Cybe Mushroom

Dwarven Swarmkeepers are reviled by the majority of their peers, due to their unfortunate reputation. The most common of dwarven swarm keepers are those who stumbled upon a Cybe Mushroom patch somewhere in the underdark. Once exposed and left untreated for a week, the infection becomes irreversable, and the host dwarf begins to change. Their skin loses some of its color, their hair either becomes darker, or turns white, and grows faster than normal. They will also begin to slow, and grow less responsive for several days, during which they are infectious. During this time, the fruiting body of the mushroom emerge from all over the dwarf’s body, though it is usually centered on the point of contact where they were infected. Once the caps finish growing, the dwarf’s condition can no longer be passed on, provided they survived. After this point the fungal infection has stabilized, and a new odd process begins. The fruiting bodies continue to grow until they fall off, at which point they become small bipedal mushroom creatures under the command of the host dwarf. Though sometimes fatal, infection vastly extends a dwarf’s natural life span, and some say that they stop aging at the point when the infection matures completely.