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all54321 · 1 year

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Father Spore Spy AU Info/Lore

Since a lot of stuff is written vaguely or not said at all, I’ve decided to make a post with just a bunch of random world info. Might add on to this later if something else becomes important later.

Starting off with the world they live in. It’s a mostly modern setting on an Earth-like planet. There’s some Minecraft stuff mixed in. Like their strongest weapons are just swords and bows and the like. There are also hybrids (part human part something else) around, while uncommon, seeing one isn’t a surprise to anyone. For example, Grian is an avian (human/bird), those infected by spores are not hybrids though.

Since this is a whole bigger world, there are a lot more people in it then just the hermits. Although all the season 7 hermits are close friends and have been for a while. Some longer then others, but by the election they’re all good friends.

Since Pearl joins the next season, she currently lives in a different town. Her and Grian are also siblings, therefor she’s also an avian.

I currently/occasionally refer to what’s happening as a resistance, since that’s what it was in Hermitcraft. Here it isn’t a resistance though. There is nothing personal about the attacks/spreading. It just so happens that the source of this is closer to this town and then any others.

More about the mycelium/hive mind: It’s more intelligent then most other plant species, but not at a human level. It struggles to travel out past the caves on its own, making it need outside help. When Scar fell in, it infected him to help spread it around. The cave it’s in is completely filled with spores, it’s just lighter the farther from the source. So Scar was infected pretty much right away, just not enough to fully turn him right away.

At the start, the hivemind was primarily controlled by the source, including Scar. Although the strongest influence it had over him was making him want to do what it wills him to do. So he could go against what it wants, but he doesn’t since he’s made to want it too. Scar eventually takes control over the hivemind since it can’t rival human intelligence. Scar can force people to do what he says, if he chooses to. Scar also protects the source with his life, he lets no one know where it’s at, hiding it near completely. It is in the dead center of the mycelium territory, so no one ventures that far. Those infected don’t know where to find it.

Now, on to how the mycelium effects others. Which is to say, it effects everyone differently, so here’s Scar and Grian.

Scar is extremely effected, having been turned by the primary source. He’s covered in a lot of mushrooms and his skin is even turning mycelium purple in places. Every part of his is infectious in some way, but he also emits a cloud of spores around him. He can control how much he releases. From anywhere between a little and an extreme amount (ie. filling an inclosed room in seconds). He changes it depending on the situation.

Grian is also very unique in how’s he’s effected. He gets fully transformed not long after inhaling enough of the spores, but his physical transformation is a lot slower. He only has a few mushrooms growing across his body, only some of his blood start being taken over by mycelium, making very few visible purple veins (a possible symptom), and just a few of his inside feathers turn purple. Although the more time he spends with Scar, the more he transform. He can hide most or that under baggy clothes and gloves. He extremely rarely shows the insides of his wings so that’s also easy to hide. After getting caught and living around Scar full time, it spreads a lot quicker/more obvious. Grian can only infect others by skin to skin contact. He also infects them with a unique strain of it, very slow acting (symptoms appearing after over a day), but harder to disinfect.

On the topic of disinfecting people, it takes a long while for the HEP to find a way to do that. At the farthest I’ve written, the most they can do is disinfect someone who recently got infected, they can’t infect someone fully transformed/connected to the hive mind. Disinfecting someone is extremely painful, even worse for those fully transformed and can’t be disinfected. They have no cure yet. They also don’t have a good way to disinfect someone who is infected by Grian, especially since he doesn’t infect others to keep his cover.

That’s all I can think of for now, or what I want to share, anyway. Might reblog with more later.

#father spore spy au

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cheerstotheelites-if · 1 year

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Could you please tell us about fungus magic I herd that people who uses them are fungi’s

DO YOU WANNA START THE MUSHROOM APOCALYPSE OF THE LAST OF US? DO YOU WANNA MAKE THE CLICKERS REAL? HOW ABOUT THE CURSED RAT KING FROM THE LAST OF US II REAL?

Fungi druid is very interesting. It's a subset from normal nature druidic magic, and has only been made recently. It's a Learnt Magic, discovered by a single individual who loves his fungus a bit too much and also a mycologist, which is the worst to be against. Also no, he's secretly not a mushroom person. Sorry to disappoint.

