22 February 2019

Our story resumes with the heros lugging a dead Grik-alpha back to Neverlight. Gomphus said that Basidia would have a use for it. Kais probes as to what sort of use - Gomphus says he will turn it into a spore-servant, or possibly just use it as fertilizer.

On the way back Bree spots a mound on the forest floor, which turns out to be a dead creature. Kais later describes it as "If a bear and an ape got drunk one night, then you took the resulting offspring and shaved it, you might get this." The creature was about 5' tall, with greenish skin. It seems to have died some days ago, as it is quite rotted. Kais can find no obvious cause of death - no injuries, nor signs of starvation. Bree investigates the corpse and finds a bone lodged in its mouth. Ezri identifies it as a bone from the hand of a humanoid.

We drop the Grik-alpha off with a very grateful Basidia. Basidia rewards us by giving us each a gourd containing a liquid. He explains what it does well enough to identify it as a Potion of Greater Healing (4d4+2). He also tells us that a drow patrol showed up and described us. They were taken to the Circle of Welcome and have not been seen again. Basidia also notes that they described some others who are not with us - Kais presses for details and learns that they described the whole initial party, including the twin were-rat deep gnomes. Thus these drow must be associated with the drow who captured us. Kais begins to tell Basidia the details of our capture and capturers, but Caius interrupts him. At that moment, another myconid, Gaspida, approaches. He is from the Circle of Builders and he wants to quiz us on surface architecture. He and Ezri get into a discussion for a while, and then Caius takes over with tales of the castle of Rekenmark. Kais ambles away, but Basida catches him before he leaves and indicates he would like a word with him again later.

Kais heads for the circle of hunters. He asks them if they know anything about the dead bear-ape in the forest. Not only does Lube-em-up not know anything about the creature, he does not recognize the species. He is also grateful for our help in dispatching the Grik-alpha, and gives Kais a scroll in a wooden case. Kais notes that the case is actual surface wood. The scroll seems to be a Scroll of Protection. Kais thanks Lube-em-up, and the others approach, apparently having extracted themselves from Gaspidia's questions.

Autun has gone to play with the baby myonids - playing with Drupal seems to be healing his heart from the loss of Stool. Caius is still quite injured and is in need of a rest, so the others take turns taking watch, letting him get some extra sleep. On Jimjar's watch, he hears what he says are dancing myconids... which is strange, because as far as he knows, myconids don't dance. Kais creeps up to look, staying out of spore range. He sees Gaspida and 5 or so other myconids shuffling around in what could be a dance. Despite the distance he can catch bits of what seems to be a chant - "The day of joy is nigh."

Once everyone is rested, Kais finds Basida. The other members of the party (except Autun) go with him. Basida seems unsurprised by this - he seems to regard us as a sort of circle. He tells us that he is concerned, because the leader of the Circle of Masters has not been seen in person lately, but is instead sending representatives to the circle. We notice that the concept of the Circle of Masters does not seem to be as well defined as the other Circles. The Circle of Hunters come with a background sense of hunting; the Circle of Farmers come with an impression of farming. Upon questioning it is clear that Basida does not know what the Circle of Masters does. It is a relatively new circle, a few weeks or months old. They meet at the Garden of Welcome. No one else can come to the Garden of Welcome any more. It is not directly associated with the new hierarchy created by Phyllo; the leaders of the other circles meld with Phyllo and each other, and then meld with their other circles, but the Circle of Masters is independent of this. Its members are not the leaders of the other circles, but seemingly random members that came from other circles. Yeastibrood is the head of the Circle of Masters, but has not been seen in some time.

We also learn that the hunters who we met in the forest have returned, but looking a bit the worse for wear. They found the other Shambling Mound, but it turned out to be tougher than usual, and they were not able to defeat it. They have asked for our help in dispatching it. The hunters need a rest before leading us to the Shambling Mound, and we want to find out how urgent the situation is at Neverlight. We decide to check out the Garden of Welcome. Bree can become invisible, so we decide to send her alone.

The forest around the Garden is very dense. After a bit, Bree notices a thick coating of spores on everything. She sneaks carefully forward, and spots two spore-servants, apparently guarding the area. The weird thing is, the spore-servants appear to be made from a lobster-like monster. She slips and splashes in the muck, but fortunately the spore servants are not very smart, and they simply look in the direction of the noise and wait. Since Bree is invisible, she's able to sneak away from them and further into the Garden. She notices that there are some strange lumps in the ground, possibly large mushrooms pushing up from the earth. She finally gets close enough to one to see that it is not a mushroom, but the head of a drow. The drow opens its eyes, apparently aware of Bree's presence. "It's a trap. Kill me. Please kill me." The drow manages to free an arm from the dirt and holds up a sigil of the spider. "Zachtmooi, the Great Seeder is here. Please kill me." The drow's head then explodes, releasing spores into the air. Bree manages to hold her breath and shake off the effect of the spores. She spots the drow's equipment in a pile behind the debris. She quickly looks through the stuff, and finds a curious bag which seems bigger on the inside than on the outside. There is also some armor and other gear, but she takes the bag and flees the area. Despite making some noise on the way back, the spore-servants seem unaware of her, and she is able to make it back to the group unharmed.

She throws the bag at Kais, who cautiously opens it. It contains 40 drow rations and 340 sp, and is clearly a bag of holding.

We tell Lube-em-up and Basidia what we found at the Garden. Both seem scarcely able to believe it, but the spores still covering Bree's clothing are evidence that something is very much amiss in the Garden. Basidia says he will meet with some people to discuss it. Kais warns him to be careful who he melds with - that it seems that this power has turned at least some good people to evil, and though he doesn't know how, he does not want this to happen to Basidia. Basidia assures him that he will be careful. He also feels it might be best if we are not around while this discussion is happening, so perhaps it is an opportune time to accompany the hunters to take care of the shambling mound. The group goes to find Autun to see if he can be pried away from the myconid nursery long enough to join.