Beholder
The Eyes of Tezra: Beholders of Grizburg
"Five years back, somethin' changed in th' Depths. Started findin' bodies turned to stone, not by basilisk or gorgon, but arranged in patterns—like someone was collectin' statues. Then came th' whispers of floatin' eyes big as forge bellows, speakin' in languages that hurt to hear. That's when we knew—th' Eyes of Tezra had found our city."
Appearance
The Eyes of Tezra manifest as grotesque floating spheres of flesh, each ten feet in diameter, their surfaces scarred by industrial contamination and mystical augmentation. Unlike natural beholders, these aberrations bear marks of deliberate modification—brass rings piercing their eye stalks like industrial piercings, crystalline lenses grafted over certain eyes to focus their rays with mechanical precision, and chains of black iron trailing from their bodies like ceremonial vestments. Their central eye burns with an unnatural violet flame, the mark of their allegiance to powers that exist between divinity and madness. Chemical burns pattern their flesh in deliberate scarification, forming sigils that pulse with inner light when they channel their terrible gaze.
Origins
The Eyes arrived in Grizburg only five years ago, drawn by ripples in reality caused by the party's actions in the Kalnith Jungle. When Thronn and Fouk betrayed the Bloodclaw Warband and disrupted the leyline convergence that Azural sought to control, they created a mystical beacon that attracted these servants of distant powers. The Eyes serve masters who exist in the spaces where dead gods dream—entities that feed on the chaos between order and entropy. They came seeking Xolotza's influence, following traces of divine madness that leak from the Whispering Depths. Each Eye believes itself to be the supreme interpreter of cosmic truth, leading to violent theological disputes conducted through disintegration rays and petrification.Habitat
The six known Eyes have claimed territories throughout Grizburg's most mystically significant locations. The Surveyor hovers in the highest spire of Shadowspire District, its countless eyes recording every movement in the streets below. The Collector dwells in abandoned sections of the Brass Quarter, surrounded by consciousness-transfer equipment it studies with alien fascination. The Theologian has carved a lair deep in the Whispering Depths, where it communes with echoes of Zothra-Khaar. Three others remain mobile, drifting through the city's industrial maze on incomprehensible errands.Ecology
These aberrations feed on information rather than flesh, consuming knowledge through observation and incorporating it into their alien consciousness. They sustain themselves on the psychic emanations of fear and confusion, growing stronger in areas where reality grows thin. Their presence warps local space—straight lines bend, distances become inconsistent, and mortals experience the sensation of being observed even when alone. They excrete crystallized paranoia, leaving behind transparent stones that whisper accusations when touched.Behavior
Each Eye pursues its own interpretation of a grand design only they can perceive. They speak in mathematical theorems that describe impossible geometries, their Deep Speech incorporating industrial terminology stolen from observed factory operations. When encountering mortals, they conduct "interviews"—paralyzing subjects while bombarding them with questions about seemingly random topics: production quotas, childhood memories, the taste of specific chemicals, the names of dead gods. Those who provide unsatisfactory answers face disintegration; those who intrigue them become petrified additions to their collections.It asked me about the coefficient of thermal expansion in brass-steel alloys, then about my mother's maiden name, then if I'd ever dreamed of drowning in silver. When I couldn't answer the third, it turned my supervisor to stone and floated away humming what sounded like a combustion equation.
The Whispering Depths Connection
The Eyes show particular interest in the Whispering Depths, believing them to be fragments of a cosmic equation that, when solved, will reveal the true nature of existence. The Theologian has spent three years attempting to map the Depths' reality distortions, creating charts that drive mortals mad but make perfect sense to its alien intellect. They harvest dead god essence not for power but for data, treating divine remnants as variables in calculations beyond mortal comprehension.Use by Factions
No faction truly controls the Eyes, but several have reached uneasy arrangements. The Rust Barons pay tribute in the form of industrial secrets and production data, receiving occasional assistance against rivals. The Shadim thieves' guild discovered that certain Eyes will trade information for specific types of stolen memories—consciousness recordings from the Brass Quarter's failed experiments. Revolutionary cells attempt to manipulate the Eyes' paranoid nature, feeding them false intelligence about rival factions, though this often backfires catastrophically when the Eyes detect deception.Cultural Role
The Eyes' recent arrival has spawned new superstitions among Grizburg's citizens. Workers paint mock eyes on their tools, believing it confuses the true Eyes' perception. The phrase "Tezra's watching" has replaced older expressions of paranoia. Children play "Stone and Dust," a game where one child pretends to be an Eye while others freeze in place or pretend to disintegrate. The annual Festival of Closed Eyes now includes rituals specifically designed to ward off the Eyes' attention.Legends
The First Gaze tells of the initial Eye's arrival, when it appeared above the Rustwater District and spent seventeen hours examining a single bolt in a factory wall before declaring "the angle is wrong" and disintegrating three city blocks to "correct" it. The Conference of Madness speaks of a time when all six Eyes gathered above the Whispering Depths, their combined antimagic cones creating a dead zone where reality itself ceased to function for three days. The Prophet's Collection describes The Collector's vault of petrified seers, arranged in positions that supposedly spell out prophecies in a language that exists only when viewed from eleven dimensions simultaneously.Threats to the City
The Eyes pose existential threats beyond their deadly rays. Their presence attracts other aberrations from distant realms. Their paranoid observations create information cascades—when one Eye perceives a threat, all six may respond with overwhelming force. The Sector Seven Incident began when an Eye misinterpreted a worker's lunch break as a revolutionary gathering, resulting in forty-seven petrifications and structural damage that collapsed an entire industrial complex. Their alien logic makes them unpredictable—they might ignore actual threats while obliterating perceived patterns only they can see.Behavioral Oddities
The Surveyor has developed an obsession with tracking specific bloodlines, following certain families for generations while ignoring others entirely. The Collector only petrifies creatures at moments it deems "aesthetically complete"—mid-scream, at the height of despair, or in moments of revelation. One Eye exclusively communicates through industrial equipment, using factory whistles and steam vents to form words. Another has been observed weeping a viscous golden fluid while reciting what linguists believe might be love poetry in Deep Speech.Adventuring Hooks
• The Eyes suddenly converge on a specific factory, their combined gaze focused on something mortals cannot perceive—investigation reveals connections to Xolotza's growing influence. • The Shadim report that one Eye has been asking about Thronn and Fouk by name, seeking "the ones who broke the pattern." • A message in Deep Speech appears burned into factory walls: "The Djinn's promise was false. The leylines remember. Bring us the Bloodclaw's truth." • All six Eyes have stopped moving, hovering motionless while their eye stalks point toward a location deep beneath Dreadmil.Closing Words
The Eyes of Tezra embody cosmic horror filtered through industrial paranoia. They are not mere monsters but symptoms of reality's infection by forces that view Grizburg as a petri dish for incomprehensible experiments. Their presence reminds all who dwell in the city that they are being watched, catalogued, and judged by intelligences whose criteria for survival remain terrifyingly unclear. In their gaze, every mortal becomes data in an equation whose solution might mean the city's transcendence—or its utter annihilation.Image Generator Prompt
"Massive floating spherical beholder aberration, ten feet diameter flesh orb, multiple eye stalks with brass ring piercings, crystalline focusing lenses grafted over eyes, chains of black iron trailing like vestments, central eye burning with violet flame, chemical burn scarification forming glowing sigils, industrial gothic horror aesthetic, floating above factory landscape, rays of different colored light from each eye stalk, alien intelligence, paranoid observation, deep speech mathematical symbols floating nearby"Beholder Stats
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