Dev Log #01: Mushroom Exquisite Corpse

A few office notes + mushroom monster drawings from my sketchbook.

That third arm looks a little fishy if you ask me. Tee he he.

🗒️ A few office notes

MN

Well, it’s been an eventful past couple of months in Minneapolis. I was planning to get more accomplished during my sabbatical but instead refocused my energy into creating ICE OUT posters and community stuff. I might write more about what’s happening here another time, maybe once we’re more out of the woods. A silver lining about it all is that I’ve met more neighbors in the past five weeks than in the past five years.

The loon is the Minnesota state bird and has become a symbol of defiance against ICE. If you want to hear the soul of our state, listen to this epic but haunting loon call that I recorded in the wild:

Sabbatical updates

Needless to say, I didn’t reach my ambitious sabbatical goals. So, as a form of penance, I’ve forced myself to order a lot more takeout and gain some winter weight. I did make some artistic gains! Tom Hunter’s art book Magic Mayhem Monsters, reignited a love for markers and inspired me to take a less-precious, more shoot-from-the-ship approach to creature drawings. Take a looksee at some of the drawings below.

🪵 Dev log #1

Since I started this substack, I haven’t actually posted much of the nerdy stuff related to my world building project. It’s mostly been Lord of the Rings and ramblings about sexual innuendo in Dutch art. So it’s time to finally let ‘er rip.

The seed of this project grew out of an interest in building a game that combines exquisite corpse with giant, organic mechs. What if instead of robots, people piloted huge Frankensteinian creatures stitched together from the rotting appendages of slain monsters and vanquished foes? What if all of the parts were stitched together with fungi? “Wouldn’t that be awesome?” asked my inner twelve year old.

In the world of hyphamancer, giants can be categorized into three types: beasts, golems, and mechs.

• Megafauna (beasts): colossal creatures native to the world of hyhamancer. Instead of dinosaurs and huge prehistoric beasts like mammoths and giant sloths, humongous turtles, snakes, crabs, boars, and rats lumber around the marshy landscape.

• Leshi (golems): monstrous, quasi-shape-shifting fungal golems summoned by a fungal network as a defense mechanism. Leshi’s powers are based on the genetic attributes of their fungal network, as well the local area (such as recently deceased creatures). Their bodies resemble giants and are made up of various hyphae, local flora, and found objects.

• Chaeleshi (mechs): giant exo-suits piloted by hyphamancers, who control the suit from inside a chest cavity cockpit. These suits are grafted together with the parts of megafauna, leshi, crafted armaments, and the looted remains of fallen chaeleshi. Fungi serves as the padding and glue of the chaeleshi suits.

Sketches: Chaeleshi

Fig 1. Dung Cannoneer
Pilobolus crystallinus, AKA the “dung cannon” is a real species of fungi that builds up pressure before launching its sticky spores up to 20000 G’s (in the first millimeters of flight). It would be an injustice not to arm some chaeleshi with a dung cannon.

For this drawing, I took inspiration from some of the figures from the game Lancer. The artwork of Lancer is AMAZING—that game is a visual touchstone for Hyphamancer.

The frog arm (?) attached to its back is probably used for additional balance/support (like a tail?). It’s kind of like an excavator or crane arm. I like the little “mechanic” off to the left. He’s like “I got you buddy”.

Fig 2. Stalwart Spore Battery
This chaeleshi is probably a support/defensive mech. It’s got a long-range spore-missile battery, shroom-hammer, and fungal cap shield. It also has corporate sponsorship.

Fig 3. Juggernaut
A few months back, I repatriated my collection of 90’s X-Men comics that I had previously bequeathed to my teen nephew. I had held onto the hope that one day the Tub of Marvel would lead him to a similar path of nerddom, but woe is me, he chose not to walk that path.

Anyways. This drawing is based on the Juggernaut from X-Men.

Using a reference image for the pose allowed me to go ham on the details. Its left arm is a stinkhorn chainsword, human hands are repurposed as toes, and massive, finger-like coral mushrooms form into a gorget. I love all the flab folds!

Fig 4. Scrawnman

This was one of my earlier colored pencil drawings. I got lost in all the details, like the dead salamander arm and the hyphamancer in the right corner. It’s very controlled and less expressive drawing compared to the more recent ones that I made with markers.

Fig 5. Stinkhorn Warrior

I try to reference real mushrooms wherever I can when building out these creatures. This one combines elements of the stinkhorn mushroom, which features a putrid-smelling stalk (or “horn”) and a netted veil that hangs from the cap. The mushroom’s stinky slime attracts flies which then spread the spores. No thank you.

Sketches: Leshi

Fig 6. Shroom-Cthulu

Shroom-Cthulu headed leshi with a fire salamander flamethrower burning a ring of fire.

Fig 7. Exquisite Corpse Monster
This one really captures the mixed-bag mayhem of a fungal network forming a leshi. Sometimes the network might have a clear blueprint for a molding a monster and sometimes it mashes together whatever is nearby. What’s going on with the turtle head?

This dude is pretty gnarly. Would definitely be a Boss Fight.

Fig 8. Swampy Behemoth
This one gives me Annihilation vibes. The books and movie are so unsettling (especially the bear). They encapsulate the idea of an unknowable horror that’s also a biological system programmed to absorb and replicate everything it encounters but doing so in a way that everything it produces is either slightly off or horribly deformed.

A fisherman inadvertently tripped a fungal network’s defense system, causing it to summon this Swamp Thing-inspired big boy.

Nice job, you made it to the end. Let me know which creature best represents how you’re feeling today and why.