Meatsmiths
Meatsmiths are what make the inhuman performing arts possible. They are called 'menters, roboys, bots. They work on subjects that feel no pain and are constantly twitching or dancing, and as such they have really good skills and are super fast. If the PC's figure out what they're all about and want to get in on the fun, they can walk up to a meatsmith. The proper procedure is to stick out or indicate the limb that is to be altered. If a player walks up and stands still, a meatsmith will take that as tacit consent that they are donating themselves to be a bloodspeaker (50% chance) and will hit them with an injection of the most powerful tranquilizer they have and start carvin them up.
If they want to get an augment (which is encouraged) then they dance to the outskirts and find a meatsmith (the less human looking the better) and stick out the offending limb. The meatsmith will amputate it with a ridiculously sharp machete and a simple swipe. Con save to avoid passing out from the pain and shock. If a PC passes out, bloodspeaker time. If the PC doesn't indicate a limb and the meatsmith doesn't start making a bloodspeaker, roll 1d8 to figure out what the new limb is (1 is torso, 2-3 is arm, 4-8 is leg) then roll on the relevant tables below to determine the swag new limb(s).
If they want to get an augment (which is encouraged) then they dance to the outskirts and find a meatsmith (the less human looking the better) and stick out the offending limb. The meatsmith will amputate it with a ridiculously sharp machete and a simple swipe. Con save to avoid passing out from the pain and shock. If a PC passes out, bloodspeaker time. If the PC doesn't indicate a limb and the meatsmith doesn't start making a bloodspeaker, roll 1d8 to figure out what the new limb is (1 is torso, 2-3 is arm, 4-8 is leg) then roll on the relevant tables below to determine the swag new limb(s).
Legs (1d6)
1. Shiny rose gold metallic leg, all soft curves and well-done highlights. Unfortunately, the place where it's attached is a puckered mass of red-pink scar tissue and sores. Boo. Gives +10 to movement speed and a 50% chance to deflect a spell (like spell mirroring) when a spell that requires an attack roll is aimed specifically at the PC and the caster rolls a nat 1.
2. Blocky matte black structure. Seems to flow into rest of leg/thigh like liquid. The surface ripples when it's hit. Confers a permanent -3 to all bludgeoning damage taken (even from magical weapons) and gives a swim speed of 40 ft (regardless of movement bonuses).
3. Just a shiny new chrome kneecap and new plasteel tendons. Except for the shiny silver knee, outside simply looks super toned. This "leg" ignores the first 2d6 of falling damage and can cast jump on the PC a number of times equal to their Con modifier + their proficiency mod (minimum 1 if you don't use proficiency) per long rest.
4. Leg is now a hologram with a skeletal microfibresteel structure threaded with filament chromawires. Gives +2 to saves against illusions and radiant damage and can supercharge 1 round/day to add +1 to the PC's attack rolls (the loss of a heavy leg makes them faster, once they adapt).
5. Twisted dull yellow cracked crystal structure that hisses with static when it moves. Gives resistance to lightning damage, and if the PC already has resistance, immunity. Can store 1d8 of lightning damage from an attack once per day (roll 1d8 and subtract it from the lightning damage done, and then have the PC deal that damage with the next attack of theirs that hits)
6. Leg is not there anymore*. The PC functions as if they had b two legs, but the rest of the leg is just not there. The PC can stand on their "invisible" leg, but weapons and attacks pass through it. Permanent -2 to damage from AoE attacks.
*Actually, the leg is still very much there...just not in this plane. Which means that a microscopic speck of the leg, probably the size of a mote of dust, is on this plane.
Arms (1d4)
1.Slippery metallic crimson arm that flows and flexes unnaturally. +2 to Dex with that arm, -4 to Str with that arm. The +2 Dex can exceed 20 but not 30. -1 to rolls made to grapple the PC permanently.
2. Skin is replaced with chemoscales, veins and arteries with holosludge, bones with camosteel, hair with microcrystals. +1 to Disguise or Deception rolls made to disguise or pass as another person. Can cast minor illusion (prof. bonus or cha bonus)/short rest and can make any object held by that arm invisible as long as the arm holds it.
3. Arm is now permanently flushed with blood and has orange-size clear bulges filled with greenish-yellow fluid and small spidery tubes covering the bulges and the arm. +Con mod to initiative, only 1-in-4 chance for surprise, player can "pump themselves up" 1/long rest to take 2 actions per turn, but can't take any actions the turn after that. Permanent -2 to saves against poisons and addiction and against going into ragemode and whatnot.
