Caskrabbits
"If your barrel rolls uphill, don’t chase it. Let it go. You’ve already forgotten why you wanted it anyway." -Syb Wickroot, roadside apothecarist
The Caskrabbit is a curious, fungal-mimic creature native to the Boulderrain Woods and overgrown trade routes of Everwealth. Believed to have emerged sometime after The Great Schism, it blends the shapes of prey and container, beast and vessel. This rotund, woodland-dwelling animal resembles a cross between a puffed hare, a knotted wine barrel, and a decomposing mushroom. Where most creatures evolved to flee or fight, the Caskrabbit camouflages as forgotten cargo, biding its time before releasing a choking burst of soporific spores and fleeing in a rolling lurch. Though rarely dangerous on its own, the Caskrabbit’s effects on memory, clarity, and breath have made it both feared and sought after. It is especially common in The Woodswatch Mountains and Boulderrain Woods regions, the stone-buried clearings near Landsbridge, and certain moss-choked ruins where carts and crates lie rotting. Some rural folk believe the creature is a punishment for hoarding, others call it a gift for forgetfulness. The Caskrabbit is among the more bizarrely constituted creatures in Everwealth. Its lower half is composed of mold-flesh, a soft, fungal underbody from which clusters of small white mushrooms often sprout. This sensitive portion is prone to damage and desiccation, leading to the Caskrabbit’s most iconic behavior: its hermit-crab-like compulsion to encase itself in discarded barrels, hollow bones, or broken wine casks, which it wears like armor over its vulnerable fungal underside. From behind, it appears as a rotund, sealed keg, and only the twitching ears or nervous shuffles give it away. This hybrid nature makes the Caskrabbit highly attuned to fungal rhythms and decay-rich ecosystems. Though odd, it behaves very much like a rabbit, skittish, alert, and compulsively foraging, albeit one that disappears in a puff of dream-spores and laughter if you reach for it too quickly.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Caskrabbit is roughly the size of a large wild hare, but far heavier and bulkier, weighing up to 40-50 pounds at full spore-bloat. Its body is barrel-shaped and ringed with fibrous ridges, giving it the unmistakable silhouette of a small cask or keg. The outer hide is dark brown to black, with vein-like cracks of paler fungal wood-grain, and patches of moss or lichen often cling to its back. Tiny white mushrooms may be seen sprouting along its haunches or under its belly if the covering shell is removed. Its limbs are stubby and jointed for powerful lunges, but fold easily into the body, allowing it to tuck and roll in short bursts when escaping danger. Its hindfeet are broad and spring-loaded, capable of sudden vertical leaps even while bloated. The head is rounded, with button-like eyes and twitchy fungal tendrils where whiskers should be. Internally, the creature's belly functions like a living puffball fungus, containing a dense sac of compressed spores that expand with age or panic. These spores are not truly toxic but induce coughing, disorientation, and vivid dreamlike confusion when inhaled. When connecting with a suitable container, it will fuse with it somewhat and bolster it's insides with a fungal-like adhesive support between it and the Caskrabbit's skin; This not only creates a protective lining for the container it wears, extending its longevity, when the Caskrabbit out-grows the container this fungal lining in the right dark, damp, conditions may very well birth another Caskrabbit which uses this hand-me-down containter as it's own shell.
Genetics and Reproduction
Caskrabbits reproduce through a process called spore-nesting. Rather than traditional mating, mature Caskrabbits will expel spores into soft soil or hollow logs, where the spores incubate within rot. Over several weeks, these spores form soft, blind kits that feed on nutrient-rich decay and slowly develop bone and muscle around their spore-sacs. Because of this process, Caskrabbits are born from the earth itself, and many consider them semi-fungal spirits or nature's mischief made manifest. Their numbers fluctuate based on rainfall, wood rot, and emotional resonance in the land, many sprout near abandoned campsites, grave trees, or ruined wagons.
