Myconid Meddling - Session 3 Report

General Summary

Downtime

The party made their way back out through the tunnels and gave a short summary of their excursion to the technicians back at the basement level of the Trian corespindle. Councillor Helgan Cor'Synoro was no longer present but she had left a day's wage for the party members with the techs who diligently passed it along. They said they would update Helgan about the party's plans to return to the tunnels the next day to exterminate the bugs that seemed to be at the root of the issue.   With fresh GP burning a hole in their pockets, the party hustled into town for some late night shopping, acquiring some medkits to speed their healing before the next day's excursion. Davin offered his medical expertise and the group managed to get patched up quite efficiently.   The next morning, everyone had planned to meet at a central location but Fulgur didn't appear. The group set off to his shop to see what was causing the hold up but found the shop blocked off behind some security tape. An owl-ish Ave stood outside the front door, tapping away at a data scroll. As the party approached, the Ave greeted them and informed them that Fulgur was indisposed with "cleaning up an internal issue" within the shop but that he had left a device for them: the spore-detection device he had used yesterday as you navigated the tunnels. The party carried on from there to the corespindle, one man down.  

Return to the Tunnels

Revisiting The Fungal Caverns

Back into the tunnels, the party were able to make their way back to the myconid community with only a couple of erroneous turns that required a bit of backtracking. A few minutes away from the fungal caverns, the group encountered two of the larger, roughly humanoid myconids that appeared to be staggering their way down the tunnel towards them (away from their home cavern). As the party members entered the myconids' spore fields, each could hear in their minds the fungal creatures muttering, as if only to themselves, "Wake the sleepers... Must wake the sleepers..." The myconids didn't seem to react or interact with the party at all so the group decided to let the creatures stagger off without interference.   Bliqtaz, Häxan, and Davin finally reached the myconid community again and, with their small fungus gift from the Grand Mycol broadcasting a signature of friendly spores, they were able to enter the caverns unmolested. At the far end of the caverns, they found the Grand Mycol standing with some bodyguards between the formal council area (where they had all conversed yesterday) and a section of the cavern with densely constructed fungal dwellings. The chitinous walls of the fungal dwellings looked noticeably damaged and quite a few of the smaller myconid creatures seemed somewhat agitated as they worked to repair various structures. Touching base with the Grand Mycol, it seemed to not be too bothered by the damage and indicated that there had been another insectoid incursion some hours ago but it had been successfully repelled. Bliqtaz seemed to think the Grand Mycol may not be telling the full truth, or at least that there was some level of bluster to its statements. Equipped with their fungal-biotech healing device and pointed in the right direction by the myconids, the party began slogging through a new, deeply waterlogged tunnel.  

The Search for the Bugs

The water was initially several feet deep and the going was tough, especially for Häxan's individual feline constituents. After about 10-15 minutes of travel, the tunnel widened slightly and the water shallowed out a bit. Another 20 minutes later, the party could leave the water and travel along a narrow ledge that appeared on the right-hand side of the tunnel instead, saving considerable effort.   Eventually, they reached a fork in the tunnel: to the left and slightly above them water cascaded out of a tunnel that sloped up and away from them, to the right the dry ledge carried on into a fully separate passage. Seeing that the dry path appeared to curve in a similar direction as the water-filled one, they decided to start down this tunnel to see if it would bring them in a promising direction. On the lookout to for clues to confirm that this was the correct route, the party noted several sections of the tunnel that seemed a bit damp as water slowly seeped through the ceiling and dripped to the ground, possibly indicating that the flooded tunnel route was running a semi-parallel course above them. After some minutes, Häxan also thought that they sensed a familiar smell and, just as they began to warn the group, they looked up to see a large grub dropping down from the ceiling into the middle of their collective. Acting quickly and visciously, the grub wounded Häxan with its poisonous bite but, being outnumbered and severely outmuscled, the party was able to quickly dispatch the creature with Häxan poetically landing the final blow. Thankful for their foresight to stock up on medical supplies, the party takes a short break to tend to their wounds prior to further exploration.  