4. Arm is single spidery multifaceted shiny grey construction that is a quarter inch thick and has thread-thin fingers. Permanent -1 to grapple rolls and -2 to Str for that arm, +1 to Dex for that arm. Can cast a modified version of web (con mod/long rest) that deals 1d6 piercing damage per urn to any creatures caught in it.
Torsos (1d4)
1. Torso is now a rubbery sheath that looks like Hercules's chest over modified flesh. Has a constantly shifting pattern of neon purples and aquas and pinks and chartreuses over it that is oddly calming. +1 to Diplomacy or Persuasion, +1 to Performance, permanent -2 to bludgeoning damage. Torso glows with dim light in a 5 foot radius in darkness that cannot be extinguished. The pattern is actually an accurate representation of the galaxy, and will cause the PC to feel alarm in their dreams and have nightmares when universe/galaxy destroying elder gods come within a billion lightyears of the PC. It does not tell of ones already there. Treat it like a motion sensor.
2. Torso is composed of constantly rippling slabs of blue-black iron that looks like its been half eaten by acid. - 5 or disadvantage on all Stealth checks, can "open" torso 1/long rest and reveal a terrible neon teal glaring eye with a wavering reddish black fractal pupil that all enemies that can see it within 60 ft. must save against or take 2d6 psychic damage and be paralyzed for one round.
3. Torso looks like a miniature arctic ocean, with icebergs slowly making their way around the periphery of the torso. The stomach and most of the chest and back are covered by a sheath of ice, through which the internal organs and ribcage and spine are dimly visible. Merges seamlessly with rest of body. Gives the ability to cast cone of cold 2/day but forces the "wearer" to make a Con save against being paralyzed for 1d4 rounds every time they take cold damage. When they cast cone of cold, a large arctic hurricane whips up on their chest over the central ice cap.
DM note: Their chest is an actual arctic world, (it has mini animals if you look hard enough with a magnifying glass) and is a miniaturized demiplane slightly out of phase with our plane so that attacks don't effect it. (Much.) If the PC's ever travel to it, they will find the POLAR GOD with 2d10 + 5 dire polar bears, 4d8 + 6 dread arctic foxes, and 50 giant penguins in attendance. One massive (200 feet) glacier golem lurks nearby in case of emergency. It looks exactly like a the rest of a glacier. The god will be tentatively friendly towards the PC holding their demiplane (the PC's chest will return to normal on this demiplane) and neutral towards the others and can talk with the PC's through augury 1/day. The god has a 5% chance to know anything specific about whatever and a 50% chance to have general helpful knowledge. If the PC's use any fire-based spells while on this plane, the POLAR GOD will become hostile, and can cause cone of cold to invert when cast in the PC's world. (inversion in this case means it goes in the opposite direction it's cast in.) If the PC dies, the world will persist, but it will slowly be poisoned from the inside out. If the POLAR GOD dies, the PC will lose 1 point of Con/day until they are dead. The only way to stop this is to take the place of the god (and become trapped in the demiplane forever) or to resurrect the god. Or whatever crazy shit the players manage.
4. Torso is now composed of gribbly fuchsia tentacles of varying thicknesses. -2 to Con, +1 to Dex. These tentacles pulse slightly to the touch, and are ever so slightly damp and sticky. They contain all the PC's internal organs, and the PC can actually rearrange the internal position of their organs at will. 1 time/week, the PC can agitate their tentacles, causing them to palpitate and twist around. The nearest hostile living organic creature must make a Con or Dex save or have 1d6 of its organs fucking rip out of its body and fly smack into the tentacles, which will break them down with thousands of purple cilia for NUTRIENTS! The PC immediately regains a number of hit dice equal to the organs broken down and absorbed and can choose to expend the HD they just gained and no more to heal. The PC gains HP, if they choose to heal immediately, equal to the total rolled on whatever number of dice they expend. No modifiers may be added. If they do not expend the new HD (which can exceed their HD limit), they save them up for later for a short rest or whatnot. If they have a number of HP over their maximum, the extra HD disappear after their first long rest.
