| Dragon magazine | - | Monster Manual III | - | Dragon #139 |
| Searecther (Marine spectator) | - | Footnotes | - | Airbolt (spell) |
From Curiosities of Other Worlds, vol-
ume six, by Mage-Lord I. J. Jijaks of the
Free City of Greyhawk:
We now come to spectators, which
dwell
on the plane of Nirvana in either the
Dominion of Lendor (1) or in the land of the
modrons. The reader has no doubt read
the basic description of these striking
creatures in any one of the manuals and
tomes that catalog the beasts of this world
and others. Having performed the usual
research required before summoning and
interacting with these beholder-like
beings, I am able to share my knowledge
in hopes that it will prove to be of use to
the reader as well.
Spectators are adapted to equal amounts
of light and dark, heat and cold, and liquid
and solid terrain. (Nirvana is perfectly
balanced in all of these qualities.) Specta-
tors have generous lifespans, and most of
these creatures live over 1,000 years.
Many of these spectators at any given time
are guarding objects throughout the Prime
Material plane, as they are often com-
manded to do so by high-level magic-users.
Spectators are summoned by the casting
of a monster summoning V spell, accompa
nied by the sacrifice of at least three
beholder?s eyes. During the sacrificial rite
the beholder?s eyes must first be annihi-
lated ? that is, the eyes must be ground
into a fine powder, then burned into a
black dust. This black dust is then soaked
in oil and placed in a special magic circle.
Next, the dust is set aflame. Finally, while
the eye dust is still burning, a small bag is
placed in the center of the magic circle
and monster summoning V is cast by the
magic-user. (The burning eye dust is used
as a material component instead of a can-
dle.) The bag opens a small one-way gate
from Nirvana to the plane on which the
spell is cast.
Three segments later, there is a chance
that a spectator appears in the center of
the magic circle; for each beholder?s eye so
sacrificed, there is a 10% chance that a
spectator is summoned (thus, a base
chance of 30% for three eyes). Three
segments after the spell has been cast, the
gate closes again. If summoned into a
properly created magic circle, the specta-
tor awaits instructions from its summoner
(which invariably entail the guarding of
some item or location). Inside this magic
circle, the spectator is powerless to tele-
port to Nirvana, leave the circle physically,
or use any other powers besides levitation.
If the circle has not been created properly
or if the circle is somehow broken before
the spectator promises to complete its job,
it teleports back to Nirvana. If the sum-
moner gives the spectator a job besides
guardianship, the spectator merely states
it is unwilling to do so and teleports back
to Nirvana as soon as the magic circle is
broken. Even if the spectator is given a
task concerning guardianship, it will
instead teleport to Nirvana unless it actu-
ally promises to fulfill its task.
Spectators dislike guarding for beings of
lesser races (i.e., the races of their human
or demi-human summoners), so they
always try to avoid such guardianship.
However, a spectator will not return to
Nirvana after it has made a promise to
anyone, because of its lawful-neutral align-
ment; breaking a promise is considered
chaotic behavior. A spectator prides itself
on its guardianship and will refuse if a
summoner tries to force it to do a job
other than guarding. From the spectator?s
viewpoint, it is not lawful for the summon-
er to force the spectator to perform a job
other than guarding, as spectators should
be summoned only to guard.
Once the spectator takes its mission of
guardianship, the summoning magic-user
deliberately breaks the magic circle and
frees the spectator, allowing it to move
over to the treasure to be guarded. The
creature is free after 101 years to return
to Nirvana. A permanency spell has no
effect on the circle or the duration of the
spectator?s guardianship.
As a guardian, a spectator?s loyalty to its
summoner?s commands is absolute; it will
guard the place or object for precisely 101
years. A spectator always knows when the
101 years of service have expired; this is
tracked by the spectator?s internal clock,
actually a lobe on the spectator?s brain
that perfectly measures time.
When a spectator is guarding the place
or objects to which it has been assigned, it
will allow no one to pass that place or
examine any objects it is guarding. At the
time the summoner assigns the task, he
can make exceptions to these rules, such
as allowing certain individuals to circum-
vent these conditions. This rule applies
even to the summoner himself. If the
summoner breaks these rules himself, he
will be attacked by the spectator.
When a spectator attacks, it launches
spells from three of the four small eyes
perched on stalks over its globular body. It
also tries to keep out of melee range for as
long as possible by using its levitation
powers. A spectator will teleport to Nirva-
na if all of its eyes have been blinded, but
if encountered in Nirvana itself and if all
of its eyes have been blinded, the specta-
tor attacks with its toothy maw. (2)
To a spectator, killing a creature for
reasons other than self-defense or duty is
viewed as a chaotic act. Under a specta-
tor?s sense of justice and law, all creatures
have the right to live, so long as they do
not interfere with the spectator?s duties. If
a spectator accidentally kills a creature for
reasons other than self-defense, it usually
wills itself to die, directing its brain?s pow-
erful energies against itself.
Spectators have two social classes, upper
and lower. Lower-class spectators live in
otherwise uninhabited sections of Nirvana
in the Dominion of Lendor or in the
?modron disk," each residing alone in a
small, vertical cave which is dug out with
the spectator?s mouth. Upper-class specta-
tors are those who directly serve Lendor
or serve as guards for the modrons. These
spectators are more lawful and philosophi-
cal than their lower-class counterparts
because they have usually been educated
by their masters to uphold their ideals. In
order to become a guard for the modrons,
a spectator must paralyze a modron rogue
unit (using one of its attack eyes) and turn
it over to the local pentadrone regimental
headquarters (the modrons? law enforc-
ers). Lendor chooses only the most power-
ful and intelligent spectators to serve him. (3)
Unlike modrons, spectators are not
completely lawful neutral, although upper-
class spectators come very close to this
ideal. Lower-class spectators have slightly
lawful-good tendencies, while upper-class
spectators are more strictly lawful neutral.
