Death kiss

A death kiss was a lesser beholder with tentacles that ended in mouths instead of eyestalks. Death kisses came to being as physical manifestations of beholders' vivid dreams of mass blood loss.

Description
Death kisses resembled Beholders but lacked their eyestalks and mouth below their main eye. They were 10 feet (3 meter) across, covered in ten, 20 foot (6 meter) long tentacles where a Beholder's eyestalks should be. Their leathery skin was a mottled gray, or a muted hue of the original beholder's skin. At the end of each of their tentacles was a toothy mouth, and each tentacle was fully retractable. Only those who were not familiar with beholders could mistake a death kiss for a beholder. They could speak through their mouths and they sounded high pitched and nasally.

Combat
Death kiss typically hunted alone, preying on anything around it with blood. When on the hunt, they would retract their tentacles and suddenly extend them to full length, surprising the target and catching them off guard.

Death kiss combat was neither sophisticated nor subtle, violently lashing at any nearby source of blood. By ingesting blood, the death kiss could generate electricity, which it could use to further damage it's foes. Ingesting blood also caused the death kiss to recover from injury,so death kisses would seek to restrain their prey with their tentacles before draining their blood until death. Because of the electricity in a death kisses' blood, causing them to bleed out would shock those nearby, and their death could cause a complete electric discharge.

While not stupid, death kisses tend not to strategize unless a foe is completely superior, such as against a dragon or other beholder. This weakness shows in their tendency to play with their prey, leading them to make easily avoidable mistakes. The greatest strategy they may show in normal situations was to pull prey upwards as they drained them.

Behavior
Death kiss would attempt to escape the clutches of their creators at the first opportunity, as they were clearly superior. They would typically submit to more powerful entities if only to keep their lives, lacking the egotistical nature of normal beholders. They were only paranoid about the loss of blood and so drained the blood of any creature they could fine. They were also sadistic playing with their prey and draining them slowly and not taking combat seriously. They might have presented themselves as a true beholder to scare off greater threats.

Ecology
Death kiss could only survive by digesting the blood of other entities. Digesting blood somehow generated electricity within them that was released if they bled. Each mouth was capable of speech and of being retracted. When travelling underground they would put the tentacles in every nook and cranny as they navigated, while above ground they would be retracted. Like a normal beholder they moved through hovering through a buoyancy sack.

Society
Death kisses preferred to hunt alone, preying on whatever they found. They may submit to a more powerful being, although only so long as they cannot escape. When two death kiss meet they may attempt to kill one another, leave each other alone, or even team up depending on the situation.