#15 Indefinite Madness

Basidia gives everyone a tour of the grove

Party meets Loobamub, leader of the Circle of Hunters, who follows Basidia; it distrusts Sarith due to his spores
Party meets Hebopbe, leader of the Circle of Growers, who follows Phylo

Party meets Gasbide, leader of the Circle of Builders, who follows Phylo

Gasbide is an aspiring architect and asks Party for details on Surface structures
Zaz is alarmed by its enthusiasm and persistent questioning, and urges the party to walk away

Party meets Yrberop, leader of the Circle of Sporers, who follows Phylo

Junior and Rumpadump say this is where they were grown (born)
Yrberop tells them that the community needs many more sprouts to spread the happiness of "the Great Seeder"
Basidia says this kind of push to expand the population is unnatural

Party meets Rasharoo, leader of the Circle of Explorers, who follows Basidia

Rasharoo says that the Circle of Masters has been sending groups of myconids out to bring people here, who then mysteriously disappear
Rasharoo has escape plans and has been stashing resources away in tunnels in case Basidia decides to abandon the grove

Party takes a break while Basidia takes care of some duties

continued in RP

Basidia approaches the party for a private meeting

Mylz leads Sarith elsewhere, predicting what this conversation is about
Basidia suspects Phylo has been infected with some diseased spore, and there is something off about the Garden of Welcome
Party informs Basidia of their suspicions that it's all connected to Zuggtmoy, which makes it increasingly concerned
Basidia is too scared to investigate the Garden itself, so it begs Party to do so; it needs to know exactly what it's up against

the next morning, Phylo approaches the party to escort them to the Garden of Welcome

Party has a quick meeting first; NPCs will be staying behind, with Zaz forming a telepathic link with Derendil and Eldeth
character:2398239|Jimjar] volunteers to look after Sarith, who is doing badly

PCs enter the Garden of Welcome

the garden is made up of various Underdark races who have been buried alive in the dirt; they're all moaning in pain
one drow woman begs to be killed; she's beyond saving, so Mylz puts her out of her misery

Yestabrod, leader of the Circle of Masters, slithers up to the PCs; it is a mutated abomination that used to be a myconid

upon witnessing all of this, Zaz faints and Yestabrod attacks, raising two spore servants from the prisoners in the garden
Mylz successfully revives Zaz during battle and Dibrael performs an AOE attack that mercy kills the entire garden
Party finds pile of stuff that used to belong to the victims; there are some magic items among the loot (including the Spider Nightcap)

Party notices a new form of darkness curling out of the mist from the next cavern: Umbraphilian

in the fog, a humanoid silhouette appears; it is an illusion of each person's most important loved one, inviting them to "the wedding"
Dibrael sees his sister, Mylz sees her partner, Skjorn sees his nanny, and Zaz sees his mother
everyone sees through the illusion, but it still causes Skjorn to cry; Zaz throws his knife at it to make it disappear
Party tries to comfort each other to no avail; Zaz updates Derendil and Eldeth over the link

Party pushes through the fog and sees a giant towering mushroom

it is surrounded by the Garden of Rot, a disgusting display of creatures dying slowly and painfully in the ground
Skjorn is tempted to touch a moving lump on the ground, but everyone pulls him away - only to stumble into a lump behind them
the lump bursts, revealing what's left of a drow, who screams in pain as the party watches the life leave his eyes
screams echo around the entire cavern and the giant mushroom shivers in delight
upon witnessing this, Zaz begins to hallucinate for the next 6hrs and Mylz becomes paranoid for the next 4hrs

Party approaches the giant mushroom, watching a large group of infected myconids and spore servants wildly dancing around it

the drow they watched die earlier now rises from the ground and joins the celebration

Summary:

Party enters Yggmorgus and finds Zuggtmoy in deep meditation as her "bridesmaids" tend to her
Party is forced to sit through a vision of a future where thousands of infected myconids march around the Darklake
at their destination, some of them are preparing a wedding ceremony with the corpse of Yestabrod being puppeted as the priest
Party hears the song that has been in the back of Sarith's mind for months; it mentions something called Araumycos

upon witnessing this, Zaz gains an indefinite form of madness

Party runs back to the grove, updating the NPCs on what they experienced

Party finds Basidia with the Circle of Hunters, inform it that Zuggtmoy is here in the grove, and everyone prepares to abandon the place

privately, Basidia informs Sarith that it's heard "through the meld" that his symptoms should improve the further away he is from Zuggtmoy