The Ravenous Wastes

Surviving the Wastes

Here you will find a ruleset aimed at tracking survival resources and making it easier to run a campaign centered around adventuring in desert-like environments with scarce resources like the Ravenous Wastes. There are rules to make Supply Checks to represent the dwindling food and water your party will have available and new spells in the form of magical recipes for meals and banquets your characters can find in their adventures in the lands of the Lord of Hunger, Vorax.

The Ravenous Wastes

Food conquers all in the Wastes.

The Ravenous Wastes are ruled by the way of the stomach. Food lords over those who starve and sways the gluttons who pillage, slaughter, and devour everything and everyone that gets in their way.  In the lands of the Lord of Hunger, food quite literally means life.

In the Voracious Sands, you will never find a stable source of food. This means most communities here are either nomads, going where food is, pillagers, enforcing the rule of might, or traders, selling other resources, information, or even their souls for food. Those who have regular access to food are both treated as royalty and have a constant target on their backs.

In the Wastelands you have to be able to do anything to survive. Even eating humanoid meat isn’t seen as much of a taboo, especially if they are already dead. Eating whatever you can is called resourcefulness and practicality in the Wastes.

Except for eating fiends, that is. To eat the flesh of a fiend is too much even for the most avid of mortal survivalists. Unless of course, you are  Vorax, the Lord of Hunger and Ruling Sin of the Ravenous Wastes.

Supply Check

When venturing through the squalid desert a group of adventurers will need certain supplies to survive their journey. Food and water are the most scarce and sought after. To track these provisions a group must make a Supply Check using a die that scales based on how much food they have on hand. Usually, a group starts off adventuring with a d6 as their supply die. This die can go from a d4, which means little to no provisions left, up to a d12, which is a proper trove of supplies that will keep them fed for a whole adventure. If their die is ever lower than a d4, they have no supplies left.

Whenever the group takes a long rest they must make a Supply Check. They roll whatever  die is appropriate to their current supply level. A result of 3 or higher on the die means they haven’t depleted their rations and keep the die they have, a 1 or a 2 means they have eaten through a portion of their supplies without being able to replenish them through scavenging and their die goes down one step. For instance, if they had a d6 to represent their current supplies and rolled a 1, this dice becomes a d4 for the next roll and their following failure will mean they have no supplies left.When you make a Supply Check with no supplies left, you gain one level of exhaustion and recover no exhaustion level from that long rest.

Advantage and Disadvantage

You can choose to roll the Supply Check at advantage by rationing your supplies. If you do so, you receive a -1 to all ability checks until your next long rest due to malnourishment. This effect is raised by -1 for each subsequent day you choose to do this.

You can also choose to roll the supply’s check at disadvantage by going all out your meals for a day. If you do so, you receive a +1 to all ability checks until your next long rest.A Supply Check is enough to feed to sustain a party of adventurers and their mounts/animal companions if they have them. If more creatures are eating from your stash this puts extra stress on your resources and the Supply Check is made at disadvantage until the party is able to raise the size of their die.

Acquiring Supplies

Adding to your supplies means raising the size of the die you roll for a Supply Check. The dice are d4, d6, d8, d10, d12.

Since the die is an abstract value it won’t be raised by any supply found in your journey. For instance, your die won’t be raised by getting supplies from a single d6 source if your current die is a d8. Only by getting a supply larger than your current die can you raise your stock.

Supplies are a possible treasure to be found and purchased by adventurers in the wastes. Most merchants won’t have too much to sell to a party of adventurers – most of them will only part with a d6 supply – and the prices for such items are incredibly high and may change on the whim of a seller who sees they can get more out of you. The following prices are the cost to raise one die to the next.

Die Increase	Cost
d0 to d4	5 gp
d4 to d6	50 gp
d6 to d8	200 gp
d8 to d10	500 gp
d10 to d12	1,000 gp

You can also make a Survival check DC 15 to harvest a creature and add to your supplies. Being successful on this check will allow you to raise your die, or turn that harvest into a resource that can be sold later. This check is made at disadvantage if this creature is unnatural like a fiend, undead, construct, elemental, or aberration. Nothing goes to waste in the Wastes, after all.

Size	Supply
Tiny	Raise your die from 0 up to a d4
Medium	Raise your die from a d4 to a d6, or up to a d4 if it’s lower
Large	Raise your die from a d6 to a d8; or up to a d6 if it’s lower
Huge	Raise your die from a d8 to a d10, or up to a d8 if it’s lower
Gargantuan	Raise your die from a d10 to a d12, or up to a d10 if it’s lower

Outlander Background

In the Ravenous Wastes food is scarce and even if you are really good at finding it, you won’t be able to find enough to feed a group by scavenging indefinetly. A character with the Outlander Background and the Wanderer Feature will be able to roll Survival checks to harvest creatures with advantage, but won’t automatically find food and water for their group.

Magical Recipes

Coveted more than gold, magical recipes are hoarded and hidden all through the Ravenous Wastes. These are pages enchanted with spells capable of bringing forth true banquets out of thin air. Their food can satiate hunger and empower those who engorge themselves with the magical meals.

Anyone can read the recipe and cast its spell without providing any material components. Casting the spell by reading the recipe requires the spell’s normal casting time during which the food is prepared and consumed, no special effects  set in until the end of the casting time. Once the spell is cast, the words on the recipe fade, and it crumbles to dust. If the casting is interrupted, the recipe is not lost, but the spell takes no effect and the food disappears.To cast one of these spells from a recipe you must make a Dexterity, Wisdom, or Intelligence (Cook’s Utensils) ability check to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a failed check, the spell fails and the recipe disappears and you cast the bland stew spell instead.