Fungi druidic magic is made to combat against Top Ten's Number 2's nature druidic magic.

In other words, it's made to kill someone.

So that's neat! :D

Since there's currently only one user of this type of druid magic, we'll be following what he knows and will teach to MC.

Mind Control

If you know the Ophiocordyceps mushroom, then, uh, well I got news for you.

Letting out cordyceps spores that are strong enough to control a human, you get a zombie that will follow your bidding!

Which is both terrifying and not great to be!

The person knows that they are being mind control, but they can't do anything about it (A "I have no mouth and I must scream" moment right there)

What's worse is that the fungus eats away at the person's brain the longer they are mind controlled

Only the caster can stop the fungus from further mind control, and if they refuse, well, uh… get fucked

Infection

When you got fungus all around you, of course you're gonna get poisoned by them.

You either inhale the spores, or get any of them through any openings or wounds

It's a slow and painful process to be in

It starts with migraines, then numbing of the arms and legs, paralysis of the whole body comes next, and then the failure of internal organs, brain functions cease, then finally death

Look, if you don't have any protection or open wounds, it's best you retreat or run away as fast as you can

Rot

Moldy boys are making their way—

This will be a a very shit experience if you have any open wounds on you

White powder is thrown on the wound, and soon infection will start

It will detoriate all functioning cells as the mold progresses further into the body, causing dead cells, henceforth rot and dead skin or limbs being peeled off or removed from the still alive body

You're awake and you are dying throughout.

Nothing can be done about the mold, and usually the caster would've just left the victim to their fate

#Lore ask #curious anon

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rowynnellis · 2 years

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Wow! I wasn’t expecting people to connect with Oscar so much! You lot really like him huh? 😅 I’ve recently re-booted him for an upcoming D&D game. Here’s his outfit concept and a bit of background for those who want to know more: Oscar is a bio-hacking space botanist infected with alien mushroom spores that have taken a hold over his body and brain. Mostly he manages to live with them in a sort of symbiotic relationship. Areas of his body that have taken damage or were scared are now covered in lichen and moss and sometimes mushrooms depending on the environment. His wild eyes have an eerie green bioluminescent glow and his hair has developed a prominent white streak. Occasionally if he gets too excited or over exerts himself he coughs up balls of moss. He wears a Bio-lab vivarium tank on his back attached to a gas mask with ports in the filters, he can administer body mods as breathable aerosols, slamming them into his mask and inhaling them. The tank also connects to a data tablet and a pair syringe-guns 😛 - #dand #oc #ocart #biohacking https://www.instagram.com/p/CbtDdVwqnBZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

#dand #oc #ocart #biohacking

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barbariccia · 4 years

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finding juliana’s daughter was about as difficult as taking a piss.

the geth have up up barriers around the entrance and exit of the exogeni building, so we can’t get in easily. tali, who i brought along specifically for the additional geth-related dialogue, says this is typical of the way they act: they deploy barriers to keep others out, and go ham.

so... why are they here, exactly? it’s not exactly their MO to terrorize colonies for no reason. er, yet.

Lizbeth: It’s an indigenous life-form. ExoGeni was studying it. I don’t really know that much about it. I think it’s some kind of plant being. I know it’s very old. Thousands of years, even.

lizbeth stayed behind to do some additional work as the geth hit, and wasn’t able to get out with the rest of the scientists, but she’s not exactly able to help us out with the geth everywhere now. she gives us her keycard to get into the building so we can go find out, and we hear an... all-too familiar gripe as we enter the building.

VI: If you have no more questions, please stand aside. There is a queue forming behind you.

we’ve all been there, buddy.

once we kill the krogan, we can access the VI terminal to find out what it was trying to access before us. we get that information easily as the terminal recognises us as lizbeth, due to her keycard.

VI: The previous user was attemping to access details on the study of Subject Species 37, the Thorian. I was unable to provide the previous user with any relevant data. Aside from lacking proper access, there has been no new data available on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu’s Hope have been inactive for several cycles.

Shepard: What does Zhu’s Hope have to do with the Thorian?

VI: Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu’s Hope outpost.

oh, GREAT.

Shepard: Tell me everything you know about the Thorian.

