Spores and Sporelings

Spores and their larva form Sporeling are a race of creatures in Pillars of Eternity.

These giant mushrooms stand nearly as tall as adult aumaua with a broad and colorful cap. Their enormous weight is only held upright by the dozens of roots surrounding their base.

Description
Spores

"These giant mushrooms stand nearly as tall as adult aumaua, and are topped by a broad and colorful cap. Their enormous weight is only held upright by the dozens of roots surrounding their base. Grown up Spores are unique, compared to their larva form of fungi, in their appetite for the souls of living creatures. They often grow and move in groups along the forest floor, searching for weakened or exhausted travelers who are unable to fight back. Once they find a host, they bind to it and supply it with the basic nutrients required to keep it alive while they absorb its essence. Spores are extremely hostile once they find a host, and will attack anything that gets close to their meal with their poisonous, barbed roots.

Spores feed on the most corrupt and splintered energy of a soul first, continuing until the host is nothing but a soulless husk. This makes spore flesh useful to experienced apothecaries as a cleansing agent in soul purification medicines and techniques. Improperly applied, however, this treatment can lead to amnesia and, in extreme cases, soul fracturing."

Variants
Sporelings

"Sporelings are the larval form of Spores. While more mobile and agile than their mature counterparts, these humanoid-shaped creatures are also far weaker. They spawn from the spores, and use their heightened mobility to seek nourishment. Like spores, sporelings feed off of both decaying organic matter and soul essence, and they must bulk up on a sufficient amount of both before maturing into spores themselves.

Saplings and larva state of spores. Instead of their mature counterpart, weaker but moveable."