Magran

Magran are huge hunters of the Ethereal Plane. Common talk calls them fish, and they look the part: sleek and many-finned, with several eyes, a wide mouth and a dangling tendril tipped with a small light. In truth they are big reptiles.

A long tendril between the eyes holds a glowing sphere visible from 200 feet or more, meant to draw prey close. The membrane pulses hypnotically, acting as a hypnotic pattern that can hold creatures totaling 24 Hit Dice or levels. Anyone within 30 feet must save vs. spell each round there or be transfixed until the magran attacks it or it can no longer see the lure, perhaps because friends cover its eyes or drag it away.

The rest of the beast waits unseen. It can turn invisible at will, appearing only as it attacks and fading again at once, and can even hide the lure. Against an entranced victim it gains +4 to hit, and the target gets no Dexterity bonus to AC.

Its long-toothed jaws bite for 3d8 and swallow the target whole on a 19 or 20. The gullet is cramped: only a size S victim holding a size S weapon can fight from inside, against the same AC as the exterior. Any swallowed creature takes 1d12 acid damage per round and suffocates in 2d4 rounds unless freed. Oddly, living victims stay visible inside the invisible body, so allies can watch them struggle; once dead, they fade from view along with their devourer.

Magran live only in the Deep Ethereal, never visiting the Border Ethereal or other planes. They hunt alone, though up to three may share an area. Rarely they gather in great schools to spawn for 4d6 days, moving almost as one creature. They do not hunt then, but they are so wary that the whole school attacks anything that approaches, so experienced travelers avoid spawning schools at any cost.

After hatching, the young are abandoned, and the bigger ones eat the smaller until they can tackle other prey. Unlike some monsters' eggs, magran eggs have no value.

Anything drawn by the lure is food: minor ethereal animals, thought eaters, foo creatures, xill, certain native ethereal races, and careless planar travelers. The glowing organ stays lit after death; carefully cut free, the roughly 8-inch sphere can produce a hypnotic pattern effect, within limits the game master should decide.