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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 3064556" data-attributes="member: 9626">The Gate of Madness: Welcome to the Mushroom KingdomFor once, the party could put away their limited light sources, which was convenient, as they were running very low at this point.  The cavern they entered was far more massive than any they had seen since they entered the Gate of Madness, save for perhaps the energy bowl.  The entire cavern, in fact, looked less like part of an underground complex and more like a jungle, albeit an unusual one.  Giant, slightly luminescent fungi replaced the normal trees, and the sounds of geysers and flowing water reverberated off of the walls and echoed eerily around the party.    “Are you sure you have friends here?” Ik nervously asked.  She exchanged glances with the rest of the party, and it was clear that not everyone trusted their new partner just yet.    “Trust me!” Chitka replied.  “They’re fun guys!”    Moments later, as they were exploring the fungal jungle and heading towards the sounds of the geyser at Chitka’s urging, the party was surprised when many tiny, vaguely humanoid mushrooms surrounded them.  Chitka greeted them with a friendly wave, quickly halting the party’s aggressive plans.  The mushrooms didn’t appear to respond, but one of them held up a strange sign, indicating some interest in communicating with party.      While some of the mushroom people left for unknown reasons, the party studied the sign, while Chitka looked at his new allies’ confusion with some amusement.  “I think I understand it,” Ik suggested a few moments later.  She pointed at what looked like a stick figure mushroom pointing its head at a stick figure human, with strange dots between them and an arrow pointing at the human.  “The fungi folk want to shoot us with something, by the looks of it.”    “And this is supposed to be a good thing?” Anastacia responded skeptically.    “Well, look at this,” Ik continued as she pointed at a second picture.  “This picture shows the mushroom and person talking.  I think the stuff they shoot us with let us communicate.”  As she finished, she glanced at Chitka for confirmation, who nodded enthusiastically.    Sure enough, the mushrooms returned with a much larger member of their tribe, and he immediately released a spray of spores over the party.  The party, with some reluctance, trusted the mushroom and Chitka enough to let the spores settle on their minds, and as they did, they heard a strange voice in their heads.  “Sup, bra?” the large mushroom telepathically asked them.    “Um, hello,” Luke replied.  “We were told by our friend here that you are a peaceful…people.  Can we rest with you for the night?”    “Oh yeah, we’re all chillin,” the mushroom replied in what was mostly affirmatively.  “You can’t own land, man.  We’re just enjoying nature and ourselves here.”    “I thought you said this stuff would let us understand them,” Enrique sarcastically replied to Chitka.    The most surprising response from the spores, however, came from the crab man.  “At last, I can speak with my saviors!” he excited shouted through the mind of the mushroom, who the party learned was called a myconid.  “I owe you my life!  Thank you!”    Enrique instinctively backed away while playing some light music in his brain (the universal method for telepathically hiding thoughts,) but Lorren, fascinated with his new friend, replied just as happily, “Think nothing of it!  We were happy to assist you!  And we’re VERY sorry that you lost so many of your possessions in the water.”  As he said that last part, he tried very hard not to look at Enrique.    “Oh, that’s right!” the crab man replied.  “That means that the water flows deeper underground, doesn’t it?”  He looked at the myconid.  “Do you know where the river flows from here?”    “No problem, dude,” the myconid responded.  “The river turns into a waterfall at the end of the jungle.  Just watch out for the sand man.”    “Who’s the sand man?” Anastacia replied nervously.    “Oh, he’s a good guy,” the myconid explained.  “But he’s a little too excited about making people sleep.  We invite him to join us when we commune with nature sometimes.  We don’t sleep, so his dust helps us expand our minds.”    The crab man quickly prepared to leave, but before he did, he turned the party and said his farewells.  “I have to get back to my people, but if you ever find yourselves among the crab folk, seek me out.  I will repay our debt to you.  Just show my people this sign; it represents my name in our language.”  The crab man scratched a rough symbol on the ground, and then he left towards the loudest sounds of the water.    The party looked at the symbol while Luke took the symbol down.  Lorren looked at the symbol with a puzzled expression.  “It looks like an eight on top of a seven,” he commented.    OOC Notes: The myconids were actually placed in the dungeon before I determined their general personality.  The idea of mushrooms who themselves hallucinated amused me, and it struck me as a very convenient coincidence when I read about them and learned that was officially part of their core society.  I apologize for the lack of updates lately; we couldn’t play two weeks ago because of Labor Day weekend, but there will be a game this weekend, and another Story Hour update from there.</blockquote>

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