Treehuggers

Mycelium Germs create, tap into, or manipulate the connections between things. This control extends to infrastructure that networks people together, such as computers and phone lines. They are most associated with Animals and the Mind Attribute (♣), as consciousness and awareness are the foundations of connectivity.

Join the Network
Type: Active (Signature)
Effect: Establish telepathic contact between yourself and up to two other willing participants. You may communicate with each other at a distance of up to a mile (NOTE: for characters at different locations, distance is important! You generally will not be able to maintain telepathic contact with someone who goes away from gathering on a mission from gathering, and visa versa, unless that mission is particularly close). If you are connected to another Treehugger with their own network, the networks fuse together. This connection lasts until you refresh by any means. If you use this Germ while you already have a network active, you may add up to an additional two people to it. If someone leaves the area covered by the network and later returns, they reconnect automatically.

Orwell’s Bane
Type: Royal (A)
Effect: For the rest of the scene, you may not be recorded. Cameras fail to pick up your presence, and phones will fail to pick up your voice. If your actions would make it blatantly obvious that you are there, then the technology briefly “glitches” in a way that makes that entire portion of it unusable.

Cultured: You may extend this effect to up to five allies.

Constructive Dismissal
Type: Royal (J)
Effect: Select a target in line of sight and name an Active Germ they). have access to. You don’t need to know the name of the power, but you do need to know generally what it is doing. You temporarily fray that person’s connection to their supernatural power source. They may not use that power for the rest of the scene. Any currently active instances of that power immediately end.

Cultured: Additionally, the target may not use any Active or Royal Powers until the end of their next turn.

Tapping the Network
Type: Royal (Q)
Effect: Play the Queen and spend a second communing with the Mycos. You gain a supernaturally attuned kinesthetic sense of the area around you. You are aware of the rough floor plan, including secret rooms, within an area around you. This Germ can sense everything in the area of a three story house (where you are standing in the middle of it). It can sense into Depth 1 of the Undergrowth if you are in the mortal world, and vice versa. If it is used in the Undergrowth, it can sense one Depth Capward and Downroot. This sense only lasts for a moment, like running your hand through a flame. This Germ takes a Simple test to activate, and can only be Resisted if the target already has supernatural concealment in effect.

Cultured: When you use this Germ, you become aware of the location of all creatures within the area you sense. You also know how many of each type of supernatural entity is in the area. It does not tell you which creature is what type of supernatural. Further, when this Germ is used in a forest, the range extends to a mile in every direction.

Mushroom Cap Shield
Type: Royal (K)
Effect: Out of combat, you may play the King when engaged in a social challenge. In addition to counting as an 8 for that challenge, the target is freed from any supernatural coercion and control for the next fifteen minutes. This does not work on Controlled or Consumed, but does work on those Influenced by the Blight. You may also play the King just to free someone you are holding a conversation with from any supernatural coercion and control for the next fifteen minutes

Cultured: In combat, this card supplies 10 Defense, and the target’s Defense does not fade at the end of this round.

Beastial Hyphae
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: Select a mundane animal in line of sight that can hear you. For the rest of the scene, you can communicate effectively with that animal through a mix of body language and noises that approximate the animal's own vocalizations. This power does not guarantee the animal will like you, will understand concepts beyond its normal faculties, or will have information you want. This Germ allows the attempt.

Cultured: You may play an additional card to offer an animal you can talk to and touch a choice: join you in the war against the Blight, or return to its normal existence. Animals who like you will generally accept the deal the first time, while there is no known instance of an animal who previously accepted the deal accepting it a second time.

If the animal accepts, your mycelial tendrils will extend to the animal, making them your chosen companion and influenced by your Mycos. Your companion has 4 HP, which it recovers (even from death) like a Sporebound, using you as its Anchor. "Removing" this Anchor ends the power. It gains human-like intelligence. It may perform mundane actions, spending your cards to do so. In combat, you spend your action (and cards) to order the animal, who immediately performs the action using your card on your initiative. If, outside of combat, the animal is particularly well suited to the task, it bids your card's value +1. Note that inside of combat, the animal is unlikely to be particularly well suited to anything at all.

