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Description
Floating eerily through subterranean caverns and staring out at the world through a single malevolent eye, the voracious maloculus is a truly a terror to behold. Both fiendishly intelligent and borderline insane, it is just as likely to regale adventurers with jovial, self-important tales of its own magnificent deeds as it is to devour them piece by piece. Sometimes it will attempt to do both simultaneously.
The origin of the maloculus is lost to history. Some say it is the result of an ancient wizard's attempt to create a myopic dungeon guardian that would keep its single eye focused on the task assigned to it. Others claim that the first maloculus arrived in the world through a rip in the fabric of reality itself from a plane of pure madness. Regardless of its origin, the Death's Head of the Dark is driven by inscrutable motives and a seemingly boundless appetites.
Being little more than a floating head, the maloculus has an immense brain that possesses tremendous raw psionic power. Fortunately for all other lifeforms on the planet, this raw mental power is held in check by the creature's bestial appetites, which prevent it from reaching its full potential. The fraction of its mental power that it is capable of harnessing is still enough to make it a tremendous threat.
Ecology & Tactics
The maloculus spends much of its time in solitude, conversing with only itself for centuries at a time. In the warped mind of the maloculus, this feeds into its megalomania, as it believes its solitude to be a reflection of its singular importance in the world. Each maloculus literally views itself as the center of the world.
When adventurers encounter a maloculus, there is a 25% chance that the creature has spent at least a century in solitude. If has not been solitary, then the creature is likely (75%) to have a retinue of thralls
Even if the adventurers never encounter the creature, the decor of the lair will make it clear that a maloculus lords over it. Everything from tapestries on the walls to the robes or armor of the thralls will be emblazoned with the sigil of the all-seeing eye. (Maloculi are not known for either humility or subtlety). Every maloculus has a distinctive ocular sigil.
Notes
The creature's tendency to acquire thralls and ostentatious lairs can be used to gradually lead the adventurers towards an encounter with a maloculus. Low-level adventurers could stumble upon clues which lead them to an encounter with maloculus thralls. As the adventurers become more skillful, they can find their way to the main lair and confront the creature itself.
