Predatory Fungus - Dungeons and Dragons Lore

[@zacharyweaver276]

My favorite fungi is the Zygom cause it's like a fantasy cordyceps taking over giant ant, rats, and bears. Along with any humanoids foolish enough to touch it

[@zacharyweaver276]

@@user-jj5mp7ib1f nope it's just a mushroom with parasitic spores

[@zacharyweaver276]

@@user-jj5mp7ib1f it is literally just a mushroom. It doesn't chase you down or anything you have to touch it or otherwise disturb it to trigger it. A lot like some molds in dnd

[@jonhunt1419]

I had a storm giant hire my party to go find and save his myconid friends. They did, were thanked and then watched in horror as the myconids were then chopped up and thrown into the giants stew lol

[@AJPickett]

Noooooo

[@tkc1129]

Okay, that Phantom Fungus is nightmare fuel. Thanks!

[@RokuroCarisu]

Don't truffle with the Humongus Fungus!

[@teddys5775]

Two in a row, has anyone checked AJ for Zuggtmoy infection?

[@Se7enBeatleofDoom]

What Mario doesn’t tell you about the mushroom kingdom.

[@guuspot923]

Next up, the blue cheese platter? :D Not my usual but an interesting bite either way.

[@adamwelch4336]

mushrooms, 🍄 meldew, mold and Mayhem!

[@zacharyweaver276]

What's interesting with the phycomid is that drow will use them to guard tunnels and the like knowing how dangerous they are to other creatures

[@zmishiymishi5349]

This cunning fungi can be more charismatic than me...

[@ryangoralnik473]

Bossman thanks for another video. Brings a lot of memories of fighting and running from a badly placed fireball in a room full of heat eating mold. Scary times 😅

[@Na8pdog]

Zombie fungus needed!

[@gavinboyer4634]

WAAAAAAAAAAAG-oh, uh, sorry. Wrong universe.

[@ebertwix5860]

This has inspired me to make Hugh Mungus the Patron of Fungus

[@almitrahopkins1873]

This was perfectly timed. I was just working on an NPC that this helps a great deal. The Mosstender & Hogfather live in a ruin at the south end of the Laughing Forest, where the Raving River, which flows from the Mindspin mountains, widens out into a marshy delta before emptying into Insanity Bay. The Hogfather is a wild boar of immense size, who is believed to be the father of all of the wild pigs that roam the depths of the Laughing Forest. The Mosstender is a little thing, barely the size of a child, with green skin and brown freckles, who appears to be more concerned with the growth of a wide variety of plant creatures than the villages that dot the wide, flat expanse of the Althai plains to the west. The truth of it is that the Mosstender is an ancient god, recently reawakened by the Leshy that share the Laughing Forest with the wild pigs and troops of baboons that give it its name. The ruins that it lives in are the partially-flooded remains of a temple in its honor that was abandoned when the usurper gods divided the goblins from the sylvan elves & halflings in far more ancient times. The Leshy are immune to the mildly hallucinogenic waters of the Raving River and the Bay of Insanity that are caused by fungal spores in the water. To use it in your game, the Mosstender is a CN half-celestial goblin Druid of 9th level. The Hogfather is his animal companion, a boar adjusted for the Mosstender’s level. He only has one avatar and no domain in the outer planes. He is being kept alive by the Leshy he creates, which number in the low hundreds. His portfolio was plants, fungus, foraging and growth, which was mostly absorbed by others when Magubliyet overthrew the ancient goblinoid gods. And whatever you do, don’t eat the fish from the river or the bay. They are easily a hundred times more hallucinogenic than the water.

[@daniell1483]

Very wicked! Definitely an improvement over the last video. I think the thing about fungi that makes them such great foes is how they are more like animals in many respects than they are to plants. Fungi still consume, just without a jaw.

[@zacharyweaver276]

1:15 yes love these guys they need to be in 5e. Not enough classic hazards of mold and fungi being used in dungeons these days

[@zacharyweaver276]

Now we need a video on all the deadly molds that were used back in older editions

[@evan-si8bk]

This is a fun coincidence, I had just watched your ecology of the underdark and mycinoid videos yesterday

[@AJPickett]

perfect timing

[@bodansova2951]

Great video, i quite like all of the interesting fungus based hostile - predatory organisms. Excellent work, looking forward to see what you talk about this. Also i don't know if this was mentioned before but just in case this was not brought up already, one things about fungus - fungi in general is that they may look like they belong in the plant kingdom but in reality fungi belong to there own separate kingdom ( fungi are not a sub set of plants, they are there own thing).

[@couchcommandoiv5528]

I never understood why plants/fungi are immune to poisons. Being immune to venom, yes. There are a number of poisons that hurt them, herbicides and fungicides

[@AJPickett]

There is also no such thing as radiation sickness or radioactive substances in D&D... go figure.