VI: The Thorian is a simple plant life form that exhibits a sentient behaviour uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans. The Zhu’s HOpe control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost 85% of all test subjects were infected.

Shepard: Are you saying ExoGeni knew its people were getting infected?

VI: It was deemed necessary to assess the true potential of Species 37. [... It] was discovered several weeks ago when a small team was infected with spores while examining ruins near the Zhu’s Hope outpost. The outpost was quarantined immediately and study of the infection began.

VI: Within 21 days, 58% of colonists exhibited altered behaviour. Within 28 days, 85%.

so, current climate notwithstanding, this isn’t a totally made-up phenomenon!

[rubs my grubby hands together]

entomopathogenic fungi are a very real thing, utterly bizarre and downright terrifying to consider. the best known is ophiocordyceps unilateralis, sometimes mistakenly referred to as a cordyceps fungus. the fungus targets a specific host - Camponotini ants - and changes their behaviour toward the end of their life cycle, turning them into what’s colloquially known as ‘zombie ants’. once infected, the ant falls from its aerial trails (which is fascinating in itself, ants that live in the high canopy of tropical forests as opposed to on the ground), climbs a nearby plant of a particular height and other variables and attaches itself to the leaf, where it dies. the fungus continues to grow, eventually strengthening the ant’s exoskeleton and securely attaching it to the plant, and continues to grow until fruiting and releasing more spores, which other aerial ants will eventually fall to, be infected, and continue the cycle.

ophiocordyceps are not, of course, the only mind-altering parasite in the world. acanthocephalans worms infect their prey and causes serotonin to be “massively expressed” within the prey body; apocephalus and other phoridae ‘zombie flies’ infect bees, whose behaviour then changes; and of course, there are plenty of parasites that induce suicide or risky behaviours in the hosts they infect.

i find it very important to note that the parasites that induce this behaviour are almost universally animals (insects top the charts), and that true mind-altering infection from a plant is strictly fungal-only at this point in time. and man, who even fucking knows if fungi are alive or not - not just mushrooms, but things like yeast and mold. it’s interesting in mass effect’s context that they’ve gone with a plant rather than an alien in the sense that we think of them.

ok. parasite plant. spores aren’t going to be easy to fight. and, er, i’ve been walking around with my helmet off...? (granted, the helmet toggle is an aesthetic function when you’re planet-side.)

h-how big...??

Shepard: Is it intelligent? can I reason with it?

VI: The Thorian does not exhibit the focused behaviour of a predator. The release of spores is an act of survival, not aggression. It does trigger advanced behaviours in the humans it enslaves, but we have yet to discover whether it recognises - or is capable of recognising - humans as more than tools.

VI: It is sufficiently alien as to defy classification at this time.

Shepard: Do you know how it controls its slaves?

VI: The will-subversion manifests as intense pain if directives are ignored. The effect is severe enough that subjects are soon conditioned against even minor thoughts of rebellion. Observation suggests the Thorian views its thralls in a utilitarian way. Care is apparently taken to avoid injuring them. As long as no action is taken against the creature’s objectives, the subjects are free to pantomime a normal existence until specifically tasked with something.

hey, remember that woman screaming in pain from those headaches? oh, and there was a guy in the sewers that i met while turning the water back on for the colony, who made very little sense and was in apparent agony!

:^)

#mol plays mass effect #discussion of parasites and parasitic behaviour within this post; no images only text

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tes-trash-blog · 5 years

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Mycosis, Or A Slightly More Scientific Take On How The Falmer Came To Be

(Alt title: I’m Never Eating Mushrooms Again)

Yep. This is happening.

Preface: This essay/rant/overanalysis is focusing only on the theoretical physical and biological aspects Falmer devolution. Expect a shorter rant on the spiritual aspect on a later date, thanks to oyarsas.

Part 1. Just Who Were The Falmer Anyway? A Brief Primer

According to the one surviving Snow Elf in Skyrim, the ancient Falmer were a wealthy and advanced race of Elves that occupied a portion of Skyrim during the Merethic Era. A few shenanigans, some unspeakable war crimes, and a genocide later, the remnants of this race fled underground into the waiting arms of the Dwemer. They laid it down in simple terms:

“Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora, and your wills were broken, and we heard you, and sent our machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under. Only by the grace of the Dwemer did your culture survive, and only by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin.”

