... and wait ...

Minutes pass, exceeding the maximum duration of the spell. The myconids gather on schedule for their melding but still Rhayna doesn't return.

"Anyone know how long this should have taken?" Kaylyn asks the group.

"I would give it a couple more minutes and then go in." Sekkar turned to Basidia: "Any alarms goes on? Can you sense Rayhna's presence somewhere?"

“Go in where? We gotta go over there?” Zeno points at the big mushroom tower with a furrowed brow. “She’s been gone a long time. If we’re going there, we need to start moving.”

"I bet we'll be pulling her out of some magic control spores thing," Kastix comments as he tightened the high collar aound his mouth area. 

(How long would it take us to get over to there if we ran?  A few minutes, or like, 20 minutes..or more?) 

Pax mutters a few words....and shadow seems to creep up her body, surrounding her with a shimmering shadowy field.  She pulls her sword out.  "How long do we wait?"

Quote from NathanPizazz >>

(How long would it take us to get over to there if we ran?  A few minutes, or like, 20 minutes..or more?) 

No more than a minute or two. It's actually less than 100' away. 

Map: Yellow circle for the group. Red circle for the two chuul spore servant guards. The guards are on a ramp that climbs to the highest terrace, beyond which is the cavern with the mushroom tower. You could either go through them or find a way around

 That was for their guide to decide. Sekkar asked directly: "Basidia, seems our friend is stuck there and we need to get to that big mushroom. Is there any way around those two guards or do we have to kill them? Would others attack us if we do, by the way?"

Basidia is currently engaged in a meld with Phylo and several other myconids of the Inner Circle. It is unresponsive to communication. (sorry Blue, I meant to say something after your previous post)

(Np, I just thought we still have time)

" I say we rush those creatures and get in now. No one is looking, nice thing that communing. Ready to fight?" On his part - he was, activating blade to be fully prepared.

"Yes, we must find Rhayna, she may be in trouble.  I doubt they will let us pass without a fight." Kaylyn answers.  "I am ready."  She adds as she gives Sekkar Bardic Inspiration.

Bardic Inspiration

Pax looks to the group, "If I may. Destroying their servants is a fairly violent event. Why don't we find a way up the cliff over there, in the northern part of the cave, and just creep past them."  (How high are these cliffs, how much of a climb?)

“Hurrying seems good, but I’m not sure starting a fight in the middle of this place is the best. I agree with Pax, let’s see if we can avoid the spore thingies... “

Sekkar just nodded, deactivated the sword and moved towards the northern end of the platform.

(If there is a clear path around, then this is the goal)

The group run across the grove, ignored by the gathered groups of melded myconids. Those loyal to Basidia appear calm in their mutual reverie, while the followers of Phylo seem to be dancing or singing. Some spore servants shamble along the terraces, but it seems that unless they are 'programmed' to be on guard duty, then they don't have the mental faculties to take notice of the group and their activities. The party climb to the highest terrace, using ramps if they are close, otherwise scaling the edges by climbing up the larger and sturdier fungi. The terrace at the top is screened with a natural fence of soaring zurkhwood stalks, behind which muffled murmuring can be heard. Bashing a path through the fence is a relatively easy affair, and the group emerge into a fungal garden unlike anything they have yet beheld.

The low muttering has turned into a symphony of moans, cries, and hisses. The only light comes from a few glowing mushrooms along the edge, but even in the gloom, you can’t miss the source of the sounds. The heads of creatures from a dozen humanoid Underdark races peek from the ground, mold and fungi growing around them. One voice calls out loudly in Undercommon — a female drow fighting to speak. Please … for your gods of light . . . kill me! She manages to stir within her living grave, raising a spider medallion half-embedded in the bloated growth that was once her hand. Half her face is rotten and pustulate, a bed for the sprouting of scores of tiny mushrooms. She is here!

The moans of the garden’s victims suddenly take on a new tone of fear as something moves across the foul ground. A disgusting larval creature rises up before the party, showing only vestigial fungal growths that hint that it might once have been a myconid. Ah, travelers, you have come to the Garden of Welcome just in time. The aberrant myconid’s voice gurgles and spits as it speaks both aloud and in your minds at once. I am Yestabrod. You are here for the wedding rehearsal, no? Friends of the bride or her intended? No matter! Let the love of the Great Seeder embrace you as you become one with her chosen, the Great Body! At once the garden comes alive with screams from its buried victims, and the heads of six of the half-buried half-decomposed drow split open in a cloud of spores as they rise from the compost. Other creatures also follow suit, including a duergar, two quaggoths, and one of the hook-handed creatures seen on the bridge. They begin to gather around the group, along with four adult myconids who gather from the surrounding growth. Their actions are not overtly threatening, but almost as if to welcome you to join the imminent spectacle.

As the bodies rise from the loam, echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond, 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 giant mushroom tower, 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:

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!

Among the creatures, seemingly at the centre of the parade in a place of honor, is a familiar figure. Although her face is veiled in a sheer mat of lichen, it is easily identifiable as Rhayna.

There are 10 spore servants (green circles) and four myconids plus the mutant myconid Yestabrod (yellow circles) in the immediate vicinity of the group (red square). Rhayna is about 150 feet away (purple circle) and surrounded by eighteen creatures. Twelve are Medium size (pink circles), and six are Large (blue circles). A small pile of equipment lies discarded 10' away (black square), including some armor and weapons of drow construction.

"...I dont think I can even put into words how creeped out I am right now," Kastix whispers.

After leaving the great mushroom, along the way Rhayna picked up some fungus and mushrooms, and made, to what looks like, a beautiful bouquet. Rhayna holds the bouquet close to her body with both of her hands, she blissfully walks with her bridesmaids to where the ceremony will be. She looks ahead, with a hesitant but happy smile. This is the day she has been looking forward for her whole life. Bless the Lady for her fortunes.

Pax mutters under her breath, "Well...it could be worse. I'm not sure how, my imagination isn't that good...but..."  She sighs heavily, "This is going to get ugly." 

She hefts her shield from her back, and her blade rips from her sheath as she steps forward to the front of the group, the black shadowy force surrounds her.  She mutters a prayer under her breath and then shouts, "Wake up Rayna!"  

Initiative : 11

Pax plans to run THROUGH all of these spore creatures (AoO's galore) to get within 120 feet of Rayna....and then casts Eldritch blast at her. "Sorry woman, but you have to wake up!!!" 

Attack: 10 Damage: 8.   (sigh and the below average rolls continue....)

(@DM. I am assuming that Rhayna is still wearing her armor?)

Neither the spore creatures nor the myconids do anything to prevent Pax passing among them. But when her eldritch blast flies toward the bride (striking one of the lead members of the bridal party by accident), the hosts turn indignant. Yestabrod turns to Pax and burbles: That's not the way to behave at a wedding. Allow me to provide you all with an attitude adjustment.

Now all can roll initiative.

Yestabrod: 15
Myconids: 7
Spore servants: 13
Chamberlains of Zuggtmoy: 11
Bridesmaids of Zuggtmoy: 12

And yes, Rhayna still has her armor and all her equipment.