The silent Kalanzar shudders at Haeth's descriptions. :: Poetic, my friend. And I know what you mean :: . For a second, Kalanzar thinks that he hears again the heartbeat of the two-headed Demon Lord devouring the town by the lake, loud as the sound of a forty-ton bell...
He shakes his head and shakes off the numbness. Now is not the time.
:: Suppose Phylo is under the influence of some darkest corruption. There are many creatures hiding in the Abyss that are no less terrible than Demogorgon. It remains to be decided, Basidia - whose side is he on? Does he corrupted like Phylo or would like to stop it? We need to try to find out... ::
Maddy looked curiously at Stool, ::Feels different how? If you can feel it then surely Sovereign Basidia also feels it, no?::
A horrible thought occurs to Maddy, ::Regardless of whether Sovereign Phylo is in his right mind or not, what if this talk of joy is a ruse to get get everyone in the same place so that something bad can happen?::
::Kalanzar is right. We need to find out more so if something bad is going to happen, that we can stop it::
::We have to stop i'. In Sloobludop the creature came at a ceremony, a kind of summoning. It can' happen here. No' amongs' all this:: Hue gestured towards the grove.
He became more thoughtful than most were accustom to him being, ::If the Great Lady took those dancers home ... are they here? Could we speak to Voosbur?::
Kalanzar thinks a little more and decides to "take the bull by the horns". :: Sovereign Basidia. I'm sorry for my bluntness. Some time ago, we witnessed how the population of a certain city behaved strangely, atypically for them, and conducted a certain ritual. As a result, a monster from the Abyss came to this call and destroyed this city and most of the inhabitants. Now we see that a certain ritual is also being prepared here and part of the myconids is behaving atypically... We are worried, to be honest. Please talk to us about this. ::
Hue watched Basidia and tried to read their body language. As he keenly watched he slowly became distracted by the phosphorescent landscape.
Without warning, Sovereign Basidia abruptly sat in the marshy ground, bringing their head closer to the height of the taller party members. ::Stool says I can trust you softers, and even though they are but a sprout, I trust their judgement. I am sorely concerned about Sovereign Phylo. I fear that he has contracted some sort of diseased spore. The same spore he may have shared with the small one.:: they looked over at Hue, who had stopped paying attention and was mesmerized by the beauty around him.
::Phylo has been spending much time in the Garden of Welcome. I do not dare to go, and become infected myself. Would you investigate the Garden of Welcome? I can offer you reward for this task, I know payment is important for your peoples.::
Kalanzar looks around at his companions, meeting each gaze in turn. If he sees willingness to one degree or another, he nods his head and responds: :: We are ready and will try to help in any case, with or without a reward. But we also do not refuse the reward, it can be useful for the further survival of the squad in the future. Hmm.. Is it safe to take Stool with us? If this blight is contagious to myconides... :: Druid pauses significantly.
::The same spore he may have shared with the small one.:: they looked over at Hue, who had stopped paying attention and was mesmerized by the beauty around him.
Hue turned to looked at Basidia ::What was that??:: and then drifted away again, "Is i' jus' me or are they more beautiful than a momen' ago ... so beautiful, if you le' i' in."
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Hue turned to looked at Basidia ::What was that??:: and then drifted away again, "Is i' jus' me or are they more beautiful than a momen' ago ... so beautiful, if you le' i' in."
”’haps ye been doin’ a bit too much lettin’ in fer the day already. Maybe I could interest ye in some nose plugs to keep the outside humours outside fer a spell?” Precious suggested, although he had no idea what it actually took to ward away the ways the myconid used to share thoughts and ideas.
::We been doin’ ‘nuff runnin’ from problems lately. These here seem like nice people. I’m all fer at least tryin’ to help ‘em if they they be needin’,:: Precious sent.
::We wouldn't have made it this far without Stool. If his kind need help then we will help. Is there any more information that you can provide about the Garden of Welcome? How did you know to avoid it?::
Maddy was concerned about Stool's safety as well as Hue's. It would make sense that they should stay away from the Garden of Welcome.
Lets do it! And yes, I like payment!
