The Woetree is a species of enormous dead-looking trees with roots reaching miles into the Underworld where they drink upon souls for nourishment.
Parasitic boring maggots fester upon the tree, suckling upon the souls within the tree until they grow into a carrion crawling two-headed worm beast. When the corpse crawlers kill sentient creatures they harvest the creature's soul, process it in their guts and store it inside of the tree by spitting up a smoky greenish-blue sap-like substance. When enough souls (roughly 1 soul per foot of the Woetree's height) are stored within the sap, a skull-shaped seed will grow within the upper roots - to be later harvested by cultists. The Death Gods of Xibalba have their cults (particularly the cults of Hun-Came ("One Death") and Vucub-Came ("Seven Death")) plant these seeds along necrotic ley-lines around the world.
Corpse Crawler
Many-legged, segmented worm stretching 9' long. A human-looking face on both ends of its body with two pairs of four tentacles stretching from their inside their mouths.
HD 3+2 (17hp), Speed x1 human
(walk or climb walls and ceilings)
AC as Leather, Intelligence 2, Morale 9
No. Appearing d3, Classification Bogey
-Actions-
Paralyzing tentacles x8 (4 from each end), +3 to hit, causes paralysis for 2d4 Turns (10-minutes) (save versus paralysis). Paralyzed victims will be level-drained (1 level/round) if the corpse crawler is left to feed.
-Defense-
A Corpse Crawler's two-headed nature means they are unable to be back-stabbed.
-Maggots-
Corpse Crawler maggots have 1HP; they do not attack other creatures but incidental contact can call for a save vs paralysis. Each tree hosts 2d20 maggots.
