Fungal Folk Alchemist

About

A stout fungal being with malevolent red eyes glares at you. It holds a large puffball mushroom in its hand, and you notice many more hang at the ready on its volva.

These communal myconids make their homes in dense wet forests, feeding upon the decay of fallen trees and occasionally fallen creatures. They never stop growing throughout their lifespan but do reach a maximum size before growing beyond their ability to support their own weight, at which point their cap splits open, spilling spores into the soil to begin the cycle of life anew.

Fiercely protective of their food source, the fungal folk alchemists will attack any creature that wanders anywhere near its feeding ground, fearing competition for their decomposing trove. The fungal folk alchemists are so called because of their ability to harvest their own neurotoxic spores that grow within their very fibers.

They collect the spores, grind them into a powder upon rocky surfaces, and finally coat them with the feathery gills from beneath their caps. An adhesive spittle is used to encapsulate the powder within the gills and also to adhere the completed puffballs to their volva for later use. As the fungal folk alchemist grows throughout its life, so too does the toxic properties of its spores, causing a surprising array of effects upon its hapless victims. The average fungal folk alchemist carries 1d6 neurotoxic puffballs attached to its body. Any creatures killed will be partially buried in the ground and left to decompose until considered ripe enough to feed upon.