The Fetid Wedding (Recap from 9-3-23)

(Yulisen the 10th of Dualahei) After a long rest, the group came out of their tower and saw a field of Trimask Mushrooms had sprung up overnight from the battlefield where the demon lord was battling the Goristro demon. The group gathered 27 of the Trimask Mushrooms.

After that they proceeded on with their quest. They wandered several twisting passageways and found a strange five way intersection, one way going up, one way going down, a passage going left and one going right, another heading off to the east. The cavern was just large enough to erect the Daern's Instant Fortress, thus blocking most of the passageways with its adamantine walls. The group settled in and had a long rest. As they woke the next day travel continued up the passageway cork screwing upward, finally emerging through the floor of a large cavern. The ceiling arched sixty feet overhead, bristling with stalactites that dripped water onto stalagmites rising from the uneven and broken floor. Here and there between the stalagmites, several statues of winged humanoids were set in poses of suffering and anguish. Some cover their faces, while others claw at them. Others reach toward the ceiling, their faces twisted into expressions of longing. Their traits and experiences are as follows going counter clockwise:

Anaya (Has the symbol of Sarenrae) This angel reaches toward the ceiling, its face a mask of hatred. A creature that makes contact with this angel must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw, taking 3d6 psychic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.

Baatral (Has the badly damaged symbol of Zehir, the Cloaked Serpenton his tabard) This angel appears to be reaching out as if offering something. A character making contact with the angel must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or become charmed for 1 minute. 

While the character is charmed, the angel has a telepathic link with the character as long as it and the character remain on the same plane of existence. The angel issues commands to the character, and the character does its best to obey those commands if it is conscious. The angel typically commands a character to kill, maim, rob, or otherwise harm its companions.

Each time an affected character takes damage, he or she makes a new Charisma saving throw against the effect. If the saving throw succeeds, the effect on it ends.

Harajin (Has the symbol of Pelor, the Dawnfather) This angel points at a spot on the cavern wall, and its mouth hangs open in horror. A character who makes contact with the angel hears horrific screaming and must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness (see "Madness" in chapter 2).

Lorabelios (Has the symbol of Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine Hells) This angel stands feet apart, head downcast, arms at its sides. A character making contact with the angel hears a soft voice say in Common, "Do not lose hope." The character's next Wisdom saving throw is made with advantage.

Nemevon (Has the symbol of Tharizdun, the Chained Oblivion) This angel holds its hands to its face, concealing its visage. Upon making contact with this angel, the character hears a soft voice repeating two words over and over in the Celestial language: "Kill me." There is no obvious way for the characters to do so, however. The voice persists even if the angel is shattered.

Silnia (Has the symbol of Torog, the Crawling King) (the symbol is badly damaged) This angel covers its eyes with its arm but appears to be smiling. A character who touches the angel must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, terrifying nightmares haunt the character's sleep during his or her next long rest. The character derives no benefits from that rest and, upon waking, takes 3d6 psychic damage.

Tamiel (Has the symbol of Ioun, the Knowing Mistress) This angel kneels on the floor and buries its face in its arms. A character making contact with the angel hears a soft voice say in Common, "What would you know? Ask and I shall answer." The character must make a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, the character takes 3d6 psychic damage and gains one level of madness. On a success, the character can ask two questions. The angel replies as if the character had successfully cast the contact other plane spell.

Zarod (Has the symbol of Moradin, the Allhammer) This angel claws at its eyes, and its face appears torn and rent. When a character makes contact with the angel, it invites the character to ask a single question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity to occur within seven days. The angel replies as if the character had successfully cast the divination spell.

The adventurers after interacting one at a time with the “angels” summoned an earth elemental to break off some stone feathers from the angels' wings. One each from six different angels fulfills the requirements for Vizeran's ritual, although characters could have taken more feathers if they had wanted. Other creatures in the Labyrinth avoid this cavern, making it a safe place for the party to take a long rest. The group, feeling the unease of the place, traveled back down to the strange intersection where they had camped the night before and set up another camp with their Daern's Instant Fortress, at last the party had a long rest during which Neheedra continued to work on the greater piwafwis she was making for the members of the party.

