Dreadmold

The bane of explorers of the Occidean underground, dreadmold is the common term for the black, rapidly-propagating fungus that can often be found in goblin middens, and any subterranean burial sites.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Dreadmold consists of a mycelium which bores into organic material the way that plants root into soil: it is a parasitic fungus which taps into the nervous system of any number of dead creatures in the subterannean spaces of Terrathria. Dreadmold feeds off the creatures or plants it is living on, while using the host as a way to move the colony of fungus from its current host to a new one, thus ensuring that the dreadmold has a new source of nutrition when its current one is reduce to little more than dust. Dreadmold also has stems and caps like a traditional fungus, and it is from these caps that the spores burst, ideally onto another mass of organic matter which the fungus can root into.

Genetics and Reproduction

Dreadmold is a fungus which reproduces by spores. When these spores find a (hopefully) dead mass of organic material, they will take root and affix themselves to the muscle fibers and nervous system of the host.

Growth Rate & Stages

Dreadmold grows extremely quickly, and when its spores take root, there are very few conventional ways of controlling its propagation.

Ecology and Habitats

Dreadmold, thankfully, can only be found in the subterannean spaces underneath Terrathria, where there is a dark, moist climate and an abundance of rotting organic matter.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dreadmold can grow on any organic matter, animal or vegetable, and it consumes its host even as it takes root in it. It does not have any animalistic tendancies such as territorialism, or any sort of social hierarchy.

Biological Cycle

Given the lack of noticable seasonal changes underground, dreadmold is not affected much by the passing of time. It does have its own internal cycle that is very predictable and consistent, however.

Behaviour

Dreadmold does not have what most zoologists would consider a psychology or behavior patterns, at least none that resemble usually studied animals. Dreadmold is inscrutable, implacable and almost indestructible. It has resistances or immunities to all conventional weaponry, being vulnerable only to fire magic, or the ingenious fire-throwers of the dwarves of Khurum-Tar.

Additional Information

Domestication

Deadmold is considered a very dangerous pest by most, but subterranean elven communties have taken to cultivating it as a way to eliminate organic waste in their communties, keeping great pits of it as natural garbage disposals.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Some crafty goblins and other denizens of the deep have figured out a way to use deadmold as a trap of sorts, and sometimes use it to guard important areas from intruders.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dreadmold can effectively tap into the sensory capabilities of whatever it is attached to at the time, making it an extremely adaptable and dangerous creature.

Lifespan

2-3 Weeks without new organic material