Party Killed a Neothelid: Now What?

[MidsouthGuy]

Because according to my group, it's time for a barbecue. They managed to kill a neothelid at the end of our last session, and just to prove I will never be able to predict what they're going to try to do next, the party wants to cook and eat the thing during our next session.

I have no idea how to handle this development.

On one hand, I don't want to just say no and keep them from enjoying their victory in the way they want, but on the other, eating giant psychic worm meat screams 'bad idea'. I even read through everything I can find on neothelids to see if I could find anything about whether their flesh is poisonous or not, but apparently nobody ever thought someone would be insane enough to try to eat one.

So what should I do? Just let them cook and eat it? Have it melt away before they get the chance? Have everyone roll Fortitude saves to see if they get poisoned from eating neothelid meat? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

[doomman47]

Let them eat it but have it corrupt them in different ways, the corruption would be both a boon and a hindrance. Basically make your own simple corruption templates tailored to each of the party members. The more boons the accept the more drawbacks there are and eventually once all the is said and done they will no longer be human(or what ever other race they picked). Now don't make them lose control of their characters just give them something that will either make them think this was the best or this was the worst idea we have ever come up with.

[Pizza Lord]

Do something different for each of them.
Either decide ahead of time how a character will receive the meal or roll randomly, anywhere from inedible to them (no matter how they try they just keep gagging on it) to dislike to tastes-like-chicken to enjoy to greatest-thing-in-the-world.
If you need a reason for them to not like it or they want know why, just pull out any old adjective and say that's just how they find it, whether anyone else does or not. Too chewy, too slick, too gooey, too tough, tickles your uvula, etc.

It shouldn't be poisonous but that doesn't mean one character can't just happen to be allergic to neothelid meat (when ingested). They swell up, find it hard to breathe, or get hives and itchy rash.
Another might just happen to have strange dreams (whether related to the meat or not, let them make that assumption). Maybe one has really bad gas or cramps later. Maybe one wakes up with fistfuls of leftover neothelid meat and barbecue sauce (and no recollection of it).
If you want one to have a psychic experience, maybe they sense that all their fellow PCs are plotting against them or they think they can empathically sense that characters feelings towards them (which might just match how that person thought the neothelid tasted; dislike, enjoy, repulsive, etc.)

[the David]

It's unlikely that a monster this big or strong has "tastes bad", "being inedible" or "poisonous to humans" as a defense mechanism. There's no evolutionary need for it. The only poison a Neothelid has is a spell-like ability.

It also seems bad to punish the players for eating something they killed. This thing could feed a village. They're just trying not to waste any food. Or maybe they just played too much Monster Hunter. It's also common in mythology. Both the Mead of Poetry and Sigurd eating the heart of a dragon are examples of this.
Ofcourse they are eating a sentient being which is technically not-cannabalism. They might not be aware of this.

So let's just go with weird. Give them weird dreams for as long as the meat is in their digestive tracks. This is an excellent place to give them some psionicly induced plot hooks. This could be something like clairaudience/clairvoyance. You might want to boost it to a full scrying effect.
You could also randomly give them some of the other spell-like abilities. A random teleport could be funny.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Looking at the stat block for Neothelid’s I notice that they have DR 10/ cold iron. As far as I know there is no rule whether it continues to function after the creature is dead. In most cases it is kind of a moot point, but in this case it may be important. If damage reduction does continue to work after death the players may not be able to actually eat it. Unless the players have cold iron or magical teeth they may not be able to actually chew the cooked Neothelid.

In many cases damage resistance may be due to scales or a tough hide. Considering that a Neothelid is basically a large worm that does not seem likely. It seems likely to me that eating a Neothelid would be at the least incredibly tough and difficult to eat. I imagine it would be like trying to eat a very hard and dense rubber.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

They can eat it, but it'll be one hell of a trip while it's in their systems.

[Meirril]

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Looking at the stat block for Neothelid’s I notice that they have DR 10/ cold iron. As far as I know there is no rule whether it continues to function after the creature is dead. In most cases it is kind of a moot point, but in this case it may be important. If damage reduction does continue to work after death the players may not be able to actually eat it. Unless the players have cold iron or magical teeth they may not be able to actually chew the cooked Neothelid.

In many cases damage resistance may be due to scales or a tough hide. Considering that a Neothelid is basically a large worm that does not seem likely. It seems likely to me that eating a Neothelid would be at the least incredibly tough and difficult to eat. I imagine it would be like trying to eat a very hard and dense rubber.