Alexandra chirps in
I maybe hardest to affect for it if resisting it is based on strength of personality, both because thats my strong suit, and because my Patron may have something rude and direct to say to anyone laying claim to my free will.
With everyone in agreement having each made bold statements of their intention to fight for the welfare of the grove (and Hue unaware of Maddy’s inner dialogue about him staying away) it seemed like they were having a moment. Hue moved out in front and crossed his arms. His face was defiant as he struck a pose of readiness to confront whatever comes next.
He held the pose for several beats.
Basidia reaches a long-fingered hand up to their mushroom-cap-head, and pulls something from between the frilled gills. She hands it to Kalanzar - it turns out to be a rather moldy spellcase with a scroll of protection against fiends. ::Our adventurers found this long ago, but we cannot use it.::
The sovereign shakes their head to Kalanzar's question. ::The sprout should stay away, they are too young to face such spores. And this one...I do not know. Perhaps they should stay away as well? Or perhaps they would be an asset? I cannot not know.
As for what I know, and what I fear....that is a tale. Do you understand about melding? It is how we share our selves with our colony. We spend a third of our day working, laboring for the colony. We spend a third of our days resting. The rest of the time we spend melding with each other. We share our rapport spores, and thus we share our dreams, our hopes, our insights, our fears. We used to meld together, the whole colony. Lately, Phylo has been insisting the circles meld with each other only, and not the colony as a whole. Only the leaders of each circle come together to meld with each other and us. Phylo claims it makes us more efficient, so we can tend the grove better. I think the separation of the circles is contrary to the unity and harmony of our way of life.::
The leader's mental "speech" is slow and measured. You get the sense that "talking" like this is difficult and takes energy. Stool has grown very used to talking mentally in the way of humanoids, but it is clearly a strain for Sovereign Basidia. Still, they persevere and continue to explain. ::Now, when we meld, it is as if Phylo and I are trying to sway the others to our points of view, rather than presenting a unified vision for the grove. It is exhausting, and divisive. But I do not know what else to do. Some of the circle's leaders agree with me, others with Phylo. Our "disagreements" are still gentle, but I fear that will not last.:: You can hear sadness in their mental voice, and Stool totters over to Basidia and snuggles in to the sovereign. Basidia strokes Stool's cap, almost absently.
::There is a new circle now, the Circle of Masters. Phylo has created the circle, and they stay in the Garden of Welcome. We do not see them very often. Even the leader has stopped coming to meld, and sends a representative. Something is happening there. Phylo claims it is too incredible for the colony to absorb at once. I fear what is happening there, but dare not go myself.::
The sovereign shakes their head to Kalanzar's question. ::...And this one...I do not know. Perhaps they should stay away as well? Or perhaps they would be an asset? I cannot not know...::
Hue began to nod through all the sovereign thought out but when it came to the mention of him staying away his head went stiff. He looked at his team, the people he'd traveled and fought beside. He didn't mean ... they wouldn't keep me out ... no, no, no ... I can't just sit back and. He searched his friends' faces to see who was agreeing with this idea of him not going.
Hue fidgeted anxiously.
Kalanzar gratefully takes the scroll. :: Thank you. It might come in handy. :: He looks at the gesture with which Basidia is stroking the hat of the myconid baby. :: Please keep an eye on the Stool's safety while we solve this problem. ::
Drow meets the halfling's eyes and something happens in his heart at this moment. It seems that he changes the decision he has already made on the fly. :: Stool will stay away from the Circle of Masters. Hue, you're coming with us. I think your epiphany was right. A great evil awaits us, like a two-headed demon lord... :: Kalanzar's gaze involuntarily turns towards the Garden of Welcome.
I am ready to blast things in the face!
... :: Stool will stay away from the Circle of Masters. Hue, you're coming with us. I think your epiphany was right. A great evil awaits us, like a two-headed demon lord... ::
Hue nodded firmly a 'damn-right I'm coming' sort of nod and then, a moment later, exhaled in relief and gratefulness. He tightened his sword belt and began to move.
