Driders enslaved by beholder?

[jimmacjr]

I'm DMimg a game, and I was thinking of designing a short Beholder campaign, where the players need to obtain Beholder eye stalks as part of the their quest. As the Beholder is enamored with magic and food, my idea is that Driders (as their spider bodies allow them to climb through the lair easily) pledged their lives to this beholder, and are ransacking and pillaging the Drow village. Basically, having the Drow who banished them provide food sacrifices and offerings for their new Beholder leader, or pick one of their own to go.

There is a plot twist, but in case any of my players stumble on this, I'll keep it to myself.

My question is, would this be possible for a Beholder, to have a Drider following? Obviously as the DM, the Beholder could be a TV evangelist if I wanted it to, lol. Just wanted another opinion on concept and believability.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Tvtyrant]

Seems reasonable within the context of the Underdark if you are in FR. Driders were originally banished from their homes, so the beholder could simply pick them up in the tunnels and bring them home with hir. In later fluff I believe they are the beloved of LLoth or some such, but it is your story so who cares? Heck, the Beholder could have taken over a small Drow town and purposefully has them undergo the test to become priests so they will fail and become driders.

The only problem I can see is that a Beholder could have any combination of whacky critters, so why would you want to limit it to only spiderfolk?

[Kane0]

Totally plausible. The drider are simply trading out one oppressor for another tyrant. Underdark life ain't easy, and the drider arent exactly top of the food chain.

[Dimcair]

My only question is whether Lloth would be happy with that.

She might be, she might not be. Driders are supposed to be punished drow, driders raiding and killing other drow? She might find it ironic and funny, she might be displeased that something else is using her driders, makes them feel better etc.

[Shining Wrath]

Firstly, it's your campaign so you can freely invent Reasons why this works.
Secondly, Driders are per fluff Drow who have failed Lolth and been transformed into hideous monstrosities as punishment, banished to the fringes of Drow communities as a reminder of what happens when you fail the Spider Queen. That to me makes them perfect candidates for some other Underdark BBEG type to recruit, so long as they aren't asked to directly rebel against Lolth. All you need is a BBEG clever enough to persuade them that devouring the weak and incompetent Drow serves Lolth, and you are good to go, and a Beholder seems up to the task.

And actually, Lolth might in fact be OK with driders devouring weak and incompetent Drow. I've never read anything where Lolth had a soft side or wasn't so bad once you got to know her. :smallsmile: Evil is as evil does, to paraphrase the noted Underdark scholar F. Gump.

The only part of this that might get Lolth upset is asking the Drow village to provide sacrifices. That's dangerously close to worship, and I believe jealousy is one of her faults.

[jimmacjr]

Well the Drow village would be forced to provide sacrifices and magic to the Driders in fear of becoming the sacrifice themselves. Kill or be killed, do not worship the Beholder per say....maybe falsely worship, lol.

The Drider motivation is revenge to the Drow village village they were banished from. Eventually the Beholder will likely kill them all anyway, the paranoid recluse that he is.

I appreciate the feedback. I know it's my game, and I could DM whatever story I wanted. I just wanted to try to stay true to monster behavior.

Love these forums, you guys give a lot of great insight and info!