In large part, the purpose of cooking is to make food more edible. After being processed and cooked anything should be more edible. You might set a series of appropriate skills and allow various DCs to process the meat to adding various 'spices' and using various techniques to prepare the meat (vegtables, metals, aether, whatever people want to try and eat). Considering the creatures CR 15 I think a base DC of 10+CR and +5 for being an abberation seems justified. Appropriate skills that come to mind are survival (dressing game), profession: cook, craft:alchemy (to remove toxins), heal (to identify parts that aren't healthy to eat), probably a strength check with bonuses for equipment to tenderize the meat. Maybe a few knowledge checks to come up with appropriate recipes that give a bonus to any other rolls. Fabricate would speed things up, but without an appropriate skill it just seems like a way to pass the strength check.

Honestly with enough processing you could eat iron without harming your body. Eating a Worm from Beyond should be much easier.

[Scrapper]

So they missed the DC 35 lore check that eating neothelid meat may cause one to mutate into a neothelid, they find some weird artwork showing a dinner party but the reveling guests all look deformed, a closer look (DC 25 search) at what is on the table being served is a chopped up neothelid, have them roll dice, then you roll dice behind a screen, then just look sad... Have fun bluffing =)

[MageHunter]

Ooh, horror adventures has rules for weird dreams right?

[Mysterious Stranger]

For the most part simply cooking something does not render an inedible substance edible. What it does is make it more palatable not edible. Trying to make something with the consistency of iron into something that can be eaten is going to be difficult. And even if you manage to make it so it can be swallowed does not mean it will be able to be digested.

Iron has a hardness of 10 which matches the damage resistance of the Neothelid. My point is that eating the Neothelid is probably not going to be a pleasant experience, and may leave the party at least temporarily incapacitated. The may end up having to grind it up and even then it will probably be difficult to eat. After they have eaten it, it may leave them nauseous or worse until it passes through their system.

That is not even taking into account that it is a horror spawned by things from beyond. That would give a good justification for multiclassing into a sorcerer or bloodrager. It could also be used to justify picking up the Eldricth Heritage line of feats, or even using the variant multiclassing rules. Any children the players have could also manifest those abilities. This could be where the Aberrant and related bloodlines come from.

[Asgetrion]

Corruption rules in Horror adventures would suit this kind of situation marvelously, I think. Let them have their BBQ party and savor their moment... sooner or later they're going to see changes in themselves as the corruption starts to manifest. I'd likely go with Hive corruption, perhaps modified or reskinned a bit to better fit the Neothelid theme.

[Meirril]

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

For the most part simply cooking something does not render an inedible substance edible. What it does is make it more palatable not edible. Trying to make something with the consistency of iron into something that can be eaten is going to be difficult. And even if you manage to make it so it can be swallowed does not mean it will be able to be digested.

Heating things breaks down the cellular structure faster and before you attempt to digest said substance. Boiling use to be incredibly common and is excellent for killing bacteria, and softening up tough meats and vegtables. It also moves a lot of the nutrients to the liquid...and it also kind of ruins the flavor of a lot of meats. There are reasons boiling isn't as popular as it use to be.

Olives, blue corn, soy beans, wheat and many other foods commonly consumed need extensive processing to become edible. Some of them in raw form are toxic. Others are merely difficult or impossible to digest. We've developed several techniques to process meat so that it isn't tough. This ranges from simply pounding the meat until its a mush, to using chemicals and even bacteria to soften meat.

Did you know that eating gold is a thing? I honestly can't see the appeal, but it has been a practice to add gold foil to deserts and alcohol for centuries. The gold gives zero benefit, can't be digested, and does no harm to the body. Just because something can be process to be edible doesn't mean it becomes nutritious.

Did you know there is a practice of eating Blowfish? One of the most toxic animals on the planet. Any mistakes in preparation means a fatality. Just because some portions of a creature can't be safely consumed doesn't mean that the entire creature is inedible.

If someone said that Neolithe blood was used by alchemists to make potions none of you would bat an eyelash. There are first level spells that have you smearing Demon blood on open wounds. But trying to consume a monster just for the sake of it and suddenly there are concerns of it being toxic, a mutagen, or simply not digestible at all? It is a psychic mind worm that in ancient times was spawned by Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. If it has some sort of corrupting ability, attack, anything like that I'd be leery. But as for its special abilities...meh. Cook it up and have a BBQ. This isn't like its going to affect the long term balance of the game or anything. Or is the Glorian economy going to be overturned if suddenly people start trying to consume monsters?

[blahpers]

Evolution via natural selection is a bit more complicated in a world with spells, aberrations, and magical beasts than it is in the real world. Eating a neolethid very much might have all kinds of fun side effects--or it might not. As a GM, I'd feel obligated to make it an adventure. : D

[Phillip Gastone]

There is the manga 'Delicious in Dungeon' that deals with PCs foraging from the depths. :)

[Yqatuba]

I would assume it's edible unless it has some poison flesh ability (Like Desna's herald does).

[The Sideromancer]

First, as a DM, you need to decide what's at steak...