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I’ve been wanting to write this entry ever since I started doing the Let’s Read of the first Monster Manual and Monster Vault, more than four years ago. It’s my favorite entry in the entire book.

The Lore

Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

At the dawn of Nerath, a number of knights went a-questing for the fabled Sunspire, a tower sacred to Pelor that was said to house a beautiful maiden. The knight who found it would receive the god’s blessings and the maiden’s hand in marriage. One such knight eventually found the tower, and went inside at the maiden’s invitation. He was never seen again.

When the armies of evil encircled Gardmore Abbey, they managed to get a messenger through the siege, carrying a map to the location of their most precious artifacts to be delivered to the Emperor of Nerath. The messenger ran until a thunderstorm forced him to seek shelter. He found an inn he didn’t remember seeing before, whose rotund proprietor promised he’d find all he desired inside. That night, the messenger laid down on his bed and was never seen again.

Prince Rande the Lost of Nerath gained his noble title after tracking down and slaying a foul doppelganger. He found it disguised as a lady of noble bearing living in a fancy manor house. He slew the creature and took her manor for himself, moving in with his entire household. Servants and nobles alike began disappearing one by one, giving rise to rumors that the Prince had usurped an innocent woman and her ghost was seeking vengenace. Finally, the Prince himself vanished along with the whole house, leaving an empty plot of land behind and adding “The Lost” to his titles.

Years after the fall of Nerath a group of dwarven adventures came to the Nentir Vale seeking the Lost Tower of Fastormel. They found the tower, but their initial attempts at gaining entry failed. An old dwarven wizard eventually answered the door, claiming she hadn’t heard the visitors knock. She invited them inside. The party’s rogue sensed something was wrong and tried to convince his friends to stay out, but they didn’t listen to him. The last thing the rogue heard before fleeing were the screams of his companions. When he later returned there with a well-armed rescue party, the tower was nowhere to be found.

Did you know that mimics never die of old age, and never stop growing?

The Numbers

Yes, the Wandering Tower is a centuries-old mimic. It’s helped along by a group of mirror mimics who play host in order to lure potential victims inside. It’s also followed by a swarm of blood ravens who feast on any remains it leaves. These appear in every one of the more detailed vignettes in the book itself.

Blood Raven Swarm

This is a Large swarm of Tiny creatures, and a Level 14 Skirmisher with 138 HP. Blood Ravens are Natural Beasts, and their main reason for following the tower is for access to easy meals. Their Swarm Attack aura (1) deals 10 damage to enemies caught inside, and if they start their turn on the space of a bloodied creature they can take move actions as minor actions.

The swarm’s sole attack is Blood Beaks, which damages the target and weakens it for a turn if it’s bloodied.

Mirror Mimic

This is an interesting variant of the Impersonator Mimic from the MM3. It’s weaker and more suitable as a hench-thing for the tower, but it also has different psychic tricks.

Mirror Mimics are Level 15 Lurkers with 118 HP. They have a ground Speed of 6 and Phasing, meaning they can move through walls. They attack with Slams that do decent damage, and their main mimic power is Body Duplication. This lets them attack the Will of an enemy. On a hit, they take the target’s form and teleport up to 3 squares. They also create 3 duplicates of the target within 3 squares of it. The duplicates can be attacked and have the same defenses as the mimic, but any damage destroys them. Telling them apart from the original mimic requires a DC 35 Insight check. The mimic can make all of them move its speed with a single minor action, and can use Body Transfer as a minor action to discreetly switch places with a duplicate. When it does this, its next attack deals extra damage.

By a strict reading of the ability, the PCs need no rolls to pinpoint their duplicated friend - they are only required to distinguish between the original mimic and one of its illusory duplicates. That’s not a problem, however, because when a duplicate is destroyed, the duplicated PC takes damage as if the mimic had hit them with an attack!

Body Duplication recharges when the mimic has no active duplicates, so keeping it active is going to be its main priority. After that, it’s going to constantly switch places with a copy and focus its attacks on the duplicated PC. It’s going to be very annoying to fight unless the PCs can consistently make those Insight rolls. If the party doesn’t have an Insight specialist, this thing is going to punch above its weight.

Core of the Tower

The Wandering Tower can replicate any medium-sized building. Once its mimic servants have lured one or more victims inside, the Tower waits until they are at rest with their guard down, and then its core will attack them. That’s the part that actually does the eating and digesting, and houses the being’s vital organs.

The core is a Huge Aberrant Magical Beast, smaller than the building it’s mimicking (which will be part of the battle map!). The walls and furnishings of the building remain part of the mimic and can also attack the PCs. This is modeled in several different ways in this stat block and the next.

The Core of the Tower is a Level 18 Solo Controller with 716 HP, a ground speed of 6 with Phasing, Darkvision and Tremorsense 10. It’s immune to domination and has 15 acid resistance. It’s One With the Tower, meaning it can’t move out of the Tower and is immune to any effects that would transport it outside. Rounding out its Solo Survival Kit, we have the Undaunted trait, which downgrades any stuns inflicted on it to dazes.

The core fights by extending tendrils from itself and manipulating the surrounding terrain, which is also itself. Its basic attacks are Reach 3 and consist of Slams that slide the target 3 squares and Grabs that do almost the same amount of damage and have an escape DC of 23. It can also, as a free action on its turn, target a grabbed PC with the Maw of Doom, sliding it 3 squares to a space adjacent to itself or to a wall and dealing a big chunk of acid damage. This requires an attack roll against Fortitude, but does not end the grab.

The most combat-relevant minor action the core can make is use its Rippling Architecture to attack every enemy in a Close Burst 5 and knock them prone on a hit. It can also create additional doors on the map, which start out jammed shut (break DC 25), or shapeshift into something suitably large, using the same rules as an object mimic: can’t attack, has 10 resistance to all damage, DC 32 to notice it’s a mimic. It will likely start the fight this way, and the door ability will be used to place any doors the PCs see when they enter.

Living Wall

This is a hazard that’s sure to be present on any fight against the Wandering Tower, since it represents its non-core natural weapons. The book recommends choosing 8 contiguous squares of wall on the map and designating them as this hazard. Pseudopods and acidic maws extend from this wall to attack PCs when it activates.

The Living Wall is a Level 18 Hazard that has slightly lower defenses than the mimic’s core, and 25 HP per square (200 for those 8 recommended squares). It’s very tough, being immune to necrotic, poison, psychic and ongoing damage, as well as to all forced movement and conditions. It has Resist 10 acid.

Its attack is Reach 3 and though it deals only light physical damage it has cruel riders: hit targets are pulled 1 square, restrained, and take 10 ongoing acid damage (save ends both). It can attack two targets with one action, and each attack can originate from any of the wall’s squares.

A square that takes 25 damage is destroyed and can no longer serve as the origin point for an attack, though I guess it still blocks perception and movement. If the core is dazed or first bloodied, the wall is disabled for a turn.

Final Impressions

I love this! It really stretches the mechanics of the game to give you an encounter against an actual building who wants to kill you. The most likely fight against the Wandering Tower will involve every stat block in this entry: the Core itself on a building interior map with a number of Living Wall squares, a mirror mimic servant, and the Blood Ravens ready to attack anyone who tries to get out. That’s a very chaotic Level 20 Encounter for 5 characters, going into the epic levels if your party is smaller.