Encephian

The enigmatic Encephian (plural and singular) are extremely rare in Wildspace communities, as they have a natural and more than appropriate case of ceremorphobia - they are terrified of Mind Flayers.
From secret homes among enormous hollow asteroids, they lay in wait for the return of their hidden patron, Scion, prophesied to cleanse the stars of the illithid-kin. Sadly for creatures who are 90% brain matter, they cling to a hope that appears baseless, as strong historical data suggests Scion was made up millenia ago as a story for children. No divine magic is wielded in Scion’s name, despite the numerous rites and devotions made by devout Encephians in multiple star systems, but Encephian dogma claims this is because Scion is hiding so well.
Encephian are primary made of pure brain matter, with a number of striated prehensile muscle masses they typically shape into limbs like tentacles. Like Beholders and other magical beings they float of their own accord, which keeps the muscle masses free to be used in similar manner to hands. They have no apparent visual, audio, olfactory, or taste sense, and instead perceive the world around them through a strange prescience that has been described by mind-linked individuals as ‘knowing where everything is, the way you know how wet your hand is when you spill cold liquid on it’. They communicate telepathically, absorb oxygen and gasses straight from the air, and consume liquid food matter through their limbs via osmosis.
Encephian do not enjoy the outer epidermal layer most species do, and require a near constant source of moisture or they dry out and expire rapidly. Their homes are typically aquatic, while those few that travel rely on large containers of water for constant moistening. An Encephian gains becomes exhausted quickly when unable to access water, leading the more adventurous among them to secure Decanter(s) of Endless Water.
The nature of Encephian reproduction is a well guarded secret, so much so that only Encephian that have been given leave by their colony leaders to reproduce know the specific details, and they are bound by powerful psionic means to never reveal it. All that is known even among their own culture is that a potential parent petitions said leaders and then disappears from public life for a seemingly random amount of time, before returning with three to six much smaller Encephian who are clearly their young. These young are naturally curious and grow rapidly, spending a great deal of time within chemically rich fluids to better absorb nutrients through their raw muscle.
Encephian have no apparent sex or gender, and those who have no contact or experience with species outside of their own find the concepts odd at best, through to disturbing and horrific at worst. Those that become adventurers may adopt gendered language for themselves, or may struggle with the concept.
The few Encephian brave or foolish enough to leave their colonies are adventurers, some of whom are exiles that have rejected worship of Scion. They retain a fierce sense of loyalty to their species, and have often had their own memories altered by psychic surgery to intentionally remove knowledge of their former homes.

Encephian Traits

Creature Type: Aberration
Size: Large (about 6 to 12 feet in diameter)
Speed: 30 ft. Fly (hover)
As an Encephian, you have these special traits.
Hydroelectrostatic Oddity. You have no true sense of sight, smell, or hearing, nor the ability to make sounds by voice. You perceive the communication of others only if you know their language, or they willingly link telepathically with you. You cannot see but experience the area within 60 feet of yourself through a unique hydroelectrostatic sense that only other members of your species can truly understand.
This sense allows you to determine shape, colour, texture, sounds, and all information that would be visible to or heard by a humanoid with unimpeded vision in a well lit area and typical hearing, respectively. Beyond 60 feet this sense restricts you to determining visual cues as dim shapes in a thick fog, and sounds as if they were through several layers of viscous material. You cannot perceive anything further than 90 feet of you in this manner.
You are immune to the blinded and deafened conditions.
Floating Brain. You do not have arms or legs, but can form tentacle-like prehensile limbs from special muscle tissue. As a bonus action when you are not exhausted, you can shape part of your muscle tissue into a limb that is up to 6 inches wide and 10 feet long or reabsorb it into your body. As part of the same bonus action, you can use this limb to manipulate an object, open or close a door or container, or pick up or set down an object as any medium sized creature with hands could.
The limbs may hold weapons and attack as a regular, two-limbed humanoid could (ie a single two-handed weapon, two weapons, or a weapon and a shield). You may have a number of these limbs equal to or less than your intelligence modifier (to a minimum of two) active at a time. Each limb has tactile senses, but can’t lift more than twice your strength score in pounds.
Osmosis. You breathe and consume food and water through your muscle tissue. You require air equal to four humanoid creatures per day, and require food to be liquified to absorb it.
Skinless. You have no skin. You have vulnerability to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage made by critical hits. You rapidly dehydrate without a constant source of water, you must either be close to a source of water, or use one limb to carry a bucket, and use another limb to constantly moisturise yourself. You excrete some of the water back into the source, but consume four times the amount of water as a normal humanoid per day in this manner.
For every hour you are unable to moisturise yourself in this or a similar way, you gain one level of exhaustion. When you have one level of exhaustion your movement speed is reduced by half, and when you have two or more levels of exhaustion you sink to the ground and cannot move by your own. You fall unconscious if you have more levels of exhaustion than your proficiency bonus.
Encephian Telepathy. Without the assistance of magic, you can’t understand languages you don’t know. You can however use telepathy to convey your thoughts in any language you know. You have the magical ability to transmit your thoughts mentally to willing creatures within 90 feet of yourself. A contacted creature must share a language with you to understand your thoughts. Your telepathic link to a creature is broken if you and the creature move more than 90 feet apart, if either of you is incapacitated, or if either of you mentally breaks the contact (no action required).
When you cast a spell, your Encephian Telepathy produces an audible hum, which provides the verbal component.
You may telepathically bond with a number of willing creatures up to your proficiency bonus. Your telepathic link with these creatures reaches up to 120 feet, or a number of feet equal to ten times your intelligence score, whichever is higher. The link breaks beyond this distance, if you are separated by more than five feet of any solid object or 6 or more inches of metal, otherwise breaking as above.
Encephian Telekinesis. You can use Encephian Telekinesis for similar actions to a humanoid creature with a single hand, at a range of 15 feet. When you cast a spell, your Encephian Telekinesis provides the somatic component.
You can manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. You can’t attack with your Encephian Telekinesis, activate magic items, or carry any more than 10 pounds.