Growth Rate & Stages
- Sporeling (0-2 weeks): Blind, soft, and sponge-like, feeding on rot and lichen
- Kitling (2 weeks-2 months): Begins hopping, forming outer ridges and limbs
- Adult (2 months-3 years): Full barrel mimicry achieved, spores ripen gradually
Ecology and Habitats
Caskrabbits thrive in abandoned places, overgrown shrines, mossy cart trails, collapsed taverns. They are especially common in the half-wild fringes of Ashwood and anywhere the forest is slowly swallowing the past. Most remain near sources of wood rot and fungal growth, and they often nest beneath broken barrels or inside rotted trunks, enhancing their mimicry. Caskrabbits are nocturnal and prefer stillness. During the day, they remain motionless among cargo piles or root-choked cellar remains. Their primary predators are birds of prey and opportunistic swampcats, but even they often avoid the sudden spore-blasts, which can obscure vision and dull reflexes.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Caskrabbits feed primarily on rot-softened vegetation, lichen, and damp mulch, with a particular appetite for fungus-riddled roots and moss-covered bark. They use their clawed front limbs to dig into decomposing wood, favoring the interiors of old carts, cellar beams, or ruined shrines. Though technically herbivorous, their fungal physiology allows them to extract nutrients from both plant decay and residual magickal rot. They forage during the night and are drawn toward places with emotional residue, feeding best in areas where memories have soured and abandonment has sunk into the land.
Biological Cycle
Caskrabbits exhibit seasonal swelling and spore readiness. In late spring through early autumn, their spore sacs grow full, making them more sensitive and more likely to expel a cloud when threatened. During winter, they enter a half-dormant state, curling beneath fallen barrels or inside hollow roots where they remain sluggish and bloat slowly. If disturbed during this period, their spores are weaker but still induce heavy sleep. Aging Caskrabbits emit soft puffs involuntarily, trailing faint clouds behind them as they move, often to their own confusion.
Behaviour
When startled, a Caskrabbits tenses its limbs and expels a thick cloud of yellow-brown spores from its belly vents. This spore-burst causes hacking coughs, temporary disorientation, and fragmented memory in those exposed. The creature then either rolls downhill like a cask or springs away with two or three bounding hops before hiding. Some adventurers have reported forgetting why they were in a location or temporarily believing they were someone else entirely after a direct blast. Others claim that if you listen closely while the spores settle, you can hear the Caskrabbits giggling. Despite this trickery, they are non-violent and tend to avoid confrontation unless cornered. Attempting to grab one unwillingly often results in a faceful of spores and the loss of several coherent thoughts. Some more daring animal lovers do keep them as pets or readily available features in exhibits or reckless petting zoos due to the creature's predominantly rabbit-like nature; Unintentionally contributing to the creature's namesake, woodworkers often commissioned for dozens or so Caskrabbit sized casks, similarly to novelty hermit crab shells, given to these creatures by their owners or discarded and later found by them to wear anyway, making Caskrabbits wearing casks their most common appearance despite no evident preference for them or the skull of a Minotauri.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Caskrabbits have poor eyesight, suited only for close-range motion detection, but possess highly attuned vibration-sensitive tendrils around their face. These whisker-like growths allow them to detect footsteps, tremors, and distant sound distortions, particularly in damp terrain. They also have an extrasensory awareness of emotional residue and decaying magick, reacting more strongly in areas where grief, abandonment, or arcane backlash have soaked into the soil. This is believed to be why they so often gather near ruined camps or old sites of failed rituals.
Scientific Name
Lepustylis fermentis.
Origin/Ancestry
Widely believed to have formed in the early centuries after the Schism, when fungal growth and residual field magick bled into the wild hare population and gave rise to the first mimic breeds. Some druids claim the Caskrabbit is the result of a joke.
Conservation Status
Stable, but thinning. Caskrabbits remain common in certain overgrown regions, but their habitats are increasingly disturbed by foraging alchemists, overharvesting, and the expansion of rural settlements. Though not endangered, their unpredictable breeding and nesting habits make population tracking difficult. In some regions, druidic circles have declared them “soft wardens of memory,” and forbidden their capture during moonrise seasons to prevent emotional disruption in cursed lands.
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