A New Direction (Beholder Bandwagon)

 Beholder Bandwagon. Beholder Bandwagon! A Beholder for the Hex.

Created in antediluvian times by agencies unknown as a counter-occult bioweapon, the Beholder (yeah, I'm using the name—so what) is a four-dimensional cryptoid organism that classes as one of the deadliest "living" beings ever observed in nature. 

This example is one of the most commonly used to illustrate the nature of extradimensional beings, up there with the classic "pencil through bent paper" wormhole example, but I'll indulge in it for the sake of clarity. Suppose, for a second, a two-dimensional world, one in which all of existence is encapsulated in a flat plane. If you, a three-dimensional being, were to interact with this world—say, if you were to put your hand through it—only a thin two-dimensional slice of your body would be visible in that world at any given moment. Imagine the imagery obtained from an MRI, brain or bone or organ being revealed layer-by-layer, only a small fraction of the body visible at any given moment, with the overall structure only gleaned by compositing all of those glimpses. If you were to interact with dwellers of that two-dimensional world they would perceive your hand as a wall of flesh suddenly growing out of a point of contact, warping and undulating weirdly as the appendage tapers or widens. If you were to stick a finger from each hand into the world the flatlanders would perceive them as being entirely unconnected, with no way of knowing that they were both parts of a greater invisible entity. If you were to poke one right in the middle they would be felled by unknowable forces, their insides suddenly swelling and parting to admit the intrusion of foreign flesh from a direction they are literally incapable of perceiving. 

This is the terror of the Beholder.

It appears first as a great eye, about as wide across as an avtomotive wheel. It opens into empty space like a Cheshire grin, lidded with folded space. It's disconcertingly humanoid, with delicate, full lashes and a depthless quality, but it's also disconcertingly inhuman — it possesses perfect horizontal symmetry, no tear duct visible at either corner. Clusters of similar, smaller eyes froth into existence around it, like bubbles surfacing in still water. Its gaze provokes an extreme sense of scopaesthesia. It has within the field of vision of its main eye what might be described as omnivision, an ability to see through all substances in all spectra at all scales down to the atomicular level, and omnidirectional wide-spectrum vision from all of its secondary eyes. 

Important note: the Beholder doesn't need to lower itself to a covolumetric "elevation" in order to watch you - it can remain perched at a different fourth-dimensional coordinate and perceive you via the ergotic fluctuations of certain four-dimensional particules as they pass through your volume. It gains a much fuller view of you by dropping onto your level, however, since light, cathode rays, etc... only scatter three-dimensionally. 

The full observation of the Beholder is so complete that it makes Occult magic completely impossible within the vision cone of its primary eye thanks to overwhelming noospheric interference. 

It attacks via a number of chitinous stingers attached to long dendrites. The attack comes from impossible (to us) angles and strikes the inside of a person while leaving the outside untouched. For centuries, this was believed to be a gaze-propagated basiliskform attack—the Beholder looks at someone, they fall down dead with their insides churned up by some invisible power. Only with recent advances in cryptozoetics has the true attack vector finally become known.

Beholder

HD: 6

AC: 10

Hit: +5/+10

Damage: 2d6 x4

Movement: As horse, 4D

Intelligence/Mien: As human who has enjoyed the privilege to hurt others with impunity since childhood.

Omen: A scent like burnt sugar and cloves - the only mark of the Beholder that can be perceived even when it is lurking outside of the local volume, as the aromatic particules disperse in four dimensions. 

• In addition to omnivision, the Beholder projects an Antioccult Field within the vision cone of its primary eye. All Occult magic is impossible under such intense observation, and even Gnostic magicians must Save to successfully work their spells.
  
• The Beholder can make four stinger attacks at a range of 60' (that's how long the dendrites are). The attacks ignore all external armor. If the target is within the cone of its omnivision its hit bonus advances to +10. It loses its hit bonus altogether and takes a -5 penalty if attacking from dimensional concealment, reducing by 1 per failed attack as it finds range.
  
• The Beholder can retreat back into fourth-dimensional displacement to avoid attacks. It does this reflexively, and gets a Save to determine whether it retreats before or after the attack. If the attacker is within the cone of its omnivision it gets a +5 to the throw, as it can perceive the intent to attack percolating in the assailant's brain before they even consciously make the decision to strike. Extremely fast projectiles (like those fired from an azothic railcannon or a scorpion gaussbow) can circumvent the Save.
• The Beholder can make a "called shot" with its stingers, making a single attack that only deals 1 damage. On a successful hit, the target must Save or be subjected to the Beholder's choice of Sleep, Paralysis, Blindness, Deafness, etc... as it uses the fine points of its stingers to precisely manipulate their internal anatomy.