Carrion Stones

The bane of hunters, grave diggers and the undead, Carrion Stones are sentient rocks that have developed a hunger for dead flesh. The smell of death draws them from miles around, they gather to crush the dead beneath their weight and slake their thirst for blood.

Adventures may first discover the presence of Carrion Stones after waking to find a circle of boulders and rocks has formed around their camp during the night; scavengers, the Carrion Stones will follow them unerringly until dealt with or driven off.

Carrion Stones will trail behind armies and adventurers, moving in to feast once the bodies have been picked clean of treasure and forgotten. The living must still be careful;  in times of cadaverous famine, Carrion Stones have been known to hunt in packs and crush to death the unwary. They do not move unless they are certain no one is watching them, not until they are within cruching distance, when they spring to life to bring down their quarry.

While they can be beaten back or shattered in combat, the cracked shards of their remains still retain their hunger, and will begin hunting once more in a matter of days. Grinding the rocks into dust is not enough, though it rends them dormant for centuries; an overzealous monster hunter once mixed the dust from Carrion Stones in to mudbricks; the house that resulted quickly gathered a grim and bloody reputation.

Their origins are unknown; some scholars hypothesise the first Carrion Stones came from a cairn raised over the corpse of a fallen sorcerer; others, a curse from some chthonic god, or born from the gore of the Lifebringer Sword.

STATS: treat as small to medium earth elementals; lose any burrowing ability, but gain bonuses to sneaking (lots) and hunting (some), and trip (lots). Damage Resistance 5-10 depending on size/crushing weapons.