(Folsen the 12th of Dualahei) The next day while travelling through the tunnels, the group encountered a small myconid bearing rapport spores from Basidia. Basidia's vision came as the characters were exposed to the rapport spores. The vision affected all of the group, as well as their NPC followers. The characters had not met Sovereign Basidia but through the spores they saw the following vision.

“A soft, glowing light rises from ahead, emanating from a vast cavern. The entire surface of the cave, floor, walls, and ceiling, is blanketed in moss and fungi, all in shades of white and soft pastels of pink, violet, green, and pale blue. The diffuse light the mushrooms shed makes the vista waver as if seen through mist.

‘Araumycos,’ a voice says in your mind. You turn and see a myconid sovereign standing beside you where there was no one before, strangely you recognize Basidia of Neverlight Grove though you have never met before. ‘The largest and greatest being of our world,’ the myconid says sadly. ‘All that you see before you is Araumycos; all this and much more. All is in danger from the corruption that will claim the whole of the world if you do not help us.’”

The group followed the Myconid east toward the heart chamber of Araumycos where the demonic ritual or “Fetid Wedding” would take place. The trip took six days to reach the heart chamber. Accompanied by “Stool” the myconid sprout carrying the sovereigns spores. At night the group put up their Daern's Instant Fortress, locked themselves in and worked on their individual down time activities and projects. Nehedra continued to work on the greater piwafwis with Chardalyn chipping in with some of her own needle work helping the cause. 

During the travel the group encountered myconids and fungal creatures throughout the Underdark falling under the influence of Zuggtmoy's spreading spores, making a slow and steady march toward Araumycos, their "queen's betrothed." Thousands are on the move, and the procession had a bizarrely festive air, the fungi capering, dancing, and skipping as they celebrated the impending nuptials. The group also encountered several oozes also making their way to Araumycos. After six days, they arrive at their destination.

(Conthsen the 18th of Dualahei) The domain of Araumycos was a bizarre fungal realm in the heart of the Underdark. Araumycos's tunnels and caverns were dimly lit by phosphorescent fungi. Fungal life filled the caverns and passageways in the region, with visitors literally walking upon and within Araumycos upon entering its domain. The floor was carpeted with thick mold and fungus, creating patches of difficult terrain throughout. In some tunnels and caves, fungi growth obstructed passage. Characters either had to climb or hack their way through the fungal growth. In other places, the fungus covering the floor was soft enough that characters could sink into it with no warning. Creatures that failed to escape became food for Araumycos.

In the time it took the party to reach Araumycos's caverns after receiving Basidia's message, Zuggtmoy and her fungal entourage arrived at the site of the ceremony, near the center of those caverns. The entourage included hundreds of myconid adults and myconid sprouts, accompanied by awakened zurkhwoods and bridesmaids of Zuggtmoy, as well as ambulatory fungi such as violet fungi and gas spores. Various spore servants filled out Zuggtmoy's entourage.

As the party approached the center of Araumycos's great cavern complex, Basidia met them with a small detachment of loyal myconids. The myconid sovereign explained that it can infuse the characters and NPC’s with rapport spores and neutralized servitor spores, enabling them to blend in with the fungal servitors accompanying Zuggtmoy. The characters then have a few hours to make their way to the center of Araumycos's territory where Zuggtmoy's ritual was set to take place.

When they are sufficiently close to the epicenter of the ritual, the characters were able to enter rapport with Araumycos. Basidia's rapport spores helped facilitate the process, but Araumycos's sleeping mind isn't in full control of the defenses of its body, and could have interpreted the characters' presence as an attack. Basidia warned the characters that they must be on their guard for a reaction from the vast fungus.

