"Oh gosh golly gee would you look at these things... " and then Nate jumps back to avoid inhaling the little black spores, or so he hopes. He will say to his employer "these little shrooms definitely got me a stumped, Ma'am. And that awful noise they're making... hey wait, what are they doing over there?!?!"

Nate will rush over to Elspeth, leaving his employer mid-sentence and will watch her flaming sphere spell and how these things react to fire as well as Soar's torch. He's quite excited to be burning these things.

In character:  "Hey guys, name's Nate - I think we met a few days back... anyhow, aren't these little shrooms quite an interesting bunch? Let's see if they burn yeee haaaawww!" and continues to watch the flaming sphere, almost cheering it on. 

Elspeth, you cast your spell as Nate comes up beside you.  The fiery ball appears and engulfs a small section of the mushrooms; they are wet, so they take a while to burn.  But immediately, you hear screaming, not moaning, coming from all around you, as if a hundred people were being tortured to death nearby.  People around you look on in horror, covering their ears, cowering away from you and away from the fungus.  Make a CON saving throw to maintain concentration on your spell.

Soar, you sense the faintest of faint traces of poison in the fungus, nowhere near enough to do any actual harm to a creature your size, not unless you ate a sackful.

shit shit shit

Nate starts to panic a bit with all of the horrific screaming as the fungus burns and everyone else's reaction. 

Nate says to Elspeth, in his normal self, not being able to stay in character "Keep going! We can't stop now! Burn em all!"

(did Soar's torch do anything? If so, Nate will start to join Elspeth and light a few of his own torches and toss them around into the bunches of fungus, helping her burn them because he wants the screaming to stop. He'd light 5 of his torches and toss them around into the mushrooms.)

There is no reaction to Soar's torch, provided the flame doesn't actually make contact with the fungus.  If it does, the reaction is the same as Elspeth's spell, except less severe because it's affecting less of the fungus.

Can Boar see anything on the horizon? Anything that isn’t small mushrooms?

Then Nate would've for sure lit and thrown 5 torches into the mushrooms after Elspeth cast her spell. 

Con save: 6

Elspeth immediately claps her hands over her ears when the screaming starts, but nevertheless tries to keep the flaming sphere going despite it under Nate's advice, but she calls out to Nate: "I don't think this is going to work at all!"

Boar, you look out; the fungus goes a long way, though not quite as far as the horizon.  You can make a Perception check if you wish.

Nate, the torches burn a little, and you hear moans of agony from nearby mushrooms, which as before emit a small cloud of black spores.  However, the fungus is too damp; it doesn't really catch fire well, and the torches go out after a while.

Elspeth, the flame of your spell falter and die after only a few seconds as you are overcome by the horror of what you are hearing.

Time is passing, and the mushrooms are still growing.  Each one is almost a foot tall now.

Jalt makes his way to the mushrooms, takes out his handle and chops at a few of them. Mushrooms are to be harvested, are they not? Perhaps we just... He chops again... make a go of this.

(Handaxe, I assume?)

Jalt, you chop and cut at the mushrooms, and they don't offer any resistance.  The black spores come, but don't seem to have much effect, at least as far as you can tell.  The axe does the chop, but you feel that a quarterstaff, tree branch or even a broom would be more effective.  As you think on this, the moans become screams as more and more fungus growths are chopped up.

Make a CON saving throw, as hundreds, perhaps thousands of cries of pain and torment fill your ears.

(Yea I meant handaxe)

22

For this I roll a nat 20 lol

Elspeths stops struggling to keep the spell going gratefully. "No, sorry, but I can't keep this going, and honestly, I don't know if I want to, it's kind of creepy. I don't suppose anyone knows if they're sentient?"

Boar moves up next to Jalt, pulling out a javelin. "Fire doesn't work. Hitting them doesn't look pleasant but might be the only way out of this sorry situation."

She casts bless on herself, Nate, and Elspeth as she starts swinging her javelin to try to sweep away the mushrooms, aiming to start clearing a path for the caravan. As she starts taking them out, slowly advancing, she's going to try to smell and look at them a bit closer and make an irresponsible attempt to judge whether they smell good, since they're not poisonous. (Nature: 12)

(Assuming a con save from Boar is needed: 15 plus 2)

Jalt, you swing with your handaxe, and Boar with her javelin.  Elspeth can join if you wish.  Though it's not hard work, it's taking a long time and the screams that fill your mind make it hard to keep going.  In about an hour, you've managed to clear a path together, about half-way to the edge of the fungus growth.  A few people from the caravan make a move to assist, but they almost immediately give up and either collapse shaking to the ground or run back in shock and fear.

The remaining mushrooms - still a sea of them, despite your small cleared path - are now two feet tall.  To continue, I need another CON save from Elspeth, Jalt and Boar.  I'm afraid a Bless won't really help given its short duration - this is another hour of work to clear the rest of the path.

Once Nate sees Elspeth's spell fail, and his torches fizzle out, he gets downright scared. He will watch on as the others continue to cut down the mushrooms, and starts to prepare himself to act in case any of them become poisoned or something worse. He can't take the noise-horror much longer. He doesn't really have anything to help cut down the mushrooms with, so he just waits and watches on as they continue to cut.

Elspeth will join in on hacking away at the mushrooms with her scimitar, albeit a little more reluctantly at the start, although eventually she begins hacking in earnest, wanting to be done with the racket of the mushrooms.

Con: 11

CON: 10

CON save: 4

Does Boar smell or sense anything from her closer contact with the shrooms? Do they seem sickly or contaminated? Or potentially edible?!)