Death kiss

A death kiss (also known as a bleeder or eye of terror) 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 their mouth below their main eye, and instead were covered in ten, 20-foot-long (6 meters) tentacles ending in mouths. Their bodies were 10 feet (3 meters) across and 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 kisses 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 kisses in combat were neither sophisticated nor subtle, violently lashing out at any nearby source of blood. By ingesting blood, the death kiss could generate electricity, which it could use to further damage its 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 kiss's blood, causing them to bleed out would shock those nearby, and their death could cause a complete electric discharge.

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

Behavior
Death kisses 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 find. They were also sadistic, enjoying playing with their prey and draining them slowly and not taking combat seriously. They might impersonate true beholders to scare off greater threats.

Ecology
Death kisses could only survive by digesting the blood of other entities. Digesting blood somehow generated electricity within them that was released if they bled and each mouth was capable of speech and of being retracted. If food became scarce they were capable of 'shutting down' going into a heavy hibernation that they could only be roused from by a sufficient level of heat. Simple body heat was not sufficient to rouse it, and it would need to suffer from a fairly powerful thermal stimulation like from injury or fire. 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. Like Beholder eyes, the Death Kiss possessed an organ in the top of their head that could be used similarly to create levitation potions and magic ink. Upon death part of the death kiss brain, would harden into a soft-sided, faceted red gem known as "bloodeyes," that glowed brightly in tandem with strong emotions of those nearby.

Reproduction
Death Kiss appeared when Beholders had nightmares of heavy blood loss, and they would attempt to flee from their 'parents' after coming into existence. However, death kiss were capable of reproducing on their own. Death Kiss young incubate in the bodies of other deceased members of their kind. Within a day, 1-4 Death kiss will erupt from the corpse, and will grow to full size within a month. Young death kiss are only half as powerful as their forebears.

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. The most common result is a mid-air fight to the death, with the loser becoming an incubator for the offspring of the victor.