Moldman

Moldmen, also mocked as vegepygmies or moldies, are short, thorn-clawed fungus bipeds fringed with leafy tendrils on limbs, shoulders and belly, with a tendril topknot. Their colors match their home: brown and green in forests, gray and black underground. A moldman stands 1 1/2 feet tall plus another 1/2 foot for each Hit Die.

Wordless but able to cry out, they communicate by drumming on chests, stones and trees.

Hunting parties near the lair attack any animal for food. On home ground their camouflage gives foes -2 on surprise rolls, but beyond ambushes they favor a direct charge over tricks.

In a group, half have 1 Hit Die, a quarter have 2, and the rest are evenly split between 3 and 4. Every 50 moldmen have a 5 HD subchief with 1d4+1 bodyguards of 3 HD, and each tribe follows a 6 HD chief guarded by 2d4 warriors of 4 HD. Half carry spears; the rest wield clubs or fight bare-handed in equal numbers.

Chiefs can also attack with spores. A victim who fails a save vs. poison is paralyzed and dies in 5d4 minutes unless given cure disease, then returns 1d4+20 hours later as a 4 HD moldman who usually joins the chief's guard.

A piercing weapon inflicts just 1 point on a moldman. Electricity cannot hurt them, and only charms that affect plants work on them. They always get a saving throw against enchantments, even when one is normally denied.

About half of all hunting parties bring a pack of thornies along.

Tribes are settled and fiercely territorial, mostly in warm caves but sometimes in the undergrowth of dark forests and jungles. Each village keeps 1-4 packs of thornies. They live comfortably among plants and fungi, often posting shriekers as guards that let tribe members pass without a sound, and russet mold usually grows near their homes. Myconids sometimes associate with them and regard them as country cousins.

New moldmen come from three sources: russet mold produces 5 HD moldmen, a leader's spores produce 4 HD moldmen, and budding, which happens only when food is abundant, produces 1 HD moldmen.

Moldmen hunt and scavenge, eating meat whether fresh or rotten. In lean times they may eat other moldmen or even myconids, but they rarely attack their own tribe or allies.