Gas Spores

My first campaign as DM had a number of experienced players. This was a first attempt at shaking up the experienced players by providing encounters for which they could not be prepared. While we never used all the types listed here, the Gem spore was entertaining, as was the Invisibility spore.

Gas Spores

Appearance

Although the Gas spore is the most commonly known of the type, there are many other kinds. All have similar physical characteristics, strongly resembling a beholder at distances beyond 10 feet. As such they have what appears to be a large eye on one side, the “front”, and appendages on the top that resemble the smaller eyes of the beholder. They travel slowly, floating along silently, never making any noise.
Please note that at distances of 10 feet to 30 feet a character who asks has a 50% chance of detecting that the creature is a spore and not a beholder. At distances beyond 30 feet a character cannot determine the difference although the fact that the spore has not attacked magically may provide a character with the clue that it is a spore.

Combat

Spores do not have a physical attack — they are very fragile and explode if as little as 1 hp of damage is inflicted upon them. The explosion affects all within 2″ of the spore (see below for exact effects). While some spores cause physical damage, others do not, merely inflicting a magical effect.
Touching a spore with bare flesh infects a creature with rhizomes, which travel through the body in 1 round. The victim must receive a Cure Disease within 24 hours of infection or die and sprout 2-8 spores. Note that the types of spores produced is random, so a creature killed by a spore can produce 8 different types, none like the original. Also note that creatures within the area of effect of an exploding spore (regardless of type) have a 5% chance of being infected.

Habitat/Society

Spores are completely non-intelligent and have no society. While more than one may be encountered at a time, that is relatively rare (5%) and will occur only within a few hours of an infected creature sprouting spores, or in cases where sprouted spores are physically unable to leave a locale.

Ecology

The origins of spores are lost in antiquity, but sages believe that they were originally created by magic users as guardian beasts. Considering that examination of the remains show a similarity to various fungi, sages further conjecture that they were created from mushrooms.
Once sprouted the spores will drift randomly through a dungeon until encountering anything that inflicts at least 1 hp of damage, which causes them to explode. Observation has shown that unless damaged a spore may survive up to a year, at which time it will sink to the ground and die, resembling a flattened ball. Anything touching the remains with bare flesh within the next month will be infected with rhizomes and start the process anew.
Spores tend to move towards anything with body heat within 12″, although how they sense heat through a maze of tunnels remains unknown. They float via light gases, apparently hydrogen or helium, move by spurting small amounts of gas through orifices, and metabolize additional gas as they need it.

Variants

The following types of spores have been documented:

Treasure:

While spores generally have no treasure, some explode scattering coins or gems.

Level/XP Value