Skarn

Beware the tunnels beneath the Iron City. Beware the skittering and chittering and jittering. Beware the ratmen. Beware the Skarn.

— Erven the Blind, The City of Iron

The Skarn are a people united by persecution and a will to survive. Since their creation, the ratmen of Asylum have been hounded by scorn and strife as they try to find their place in the world. But, ever undeterred, they have found their own ways to survive. They scrounge and scavenge, bicker and fight, and cling close to their leaders. The Skarn have a strong sense of community and are fiercely devout, following the mythological Rat King of Okiron with a zealotry seldom seen in the Underdark.

Appearance

The Skarn resemble humanoids covered in fur with the head of a rat, long tails and lanky, narrow bodies. Their eyes shine in the dark and are almost always a stark blood red. Most Skarn have grey fur, with those that hail from the Underdark having much darker, or even black fur, and those that dwell closer to the surface, like the Skarn beneath the cities of Irrell, having lighter fur, or occasionally brown fur. All Skarn, however, have bizarre green markings across their body, usually across their chests. These marks grow in size and colour as the Skarn ages, and each family has a different pattern passed down to their children. These marks denote the potency of the individual's venom and serve as a warning to others. The Venom Patterns table has examples you can choose or use as inspiration to create your own.

Venom Markings

d6	Venom Marking
1	A claw-like pattern across the chest
2	A swirling, hypnotic pattern on each shoulder
3	A series of small, oval-shaped marks down the back
4	A large, eye-like pattern across the chest
5	Markings like tear streaks running down from the eyes
6	Long, narrow channels down each arm and leg

Born as Servants

The Skarn have passed down the story of their origin through verbal retellings over a thousand years. Supposedly, the Skarn were the first and only mistake of a divine craftsman widely regarded to be The Maker from Aldrian religion. They were created as a subservient race beholden to the Elders, a payment in return for an unkown crime the Deity had requested of them. They were designed to be tough, hardy and resistant to disease, as well as capable of rapidly replacing the population. But something went wrong. The Skarn were born wrong, with short lives, a potent venom, and foul tempers. According to the stories, the Elders took the Skarn anyway, and enslaved them to build vast cities and winding tunnels throughout the Underdark. The Skarn despised their rulers, and craved for freedom.
Centuries later, beneath the Elders grandest city, Okiron, something sturred. A beast was born. Its body was that of a thousand Skarn corpses, bound together by a primeval force of vengrace. The Skarn dubbed it the Rat King of Okiron as they watched it decimate the city, liberating them from the Elders, and the Skarn took the chance to flee into the depths of the Underdark. Many Skarn still speak of the Rat King watching from the shadows, silently guiding them to a better life.

Pious Scavengers

Skarn society prioritises the survival of the community. The Skarn form large communities called swarms, often comprised of well over 100 members. The swarms build large, expansive nests; an intricately carved system of tunnels and chambers built into the side of cave walls or sewers. Each family unit has their own chamber to sleep in, and the Skarn will often line it with whatever comfortable material they can scavenge, like moss, straw or feathers. Family units in Skarn swarms often consist of up to 15 members, with polyamory between adults being common. Other chambers will have their own purposes, like a ramshackle market, a communal lavatory, or a food store. Vocations within a rat nest include scavengers, clothiers that fashion garments from scavenged material, blacksmiths who forge crude weapons from stone and the occasional fragment of metal, or alchemists that concoct brews both deadly and medicinal. Within a swarm, every Skarn must have a role for the betterment of themselves and eachother. The Skarn are fiercely loyal to one-another, and a Skarn with no swarm is either the victim of a Minotaur or Aldrian purge, or one that has been ejected for endangering their kin.
Most Skarn swarms venerate the Rat King of Okiron, and believe that he still watches from the shadows, guiding them. Within a Skarn nest, there will be at least one chamber dedicated to worship of the Rat King. Interestingly, it is never furnished nor decorated with anything other than a tiny carving of the Rat King, as the Rat King teaches that all that can be scavenged must be put to good use - and decoration is hardly a priority. Within these "church" chambers often dwells a priest of the Rat King. The priest's duty is to interpret signs from their deity and guide the swarm towards a safe and prosperous life. Most scavengers will stop in the chamber to offer prayer to the Rat King before setting out, in hopes of gaining his blessing. Many Skarn believe that if they die with the blessing of the Rat King, their body will become one with him, and they will ascend to a life free of strife.

Enemies Abound

TBD Minotaurs, Drow probably hate them. Old lore below, subject to change.
The Skarn, by their nature, have many enemies within the Underdark. They are scavengers at heart, but many would not hesitate to steal from others. When times are difficult, the Skarn's most common targets are the ancient Elder cities housing Drow and Duergar, or the labyrinth fortresses of the Minotaurs. As a result, most other denizens of the Underdark regard the Skarn with suspicion or outright hostility. This is especially true for the Minotaurs - more specifically, those Minotaurs that follow Baphomet. For some unknown reason, these Minotaurs believe that Baphomet has decreed the extermination of the Skarn; theories behind this vary from the Minotaur seeing them as "weak" or perhaps Baphomet craving the blood of Skarn.

Skarn Traits

The Skarn are a homebrew race, and have the following traits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase one of your ability scores by 2, and another by 1. Alternatively, increase three of your ability scores by 1.
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
Size. You are Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed.
Darkvision. 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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Plague Carrier. You have resistance to poison damage. You also have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the poisoned condition on yourself. You are also immune to non-magical diseases.
Scavenger. You have proficiency in the Survival skill. Additionally, when you search the battlefield to recover expended ammunition, you can roll a d6 and recover additional ammunition equal to the number rolled.
Narrow Frame. You can squeeze through small spaces as if you were a Small creature.
Skarn Venom. You naturally generate a small quantity of poison within your body. When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell, you can use a bonus action to spread your poison to the creature. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier). On a failed save, the creature is poisoned until the start of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Skarn Feats

The Skarn have access to the following racial feats.

Plague Bringer

Prerequisite: Skarn
You have embraced the filth of your kin, and your venom has become more potent as a result. You gain the following benefits:

Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

You can use your Skarn Poison trait twice between rests.

Your venom becomes deadly. A creature that fails the saving throw of your Skarn Poison takes 2d12 poison damage. A creature that succeeds the saving throw takes half as much damage

Skarn Agility

Prerequisite: Skarn
You have developed a keen agility from years of evading predators. You gain the following benefits:

Increase your dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Your walking and climbing speed increase by 5 feet.

When a creature misses you with an attack, or you miss a creature with an attack, you can use your reaction to move up to half your speed away from the creature. This movement does not provoke an oppportunity attack from the creature, and you must end this movement further from the creature than you started.

Plague Bringer

Prerequisite: Skarn

You have embraced the filth of your kin, and your venom has become more potent as a result. You gain the following benefits:

Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

You can use your Skarn Poison trait twice between rests.

Your venom becomes deadly. A creature that fails the saving throw of your Skarn Poison takes 2d12 poison damage. A creature that succeeds the saving throw takes half as much damage

Ratfolk Grenadier by Paizo Inc.

Statistics

Size	Medium
Type	Humanoid
Alignment	Typically chaotic
	Traits

General Information

Location(s)	The Underdark, city sewers
Language(s)	Common, Undercommon
Alias(es)	Ratmen, Ratfolk, Plague bringers
Common Classes	Artificer (Alchemist), Cleric, Ranger, Rogue

Physical Information

Vision	Darkvision
Lifespan	~60 years
Height	3'8' - 5'1'
Weight	70 - 150 pounds
Abilities	Poison generation Poison resistance Disease resistance Narrow Frame