Phase Boots - A Magic Item
It used to be that magic items, or at least a lot of them, had a little something about them before we got into the mechanics of what they do. It was fun, and I think it added to the excitement of receiving said item. So in that spirit, here’s Boots of Horrific Internal Organ Scrambing Dash (aka Phase Boots)
Boots of Horrific Incorporeal Internal Organ Scrambling Dash
(AKA Phase Boots)
Wondrous Item, Legendary
Ah, the Boots of Horrific Incorporeal Internal Organ Scrambling Dash. While a frighteningly accurate name, it's ridiculously long, so most people refer to them simply as Phase Boots. The nickname doesn’t do justice to how deeply and profoundly unsettling the abilities of the boots are, and it’s just too much. Besides, calling them Phase Boots lulls the target into complacency, only to realize too late that the boots scramble your internal organs into a gelatinous goo.
The Phase Boots solve the problem of navigating crowded city streets and narrow dungeon hallways: traffic. They also allow the wearer to overcome the plain, boring, and tedious solidity of the material plane. Of course, the boots do a tiny bit more than solve the above issues. And by tiny, I mean become a destructive force that can cause a living creature to explode.
When activated, the boots don’t simply make you fast. We’re not talking about "riding a horse" or "running away from a charging owlbear" fast -- no, these boots make you otherworldly fast.
For a single, heart-stopping moment, you and everything you carry become utterly, blissfully non-corporeal. You are a ghost with a deadline. You hurtle forward, passing through stone walls, oak doors, and the poor, unfortunate guard who was told his breastplate was "perfectly adequate."
Which brings us to the namesake feature. The official term used by academics is "Rapid Disassembly of Internal Cohesion." The rest of us just call it “the scrambling”. Creatures protected by magic experience your passage as a slightly odd tingling, not dissimilar to a ghost passing over your grave. Those unprotected by magic (and at times, even those protected by lower-tier magic) instead discover that their internal organs would much rather be external
When you pass through someone that has the unfortunate luck to be in your path, well, let's just say the effect is not a wound, but a complete rearranging of one’s insides. Bones disregard their normal relationships with the bones they are neighbors with. Muscles discover new and exciting connections with organs they were never meant to touch. It creates a... let's call it a "still-life portrait of chaos" contained within a rapidly collapsing sack of skin.
It is, to use the academic vernacular, really fucking gross.
But holy shit, is it effective.
Author's Note: The following page contains a detailed, illustrated diagram of the "scrambling" effect on a common troll. It is not recommended for readers who have recently eaten, or who ever plan to eat again.
While wearing these boots, you can take a Magic Action to activate them. Once activated, you gain the following effects immediately
Phase Sprint. You become out of phase with reality and are ethereal. You can move through other creatures and objects, and have Immunity to effects and damage that originate from creatures that are not ethereal. When this effect starts, you immediately move 30 feet in a straight line, in a direction of your choice. Each creature in your path must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, takes 55 (10d10) force damage and 36 (8d8) psychic damage or half as much damage on a success.
If this damage reduces a creature to 0 Hit Points, it's body explodes and all of its nonmagical equipment turns to dust. At the end of this movement, your phase ends and you return to reality.
If your movement ends with you inside of an object, you and the object or creature take 66 (12d10) force damage and you are ejected to an unoccupied space within 5 feet.
The boots can’t be used this way again until the next dawn.
Exhausted. When the Phase effect ends, you gain one level of exhaustion and cannot move until the end of your next turn.
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