Basidia stood up again. ::You still need rest. The Garden of Welcome can wait a bit.:: They bring you to a slightly drier section of the swampy grove, and rapidly begin harvesting bits of the fungus around you. Basidia places the fungus in a pile, and says, ::Eat, rest. I will return in a short while.::
Stool looks up and asks, ::May I see Yrberop, and my friends?::
The sovereign looks serious, and then nods. ::I will take you there soon.::
Hue turned himself around at Basidia's request. He sat down to the pile of mushrooms and stared at it hypnotized. The little shadows between the shrooms seemed to be crawling out of the pile ever so slowly. Tiny little claws and mouths and he stared harder and harder. The mushrooms weighed them down, cadged them, and the mushrooms looked bulky and soft and meaty. So many colours just in this little pile alone and he wondered at the beauty of the fungus and the malevolence of the tiny shadows.
"vitae anulum'culmo ... life ring stalk" He picked up a mushroom, having whispered its' name and ate it.
Mushroom after mushroom, he did the same. Whispered its' name and nibbled it to nothing. When he lifted the mushroom he noticed the shadow beneath it disappeared and he relaxed a bit.
Then he stood up and looked around him. He wandered about and picked bits of fungus and grass and weed. He named them as he went, named them in a whisper to himself. He remembered what his mother taught him. The right combinations in the right amounts meant life saving nutrients. Something to absorb toxins ... something to staunch bleeding ... something to improve positive biology ... something to boost the immune system and fight inflammation. In between, he wondered at the grove itself and felt blessed for his moments there.
In the end he returned to the group, having not wandered far, and wrapped up two poultices. One he gave to Alexandra and the other to Maddy. They'll get wounded fastest and last longest he thought to himself.
Happy for a chance to get some weight off his feet, Precious planted his ample behind on a comfortably solid-looking rock, took out the flask of spirits he had procured in the duergar city, unscrewed the cork, took a solid pull of the liquor and sighed in pleasure. It wasn’t proper beer, but then again, he wouldn’t trust his Underdark cousins to brew a decent batch, but they seemed all right with the stronger stuff at least.
As he sipped his drink – he needed to make it last, gods know how long before they got into somewhere he could stock up again – he kept a concerned eye on the antics of their mushroom-loving halfling companion. He wasn’t sure if Hue’s taste-testing was a sign of improvement, but as he got further into his buffet, he seemed to cheer up a little, to lose some of the jitters. And if anyone of them knew which fungus to take a bite out of without poisoning himself, it would be Hue.
He thought back to the exchange with Basidia. So, someone was introducing change in the myconid community, establishing layers to the once free flow of information? All for the sake of efficiency? Funny – Precious didn’t take these folks as ones who worried overmuch about getting things done in the most optimal way. To him, all this nature-embracing landscaping at least spoke against such concepts. Mind you, he could well be reading these strange people wrong, but assuming he didn’t…
”So. Someone bringin’ in outside ideas to these fine folks? Gotta be someone from afar,” he spoke aloud, not to anyone in particular but voicing his thoughts in case anyone wanted to weight them or add their own take, ”as I take things don’t usually change so quickly down ‘ere. Might not be someone aimin’ to do ‘em wrong… but from what we been seein’ lately, I wouldn’t want to bet on it. Seems the myconid had done well ‘nuff doin’ things their way fer who knows how long. So, ‘less you wanted to stage a coup or plan a war an’ worried ‘bout operational secrecy, why all the closed doors all o’ a sudden?”
Exactly.
This is the only word that Kalanzar throws in response to Precious's reasoning. Drow is already sitting with his eyes closed in a meditation position in the darkest corner. He took off his armor and shirt, leaving only his pants. The scars-stars on his black torso glow softly, changing brightness from almost imperceptible to such that in this light it would be possible to make out some letters. It's so similar to the starry sky on the surface that one could probably feel homesick...
Did it occur that... are myconoids individuals in our sense, or is each individual myconoid also a collective existence? Perhaps some of the "information layers" represent a desire of "infected" myconoids to not infect others, a self quarantine perhaps? Alexandra is perhaps unusually contemplative
Some type of memetic disease? There are things out there in the great beyond, who know of you as soon as you know of them by name, which is why knowledge of them must be kept very very secret.
