Dusanu

RETURN THE SLAB

The Dusanu is an old and obscure Gotcha Monster from Dungeons & Dragons. Whilst it at first appears to be a humble skeleton, it is actually a parasitic fungus that feeds on dead flesh and which can, somehow, infest bones and then animate them to use them as a way to find new sources of food to eat and germinate spores on. As a result it's actually not hurt by anything specifically focused on the Undead, it's actually impervious to the trusty bludgeoning weapons you would normally rely on to destroy a skeleton (the bones have been left all rubbery, so they just sort of bounce back into shape), and it can deliver a very nasty rotting disease slash mold infestation with its claws.

The Dusanu appeared in the adventure module X5: The Temple of Death, although - like the geonid - didn't join its buddies the Malfera or the Mujina for the Companion Set. The BXCMI Creature Catalogue collected them all, belatedly.

As for fungus-controlled zombies, of course the 1984 Dusanu far precedes The Last Of Us so: maybe this shouldn't be as obscure as it is.

The Dusanu was updated to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition in the Mystara appendix for the Monstrous Compendium. Creature Catalog IV in Dragon #339 brought it to 3.5. It got into Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition in an article in Dungeon Magazine #195, which also revived two other old-school plant monsters; the Hangman Tree and the Vampire Rose, alongside a new Nentir Vale-originated monster, the Reaper Blossom.

Gallery

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  This one apparently infested the skeleton of an Australopithecus.
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