# How Much for a Beholder Eyestalk?



## guedo79

So I was reading a thread about a 'cool visual' and I got an idea. 

I'm DMing a group that needs to raise a large amount of gold.  I figured what's a better way to raise cash then to harvest Beholder Eyestalks. 

So the big question is how much would a single eyestalk be worth?


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## Carnifex

That all depends on what the eyestalk can be used for.

If eyestalks have no actual practical properties then they'll be worth sod all except as curios. If thye have magical properties, ie are excellent for use in making seeing magic items, then depending on how powerful they are they'll cost different amounts of money.


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## Wippit Guud

I think an eyestalk would drastically reduce costs of making a wand of whatever the eyestalk casted...


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## guedo79

They would end up selling them in Tradegate(Gate town to Bytopia in the Outlands).  So there should be lots of people shopping and looking to buy wierd things.

Uses that I've come up with:

Like Wippit said, to help make wands.
As some kind of spell componant
As a holy Symbol to a Beholder worshiper
Research for anyone studying Beholders
A trophy for anyone who isn't brave enough to get one him/herself

I'm sure I'll come up with others by the time I run the game.


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## Carnifex

guedo79 said:
			
		

> *They would end up selling them in Tradegate(Gate town to Bytopia in the Outlands).  So there should be lots of people shopping and looking to buy wierd things.
> 
> Uses that I've come up with:
> 
> Like Wippit said, to help make wands.
> As some kind of spell componant
> As a holy Symbol to a Beholder worshiper
> Research for anyone studying Beholders
> A trophy for anyone who isn't brave enough to get one him/herself
> 
> I'm sure I'll come up with others by the time I run the game. *




Ah, so you're running a Planescape game then  I would advise that worshippers of beholders are a) unlikely to be too much in force in Tradegare and b) certainly wouldn't want to buy eyestalks as holy symbols, they'd want to kill the PC's for killing the beholders in the first place!

Where are all the beholders that they intend to try and kill? (I say try becasuse frankly beholders, with all their insta-death rays, are one of the beasties I'd be least likely to go hunting just for money  ).


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## guedo79

Carnifex said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Ah, so you're running a Planescape game then
> *




Yup. I've had one running for about 4 years now.  The group is backed by Estaban in Sigil.  They are raising funds to pay  Jemorile the Exile to steal something from Shemeshka the Marauder.(All from the Faces of Sigil NPC book)  They are basically caught in the middle of a large power struggle.   

*



			I would advise that worshippers of beholders are a) unlikely to be too much in force in Tradegare and b) certainly wouldn't want to buy eyestalks as holy symbols, they'd want to kill the PC's for killing the beholders in the first place!
		
Click to expand...


*

Good point. Maybe there is a small group of worshipers that follow a anti-beholder god.


*



			Where are all the beholders that they intend to try and kill?
		
Click to expand...


*
In a isolated section of Forgotten Relms, in the "Beholder Graveyard".  They should be able to find a hand full of stalks from the dead ones and have to fight a few guardians. (Can't make it too easy)


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## BOZ

i need to find my "critter bits and magic recipies" and bump it up...


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## Nifft

I'd allow a Beholder Eye, if properly preserved, to augment a Wand of a specific type (lower price and reduce XP cost by 50%, and raise effective caster level by +2), depending on the specific eye obtained:

Central Eye: Dispel Magic
Charm Person or Charm Monster: as the spells, or Charm Person or Animal
Sleep: Sleep, Power Word: Sleep, Calm Animals, Calm Emotions
Flesh to Stone: Hold Person, Stoneskin
Telekinesis and Disintegrate: any Transmutation effect
Fear: any Fear effect
Slow: as the spell
Inflict Moderate Wounds: as the spell, but in a ray, and not at +2 caster level
Finger of Death: any Necromancy effect

The prices for each eye would be:
Central Eye: 10,000
Charm Eye: 5,000
Sleep Eye: 500
Flesh to Stone Eye: 5,000
Telekinesis or Disintegrate Eye: 10,000
Fear Eye: 2,500
Slow Eye: 2,500
Inflict Eye: 5,000
Finger of Death Eye: 10,000

 -- Nifft


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## guedo79

Anyone else figure out a actual number?

Here's one of my firend's ideas:
a normal beholder's CR 13
so they should have 13,000 gold worth of treasure on them
since a beholder has double the treasure worth its 26,000 gold
each beholder has 10 eyes
the body and large eye are worth more then the stalks
so giving the body half the dead beholder's worth (13,000 gold)
the 10 stalks would be worth 13,000 or 1,300 gold per stalk.

Any other ideas?


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## guedo79

Nifft said:
			
		

> *I'd allow a Beholder Eye, if properly preserved, to augment a Wand of a specific type (lower price and reduce XP cost by 50%, and raise effective caster level by +2), depending on the specific eye obtained:
> *




I hadn't thought of selling them by what spell they cast.  But after the beholder is dead how do you tell the different stalks apart?


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## Nifft

guedo79 said:
			
		

> *I hadn't thought of selling them by what spell they cast.  But after the beholder is dead how do you tell the different stalks apart? *




1) Identify spell

2) some special alchemy procedure -- probably one they'd have to go on a quest to find 

3) "Well, sonny, Ahve been makin' these here Eyeball Wands fer fifty winters longer'n you've been shiverin' at 'em! An when Ah can tell you what you done brung me is ten cheap Sleep Eyes, that's all Ah intend to pay for!" -- don't bother, just cheat them out of most of the gold :evil-rat-bastard-smirk:

 -- Nifft


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## Zappo

Hey, they could very well be keys for some important portal, used by some rich people. This allows you to keep their value under strict control - if the PCs start making too much money out of them, then you can declare that the portal has shifted location to a less interesting place, or that it has closed altogether.


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## Richards

As far as telling the eyestalks apart, it's possible that each eye is a slightly different color.  One possibility:

Dark blue - _sleep_
Blue - _charm monster_
Light Blue - _charm person_
Greenish-blue - _telekinesis_
Green - _fear_
Brown - _slow_
Dark Brown - _inflict moderate wounds_
Red - _finger of death_
Gray - _flesh to stone_
Violet - _disintegrate_

Naturally, you can decide how the colors match up for beholders in your own game world.

Johnathan


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## guedo79

Zappo said:
			
		

> *Hey, they could very well be keys for some important portal, used by some rich people. This allows you to keep their value under strict control - if the PCs start making too much money out of them, then you can declare that the portal has shifted location to a less interesting place, or that it has closed altogether. *




oooo, I like that.  That would leave a lot of high ups with out there gold and the PCs looking very suspicious.


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## Voadam

Ooh, one beholder eyestalk is worth at least two mind-flayer tentacles. At least. Unless it is from one of those wussie not quite beholders.


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