| Class: | Microbial symbionts |
| Hab: | Infects all life in grove |
| Fre: | Rare |
| Num: | Innumerable; several per cell of all life in grove |
| Lair: | 100% |
| Size: | Acres; S/M/L/XL: under 1 / 1-20 / 50-500 / 1,000 to 100,000 acres |
| Move: | By host |
| Def: | Imbedded in hosts; grove gestalt has no vital parts |
| Att: | Infects by ingestion |
| Int: | None? (assumed) |
| Spec: | Creates scintillating, surrealistic sanctuary groves |
| Posns: | Oasis sanctuary + hosts' possessions |
The Gauguin effect symbiont is closely related to the Purple Haze Oasis symbiont, which SEE. Unlike the purple haze, the Gauguin effect, is not limited to desert oases but can be found in groves of any clime. The Gauguin effect differs further from the simpler purple haze in that it affects all life in its realm, not just the plants. The Gauguin effect can be rather unsettling to those unaccustomed to it, as it seems somewhat surreal or psychedelic in nature. It is wondrous - and addictive. A Gauguin grove can be a cage not merely gilded but scintillating with multifarious iridescent hues.
The Gauguin effect is produced as a collective, colony-effect by symbiotic microbes that infect and gradually alter all life that remains within the Gauguin grove too long. Infection is via ingestion; plants are affected as they absorb water and air-born micronutrients, while animals are infected when they eat fruit or flesh of infected life within the area. An attack by an infected animal or plant may result in infected material entering the bloodstream, passing the infection along. Cooking kills the microbes. Naturally, the offspring of infected plants and animals are likewise infected.
Should a plant or animal infected by the Gauguin microbes leave the effect area, it will cease to change, but any changes already effected remain. Should a group of such life forms travel and then settle in a new place, they may seed a new colony of microbes, creating a new Gauguin effect grove.
Offspring of an infected life form and a non-affected life form will generally only have a mild version of the effect but not carry any active microbes.
Like dream-lotus eaters, those infected by Gauguin effect microbes will be disinclined to leave the effect area. This disinclination means that, should a person (or creature) have reason to leave, a check against willpower is needed. If failed, a perfectly rational excuse to stay will be found - or manufactured.
Likewise, having left, a willpower check is required any time a plausible excuse to return to a Gauguin grove (whether the original one or another) is found; treat this as a permanent addiction. The willpower check becomes more difficult for each "time increment" one spends in the effect area; after the first hour, -1, after the first day, -2, after the first month, -3, and after the first year, -4. Should one live in an effect area a full century, willpower to leave (or resist returning) is -5, and after a millennium, -6.
In addition to the splendid aesthetics of a Gauguin effect area, additional enticements to stay are the super-abundance of florescence and fruiting. Healing is faster here, too, becoming regenerative. In extreme cases, when a carnivore feasts on its prey, if anything is left, the prey regenerates. If such an infected person is partly eaten (or otherwise badly injured), if the brain is intact, they can regenerate back to their former health, but if the brain is not intact, the regenerated body is a memoryless clone. Of course, even under the best of circumstances, such a horrifying system-shock will resulting in some permanent loss of sanity and degrades both mental and physical health.
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