Branching Tendrils
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: The Mycos connect the power of your violence to multiple targets. Describe an attack that could logically affect multiple people–a quick unarmed combination to multiple surrounding targets, a molotov through the window, or shoving a dumpster at multiple assailants. Your attack damages two targets, instead of one. This damage can not flinch the targets.

Cultured: Your attack damages a third target.

Hyphae Wedging
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: Select a person you are talking with and mention something you want them to do. If this power is not resisted, you learn what they would consider to be appropriate leverage for that task. You can specify whether you are looking for something to bribe them with, something to intimidate them with, or a value they have that you would need to align the task with.

Cultured: Alternatively, you may separate the target from their support structures and networks. They can't use phones, computers, or telepathy. They can't access their bank accounts. Friend groups ignore them socially, while companies they work for treat them like they are fired. This effect lasts the rest of the scene. Supernatural entities, such as other Sporebound, may continue to acknowledge the target normally.

Mycos Wireless Web
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: Touch an electronic device, or other device utilizing phone lines. You infest it with mycelial matter which allows you to interface with it remotely. Until the end of the scene, you may remotely operate that device and are aware of any of its inputs and outputs. For instance, you know what is on the screen or what someone else types on a keyboard.

Cultured: You may use this power on any qualifying device in line of sight by breathing out spores that infest it.

One of the Family
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: So long as you make a token attempt at looking the part, you can disguise yourself as being a member of any organization or culture. Mortals are automatically fooled, while Supernatural entities must discard a card or take 2 damage to treat you as anything but what you are disguised as. Once someone has taken damage or spent a card to resist this power, they resist all instances of this power from anyone for the rest of the scene.

Cultured: In addition, you can name a specific position within that culture or organization. People will treat you as having that position, which often counts as Leverage when ordering someone to do something within the scope of the organization. This works by filling in the gaps of people’s knowledge. Anyone who knows every single person with that position within the organization will know you aren’t actually of the rank you say you are, but will still assume you are a member of that organization.

Open Says Me
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: When you encounter a situation that requires a password, number combination, or other piece of information to verify your permission, you may use this power. You say some nonsense, or input random values and, somehow, it works. The doorman accepts your password, or you open the combination to a safe, or you get into someone’s work email. The ruse only lasts long enough to do one thing, which can take no more than five minutes. Afterwards the gig is up. The door or container slams shut, the computer reboots to lock you out again, or the doorman realizes you didn’t actually give the correct password. If the appropriate owner interacts with something you got access to you shouldn’t have, then they will know it has been tampered with, but not how or by whom.

Cultured: You may re-enter the same location or access the device a second time within the same game session without using this power or making a test. The same rules apply to this second access.

Physiological Entanglement
Type: Active (♣)
Effects: Damage to someone’s limb is the same as damage to them, because the limb is part of them. With this power, the Sporebound can link two targets in line of sight, one of which may be themselves. The metaphorical connection between those two targets grows to the point where they are part of each other. Damage and negative supernatural effects applied to one of the targets also affects the other target. If either target Resists this power, then the power fails. Transferred damage does not cause Flinching, and Flinching is never transferred. This Germ lasts until the end of the scene.

Cultured: When one of the targets gains Defense, you may choose to have the other target also gain Defense.

The Bonds that Tie
Type: Active (♣)
Effect: Select a person you are talking with and mention another person or group of people. If this power is not resisted, you learn the target's relationship to the person or people group you mention. If that person or people group is an Anchor, you learn that information.

Cultured: In addition to the above, so long as the person has any connection to the person or group you mention, you may choose to strengthen that bond to concerning levels. The target gains an overwhelming sense of dread that something is wrong with the mentioned person or people group, or feels a sudden urge to be in their presence. Mundane targets will leave the scene to spend time with the people or group you mention. If the person or group you mention is an Anchor to a Supernatural target, then that Anchor is considered In Crisis until the target spends at least five minutes meaningfully interacting with their Anchor in person to make sure they are okay. If the target is in an imminently threatening situation, they may handle that before checking in on their Anchors.