Wall of Limbs - When the Dead Gather in Pieces
/The monsters and creatures of Dungeons and Dragons bring us the challenges our heroes crave and the flavour that makes your world feel all the better and more lived in. I talk often that inspiration for what to fill your game with is what keeps your games dynamic and exciting.
While trawling through some of the sources I go to a lot for inspiration, I found something very odd. The beauty of 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons means it's very easy to put that weird idea down into something you can use in your games.
The Wall of Limbs
In my own games, the topic of the undead is a fairly commonly talked about. They're rare but in the knowledge of most humanoid peoples in developed areas. Horror stories of mad mages raising the bodies of the dead to do their bidding will always be a threat for errant heroes. However there are places in my world where the undead spring up naturally.
They creep and Leap, Glide and SLide towards living Flesh - Wall of Limbs by Yeong-Hao Han
From such undead wellsprings, often found in places of lots of natural decay, festering zombies will spontaneously animate and begin to move again. They do not always come back whole. Humanoid bodies that have gathered together in these fetid places often become more of an amalgam of parts opposed to a whole being.
The Wall of Limbs moves as far as the twisted body parts can convey them. The terror of the bogs moves with an undead desire for the living, as with a whole zombie's lust for death, but the lack of any senses or regard for its self makes the amalgam a particularly dangerous approach. The mixture of races and species' tangled in the wall of limbs can give the creature its texture. The differences in decay between the arms and legs are also give it that added layer of gross factor.
Creatures which live in the swamps and marshes where undead spontaneously appear treat these unliving wall of body parts as particularly bad omens. Some among them see these unnatural creatures as an opportunity to bend a dangerous creature to its servitude. Those with the ability to control the necromantic energy within such a creature can easily bend something this mindless to its will.
The Grab of Hundreds of Dead Hands
A creature like this will easily challenge a party not moving stealthy enough through the marsh land. The more interesting use for a Wall of Limbs is the ones who have it as a pet or servitor. Recoil in fear at a villain who is capable and has the mindset to make one of these its servant.
Wall of Limbs Stats Generated with Homebrewery
Now we want to hear from you. How would you challenge your players with a wall of limbs? Would the immense, lumbering form make your characters scared, repulsed, or curious? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.
Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.
