Ponge

Properties

Material Characteristics

A purpurescent spongy mycelium mass of soft fungal matter which spews out spores and slime. Expands and contracts as if it were a pair of lungs, but it does not pulsate like a heart. Very floppy and has many ridgy bits along the sides like the underside of a mushroom as well as some bloated parts. Coloured a dozen different shades of maybe-purple from a ruddy magenta to a deep, dusky indigo. Tearing it open, the insides are moist and damp and in some parts fluid slowly drips from its innards. The outside of the amorphous semisolid mass forms a robust outer layer of compacted fungal matter which is surprisingly sturdy and has the strength of an orange peel, although it can be squeezed.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Very spongy and compressable and reacts in extreme ways to temperature, recoiling and expanding. It is also flammable and the smoke made by it is pitch and stains cloud-wool, also smells very bad. Should you feel it the texture is oddly inconsistent, some parts are hard, other parts are soft, whereas some parts are rough and others are smooth like a slice of shittake mushroom that has been boiled.
Nobody has tasted it but this fungus has a very distinctive and pungent aroma that becomes more apparent when opened, like spoiled taro bean paste mixed with expired incense and curry powder. This odious reek becomes evermore stronger in warm weather, and especially when it's damp.

Geology & Geography

This fungus is found primarily within the clouds that float in the Lilac Skies, and it is the most probable reason for its distinctive purpuresence - the explosive spore pods drift languorously across the open air, but the actual stuff is extracted deep beneath fluffy-masses of cloud wool, indicated by tentative strands of mycelium threading here and there, connecting different blooms of fungus to each other. The fungus is always subterranean, never close to the surface, and if you don't dig you won't see it.

Origin & Source

Clouds which contain this fungus are known as spore-clouds, but they are rarely distinguished unless it is warm and one sees a row of tendrils about to spit loose a barrage of spore-pods into the open skies.

Distribution

Storage

Wrapped in very tight bags, perhaps even multiple layers of them that are soaked in a caking agent.

Related Locations

• Gielosk

Related Species

• Gieloskan