The Eye pretended to be his predecessor but, in order to avoid problems, said that "the Xanathar" was just a title. The Eye killed Xanathar and inherited all his holdings. Eventually, Uthh fought Xanathar in his lair Xanathar slew Uthh but was too weak to resist the surprise attack of the Eye. The Eye discovered all Xanathar's secrets and at the same time manipulated another Skullport beholder, Uthh, into wanting to kill Xanathar. Thus the Eye decided to take control, by killing and taking the position of Xanathar. Meanwhile, the Eye investigated the Xanathar Thieves' Guild, a powerful thieves guild, and in time discovered that they were also led by a beholder, a beholder of a different hive. Soon, most people forgot about the beholder slaver and in 1304 DR the Agents of the Eye were simply a large slaving ring in Skullport with no association with beholders.
At one point, he re-organized his organization into a semi-autonomous model and retreated into the background, spreading rumors about his demise or retirement. In time, his business and his organization grew. The Eye arrived in Skullport in 1205 DR, already a slaver in search of a greater market. Because Vox Machina took position from both the ceiling and the floor, K’Varn was unable to focus his attacks on the party and unable to use his elevation to escape damage, in turn.The Eye, as he was originally known, was an ancient, wrinkled, and paranoid beholder of the Graypeaks Hive. Beholders often take advantage of their hovering capabilities, staying out of range of grounded melee combatants and keeping casters in view of their anti-magic eye. Vox Machina’s positioning also provided a significant advantage. Percy’s Headshot (which has since been nerfed) was the real winner in this fight, granting advantage on saves on the majority of K’Varn’s attacks. Pike’s Death Ward also provided Grog an extra round of life, wasting one of K’Varn’s brutal attacks to take out the goliath. With all these enhancements in place, Vox Machina did a LOT right this fight. Fortunately, it did not take much to bring him down yet again, and Tiberius was able to quickly remove the Horn before the battle could be extended again. Worst of all, Orcus’s Blessing used K’Varn corpse for its own purposes as an undead, extending the battle, although K’Varn was far less strategic in this form. He automatically healed 30 HP each round it was attached while he still lived, and foes he knocked unconscious healed him an additional 15 HP (as well as auto-failing their first death save). The real danger, of course, came from the Horn of Orcus. The stitch monsters added another wrinkle to the fight, made all the worse by bad rolls from Pike and Grog. The armor grafted to him increased his AC to 19. K’Varn, however, was in a whole other league, thanks to his experimentation. Beholders also have lair actions, including, as we saw, an eye ray randomly generating on a solid surface, granting ANOTHER eye ray attack. Their Antimagic Cone from their main eye (as we saw from Tiberius’s frustration) prevents spells and magical items from taking effect within it, but would need to be turned off for the round should the beholder wish to use their rays through this area. Each round, they have three eye ray attacks (list in character sheet), as well as an additional three ray attacks spread after three different foes’ turns as legendary actions. If there was any doubt, Beholders are nasty business.
BEHOLDER 5E STAT BLOCK FULL
Art by the ineffable Kit Buss. Thanks to Matthew Mercer for providing the full character sheet here.