What can be brewed from a mu spore?


Advice


I have a crazy powerful mythic group (lvl 19/mr 8) who will be encountering a powerful alchemist from Leng, who will ask them to collect secretions and spores from a mu spore, from a cavern down below - but I have yet to decide what he's brewing. It should be crazy, and useful to the party.


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Tea. Tasty, invigorating tea!

Build it up like it's some super powerful potion, and when they drink it and ask what it does... "it tastes good"! Wait, wasn't that a sub-plot in 'Asterix in Britain'?


Was gonna go with "beer", but that works too.


Fun responses, but I'm really looking for a bizarre and powerful magical effect - something normally pretty unobtainable.

A little extra info - the campaign has a very heavy Lovecraftian vibe.


While YMMV, based on your knowledge of your admittedly potent party ... but, my first instinct after reading the Mu Spore entry, is that the Alchemist is brewing a Grand Discovery, most likely Philospher's Stones.

Maybe he's figured out how to brew multiple doses? Say 1d4+1, but only if he has spores from a still living Mu Spore (who, as a living and brilliant creature, is tired of this crap.)

Perhaps that's too pedestrian for your party, so you could always make the Alchemist the Keeper of say a Minor Artifact, of which there are several that have special effects for Mythic Characters.

Note: I've personally experienced having a Deck of Many Things leach all the fun out of a game, so user discretion is advised. On the flip side, I unleashed a neutered Harrow Deck on a level 1 party (I hand picked a dozen odd 'game breaking' cards to bestow 1 use minor powers, cribbed iirc from the CotCT AP instead of their normal effects. Things like, oh, ground zero of Earthquake, in town, at level 1), and THAT has fueled MANY hours of fun from all around, even the poor Oracle who was Genderbent for ~10 levels.

Good luck!

Lovecraftian vibes you say?


I LOVE the cup, but they'd never touch it.

They have several minor artifacts and a couple of major ones - mostly tied into the major quest involving a ritual to seal off a weak place between planes that an outer god likes to exploit.

The focal one is, of course, an elder sign.


My thought would be permanent spell effects similar to what can be bestowed with the permanency spell but with a negative side effect as well.

Depending on the flavor of the game and the power of the party vs. the power of the effects granted, I could see the side effects ranging from possibly annoying but non-mechanical (odd skin color, or other features for example) to quite negative (penalty to will saves for example.)


Dave Justus wrote:

My thought would be permanent spell effects similar to what can be bestowed with the permanency spell but with a negative side effect as well.

Depending on the flavor of the game and the power of the party vs. the power of the effects granted, I could see the side effects ranging from possibly annoying but non-mechanical (odd skin color, or other features for example) to quite negative (penalty to will saves for example.)

Interesting possibilities. This seems like exactly the kind of things that might be compelling. Now I just need strange effects - one undeniably useful,and one a bit freaky...


I don't know what rule sets you are comfortable with, but you could always crib ideas from 3rd party spells/effects that have similar themes. There's little to no chance of overpowering your game at this point with some just basic precautions.

So, given that Dreamscarred's Psionics is the system I'm most familiar with, and knowing that there's much that can be twisted in a Lovecraftian way, particularly with the class Dread.

Keeping it simple, how about something based on this, where you can use it once a day, BUT, if you target a Mythic creature, that also Passes their save, they can spend 1 MP to turn it back on you? Making things simplest, just fix a set DC for 10+ 1/2L + Cha + Tier or some such.

Or, this, except, that it effects EVERYTHING in a 10~15' radius, centered on the caster. Being able to daze all your enemies is good, but allies too, makes it an interesting choice (imo.)

Or, you could give someone a True Seeing effect ... that slowly drives them mad due to seeing things that man was not meant to see.

If you are unfamiliar with the Psionic systems, I have experience using them in high powered (but non mythic) games, and have a Dread active at the moment, and there are a couple Cryptic archetypes that I'm looking forward to playing (sometime in the next decade) that are similarly themed. Lost Mind and Ravager (Duergar).


The way I would run it

I’d give it one strong effect that makes sense but isn’t especially remarkable (perfect flight speed based on mild inflation, as this is one of the main features of the spore)

One weird effect, causes mild flatulence manifest as a negative to diplomacy and stealth because you can’t stop passing gas from weird orifices. Like randomly out of your left ear or something.

Make it taste nice.

But also give it another effect they don’t realise one, more esoteric one. Or perhaps another use for it that you get not from drinking it alone, but by pouring it on something (maybe moss to grow your own mu spore) or mixing it with something else.


EldonGuyre wrote:

Fun responses, but I'm really looking for a bizarre and powerful magical effect - something normally pretty unobtainable.

A little extra info - the campaign has a very heavy Lovecraftian vibe.

The beer has notes of eldritch with a chthonian aftertaste? Also, though it's hardly worth mentioning, it causes horrific mouths to open up all over the drinker's body, giving the drinker the gibbering (Su) ability of a gibbering mouther until the next sunrise. (DC: 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Charisma modifier)

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