Living Wall (CR -)

Varies Undead
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Initiative: -


AC:
Hit Dice:
Fort -, Ref -, Will -
Speed: -
Space:
Base Attack -; Grapple -
Special Attacks/Actions:
Abilities: Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int -, Wis -, Cha -
Special Qualities:
Feats:
Skills:
Advancement:
Climate/Terrain: Any
Organization: See Dungeon #343, page 49
Treasure/Possessions: None

Source: Dragon #343

A living wall is a horrifying undead amalgam of several creatures fused into a wall-like form, desperately wishing for an opportunity to destroy its creator (and thus end its own existence). The wall appears like a normal stone or brick wall, but this is an illusion that hides its true form - a mass of fused flesh, including faces, hands, broken bones, feet, arms, and legs jutting from the surface, all of it mottled gray and sinewy as if starving. Any creature within 15 feet of a wall hears its plaintive cries for help.

Made up of numerous creatures, all with this template, a living wall is a feared thing because it absorbs its opponents and the bodies of those it slays into itself. Each creature within a wall can use all of the abilities it possessed in life, whether weapon, feat, or spell, although its lack of mobility limits their use in some cases (it could not use Spring Attack, for example). It never fights against itself and allows its component creatures to function independently as necessary. When an opponent presents itself; however, all of the component creatures work together to destroy the creature and add it to the ever-growing wall.

A living wall grows with each creature it absorbs but cannot extend beyond the dimensions of the space it inhabits. For example, a stone wall built perpendicular to a natural cave wall might run 50 feet, and a small living wall may comprise 20 feet of its length; if the living wall absorbs enough creatures it could eventually cover that entire 50 foot length but could not extend further into the natural stone wall of the cave (any further creatures absorbed after this limit is reached are merely held within the wall used to replace sections that are destroyed).

A living wall only absorbs creatures, weapons, and magic items, leaving non-magical gear behind at the base of the wall. These leavings often attract other creatures, resulting in more victims. A living wall is a creature and is not subject to spells such as passwall.

Some living walls are deliberate creations by evil and cruel necromancers using rare spells, but some (particularly in Ravenloft) arise spontaneously when a person is entombed alive within a wall. This only happens when the terrified victim curses his slayer, his screams rising loud enough to be heard beyond the walls of his prison. When the victim dies, the curse soils his life energy, which becomes trapped in the wall. Eventually, madness overtakes the spirit and turns it chaotic evil, at which point all dead creatures within 300 feet of the wall rise, shamble to the wall, and join it, fusing together into a thing that seems like stone made from fused and transformed flesh. Any creature killed within 300 feet of the wall thereafter eventually rises to join it.

If a living wall manages to destroy its creator, or the creator dies within 300 feet of the wall, the creator's corpse is assimilated into the wall, all other absorbed bodies are ejected (and released into the peace of death), and the wall reverts to a normal structure with its creator entombed within it.