[@couchcommandoiv5528]

Just imagine using Agent Orange on some vegepygmies

[@Vandelberger]

Just got done listening to a few Clark Ashton Smith stories that had terrifying descriptions of what being attacked by fungus and living trees would be like.

[@DEMONOFLOVEANDDEATH]

Bless the Mighty GlueStick

[@JoshuaEFinley]

I'd change one of the halucinations to a Ricky Bobby type "I'm on fire" halucination. You take no damage from it but you run and roll around trying to put out imaginary flames. For each time you fail a roll to put it out you remove one piece of equipment and gain the prone position as you roll on the ground. The saving throw starts out hard and gets +1 easier each time unless you fail 5 times in a row then it lasts until you take a long rest. Your character thinks they are on fire the whole time so you gain 1 point of exhaustion instead of removing any exhaustion.

[@samjackson1635]

that one looks like a FUN GUY!

[@michaelnelson8618]

One of my players in Curse of Strahd (first campaign I've ever run btw) has played every edition. I decided to add some "DLC" to CoS to make it less predictable for him. These creatures will come in so very handy, thanks :)

[@AJPickett]

You are most welcome.

[@HowtoRPG]

Thanks AJ.

[@derskalde4973]

Not really related, I just don't know where else to put this: I recently had an idea for a possibly memorable, pretty mean and painful, but ultimatelly harmless "encounter" with a fey creature. You know this kinda painful pinch, when a hair gets stuck in clothing, for example? So, when the PCs traverse fey territory, one PC (either randomly selected or story relevant, like, if they angered a fey, for example) wakes up and finds that they can't get up, the slightest movement causing them pain, only to find that they fell victim to a prank, where they literally tied every single hair on their butt together, making the PC unable to move without the movement causing the hair to stretch and pinch and pluck.

[@AJPickett]

Heh, that would be quite funny.

[@Comicnut64]

We have this in the real world it’s called ring worm

[@ObsidianAmeth]

Just to be clear there is a deity of fungus, Zuggtmoy is just the demon lord of fungus right?

[@AJPickett]

There are many gods of the Portfolio of Fungus and Rot, demon lords can become gods, but most feel that would be beneath them (they want to subjugate and destroy the gods), Also Check out the history between Lolth and Ghaunadaur ( forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ghaunadaur )

[@ObsidianAmeth]

thank you @@AJPickett

[@shakescan]

Thanks AJ!

[@Deefry]

The Rukarazyll sounds like you could use it to recreate Resident Evil 7 o.0

[@Balcamion79]

I'm currently playing a plasmoid flavored as an awakened slime mold. 🤓🍄

[@trajanfidelis]

All contrlled by zuggtmoy i suppose? Thanks for the video

[@chriscalvin5083]

Great video AJ 👍

[@AJPickett]

Thanks Chris

[@michaelhockman3420]

Have you watched Delicious in Dungeon? It is a relaxed show that features a lot of interesting dungeon ecology. It reminds me of your videos

[@Kargoneth]

Eh? It released slimes, yet it is at war with the minions of Juiblex?

[@AJPickett]

Ghaunadaur is the true slime daddy

[@rendarcrow]

Hey aj you always seem to at least respond to comments. Even if you don't do a video on this specific person/deity. I'm curious to know which video you would recommend of yours, about eastern faerun. To help me get a better understanding of said deity. I'm doing a campaign in a few months, and I have a player who wants there monk to follow a religious path similar to buddha. I have np brewing something up. But, I did find padhra and their Dalai lama Princess tsenya bhrokiti. I did some reading on the wiki but would love to see what you find/have.

[@AJPickett]

I can take a look, don't forget there are major martial arts centers in northeast faerun

[@rendarcrow]

@AJPickett awesome your the best 👌. Ty so much I've already listened to Kara tur video and been reading the wiki.

[@johnboats9075]

I always liked the mushroom people from second edition.

[@mosshivenetwork117]

Yay fungi!

[@DeanNatheos-i2t]

Thank you and I want to stay away from some of these disgusting fungus. The one on the cover of this video is particularly disturbing have a good evening 🌆.

[@maxtitko9106]

Awesome!(waiting for a Mu Spore)

[@AJPickett]

I debated including them, but they really are more like an alien race than just a predatory fungus (even the Rukarazyll was pushing it)

[@TheHornedKing]

How do you spell the second last one? Rukarazler?

[@AJPickett]

eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Rukarazyll

[@popechucky]

Gas spores are my favorites 🥰🥰🥰

[@efraim3364]

not D&D lore but the Orks in Warhammer 40K are a fungus

[@ObsidianAmeth]

If we are talking fungus creature outside Dnd, lets not forget about the fungus zombies from Last of Us.

