The shee and gardening assistants

 

He had never seen so little. Not a single source of light shone through the moist coffee-opaque darkness. He had felt the warm and soggy soil beneath him as he stepped through the swirling whirl, and blessed his choice of solid footwear. He put on his accidentally inverted sunglasses, which blocked out darkness rather than sun.

His notepad soon filled with strange critters and bugs squirming around in the nitrous slime, and he called up his inventory to collect eggs, things that might be seeds and cuttings.

The tunnels themselves had been formed recently, and seemed like they shifted as often as the wind or weather did on the surface. He noticed parts of a more solid foundation however, organisteel walls and floors peeked through the rich and thick mud. The place he was in was, or had been part of a greater whole. Whatever mechanism pushed the nutritious mass through that foundation would still be functioning.

A small tan circle in the deep brown dredge captivated his attention. A small mushroom, not quite extraordinary compared to the vividly colored mushrooms of the grendel jungle or those of albia. He could not quite place it, but its mundaneness made it feel like a little Ettin among fungi. He crouched to his knees, muddening the already stained robe he wore with the almost corrosively fertile slick. One touch to the frail looking brown hood shrouded him in a cloud of swirling spores, dusting his face and nostrils and sending him reeling in a low panic.

Sitting on his behind the shee swiftly felt all over his face, behind the ears and even in his nostrils! And then he licked his lips as he calmed. It tasted deliciously starchy, and no mushrooms were sprouting on himself.

Quite pleased with his discovery he loaded his inventory with them, and allowed an Ettin to help him upright as he went on to explore the hollows. Not two steps in he realised the strangeness of this, turned to the small creature and gave it a good look. 

Sturdy and stout, like all good ettins. Rather than furred or furless, it had a sponge like covering, and the head bore a wide brimmed cap. More than just one accompanied him, and it seemed they had all followed his lead and collected specimens the way he had been doing.

His direct attention seemed a little much to bear for them, and they collectively shied away into the tunnel. He followed them, this time not allowing any slithering thing to distract him. He found them all huddled under the cap of a massive mushroom, one that even to him smelled homely and comforting. He finally understood there was a link between the simple mushrooms and these fungi and fungal Ettins.

He broke a little piece of mycelium covered soil, and stepped back into a portal, assured of having new friends, while leaving these in their dark personal paradise.

The fungi Ettins and the Bolete ettins share their genes and sprites. The bolete ettins can be bred with other ettins, while the fungi ettins have a unique manner of procreating, doing so via a great mother mushroom. 

They can be downloaded from Creatures caves here

Credits:

Fungus Ettin sprites by Gobbo in Geneforge, genetics by Arnout

Mycelium coding and sprites by Arnout, catalogue by Gobbo