Because of its personal honor, a spectator
will not attack a paralyzed or helpless
enemy unless the spectator was attacked
by trickery or by very cruel means.
Spectators have little personal ambition;
perhaps their only true goal in life is to
serve the forces of law as well as possible.
Since modrons are completely lawful
neutral, most spectators want to serve the
modrons. The greatest pleasures of a
spectator (and perhaps its only pleasures)
are to thwart chaos, especially modron
rogue units, and to guard and defend.
What little is known of the internal
anatomy of the spectator is presented here
as well. This information on its most
unique body organs was collected from
the works of several wizards and priests
who voyaged to Nirvana and took part in
the dissection (with permission) of a spec-
tator slain by a rogue modron unit.
Levator magnus: The levator magnus is
a small, highly magical sphere in the cen-
ter of the spectator?s brain (which itself
lies at the center of the spectator?s round
body). This organ gives the spectator its
ability to levitate in any direction at 100?
per minute. No magic negates this effect,
although physical forces resulting from
magic use (such as those created by a gust
of wind spell) hamper this activity. The
juices drained from this organ are some-
times used as a component in the ink of a
scroll of flying or levitation.
Brain: The spectator?s brain has the
power to generate a magical force using
psionic energy, though the spectator has
no true psionic powers as such. This magi-
cal force is divided into two branches of
power: magical and antimagical. The magi-
cal power travels through special nerves
to the monster?s top four eyes, which
convert the power into spell-like effects.
The antimagical power is carried by
nerves directly to the creature?s large eye,
causing any spell that strikes the eye to
reflect back to the caster. The juices
drained from the spectator?s brain can be
used as a component in the ink of an anti-
magic shell scroll. (It is to my understand-
ing that the higher sorts of modrons will
actually sell or barter the bodies of slain
spectators to those who would make use
of the corpses for their research, and even
some spectators will likewise bargain
away the bodies of their kind.)
Thought-energy enhancer: This organ
multiplies the psionic force generated in
the brain and relays it to the spectator?s
eyes, providing their powers.
Stomach: Food and water created by a
spectator?s first eye is usually directed
inward through a large passage leading
directly to the stomach, where it is digest-
ed. If the spectator wishes, food can be
created by that eye to feed someone else.
Skin: The skin of a spectator is thick,
lumpy, rubbery, and grayish, with many
blood vessels protruding from its surface.
If a spectator is killed but not severely
damaged, the skin can be removed and
fashioned into a suit of armor by an expe-
rienced armorer. The resultant suit is in all
respects the equal of leather armor and is
sufficient in size to be of use to a dwarf,
gnome, or the like.
Little else about these beings is known
to me. I am at a loss to know how they
reproduce, what they have in the way of
religion (though I suspect they worship
Primus or Lendor in their own fashions),
or even if they have a loose culture. I
never got around to discussing these mat-
ters with the few spectators I had occasion
to meet. ,I have even heard that a breed of
spectators lives in the sea, though this
report is surely based upon a mistaken
identification of an eye of the deep. Per-
haps someone more learned than I can fill
in the details another day. . . .
Game information
When a spectator reaches 1,000 years of
age, its four eyes grow very large, and its
body becomes small and shriveled. After
three months in this state, the spectator
has only 3 + 3 HD; after six months, it has
only 2 + 2 HD, and its four eyes are twice
as large as they were originally. By this
time, the spectator must retire perma-
nently to a cave it has dug, since it can no
longer levitate. Upper-class spectators
serving the modrons are thrown out of
the upper class at this age, but Lendor?s
spectators are allowed to stay in his palace
until their deaths. In three more months,
the spectator?s body is extremely small and
shriveled with 1+ 1 HD, and each of its
small eyes has developed four tiny eye-
stalks. Finally, when a spectator reaches
1,001 years of age, nothing is left of its
body. At this time, its four eyes fall off
their stalks to become 1 + 1 HD spectators.
These ?newborn? spectators have the
power of the eye from which they came
plus levitation. They stay in the cave in
which they were born for one year, gain-
ing an extra eye power and 1 + 1 HD every
three months. The spectator with the
create food and water ability shares the
food it creates with the others. In the last
three months of the spectators? stay in the
birth cave, each gains the antimagical
power of the large eye. When the specta-
tors are fully developed after one year,
they leave the cave to build lairs of their
own. Spectators under one year of age or
over 999 years of age are immune to the
monster summoning V spell.
Footnotes
1See DRAGON® issue #86 for more
information on the Suel deity Lendor.
2The spectator attacks with only a -2
on its ?to hit? rolls because of its ability to
psionically sense intelligent opponents,
though the spectator does not have any
other psionic abilities. In this manner, the
spectator gains an accurate idea of where
its enemies are located. If the spectator is
attacking a creature with no brain, such as
a golem or a skeleton, it suffers the usual
-4 penalty on ?to hit? rolls.
3When a magic-user summons a specta-
tor, the DM should roll percentile dice to
determine the class of spectator. A roll of
01-75 means a lower-class spectator
appears; a roll of 76-99 means an upper-
class spectator appears; and a result of 00
means the magic-user has summoned one
of Lendor?s favorite spectators (which has
36 hp and high intelligence). In this latter
case, Lendor will eventually come to the
Prime Material plane, release the spectator
from its bondage, and return to Nirvana
with his elite spectator, without bothering
the summoner further.