DM note: If the player ever tries to absorb the heart of a mummy lord, fuckery happens. The mummy lord will probably die and the player will gain....something. If they successfully use this on a really powerful thing like a dragon or a balor, they will probably also gain something related to the respective creature's powers. And the thing gained doesn't have to be positive. I see an entire secret loosely connected cabal of organ-eaters that work to subdue powerful creatures and consume or sell or trade their organs. Their leaders have become bloated monstrosities of tentacles and irregularly colored/textured flesh that shamble and slime that thirst for the organs of monsters. Think of this cabal as an extreme organ black market. Sometimes they're willing to trade an untainted human kidney for the heart of a glabrezu. Sometimes they cheat and take both kidneys, and leave a puny gretch heart behind. Alchemists and other people (like wizards) that occasionally need stuff like dust of unicorn bile or juice of balor's cornea might know, especially if they are powerful, how to contact the Organ-Eaters. The organ-eaters will be wary of the PC but will probably accept them into the fold instead of harvesting them and leaving them for dead.
Other DM note: As the player dies, the tentacles will try to rip the nearest intact organs out of something. If it's another PC, whoopsie. The tentacles will immediately take the organs, if successful, and expend them to perform a revivify on the PC. It is possible to harvest matching organs, store them as HD, and then expend them to replace missing organs, but this requires finesse and a few checks. The heart is not a kidney, nor a liver a lung. Ideally, the organs should be from the same species, or they have a 90% chance of rejection. If the correct species is used, the rejection chance decreases to 10%.
All these extra cool limbs come with a price: you must consume rations equal to 1 times the number of organs gained to keep them functioning and healthy. Example: if you get 2 implants, you need 2x rations to survive. Failure means that you gain exhaustion levels twice as quickly. If the PC doesn't need food or water, think up an alternative. Only regains 1/3rd of HD per long rest, needs food and water again if they have more than 1 limb implanted. The maximum number of limbs implanted is the PC's Con mod. This assumes you are in 5th edition and you don't have bullshit Con. Also for 5th edition: a limb counts as a permanently attuned magic item, and if the PC is already at their max for magic items attuned, one will unattune itself, determined randomly. If the limb is the one to unattune, it painfully detaches. If the limb is a torso, this will probably kill the PC. The limb can reattune after the proper time for unattunement of other things has passed.
DM note: If the player ever tries to absorb the heart of a mummy lord, fuckery happens. The mummy lord will probably die and the player will gain....something. If they successfully use this on a really powerful thing like a dragon or a balor, they will probably also gain something related to the respective creature's powers. And the thing gained doesn't have to be positive. I see an entire secret loosely connected cabal of organ-eaters that work to subdue powerful creatures and consume or sell or trade their organs. Their leaders have become bloated monstrosities of tentacles and irregularly colored/textured flesh that shamble and slime that thirst for the organs of monsters. Think of this cabal as an extreme organ black market. Sometimes they're willing to trade an untainted human kidney for the heart of a glabrezu. Sometimes they cheat and take both kidneys, and leave a puny gretch heart behind. Alchemists and other people (like wizards) that occasionally need stuff like dust of unicorn bile or juice of balor's cornea might know, especially if they are powerful, how to contact the Organ-Eaters. The organ-eaters will be wary of the PC but will probably accept them into the fold instead of harvesting them and leaving them for dead.
Other DM note: As the player dies, the tentacles will try to rip the nearest intact organs out of something. If it's another PC, whoopsie. The tentacles will immediately take the organs, if successful, and expend them to perform a revivify on the PC. It is possible to harvest matching organs, store them as HD, and then expend them to replace missing organs, but this requires finesse and a few checks. The heart is not a kidney, nor a liver a lung. Ideally, the organs should be from the same species, or they have a 90% chance of rejection. If the correct species is used, the rejection chance decreases to 10%.
All these extra cool limbs come with a price: you must consume rations equal to 1 times the number of organs gained to keep them functioning and healthy. Example: if you get 2 implants, you need 2x rations to survive. Failure means that you gain exhaustion levels twice as quickly. If the PC doesn't need food or water, think up an alternative. Only regains 1/3rd of HD per long rest, needs food and water again if they have more than 1 limb implanted. The maximum number of limbs implanted is the PC's Con mod. This assumes you are in 5th edition and you don't have bullshit Con. Also for 5th edition: a limb counts as a permanently attuned magic item, and if the PC is already at their max for magic items attuned, one will unattune itself, determined randomly. If the limb is the one to unattune, it painfully detaches. If the limb is a torso, this will probably kill the PC. The limb can reattune after the proper time for unattunement of other things has passed.
The PASTE
The PASTE is the maddening composite of all the corpses and trash that fell on the floor, pounded into a sludgy material by quadrillions of steps and the constant vibrations reverberating through the ground.
