SHRIEKER FUNGI

Fungi of the woods, riverbanks or caves come in all shapes, sizes, forms and colours. Most are poisonous; some are pleasantly delicious, while others are neither or both. Some of the strangest are the subterranean dwelling fungi that live in highly populated regions, where food is often scarce or hard to acquire, need to develop ways of putting off a would-be attacker of fungi. Poison acts only after damage has been sustained and while some shoot at their attackers, this utilises precious effort and resources.

Shrieker fungi, Screaming Domes, Death Mould or Women's Gowns are a form of giant fungi that utilizes a defence that wastes no resources and is effective before any damage is taken, that is assuming that the attacker has ears or some kind of air-borne vibration senses.

Almost all fungi grow, and when mature send out spore, either visibly or invisibly. When the shrieker fungi spore, a visible, black dust cloud is issued at high speed from their frills and then is carried on the wind. However, much of this is lost in the caves and this way of reproducing and spreading is almost always limiting. The spore, on contact with creatures is usually harmless, but occasionally such concentrations of spore can occur that the victim is either suffocated or overdoses on the spore causing a form of poisoning; the spore reacts with flesh and hide and begins to grow its web-like fungal roots over and in the creatures flesh. Creatures thus succumbed to the spore fall unconscious and die, becoming food for the spreading fungus.

Initially these fungal roots are very thin but grow very quickly. They grow about a foot per day and after the first day's growth the first part of the root will have thickened by three times that of a blade depth. When the web-roots reach a barrier or their typical  maximum length of nine feet, they change and the root splits at right angles. This root joins with other spreading roots and once joined, another web-root shoots back to the source. Once this first ring has been formed and the return roots are growing, the original center begins to enlarge. Forming a hardened crust that begins to build into a sphere growing more elongated, reaching around two feet in diameter after a waeks growing. As soon as a returning root reaches this middle bloom the outer circle and returning roots begin to change once again. This time they become covered with small, sensitive boils or bubbles. These fill with liquid and are very sensitive to touch, vibration and crushing.

A further waek and the bloom has expanded to a three-foot diameter sphere before bursting open. Within is a conical cylinder, usually two to three feet in diameter. The outer sphere casing becomes the cap of this cylinder, filling with a gelatinous cream substance. This is slightly acidic to many passing creatures, especially those of flesh and blood. As the stem grows it normally reaches four to six feet in height and up to three feet in diameter. Three to four days after this stage, the cap extends horizontally, reaching four to six feet in diameter. The cap then becomes hard, enough to prevent easy damage, and, depending on the variety, covered with crusty blisters in various colours (common Shrieker Fungi) or an arrangement of luminous, liquid filled bubbles that light up when its main defence is activated (Women's Gowns).

The acidic goo and light bubbles, if evident, are the first form of defence for the fungi, but it has yet to achieve maturity.

After twenty-three to twenty-six days the fungus is now almost fully mature. Growth begins to slow. Now the gelatinous goo dries and forms into fleshy frills as a hole opens in the top of the cap. This change takes about three days and the fungus is then fully developed but not yet ready to spore.

Energy is now placed in growth of new web-roots. From the root nodes these new roots grow in straight lines, a quarter of the height of the fungus is how long the root grows. There it forms a center at which a new, second bloom will grow. this second fungus then follows the same growth pattern as the first. Given the best possible environment and conditions the original fungus can produce up to ten new fungi around itself. Once the first of these have fully developed they too begin to form new blooms on new web-roots, but this is less organised and a pattern can be completely broken due to the area situated in or climate and nutrient available.

Once the frills are fully developed and the secondary blooms begining to grow, it begins to develop its primary and most distinguishing defence...sound!

Should the bubbles on the cap be touched or feel a strong vibration, or should the web-roots be crushed under foot or broken by some means, the main bloom begins to open sacks between the frills, thereby sucking in air, this takes but a moment before they are full when the sacks are then compressed completely and at great pressure, forcing the air out through the hole in the cap. The cap hole is so formed that a force of air rushing through it causes a sound much alike to that of a scream and extremely loudly. Depending upon the variety, this can sound like a Serevmen woman in child birth, or an unholy creature screaming in turmoil. The volume of the scream is louder depending upon the age and size of the fungus and on how many sense-bubbles burst at the severity of the vibration detected. the scream will be repeated until the fungus can no longer feel vibrations. One fungus screaming can easily set off another and occasionally shrieker fungi can go on screaming, in large colonies, for pentawaeks at a time. Continuous screaming is detrimental to the fungus and after four to eight pentawaeks the fungus will become sagged and soft, its frills begin to wither and the scream dies. Then the bloom withers into a mushy pool of rotting fungi.

The scream can affect victims by.................................................