The Anthropophagus is a being often found lurking around places of death. It is considered mostly benign, as it is only concerned with the physical remains of the dead, rather than the spiritual remains as many ghoulish beasts are. Lichherds, as they are sometimes called, are ghastly in appearance. The creature's skin is yellowed, as if half rotten, and its body is bony and gaunt. It is roughly humanoid-- with the exception of lacking any sort of head or neck. It has two pinprick eyes on its chest, and a gaping jawless mouth, filled with a few dark teeth. It is incapable of communication, and is only semi-intelligent, though it seems to prefer to cover itself with scavenged scraps of clothing. It is often seen carrying pieces of dead flesh on its back.
Finding an intact corpse, the creature will use a natural form of psychosophistry to animate the body in a stiff crawling gait. The creature shepherds its prize back to a hovel where it is laid in a covered pit to cultivate into a brood of maggots, which the creature consumes. Though horrifying, the Lichherd is weak and cowardly, and will flee any combat. The beast's ghoulish habit is valued by some cultures-- a troupe of Anthropophagi will quickly clean up a battlefield, helping to stop the spread of disease.
In the Anthropophagus' nest, it maintains a writhing mass of maggots. This is both a source of food and a bed. Infant anthropophagi appear spontaneously within the maggot-bed, and remain there until large enough to venture out on their own. If an anthropophagus is forced to find a new home, it will swallow as much of its maggot-bed as possible, to be regurgitated later. Anthropophagi typically carry around two to three gallons of maggots inside of themselves at any given time, and may vomit these out as a distraction if threatened.
