Chitin

These eukaryotic individuals are, certainly, interesting to say the least. In my year living within their troop, I believe I have witnessed more corpses than a veteran cemeterian. These people revel in finding the remains of any dead creature like a child finding a gift under a tree. They feast on its bones like a beggar given its first meal in weeks. They will stop at nothing to ensure I stay fed and healthy, only to grow confused as I take my meals over an open fire. They love, they squabble, and they forgive just like us. Are these emotions truly unique to us animalia when such fungi can do the same? Do they share a common ancestor like us? Or is it that nature itself seeks to recreate us? Perhaps another year will give me such an answer. - Mogobo, curious mage.

These mushroom-folks are often seen in fear and awe due to their humanoid fungi body. While at times innocent in appearance, their development stems from the possession and consumption of the dead. Chitin adapted to humanoid societies are few and far between, as their need to possess corpses to live and wander is feared and reviled by those who know. Despite this, most chitin strive to simply hunt undead, for they see them as a great error, and a great meal!

Awakened Fungi

Art by Lost Eventide Studios!

Chitin appear as mushrooms given human form. Mushroom caps don their head like hair grows from our scalps, each pileus unique amongst chitins thanks to a combination of size, color, dots, and overall form. The remainder of a chitin’s body shares two or less common pigments and markings, often compared in touch and texture to that of a cold yet soft loaf of brioche. Their faces are quickly found by the dull glow emanating from their eyes, the dim lights of yellow, greens, or blues often revealing the thousands of tiny spores a chitin naturally emits.

The source as to how a chitin can physically wander is often one of horror and rarely known; their skeleton is not their own. Once various chitin spores have intermingled over a corpse, the fungus rapidly grows to envelop it as its own. All organic matter bar bones are consumed, leaving nothing but a frame to support their developing body. Once a chitin can walk and think, it generally avoids further consumption of their skeleton, instead seeking out and consuming dead matter to replenish both their body and the strength of their frame.

The most frightening of tales are that psychedelic chitin, fungus-folk where their spores grow and disrupt the nerves inside living hosts. Such tales warn of mind-numbed people seeking damp and dark places to hide, for any chitin emerging from such places may very well house a living person inside them, their mind forever lost inside hallucinogenic wonder.

Intertwined with Decay

A chitin's life is defined by its connection to rot and death. Chitin communities, known as troops, are often nomadic, silently wandering across the world in the search for sustenance and reproduction. Their nourishment appears uniquely adapted towards putrefying matter; the more spoiled the matter, the more nourishment they gain from it. Many chefs have been dismayed to see a chitin client reject a perfectly prepared cut of meat, only to ravenously devour cuts long spoiled.

As chitin flesh rapidly rots away after death, many lack cultural praise towards the dead and ancestors, simply seeing the act of burying or disposing of the dead as "waste of sustenance". Chitin communities accustomed to other humanoids may naturally veer away from eating their dead, instead consuming the bones of livestock and pets.

Communities that know little of Chitins beyond their method of reproduction and feeding styles are quick to push them away in fear they will 'possess' or despoil the bodies of their ancestors. Others simply fear them as omens of death, folks of the wild that endlessly feed off plagues and wars. Tales go as far as to claim that some chitin families psychically manipulate figures of governments into furor and war, feasting in turn off of the victims of such senseless slaughter. As it stands, chitin-centric communities simply follow mercenaries or armies as they provide a steady source of nourishment for their families to grow and survive. Their nourishment through dead or rotting matter also seems to foster healthier environments in humanoid communities, with diseases and infections seemingly digested away. While chitin’s feast off the dead, it appears they share a hunger for those undead. Whatever magic or essence that creates such monsters is a delicious spice to chitin. Zombies, wights, and other undead are all treated as wandering cuisine, and to feast upon the body of a lich or vampire is a dream few chitin can achieve.

Wandering for Cleansing

With a lifestyle nearly entirely dependent on corpses, a chitin adventurer is often the first sight of such a person for many humanoid villages. Many such wanderers share common ambitions like their fellow non-chitin companions, much to the dismay of a companion thief seeking more gold to their haul. Chitins often undertake the role of hunters, warriors, or holy-men, using their might to cleanse the field of undeath before feeding off stragglers. Perhaps your chitin character seeks to slay an undead creature that their ancestors have failed to slay for generations, perhaps they seek to dine upon the corpse of a dragon, or perhaps simply avenge the loss of their troop.

Chitin Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score, Wisdom Score, and Strength score increase by 1.
Age. It is unknown if Chitin age, but they seem to die from dehydration after 60 years.
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid, but also count as Plant for the purposes of being detected.
Rarity. Scarce. Chitin primarily keep themselves hidden out of common fear of them generally appearing where corpses are, with few cities accepting them as wardens to undead.
Size. Chitin heights are varied, dependent on the skeleton they have taken hosts. You are Medium or Small (your choice when selecting this race).
Speed. Your walking speed is 25 feet.
Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.
If you don't keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficency in two skills of your choice.
Darkvision. Accustomed to wandering the depths and darkness, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Spores of Warning. You know the Faerie Fire and Alarm spells, and can cast each of them once per long rest. You also know the Poison Spray spell. You use your Constitution modifier for these spells spell save DC.
Draining Vitality. You can exhaust your vessel to recover from wounds. As a bonus action, roll a number of d6’s equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain a number of hit points equal to the total, at which point you gain a level of exhaustion.
You can use this feature once per short or long rest. You lose this level of exhaustion each time you finish a long rest.
Resilience to Undeath. You have resistance to necrotic and poison damage.
Spore Speech. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with fungi. When speaking with fungi creatures, you have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.

d6	Chitin Characteristics
1	Common food smells disgusting to me, while skeletons and other undead smell exquisite!
2	I often wake up to my cap changed, resembling hats I recently found interesting.
3	The magic I wield is not my own. Perhaps with time, I may learn how my vessel used it when they were alive.
4	I am afraid of chefs. I still remember the time one tried to have me as an appetizer.
5	Sometimes, I dream of people I don't recognize. Are these people my vessel knew when they lived?
6	I like to mimic how my friends eat, even if I don't have a mouth.