This woman was once beautiful, but her bloated features are now just one horrible mask, a parody of her former self. As she nimbly emerges from the darkness, the details of her terrible transformation becomes all too evident: the tattered remains of her own burial shroud are being slowly consumed by the distorted mouth of the creature she’d turned into. The rotten tissue within the oral cavity has transmuted into a putrid mass mixed with dark blood whose stench is unbearable.

Shroud Eater

CR 12
XP 19,200
CE Medium undead
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft; Perception +20
Aura pestilential stench (30 ft.; Fort DC 17, see bubonic plague)

DEFENSE
AC 25, touch 21, flat-footed 18 (+2 deflection, +7 Dex, +2 dodge, +4 natural)
hp 120 (12d8+60)
Fort +9, Ref +11 Will +12
DR 10/magic; Immune undead traits; Resist cold 10; Weaknesses shroud, shroud eater weaknesses

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +10 (1d4+2 plus disease), 2 claws +15 (1d6+2 plus disease)
Special Attacks blood drain, create spawn, plague carrier
Spell-Like Ability (CL 10th)
Permanent—deathwatch
3/day—summon swarm (rats only)

STATISTICS
Str 15, Dex 25, Con –, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 20
Base Atk +8; CMB +15; CMD 31
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Defensive Combat Training, Improved Natural Attack, Nimble Moves, Weapon Finesse
Skills Climb +13, Disguise +16, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (arcane) +13, Knowledge (religion) +13, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +13, Stealth +22 Racial Modifiers +4 Intimidate, +4 Perception, +4 Sense Motive, +4 Stealth
Languages Trade, Darakhul, Southern
Special Qualities gaseous form
Ecology
Environment any
Organization solitary or plague (1 shroud eater with 10-100 plague zombies)
Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Blood Drain (Su) A shroud eater can suck blood from a grappled opponent; if the shroud eater established or maintains a pin , it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage. The shroud eater heals 5 hit points in this manner each round it drains blood. A shroud eater can use this ability solely to heal itself and cannot accumulate temporary hit points in this manner.

Create Spawn (Su) Creatures that die from bubonic plague after having been infected by a shroud eater rise from death either as plague zombies or as shroud eaters in 1d4 days (one shroud eater out of a hundred victims). Plague zombies blindly obey their unwholesome creator; this isn’t the case with newly created shroud eaters however, which often leave to spread the Black Death far and wide.

Gaseous Form (Su) As a standard action, a shroud eater can assume gaseous form at will (caster level 10th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 30 ft. with perfect maneuverability. This ability habitually serves the creature solely to leave or return to its grave.

Pestilential Stench (Ex) This ability functions as the stench ability, but causes affected creatures to be potentially infected with bubonic plague. Dire rats and rat swarms that enter within a shroud eater’s aura of pestilential stench automatically become plague carriers with the exceptional ability to transmit bubonic plague instead of filth fever with their bite attack.

Plague Carrier (Ex) A shroud eater potentially infects those it bites or lacerates with its claws with bubonic plague.

Bubonic plague: injury or inhaled; save Fort DC 17; onset 1/day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Con damage and 1 Cha damage and target is fatigued; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Shroud (Ex) A shroud eater’s burial sheet (hardness 2, hp 10) contains a portion of the creature’s force. If the shroud is ever destroyed, the shroud eater takes 1d6 points of Charisma drain per hour until utterly destroyed. Attempts to destroy or steal a shroud eater’s burial sheet require the sunder or disarm attempts. A shroud eater can eat a portion of its burial sheet (1 hit point) to regain 10d100 hit points but must do so while in a mass grave counting at least ten corpses during 1d4+1 consecutive nights. To prevent a shroud eater from swallowing its burial shroud, one must exhume the creature at dawn, cast consecrate on the area, and stick a brick or stone taken from a holy site between the jaws of the undead. The decapitation of the plague-ridden creature isn’t a sine qua non measure.

Weaknesses: A remove disease spell prevents a shroud eater from transmitting bubonic plague for 1d4+1 hours while heal and mass heal do the same for an entire day besides the damage dealt.

There is a good reason why the Septime avoid long sieges apart from the expenses such endeavors require, and they rarely speak about it out of shame; the Plague War is a disgrace that the Seven Cities never want to repeat—an event best forgotten. But how can you omit the past when the undead creatures you help create still exist nowadays?

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