Osseus Moon

Harmon's Harvest

When Fragmenterra befell the world, many would argue that The Grey Wastes was the most adversly afflicted land. While the many that would argue this have Grey Waste Hailitage, their claim has valid grounding as the entire landscape quickly shifted from barely hospitable to incapable of hosting agriculture. It wasn't long before The Black Crown began to near an end to their royal food stores, albeit much longer after the common folk’s had depleted. Harmon Vitriol, Black Crown Apothecary was tasked with finding an alternative to keep bellies full. As the soils of The Wastes were sapped of nutrients, a new crop would require a new source of sustenance. As war raged around them, the only resource not in short supply was mortal remains.
With vast array of oozes and goos, boozes and transfusions, Harmon’s hands went to work as his mad mind counted on its braintips every potion mixer that rhymed a little too much for his liking. He knew that the only thing in his collection that fed on bone and bone matter was his close friend Hebeloma Aminophilum. While this was its professional title, he tended to call it ‘ghoul fungus’ because they were of course as aforementioned, close friends. An affinity for calcium was all good and well in terms of having something that would grow and could be farmed but what if he could make it propagate itself for the masses? The farmers would never have to lift a finger! He would be beloved by the commoners as they would have so much more time on their hands to do what commoners do. He stopped so quickly mid turn that his eyes rolled within his skull. He spared the briefest of moments to consider what commoners would do if given spare time. "Huh. Lick rocks probably" was mentioned out loud to no one in particular before rushing back into his project.
The next step would be a little bit tricky and sticky even for the cleverest of minds. He would need a carrier, another fungus friend who could act with better spore carrying ability than Ghoul Fungus. It hit him like a brick of tonnes, the perfect pal for his other pal. Pal pals. Grasping the finest sample of cordyceps he owned, he cradled it in his hands knowing it and he's tenuous relationship. The Cordyceps brain, the big floating organ from beyond the veil whispers lies. It told his brother such lies and tore their family apart. The past is the past however and the most important thing right now was to make mushrooms have the sexings.

A Glowing Foe

What was birthed that day is beyond anything that should live in the mortal realms. More fit to be a weapon than a food source, it exists unintelligent, an entity of mass consumption and obliteration. Cataloged as Hydroxypatite Ascomycota, most colloquially call it Osseus Moon and none call it a friend.
The cap on this specimen grows as a large crystalline dish upturned at its edges to protect the acidic sporangia below. The calcium crystals are much more transparent than in most other occurrences throughout nature allowing its form to refract light within its cap and illuminate the surrounding trees on a moonlit night.
Found grafted to the spines and skulls of unfortunate animals, some records state caps reaching sixty centimeters in diameter on large beasts such as forest bears. This parasitic relationship between fungus and beast is ravenous as the beast continually hunts while its bones are sapped of nutrients. During this period the beast enters a frenzy that can last weeks where it will scrounge the forests for discarded bones or take some currently in use. These are consumed so as to sate its host and spare its own calcium for a few minutes longer. Once all useful skeletal matter is depleted in the host, the beast naturally perishes and the mushroom withers and fragments.
Now littering the ground, shards still remain luminescent in the moonlight and retain enough life to find a new host on contact for days. While many beasts kneel down to sniff the fragrant bright thing, unwary travelers have made the same mistake, many unable to make it to medical care in time. As acidic sporangia bursts on contact, the volatile compound burrows through armor and flesh alike allowing the spores to latch onto exposed skeleton for the cycle to repeat.

Ominous Forests

Almost all Myeloid Flows within The Grey Wastes are littered with these introduced monstrosities and as they are able to seemingly feed endlessly on the bone marrow like streams, they can reach gigantic proportions. One could fit easily beneath the shelter of the caps if not for the hazardous environment that they present. This has made Myeloid Rivers and Streams  no longer harvestable for its nutrient rich flow as the taint of Osseus Moon spores infects all of the few myeloid rivers documented by The Black Crown. These bone mushroom forests can span for hundreds of meters along the bank of a Myeloid Flow. Research is near impossible on this reasonably new phenomena and many suspect that some species are beginning to adapt and exist within this mortal made biome.

Osseus Moon

Entry - 200108
Habitat - In The Grey Waste upon creatures in swamps, calcium rich forests and abundantly found adjacent to Myeloid Flows.
Binomial Name -  Hydroxypatite Ascomycota

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Cap- Edges upturned, an uneven bowl of calcium crystals similar in appearance to semi-opaque calcite.
Spores - Contained within softly glowing translucent sporangea sacks. Most Osseus Moon grow between five to nine depending on host.
Stipe - at around three to five inches thick, these are usually shorter than the height of the cap.
Volva - Bort grade crystals form at the join from stem and host where calcium attempts to repair any break in union.

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Edibility - Fatal when raw. Few possess the talents required to prepare it for consumption. Makes a salty, marrow rich bone/mushroom both, a high delicacy