Corpse Gatherer

A corpse gatherer is an animated graveyard empowered by a mean intelligence and a greed for more bodies. It exists only to increase its own size and power by devouring more dead bodies. It seeks corpses everywhere, from cemeteries to battlefields to scenes of natural disasters.

A corpse gatherer appears roughly humanoid, but its immense body is made up of corpses, tombstones, and grave earth. From a distance, the creature resembles a hulking giant made of earth and stones, but upon closer inspection, a viewer can detect the occasional dead hand, head, or other appendage protruding from its form.

These creatures are thought to spawn from the burial of a sentient undead creature (such as a vampire) in unconsecrated ground. The lingering taint of undeath somehow permeates the earth, causing the entire graveyard⁠—​corpses, tombstones, and all⁠—​to coalesce into a ravening undead monster.

Corpse gatherers feast upon dead flesh, but they are more than willing to create fresh corpses by slaying living creatures. A single corpse gatherer has been known to destroy several entire villages to sate its unceasing hunger.

Though corpse gatherers are not themselves evil, their undead taint extends to any living prey they devour. The soul of a creature consumed by a corpse gatherer is trapped within the latter’s body along with its corpse. Thus, the soul cannot escape (so the creature cannot be raised or resurrected) until the corpse gatherer itself is destroyed.

Combat

A corpse gatherer fights by attempting to pound its opponents into mush. From time to time, it also grabs troublesome opponents and stuffs them into its porous body (see Swallow Whole, below). Those so absorbed are grasped and held fast by the hands of the corpses that make up the gatherer.

Improved Grab (Ex): If a corpse gatherer hits an opponent its own size or smaller with a slam attack, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it gets a hold, it can try to swallow the opponent in the next round. Alternatively, the corpse gatherer has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use its hand to hold the opponent (–⁠20 penalty on grapple check, but the corpse gatherer is not considered grappled). In either case, its next successful grapple check deals automatic slam damage.

Ingest Corpses (Su): The corpse gatherer increases its hit points by adding bodies to its form. It gains 5 hit points for every corpse of a swallowed creature that it absorbs. The corpse gatherer can exceed its normal hit points in this manner, gaining any excess as temporary hit points. Opponents the creature has swallowed are not subject to ingestion until the round after they die.

Swallow Whole (Ex): A corpse gatherer can swallow a grabbed opponent that is at least one size category smaller than itself by making a successful grapple check. The creature need not use its mouth to swallow; it can merely stuff the opponent into any convenient portion of its porous body. Once inside the gatherer, the opponent takes 1d12+12 points of bludgeoning damage per round from the roiling corpses, gravestones, and other objects inside the creature’s body. See Swallow Whole for escape methods and other hazards. What passes for a corpse gatherer’s “throat” or “stomach” has an AC of 14 and 25 hit points. A Gargantuan corpse gatherer can hold 2 Huge, 8 Large, 32 Mediumsize, or 128 Small or smaller creatures.

Desanctifying Aura (Su): A corpse gatherer projects a continual field of negative energy in a 100-foot-radius emanation. The area within this field is under the effect of a double-strength desecrate spell (caster level 15th), as if the corpse gatherer were a permanent feature dedicated to its own deity. Each turning attempt within this area has a –⁠6 profane penalty. Further, each undead creature in the area (including the corpse gatherer) is entitled to a +2 profane bonus on its attack rolls, damage rolls and saving throws, as well as +2 hit points per HD. This aura lasts for 24 hours after the corpse gatherer has passed through. The aura’s effects are reflected in the creature’s statistics block above.

Soul Binding (Su): Creatures slain and ingested by a corpse gatherer are affected as if by a soul bind spell, so they cannot be restored to life. Destroying the corpse gatherer negates this effect. Corpses that the creature devours without having slain them itself are not subject to soul binding.

Zombie-Spawn (Su): Upon reaching 0 hit points, the corpse gatherer falls apart into its component corpses. The creature’s animating force remains among the corpses that formerly composed its body, converting them into zombies. Upon its death, a corpse gatherer generates as many zombies as it has Hit Dice (that is, a 30-HD corpse-gatherer becomes thirty zombies). Unless circumstances dictate otherwise, these are all Medium-size zombies. They function normally as long as they remain in the desanctified area of the dead corpse gatherer, but outside its effect they revert to normal corpses.

Source: Monster Manual II, page 51. This creature’s statistics block has been updated to version 3.5 as given in the D&D® V.3.5 Accessory Update for Monster Manual II.