All-Consuming Hunger

All-consuming hungers were abhorrent Undead that formed as a crawling mass of animated remains. They were composed of rotting limbs, organs, and fragments of corpses bound together by necromantic force. The mass was never still, shifting and compressing as it moved, rising and collapsing in a steady pulse that resembled a living heart. A heavy stench of decay surrounded them at all times, thick enough to be tasted in the air. They possessed no true face or center, only a restless swarm that dragged itself toward the living.

All-consuming hungers were driven by an absolute hatred of life. They did not hunt for sustenance or territory, but sought only to destroy and absorb living creatures. They did not tire, hesitate, or retreat, advancing through injury that would have shattered lesser undead. Many Spells had little effect on them, and exhaustion, pain, or fear did not slow their advance. They perceived their surroundings even in total darkness and could not be restored or controlled through ordinary means of resurrection or command. When an all-consuming hunger was destroyed, its remains did not always stay inert, and over time the fragments could rise again as a new and separate horror.

Those who encountered an all-consuming hunger were often overwhelmed before contact was made. A choking miasma of rot spread outward from the swarm, inducing terror and violent nausea in nearby creatures. When they attacked, they did so by engulfing their victims, tearing them apart through sheer mass and pressure. Any creature slain by an all-consuming hunger risked giving rise to another, as the swarm carried a wasting curse that consumed the body from within. This wasting could spread even to survivors, slowly reducing them to nothing unless cleansed by powerful restorative magic.