(Fun fact: If you translate the Stone using Ayleid words, it’s actually a lot more sinister!)

This wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts, as the Dwarves were, in objective terms, dicks. While they didn’t want tearful songs of gratitude or boot-licking, they weren’t about to let a bunch of homeless and traumatized Elves, y’know, recover. No, they wanted something.

“We only request you partake of the symbol of our bond, the fruit of the stones around us. And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not.”

That something was their sight, and their obedience. Given what very little we know about Snow Elven culture, this looked to have been a bit of a big deal. After all, all the Prelates at Auri-El’s wayshrines implement light and sight in their blessings, much of the surviving iconography depicts the sun and its radiance, and what few surviving accounts remain mention the “dread of night” and “blessed sun”.

This wasn’t a decision made lightly, is what I’m getting at. The fact they agreed at all surely meant the Dwarves could do what they wished. Seeing some of the more elaborate torture chambers and traps, we can safely assume they did.

The Blinding happened in the Late Merethic Era, some hundreds of years before the Dragon War and the beginning of the First Era. Now comes the fun part.

And by fun part, I mean gross part.

Part 2. Can’t We Just Wrap This Up And Blame The Dwarves?

It wouldn’t be an overanalysis if I did, now would it?

There are theories abound as to how the Dwarves corrupted them, or they were part of a failed experiment (Underkiing, Lord_Hoot). This essay is going to ignore these theories, and focus on the more biological aspects of the Falmer transformation. Starting with a quote from the last surviving Snow Elf:

“The blinding of my race was supposedly accomplished with a toxin. Certainly not enough to devolve them into the sad and twisted beings they've become.”

This is further supported with the poem The Betrayed:

“Thrown into the pitch black dread of night.

Living in fear as their minds become lost.

As their eyes began dimming the light.”

This lost book also points to the slow creeping of insanity among the Snow Elves, no doubt from the unspeakable horrors seen above ground and the fancy word that made me write this whole damn essay in the first place: Mycotoxin!

Mycotoxins are a broad name for the various types of poisons produced by the Fungi kingdom, specifically those that affect animals, humans, and in this case, Elves. From NCBI’s extensive article on Mycotoxins:

“The majority of mycotoxicoses, on the other hand, result from eating contaminated foods. Skin contact with mold-infested substrates and inhalation of spore-borne toxins are also important sources of exposure. Except for supportive therapy (e.g., diet, hydration), there are almost no treatments for mycotoxin exposure”

“[...] Acute toxicity generally has a rapid onset and an obvious toxic response, while chronic toxicity is characterized by low-dose exposure over a long time period, resulting in cancers and other generally irreversible effects.”

That sounds… bad.

So, there are few if any treatments for mycotoxin exposure, and the Dwarves were not ones to use magic, so the only feasible treatment for the mass-poisoning would have been a good diet and hydration, but something tells me the Dwarves were not keen on giving their slaves either of those. From the Diary of Faire Agarwen, we can reasonably deduce that conditions were cramped, dark, and damp even among those who had political clout:

“Seventh Marking, Tenth Kulniir

[...] Often the surroundings make it impossible to dwell on any happiness. We have been locked together in such close quarters for so long.”

Keep in mind here that a kulniir was a notched basin that functioned as a simple time keeper, using drops of water. The diary also mentions there’s no real natural light, so we see the combination of dark, damp, and cramped. This was from a woman who held some social capital. We can assume that conditions for your average Joe and Sally were much worse.

Even among the best of conditions, the Snow Elves were kept in were prime real estate for molds and fungi to thrive. There is (thankfully) no evidence to support my next claim, but it’s also not exactly a stretch of the imagination.

The Falmer: A Study makes clear that the blinding was a multi-generational effort. Within perhaps two or three generations, the Snow Elves were eternally blind. Adding to the permanent blindness, there very well could have been the more unpleasant, unwanted, and unplanned changes.

I’m talking about mutagens.

