(with a medicine check of 10, this is what you learn in the time you have)
Narstin walks from buried creature to buried creature to do triage and see what can be done. The bodies are in various stages of fungal growth, most creatures are non-responsive. He is not sure if curing the creatures of the affliction will leave anything left worth living. The latest victims, the drow party, were buried not long ago and are already grotesquely mishappen. Narstin figures the whole incubation period, from infection to death and then undeath as a plant, is a few days at most.
Echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond to the East, a cacophony of wheezing voices that wrap together like some kind of discordant music. The remaining heads planted in the Garden of Welcome begin to croak and groan, joining the horrible song.
Through the mist that shrouds the smaller cavern, you see the parade of creatures responsible for the melody. Their bodies are only vaguely humanoid, with clusters of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices stabbing into your minds, both insane and gleeful in equal parts.
Out of the zurkwoods to the West, a dozen dancing Myconids enter the grove. Then it becomes two dozen. Three dozen, and so on until hundreds of dancing and swaying myconid are crowded around all of you, looking eastward expectantly.
Eleven humanoid creatures with a passing resemblance to spore servants approach in two uniform outfits, and another two are attired uniquely. One of those wears a gown with a veil covering the head. They march towards the garden in halting timed steps similar to a wedding procession, singing:
From rocky bed the toadstool rose,
From chaos dark, her love She shows.
Wish! Yearn! Laugh!
The Lady will be wed!
Crave! Hunger! Dance!
Her joyous spores will spread!
Youth is gone, beauty rots,
Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!
Joined together, heart to heart,
Becoming one ’til death do part!
Hail! Hail! Hail!
The crowd of myconids move to arrange themselves in uniform rows with one central aisle down the middle. Three spore servants sprout from the ground and tear the exposed body of Yestabrod in two to separate it from the viscid glob, and then move what is left at the head of the arrangement. They move Yestabrod's bisected corpse like a puppet as they play out its part of priest.
Witnessing this mock wedding, all onlookers experience a vision…
The tableau of the mock wedding is replaced by a vision of the inside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and balconies are carved into its walls, with the interior lit by phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In the center of the open space floats a humanoid figure, womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and mold.
She is easily three times the height of the fungal bridesmaids that move up and down the spiraling stairs, tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange, soothing song as they weave the substance of the giant figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train like a bridal gown.
You all witness a true likeness of a Demon Lord and must make a DC 10 Wisdom Saving Throw:
Once the wedding rehearsal is complete, the myconids disperse and disappear into the zurkwoods to the West. The spore servants drop Yestrabrod to the ground and join the wedding rehearsal procession as they return to the East.
"I think we should excuse ourselves from this freak show, and find Sovereign Basidia. Let it know that all the things it was worried about, are actually a pleasant dream compared to the layer of the Abyss that is coming, along with a Demon Lord-ess. Then we should wish them luck, and get the heck out of here.
"Unless someone has a better plan.
"Or knows of a way to stop that ceremony, without us being vastly outnumbered by... whatever those things are."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM) Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy) DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
Jimjar fishes coins from his belongings and gives it to Beegred. "Debt paid up. You won the bet. Blingdenstone is not far from here, and they need to be warned. I bet you they'll treat us like honored saviors!"
After agreeing to leave the Garden of Welcome and then Neverlight Grove after warning Sovereign Basidia, the party makes their way west with due haste. The zurkwoods seem to be restive and don't hamper the party. As the members descend the path they had climbed earlier that day, they arrive at the Circle of Sporer's mound, where Sovereign Basidia is waiting. Without communicating at all, she makes a 'follow' gesture and heads west.
The party has a hard time pushing through the fungi forest to keep pace with the Sovereign, who appears to slip through it with ease. They finally catch up with it at the mound for the Circle of Hunters, where Circle Leader Loobamub stands waiting with a fancy box and a small pouch. Sovereign Basidia releases her rapport spores, encompassing everyone and asks, "You are the first to return from the Garden of Welcome that I have witnessed myself. Your allies..." it points to Skameros, Jimjar and Derendil, "... carry a spore I can't identify. Were they exposed to something? Keep your distance. I will not risk becoming infected."
Narstin looks to Skameros, Jimjar, and Derendil upon hearing they carry unknown spoors, then back to Basidia. "We were attacked a by a large aberrant creature that looked to have once been a Myconid, though it was far from that now. During the fight, it released a cloud of spores. Those might be what you detect on them." Looking back at his allies again, he asks of Basidia, "Is there anything you can tell us about these unknown spores?"
