by Gary Gygax

©
1983 E. Gary Gygax. All rights reserved.

Last issue three nasty new fungoid
monsters — the Ascomoid, Basidirond,
and Phycomid — were offered. The Us-
tilagor and Zygom, described herein,
complete the offering. Now, would you
enjoy meeting the creature who has
them for playmates? In case anyone is
wondering if these creatures were the
result of requests from readers, the
answer is no. In order to make certain
our Kindly Editor had a sufficient supply
of monsters, I went ahead with the fungi.
Months have a way of rolling past with-
out notice, and Yours Truly too often
gets caught with nothing in print in any
of the columns promised. I hope there
will be sufficient feedback from you
Gentle Readers for a column devoted to
requests.
At some point there must be an end to
monsters. I employ only a certain few in
my general campaigning and load the
unusual critters into weird settings or
deep dungeons. While we present many
new and different creatures, the world of
monsters has finite limits — or does it? If
the various planes of existence are de-
tailed, then there is room for many
hundreds of new creations. Do you
Thoughtful Gamers desire an enumera-
tion of the inhabitants of the uncounted
planes? If so, this column will eventually
turn to that area. What say?

Ustilagor
FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-3
ARMOR CLASS: 5
MOVE: 9”
HIT DICE: 3 + 3
% IN LAIR: 90%
TREASURE TYPE: Q (x1-20)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-5 (+ poisoning)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Psionics
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Psionics
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Unratable
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (evil)
SIZE: S (1’-1½‘ diam.)
PSIONIC ABILITY: 150 + 5-30
Attack/Defense Modes: D/F
LEVEL / X.P. VALUE: V / 215 + 4/hp

Ustilagor fungi appear to be brain-like

growths with coral-like appendages. Al-
though soft and not fast in normal
movement terms, they can scuttle and
dart, and this accounts for their relatively
high armor class. Their attack form con-
sists of flicking out ribbon-like tendrils
about 3’ long. A hit inflicts damage due
to alkaline fluids and causes the victim to
save versus poison or suffer additional
like damage (2-5 hp) next round as the
caustic substance affects its body.
Ustilagors have no intelligence or mind
as defined by human standards, so men- Ustilagors can employ telempathic dithering, accordingly. Ustilagors also
tal attacks do not affect them. (See projection to project the following emo- use energy control to protect themselves
AD&D™ Players Handbook, p. 11, Wis- tions at an individual during a round: from spell attacks and the like. They at-
dom Table, asterisked paragraph regard- hate (of associate), distrust (of asso- tack psionic individuals only by id insin-
ing Magical Attack Adjustment.) These ciate), fear (of fungi), loathing (of area), uation (as related to the strongest basic
monsters do, however, have some form or uncertainty. These projected emotions emotions). Only a psionic blast will af-
of brain, for they have psionic powers. cause attack, bickering, desertion, or fect them in turn.

36 JANUARY 1983

Zygom
FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-3
ARMOR CLASS: 8
MOVE: 1” (or as host; see below)
HIT DICE: 3 (+ host’s; see below)
% IN LAIR: 50%
TREASURE TYPE: By host type
and/or incidental
NO. OF ATTACKS: By host type
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By host
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Milky glue
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Unratable
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (evil)
SIZE: By host size (1/6’ - 1/4’ per growth)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL / X.P. VALUE: III / 65 + 3/hp
Zygoms are individually small fungoid
growths which consist of a short, thin
stem with an ovoid cap. One or two doz-
en such growths are conjoined by a rhi-
zome structure to make up a singular
community creature, a zygom. Although
able to exist in earth, zygoms prefer to
infest living creatures, nourishing them-
selves on the host’s blood and flesh. This
infestation controls the host creature by
brain and nerve connections. It leads to
death of the host in 1 to 8 weeks, depend-
ing on the size and constitution of the
host creature. The zygom remains until
the whole of the dead body is consumed
and then moves on.
As host creatures are controlled, they
move, attack, and defend according to
the dictates of the possessing zygoms.
Infestation is typically on the head, neck,
and back (spinal) areas. Typical host
creatures are: ants (giant), rats (giant),
osquips (see FIEND FOLlO® Tome), and
occasionally small humanoids.
Whenever a colony of zygoms comes
into rough contact with any creature,
there is a 1 in 6 chance that the pale blue
“milk” of a broken cap will stick fast to
the creature. This “milk” is extremely
sticky, and it has the power to glue mate-
rials together for 2-5 days before the
substance dries and crumbles. If glued
to flesh, a colony of zygom spores will
infect the creature and begin growth by
the time the glue powders, i.e. infest and
control the host. Only a cure disease will
remove this infestation. Zygom glue can
be otherwise embarrassing, for it will
stick weapons to targets, creatures to
creatures, etc.
As zygoms have fungoid intelligence
which is totally alien to humans, no mag-
ic affecting the mind — beguiling, charm-
ing, dominating, holding, hypnotizing,
etc. will affect them.
DRAGON 37