*digression*
The floor of the rave itself is kinetoplas over a layer of durock, plasteel, and finally ceramite bonded with bedrock. The result is a self-patching hivemind floor that draws energy from the thousands of feet, appendages, and things pounding on it every fraction of a second and redirects the energy to the gretchlings up in their lazer complex. It stays uniformly flat and accounts for even weight distribution and latent seismic activity amplified by constructive vibrations with an overworked supercomputer. The rave is synched to a beat, and unless the floor emitted countervibrations, the canyon walls would have caved in long ago, or the floor would have ripped itself apart. Look up soldiers marching in sync on a bridge to understand the deadly amplification effect of thousands of feet pounding as one, and how people unconsciously fall in step with the vibration. The floor, if reprogrammed correctly, can be used as a sonic weapon, targeting locations within 100 miles with vibrations that get exponentially less powerful. The real risk, if one is out of the 2-mile sonic destruction zone, is the chance that the beat might trigger latent fault lines and set off powerful or intermittent earthquakes, collapsing cities and destroying infrastructure. For this reason, religious sects have arisen within this 100-mile radius banning dancing to a solitary beat, for fear that the dance will blend into subliminal copying of the Beat and the part will descend into raving chaos. It's happened before, with unrestrained celebration emptying entire towns that got too caught up in their dancing and whirled off to join the Rave. This is the reason why there are husks of small towns and farms near the Rave. Flapping shutters, decaying houses, husks of barns. The occasional horse, old person, or broken banjo. A wide path of churned up dirt coming out of a broken grain silo leading off towards the Rave, overgrown with weeds but a a trench up to 2 feet deep in some places that rain has not entirely filled in. The closer the Rave, the stronger the impulse to break out in song and dance. People born near the Rave who move away after becoming adults will never be able to resist dancing. They will crave it, crave the drug of constant stimulation in the form of a catchy beat. Most become bards seeking to capture it. Some become drug addicts. All go mad from the lack of it, and will spend the waning years of their lives trying to travel back to their birthplace.
*end digression*
The PASTE is the scavenger and the Darwinian selector, eating the flesh of the weak and sending faints signals to their prosthetics, signals telling their prosthetics to rip themselves into pieces and join the PASTE. It is the residue of humanity, the majority of blood and meat on the dance floor. For this reason, it is detested by the beatmasters and crysgolems, who patrol the perimeter of the Rave not because they want to (it is irrelevant what they want) but because that is the only way to keep the PASTE away, to keep it hungry, to prevent it from falling upon vulnerable meat and metastasizing into a grey-gooesque monstrosity.
The PASTE
HD as many as you need AC green slime
Con 20. Str 20. Int 7. All other stats as regular ooze. Move Always about to catch up to the players.
Unstoppable. Grappling it is suicide. Half damage from piercing, slashing, necrotic, and acid.
Consume
Targets a player. Contested skill rolls (preferably using Str/Dex), if failure player is grappled and takes _d8 necrotic, _d8 slashing, and _d8 acid. (You fill in the blank.) On success, player takes half damage. Save at start of turn to get out, 2 failures means restrained. 3 failures means completely sucked in and at that point you are blinded, suffocating, restrained, and grappled, and probably about to be a cautionary tale. Don't scream, that makes it easier for it to crawl down your throat. Breathing it is like inhaling rotten meat slurry embedded with straight razors.
Feed
The next turn after killing an organic thing, absorbs it as a bonus action. Gains half its HD, rolling and adding the total + the consumed creature's Con mod (like you would when you level in 5e) to determine new hit points.
Call
Con save for creatures with prosthetics. On a failure, they are stunned for one round. If they fail for more than 5, their prosthetic forcibly rips itself out of their body and joins the PASTE. Crit fail means all of the above + dropping to 0 hit points. Once a creature is affected by this ability or successfully saves against it, it cannot be affected again for 24 hours.
The Blob. With teeth.
*end digression*
The PASTE is the scavenger and the Darwinian selector, eating the flesh of the weak and sending faints signals to their prosthetics, signals telling their prosthetics to rip themselves into pieces and join the PASTE. It is the residue of humanity, the majority of blood and meat on the dance floor. For this reason, it is detested by the beatmasters and crysgolems, who patrol the perimeter of the Rave not because they want to (it is irrelevant what they want) but because that is the only way to keep the PASTE away, to keep it hungry, to prevent it from falling upon vulnerable meat and metastasizing into a grey-gooesque monstrosity.
The PASTE
HD as many as you need AC green slime
Con 20. Str 20. Int 7. All other stats as regular ooze. Move Always about to catch up to the players.