Rodolfo will cast a few volleys of Prestidigitation trying to clear out everyone of the spores that would be on the surface of skin and clothes and equipment.
Sovereign Basidia looks toward Skameros, Jimjar and Derendil after Rodolfo casts his cantrip, and replies, "The spores now course through their body. Your spell had no effect." Turning to Narstin, the Sovereign communicates the equivalent of 'shaking its head' as it says, "The spores are alien. I have never encountered spores with such potency. As to what they do, I can not say.
Now, let us speak of this myconid. You say it was deformed? And it attacked you? Or did you mean it expelled spores and you took that to be an attack? "
Narstin shakes his own head, then, remembering they were speaking telepathically and Basidia might not be familiar with humanoid gestures, responds with, "No, it did not simply expel spores that we took as an attack. And it was quite deformed. The creature looked more like a fungal larva than a myconid. It was covered in mold and lichen. And it did something I've never heard one of your people do. It spoke to us aloud, not simply telepathically. It had also infected many servants that it seemed to be controlling." His face darkens. "Three of these 'servants' were our former allies, now covered in mold and fungi and growths. They attacked us, as well as others. Dozens more creatures were buried to their necks in the Garden, also with mold and fungi growing on and around them."
Sovereign Basidia responds once again, "Myconids do not make the air shake to communicate. What you saw couldn't be a myconid. Your description makes it sound like the thing you think is a myconid was probably a spore servant, being controlled by a Sovereign. Reanimation of the dead as spore servants is an ability that Sovereigns have. It is part of our natural existence. The Circle of Hunters gather the recently dead creatures near Neverlight Grove, and return them to the Sovereigns. Sovereigns animate the dead corpses with spores until the bodies can no longer function, then they return to the earth to rot and provide sustenance. The two large Chuul guarding the path to the Garden of Welcome are examples, raised by Sovereign Phylo.
The raised spore servants can only be controlled by the Sovereign that raise them and they have no intelligence, or capacity for speech. If you are certain Sovereign Phylo was not present, then there is a third mysterious Sovereign in the Grove and other living creatures capable of your air shaking speech. That explains why myconids not belonging to the Circle of Hunters are making forays and returning creatures to Neverlight Grove, without bringing them to Sovereign Phylo or myself."
(Regardless of what Sovereign Basidia just said... having fought Yestabrod and actual spore servants at the same time, you are fairly certain that Yestabrod was a living creature, where the other spore servants are more wooden and fluid-less. Except for Sarith, Tozer and Xilyrah, who were freshly killed in the act of making them spore servants.)
"We kill big squishy thing, spore servant friends stopped attacking..." and he'll shrug "lots of sleeping people in ground too..."
"then some shroom-men danced, some other sang, then Skameros saw inside great tower, full of glowy things with large person shaped lady made of shroom and mold....."
"then some shroom-men danced, some other sang, then Skameros saw inside great tower, full of glowy things with large person shaped lady made of shroom and mold....."
"Yeah, that last thing was the avatar of a demon god or something. Creepy as hell the Abyss. Ziggum-toy? Some of you seemed to recognize the name of what it was."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM) Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy) DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
Rodolfo says, "The names were Araumycos and Zuggtmoy." He repeats as much as he remembers of what happened and the vision.
"Sovereign, what should we do? It all seems very dangerous and while we were able to destroy Yestabrod then I very much doubt we could disrupt the real event tomorrow. I myself was knocked down and brought back from the brink of death."
He looks around to others and continues, "We can run, we are not from this place. But can you run and re-build the society somewhere else? Most of this place would be either destroyed or assimilated into something alien. If we stayed and helped, is there some key figure, perhaps this mysterious third Sovereign that we could try to dissuade from going through with this, one way or another?"
Medicine: 10
(with a medicine check of 10, this is what you learn in the time you have)
Narstin walks from buried creature to buried creature to do triage and see what can be done. The bodies are in various stages of fungal growth, most creatures are non-responsive. He is not sure if curing the creatures of the affliction will leave anything left worth living. The latest victims, the drow party, were buried not long ago and are already grotesquely mishappen. Narstin figures the whole incubation period, from infection to death and then undeath as a plant, is a few days at most.
Echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond to the East, a cacophony of wheezing voices that wrap together like some kind of discordant music. The remaining heads planted in the Garden of Welcome begin to croak and groan, joining the horrible song.
Through the mist that shrouds the smaller cavern, you see the parade of creatures responsible for the melody. Their bodies are only vaguely humanoid, with clusters of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices stabbing into your minds, both insane and gleeful in equal parts.
Out of the zurkwoods to the West, a dozen dancing Myconids enter the grove. Then it becomes two dozen. Three dozen, and so on until hundreds of dancing and swaying myconid are crowded around all of you, looking eastward expectantly.
Eleven humanoid creatures with a passing resemblance to spore servants approach in two uniform outfits, and another two are attired uniquely. One of those wears a gown with a veil covering the head. They march towards the garden in halting timed steps similar to a wedding procession, singing:
From rocky bed the toadstool rose,
From chaos dark, her love She shows.
Wish! Yearn! Laugh!
The Lady will be wed!
Crave! Hunger! Dance!
Her joyous spores will spread!
Youth is gone, beauty rots,
Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!
Joined together, heart to heart,
Becoming one ’til death do part!
Hail! Hail! Hail!
The crowd of myconids move to arrange themselves in uniform rows with one central aisle down the middle. Three spore servants sprout from the ground and tear the exposed body of Yestabrod in two to separate it from the viscid glob, and then move what is left at the head of the arrangement. They move Yestabrod's bisected corpse like a puppet as they play out its part of priest.
Witnessing this mock wedding, all onlookers experience a vision…
The tableau of the mock wedding is replaced by a vision of the inside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and balconies are carved into its walls, with the interior lit by phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In the center of the open space floats a humanoid figure, womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and mold.
She is easily three times the height of the fungal bridesmaids that move up and down the spiraling stairs, tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange, soothing song as they weave the substance of the giant figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train like a bridal gown.
You all witness a true likeness of a Demon Lord and must make a DC 10 Wisdom Saving Throw:
(ArgentTheSilver's un-luck streak continues.)
Once the wedding rehearsal is complete, the myconids disperse and disappear into the zurkwoods to the West. The spore servants drop Yestrabrod to the ground and join the wedding rehearsal procession as they return to the East.
(What do you all do now?)
Beegred gestures for the party to huddle up.
"I think we should excuse ourselves from this freak show, and find Sovereign Basidia. Let it know that all the things it was worried about, are actually a pleasant dream compared to the layer of the Abyss that is coming, along with a Demon Lord-ess. Then we should wish them luck, and get the heck out of here.
"Unless someone has a better plan.
"Or knows of a way to stop that ceremony, without us being vastly outnumbered by... whatever those things are."
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec
Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM)
Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
Jimjar fishes coins from his belongings and gives it to Beegred. "Debt paid up. You won the bet. Blingdenstone is not far from here, and they need to be warned. I bet you they'll treat us like honored saviors!"
Rodolfo just nods to Beegreds plan
After agreeing to leave the Garden of Welcome and then Neverlight Grove after warning Sovereign Basidia, the party makes their way west with due haste. The zurkwoods seem to be restive and don't hamper the party. As the members descend the path they had climbed earlier that day, they arrive at the Circle of Sporer's mound, where Sovereign Basidia is waiting. Without communicating at all, she makes a 'follow' gesture and heads west.
The party has a hard time pushing through the fungi forest to keep pace with the Sovereign, who appears to slip through it with ease. They finally catch up with it at the mound for the Circle of Hunters, where Circle Leader Loobamub stands waiting with a fancy box and a small pouch. Sovereign Basidia releases her rapport spores, encompassing everyone and asks, "You are the first to return from the Garden of Welcome that I have witnessed myself. Your allies..." it points to Skameros, Jimjar and Derendil, "... carry a spore I can't identify. Were they exposed to something? Keep your distance. I will not risk becoming infected."
Narstin looks to Skameros, Jimjar, and Derendil upon hearing they carry unknown spoors, then back to Basidia. "We were attacked a by a large aberrant creature that looked to have once been a Myconid, though it was far from that now. During the fight, it released a cloud of spores. Those might be what you detect on them." Looking back at his allies again, he asks of Basidia, "Is there anything you can tell us about these unknown spores?"
Rodolfo will cast a few volleys of Prestidigitation trying to clear out everyone of the spores that would be on the surface of skin and clothes and equipment.
