User Guide

Bases and enhancements cannot be built on xenofungus squares, but the
resources of the fungus itself can be harvested. As your terraforming technol-
ogy improves, you acquire the ability to clear, and even to cultivate xenofun-
gus. Fungus can be planted to create defensive barriers, or simply for the
resources it yields.
FAUNA
The dominant animal life of Planet is the mind worm, a horrid-looking little
parasitic carnivore about 10 cm long. A single mind worm is a dangerous pest,
able to burrow into a human brain and devour it, while the victim succumbs
to violent delusions or dangerous fantasies, or lives out his deepest terrors.
Many theories have been advanced to explain the psychoactive nature of these
attacks but none have been experimentally validated.
Far worse than a single worm, mind worms are known to form vast mobile colonies,
called “boils,” which can overwhelm a military unit or a whole human base.
In addition to the land-based boils, there is also an aquatic vector for mind worms
called the Isle of the Deep. This floating terror can attack ships at sea. It can also
attack coastlines, spitting up mind worm boils on shore. Even an airborne vector,
poetically dubbed the Locusts of Chiron, haunts Planet’s stratosphere.
All three mind worm vectors go through a lifecycle. Seven different phases of
growth for each vector have been identified (See Morale/Lifecycle, p. 87). The
larger and more mature a boil, the more dangerous it is.
As your technology advances and your knowledge of Planet increases, you
might acquire the ability to grow native life-forms and place them under your
control for use as weapons. You may also acquire the ability to enslave wild
mind worm boils into your service.
PLANET
CHAPTER 3
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