Cordyceps Hive Mind

The Cordyceps Hive Mind exists by infecting and infesting insects and humans alike. Using a system of pheromones, the mutated worker insects leave their hive to capture infected human prey, who are then fed to the larvae to grow into more insectine horrors. Eventually, vespid swarms can be summoned to eradicate humanity, both from the hives and by bursting directly out of the infected humans in their cities.

Holy Orders (including Witch Circles) have access to **Insectine Devotion**, a tenet that can be influenced from -2 to 2. Under elder influence it will cause refugees from locations containing a temple of that faith to sacrifice themselves at a hive, at -2 this will occur in all locations following the faith. The Hive Mind also has access to the **Late-Stage Infection Victim**, a generic agent focused on spreading the infection and signaling to **Drones** that prey exists.

Cordyceps is held back by 5 seals, which are broken by the consumption of human population in **Hives** along a similar vein to **Mammon**'s mountain,

## Cordyceps Infection

The Cordyceps Hive Mind relies on its fungal infection to harvest biomass and create its insectoid monsters. The Cordyceps Infection works differently for characters and settlements, though the two feed closely into one-another. In both cases, the Cordyceps Infection can only target humans, not elves or other species.

For characters, the Cordyceps Infection takes the form of a trait that starts at 0% maturation and grows by 2% a turn to 100% maturation. They will add 2% Infected Populace to any human settlement they spend a turn in, whether or not there is already Infected Populace present. They also have a chance based on their maturation percentage to infect the ruler and any other human characters present who are not at full awareness, increasing linearly to 2.5% at full maturation. Characters with full maturation can be transformed into drones or hives using powers, and rulers will be less likely to replace lost armies as their maturation increases. All of your agents start infected with 100% maturation, including elves and orcs (though they can still only spread it to humans).

Characters can also be infected more proactively through the Infect Ruler challenge and the Targeted Infection challenge:

### Infect Ruler:

Requires: 100% infiltration

Lore+Intrigue challenge

Complexity: 20

Profile: 2

Menace: 10

Inflicts the location's ruler with the Cordyceps Infection.

### Targeted Infection:

Requires: 100% Infected Populace

Lore+Intrigue challenge

Complexity: 20

Profile: 2

Menace: 10

Inflicts all heroes and acolytes who have this as a home location with the Cordyceps Infection.

Heroes can assassinate infected rulers to stop them from spreading the infection, though the quest's motivations make it highly unlikely they will ever do so, even at high World Panic:

### Remove Vector:

Requires: Full awareness and an infected ruler

Lore+Intrigue quest

Complexity: 20

Profile: 20

Menace: 10

Kills the location's ruler.

The infection of settlements is reflected by the Infected Populace modifier, which grows from characters in the location but does not grow or spread on its own. Infected Populace is used to fuel certain powers, as well as allowing your Drones to drag people away to be processed into Larval Mass. Agents can use the Infect Populace challenge to quickly speed up infection growth, and heroes can use the Treat Populace quest to fight back:

### Infect Populace:

Lore+Intrigue challenge

Complexity: 25

Profile: 2

Menace: 8

Increases the Infected Populace by 25%.

### Treat Populace:

Lore+Intrigue quest

Complexity: 25

Profile: 0

Menace: 0

Reduces the Infected Populace by 50%.

## Cordyceps Hives

Hives can be created from fully infected characters using the Start Hive and Motor Function Takeover powers. Once a Hive is present, Drones will deposit kidnapped infection victims at the Hive in the form of Larval Mass, which can be used as fuel for your powers to create still more insects. Heroes can raid your Hives using the Destroy Larva quest, with motivation based on their awareness, their shadow, World Panic and the amount of Larval Mass present:

### Destroy Larva:

Might quest

Complexity: 15

Profile: 0

Menace: 0

Removes a third of the Larval Mass in this location.

## Powers

#### Start Hive

Cost: 0 Power

Available at the start

Turns a Hero or Agent with a Mature Infection into a Hive, letting you spawn drones and military units. The new hive starts with a single non-controllable Drone agent.

This must be performed at an empty location or a City Ruins settlement.

#### Motor Function Takeover

Cost: 1 Power

Available at the start

Causes the nearest hero with a Mature Infection to move to this location, so they can be used to construct a Hive. If the hero is permitted to arrive without being turned into a hive, they will regain control of themselves and go about their business.

#### Infested Drone

Cost: 0 Power

Available at the start

Turns a fully infected Hero, Acolyte or Agent into a drone, increasing Fallen Heroes world panic if appropriate.

If a drone has no active task while away from its Hive, it will return to the nearest Hive. If at its Hive, it will follow any feeding pheromone trails present at the location, or explore randomly if there are no feeding pheromones. Randomly exploring drones will generate "home" pheromones to help them find their way back.

If a Drone finds an Infected Populace modifier, either by following feeding pheromones or by stumbling across it randomly, it will gain 4 profile and 7 menace, then paralyze and carry away a portion of its population based on the following calculation:

```
Find the smaller of 20 and the available population, where the available population is the larger of a third of the total population or a flat 2.
Multiply that amount by the local Infected Populace's charge (for example, halving it if it's at 50%)

```

The drone will then head home to deposit its prey as more Larval Mass.