A wizard can copy magical recipes just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a magic recipe, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Cook’s Utensils) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell’s level. If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the magic recipe is destroyed.

Bland Stew – 1st level conjuration

• Casting time: 10 minutes
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a pinch of salt)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You conjure a meal for up to 12 creatures during a supply check, it is filling but completely bland. You automatically succeed in a supply check, but make Wisdom saving throws at disadvantage until you take a long rest.

Goodberry

In the Ravenous Wastes the spell goodberry works in a different way, instead of providing enough nourishment to sustain a creature for a day it allows a group that consumes them to make a supply check at advantage with no downsides.

Inara’s Blazing Brew – 2nd level evocation

• Casting time: 1 action
• Range: 1 action
• Components: V, S, M (a sip of liquid of your choice)
• Duration: 1 hour

You enchant a beverage with elemental power that can be consumed by a creature as an action or as part of the casting of this spell. 

As a bonus action, the creature who imbibes it can choose to immolate themselves, during which time they take 1d4 fire damage at the beginning of each of their turns and become resistant to cold damage. Any creature that ends a turn next to them or attacks them with a melee attack while they are on fire takes 1d4 fire damage. The creature can end this effect on themselves as a bonus action after which the spell loses effect.

Vorax’s Unholy Fest – 6th level conjuration

• Casting time: 10 minutes
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a platter of gold and bones worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You summon forth a profane pile of food and eat it in a ritual of depraved debauchery. The meal is consumed as a part of the casting of this spell. Up to 12 creatures can partake of the feast.

A creature that partakes in the feast is affected by several effects. Their hit point maximum is reduced by 20, they become immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition, and make all attacks against a creature that isn’t at maximum hit points at advantage. Any time they deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage to a target they deal necrotic damage instead. These effects last until the creature completes a long rest.

Fiend Flesh – 4th level transmutation

• Casting time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S, M (the flesh of a fiend, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You enchant and devour the flesh of a fiend, as a ritual of sinful devotion to Vorax, Lord of Hunger. You may use a bonus action to target one willing creature within 30 feet of you. That creature takes 3d6 necrotic damage and you regain that many hit points. If you would fall unconscious a random willing creature within 30 feet of you is targeted and the spell ends. 

The next supply check your group makes automatically fails, as you are seized by insatiable hunger for the day.

Chef’s Choice – 5th level conjuration

• Casting time: 10 minutes
• Rage: 30 ft
• Components: V, S, M (gold leaf and fresh truffles worth at least 50 gp, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You prepare a dish of delicious cuisine that can be enjoyed by one willing creature within the next 24 hours before it loses its effects. The dish’s flavor determines the effect of the magical recipe, choose one at the moment of casting: 

• Reinvigorating Risotto. Any time the creature is healed it also receives 2d8 temporary hit points. This effect lasts until the creature takes a long rest.
• Sturdy Surprize. The creature becomes resistant to one damage type chosen at the time of casting: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. This effect lasts until the creature takes a long rest.
• Exquisite Last Meal. The target takes 6d8 necrotic damage.

A dish can be identified by a creature that isn’t familiar with its contents and requires a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC.

Sandwalker’s Supplies – 3rd level conjuration

• Casting time: 10 minutes
• Range: 30 ft
• Components: V, S, M (a handful of sand)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You bring forth a practical meal, including food and water. The meal is consumed as a part of casting this spell.  This meal is large enough to be consumed by 12 creatures.

A creature that eats this meal has its movement speed raised by 10 feet and jump distance doubled. It  is also unaffected by non-magical difficult terrain in desert regions. These effects last until the creature completes a long rest.

Qarean Sweet Delight – 3rd level enchantment

• Casting time: 1 minute
• Range: 30 ft
• Components: V, S, M (a pinch of powdered sugar)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You bring forth a sugar-powdered decadent puff pastry that can be eaten by one creature as a part of the casting of this spell. They experience visions of the golden age of the city of Qarean for the time they eat it.

The creature who ate it gains several benefits. The creature is cured of all madness that is affecting it and any time you take psychic damage roll 1d4 and subtract that total from the damage taken. The creature is also considered charmed for the duration of these effects and while charmed all creatures have advantage on any ability check to interact socially with the creature. These effects last until the creature completes a long rest.

Qarean Golden Supper – 6th level conjuration

• Casting time: 10 minutes
• Range: 30 ft
• Components: V, S, M (a gem-encrusted golden plate and cutlery worth at least 1,000 gp)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You create a golden meal of indescribable taste that reminds you faintly of memories of your childhood, a recipe exclusive to the now-ruined city of Qarean. This meal can be eaten by a creature as a part of the casting of this spell.

The creature who ate it gains the following benefits. It regains the maximum number of hit points possible from any healing, can roll a d4, and add the number rolled to any attack roll or saving throw it makes. These effects last until the creature completes a long rest.

Hunger Lord’s Favorite

A creature who has eaten the Qarean Golden Supper can be perceived by Vorax, the Lord of Hunger, as if he had Blindsense up to 120 feet for the next 1d8 days, during which time Vorax will see them as a target. This is Vorax’s favorite dish, if he becomes aware of a creature who has eaten this dish he will stop at nothing in the attempt to devour them. For the duration Vortax sees them as a target, they also have disadvantage on saving throws against Vorax’s Eaten Alive attack.

Loot Studios can help you explore new stories, including the Song of Sins adventure. Choose your favorite bundle from our previous releases or sign up for Fantasy or Sci-Fi to receive a new bundle every month. You can also check out some tips at our YouTube Channel.