To pull a real life example, Fumonisin B1 can cause neural tube defects in utero, which means that the toxin affects the development of the brain and spinal cord, as well as the central nervous system. In extreme, chronic cases of fumonisin poisoning, it can keep the brain from forming into a viable state, causing stillbirths. In a universe where dragons fly around and singing plants can make poisons, it’s not too much of a stretch to say that there is something equally terrifying growing in Blackreach. Already blinded, chronically ill, and hopeless, the next generation of Snow Elves were doomed to an ever lower standard of living without even the knowledge that things could be better. Combine that with whatever mold infected whatever flora that grew underground, similar to how say, fumonisin blights grains and how black mold is generally Really Bad For You.. Well, we can assume that there was a more subtle force that guided them to their ferality than whatever the Dwarves did to them.

In the same way the lead pipes of Rome contributed to developmental problems among their populace, I can imagine the toxic spores creating more violent, more feral Falmer, until finally their very sentience was taken from them. Seeing as all of this culminated into a war that spanned decades, something tells me the Dwarves didn’t see that coming.

Part 3: So… CAN They Be Cured?

The short answer is no. From the words of the Knight Paladin himself:

“I'm afraid that they're well beyond a cure at this point. The twisted forms you've seen didn't occur overnight. It isn't a plague or a disease that ravaged our species. The dwarves may have stolen their sight, but it took many generations for them to become what they are today.”

And as found earlier, there are no effective cures for mycotoxin exposure, and I imagine even less for chronic, multi-generational poisonings like what happened to the Snow Elves of old. I’m assuming, but I really don’t want to ever see that tested in the field.

But not all is lost. Gelebor also notes that the modern Falmer have started to re-develop their intellect. This grabbed me, as the Forgotten Vale is vastly different than the caves and ruins you normally find Falmer in. There’s fresh air and cool breezes, and open spaces for those sad little gremlins to lurk about. In short, they’re away from the poisonous influences of those dark caves and toxic spores.

It’s entirely possible that the Falmer of the Vale are developing, and it’s in part because they’re no longer confined to the dark and damp that was their prison. It’s entirely possible that with enough time, and enough patience, the Falmer could slowly undo the effects of their chronic poisoning. Not enough to become the Snow Elves of legend, those days are long since past, but perhaps enough to break their chains, and finally put a voice to thousands of years of suffering.

Sources, inspirations, and tangentially related articles:

Mycotoxins, from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. A recommended primer on the nature of mycotoxins and their effects on more complex organisms.

Toxic effects of mycotoxins in humans, from the World Health Organization, another excellent starting point if you like reading about poisonous fungi.

Repeating Mistakes of the Past: Another Mycoherbicide Research Bill, a condemnation of using mycotoxins in of all things, drug control. This article also calls the use of mycotoxins against humans for what it is: Biowarfare. An interesting, insightful, and very depressing read.

A review of the toxic effects and mechanisms of action of fumonisin B1, from the journal Human and Experimental Toxicology. Behind a paywall, but the abstract sums it all up quite nicely.

A Wikipedia article on the Mexican Tetra, because I think they’re cute.

UESP, without which I would be even more of a babbling trash gremlin.

#lore overanalysis #with a bit of science and biology #nature is scary #The Elder Scrolls #falmer #snow elf #as you know #i'm always on my snow elf bullshit #the dwarves were not as smart as they thought they were #they're very much STEM school fuckboys #i'm not a biologist soooo #and mycology is SURPRISINGLY INTERESTING!#there's a lot more that i didn't include because i thought 1500 words was enough for a tumblr essay

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swipestream · 5 years

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4 Funky Fungi to Liven Up Your Game (And A Few Ways To Use Them)—Part 1 of 2

This is as pretty as mushrooms get. Fair warning: it’s all a horror show from here on out. Image Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Beneath the soil they wait, oozing digestive juices to liquefy and absorb any edible material hapless enough to fall in their path. Silently, patiently, they spread hidden tendrils thinner than a hair under the ground, linking threads to form an invisible net below the feet of the hapless humanoids lumbering above them. Relentlessly, they burrow through the ground. Growing, consuming, they bide their time over months, years, centuries, even millennia until the time arrives that they burst through the ground, hurling copies of themselves into the air and preparing to begin the cycle once more.