#### Arthropod Drone

Cost: 0 Power, 10% Larval Mass

Available at the start

Spends 10 Larval Mass at a Hive to spawn a new Drone, behaving as described above.

#### Homing Instinct

Cost: 0 Power

Available at the start

Commands the targeted Drone to travel directly to the nearest Hive, ignoring any pheromones.

#### Assign Guard

Cost: 1 Power, 5% Larval Mass

Requires 1 broken seal
Assigns a Vespidic Guard to a Drone or one of your agents with a free minion slot. Vespidic Guards have 4 attack, 3 HP, 3 defence and 1 Command cost, but this power can safely put the target above their Command limit.

The target unit must be at the hive with the Larval Mass.

#### Disrupted Neurology

Cost: 1 Power

Requires 1 broken seal

Reduces a location's security by 1 for 25 turns. Can be stacked.

Must target a settlement with at least 25% Infected Populace.

#### Haematophage

Cost: 3 Power

Requires 2 broken seals

Spawns a Haematophage non-controllable agent at any location (5 HP, randomly 1-3 attack, 2 defence). The Haematophage will spawn a Carapace minion (0 attack, 2 defence, 1 HP, 0 Command cost) every 14 turns. The Haematophage will move to its home location and heal if wounded, and will otherwise attack heroes (notably not acolytes) who get within four steps of the location you spawned it at. If the Haematophage has a center-row minion it will attack any hero, and if it lacks a center-row minion it will only attack heroes whose attack plus their center minion's attack is less than its HP. The Haematophage or its target will always flee after the first turn of battle, and the Haematophage will gain 10 profile and menace after every fight.

#### Remove Hive

Cost: 0 Power

Requires 2 broken seals

Destroys a Hive, erasing any "home" pheromones at the location and reducing any other "home" pheromones within four steps of it. This allows you to reposition any Drones to a more conveniently-placed Hive.

#### Vespidic Swarm

Cost: 0 Power

Requires 3 broken seals

Consumes all the Larval Mass at a Hive to spawn a Vespidic Swarm army with HP equal to the Larval Mass consumed. A Vespidic Swarm's first priority is to join in any battles other Vespidic Swarms are involved in, its second priority is to raze any populated settlements at its current location, its third priority is to move to a random location within two steps of the Vespidic Swarm Target (see below), and its fourth priority is to wander into a random neighbouring location.

Must target a Hive with at least 10 Larval Mass.

#### Vespid Swarm Target

Cost: 0 Power

Requires 3 broken seals

Places the Vespid Swarm Target at a location of your choice. Vespid Swarms will generally stay within two steps of the Target if they are not trying to defend other Vespid Swarms in combat.

#### Airborne Spores

Cost: 2 Power

Requires 4 broken seals

Causes a targeted Hive to permanently emit infectious spores, automatically infecting any human non-army units who enter the Hive's location and increasing the Infected Populace of any human settlement within 2 steps by 1% per turn. The Hive gains 1 menace per turn.

#### Sychronised Infestation

Cost: 0 Power

Requires 4 broken seals

Transforms all fully infected heroes and acolytes on the map into drones, as if with the Infested Drone power. This power is a convenience tool.

#### Paranoid Hysteria

Cost: 2 Power

Requires 5 broken seals

Makes a unit with 100% Infection Maturity gain 10 menace and randomly causes the madness effect `Paranoid Delusions' or `Hypochondria' on their location. "Paranoid Delusions" creates a 50-charge Banditry modifier at the location, increases its security by 5 and causes any heroes or acolytes at the location to gain 5% shadow per turn. "Hypochondria" reduces prosperity by 65%, creates a 50-charge Quarantine modifier at the location, and adds 100 Plague Immunity to the location. Adds 1% to temporary World Panic.

The target unit must not be the Chosen One, and must be in a populated settlement (including elven settlements) with less than 50% Infected Populace.

#### Internal Maturation

Cost: 3 Power

Requires 5 broken seals

Causes a Vespidic Swarm (see above) to burst forth from infected commoners. Its starting HP is the lower of 50 and the settlement's population times its Infected Populace modifier (so the lower of 50 and half its population at 50% Infected Populace), and the settlement's population is reduced by its starting HP.

Must target a human settlement with at least 50% Infected Populace.

## Victory Text

The art and text displayed upon winning a game depends on which source of victory points is biggest, in line with the various achievements for winning the game in certain ways.

### Shadow:

The insects blot out the sun in their swarming masses, but the true shadow seems to seep from the ground, rising from below in the maggot-infested ground. Humanity's soul has been devoured from within by the magics, as the fungal spores burrow into their minds.

### Madness:

Insanity in the face of such horrors is the only sane response.

### Dark Empire:

Organised like an army, the fungus-infested insects swarmed. The humans were the next to fall, and their own armies joined the ranks of the lower animals, all just parts of the vast hive mind.

### Dead Population:

Humanity's empires and kingdoms are gone, the few survivors just prey for the horrific abominations, each just a tiny fragment of the hive mind.

### Ice Age (dead population with a low enough world temperature):

The snows have come and destroyed the world. The few remaining life forms are entirely infested with fungal spores, and owned by the hive mind.

### Deep Ones:

Perhaps those in the deep were the first to fall, their brains rotting from the inside as the fungus replaces their organs and turns them into instruments of its will.