"Is it better now?"
Skameros sneezes violently
then picks up some dirt and rubs it back in to his fur to replace the stuff Rodolfo cleaned off.
Skameros - Bugbear Barbarian - Out of the Abyss - By Kerrec
Follow your Arrow where it Points - Tabaxi Monk - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
Citron Pumpkinfoam - Fairy Monk - Project Point: Team Longsword
Sovereign Basidia looks toward Skameros, Jimjar and Derendil after Rodolfo casts his cantrip, and replies, "The spores now course through their body. Your spell had no effect." Turning to Narstin, the Sovereign communicates the equivalent of 'shaking its head' as it says, "The spores are alien. I have never encountered spores with such potency. As to what they do, I can not say.
Now, let us speak of this myconid. You say it was deformed? And it attacked you? Or did you mean it expelled spores and you took that to be an attack? "
Narstin shakes his own head, then, remembering they were speaking telepathically and Basidia might not be familiar with humanoid gestures, responds with, "No, it did not simply expel spores that we took as an attack. And it was quite deformed. The creature looked more like a fungal larva than a myconid. It was covered in mold and lichen. And it did something I've never heard one of your people do. It spoke to us aloud, not simply telepathically. It had also infected many servants that it seemed to be controlling." His face darkens. "Three of these 'servants' were our former allies, now covered in mold and fungi and growths. They attacked us, as well as others. Dozens more creatures were buried to their necks in the Garden, also with mold and fungi growing on and around them."
Sovereign Basidia responds once again, "Myconids do not make the air shake to communicate. What you saw couldn't be a myconid. Your description makes it sound like the thing you think is a myconid was probably a spore servant, being controlled by a Sovereign. Reanimation of the dead as spore servants is an ability that Sovereigns have. It is part of our natural existence. The Circle of Hunters gather the recently dead creatures near Neverlight Grove, and return them to the Sovereigns. Sovereigns animate the dead corpses with spores until the bodies can no longer function, then they return to the earth to rot and provide sustenance. The two large Chuul guarding the path to the Garden of Welcome are examples, raised by Sovereign Phylo.
The raised spore servants can only be controlled by the Sovereign that raise them and they have no intelligence, or capacity for speech. If you are certain Sovereign Phylo was not present, then there is a third mysterious Sovereign in the Grove and other living creatures capable of your air shaking speech. That explains why myconids not belonging to the Circle of Hunters are making forays and returning creatures to Neverlight Grove, without bringing them to Sovereign Phylo or myself."
(Regardless of what Sovereign Basidia just said... having fought Yestabrod and actual spore servants at the same time, you are fairly certain that Yestabrod was a living creature, where the other spore servants are more wooden and fluid-less. Except for Sarith, Tozer and Xilyrah, who were freshly killed in the act of making them spore servants.)
"We kill big squishy thing, spore servant friends stopped attacking..." and he'll shrug "lots of sleeping people in ground too..."
"then some shroom-men danced, some other sang, then Skameros saw inside great tower, full of glowy things with large person shaped lady made of shroom and mold....."
Skameros - Bugbear Barbarian - Out of the Abyss - By Kerrec
Follow your Arrow where it Points - Tabaxi Monk - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
Citron Pumpkinfoam - Fairy Monk - Project Point: Team Longsword
"Yeah, that last thing was the avatar of a demon god or something. Creepy as
hellthe Abyss. Ziggum-toy? Some of you seemed to recognize the name of what it was."Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec
Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM)
Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
Rodolfo says, "The names were Araumycos and Zuggtmoy." He repeats as much as he remembers of what happened and the vision.
"Sovereign, what should we do? It all seems very dangerous and while we were able to destroy Yestabrod then I very much doubt we could disrupt the real event tomorrow. I myself was knocked down and brought back from the brink of death."
He looks around to others and continues, "We can run, we are not from this place. But can you run and re-build the society somewhere else? Most of this place would be either destroyed or assimilated into something alien. If we stayed and helped, is there some key figure, perhaps this mysterious third Sovereign that we could try to dissuade from going through with this, one way or another?"
Skameros nods emphatically and points and Rodolfo "what he said...."
Skameros - Bugbear Barbarian - Out of the Abyss - By Kerrec
Follow your Arrow where it Points - Tabaxi Monk - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
Citron Pumpkinfoam - Fairy Monk - Project Point: Team Longsword