The Crawling Rot

The Crawling Rot, The Corruption, Filth; all names for an ancient entity of fear, an entity of trypophobia, mysophobia, verminophobia, bacteriophobia, plagues, unhealthy love, and the squirming small things of the earth and the shadows of the world.

Perhaps you found yourself staring at a hive and felt its allure; maybe you found this new mold, and in your fear, you didn't realize how far its mycelium ran deep; perhaps after an encounter with some mosquitoes, you found yourself in a hot sweat and nearly fell to its tickle of death, only to accept its influence and wake up the next day, completely immune, but infected all the same; or perhaps you found an incredible almost hypnotizing partner, and after the night spent together you find yourself with whispers and writhing skin, wanting to find and spread. 

The filth is diverse in its horror; it can reveal itself in many ways, common avatars and creatures of this power: Flesh Hives, humaniods that hold wasps, beetles, and squirming worms that lay and writhe just under the alluring skin; tall priests made of worms, and squirming little things that bite, scuttle, and slither; bundled up creatures with mold, rot, and threads of eating fungus that infest them; creatures that allure with love and lead them to have creatures attach to them dependently, working in groups large enough that they lose their sense of individuality, being consumed by the whole. 

Expanded Spell List

You have been infected with an expanded list of spells. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

The Crawling Rot Expanded Spells

SPELL LEVEL	SPELLS
1st	Inflict Wounds, Entangle
2nd	Ray of Enfeeblement, Alter Self
3rd	Bestow Curse, Stinking Cloud
4th	Giant Insect, Black Tentacles (as hoards of your chosen medium)
5th	Contagion, Insect Plague

Squirming Skin

Starting at 1st level, the crawling rot has slithered into your skin, connecting you to something far more than yourself, connecting you to the communion of family, of community; you are not you anymore; we are the hive, the crawling rot. You gain an ability based on the media of corrupting influence of your specialization; you become the host, and that can be diverse in its communality. 

Hypnotic Allure

Whenever you choose this option at 1st level, you gain an almost hypnotic ability, your skin and body allure, and seem to grasp hold of the passing mortals. You are dizzying; you bring creatures together, and you bring them into a community; once you take this feature, you gain advantage on Charisma (persuasion), Charisma (deception), and Charisma (performance) checks. Additionally, you can choose to make a dance to another; this takes a minute, and they must be within 10 feet of you; they must make a Charisma Saving Throw or become charmed for up to 24 hours. 

If the target takes damage, it is not taken out of the Charmed Conditioned unless the charmer, specifically, deals damage to it. 

Infestation - rolled on 1d6

1 - Beetles - Shiny blue, red, and brown shells, gently crawling and climbing; you have an affinity for them, and maybe you even find yourself sometimes dreaming of them.

2 - Butterflies - You have an almost iridescence to your skin, and in just the right light, you see the multicolored scales that cover you; they flutter around you, following your path.

3 - Snails - You have an affinity for these gentle garden spirals; they follow you, and it always seems you can connect with them if you need information in a pinch.

4 - Bees - Buzzing fuzzy little creatures, they whirl around your path, and privately, they slide down your throat, making you almost sweet smelling and warm and buzzing to the touch.

5 - Moths - Fuzzy night-dwellers, they flit around you with large colors and intricate patterns that similarly hide behind your eyes; you may feel a strange attraction to lights.

6 - Lady Bugs - Red and dotted, you can always seem to find one or two in your presence; they, and their ceaseless hunger, are a part of you; you are the flower they protect.

Lymphatic Corrosion

When you choose this option at 1st level, you have taken The Crawling Rot into yourself, and instead of its larger participants, you've been unlucky enough to take in the small infestations; perhaps you once were falling to one of the black deaths and where nearly gone, before, in the peace you found in its ceaseless infection, you accepted, you woke up, not a boil or patch of black, rotting skin on you to be seen. You have taken in your illness, and now you are entirely part of the disease itself; you are now Immune to disease, although you pass disease ten times more commonly than normal, and whenever you touch someone, they must make a Constitution Save and then be infected with said disease. Whenever you take this option at first level, you choose an infection to be infected with.  If you come in contact with any other type of disease, you instantly become infected with it.

Whenever you make a Constitution saving throw, you add your charisma modifier to it.  

If you find bodies that have died from a disease, you can Speak With Dead for free and can animate the dead to summon the body into a Zombie; if killed by a disease and within the past year, the zombie lasts until it is killed, and zombies ignore your presence, that is unless you deal damage to them, if you do that, that specific zombie becomes hostile to you. 

Infestation - rolled on 1d6

1- Leprosy - you gain an affinity for flies; they buzz around you and maybe even tell you things. In just the right lighting, it looks like you are patched with melted and discolored skin.

2 - Tuberculosis - your breath, wherever you are hurt, turns black and swirls around you like a protective fog.

3 - Malaria -  you gain an affinity for mosquitoes; they cannot and do not choose to harm you and you. You even may have some control over them.