“Once the party has entered rapport, they must seek out Araumycos's sleeping mind and awaken it to the danger it faces. Basidia doesn't know if Zuggtmoy will become aware of what the characters are doing, but if she does, they will have only a limited amount of time before the demon queen tries to stop them.”

At this point Spies from Juiblex attacked, A pair of regenerating black puddings, eyes of the banished demon lord Juiblex, slither through the undergrowth and attacked the party. The characters' myconid allies fall back from the fray, desperate to protect Sovereign Basidia and plead for the adventurers' aid through the telepathic rapport they share.

Empowered by Juiblex, these regenerating black puddings had an Intelligence of 6 (−2) and had regeneration capabilities. The pudding regains 20 hit points at the start of each of its turns. If the pudding takes fire damage, this trait doesn't function at the start of the pudding's next turn. The pudding dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn't regenerate. The group managed to dispatch the spies and continue on.

They set out for the depths of Araumycos as the rapport takes hold. Unfortunately, they had no means of assuring the slumbering fungal entity of their intentions, and the growing threat posed by Zuggtmoy and the other demon lords had roused Araumycos's defenses.

“The pastel colors of fungi transform the caverns you pass through into softly glowing meadows. The floor is spongy, and the myconid spores are making you start to feel drowsy, at least, you hope that's what's behind this strange sensation. Then you feel the ground beneath you shift as something moves, a number of thick, spiky tendrils bursting from the ground.

Two fungal creatures resembling otyughs rise up and attack the characters. Created by Araumycos to perfectly duplicate the abilities, traits, and actions of otyughs, these creatures are plants rather than aberrations. They attack until slain, whereupon each bursts into a cloud of sweet-smelling spores as its body dissolves back into the larger mass of fungi filling the cavern.”

The group defeated the creatures and the creature burst like an overfull wineskin, releasing a clear ichor and a cloud of dusty spores. The deflating bulk of its body sank back beneath the shimmering fungal field where the party stood. Their vision started to swim, and they felt dizzy and faint. their limbs were numb and their legs no longer supported them.

A check confirmed that the party is in no physical danger, but are actually entering rapport with Araumycos. The adventurers were paralyzed as the myconid spores fully took effect. Even those creatures immune to sleep and paralysis were affected as the spores seeped into mind and body. The characters collapsed harmlessly to the soft surface of Araumycos, its fungus quickly spreading across them as the rapport began. As this happened, the group entered "Into the Gray Dream."

The adventurers, who were then psychically linked with both the myconid sovereign and Araumycos, were aware of the demon queen and her minions performing Zuggtmoy's demonic ritual.

Through their link with Basidia, they sensed that Zuggtmoy's wedding ceremony had begun. Receiving the myconid's impressions, they became aware of a huge crowd of fungal creatures and spore servants, hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, watched as a grotesque procession made its way through them. Myconids of all sizes caper madly before a troupe of giant animated mushrooms, bearing a mossy litter upon which sits the Demon Queen of Fungi in all her terrible splendor.

Zuggtmoy was draped and veiled in molds and fruiting mushrooms woven into a grotesque gown. Vaguely humanoid figures set with clusters of luminescent lichen and lumescent fungal growths followed her like bridesmaids, carrying a veil and train of lacy mycelia. Stepping off the litter as her followers set it down, the Demon Queen of Fungi rises to tower above all the creatures around her. "My betrothed," she intones, the meaning of her words clear within the vision. "I am here at last."

The characters' thoughts drew them toward a distant, floating object. It appeared to be a hemisphere, until its slow rotation revealed its true form: a giant skull missing its jawbone, formed out of some kind of pale rock. As the characters drew closer, the skull revealed itself to be the size of a small mountain. Its surface is covered in lichens and broad patches of mold, the colors resembling those of Araumycos on the Material Plane.

