Parasitic Puppet Master?

dachda · Post by **dachda** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:54 am

Zombie Creatures: What Happens When Animals Are Possessed by a Parasitic Puppet Master?

Check these little nasties out at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/slide ... -parasites

Got to be some great monster/adventure ideas in these creature descriptions. Take a close look at #6 too!!
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Go0gleplex · Post by **Go0gleplex** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:05 am

interesting stuff.
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Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:29 pm

Neat stuff, I'd read about #4 before, but there are some other cool ones here. Your right #6 could be fun for a DM to throw into a game world, but change the predator to something like a dragon etc.
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Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:53 am

6 must be a joke, no?

Otherwise, interesting and now I'm hungry!
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Sundog · Post by **Sundog** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:22 pm

I have a plant in my campaign world that spreads its seeds by doing something similar.

anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:23 am

Sundog wrote:
I have a plant in my campaign world that spreads its seeds by doing something similar.

In what way? By ants or by people.

Sundog · Post by **Sundog** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:37 pm

It's a smallish, holly-like tree that produces succulent white berries late in the autumn and into winter. Most of the berries are harmless enough, tasty and full of vital calories for hungry animals and people, but about 1 in 100 carries a tiny, deadly seed.

Once eaten, the spore puts forth a fungus-like growth that gets into the nervous system, interferes with the victim's mind and makes the eater aggressive and quarrelsome, with an irresistable urge to wander off, as far as possible. Victims can neither eat nor sleep, driven as they are by the seed's control. Eventually the weakened victim dies and a new tree sprouts, far fom its parent, with ready-fertilised soil in the form of its erstwhile victim.

They're usually browsed by deer and simiar creatures, and can readily take over the minds of victims up to about ogre-sized. The only reason that they're not burned off and uprooted is that those berries are delicious, highly nutritious and can be a vital food source in harsh winters. You just have to hope you're not the unlucky one.

gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:00 pm

I encountered something like these among the human species. Latched on to me for 6 years. I finally divorced her.
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