THE FUNGAL COURT
Set Nº 91
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THE FUNGAL COURT
Hidden beneath the oldest reaches of the Forest of Arba dwells the Fungal Court, an ancient race of fungal beings related to the Spriggans, the tree-like ancestors of the Alfar.
While their distant kin gradually developed forms closer to those of other mortal peoples, the Fungal Court remained bound to the deepest and most primitive nature of the forest, their bodies formed from fibrous flesh, mycelium and countless varieties of fungal growth.
The Fungal Court embodies an essential part of Arba's natural cycle. Dead trees, fallen beasts and decaying matter are broken down and returned to the earth, nourishing roots, spores and new life. To them, decay is the beginning of renewal.
Their colonies thrive beneath the undergrowth, among humid hollows and tangled roots, sometimes descending into the uppermost regions of the Depths. The smaller members of the Court form its wandering bands of Fungal Warriors, armed with crude weapons shaped from hardened organic growths.
They appear mute to outsiders, producing no recognizable spoken language. Scholars suspect that when at rest they extend microscopic roots into the soil, connecting themselves to the surrounding mycelium and communicating through vast subterranean networks in a manner no other people of Mundus fully understands.
The Fungal Court bears no natural hostility toward Spriggans, Wood Alfar or Lurikeen, yet remains distant even from its own ancient relatives. Those who wander too deeply into their territory may discover that the silent figures standing among the mushrooms are not part of the forest at all, but warriors who have been watching them for far longer than they realize.
FUNGAL RIDERS ON GIANT ANTS
The enormous red ants living beneath the Fungal Court are among the strangest creatures of the deep forest.
Growing large enough to carry a warrior upon their backs, these tireless insects excavate immense underground chambers where fungal colonies flourish among roots, humid soil and decaying vegetation.
Over countless generations, the ants and the Fungal Court have developed a deep symbiotic relationship. The ants expand the subterranean nests and carry organic matter into the colonies, while the fungal beings cultivate growths that nourish and shelter them.
When the hidden territories of the Court are threatened, Fungal Warriors mount these enormous insects and emerge from beneath the forest floor. Able to traverse tangled roots and unstable ground with remarkable ease, the Giant Ant Riders can appear where enemies least expect them, only to vanish again into tunnels concealed beneath the undergrowth.
SIR LEPIOTH - THE FALSE KNIGHT
At a distance, Sir Lepioth could easily be mistaken for an impossibly tall and slender knight wandering beneath the trees. His enormous mushroom cap resembles the extravagant hat of a foreign mercenary, while layered growths across his elongated body create the illusion of armor, cloth and ceremonial garments. None of these things are worn. They are Lepioth himself.
Unlike most members of the Fungal Court, Lepioth displays a peculiar fascination with the customs of the peoples beyond Arba. Tales found in abandoned books, together with the weapons, armor and remains of warriors lost within the forest, appear to have inspired his strange interpretation of knighthood.
He wanders the borders of the Court alone, armed only with his enormous two-handed fungal blade. Very few who encounter Lepioth survive to recount what follows.
Witnesses describe seeing the strange knight standing motionless far between the trees. Once noticed, he offers a solemn bow, raises his blade, and begins walking toward them without hesitation. Whether Lepioth truly understands the ritual he imitates is impossible to know.
No traveler has ever succeeded in communicating with him, and he has never been heard to speak. Perhaps from the fragments left behind by dead warriors he has simply concluded that this is the custom of their kind: two warriors meet, acknowledge one another with courtesy, and then fight until only one remains.
Once challenged, there seems to be no way to stop him. Beneath his impossibly thin frame lies the strength of many soldiers, and his immense blade falls with enough force to cleave through armor and bone. Thus he became known among the few survivors as the False Knight, a creature imitating the rituals of chivalry with a deadly sincerity all its own.
SPARASSUS - OOZE CALLER
Sparassus is one of the strangest members of the Fungal Court, a mysterious figure whose branching fungal growths resemble the tangled form of the rare Sparassis mushroom.
Unlike the common warriors of his kind, Sparassus displays an extraordinary ability to influence the organisms living within the soil through a form of natural psionic communion. Among those organisms are the Fungal Oozes, corrosive symbiotic creatures cultivated within the deepest colonies of the Court.
These amorphous beings dissolve dead flesh, carrion and other organic matter, reducing it into nutrients that can be absorbed by the surrounding fungal networks.
When intruders enter his territory, Sparassus calls these creatures from hollows, pools and underground chambers, directing them against anything he considers harmful to the colony.
Fungal Warriors frequently gather around him during such confrontations, while Giant Ant Riders patrol the surrounding tunnels and prevent trespassers from escaping deeper into the forest. Those who have survived encounters with him rarely remain long enough to investigate.
AMANITA - FUNGAL DRYAD
"Where the forest changes, so too must its daughters.”
Dryads rarely share a single appearance. Their forms reflect the environments in which they dwell, taking characteristics from the trees, flowers, roots and other living things surrounding the spirits with which they are bound.
Amanita emerged within the hidden domains of the Fungal Court, far beneath the bright flowering groves inhabited by many of her kin. Rather than leaves and blossoms, her body developed pale fungal growths, broad caps and delicate structures resembling the organisms covering the humid forest floor.
Though unmistakably a Dryad, Amanita has lived among the Fungal Court for so long that she appears almost as one of them. She moves freely through their colonies and seems capable of understanding their silent form of communication, acting as one of the rare connections between the Court and the other children of Arba.
When the fungal groves are threatened, Amanita reveals the same ferocity found in the wildest spirits of the forest. To her, the smallest mushroom and the greatest ancient tree are parts of the same living whole, and both are equally worthy of protection.
BOLETHAR - FUNGAL TITAN
Deep within the most ancient territories of the Fungal Court stand enormous shapes easily mistaken for hills, rotting trunks or colossal mushrooms.
Among the greatest of these living masses is Bolethar, a Fungal Titan whose immense body has grown across centuries of accumulated mycelium and hardened fungal tissue. For long periods Bolethar remains almost completely motionless, allowing moss, smaller fungi and entire colonies of lesser organisms to grow across his body.
His roots penetrate deep into the soil, connecting him to the vast living networks beneath the Forest of Arba. Only grave disturbances awaken the Titan.
When tunnels collapse, ancient colonies are destroyed or great enemies invade the territory of the Court, Bolethar tears himself free from the earth and advances with terrifying force. Trees bend beneath his bulk and the ground breaks under each step, while creatures that once nested upon his motionless body scatter through the forest.
Whether Bolethar possesses an individual mind or represents the will of an entire fungal colony given colossal form is a question no scholar has ever been able to answer.
