Planar Bestiary
Created in a twisted reflection of a graveyard within the Shadowfell, headstone golems are constructs formed entirely from stone originally used to mark graves. The assorted jumble of headstones somehow fused together to form a malign being infused with undeath.
Only a few powerful necromancers know the secret of putting together a headstone golem. They learned it by studying the spontaneous creation of a "natural" headstone golem in the death-choked gloom of the Shadowfell. Headstone golems are animated by a dead soul trapped in the stone, one with no memory of their former life or sense of self.
Creatures in a headstone golem's presence feel their life force tremble, almost as if they're sensing their own imminent extinction.
A golem doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Motive: Obey creator, inhume victims in the Shadowfell
Environment: The Shadowfell, anywhere dark in the multiverse, alone or in the company of their creator
Health: 30
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Armor: 4
Movement: Short
Modifications: Speed defense as level 4 due to huge size
Combat: The golem attacks twice each round with their fists.
The golem can release a death pulse about once each minute. Foes within immediate range that fail a Might defense task take 6 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) from the necrotic energy and descend two steps on the damage track. Even if their defense is successful, targets take 1 point of damage.
The golem can target a creature that has descended at least two steps on the damage track (or that has only 5 or fewer remaining points of health) with a short-range psychic attack. On a failed Intellect defense task, the target descends the final steps on the damage track (or goes to 0 health). But instead of dying, the creature appears to be drawn into one of the headstones making up the golem. In fact, the headstone acts as a temporary portal to a random empty grave in the Shadowfell. The victim finds themself in a lightless grave. Each round they can attempt another Intellect defense task. If they succeed on two before they fail two, they ascend one step on the damage track (or regain 5 points of health) and are drawn back through the portal and fall prone in an empty space within immediate range of the headstone golem. Otherwise they truly die, remaining where inhumed.
Once each day the golem can walk through shadow or darkness, allowing them to move between the Shadowfell and another plane of existence where it's dark, or vice versa.
Headstone golems are immune to necrotic and poison attacks.
Interaction: Headstone golems don't speak but can understand the languages of every creature they have previously inhumed.
Use: Headstone golems fashioned by necromancers typically remain loyal to their creator. But if their creator disappears or the golem simply came to be at the center of a Shadowfell cemetery, a headstone golem seeks to travel to worlds of the Material Plane and begin inhuming new victims back in the Shadowfell.
Loot: Amid a destroyed headstone golem's rubble might be found a death bringer ring.
GM Intrusion: A loose headstone tumbles from the golem and traps a character, inflicting a moderate wound (6 points) each round until the character escapes with a successful Might task.