Sure, this is a workable description of any number of ancient evils in fantasy gaming, but it’s also a pretty solid way of talking about the fungi you probably have in the patch of ground nearest to you right now. What we think of as “mushrooms” are really only formed by a small fraction of fungal species;

…in fact, the “mushrooms” that we see are just the mechanism by which fungi spread. This means that Toad from Super Mario Brothers, myconids from D&D, and any other mushroom creatures you can think of are just ambulatory reproductive organs, and the Smurfs village is basically a scene from a Saw movie.

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in fact, the “mushrooms” that we see are just the mechanism by which fungi spread. This means that Toad from Super Mario Brothers, myconids from D&D, and any other mushroom creatures you can think of are just ambulatory reproductive organs, and the Smurfs village is basically a scene from a Saw movie.

The majority of the “body” of a fungus is its mycelium (yes, like the network in Star Trek), which grows out in all directions, seeking food and forming a network within the soil. This underground network exists in nearly all areas with vegetative life, and in addition to decomposing materials that would otherwise pile up, it is used by plants as a kind of external digestive system, forming a symbiotic relationship whereby plants can gather food and nutrients that they can’t reach with their own root systems. There is even evidence that this network of fungi is also used in a form analogous to communication between plants, forming what is sometimes called (and I could not possibly be more delighted to tell you this) a “wood-wide web”.

Until around 1960, fungi were considered to be plants — which makes sense; they grow from something that looks like seeds, and they don’t move on their own. However, later science determined that they were much more closely related to animals, just completely immobile and without any sort of muscle tissue — which really makes me wonder whether I might technically be a fungus. They store energy as glycogen (like animals) rather than starch (like plants), and their cells are given rigidity not by plant-based materials like cellulose but instead by chitin, the same material that makes up the exoskeletons of insects like cockroaches. Yum!

Fungi can be medicinal or poisonous or delicious (or sometimes a combination of any two of those things), and the difference between a good dinner and an early grave is sometimes a matter of how they’re prepared. Indigestible or poisonous mushrooms can be rendered edible (or at least less harmful) by any number of techniques. I’m not going to go into more detail than that because a) this is the Internet, and no one should try to do this kind of thing based on the advice of an RPG blog, and b) even if that were a good idea, I’m the absolute last person who should be giving that kind of instruction. With that in mind…

Warning: mushrooms can kill you.

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Warning: mushrooms can kill you, just like they were rumored to have killed the Roman emperor Claudius, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Pope Clement VII, and the composer Johann Schobert. And that’s just some of the famous people. About seven people per year die of mushroom poisoning in the U.S, and hundreds more are made seriously ill. Even though there are pictures in this article, and for the most part I tried to find reasonable approximations of what the fungi in question looked like, this is not an identification guide. I can’t even match my socks in the morning, and I can barely avoid killing my family when I cook for them even when I don’t use potentially poisonous ingredients — do not take anything I say as adequate reason to put these things in your mouth.

However, describing such things is not only safe, but extremely cool. And with that in mind, I present to you 8 Funky Fungi To Liven Up Your Game (And A Few Ways To Use Them).

Mind-Controlling Ant Fungus (ophiocordyceps unilateralis)

Strangely, the animated “Antz” movie left this scene on the cutting room floor. Is that reference dated? I feel like that reference is dated now. Oh, well. Look it up.

By itself, there’s nothing especially new or interesting about a fungal infection. If you’re alive, which I assume most of you reading this are, you are already host to a dizzying array of fungi, yeasts, and other creatures that call you home. They’re like roommates (good or bad). They do their thing to varying degrees of intrusiveness and stink. You also do your thing, and if you’re too incompatible, one or the other of you gets evicted. Cordyceps is more like that friend who visits from out of town and suddenly surprise! They’re moving to your city and need a place to stay. First they start eating all the food out of your fridge, then they start making demands, and before you know it, they’re trying to hollow you out and turn your body into a nutrient paste they can use for reproduction. Which is not, in fact, something that everyone does, Harold.

This particular species of Cordyceps infects carpenter ants, and then even while eating them alive, hijacks the nervous and muscular system of the ant, forcing it to travel to an appropriate piece of plant cover, climb to the ideal elevation for reproduction, clamp on to the grass with their mandibles, and then die. The fungus continues to spread within the ant, before eventually sprouting out of the long-dead husk and throwing its spores to the wind, beginning the cycle all over again. Some scientists think that the ants may be cognitively unaffected during all of this, and that the mechanism is actually a little less like mind control, and a little more like being controlled like an agonized marionette from within. Nature is amazing.