4 - Pox - Whenever anyone looks close, they see your boils and weeping sores inside you, just under your infectious skin.

5 - Elephantiasis - you gain an affinity for some mosquitoes, but more than anything, whenever you kill something, it becomes bloated, and writhing worms slide out of its wounds.

6 - Bubonic Plague - you gain an affinity with rats; they cannot and do not choose to harm you and may even choose to help and serve you.

Quickened Infestation

When you choose this option at 1st level, you allow the hive to infest you, taking it in early and joining the writhing rot directly. You've taken in many of your fellow members of the soul; they writhe and slither just under your skin, beginning to eat away at your muscles and just below your skin, leaving you with a limb or an aspect that is strengthened. You gain the ability to make an Infected Claw attack, and it uses your Charisma modifier for attack and damage rolls. Whenever you make a successful attack with the infected claw attack, the target takes 1d8 Slashing damage, and the target must make a saving throw if it fails, you know where they are in relation to you for the next hour, as the corruption tries to worm into them and they take an additional 1d4 necrotic damage. 

Additionally, you can choose, as many times as your proficiency bonus per day to make a Dexterity or Strength Check using your Charisma modifier. 

Infestation - rolled on 1d6

1- Parasitic Worms - writhing and almost undetectable, accept the slithering behind your eyes.

2 - Wasp Larvae - silvery worm-like grubs that slide in and out of your orifices and flesh.

3 - Slugs - between dark purple and bright yellow, slipping in and out of you, your skin ever so slightly slimy.

4 - Flies - buzzing and hairy, making up your voicebox and controlling the breathing of your lungs, laying their maggots in your blood.

5 - Cockroaches - skittering legs and veined black wings that hold close to their long segmented bodies, hundreds of them rustling and crawling just below your skin.

6 - Mold, purple - black, pale, green, or yellow patches of fuzz, or, more commonly, long threads that hide under your skin and bloom in your eyes.

Community Minded

Starting at 6th level, you can communicate with the swarms and disease-carrying monsters of your patron's honor. You have some influence over swarms, bugs, and disease-ridden creatures; swarms cannot attack you and will not try to unless you damage them first. You become immune to disease if you weren't before, and beasts, undead, and monstrosities that you and the GM think are associated with plagues or filth do not attack you or try to unless you damage them first. You can communicate with them as if you are telepathically connected, and they will generally follow what you command, usually in ask of a favor.

Additionally, whenever you are doing your Squirming Skin action, you can do it one additional time during that action or duration. 

Birth of the Flesh Hive

Starting at 10th level, you fully become the host, your skin just becoming the shell for your swarming brethren and whirling soul. Your hide may become potted with holes; maybe you simply allow them in and out through your eyes, ears, and mouth, or maybe they simply worm their way in, your skin just simply an open curtain to the creatures of infestation who you have collected. You gain the ability to use their strength through you, and you gain a bonus to your Dexterity (stealth), Dexterity (acrobatics), and Strength (athletics) checks equal to your Charisma modifier. 

Additionally, you can choose to try and consume a huge or smaller target; in doing so, you designate a 10-foot radius sphere, and anything inside that sphere must make a Dexterity Saving Throw or start to become Consumed if they fail the save their speed is reduced by half of their total speed. They start taking 4d8 + Charisma Modifier Necrotic Damage at the top of every turn. Additionally, while this is happening, they are blinded and cannot attempt to harm you directly. They can choose to try and break out of it as an action, making a Wisdom saving throw, or, at the end of their turn, they can make a Wisdom saving throw at a disadvantage to break free. Whenever they are unsuccessful, you gain 1d4 Swarm of Insects under your control, it appears in a random open space next to the target.

You can do this once per short or long rest

Queen of the Colony

Starting at 14th level, you have gained enough ability to become intrinsically connected to The Crawling Rot; it allows you to gain a colony within your skin and a tide of worming disease around you; you have become the community itself. Much like any colony, the queen lies at its center. Still, in all of its truth, the queen is much more in service to the colony than the colony to the queen, and for you, it's much the same: you are the colony, and in doing so, its queen; you gain the ability to summon your tide of corruption, and hold it within you. As a bonus action, you can summon up to 5 (charges of) swarms that follow your command (resetting on a long rest, each charge is equal to one swarm being summoned). These may be disease-ridden rats, unusually fast slugs, silvery worm larvae, hoards of mosquitoes, or whatever you've developed as your hive, but when you do, they appear in the space next to you. They take their collective turn right after yours and are empowered by your personal abilities. 

These Empowered Swarms have half your hit points and an AC of 12 + your Charisma Modifier; they deal 4d8 damage instead of 4d4, and when their damage decreases (at below half hit points), they do 4d4 instead. Additionally, whenever the swarms make a successful attack (for which they use your Charisma Attack bonus with Proficiency bonus), their damage is counted as magical for the purposes of overcoming immunities and resistances.