21 Ultroloth, Rope-roasted The blubbery skull of an ultroloth is closer to that of a whale than the cephalopod it superficially resembles. Their deceptively thick skin conceals a brick of yolky magenta brainmatter. Wrap and roast! Benefits. For the next 1 year, any time a hostile effect would teleport you, you may change the destination to an open space of your choosing within the same range as the effect. If the space you choose is full, you are shunted to the closest unoccupied space. Downsides. After 1 year, you are teleported to an unfortunate location of the Dungeon Master’s choosing. Servings. 1 Knowledge. Religion 17 "Dessert" No meal is complete without some sweet, unhealthy miscellanea. Also, no DMG product is complete without a little inside baseball and cross-promotion! Magic Items Introduce these items at shops or in monster loot at your DM's discretion. Recommended prices are included, but giantkind often carry these items among their camps and settlements, ripe for the taking! Residuum Salt These faintly glowing rust-pink crystals behave like iron dust when exposed to a magnet. Obtainable from well-travelled tradesfolk who in turn source it from fae-touched beaches and mines, this substance costs 10 gp per ounce. Residuum salt can be used to preserve monster flesh for much longer than is otherwise possible. On a successful Survival check to preserve a monster meal, a player may apply this substance in order to extend the preservation period for one of the servings from 1 week to 1 year. Doing so requires 1 ounce of residuum salt per challenge rating of the slain monster, per serving preserved. Preserving two servings of a CR 11 monster would require 22 oz. Darkwood Smokebox Wondrous item, very rare, 12,000 gp This grim yet homey cooking system can be collapsed into a fist-sized tinderbox with an action when not in use. Expanding the smokebox also takes an action, and requires at least a 4 foot cube of open space to do so. If used to cook monster meals as part of a rest, the smokebox doubles the duration of their Benefits. Meals which usually take over 1 hour to harvest, prepare and eat only take 1 hour with the smokebox. If a Benefit lasts until discharged, the smokebox doubles its number of charges. Each darkwood smokebox can fit up to 6 total servings in a single cooking session, whether they be from one monster or several. Yugoloths Everyone forgets about the Yugoloths. Dead yugoloth flesh only remains on a plane other than the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna for more than 1 hour if it is immediately preserved with residuum salt. Otherwise, it melts into sub-ooze ichor along with the rest of the carcass. Eating a yugoloth meal transfers the lost knowledge of its true name to the consumer. If that yugoloth reforms or is otherwise resurrected, it is beholden to the consumer, though it will maliciously look for chances to misinterpret any vague or contradictory commands, and if freed from servitude will seek revenge. Summoning or contacting a named yugoloth requires some other means, and is not included in the meal’s effects. Arcanoloth, Brined and Boiled They say you should never fry a fox, and arcanoloth is no different. Boil out the toughness of the back meat with some orange and pepper, and make sure to leave all the fat on if you brine it. Benefits. Choose one school of magic. For the next 24 hours, you are immune to hostile spells from that school. Downsides. The first time you are the target of a spell to which you are immune during the next 24 hours, you teleport up to 120 feet to an unfortunate space of the Dungeon Master’s choosing. Servings. 2 Knowledge. Religion 16 Mezzoloth "Prunes" Much of a mezzoloth’s exoskeleton is hollow, but each of its arms contains a “void lung” unique to its fiendish physique. These shriveled polyp sacs have the mouthfeel of a salted prune. Benefits. Once during the next 3 days, you may cast dispel magic at 3rd level without a spell slot, with Charisma as your spellcasting ability. Downsides. The first time you cast dispel magic during the next 3 days, you teleport up to 30 feet to an unfortunate space of the Dungeon Master’s choosing. Servings. 4 Knowledge. Religion 13 Nycaloth, Fat-seared The abdominal muscles of a nycaloth make perfect portions, and can be seared fat-down with a dusting of oregano and then cooked in their own juices for a naturally hot and acidic cutlet. Benefits. You are immune to the next two instances of acid or poison damage you take. Downsides. The next time you are subject to acid or poison damage, you teleport up to 60 feet to an unfortunate space of the Dungeon Master’s choosing. Servings. 8 Knowledge. Religion 15