[@AJPickett]

I have a video on Orks, by the way, from Warhammer 40K 😎

[@efraim3364]

@@AJPickett gotta fire up the Way Back Machine

[@ObsidianAmeth]

@@efraim3364 Aj pickett Warhammer ork video: "Warhammer 40K Orks invade Faerun"

[@ObsidianAmeth]

@@AJPickett There is also a channel called Weshammer that made Warhammer content. the shorts are fun to watch.

[@MrJudeWanamaker]

Yes!

[@AJPickett]

Got ya covered.

[@Dahaka-rd6tw]

Can you do Dalmosh from Monster Manual V?

[@AJPickett]

Adding it to my too do list

[@DWSP101]

Can you do a video on the gut fiend? It was in some book that was DND related. I can’t find anything on it and I’ve asked several other KZbinr channels that talk about this type of stuff and none of them seem to be able to find it, it’s specifically a fiend or devil, that is like a parasite inside the guts of their victims. I can’t seem to find it anywhere if it’s a curse or a creature or some type of affliction I don’t know it could be anything but I can’t seem to find it. You would be the guy that most likely be able to find it.

[@AJPickett]

I'm going to need more info to find it.

[@craigschnibben6543]

Thanks!

[@AJPickett]

Welcome!

[@darklordmathias9405]

Does anyone know why the Dm's Guild site is not functioning correctly?

[@AJPickett]

like how? Seems fine to me.

[@darklordmathias9405]

@@AJPickett When I try to login, it refuses to actually allow me to. I have a previous account, and do remember my password and such, but it just keeps backing up to the previous page on my browser when I click the button to login. I dislike this greatly, because I have previous purchases I'd like to regain access to(my old phone which had all my stuff on it broke, so I had to get a new one). It's disheartening, tbh.

[@AJPickett]

@@darklordmathias9405 have you sent a message to the site admins?

[@darklordmathias9405]

@@AJPickett Actually, no I have not. Tho, that's because I haven't had time. When I do, I will.

[@Pyre]

You know, I'm a little upset it took Elden Ring (and then this video) to make me realize how deeply terrifying Zuggtmoy could actually be. In my defense, even her own lore entries make snide comments about how "most people don't want to worship fungus". But the thing about being an all-but-divinity of them is, you don't need people to *want* to worship you. Take just what the fungal creatures in this video can do. Then take the concept of the Cradle, from her Demonomicon entry. Now use the former to apply the latter to a country. It doesn't take much tweaking to make *real*-world fungi a threat on this scale, as countless media have shown. Really, that one meme is true. "Can you feel your heart burning? Can you feel the struggle within? The fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. You cannot kill me in a way that matters."

[@AJPickett]

Zuggtmoy is one of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse.

[@Pyre]

@@AJPickett Can't remember if you've done a video on it, but supplements from ages ago suggested SHE created the Cult of Elemental Evil? A religion based around actual existing semi-divinities, that she apparently set up to funnel power to herself instead?

[@andirach]

​@@Pyre There's details of that in AJ's video on Zuggtomy. You can find it in his Lords of Ruin playlist

[@SageofCancer]

Waaagh

[@blitz6636]

•)

[@cadenceclearwater4340]

🍄🍄🍄

[@Grey_Sage]

That picture in the thumbnail looks like it was made by ai, you’ve got to be careful not to use that because it’s stolen from other artists

[@LexyLexer]

I think it's a great use where art does not exist for old monsters

[@Grey_Sage]

@@LexyLexer no matter the intention, ai still uses art made by others without crediting them or the artists consent. It is cool to get images of monsters from old editions that didn’t have any before but it’s also best to get those images from as ethical a source as you can manage

[@evankurasu3190]

Counterpoint: the Mona Lisa. The only difference between the Mona Lisa and ai art is that the Mona Lisa was not digitally created. It too was developed as an amalgamation of prior creations, and not crediting the original sources of said "stolen" art. You may not like it, nor agree with it, and that's fine... but you'd be rather hypocritical if you object against the concept of ai art yet also praise the Mona Lisa for what it is. Regardless, your opinion is regarded and appreciated, but try not to take it personally should it not be followed.

[@CWHolleman]

@@Grey_SageOh the horror!

[@Grey_Sage]

@@evankurasu3190 ok first I need to ask for a source because businesses who promote ai will just lie about things to keep the money coming. Second, bold of you to assume that what you said doesn’t just lower my opinion of the Mona Lisa/Leonardo DaVinci rather than exposing my hypocrisy or whatever. What makes you think I’m even a fan of DaVinci? On what grounds besides your assumption about what I do/don’t praise am I actually being a hypocrite?