Dev Log #01: Mushroom Exquisite Corpse
A few office notes + mushroom monster drawings from my sketchbook.
đïž A few office notes
MN
Well, itâs 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 whatâs happening here another time, maybe once weâre more out of the woods. A silver lining about it all is that Iâve 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 didnât reach my ambitious sabbatical goals. So, as a form of penance, Iâve forced myself to order a lot more takeout and gain some winter weight. I did make some artistic gains! Tom Hunterâs 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.
đȘ” Dev log #1
Since I started this substack, I havenât actually posted much of the nerdy stuff related to my world building project. Itâs mostly been Lord of the Rings and ramblings about sexual innuendo in Dutch art. So itâs time to finally let âer 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? âWouldnât that be awesome?â 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. Leshiâs 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 âdung cannonâ is a real species of fungi that builds up pressure before launching its sticky spores up to 20000 Gâs (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 AMAZINGâthat game is a visual touchstone for Hyphamancer.

Fig 2. Stalwart Spore Battery
This chaeleshi is probably a support/defensive mech. Itâs 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 90âs 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.

Fig 4. Scrawnman

Fig 5. Stinkhorn Warrior

Sketches: Leshi
Fig 6. Shroom-Cthulu
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. Whatâs going on with the turtle head?
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 thatâs 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.

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






I am Scrawnman - just an old fungal soul in a new funga.
These designs are so awesome - each fungal behemoth has a really unique vibe. Very cool world that is coming together!