Barbed Mycelia

Some of the more frustrating breeds of fungi are known to have large, rope-like mycelial webs that are spotted with razor-sharp barbs. A number of fungi breeds have developed this modified root system in an attempt to better anchor themselves in the presence of shifting rock, mining endeavours and derooting techniques. The barbs vary in size greatly depending on the section of hyphae they find themselves. Ranging from small and painful splinters to life threatening spearheads.   In rare instances, the webbing has even been known to take the lives of unwary travellers. Rockquakes have been known to create deadly underground crevasses and the small fibers that interlace a bed of barbed mycelia are able to maintain a connection across the gap. Over time, those small hyphae become thicker and more established, resulting in a savage netting. Only a small bout of inattentiveness or misfooting can lead to an inescapable swaddling of blades. It is rumoured that goblinkin use such pitfalls tactically to their advantage in hunting or marauding by driving prey or foe toward the danger. Some warbands have even taken to chopping reams of the web for use as painful tripwires or caltrops to better defend their ramshackle fortifications and more established camps.


In older, darker and less explored places, the roots have been present for so long and have collected so many souls that bones and exoskeletons of cave beasts and the unlucky can be seen amongst the thick netting and imparting an odd and unworldly shape to the mass. Dwarven tunnel expansion can often break into the lower levels of a crevasse and the underside of the deathtraps can be seen from below. Usually with piles of carrion, refuse and remains littering the floor.   To make matters worse, when approaching a section of tunnel where barbed mycelia has been allowed to take hold, a low and unnerving scraping can occasionally be heard reverberating between the walls; Barbs regularly snag against raw jutting rock and hewn stone and as the webbing grows, the barbs release and audibly scrape against the surface.   One approach that the dwarves have employed to handle the problem is by utilising flame belchers to burn the web away. Although the process is still slow and arduous due to needing to channel away the bellowing smoke and fumes between each batch of burning.





The fruiting bodies of these breeds of fungi that have developed this method of self preservation are usually considered quite delicious to the races that walk on the surface. From their perspective, they see a vibrant crimson cap atop a daintily thin stalk and barely stop to think about what happens in the depths below them.

 

This is a submission for my second Summer Camp - I hope you enjoy the world I am building!