Deathgaze Tyrant [Undead Gazer]

Almost never seen on worlds, deathgaze tyrants are decaying gazer tyrants furred with mold. Some are shriveled; others have holes that reveal their bony plates and rings of curved ribs. All are wounded, some lack stalks, and a milky haze clouds their eyes. They are slower to move and turn than the living, acting and aiming their eyes last each round.

Every surviving eye works as it did in life, but 2-5 eyes, picked at random and possibly including the central one, are lost to wounds, death and the change. The creature slowly restores its motive energy but never regrows stalks or their powers.

Charm eyes do not survive undeath. Each becomes useless (60%) or a weak hold monster (40%) that keeps a victim who fails the save held as long as the eye stares at him steadily. Once the gaze shifts, or the victim is hooded or dragged away, the hold lingers 1-3 more rounds.

Left uncontrolled, it hangs in place until its maker's orders are done, such as attacking any human who enters a room until they die or run, without ever leaving. A new one given no orders attacks every living thing it notices. 'Mindless' is relative: its once-brilliant brain still aims its eyes cleverly, making it one of the smarter undead, though its old cunning is gone. Under another's control, it has its controller's intelligence.

Without self-awareness or any social life, they are mindless servants of living tyrants, much like the orbi. Most are found abandoned in wrecked gazer ships and bases after battles, or working for gazer society as guards and laborers. 'Rogue' deathgaze tyrants carry orders to ignore all control and are immune to every attempt; gazers plant them as traps for rivals.

Very rarely one arises on its own, but most are made by evil beings, from human wizards to mind reavers, and some outcast spellcasting gazers turn their own kin. The raw material is a dying tyrant, a traitor to its race or clan, or a captive of a rival gazer nation. An old spell, probably devised by human mages long ago, pushes it from life into undeath and stamps orders into its brain.

Controlling one is hard for humans. A tyrant's wildly fluctuating brain activity garbles charm monster, control undead and their variants, so a wizard must create a special spell. One spacefarers' spell lets anyone with charm powers, natural or magical, and Intelligence 15 or higher, living tyrants included, command one as a charmed human obeys the caster. Rumors persist of devices that do the same, and of humans and liches with deathgaze guards. Its stalks, brain and levitation all still work, but they crumble to nothing once it is destroyed.