[Skyhack] Spore Elves

Skyhack is the current name for an extremely work-in-progress skyworld setting I've been working on, heavily inspired by Aaron A. Reed's Skycrawl.

The elves of [Skyhack Setting] all struggle with the same deeply inconvenient truth: left unchecked, they will outlive everything that matters to them. Their primary differences manifest in how they deal with this truth.

Everything rots. At least, in the spore elves' eyes, everything should. They have embraced an imagined role as caretakers of the sky, venturing forth from their ever-growing, ever-collapsing fungal strongholds to seed decay and bring low what stands high. As part of embracing the cycle of death and rebirth that seems to come naturally to the other peoples of the skies, spore elves add themselves to it. A healthy elf can live for millennia, but spore elves rarely last longer than two centuries, as they warp, scourge, and ultimately destroy their bodies with carefully cultivated fungal infections.

Spore Elf

HD: 2
AC: as leather
Move: normal
Morale: 10
Intelligence: human-level, but twisted by weird zeal and fungal narcotics
Speech: Txaa (Elvish), illiterate
Damage: by weapon
Special: all weapons deal +1 poison damage; clade special ability
# Enc.: mob of 1d3+1, or crew of 2d6+2 plus a Monitor (as above with 1d3+2 HD) and 1d4-2 Cousins

Spore elves favour close combat, usually with edged weapons. Curved, barbed, and serrated blades are common - treat these as swords with +1 critical range. They carry shortbows but rarely use them unless forced, preferring to close the distance.

One in three regular spore elves carries a puffball bomb, a one-shot thrown splash weapon that deals 3d4 poison damage in a 5' radius. Save negates. Spore elves are not immune to these bombs, but have no qualms about getting caught in their own explosions.

Spore elves breathe very loudly, and are thus usually incapable of stealth.

Like all elves, spore elves are hermaphroditic.

Spore Elf Cousin

HD: 6
AC: as leather
Move: normal, climb normal
Morale: 12
Intelligence: sub-sapient, flashes of humanlike cunning
Speech: incoherent grunts and squeals, understands Txaa
Damage: 1d8 slam / 1d8 slam
Special: heals 1d3 hp each time it takes weapon damage, except critical hits; enhanced clade special ability
# Enc.: solitary, pair, or part of a spore elf crew

Midway through a spore elf's second century, the compound stress of all their fungal infections begins to take its toll. Most retire to waste away in relative quiet, but a handful relinquish their bodies fully to the fungal colonies nesting within. Monitors know secret rites that let them direct the growth of these hybrids, and the results are Cousins, fearful monstrosities treated more like living weapons than valued peers.

Spore Elf Clade Generator

1d8: Primary Colour

1. Violet, brightening in heat.
2. Bone, etched with rippling patterns.
3. Blue-green, patchy like bread mould.
4. Sepia, darker at the edges.
5. Crimson, with white dots.
6. Dark green, flecked with beige.
7. Yellow-brown, oily and shiny.
8. Clear, showing bare flesh beneath.

1d10: Breathing Tells

Spore elves' fungal infestations tend to give their breathing a distinctive sound.

1. Rusty wind chimes.
2. Broken plumbing.
3. Stone scraping on stone.
4. Metallic keening.
5. Bubble-wrap popping.
6. Wooden creaking.
7. Arpeggiated whistling.
8. Low, regular thuds.
9. Subsonic humming.
10. Babbling whispers.

1d12: Clade Special Abilities

All spore elves of a clade will have this ability. Spore elves are always immune to the harmful effects of their own special abilities. (C:) indicates the enhanced version Cousins get.

1. Choking spores. When injured, adjacent creatures suffer -2 to all attacks and checks for 1d4 rounds (C: 2d4 rounds). Doesn't stack. Save negates.
2. Scalding hot skin. Touch attack (instead of a weapon) deals 1d6 fire damage, ignores armour, and can melt metal with prolonged contact, though it's too damp to start fires. (C: Add the fire damage to the Cousin's standard slam attacks.)
3. Fungal miasma. Mundane ranged attacks have a 50% (C: 75%) miss chance against the elf.
4. Caustic spit attack. 10' range, 1d6 acid damage. Useable once every 5 rounds (C: once every 2 rounds) in addition to normal attacks.
5. Thaumic disruption. Spells cast within 10' of the elf have a 25% (C: 50%) miscast chance, though the spell still goes off.
6. Camouflage. The elf is functionally invisible if it's been standing still for at least 5 rounds. The sound will still give them away within 10'. (C: Completely silent, too.)
7. Puppeteer. After killing a humanoid enemy, the elf can spend its whole next turn breathing fungal life into the deceased, raising it as a zombie loyal to the clade. On average, a group of elves with this ability will be encountered with one zombie per four elves already in service. (C: Kills rise automatically on the Cousin's next turn, no extra action needed.)
8. Paralytic moan. Once per day, 20' radius, inflicts paralysis for 1d4 rounds. Save negates. (C: 40' radius.)
9. Regeneration. 1hp per round. Cold damage suppresses it for 1 hour. (C: Instead of this, adaptive healing improves to 1d6 per weapon attack.)
10. Ripper spores. Melee damage caused by the elf won't heal naturally for 1 day (C: 3 days).
11. Biomancy. The elf may forfeit its normal attack to control mundane plants and fungi within 60', attacking through them. They deal club-equivalent or knife-equivalent damage depending on their size and shape. (C: Up to three biomancy attacks per round.)
12. Death blossom. Dies instantly at 0hp, exploding in a 10' (C: 20') radius. 1d4 Intelligence damage. Save negates.

Spore Elf Society

Spore elves divide themselves into independent colonies called clades. Each clade consists of 1d4+3 crews of spore elves, plus roughly half as many noncombatants as there are warriors. Noncombatants are mostly children and those too wracked by their infestations to fight, and they spend most of their time tending fungal crops and mutagenic cultures, though warriors will pitch in with these tasks too when they're not marauding. Nominally, leadership usually belongs to the eldest Monitor, but, in practice, most clades are anarchistic. Crews often end up being semi-autonomous, developing their own subcultures and sometimes even their own heraldry.

The clade makes its home in a sprawling village-sized bastion, spliced together from sky detritus and caked in mycelium and weird fungal glue. Spore elf bastions tend to be brittle, but assaulting one is a hellish task thanks to its labyrinthine layout and profusion of noxious traps.

Spore elf crews conduct their expeditions aboard polypore sloops, oddly beautiful half-living craft propelled by violent spore jets. A typical clade will have access to half as many sloops as it has crews, rounded up. There may be rules for these in a future post, once I've worked out what aero-naval combat looks like in this setting.

Spore elves are spiritual, exalting the cyclical nature of death above all else, but they seldom follow gods. The half-lucid "wisdoms" that sometimes arise among their ailing elderly are the closest things they have to a priesthood.

Whatever their ideological pretences, spore elves are raiders, often indistinguishable tactically from common pirates. They target anything they've identified as outliving its natural life, but, being elves, they have a rather warped view of how long anything "should" live. Visibly battered ships and settlements in decline or stagnation tend to be their favourite targets. (The fact that these tend to be easier fights is not lost on them.) Once a crew has purged or driven out the population and torn down the structures, the spore elves will seed the area, and particularly the corpses of ally and enemy alike, with a carpet of fast-growing fungi, ensuring a flourishing new ecosystem in the wreckage of the old one.