#myconid

STORY (as short as I could make it):

In early life Clado's purpose was to make new Myconids by imbuing corpses with living spores. They left the Underdark on a diplomatic mission due to their desire to have first-hand experiences (while the hivemind does know far more than a single mind could hold there's something special to Clado about being there in the moment). The Sovereign sent Clado, two other Myconids, and another player character. This mission took them to a small city on the cusp of a jungle on the material plane to establish positive relations between two fungal communities- the Myconids of the Underdark, and a moderate population of radioactive Mushroomfolk on the surface.

After plenty of political subterfuge DND plot happened, they made their way into the deep jungle with three other PCs to find the kidnapped Mushroomfolk mayor. In the process of saving him they cleared out a once-abandoned temple that had been claimed by an adolescent False Hydra and its cultish followers. Through the help of the temple's nearly-forgotten god, Clado was able to use a heightened version of their spore-reanimating-myconid-druid magic to gain full control of the False Hydra's corpse, alongside all its abilities.

The hydra couldn't leave the temple, so Clado settled there. The Myconids with Clado (plus a new Myconid consentually grown from the corpse of a radioactive Mushroomfolk for the cultural exchange) began to build a new thing entirely- a surface Myconid colony. Clado became a Sovereign. They knew they would continue adventuring, but trusted their Myconids to continue the colony- especially with the protection of a massive zombie hydra that messed with memory. Now they travel with their companions, coming back home regularly to tend to the colony and share their new experiences with the hivemind.

CHARACTER NOTES:

Clado is a localized hivemind of mold spores who are connected to the larger Myconid hivemind. Because they are a collective of mold spores and not a single entity, they use plural they/them pronouns and we/us personal pronouns. They have 90 feet of telepathy, but if another Myconid is within range the species hivemind kicks in and they share their telepathic radius. (The average Myconid only has 30 feet, Clado got an upgrade when they became a Sovereign.) Their mental "voice" is actually their voices- all the spores whispering together in unison to make their collective thoughts known.

Being a part of the life-death-undeath cycle is intrisic to Clado. They eat decay and are adept at rapidly decomposing anything that was once living. They kill only when absolutely necessary- their new colony is subsisting almost exclusively on jungle detritis found nearby.

Clado never has a head or face. They were first grown on a headless corpse, so they find having one to feel unnatural. Green mushrooms grow to fill any large gaps/wounds on their body, and both fuzzy and slime molds cover everything else. Due to their telepathy Clado has 90 feet of blindsense, reducing the impact of not having eyes.

They are wise, but not particularly charismatic. This led to very frank diplomatic discussions between the fungus folk. Clado is pure in the wonder they express at experiencing something new, which could come across as naive.

(The DM gave everyone in the party a bunch of buffs, but especially Clado- they have up to their proficiency of permanent (but unhealable) zombies, they have special spore abilities, I have character sheets for all the other Myconids in their colony and play them when relevant, et cetera. The tradeoff is that we got a False Hydra thrown at us at level 7, and are getting a full ancient dragon at level 10. I am playing a full Myconid colony on top of what all the other players have going on, but it enables a brutal boss encounter list so everything balances out, lol.)