Sometime in the murky past the Boneworms lived deep underground. Plump white intestinal parasites, they taught themselves magic and wrote their spellbooks in the living giblets of eyeless cave fish. When humans eventually stumbled across the caverns most of their kind were living comfortably in the bellies of fifteen foot long albino gar, flanked by armies of skeletal salamanders and breeding strange crustaceans to do battle with their neighbors in the next stream over.
On the surface, boneworms form caravans of a dozen or so individuals each. One or two master mages, their apprentices, harems, and untrained young, along with dozens of hosts and slaves. Wealthy boneworms (and indeed most are wealthy) will have several personal hosts, each transformed to suit their parasitic master's needs and personal tastes. Boneworms tinker with their hosts like an eccentric mage would tinker with his tower. They lean towards hedonism and opulence, subterranean evolution has designed them to horde any sort of comfort.
1d12 Boneworm Hosts
- Massively obese pleasure host, constantly imbibing exotic drugs. Multiple stomachs to hold master's harem. Specially designed organ excretes potent worm aphrodisiac. Toothless, with a tongue as soft as velvet.
- 12 foot tall armless human with grossly elongated torso, 80% of body space occupied by small intestine, into which its master has carved his spellbook. Bronze supports along spinal column to keep them from snapping under their own weight.
- Beautiful blonde barbarian. Was found by the boneworms as an infant and will gladly die for his master.
- Novice wizard, trading use of his body for a few years in exchange for magic lessons.
- Knuckle dragging behemoth with overdeveloped circulatory system. A flock of symbiotic, blood sipping ox-peckers rest on its shoulders to keep its blood vessels from bursting.
- Quadruple amputee with a glass dome over its abdomen, exposing its twisted, knotted digestive tract. Reclining in a silk hammock carried between a pair of well trained ostriches.
- 10 identical slaves that the master can teleport between at will. Each has a single spell carved into its liver. Speak in unison.
- Starving half feral leper in a gilded cage, always just on the verge of death. Master finds keeping the host's deteriorating organs functioning a fine pastime.
- Elderly Necromancer who owes the boneworm a favor. Bicker like an old married couple.
- Siamese twins conjoined at the waist. One body devoid of organs while the other has double, empty abdomen used to brew potions. Gold teeth carved into interlocking pattern of arms.
- Fifteen foot blob of flesh in a canvas net, dangling from a helium balloon. Heavily tattooed and leaking fluids into a murky trough.
- Boneworm's real host is a slimy hairless dwarf tucked inside one of the entities described above. Roll again. Assume every time you roll an additional 12 that there is another Matroshka doll-esque level of Slimy dwarf.
Boneworms communicate by crawling up into their hosts throats and yelling. They sounds like a wet artificial larynx.
They will pay handsomely for slaves that are beautiful, uniquely deformed, or mutated. They make and sell potions, especially healing potions, and can crawl down your throat to repair your wounds from the inside, scrub out poisons, kill other parasites, etc. Their work costs exorbitant prices, but offering your body to their conclave for a few months is usually enough in return. The strong will be put to work, and the weak or beautiful will be asked to host larval boneworms.
It is well known that wizards physically deform their brains in order to attract and trap spells. Worms lack the complex centralized ganglia that mammals have, so the boneworms learned how to do the same in the whorls of their host's intestines. When Boneworms cast spells, their host's organs twist, knot, and swirl inside their abdomens. (Biomancers have become very interested in the technique, though very few humans have the gut motility to achieve it).
Do some great favor for a master boneworm and they may offer you the service of one of their apprentices, or even a Gutdragon.
If you do somehow acquire the services of a boneworm mage, they will know 1d4 of the following spells. Spells are prepared as quickly as other wizards, but the worm spends that time nudging your organs into the correct magical patterns. Boneworms secrete a numbing agent from their skin, so although this process won't hurt, few can hold back their instinctual revulsion. Every time the worm prepares spells for the first 8 days you host it, save vs con or violently dryheave, undoing the worms hour of work. PC's infested with a boneworm must also consume double the rations.
Boneworm Spell List
1. Elongate
2. Lengthen Limbs
3. Gelatinous Form
4. Alter Self
5. Giblet Homunculus
6. Total Locomotive Rearrangement
7. Regeneration
8. Lima Rune
9. Gurgitate
10. Bones to Worms *
1. Elongate
R. touch T. creature D. [sum] minutes
Save negates.Target's torso grossly elongates [dice] x 5 feet. Limbs remain the same length. Target's armour and clothes don't grow with it, and their spine retains its original flexibility. Bipedal creatures elongated this way can bend down to hit targets normally outside their melee range, but require a dex save to do so without collapsing.
