm stealing it and using it in my upcomming campaign. I think this falls under ways to freak out your (lower level) players, Heck, it might freak out higher level ones (since they rely on magic alot)
orbitalfreak
Explorer
Consider me in the camp of those who *Yoink!* this for campaign uses. The cool visual impact of this is just too much to pass up.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
The PC's are walking through a thick forest, hiking up the side of a peak they must cross. The tree growth is thick, and the ground is a tangle of vines, ferns, and moss. The ground that exists is rocky, stony, and somewhat loose (where not being held by roots).
The PC's walk out onto a rounded knoll, which is free of tree growth, but still tangled in the undergrowth. As the final member of the party steps onto it, something large and heavy falls onto the patch of ground.
With a snapping noise, the ground starts to slide out from under the PC's, the carpet of undergrowth being torn back from the ground as it starts to drift downward....
....and it then rises, like a helium balloon almost out of air...it bounces on an air current, the ground peeling away, exposing the red, rocky terrain below them. As the ground floats like a bubble, they see that some of the vines are the same red as the ground, and that, on the ends of them, large knobs sit....
....and then, as the carpet of greenery tears away and the bubble floats out into the valley, over the land, they see the great central eye, wide open, show itself...
They are on a massive, dead beholder, drifting over a valley....and something is hatching out of it's skin....
The PC's walk out onto a rounded knoll, which is free of tree growth, but still tangled in the undergrowth. As the final member of the party steps onto it, something large and heavy falls onto the patch of ground.
With a snapping noise, the ground starts to slide out from under the PC's, the carpet of undergrowth being torn back from the ground as it starts to drift downward....
....and it then rises, like a helium balloon almost out of air...it bounces on an air current, the ground peeling away, exposing the red, rocky terrain below them. As the ground floats like a bubble, they see that some of the vines are the same red as the ground, and that, on the ends of them, large knobs sit....
....and then, as the carpet of greenery tears away and the bubble floats out into the valley, over the land, they see the great central eye, wide open, show itself...
They are on a massive, dead beholder, drifting over a valley....and something is hatching out of it's skin....
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