we figured it out, it is witchery villagers dying to spikes.. that also explains the random disconnects everyone experienced the past few days!
as a result I went ahead disabled them from spawning
log output for people that may google this, infinity evolved 2.3.5
[10:18:24] [Server thread/WARN] [io.netty.channel.embedded.EmbeddedChannel/]: More than one exception was raised. Will report only the first one and log others.
java.lang.NullPointerException
at cpw.mods.fml.common.network.FMLOutboundHandler$OutboundTarget$4.selectNetworks(FMLOutboundHandler.java:109) ~[FMLOutboundHandler$OutboundTarget$4.class:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at cpw.mods.fml.common.network.FMLOutboundHandler.write(FMLOutboundHandler.java:273) ~[FMLOutboundHandler.class:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.invokeWrite(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:644) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.write(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:698) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.write(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:637) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.handler.codec.MessageToMessageEncoder.write(MessageToMessageEncoder.java:115) ~[MessageToMessageEncoder.class:?]
at io.netty.handler.codec.MessageToMessageCodec.write(MessageToMessageCodec.java:116) ~[MessageToMessageCodec.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.invokeWrite(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:644) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.write(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:698) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.writeAndFlush(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:688) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelHandlerContext.writeAndFlush(DefaultChannelHandlerContext.java:717) ~[DefaultChannelHandlerContext.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline.writeAndFlush(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:893) ~[DefaultChannelPipeline.class:?]
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannel.writeAndFlush(AbstractChannel.java:239) ~[AbstractChannel.class:?]
at cpw.mods.fml.common.network.simpleimpl.SimpleNetworkWrapper.sendTo(SimpleNetworkWrapper.java:196) [SimpleNetworkWrapper.class:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at com.emoniph.witchery.network.PacketPipeline.sendTo(PacketPipeline.java:51) [PacketPipeline.class:?]
at com.emoniph.witchery.common.ExtendedPlayer.sync(ExtendedPlayer.java:878) [ExtendedPlayer.class:?]
at com.emoniph.witchery.common.ExtendedPlayer.fillBloodReserve(ExtendedPlayer.java:548) [ExtendedPlayer.class:?]
at com.emoniph.witchery.common.GenericEvents.onLivingDeath(GenericEvents.java:1793) [GenericEvents.class:?]
at cpw.mods.fml.common.eventhandler.ASMEventHandler_906_GenericEvents_onLivingDeath_LivingDeathEvent.invoke(.dynamic) [?:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at cpw.mods.fml.common.eventhandler.ASMEventHandler.invoke(ASMEventHandler.java:54) [ASMEventHandler.class:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at cpw.mods.fml.common.eventhandler.EventBus.post(EventBus.java:140) [EventBus.class:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at net.minecraftforge.common.ForgeHooks.onLivingDeath(ForgeHooks.java:313) [ForgeHooks.class:1.7.10-R0.1-SNAPSHOT]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLivingBase.func_70645_a(EntityLivingBase.java:1016) [sv.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.passive.EntityVillager.func_70645_a(EntityVillager.java:335) [yv.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLivingBase.func_70097_a(EntityLivingBase.java:980) [sv.class:?]
at com.rwtema.extrautils.block.BlockSpike.doPlayerLastHit(BlockSpike.java:389) [BlockSpike.class:?]
at com.rwtema.extrautils.block.BlockSpikeDiamond.func_149670_a(BlockSpikeDiamond.java:62) [BlockSpikeDiamond.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.Entity.func_145775_I(Entity.java:1062) [sa.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.Entity.func_70091_d(Entity.java:618) [sa.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLivingBase.func_70612_e(EntityLivingBase.java:1776) [sv.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLivingBase.func_70636_d(EntityLivingBase.java:2108) [sv.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLiving.func_70636_d(EntityLiving.java:388) [sw.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityAgeable.func_70636_d(EntityAgeable.java:144) [rx.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLivingBase.func_70071_h_(EntityLivingBase.java:1899) [sv.class:?]
at net.minecraft.entity.EntityLiving.func_70071_h_(EntityLiving.java:213) [sw.class:?]
at net.minecraft.world.World.func_72866_a(World.java:2674) [ahb.class:?]
at net.minecraft.world.WorldServer.func_72866_a(WorldServer.java:800) [mt.class:?]
at net.minecraft.world.World.func_72870_g(World.java:2623) [ahb.class:?]
at net.minecraft.world.World.func_72939_s(World.java:2423) [ahb.class:?]
at net.minecraft.world.WorldServer.func_72939_s(WorldServer.java:633) [mt.class:?]
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71190_q(MinecraftServer.java:954) [MinecraftServer.class:?]
at net.minecraft.server.dedicated.DedicatedServer.func_71190_q(DedicatedServer.java:431) [lt.class:?]
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71217_p(MinecraftServer.java:809) [MinecraftServer.class:?]
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:669) [MinecraftServer.class:?]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745) [?:1.8.0_72]
[10:18:25] [Server thread/ERROR] [FML/]: FMLIndexedMessageCodec exception caught
java.lang.NullPointerException
[10:18:25] [Server thread/ERROR] [FML/]: SimpleChannelHandlerWrapper exception
java.lang.NullPointerException