Wandering Eyes
A monster you just have to see
Wandering Eye
Wandering eyes are strange carrion parasites, monstrosities originally born of mishaps in detection spell research. Eyes vary in appearance and size, each resembling the eye of a living creature, devoid of eyelid. Though able to slowly float through the air, wandering eyes are parasites, typically encountered attached to other creatures or, more accurately, their remains. Such a combination appears as a small animal, wounded, with an additional eye attached to its head at an unusual point. Autopsies of an eye and host pair will reveal a network of white tendrils snaking through the body from the eye, allowing it to be puppeted. While temperamental pests, properly trained wandering eyes are valued by spies and thieves, and are summoned occasionally by mages in some areas.
Combat
Wandering eyes are deaf and lack olfaction naturally. When possessing a corpse, they can hear and smell, if the corpse could, but not to the point of having nonvisual special senses (such as acute hearing, acute olfaction, echolocation, or mechanoreception). A wandering eye’s acute vision grants it a +1 bonus to avoid surprise in the natural habitat of its current host, but no bonus if unattached. Wandering eyes have lightless vision to a range of 120’. When without a host, a wandering eye can see through the eyes of a nearby creature within 240’, as the spell clairvoyancy with increased range. It uses this ability to spy on potential hosts. With or without a host, it can project its vision to another creature within this range, with an unwilling target resisting the effect on a successful Spells saving throw. If successful, the target sees what the wandering eye does (through its own eye, not those of any host), rather than with its own vision. It uses this ability to coordinate with others of its kind, to assist its handler if trained, or to effectively blind prey in precarious circumstances. As with clairvoyancy, it can attempt a new connection once per turn.
Being scavengers, wandering eyes are not very aggressive, but if defending a nest fight with the statistics of their host. A host might be any living creature of up to 1/2 HD. Mobile forms such as small raptors (Monstrous Manual p. 261) and crows/ravens (Revised Rulebook p.69) are preferred, but rodent, snake, and tarantula hosts have been observed. Damage is dealt to the host first, which has as many hit points as it did when alive, but any excess damage is dealt to, and kills, the wandering eye. A wandering eye detaches from a host as a full-round action, leaving the body inanimate and incapable of further use. Wandering eyes will abandon a still-functional host to escape predators if necessary.
Ecology
Though capable of moving on their own, wandering eyes starve after a month without a host.
A wandering eye can take a fresh corpse of 1/2 HD or less as a host, performing just enough repairs on the body to keep it functional; this process takes a turn. A desperate wandering eye can attempt to take a mortally wounded creature as a host, but this is resisted with a successful Death saving throw, with a failed attempt killing the eye. After each month of possession the eye must make a Death saving throw, with the host body becoming nonfunctional on a failure.
Even a freshly hatched wandering eye can take a host, but adults use host bodies to reproduce. For each month that an eye keeps its host functional there is a cumulative 5% chance that an egg is formed. Eggs form in the eye socket of a host, forming out of the tissue of the host’s eye. When none of a host’s original eyes remain, a wandering eye will find a new host at the next opportunity, returning to guard the egg until it hatches. When encountered in a vigil, wandering eyes are guarding an egg, typically in a host species’ nest. A newly hatched wandering eye resembles the eye of the species it hatched from.
Spoils
A slain wandering eye can be harvested with Animal Husbandry and/or Healing 3 (combined ranks) for the following components useful in magic research:
vitreous humor (1/6 st, 8 gp, unliving puppet, clairvoyancy, lightless vision)
Characteristics
Wandering Eye Primary Characteristics
Type: Monstrosity
Size: Small (.005 st.)
Speed (fly): 10’ / 30’
Armor Class: 1
Hit Dice: 1/2 (1hp)***
Attacks: reversed clairvoyancy, or as host
Damage: as host
Saves: F1
Morale: -1
Vision: Acute Vision, Lightless Vision (120’)
Other Senses: None, or as host
Proficiencies: Alertness
Standard Load: 0 st.
Wandering Eye Secondary Characteristics
Expedition Speed: 12 miles
Supply Cost: as host
Training Period: 1 month
Training Modifier: +3 (semi-sapient)
Battle Rating: 0.012 (individual) / 1.44 (unit) (assuming bird hosts)
Lifespan: E/0.05/0.25/0.5/2/3/4/5
Reproduction: Special
Untrained Value: 8gp (A) / 4gp (J) / 2gp (E)
Trained Value: 72gp
Wandering Eye Encounters
Lair: 5%
Dungeon Enc: Solitary (1) / Vigil (1d3)
Wilderness Enc: Solitary (1) / Vigil (1d3)
Alignment: Neutral
Treasure Type: None
XP: 8
That’s a nice little horror monster. It lays an average of a bit less than 2 eggs per lifetime, so predation can easily keep their numbers under control, if not wipe them out entirely in many areas. Indeed, they’re so difficult to find in the wild that, despite their nominally low value, summoning them seems reasonable. Here’s an item that does so.
Mage Eyes
Base Cost 2,000gp: Single charge 4th level effect. Apparent Value: 10gp.
This glass tube holds two red eyes suspended in fluid, one made of porcelain and the other of flesh. Holding the porcelain eye and concentrating for a turn will cause the flesh eye to hatch into a wandering eye. The monstrosity can be commanded telepathically by the holder of the porcelain eye, but will interpret orders in a way typical to its nature as a semi-sapient scavenger, eschewing combat and danger where possible. New orders can only be issued when it is within 240’. The monstrosity has its usual abilities, including the ability to puppet a corpse of 1/2 HD or less and the ability to see with clairvoyancy to a range of 240’ and to project its own sight to another creature within this range, such as its master. After a week the porcelain eye’s features will be worn off and the summoned eye will depart, leaving behind its host, if any.
The D&D spell wizard eye ended up not having a clear equivalent in ACKS II. It was a pretty powerful spell, but I’ve circled back to making a ‘fair’ version a few times, and eventually realized it was actually a Summoning spell. This required building a monster to summon. Some inspiration is also taken here from fiction where animals, or their remains, are used to spy. Summoning a wandering eye is preferable to wizard eye in duration, and somewhat in the ability to have a host body manipulate or fetch things. This comes at the (relatively minor) cost of needing a body to put the eye in and being limited by where that body can go, or retaining the ability to squeeze through eye-sized spaces but moving very slowly. In either case, a wandering eye is fragile as a 1 hp living creature in ways that a wizard eye presumably isn’t, as a nonliving object. The spell can only be cast once a week, so using the eye in a manner that gets it killed means being without that capacity for some time.
The art in this piece was by Old School Jelly, who my readers may know from his work on ACKS II. I’d like to have more pieces illustrated in the future; consider becoming a paid subscriber to make this possible.