Gallows Tree

Also called Gallows-Iver, or hangman trees, the Gallows Tree is a sessile, animated, animal intelligence tree that kills with its branches and are always hungry. Each species has its own method of killing.
*Oak: will pull food into its hollow center where it will be crushed to death.
*Pine: smothers with needles
*Willow: Strangles victims with branches
As related in the Ripley's Believe it or Not Comic #12 (Feb 1969) story "The Strangling Oak" a Gallows Tree is formed when a human is murdered near a tree or their body is placed within it (if hollow)
Classic: Creatures of the Night states that once, perhaps twice, a year a Gallows Tree will cocoon a victim rather than consuming it and form a perfect copy of the original weeks or even centuries after the original died.
Category:D&D Monsters