Session 12

## Wedding Crashers

4 Flamerule (afternoon) - 5 Flamerule (evening)

Sovereign Basidia continues to tell our heroes about the layout of Neverlight Grove and points out the various circles and their leaders. The Young Adventurers decide to kill the monsters mentioned by Loobamub while Basidia talks to Rasharoo, the leader of the Circle of Explorers, about helping the party sneak into the Garden of Welcome.

The party tracks down the source of the blight, a fungus-based shambling mound, and attack. During the opening round of the combat a grick alpha, the second monster Loobamub warned about, attacks from behind. These are actually two reasonably dangerous foes but rolls don’t go their way and they are killed with relative ease. No doubt all fights this session will be just as easy for our heroes.

The group tracks down Rasharoo who tells them there is a pretty easy climb that will let them bypass the guards to get to the Garden of Welcome. Kaia and Sebastian quickly prove that the climb is, in fact, not easy at all. Nespip is able to climb it, however, and throws down a rope so the rest can climb up. Stealthily moving into the garden, Kaia discovers that the garden is not actually all that welcoming. Still living humanoids, including the drow party that had recently arrived, are buried up to their heads in the ground while the rot and fungus painfully decompose their bodies. Kaia calls out to the nearest drow, who is able to briefly gather her wits and speak with Kaia. The drow warns that the “Great Seeder” is in fact Zuggtmoy, the Lady of Decay and begs for Kaia to put her out of her misery. Kaia briefly tries to free the trapped drow (even after the drow admits she was here tracking the party for Ilvara) but finds that the drow has already rotted beyond saving, great chunks of flesh tearing away as Kaia digs at the dirt around her. Ultimately, Kaia does as the drow woman begs and ends her life.

The party gathers, deciding what to do next. Ralkor makes his first attempt to cast detect magic when Yestabrod, leader of the Circle of Celebration, approaches from deeper in the garden. The former myconid is mutated into a horrific fungal larva and it attacks the party, taunting them and cryptically mentioning a wedding. The ensuing fight is a little more difficult, as chuul spore servants and adult myconids join in to help Yestabrod, but the Young Adventurers are more than a match for their enemies, although Kaia does suffer from a bout of madness, convinced that she is being consumed by fungus visible only to her.

After the fight Ralkor makes another attempt to cast detect magic but is again interrupted. A strange procession of fungal creatures enter the garden and hold a mock wedding. Drow spore servants pick up the corpse of Yestabrod and force him through the motions of officiating the ceremony. The party suddenly has a vision--a woman of fungus, suspended in a tower, waited on by fungal abominations. These fungal abominations are weaving a horrific wedding dress and veil out of the rot and fungus that surround the woman--presumably Zuggtmoy. As the mock wedding breaks up the party comes back to their senses, and must make the first what will become many sanity checks. On top of her previous madness, Kaia suffers amnesia, forgetting who her companions are or what she was doing. Ralkor suffers sudden antipathy while Sebastian suddenly gains the ability to breathe fire (seriously Mark, just believe him when he says he can breathe fire now).

Ralkor makes yet another attempt to cast detect magic which actually works this time. I (the dm) was thinking there was a good chance that the party would just pass by without getting the dead drow’s very good equipment, but Mark seriously has some kind of sixth sense for when there is loot around. Stop reading the source book Mark. Anyway, the party obtains a +2 scimitar and a +2 studded leather armor (though they would only be identified later). Everybody is cured of their madness as well, except that Sebastian can still breathe fire (for real).

The crew moves further into the garden, finding a huge bowl-shaped chamber that houses the largest mushroom they’ve seen yet, towering as tall as any building in a surface city. Fungal abominations cavort about the towering mushroom and an entrance is visible at its base. Tumor-like growths on the cavern floor are found to contain various humanoids, rotting alive like those buried in the Garden of Welcome. The pods occasionally burst and the poor creature inside screams in pain as it joins the dancing shapes around the mushroom. The Young Adventurers have had enough of this shit and decide to go talk to Sovereign Basidia.