Through the empty eye sockets of the skull, the adventurers could see that its interior is hollow and filled with a bewildering variety of giant fungi. Tendrils and growths extended outward, twining together to form a mass suspended in the middle of the open space, a brain-shaped fungus the size of a castle.

The closer the characters came to the floating skull, the more strongly they felt a presence, the mind of Araumycos, to which they were linked. That consciousness was largely unaware of them, lulled by the insidious influence of Zuggtmoy's spores and unable to resist the demon queen's presence.

When the characters entered the skull and touched its surface, the mind of Araumycos stired, and the Demon Queen of Fungi sensed it. Zuggtmoy used the connection of the rapport spores to push into Araumycos's mind.

"Who dares?" a voice shouts in their minds. "Who dares disturb my intended nuptials?" Spores and tendrils erupted from the surface of the skull, coalescing before their eyes into the image of the Demon Queen of Fungi, her dead eyes glaring with inhuman fury.

Zuggtmoy projected her psychic presence to confront the characters, while at the same time maintaining limited control over her material form. She intends to complete the ritual necessary to grant her full power over Araumycos, needing only to delay or destroy the intruders in order to succeed. The split in the Demon Queen's attention works in their favor, as Zuggtmoy's demonic rival Juiblex’s devout followers chooses that moment to launch their attack and foul the Demon Queen's plans.

Before Zuggtmoy acts against the adventurers, the demon queen is distracted, turning away to glance at something they can't see. She hisses the name "Juiblex" like a curse, then recoils as if struck. Her image then vanishes.

As the psychic din awakened Araumycos from its trance, the shimmering colors piercing the silver of the Astral Plane flared even brighter. The following round, Araumycos entered into full rapport with the characters and their myconid allies. The entity reveals that Zuggtmoy has already infected its mind with her demonic influence, which Araumycos could feel growing in strength. It's only a matter of time before it would fall to the demon queen's will. Focused but fearful, the entity asked the adventurers to cut out and destroy the diseased part of its mind before it's too late.

The characters are guided to the far side of the suspended fungus cluster inside the skull, where a dark mass is spreading. The first time the characters came within 20 feet of the dark mass, it erupted with the effect of an Evard's black tentacles spell. The infected area of Araumycos's mind had AC 13, 100 hit points, and vulnerability to necrotic and psychic damage.

When the infected area first took damage, Zuggtmoy senses it and turns her attention away from Juiblex’s minions in an attempt to stop the party. As she exerts her will over Araumycos, a burst of spores spreads out in a cloud from the infected area. The party within 20 feet of the infected area almost took poison damage and became poisoned, but fortunately they succeeded in resisting.

As the party destroyed more of the infected area, the view beyond the bounds of the skull chamber began to darken. When the area reaches 0 hit points, a powerful psychic wind howls through the area. Each character had to make a successful saving throw to avoid the mental effect of a psychic wind. This psychic wind has no location effect, as the rapport ends thereafter and the characters awaken back in their physical bodies. The physical damage and ongoing effects suffered by their astral forms were not carried over to the characters' physical bodies.

The party had freed Araumycos from Zuggtmoy's influence, which weakened the power of the Demon Queen of Fungi, distracting her. She began to lose hold of many of her fungal minions and the amount of power she had expended to perform her ritual, Zuggtmoy was weakened to the point that Juiblex’s minions took advantage and attacked her. The party also jumps to the attack and sends her back into the Abyss, also killing Juiblex’s minions as well.

 

Loot so far:

27, Trimask Mushrooms at 3000 gp each. (8100 gp to each party member, once Trimasks are sold)

Kobold Mining Profits: For the previous week the Kobolds mining efforts yielded 22,000 gp worth of cut gems [diamonds].  (Subtracting the mine expenses for the week, 584 gp), so each party member gets  3569 gp each. (Also the week ending the11th of Dualahei, 8 new eggs were laid and 8 new pups were hatched in the lair warrens).

(Adventure ended on Conthsen the 18th of Dualahei)