Fetid Mound (Basic Lore)

Fetid Mound (CR 11)
Pure Evil - Large - Plant (Undead)
A Fetid Mound is a massive pile of dead and decaying vegetable matter, similar to a compost heap, that has become animated by an undead spirit. They are malevolent and murderous, killing anything that lives to add to their bulk. Fetid Mounds will target plants as much as they do animals and people, and will "graze" upon the plants in an area to maintain their rotting hulk. Fetid Mounds are deadly in combat if you get too close, as they can suddenly rush over top of nearby foes and sweep them up inside their interiors, which are hot and smothering. Few indeed are the heroes mighty enough to escape from the interior of a Mound before they are killed by the heat and debris! Fetid Mounds are surprisingly common, and often form after large floods in areas with zombies, as flood debris including zombie bodies form ideal seed masses for them. They can also be made deliberately, and unlike most horrors, making a fetid mound is quite easy: Throw zombie corpses into a compost heap. More often than not, you wind up with some fetid mounds. Fetid Mounds are why the only safe way to dispose of undead corpses is to burn them, and even then, they will eventually reform.