Duskmoldfolk (4e Race)

Duskmoldfolk

By Conceptopolis

Sentient fungusfolk from the swamps and caverns of the Feywild

Racial Traits

Average Height: 4'9"' to 6'6"

Average Weight: 80-120 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom or +2 Intelligence

Size: Medium

Speed: 5 squares

Vision: Darkvision

Languages: Common, Sylvan

Skill Bonuses: +2 Dungeoneering, +2 Nature

Rapport Spores: You can communicate telepathically with any creature that has a language, telepathy, or a similar trait and has been adjacent to you within the last 5 minutes. This group of creatures may also communicate with one another instantaneously, although you are privy to all that is said.

Plant Traits: You are considered a plant for the purpose of effects related to that keyword: You breathe and eat, but do not sleep. You need only 4 hours to benefit from an extended rest. You gain a +2 to saves against ongoing damage when exposed to sunlight.

Fey origin: The duskmoldfolk are native to the swamps and underground pools of the Feywild. You are considered a fey creature for purposes of creature origin.

Deathly Spores: You can use Doomspore Cloud as an encounter power.

Doomspore Cloud	Duskmoldfolk Racial Power
In response to aggression, you release a cloud of toxic, black mold spores to defer your attackers.
Daily  Poison, Zone
Immediate Reaction	Close burst 2
Trigger: You are bloodied for the first time.
Target: All creatures in burst
Attack: Constitution + 2 Vs. Fortitude
Hit: Constitution modifier poison damage. Creates a zone in the burst that grants allies total concealment and is difficult terrain for your enemies until the end of your next turn.
Level 11: Constitution +4 Level 21: Constitution +6

The duskmoldfolk are a strange race of plant-like humanoids that are actually fungal in nature. They inhabit places with moist, damp atmosphere and still waters, like swamps. Their more populated circles originate from the Feywild's infamous Murkendraw. As a society, they are reclusive and extremely cautious in their dealings with other races, and as such are rarely seen by any other than their neighbors. Other inhabitants of the Feywild regard them as a sort of apparition which comes and goes, never dwelling long unless it is an urgent matter. Many duskmoldfolk will spend their entire lives dedicated to their colonies. However, if their migration to the Material Realm means anything, it is that they are capable of wandering outside preconceived boundaries.

Play a duskmoldfolk if you want...

• To play a race with an unconventional method of communication.
• To play as a creature from a swampy, often dull, background.
• To be a member of a race that favors the invoker, shaman, druid, and wizard classes.

Physical Qualities

The strange and curious inhabitants of Murkendraw appear to be discolored humanoids from a distance. They are rather tall, about as tall as humans, and have greyish skin that ranges with hues of browns, greens, blacks and whites. On closer inspection, their skin is not smooth or furry, but fuzzy with moss-like growths. As they mature, this pattern changes to appear more plant-like, hiding the sinewy body of mycelium which makes up their body's internals. The feet of duskmoldfolk end with root-like digits and are almost always wet. Their hands and fingers are long, resembling knotted roots. Older duskmoldfolk have leafy protuberances from their skin which appear spiky but are in fact spore cones that passively emit harmless mold spores from their bodies. While this mold does not harm living beings who inhale it, it will notably speed up the growth of mold on food products nearby. When a duskmoldfolk is in danger, these spores change in composition by reacting to their stress, turning black. The spore cones then dump a load of these black spores out at enemies to hinder them with toxic chemicals, allowing for the duskmoldfolk to escape.

On account of their spore cones, duskmoldfolk rarely wear clothing over any parts of their body that have these cones. Their biology makes it so that they do not reproduce normally, and so they lack any obscene parts that require a cover. Instead, they exchange spores with others of their own kind. Nonetheless, they will wear simple pieces of armor like greaves and bracers, or breathable clothing like a loose cowl and cape. Like most fey, duskmoldfolk are superstitious against and abhor iron, preferring armor composed of hide, leather, and even wood. What they wear is commonly unadorned and typical, as they rarely wish to stand out.

Duskmoldfolk live to be about 60 on average, reaching maturity quickly at 15. When they die, their bodies decompose into a type of mold called dusk mold.

Playing a Duskmoldfolk

Duskmoldfolk are similar to myconids in their hesitance often to act. However, they are dynamic in action when they so choose, and they act swiftly in an emergency. They generally do not like to talk very much because speaking anything but Sylvan is a chore. Their mouths often garble Common and so they must speak in simple sentence structures for clarity. Rather than talk, they would just prefer to use their special mental spores on creatures to communicate telepathically with them. When they can speak normally, duskmoldfolk are fully capable of being eloquent. But they are generally horribly blunt towards those not their own, being terse and cold.

Despite their initial unfeeling exterior, duskmoldfolk have complex social structures in their colonies. Their society circled around underground farms of a massive dusk mold clump in Murkendraw. This mold was supposedly so advanced that it was sentient. This is allegedly the first mold that spawned the duskmoldfolk, created by Psilofyr himself. It served as a medium of communion to the Carrion King. Life in the colony consisted of largely daily chores to take care of the master dusk mold and adhere to Psilofyr's orders if any. In the Material Realm, duskmoldfolk are less bound to this communal life, as the dusk mold clump is centralized in the Feywild.

While they are taciturn at first, duskmoldfolk are steady companions once their trust is gained. They are very loyal to their own and can be friendly when they get to know an outsider better. The dark shadows surrounding their society make this difficult though, and other kinds of fey are predisposed against them. While they do not actively look for allies, duskmoldfolk can be grateful for finding them.

Myconid Characteristics: Cautious, diligent, pacifistic, friendly, calm

Names: Psifir, Myconia, Gil, Stirp, Volva

Duskmoldfolk Adventurers

Three duskmoldfolk adventurers are described below:

Annulus is a duskmoldfolk invoker, dedicated to Psilofyr. He was given a message by the great Carrion King to venture forth into the world and find all the points of light in the Material World, to judge them as beneficial or not to the spread of the fungus folk and their territory. He so far as been interred in a corner of the elvish kingdoms with two elves who he commissioned to join him on his quest.

Connidia is a duskmoldfolk druid in the Material Realm. She has long enjoyed the primal energies vibrant here and is more interested in the nature of the goddess Melora than Psilofyr. Upon witnessing the encroachment of civilization, Connidia came to join a coven of druids and other users of primal energy to plot against the schemes of Erathis. Here, she came upon her now-true friends and they have been an inseparable group since.

Stachy is a duskmoldfolk shaman that nurtured a small colony of his own in the Material Realm. After a raid from some Far Planers, the colony was destroyed. As a result, he has deep-seated hatred against those of aberrant natures, and he has thus sought out wilden and shardmind allies to help him drive away this threat.

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