Finding Basidia at the Circle of Explorers, animating the grick they had earlier killed, the party fills her in on the horrors they witnessed on the plateau above (also: Nespip fell trying to climb down from the plateau, so that was fun). Basidia decides it is time to clear out with any myconids still loyal to them and Rasharoo informs them that they has prepared supply caches for just such an eventuality. Basidia decides that they will leave in the morning and invites the Young Adventurers to come along. Unfortunately the fleeing myconids plan to move northwest, almost exactly opposite of the direction of Blingdenstone.

Sebastian is pretty firmly of the opinion that the source of the corruption could be dealt with and the party debates returning to the mushroom tower to see what’s inside. Basidia is firm that they will leave in the morning with or without the party so if they want to explore the tower they will need to return tonight. Kaia points out that they don’t need Basidia and can just stick around in the morning after Basidia leaves. The party makes camp for the night, and everybody is suddenly level 6. Kaia takes a level in rogue! Everybody else is boring and remains single-classed.

In the morning Basidia informs Phylo that they are leaving and the myconids take sides. The majority side with Phylo but many decide to go with Basidia. As Basidia prepares to leave the party realizes that they will be at the mercy of Phylo if they stay, possibly ending up buried in the Garden of Welcome as they slowly decompose. Basidia decides that they will stay long enough to protect the party if they truly want to check out the tower, though she will wait on the upper plateau for them to return. The Young Adventurers, along with Fargas and Eldeth, journey back to the tower. By consensus Jimjar remains behind with Basidia so someone can warn the surface if everybody else dies.

The cavorting fungal abominations make no attempt to stop the party as they approach and enter the tower. At the center they find the source of their vision the day before, Zuggtmoy floating in the enormous central chamber attended by her horrific bridesmaids. Zuggtmoy initially ignores the intrusion but Nespip draws attention, yelling at her to leave the myconids alone and that she does not belong on this plane. Zuggtmoy floats serenely towards the party, undeterred as Ralkor fires off a firebolt warning shot. She exudes a cloud of mind control spores and commands the group to leave. Eldeth and Nespip fall under her sway and immediately turn to leave. Sebastian quickly cures Nespip and then the party seriously just fucking attacks Zuggtmoy. Jesus.

As usual, Kaia attacks first and she manages to land a blow on the demon lord, partially damaging her elaborate fungal wedding dress. Zuggtmoy suddenly stops looking serene and becomes enraged. The battle that follows is hilariously one sided. The party basically gets one round of attacks off before they decide they should just run. The highlight of the round goes to Sebastian who throws three fireball beads at Zuggtmoy and rolls 16 damage on 10d6. That’s amazing. Fun fact: there is a 1 in 7560 chance of getting a 16 or less on a 10d6. I would not believe it if I hadn’t seen it. The fireball doesn’t even kill the fungal bridesmaids surrounding Zuggtmoy and they are super weak. Over the following several rounds various party members are knocked unconscious and healed or dragged away from the fight. Finally Zuggtmoy has three of the remaining four knocked unconscious (Fargas long since fucked off). She makes sure that Kaia is dead and leaves Nespip and Ralkor to bleed to death before returning to her tower.

Sebastian runs back just in time to revivify Kaia (waiting until Zuggtmoy is no longer looking). Nespip and Ralkor narrowly avoid dying themselves and Sebastian quickly gets everybody back on their feet and running away. Fargas and Basidia are surprised to see the party alive. (DM sidenote: I fully intended at least one PC permanently die here just as a lesson against attacking creatures nearly as powerful as gods but wasn’t thinking about revivify. I probably didn’t properly telegraph how impossible a fight against Zuggtmoy was, so it’s for the best that Kaia survived.)

The Young Adventurers decide that traveling in the wrong direction for a day is a small price to pay for safety and depart Neverlight Grove with Basidia and her two circles of followers. We leave our heroes here, licking their wounds with a new appreciation for just what a demon lord is capable of.