The Smiaceans

Back to exploring my setting through its inhabitants. One common element I want in a crashed thousand year old massive spaceship is lots of fungus! Plants will be limited but fungus can grow without sunlight so I want lots of it. Myconoids seem… too friendly. So to fill the ranks of humanoids I created vampire fungus to gross out my players.

The Smiaceans

The Smiceans, or vampire fungus, are a race of sentient mobile fungoids or myceloids. It’s not known if they developed or evolved on the world ship or were native to some lost alien world destroyed by the visitors. Both remain possibilities given the Smiaceans lack a written history, living a mostly nomadic life. 

In form they are roughly humanoid with long multi-segmented arm-like structures able to reach around their body. They have a slight stoop with the back of their torso and head covered in root like structures. Their four sturdy clustered legs enable them to hunt and pursue food with deceptive speed.

Biologically they are similar to other fungi and are heterotrophic in nature, but their form of sustenance capture and transportation is particularly hideous to humans and other sentient beings. They kill animals and place the dead bodies over their back where their roots grow into the corpse. Over the next few months they draw sustenance from this dead body, be it human, cattle, or dinosaur. This form of digestion gives a foul stench as they carry around the rotting dead and it's accompanying odours. Lacking food they can enter a shriveled hibernation state and are able to be restored through being covered in blood or other high energy liquid biomatter.

Lacking a mouth or vocal cords makes communication difficult with these sentient creatures. While they are all innately telepathic they often have little interest or need to talk to their food. Their language can be learned, referred to as Smiacean, and consists of gesturing combined with telepathic thought transfer. Small Endjinn communities have been known to develop relations with them as they are ‘not food’, but Smiceans are generally poor neighbors as they have trouble seeing even farm animals as anything but their own food to take.

Smiaceans (large humanoid plant)

% In Lair: Dungeon Enc: Wilderness Enc: Treasure Type / XP:	10% Spinny (2d4) / Copse (2d8) Copse (2d8) / Bloom (4d8) I, I / 190
Hit Dice: Armor Class: Save: Special Def.:	4** 4 F4 Plant immunities (charm, sleep, hold, stunning, poison; not designed for plants)
Movement: Attacks: Morale: Special Off.:	120’ (40’) 2 Talons (7+/1d6) 0 Foul stench (save vs. poison or nauseated if within 10 ft.), Telepathic

Smiaceans are 8’ to 9’ tall sentient fungoids with four clustered legs and two elongated multi segmented limbs. They are a semi-nomadic and aggressive race that see humans and animals as food. Lacking mouths they eat by attaching dead humanoids or animals to their back root structures, slowly consuming them. They communicate primarily through telepathy and limited gestures, with all smiceans being telepathic. This ‘language’ is known as Smiacean, but very few telepathic races can learn it given smiacean tendencies to consume those of a scholarly pursuit. Smiceans are immune to charm, sleep, and hold spells, to stunning, and to poisons not designed to work on fungi.

The foul stench of animal and humanoid corpses rotting on the back root structure of smiaceans can cause nausea in even the most hardy folk. Any creature that comes within 10 ft. of a smiacean must make a successful saving throw vs. Poison or become nauseated. While nauseated a creature cannot attack, cast spells, or speak, though it can still defend itself (e.g. it is not vulnerable). A nauseated creature can move away from the source of nausea, but cannot otherwise move or take actions in lieu of moving. This condition lasts as long as the creature is in proximity to the smiacean and for 1d4+1 rounds after it leaves. Any creature that succeeds on its save but remains in proximity must continue to save each round.

When encountered as a wandering monster there is a 25% chance that the creatures carried on the Smiacean's back will be carrying treasure. While the gruesome task of removing such treasure is unpleasant it can yield the equivalent of an F treasure type on the treasure table (1,500 gp and 7% chance of magic item). 

When laired a leader smiacean is present in addition to strategic placements of shriekers, violet fungus and archer fungus for protection. Smicean leaders are 10’ tall giants that carry multiple corpses on their backs and have powerful psionic powers. They count as 7**** hit dice creatures doing 1d8 damage with their talons and having arcane caster abilities at 7th level. This permits them to cast the following number of spells each day: 3 first level, 2 second level, 2 third level and 1 fourth level. Unlike other casters their spells do not require a spell book and lacking mouths their casting is completely silent, but they can still be interrupted as they must concentrate when channeling powerful energies. Their repertoire commonly includes the spells mage fingers (BCK), chameleon (PC) and wall of spores (as wall of smoke PC) at first level; blink (BCK) and ESP at second level; bygone (BCK) and mind blast (BCK) at third level; charm monster at fourth level.

Notes

I’m deliberately making them for large encounter numbers at dungeon level 4.

As a humanoid plant I gave it a better save. Given it will sit at the lower end of dungeon level 4 encounters this will help it a little.

The wandering monster treasure is benchmarked at base divided by 5.

For the leader I really wanted a psionic power system (or psionic/arcane hybrid "will" magic system) but currently use arcane as a proxy. Tried to flavour the recommended spells towards manipulating their bodies, psychoportation and mental powers.