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[Coyote Sans]

Dwarves are awfully reliant on mushrooms. They use them for food, drink, even as a source of lumber. And, of all the things in the world that try to kill dwarves, mushrooms seem to be their only friends. Even rocks can kill a dwarf should he fall asleep on a stone-fall trap. Sadly for them, I've thought up a way even this staple of dwarven life can be a killer.

I actually had a dream about this last night. My dwarf is doing some work when he cancels. At first, it seems to be a strange mood, but he doesn't claim any workshops. Instead he just runs around. Apparently, he had eaten a mushroom or fungus that took advantage of dwarven reliance on the organisms to hijack his brain. Mind control mushrooms.

At first, I thought this was a nightmare, but then I figured it was pretty cool. Dwarves are so reliant on mushrooms, shouldn't nature have developed a certain kind of fungus to exploit this weak spot?

Granted, I'm not sure how you could implement this without it completely destroying a young fortress. Maybe only have the nightmare 'shrooms grow during the autumn? Make it possible to develop a cure for fungus on the brain?

[Mondark]

An idea that is actually rather original!  In the suggestions forum no less!

I like it!  This could maybe be implemented (by modders, if not Toady) with the new poison raws for the next release.  I think there's some changes to the plant raws too, so this seems pretty plausible.

[Pilsu]

Why would a plant control minds?

[assimilateur]

Why would a plant control minds?

1. Fungi are not plants.
2. "Control minds" might be stretching it a bit, but I think "fuck with heads" is a good description. There are species like that in real life, so I don't think they're out of place in a fantasy setting. Cf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgkL8PulPdE

[jaked122]

I second the LSD plant IDEA!!!!!

[Silverionmox]

Why would a plant control minds?

To aid in procreation. Like a virus, that induces behaviour in its hosts that spread it, like for example ebola: slime runs out of your body openings, while coughing and sneezing. If that doesn't spread it.. Lifecycles of parasites can be complicated, eg. malaria, tapeworms, etc.

[Granite26]

Sporelet creatures that grow mushrooms and release spores.  The spores cause the infected to walk back to the parent tree.  When the spore detects it's close to the tree (exhale a complex chemical as waste), it kills the host.  Host decomposes, fertilizing the tree.  Tree releases seeds on the wind (like a dandylion or something) that grow into more mushrooms.

Yay

[Sphalerite]

I like it.  There are fungi which do exactly this to ants and other insects.

Presumable the infected dwarf should eventually jump off a cliff and explode in a spore cloud or something similar.

[jaked122]

I like it.  There are fungi which do exactly this to ants and other insects.

Presumable the infected dwarf should eventually jump off a cliff and explode in a spore cloud or something similar.

that is actually what that fungus makes the ant do.

[QuakeIV]

Urist Bomrekaden, Planter cancels store item in stockpile; REASSERTING CONNECTION TO THE COLLECTIVE

[DanielLC]

What does it make infected dwarves do? How does it spread? How does the player detect and stop it?

I'm thinking it could be something that infects plump helmets, and infected dwarves who plant plump helmets give it to them. That doesn't actually mean they'd have to do anything, other than plant plump helmets. Perhaps they'd just go mad. In order to make this not totally lethal, I'd have it so a dwarf only has a certain chance of getting it each time it eats an infected mushroom, an infected dwarf only has a certain chance of giving it to a mushroom, or both. When you realize you have it, you take all your plump helmets and lock them in a room.

You could make it more cruel by having it also/only spread through booze, so you have to stop a breakout by destroying all of your dwarven wine.

[HammerHand]

This idea... is incredible.  Or, at the very least, has incredible implications.  I think it's exactly the kind of thing that poisons and diseases should do.

Other ideas for fungal parasites:
* One that causes nerve damage (this may or may not also cause insanity).
* One that (eventually) causes berserk, melancholy, or insanity, like a failed strange mood.  Tripping out is different for everyone, so this could be a single parasite, or several different ones.
* One that causes limbs to wither, like they grow mushrooms that feed on the limb they're attached to. ... Actually, it would make more sense if they slowly spread across the dwarf's whole body, eating limbs as they go and making for a very unsightly Dwarf.  The description block would be great for this.
* One that causes attributes to wither.
* One that changes personalities, or preferences.
* One that simply causes unhappy thoughts (like a fungal parasite version of the common cold. I guess this is more like a disease than a parasite, but the two topics seem similar enough).
* One that alters the digestive tract, leading to... actually, without putting poop in the game (which Toady seems against, for good reason), I'm not sure how we could handle this except for unhappy thoughts.

Other parasites would be great, too.  Like fleas.  Imagine a whole zoo full of elephants and giant leopards getting fleas, and spreading them to all visiting Dwarves.  Cats spread fleas by the thousands.  Misery ensues as your entire fortress is forced to take flea baths in carp-infested waters.  Oh, yes.  Fun will be had by all.

Ideas for dealing with this:
* Getting rid of your Infected Plump Helmet problem would actually be kind of easy.  Stocks->Plants->Plump Helmets->Dump.  Making sure your entire farming population were clear of the disease?  Not so simple.  How does a diagnosis work if there are no immediate symptoms?  Hmmm...
* Any disease that is not incredibly terrifying should probably have a decent period of symptoms before something crazy happens, giving our future hospitals a really good reason to be there (as if injured soldiers, woodcutters, and fisherdwarves weren't reason enough).

... Okay, so I don't have a lot of ideas for this end of it.  c.c

[DanielLC]

The best way to get rid of it would be to not plant plump helmets until it goes away. There are other things to plant.

I don't think this would be very good unless it somehow controls the dwarf. Otherwise, it's just an ordinary disease.

[Rowanas]

That would be some serious "fun". Imagine it, you're in your 3rd year, the goblin siegers have been driven back, and as you prepare to stock up...MADNESS!! Every month or so another dwarf succumbs to the collective. Your nobles go berserk! Your miners go melancholy! Everything you had under control is brought down about your knees! You administer a cure to those with the infection only to discover that your mechanics have gone unnoticed! They have created fevered works of unholy landscaped pocked with the bones of dead gods!

IA-IA SHUB NIGGURATH, The black goat of the woods with a thousand young!

be right back. I have to go mod DF Call of Cthulhu edition...

[Heron TSG]

+1 vote!