22 Design Postmortem This supplement had two main inspirations: Nethack for its mechanics, and Delicious in Dungeon for its art. Nethack was by most metrics the first Rogue-like, and included the ability of the player character to eat deceased monsters during their delve. Some granted unique intrinsic benefits, others poisonous downsides, and many a mixture of both. Delicious in Dungeon is a manga with a simple yet elegant “campfire cuisine” aesthetic that fits the tone of the supplement perfectly. I wrote the supplement in alphabetical order, and started most entries with a compelling Benefit before reverse-inferring a (somewhat) balanced Downside and appropriate serving size. Flavor text typically came last in a given entry, needing to fit the serving number as well as the vibe of danger and promise contained in the effects. I kept in mind that no meal ends up eaten unless the Dungeon Master first introduces the creature, and thus I erred on the side of impact, not caution. If a particular campaign would be ruined by using an entry as written, there are multiple “knobs” for a DM to turn; preparation time, effect duration, and serving number. I read both monster stat blocks as well as their background text to form a foundation for each entry. When a monster didn’t evoke an intuitive mechanic from its resistances, senses, actions, and features, I would invent one based on its personality or habitat. This was the entire premise for the sub-headings on devils, hags, and whatnot: to create an extra layer of flavor for broad categories of monster that should have a common theme. Giants eat smaller creatures, oozes are amorphous, demons are chaos incarnate, etc. As a plug-and-play add-on, the Monster Menu had little reason to create complex recipes or to gate cooking behind skill checks. However, since every entry has a simple knowledge check DC based roughly on 10 + [Challenge Rating divided by 2], there is a quick reference for any other skill checks that might come up at the table. There are also hooks in the main and variant rules to indicate that rangers (the class) and Chefs (the feat) should be considered for spotlight time associated with monster meals. I also made sure to bounce entries off of my trusted friends as I wrote, and to integrate lessons about composition and clear, unmistakable theming learned from my previous supplements. When a reader gets to an iconic monster, they should read an iconic monster meal entry. Role players should be given enough of a description to set them up for a moment during their short rest. Strategists should be given pause when considering the balance of a Benefit and its Downside. And the designer should be ready to errata their product based on feedback! Cheers. The Good Platter Wondrous item, rare, 4,000 gp Any meal served on this gaudy platter tastes not-quiteas-good as what momma used to make. When eating off of it, you do not gain the Downsides of any monster meal you consume, and you are immune to any poisons or diseases in the food. Once the platter has been used to protect a creature in this way, it may not be used again until it has been handwashed by a parent during a rest. Tasteful Weapon Any melee weapon, rare (requires attunement), 5,000 gp You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. The fine prongs on this burnished obsidian implement drain the color from the area they scrape. When you hit with a melee attack using this weapon, you may siphon the flavor of the creature you struck. The creature makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. If they fail, you gain the Benefits of having eaten them as a monster meal, but with a duration of 10 minutes (effects which last until discharged are lost at this time). Once a creature fails this saving throw, you may not use this weapon’s ability again until after you you have eaten a home-cooked meal during a long rest. Variant Rules A menu within a menu! Choose any or all of these optional rules in order to make sure that these monstrous meals fit in perfectly at your table. Head Chef. The Chef feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything can be used as a prerequisite for cooking monster meals. If used to “gate” access in this way, it’s recommended to leave the rest of the feat unchanged, and treat most Small or larger monsters as Chef feat “ingredients” in addition to their Monster Menu effects. Itemize It. Instead of being an involved process taking up a short rest, meals can be harvested from a deceased creature with a single action, and are consumable with a single action as well. This brings their Benefits and Downsides into more direct competition with potions and spells, as they can now be eaten mid-combat. Consider reducing the number of servings provided by more dramatic monster meal entries, and/or increasing the cost of residuum salt by a factor of five. Canonize It. If the knowledge checks are proving too difficult or superfluous, remove them and give the party an in-game copy of this supplement; the legendary Monster Menu, instead. If the party has a Chef or ranger, consider making them the recipient. Poison Them. Though the monster meal entries aren’t optimized for being used maliciously, an enterprising character proficient in poison or medicine might disguise any of the dishes herein as a mundane meal. They simply make an Intelligence (poisoner’s kit or Medicine) check during meal prep, which sets the DC for any unaware creature eating the meal to recognize its true nature with a Wisdom (Perception) check.