The Despoiler of Flesh

**DESPOILER OF FLESH**

*Rod, artifact (requires attunement)*

Altraloths are a type of yugoloth on par with archdevils and demon lords in terms of power. The most common way a yugoloth becomes an altraloth is through a ritual performed by a coven of night hags. However, this method binds the fledgling archfiend to the will of the night hags, making the altraloth little more than a puppet for the coven.

Some yugoloths have found other means of becoming altraloths without night hags, though the details of their methods are closely guarded secrets. One such yugoloth was Malignon, now more commonly known as the Crawling Cancer. He became an altraloth by defeating other yugoloths and grafting their bodies onto his own; transforming him into a monstrosity of daemonic flesh.

Having long since been driven insane by his transformation, he now crawls along the Lower Planes, looking for new fiendish creatures to devour and add to his fleshy form. Despite his reputation for being a mindless horror, mortals occasionally seek him out in the hopes of gaining a boon from him or forging a pact with him.

Most are simply consumed by his mindless hunger, however a handful of mortals have been fortunate enough to visit him during his brief moments of lucidity. They have forged pacts with him and even managed to receive gifts from him. The most infamous of his gifts is the Despoiler of Flesh.

The Despoiler of Flesh is a a sceptre made dozens of human tongues sewn together. They are slightly animated and thus occasionally twists and bends of its own volition. One previous owner of the Despoiler of Flesh was a nalfeshnee named Tapheon, who used it to create an army of monstrous followers.Random Properties. The Despoiler of Flesh has the following random properties:

- Before you can become attuned to the Despoiler, you must cut out the tongue of a humanoid and add it to the rod.

- While attuned to the Despoiler, you deal 1d6 necrotic damage to any plant you touch that isn't a creature.

- While attuned to the Despoiler, whenever you use its Warp Flesh, there is a five percent chance that you are affected by the same effect.

- While you are attuned to the Despoiler, your flaw is amplified in a way determined by the DM.

- While attuned to the Despoiler, you regain 1d6 hit points at the start of your turn if you have at least 1 hit point.

- While attuned to the Despoiler, you can't be charmed or frightened.

Warp Flesh. The Despoiler of Flesh has 7 charges and regains 1d4 + 3 expended charges daily at dawn. While holding the rod, you can used an action to expend 1 or more charges to target a living creature that you can see within 60 feet of you. A non-willing creature must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or undergo a transformation of your choice.

When the creature transforms, you spend your expended charges to transform the creature in one or more of the following ways:• For 1 charge, you alter the creature's appearance. You decide what the creature looks like, including its height, weight, facial features, sound of its voice, hair length, colouration, and distinguishing characteristics, if any. You can make it appear as a member of another race or species, though none of its statistics change. The creature's size category and basic body shape stay the same; a bipedal creature can't be transformed into a quadrupedal creature, for instance.

• For 1 charge, you alter the creature's size, causing it to increase or decrease by a size category.

• For 2 charges, you cause the creature to grow or lose claws, fangs, horns, spines, or a different natural weapon of your choice.  If the creature gains a natural weapon, the natural weapon deals 2d6 bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, as is appropriate to the natural weapon you chose.

• For 2 charges, you can alter the creature's physiology in a major way, changing the arrangement of the creature's limbs, modifying the type of limbs and manipulators, or increase or decrease the amount of the creature's limbs by 2.

• For 3 charges, you can increase the creature's Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score by 2 (to a maximum of 20), or decrease one of them by 2 (to a minimum of 1).

• For 3 charges, you can transform the creature in a major way that causes it to gain the natural, nonmagical traits of a beast or humanoid, such as a drow's darkvision, an eagle's fly speed, a fish's swim speed, a frog's Amphibious trait, or a mammoth's natural armour. You can also cause the creature to lose a natural, nonmagical trait, such as its ability to fly or its ability to swim or its ability to see.• For 3 charges, you may cast Polymorph (spell save DC 20), but the resulting creature can be anything you can imagine, not just a beast. The creature need not make sense or exist, but if the creature cannot physically survive in that form, it must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or die, collapsing into a pile of goo. On a successful saving throw, the creature reverts back to its original form.

You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above transformations. Describe your transformation to the DM, detailing it precisely as possible. The DM has great latitude in ruling how many charges the transformation takes, and what occurs in such an instance.

Too many physiologically impossible transformations on a single creature can cause the creature to collapse into a pile of fleshy goo if it fails a DC 15 Constitution Saving Throw. The transformations caused by the Despoiler of Flesh can be reversed only by a wish spell or similar effect.