Yza gave me... a list of signs to run away from or incenerate instantly, although I thankfully see nothing here in a rather peculiar tone of yellow, which is a relief
She adds as she sits down near Kalanzar
Do you have an idea when midnight happens? Has been a while since I made some art about it. She asks Kalanzar a question
In pathfinder 1e, most of the great old ones exist, have stats, and you can have fun stuff like Demons fighting Shoggoths (whoever wins you probably lose).
I hope you dont mind the king in yellow HP Lovecraft reference.
The conversation was interrupted by Basidia's return. Feeling somewhat refreshed, you follow the sovereign a short ways to another circle. This one is a somewhat haphazard ring, consisting of many small mounds covered in what could only be described as mushroom babies. Each one was different from the next, in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours. The smallest were barely taller than a finger, mostly shapeless, and clearly not "awake". Others were taller, still rooted, but with movements that didn't look random. There were also at least a dozen full sprouts, independently mobile, but smaller than Stool.
Watching over all of them was a very rotund myconid, covered in frilly gills that looked somewhat like layers of petticoats. They moved and swayed among the sporelings and sprouts, tending them carefully, clearly in rapport with them.
Stool stopped in their tracks, staring at the Circle of Sporers, ::So many!:: Stool wondered in amazement. This caused the adult to look up and notice Stool. They rushed over (surprisingly speedy for a nearly round fungus person), stood close to Stool, and the two of them stared intently at each other. A few thin tendrils seemed to grow out of the adult, wavering towards Stool and rubbing over them, as if checking to make sure everything was okay.
::This is Yrberop,:: Basidia explained, ::They're the one who spored Stool. Yrberop, share rapport with the softers who have helped bring Stool home.::
The round myconid didn't look up, but after a few seconds you all become aware of a faint sensation of music. It's like a lullaby, but more beautiful and more chaotic at the same time. Yrberop sends, ::Thank you, strange softers, for bringing home my wandering sprout! It is good that they have returned in time to see the happiness that the Great Seeder is soon to spread!::
::Soon to spread::
Maddy smiled broadly when they were introduced to Yrberop. ::How nice to meet your immediate family!:: The young woman was genuinely happy that Stool had made it home and was able to be with his loved ones but she also felt a stab of jealousy. She longed to be able to get home to her brother and to find her sister. Neither of which seemed like it would happen anytime soon being stuck down in the Underdark.
Her head snapped to the side to look at Hue when he repeated Yrberop's words. It almost seemed like a reflex and reminded her of a cult she had heards about three towns over where they had repeated 'one of us' whenever it was spoken. Watching the halfling with a mixture of concern and curiosity she said, "Soon to spread". and looked for his reaction.
For a moment, a fire of joy lit up in Kalanzar's heart looking at this reunion scene. Before that, they had only lost friends, buried them in the darkness of the Underdark. And finally, something good happened to one of their companions. But Yrberop's subsequent words filled the druid's heart with anxiety. Something is coming... Drow raises one eyebrow and waits for a reaction to the words of friends repeating mysterious words about the spread of the seed. :: There were usually fewer small myconids, right? ::
Great Seeder? A new name, and certainly not an ominous one, considering these people were not far removed from plants as far as the dwarf was concerned… but there had been warning signs aplenty already, and this was far from the first place something strange waws brewing – not that Precious had much sense how strange things usually got here beneath the deepest dwarven mines… but if demons rising from lakes and secret societies kidnapping dragons’ eggs was the norm, he doubted any civilization could have flourished enough to spare the effort to cause occasional harm to the surface folk.
”Enjoy fer homecomin’ lil’le one,” Precious murmured. ”Could be the peace an’ quest won’t last.”
Great seeder? Doesnt really sound like a demonname Alexandra says with a bit of relief
That would be stuff like, mother of monsters, final blade, the all-conquering sun etc.
Doesnt mean it is friendly, or will be considering things like "free will", "personality" or "individuality"