User blog:PeteGoz/The Chronicles of Tymennoreth Ortholeu'Alinyr: Chapter 3 - Entry 5

Well, I must say that a lot has happened since I last updated these chronicles and I hope that you find the events that we were to encounter as interesting as they were to take part in. If my memory serves, I left you after a strange mushroom creature approached us after a battle with some small fungal beasts that had attacked us as we entered a cave.

Where to start with our mushroom friend? You may think that the most curious thing may be that they talked to us and whilst that did indeed surprise me it was not the most shocking thing. This creature spoke to us in our minds! Broadcasting their speech directly into our thoughts which was both exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. Fortunately for us they seemed friendly and quickly gave us some context as to the strange situation that is happening in this so called ‘garden’. I will record what they told us here for posterity in the hope that what they told us does not come to pass and someone will eventually read this. Apparently, there are a number of these fungal creatures that are living in this area of the realm and have all come up from what they call the Shadowless, which seems to be the realms of tunnels and caverns that lie beneath the surface. Most of the creatures are bad according to our new friend and worships a well-known Demon Lord called Zuggtmoy who is the lord of fungal growth, focused on consumption. After swallowing the immediate feeling of panic that rose in me, we bade our new friend to continue. The other creatures here, who see themselves as good, worship someone called Luxia. I am not aware of this being but that is something I can investigate as we progress.

We were told that servants of Zuggtmoy have been sent out into the world to gather ‘specimens’ and when we asked for clarity, we were informed that humanoids were being drawn here to allow the evil doers to fully ‘prepare’. Apparently Zuggtmoy created this place and there is some rift in the ground from which these strange creatures have come, and this has changed the nature of the area which does explain the temperate climate in such a cold and inhospitable place. By the account of our new friend, Zuggtmoy has seen a cataclysm coming and hopes to take advantage of it. This dreadful sounding event is called ‘The Red Tempest’ apparently and she wishes to send out spores across the world to settle on the corpses that this tempest will create. This will then initiate what is called ‘The Blooming’ as the spores grow into servants of this hateful being. I was already asking myself why it is my lot in life to come face to face with such a tragedy and, even worse, get caught up in it!

There have been others who have arrived here before us and many of them have been taken as specimens by the creatures who worship this foul demon. Some however have escaped apparently and have been given sanctuary by our new friend and their people. This caused a conversation in the group and I am not too proud to admit that I proposed that we leave and return to warn the world of what is to come, not to mention finding myself a way back to the Feywild to ensure that I was to be safe. Unfortunately, we realised that we did not have the sufficient supplies for such a journey at that moment and the only options was to press on and find refuge with the worshippers of Luxia. We were warned though that the exit to this cavern was guarded by the leader of the horrible creatures we had just fought.

I volunteered to scout ahead to see if I could pinpoint where this leader was, and I was glad when no evidence of this creature was present. After the experience we had with the others myself and Dinobryon lit torches, being prepared to dispatch anything nasty became a priority.

As we edged forwards, the creatures revealed themselves, of course they were there the whole time but typically of my luck during this adventure I had failed to see them as they hid amongst the fungal growths that clutter this cavern. One was a larger version of the beasts we had already encountered whilst the other was some sort of quadrupedal fungal hound for lack of a better description. It rushed at us having lain in wait for our approach. Edius was ready for it however and once more showed his prowess with the large maul that he habitually carries around with him. I even managed to draw its attention with some magical mockery, and it seemed to distract it enough to cause its attack on Edius to miss. The apparent ‘King’ of this place (and I use this term very lightly indeed!) then approached and struck Edius, drawing blood. Both Dinobryon and I tried to make our adversaries clearer and easier to hit with some magical fire that is drawn from the Feywild but these horrific beasts managed to dodge aside from it. I was not aware that Dinobryon had the ability to draw on fey magics, my admiration for him is steadily growing, even if his wardrobe choices are somewhat drab.

Whilst we supported him, Edius did what he does best and laid all about him with his maul and quickly both creatures were down. Stepping forward, I lit the corpses on fire to ensure that they staid down and it seemed to do the trick. As we moved past their erstwhile hiding place, a glint of metal caught our eyes and it emerged that some of the belongings of previous victims had been horded here by these creatures. It would not do to leave such things in a cave so we decided to gather up what we could. We found some coin, for all the use that will be to us here! In addition, there was a number of fine-looking clothes that will suit me very well once I make the necessary adjustments and even a mirror for me to check how they suit me. There were also some potions that help with healing the body and it felt only right that Edius had those, he does take something of a pounding whilst wading into enemies. There were also some interesting cut and dried fungi that according to our new (and distinctly less evil) guide had a variety of benefits from enhancing our abilities to providing sustenance.

We pressed on and the true strangeness and beauty of this place started to emerge. We journeyed through foothills into a cyclopean valley with the mountains, still larger, around us forming a circular barrier to the outside. There was little sunlight down here and like so much of what we had seen so far was full of a cornucopia of fungal growths and plants, many of which glowed with the same light as those that we had seen in the cavern. There were even more strange creatures, most of which we managed to avoid or were not interested in us. There were even large creatures that we saw in the distance covered in a shaggy mossy hide. We also saw the rift for the first time, stretching from south west to north east it is a massive wound that has been stuck into the very ground and the eruption of fungus that seemingly have poured out of it confirmed to me that this is indeed the source of everything we have seen so far.

The temperature had already shifted into a damp and humid heat that was torturous for us as we still wore the furs and skins that had kept us alive in the frigid conditions that had plagued us on our journey here. Geysers of hot water spurted up all around us only adding to the humidity and heat and whilst they were quite something to behold, I found myself quickly resenting them and wishing that they would stop. The journey continued and it was a long and arduous one. By the time we reached the rift we were flagging, and I felt a wobble in my legs as we crossed the large chasm that reminded me of an infected wound. Although to be fair, the wobbling may have had as much to do with the fear that had been growing in me over the previous weeks as it did to do with my physical exhaustion.

We were led into a darker corner of these gardens whose shade was provided by the canopy of a fungal forest that loomed overhead. After what felt like hours of walking (probably because it was!) we witnessed a blue light in the distance. We were told at this point by our guide that we had arrived and that this was the settlement they had mentioned earlier. As we approached, we saw several curious large spherical mushrooms with small caps that give off the blue light and to my joy a number of sentient creatures moving around what I will call an encampment? I will say that the idea of safety and the ability to converse with some other people brightened my mood immensely. I can only hope it is enough to bring me out of winter. I am just not that lucky though, so I shan’t hold my breath.