The Bugs

Continuing down the tunnel, the party eventually noticed a red glow emanating from beyond the next curve in the path. Creeping forward slowly, they managed to get a good view as the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Several columns of natural stone could be seen around the space, several that were coated in a viscous, gel-like substance that seemed to emanate a red glow. There was one larger rock formation that supported what seemed to be the floor of another tunnel that intersected the cavern at a higher elevation. This elevated tunnel had clearly broken away in several places and did not span the full width of the space.   A stream ran through the cavern and, just on the opposite side of the water, were dozens of ovoid shapes partially buried in the dirt which also added to the ambient light as their surfaces were covered with glowing red cracks or seams. Moving amongst the eggs was a large insect, its segmented and many legged body easily 10 feet long and 4-5 feet thick across. It had a razored mandible as well as numerous tentacles sprouting from its head. A smaller creature of the same species, closer to 5 feet long and less than 2 feet across, was on the near side of the stream rummaging through a large pile of what seemed like the bones and carcasses of various beasts. Each of the rock columns coated in the red glowing gel seemed to also have these skeletal piles surrounding them.   Davin, Häxan, and Bliqtaz had avoided the detection of these creatures and decided to attempt an ambush as they entered the cavern. Unleashing a destructive flurry of symbiotic blasts and thrown javelins, the smaller of the two insects was heavily damaged and the larger bellowed and scurried up a stone column and across the ceiling towards the party. Sticking with ranged attacks for as long as they could, the party continued to assault the bugs, the smaller seeking some cover behind a column and the larger slowly making its way towards them.   In the depths of the cavern, a deep rumbling screech could be heard and a huge, angry variation of these insect creatures slowly dragged itself into view. It looked as though, in place of face tentacles, hardened spikes protruded next to its toothy maw. The creature's segmented body was well armoured with thick, chitinous plates although its belly seemed to be covered in numerous red, glowing, softer-looking sacs marking it as a likely brood mother to this den of insects. Most of its many legs had apparently atrophied, with the exception of the two nearest the monster's head which looked strong and had developed fearsome claw-like appendages. The creature also seemed to have a large number of red, glowing crystalline objects embedded into the back of its head.   As the party was taking in the totality of this new foe, the crystals pulsed brightly in an arhythmic series of flashes. In the next fraction of a second, Häxan and Bliqtaz felt a bizarre sensation as if the world had turned upside down. Davin, unaffected, watched them inexplicably tumble towards the ceiling along with many of the bones and carcasses that had been strewn about the cavern. Bliqtaz managed to hit the ceiling gracefully enough to tuck, roll, and spring back to her feet, looking at the cavern from a new and inverted perspective. The first of Häxan's cats managed to land gracefully as well but were unfortunately pummeled by the remaining members until the whole collective was sprawled prone. The smaller of the insect creatures took advantage of Häxan's situation and, having floated up to the ceiling as well, sprinted over to the Euso with a biting maw and flailing tentacles that, upon whipping into the herd of cats, imparted a paralytic poison that rendered the collective immobile.   Davin continued to assist from below, firing flames towards the insects. With the larger one bearing down on her, Bliqtaz juiced up and grew in size to meet the monstrosity on more equal terms. Meanwhile, the brood mother began summoning forth more of her offspring, somehow remotely hatching the glowing eggs one by one to allow fresh grubs to join in the melee. All this as, at precise intervals, the crystals embedded in the brood mother would repeat their pattern of flashes and gravity would invert again in various places around the cavern. While Bliqtaz and Davin managed to survive these fluctuations largely unscathed, the paralyzed Häxan found themselves unfortunately battered against the floor and ceiling.   The party continued to make progress however as Häxan eventually regained their mobility, the smaller of the insects was finished off and the larger was incrementally worn down. They continued further into the cavern with the growing knowledge that if the brood mother was not taken down, they would continue to be faced with waves of grubs. The brood mother had attempted to shield itself from direct attack by moving behind one of the rock columns but now could be seen pulling itself up onto one of the elevated tunnel platforms. Davin managed to connect mentally with the brood mother and implanted a vision of a second, large Bliqtaz that was right next to the monster on the platform. The phantom Bliqtaz's axe strikes were manifested into tangible pain by the creature's psyche and kept her sufficiently distracted as the real Bliqtaz and Häxan cut their way through several of the scuttling grubs. Coming within javelin range, Bliqtaz managed to strike a solid hit on the brood mother who, in retaliation, spewed a spray of acidic grease towards the Daerpon.   The party continued to close in, destroying new grubs along the way, and becoming increasingly proficient at sick flips between the ceiling and the floor when the gravity changed. Eventually the brood mother's self-preservation instinct kicked in and she shed the lower half of her body, the egg sac abdomen, for increased mobility. Flipping up to the ceiling with another gravitational reversal, the brood mother strode quickly away using her two strong, arm-like appendages. The party could not be stopped however. Davin released one final volley of flame, the phantom Bliqtaz relentlessly pursued the monstrosity across the ceiling with her vicious axe, and Häxan's collective executed a spinning flip from floor to ceiling with perfect synchronicity to land next to the insect and unleash a decimating explosion of neutrons.   As the brood mother perished, gravity returned to its natural state and all fell back to the floor again. The party had survived the encounter and began to deliberate how next to proceed.

Character(s) interacted with

The Grand Mycol Venothrivica