Wall Watchers

Wall Watchers - Overview

A class of elemental spirit. While this group includes members with wildly different types, they share similar habits and abilities. As a group, they are very territorial and possessive spirits that jealously guard the area they believe to be theirs. Besides this, they are also generalized with abilities to incapacitate trespassers, and move both themselves and victims freely through their territory. They use these powers to hunt and ambush intruders, capturing them and removing them from their territory.

Due to these abilities and habits, Wall Watchers are useful as guardians, especially in dungeons and labyrinths, giving them their name. Magicians with the means can conjure Wall Watchers to ward off thieves and other unwanted visitors. Unlike golems, which are regularly slow and lacking any will of their own, Wall Watchers possess the patience of constructs with the active hunting instinct of guard-animals, making them superior guardians, if one can look past their behavoiral quirks.

That said, it is noted that while Wall Watchers excel when guarding a place or area, their general habits and the means needed to conjure them to the material plane make them ill-suited for open combat or most other aggressive actions. They are ambush hunters, and the vast majority of Wall Watchers will stubbornly use the same attack or trick even when it no longer has any chance of success, and most require a form of anchoring to prevent them from running wild into the world.

Wall Watcher  - Earth Elemental

These qualities can all be readily observed in the creatures originally dubbed Wall Watchers by adventurers. Also called Dungeon watchers or Stone Watchers, they are earth spirits conjured into a statue prepared with runes and glyphs, which serves as their body on the material plane.

They are famous for their ability to meld with and travel freely through earth and stone as easily as a human walks through open air, and have the ability to transport others in their embrace without harm. In addition to this, these Wall Watchers possess a magical touch that paralyzes its victims, rendering them helpless and causing them to black out. As they have bodies made of stone, these Wall Watchers cannot speak or see normally.They primarily see by sensing vibrations through earth and stone, detecting intruders as they move across the ground. Generally, they require no sustinance besides contact with the ground.

The Wall Watcher utilizes these abilities when dealing with intruders. A watcher at rest appears no different from a statue, completely still. When they detect intruders via vibrations, they travel through stone towards them. They then stalk the trespasser from overhead, often seeking to cast a shadow on their victim until the moment comes, and the Wall Watcher drops from the ceiling onto their prey, pinning them down and using their paralyzing touch to render foes completely helpless.

It is at this point that the spirit's unusual behavior makes itself apparent. Wall Watchers do not willfully harm intruders, instead carrying them away. Victims typically awaken outside the dungeon they were exploring. Though they are unable to clearly recall what happened to them after ambush, they are generally unharmed.

However, Wall Watchers are mischevious, a fact demonstrated in the muddled memories and disheveled state of victims. Victims report missing items or being left in various states of undress, and while unable to recall clear details, many report vauge recollections of being touched repeatedly or sensations of pleasure, and victims sometimes find that attempting to recall causes a physical response from their bodies.

Study into this has revealed that Wall Watchers do play with or tease their captives before releasing them, as something they appear to find enjoyment or entertainment in. In addition, the paralyzing touch of the Wall Watcher also marks the victim with magic. On its own, this mark fades away without effect over time. However, if the victim is caught repeatedly in a short time, the magic builds up, and the Wall Watcher will see them as part of its territory, rather than an intruder. When this happens, the Wall Watcher will carry them away and use the built up magic in the victim's body to turn them to stone.
The means to counter and combat these creatures is tied to their creation. As previously stated, Wall Watchers inhabit statues specially marked with runes and glyphs. While the magician can inscribe additional glyphs to empower the watcher further, there are two key runes that all Wall Watchers require.

The main rune which allows the elemental spirit to inhabit the statue and move through stone is large, and found on the back. Touching or striking this area can make the spirit lose control of its body, immobilizing it, and severe damage to this mark can cut the connection between the spirit and its statue body, forcing it to return from whence it came. If one stays alert and notices the creature before it launches its ambush, then it is possible to evade and get behind it to land an attack.

The other main rune common to Wall Watchers is found on its hands, and is used to channel its paralyzing touch. As creatures with stone bodies, Wall Watchers are generally tough, taking little damage and feeling no pain. However, these runes, used to channel magic, makes the hands of the Dungeon Watcher sensitive, with feelings similar to, or even greater than a human hand. If one manages to strike the hands of a Wall Watcher, the creature will retreat from the strong sensations and loss of its paralysis attack.

The final note for the conjuring and counter measures against the Wall Watcher is the anchor, a marked object, usually a pedestal. The pedestal is engraved and enchanted as part of the conjuring to ensure it stays in the area the magician wishes to have protected. In addition, these pedestals are frequently further enchanted so that if the Wall Watcher does take damage, it can retreat to its pedestal to quickly regenerate. Defacing this anchor can cut off support to the Wall Watcher. However, it also frees the creature to travel as it wishes, and there are stories of Wall Watchers which leave the dungeons they once guarded to pursue the ones that freed them.