What happens to a big dead animal in the Underdark?

[Umbran]

Also note that in some cases, the corpse itself can be a hazard.

My wife tells a story from veterinary school, from her necropsy rotation (here much shortened): A horse that had passed away had been left out in the summer sun for a few days. Nice and warm, so all the flora in its digestive tract had time to act, fermenting away, and the resulting gasses not released...

The result - an exploding horse. Very nasty.

 

[Storyteller01]

That is so cool. Holy crap imagine if there was a human variant of cordyceps?

What's that growing out of Bob?

I don't know, but he sure has been taking a long nap.

Or running into an underground community dead from it...

 

[Mycanid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzi8cZ1I12U

Now imagine this happening to larger critters (alive or already dead, at your option).

Aha! Someone has discovered one of our many secrets.

 

[Baron Opal]

That is so cool. Holy crap imagine if there was a human variant of cordyceps?

What's that growing out of Bob?

I don't know, but he sure has been taking a long nap.

My players want to traipse through the jungle which was well known for being very difficult to survive. I used cordyceps, zombie wasps and screwflies to good effect. My favorite quote from the evening was "what do you mean it's all real?!"

 

[Storyteller01]

Creepy thing is their might be some that effect mammals. They found one parasite that infects fish, getting them to act erratically to attract birds. Another invades crabs, actually altering it physically (whether male or female) to start creating the parasites eggs. They even act as if they were their own, protecting them like they would crab eggs.


Nature is just a bit creepy...



PS: sorry for hi-jacking the thread.

 

[Ion]

When nature is creepy it is so cool! I need to find more parasite nature documentaries.....

There was an adventure in Dungeon Magazine that I ran a while ago, called Red Tide or something about a fungus that took over people's minds. That Cordyceps Fungus reminded me of that.

 

[DMH]

When nature is creepy it is so cool! I need to find more parasite nature documentaries.....

Read Parasite Rex. Plenty of examples and how parasites affect the world around them (for better and worse).