Sporeborn Myceloid

While most sporeborn are created from the flesh of vertebrates or creatures with exoskeletons, fungal and plant creatures serve as a fine host for a sporeborn's parasitic spores. In these cases, the sporeborn mycelial network burrows through the corpse, replacing the original hyphae in fungal creatures and the xylem and pith in plants. This allows the sporeborn to puppet the creature, much as it does in mammals by replacing the tendons with its own rugged mycelium. Fungus and plant hosts are more likely to develop the potent poison sporeborn ability to enhance the hosts' natural abilities.

When a mindless guardian is needed, but the ethical bounds of creating undead are too uncouth, ritual casters may turn to a more fungal solution by creating a mycoguardian. Using valuable parasitic fungal spores, a ritualist may seed the corpse of a creature and encourage them to grow, sending mycelium tendrils throughout the body. The tendrils bond to mobile tissue such as bones, while replacing tendons with reinforced mycelium. This ritual magically replicates the yellow musk creepers' ability to spread throughout a dead organism then mobilize its body. But rather than a completely mindless fungal carrier, the ritualist has some control over the infested creature's behavior.

The magic of the ritual includes basic instructions and rules that guide the new fungal mycoguardian (in this case, a sporeborn). Simple instructions like "guard this room" or "slay all of the tiny creatures in this basement" should work well enough, but complex commands such as "deliver this letter to the Harbormaster of Caliphas" are doomed to failure.

Fungel Ristualists

While mycoguardians are rare, several different types of primal spellcasters might create a mycoguardian. Druids might turn the bodies of a poacher's victim against the poacher, seeking to avenge the wrongful death and rebalance the scales of life. Leshy spellcasters create mycoguardians to protect their hidden communities and sacred groves. The fey of Northern Fangwood transform fallen or rotted trees into crustoreal mycoguardians, massive arboreal-looking creatures covered in parasitic lichen. These lumbering sentinels patrol their borders, crushing all non-fey who dare approach. There are rumors of crustoreals being imbued with void energy from the Gravelands and going berserk.

Creating Mycoguardians

To create a mycoguardian, such as a sporeborn, a ritualist can perform a ritual similar to create undead (Pathfinder Core Rulebook 411) called create mycoguardian, but providing valuable parasitic fungal spores instead of black onyx. This ritual uses Fungus Lore (trained) or Nature (expert) for both the Primary Check and Secondary Checks, and lacks the Evil trait.

Different Mycoguardians

In addition to the sporeborn presented here, there are many versions of the create mycoguardian ritual for making mycoguardians other than sporeborn, such as for aquatic chytridions and so on. Some forms of mycoguardians, such as mycelial mindbores, come to be using their own unique methods and can't be created with a version of create mycoguardian.