Unstoppable. Grappling it is suicide. Half damage from piercing, slashing, necrotic, and acid.
Consume
Targets a player. Contested skill rolls (preferably using Str/Dex), if failure player is grappled and takes _d8 necrotic, _d8 slashing, and _d8 acid. (You fill in the blank.) On success, player takes half damage. Save at start of turn to get out, 2 failures means restrained. 3 failures means completely sucked in and at that point you are blinded, suffocating, restrained, and grappled, and probably about to be a cautionary tale. Don't scream, that makes it easier for it to crawl down your throat. Breathing it is like inhaling rotten meat slurry embedded with straight razors.
Feed
The next turn after killing an organic thing, absorbs it as a bonus action. Gains half its HD, rolling and adding the total + the consumed creature's Con mod (like you would when you level in 5e) to determine new hit points.
Call
Con save for creatures with prosthetics. On a failure, they are stunned for one round. If they fail for more than 5, their prosthetic forcibly rips itself out of their body and joins the PASTE. Crit fail means all of the above + dropping to 0 hit points. Once a creature is affected by this ability or successfully saves against it, it cannot be affected again for 24 hours.
The Blob. With teeth.
Crysgolems
Made from mirrors, alien crystal, and the tortured, raw soul of a legendary hero trapped inside a prison of glass slivers. They protect the Beat and the crystal because the drug numbs the pain. Decades, centuries, millennia of constant pain have hazed their minds (and in some cases driven them mad). The soul can be freed with a resurrection spell, in which case the body becomes inert (or uses magic jar on the nearest player). They are fully sentient and fully non compos mentis. Some might try to kill the players, others might try to drive them away, yet others might try to protect them. Really up to the soul in question.
How is this Crysgolem feeling? (d8)
1-4. Homicidal!
5. Attention span of a coked-up goblin, tenacity of a gorgon. Apathetic.
6. Mostly sane and wanting to keep fresh meat away.
7. Protective. Walks around with a live ranger under its arm, who has succumbed to the Beat but hasn't suffered lasting damage...yet. Ranger knows 1d4-1 interesting things (that may or may not be true). Is actually a doppelganger who is suffering from the delusion that it is sorry for all the people it has lured to their deaths. Damn coke.
8. Friendly. Willing to show PC's around and protect them from things trying to kill them. Contains the soul of a fiendish warlock who wouldn't wish this death on anyone else, and would even not restart his devil cult if freed. That grateful.
Crysgolem
Reskin a clay golem (because I lazy) in terms of HD, attacks, move, and haste action. AC as plate.
Whenever it takes thunder or bludgeoning damage, it releases a flash of light (another Con save or blinded for one turn) and sprays sharp shards of glass (2d8 piercing). Int as human. All other stats same as golem stats, except it loses its immunity to acid damage/acid absorption and gains radiant/fire immunity/absorption. Loses (if we're talking D&D) its attack that lowers HP max.
Slice
Can make 2 of these at a time. Same damage as clay golem slam (4d6?), except creatures hit with it must make another Con save or take a bleeding wound (1d4 slashing at start of turn). Bleeding wounds stack, and magical healing only cures 1 wound/level of the healing spell cast instead of the damage taken.
Stomp
Casts shatter (5d8 thunder, 15-foot square) on a point centered within 50 feet.
Skin
Con save or gain vulnerability to slashing and piercing damage for 2 rounds. DM's: Stack this with bleeding wounds, and cackle as the tank becomes an HP sieve.
Haste
As per clay golem ability.
I dislike the shitton of Con saves, but I feel that Con is so infrequently tested, (note to self: link to relevant article) and most players don't dump it, that on average they'll be fine. Set the difficulty class appropriately, and the law of averages will raise its lazy head long enough to saddle your pally with a 1 while saving against Slice. If Con saves are causing dice to clatter every second, compress the saves. Have the players save only if both attacks hit for a bleeding wound, instead of a bleeding wound every attack hits.
I dislike the shitton of Con saves, but I feel that Con is so infrequently tested, (note to self: link to relevant article) and most players don't dump it, that on average they'll be fine. Set the difficulty class appropriately, and the law of averages will raise its lazy head long enough to saddle your pally with a 1 while saving against Slice. If Con saves are causing dice to clatter every second, compress the saves. Have the players save only if both attacks hit for a bleeding wound, instead of a bleeding wound every attack hits.
That's most of the Rave. I'll cover the gretchlings and the lazer system another time.
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