Potential Game Use:

A prodigal son from a local farming community finally returned, but the day after his tearful homecoming, he wandered into the woods and disappeared, only to be found again a week later dead, hollowed out, and filled with a mysterious powdery substance that creates a powerful feeling of well-being when inhaled, even accidentally. The heroes have been called in to investigate the case, as local law enforcement has no idea what is going on.

At first, all signs point to a horrible drug deal gone bad, until the characters find several locals attempting (and maybe succeeding) in stealing the mysterious powder, claiming that they feel compelled to share with their friends and family. “Addicts” at first violently resist any attempts to prevent them from taking or spreading this powder, eventually becoming a kind of hive mind that exhales spores onto the PCs. If not helped, the entire village will die in agony, possibly spreading the infection to other nearby areas.

In such a story, there are plenty of opportunities for medical or nature rolls (to determine the nature of the illness or the drug), social rolls (to determine that individuals are being non-magically mind-controlled) and constitution-type rolls to avoid infection. Potential solutions include spells curing disease, exotic alchemical reagents, introducing another fungal or bacterial species to counteract the infection, and good old-fashioned fire (for games that tend to be a little darker in tone).

Candy Cap Mushrooms (lactarius rubidus)

Sure; when a mushroom hunter finds something on the ground that tastes like maple syrup, they’re “nature-loving” and “exploratory,” but when I do it I’m “too old to still be doing this kind of thing” and “need to put on pants.”

Edible mushrooms, by themselves, aren’t all that much to write home about (unless “home” has a mycologist, in which case you should definitely write home to make sure you’re eating the right ones). Edible mushrooms that make for a workable ice cream flavor start to get a little more interesting. Where lactarius rubidus gets really fun though, is after the initial consumption. When dried and then reconstituted, this mushroom tastes like maple syrup (because, it turns out, it produces the same chemical that is used to make maple syrup flavoring—now who’s being unnatural, Canada?). The real magic happens later, when the sweat and tears of people who eat the mushroom start to smell like maple syrup as well. It’s like someone with more imagination than impulse control stumbled across a wish-granting leprechaun and demanded a combination of dessert and cologne, and I’ll be darned if the little guy didn’t make it work.

Potential Game Use:

The characters are invited to a feast by a local fae noble. Because interactions with faeries in folklore and fiction are one part entertainment to three parts weaponized manners, eventually, a character is going to insult someone. To keep this adventure from feeling too “on the rails,” feel free to use a character loosely associated with the fae whom the PCs have insulted or irritated previously. For a little foreshadowing fun, include some sort of massively dangerous but largely mindless beast in a cage, leashed or otherwise bound near the tables as the characters eat. After the feast, the heroes are offered an especially delicate and exotic dessert mushroom, which is also given to the dangerous creature. The creature immediately tears into the dessert mushrooms with terrifying abandon: think “Cookie Monster” meets “Sharknado.” Because players aren’t dumb, they will almost certainly check the dessert to make sure it’s not poisonous, magically or otherwise trapped (which of course, it’s not), and/or wait to see what happens with the Hungry Hungry Horror. Offer the character some sort of minor benefit for eating the mushrooms — healing, one additional use of a power, or whatever form of play currency is used in your game (e.g. inspiration, conviction, XP). Keep track of what characters eat the mushroom and how many they eat.

Following the meal, the characters discover the delightful side effect of the mushroom — they smell exactly like the delicious dessert they just consumed thanks to their unrefined humanoid biology. Their fae hosts, of course, have more refined digestion. As the characters look on in horror, the fae lord at the head of the table lets the leash slip on their pet monster, who lunges at the nearest character while the nearby court of fae watches and applauds. This is a fairly straightforward mostly-combat encounter, but with a lot of potential fun in the form of set pieces for combat. Think flipped tables, improvised weapons, flying crockery, and lithe, mocking figures darting in and out to make things more “interesting.” This may also be an opportunity for more socially-oriented characters to use their charm to request assistance from particularly engaged onlookers.