2. Lengthen Limbs
R: touch T: willing creature D: [sum] minutes
Up to [dice]x2 of the target's limbs double in length. If all a creature's walking limbs are affected, the creature's move speed is also doubled for the duration of the spell. Weapons wielded in a lengthened limb can reach farther than normal. This effect does not change the structure or form of the limbs. It merely affects one of the many dimensions surrounding them, which also causes the limbs to appear farther away than usual. If you invest 3 or more [dice] the spell's duration becomes [sum] hours.
3. Gelatinous Form
R: touch T: self D: [sum] minutes
Your flesh becomes gelatinous. You can squeeze through gaps as small as keyhole with a great deal of effort. You take no damage from bludgeoning weapons for the duration of the spell. Any acid damage you take heals HP instead. Your clothes and items are not affected by this spell.
4. Alter Self
R: 0 T: self D: [dice]x10 minutes
Alter your form to resemble that of another creature of your type (usually humanoid). You do not gain any special abilities from this transformation.
5. Giblet Homunculus
R. 0 T. Self D. [dice] hours
You loudly cough up a small homunculus crafted from one of your internal organs. It obeys your commands to the best of its abilities, has [sum] hp, and can lift about 5 pounds. When the spell ends the homunculus attempts to crawl back down the casters throat and resume its duties. If it is kept from doing this or is destroyed, the caster begins taking [sum] damage every round until death via internal bleeding.
6. Total Locomotive Rearrangement
R. Touch T. Any two living creatures. D. [sum] minutes
Save negates. You swap the layout of two creatures ambulatory styles. For instance, swapping a human and fish will result in an awkwardly bipedal fish with simple arms, and a human with flat fleshy fins. Swapped creature are able to use their new limbs as naturally as they used their originals. If you invest 3 or more [dice] the spell's duration becomes [sum] hours.
7. Regeneration
R: touch T: creature D: [dice] hours
Target regenerates 1 HP every 10 minutes. If a sufficiently magical object (a troll heart, a unicorn horn, an aboleth eye, etc.) is used in the casting, target also regrows missing limbs or damaged organs.
8. Lima Rune.
R. Touch T.Object or Creature D [sum] hours
You place a vibrant yellow and black rune onto an object or surface. Any intelligent creature that views the rune must save or believe that the target is sick or contains some sort of dangerous bio-hazard. This perception will extend to a moderately sized room or small shack if placed on the threshold. Creatures affected by the rune may still attempt to interact with the target but will take time to defend themselves against the imagined sickness.
9. Gurgitate
R. 0 T. Self D. [sum] hours
You safely swallow up to [dice]x2 pounds of material. Neither you nor the swallowed material is damaged during this process. You can choose to regurgitate any or all of the material at any time. Material still in your stomach when the spell ends is forcefully expelled.
10. Bones to Worms
R. Touch T. creature of [dice] HD or less D. [sum] rounds
Save or die. Target creature's skeleton transforms into a swarm of fat white worms. They spend their first round burrowing out from the target's skin and then every round after attacking any creature within their area. A standard human skeleton produces enough worms to cover a 10'x10' area. The swarm has a collective [dice]x3 hp and deals 1d4 damage.
*(only powerful boneworm mages know or can prepare this spell, and it is exceedingly rare that they would leave their own hosts to help a bunch of dirty, death-prone adventurers)
Boneworms are fickle and prone to hedonism by nature. Anytime they cast a spell for you there is a 2-in-6 chance that they will refuse to cast again until some obscure demand is met. This table can help you decide what weird opulent bullshit they're craving.
1d10 Lazy boneworm wizard demands
- They're just cranky because they're hungry.Stop for lunch and you should be good.
- Exotic drugs. Preferably edibles, but boneworms can drink straight from your bloodstream so they aren't picky.
- Exotic Food. Something you can't easily procure, or at least something the boneworm has never tasted before. Most monsters or magical creatures would probably work.
- Culture. You adventurers never do anything to broaden your artistic horizons. Go watch a play or visit a museum for gods sake.
- Sex. Breeding season is coming up. Head towards the nearest Boneworm caravan or hope you stumble across someone else hosting one. Boneworms are hermaphroditic so any other boneworm will do.
- A good parent. Most boneworm larva will be left with the caravan, but its not unheard-of for parents to search out dangerous or powerful beings to host their young. Go get this egg inside the manticore or bandit king without killing them.
- Kingflesh. Boneworms will pay exorbitant fees for the bodies of kings (to gestate the Gutdragons). This boneworm wants to impress his master, go find a king to murder and bring to the caravan. Mummies and the kings of beasts work as well.
- A change of scenery. These intestines are getting boring, find some more interesting gullyworks to jam the boneworm into for a few hours. The further from human the better.
- Cash. Gotta get funds to pay for the perfect pleasure host. Set aside a few 1d4 coins out of every haul and swallow them.
- Scientific curiosity. I have some theories about that scroll or magic amulet you just found. Eat it so I can take a closer look.
(Whew first post done. Lengthen Limbs, Alter self, Gelatinous form, and Regeneration lifted wholesale from the more-talented-than-me
Coins and Scrolls)
