Mother’s Maw

This skull is as large as an ogre and surrounded by buzzing flies. Its bat wings are too small to actually carry it, yet it moves through the air as easily as a bird. It is surrounded by the stink of rotting meat, spice, and perfume.

ECOLOGY

Environment extraplanar
Organization unique
Treasure none

The Mother’s Maw is a disgusting undead creature of ravenous hunger, with little purpose but to kill, eat, and animate corpses as undead. Though it is as brilliant as a lich, its only interests are in satisfy its cravings for sensation.

The Maw has little interest in the desires of mortals (or of undead in the mortal world). It can speak but finds little worth talking about, so many assume it is as mindless as an animated skeleton. However, when not on a mission of death, disease, or gluttony, it is a font of knowledge about food, wine, exotic scents, and other strange experiences only an undead creature can understand, and is quite willing to speak on these matters to an interested party—assuming the sight of the enormous talking, winged skull isn’t a distraction to listeners.

Although the Maw normally appears as a bare skull, it sometimes covers itself with its swarms. Whether this is out of a morbid sense of humor or an attempt to remember an old sensation from its life is unknown. It has confirmed that it was once a devourer, and before that a living creature, but it does not give further details.

Ecology

The Mother’s Maw is an immortal undead, able to recover from almost any attack and lacking the need to eat or drink. However, it still enjoys these things and is driven by a desire to experience sensation like the worst mortal hedonist. It has been known to eat and spit out entire herds of cattle (one steer at a time), to crash into winery casks to soak itself for hours in fine and mediocre vintages alike, to roll in exotic spices, or to wrap itself in fine cloth until it looks like a giant mummy skull.

Habitat & Society

Because of its innate ability to create undead, the herald is sometimes accompanied by skeletons, zombies, and ghouls, which caper about it, endlessly adoring the emissary of the goddess of undeath. It has been known to ferry allies into battle, or (rarely) to rescue a powerful undead creature, spiriting its passenger away to safety within its bony gullet, relying on its own defenses to keep its passenger safe. It is particularly fond of raveners and vampires, and has gone out of its way to aid them when given the choice of several allies.