Octopus Stinkhorn (clathrus archeri)

Apparently, they smell as good as they look.

To the right, you will see a picture of what I absolutely swear is not only a fungus, but the single grossest fungus I have ever read about (and that’s including a species coming up in the next article that grows exclusively on herbivore dung). The Octopus Stinkhorn begins its visible life as a slime-covered bolus of egg-like material with its forming tentacles barely visible. Eventually, the tentacles strain against their “egg” and burst outward, covered in a thick, black-brown goo that smells like rotting meat. The stench attracts nearby flies and other decomposers, which wander around on the surface of the tentacles, picking up spores that they drop elsewhere (basically pollination, as imagined by Clive Barker).

Potential Game Use:

Look. If you’re going to have something sprout up unexpectedly from the ground that looks like Cthulhu’s dust bunnies, you might as well lean all the way in. Something unclean has been here before. “Here” can be the site of some sort of horrible sacrifice, sacrilege, or slaughter, or it can just be a case of “wrong place at the wrong time.” As another straightforward combat encounter, it’s hard to beat a tentacled creature that can unpredictably reproduce from any spot on the ground, but the real challenge will come in the form of the creatures that are attracted to and defend the Supernatural Stinkhorn. Take this as an opportunity to drag out every gross monster you’ve ever wanted to use. Giant cockroaches? Go for it! Slime molds, gelatinous cubes, worms that walk? They’re all fair game, and they’re all making heart eyes at this festering mound of thrashing goop. Every successful strike results in everyone within 10 feet getting splashed with putrescence, triggering some sort of constitution-type roll to avoid either taking damage or losing the next round heaving breakfast onto the ground.

What’s more, who’s to say what characters who take damage from such an attack might not themselves be the source of the next infection?

Bioluminescent Fungi (~80 species)

Preeeeeeeety sure this is a Photoshop job, but you get the idea. Glowing mushrooms: They’re A Thing (TM).

I almost didn’t include bioluminescent fungi in this list. They’re such a cliche that it’s almost not worth it. But there are about 80 species of bioluminescent mushrooms, and that’s a pretty big chunk of the fungal kingdom to just leave out because everyone already knows about them. So, with that in mind, yes. Glowing mushrooms are real, and there are a bunch of them, and yes, they all look very, very cool. Do yourself a favor and do an image search of them sometime.

Potential Game Use:

Lighting is a sometimes-underutilized part of adventure and encounter design. I can’t count the number of modules and supplements I’ve read that treat lighting as sort of a throwaway — there’s almost always magical ambient lighting, or unexplained torches (which are, if you’re a sucker for verisimilitude, extremely unlikely), or sometimes no lighting at all. Which makes sense on a certain level — much like encumbrance or precise weapon details, not everyone likes thinking about and tracking questions of visibility in exploration or combat. However, I propose that if you’re looking for a quick and easy way of making things interesting in an otherwise bog-standard dungeon or cave, start caring about lighting. Have unseen things chittering in dark corners, or drips just out of eyesight, or things darting out of view as soon as the characters get too near.

Another consideration: do your players have darkvision? Of course they do. If it’s a fantasy game, pretty much everyone has darkvision. Things without eyes have darkvision. A soup tureen has darkvision in some rulesets. You know who doesn’t have darkvision though? The large group of frightened prisoners the characters may have just freed. Alternately, some puzzles or clues may only become visible when viewed under the light of a specific species of mushroom, the identification and gathering of which can be an encounter all by itself. For an extra “wow” factor, consider making a homemade blacklight to represent the mushroom’s glow, and using lemon juice to write a hidden clue, message, or even whole puzzle.

In Conclusion:

Fungi are really, really neat and can add to just about any fantasy game, above or below-ground. They’re terrifying, dangerous, delicious, poisonous, useful and frustrating in equal measure, and if you let them, they can give your game a touch of alien whimsy that few other things in the real world can. If you’ve enjoyed this article, come back in a couple of weeks for Part 2, where I give four more kinds of fungi you might want to use in your game.

In the meantime, do you think you’ll be using more mushrooms in your games? Do you have a favorite fungus (or a suggestion for me to cover in the next piece)? Let me know in the comments!