Mus: Unchartered Lands

This is the book written about Cleo Malachi about his experience with mus on Mushroom Island

## Intro: My background and credentials

I am Cleo Malachi, son of Eziekiel Malachi, and the reformer of the Council of Sages in Old Moros. Not that it matters much. In Old Moros we studied ancient records and recordings of old knowledge - knowledge of math and science, magic and runes. Foremost, there was stories of supremely powerful beings - the Gods.

We all know the old stories, the Mallus and the enlightened people. However within the ruins of Old Moros we learned of detailed accounts interacting with these beings. We learnt of their true power - how supreme they truly were. It was here I found an artifact that bound me to the spirit world and I realized that beings of such power still existed.

Though Old Moros is likely nothing but ruins by now the knowledge I learned from that helped to guide me and gave me precious insight in many unexplainable phenomenon. After the destruction of my home I travelled to a new land, here I worked on a fishing boat to earn my keep. It was on this sad sorry sloop my story begins.

## Part One: My Personal Experience with Mus and Rifts

### Chapter 1: My days on the sloop and strange occurrences

My first day on the sloop was quite peculiar - on the day I started there were five others who were assigned to work on the sloop, these people have since become my associates. Two of them were my own family, my foolish but sneaky son and my "charming" wife.

Also with us was Goliath fellow who is a bit rough around the edges, an Elven man who lost everything and seeks power in knowledge - and a man I have to come to respect, and a curious Assiamar - angel for the layman. How an angel came to be on a such a pathetic vessel I would like to one day inquire.

We embarked on our first day as scheduled - fished for corpses from the bloodied ocean and delivered them to their resting place, and got paid a nice sum for it, too. T'was then I went off with the angel for drinks, and while we were there we happened to hear a particular rumor - a rumor about a particularly powerful magic item on an island.

Our gold-eyed captain agreed immediately, thinking that such a dangerous item must have a high value. Unfortunately when we set out thee next day, things did not go as expected. Things were going as planned, we were making our way to the island when an impossibly big wave capsized the sloop, and everyone was washed away.

### Chapter 2: Castaway

We had been hit. T'was a mortal wound too, as it caused the ship to go under and the crew was all washed away. The Watery depths thrashed us about, knocking us against a mess of wooden debris, each other, and a mess of items and hard objects that only logically could've come from our small fishing vessel. In the madness of the sea, many lost their possessions and some even their life - however having an agile mind and keen perception, yours truly was able to dodge the debris that would have destroyed my belongings and in the fiasco even made a nice profit of three silver.

Once we washed up on shore (and after we coughed the water out of our lungs) we checked our surroundings to find the magnificent sight of a most unusual island. The sand was pink - as pink as as the Azaleas that grow in the elven isles. The air shimmered with unstable magic energy, similar to the energy I saw with my Spirit Eye before the ship was hit. However the most unfamiliar and perhaps most exciting part of this island was not the pink sand, or the shimmer, not even the metallic smell of the air - no, by far the most interesting part of this island was the large, umbrella capped mushroom rising from the ground like a mighty Baobab trees, the kind with thick trunks that grow on Mk'Vdari. However the trunks of these brightly capped mushrooms bent under their own mighty weight, and the caps of the mushroom trees bent forward or backwards in all different angles - casting shade in odd shapes on the forest floor. Above that towered a large but undistinguishable tower, rising over the forest of mushrooms.

The only ones left after the ship thrashing us all about were Me and my family, The large curious goliath fellow, and the Elf. Not far away from where we washed up was wreckage in which we found a fellow crew mate - impaled. Through the chest.. with a large piece of wood that splintered off the hull. Stanley, though I did not know him well, will now forever live on only within these pages, for there was unfortunately no way to revive him. Checking our deceased co-worker to see if he could bestow upon us anything of use we found nothing that helped much other then a compass that only raised more questions. Suddenly remembering our encounter with man eating rats the previous day, and afraid of what this island might hold, I cut a small amount of flesh from the poor boatswain and resolved to find a way to soak it in poison at my next possible convenience.

A bit further down the beach was a campsite, so naturally we investigated to find that the campsite was old, however we could tell the campsite had been inhabited not long before we were there. In an abandoned tent just a few feet away from a cold fire pit, we found a curious letter. And so begins the curious tale pf Pythia the Corrupted, a poor woman whom I suspect to have been corrupted with powerful rift magic. The letter was from a man named Whitaker and it was addressed to his mother. The letter read, "Dear Mother, Pythia is certainly unwell, she has led me to a strange island that doesn't even appear on the map of the Isles. She was jabbering on about how it was calling to her in her dreams. You know that I worry for her, ever since she lost the baby. Now she is begging me to go with her into a forest made out of bloody mushrooms because something is wants her to be here. She cannot keep dragging me about the realm, I'm going to get killed out here. - Whitaker"

It was getting late, so we set a fire in the pit and ate what meals we could salvage from wooden barrels washed ashore and slept off the night. When we awoke we resolved to head further into what I shall henceforth refer to as Mushroom Island. Well, most of us did - my imbecile son stayed behind wasted a health potion, lost a hammer, burnt all our wood, and got high....

Anyway once in the forest, it was the strangest thing- as a practitioner of druidic arts I have a special connection with the earth and nature. As I walked however, I could feel the forest pulsating with life, everything moving together yet separately... a perfect metaphor for our coexistence in these isles. There was no doubt however, this forest wasn't what it seemed, further not all of us admitted to it but I can confidently assert everyone in the forest felt they were being watched.

After some time traveling through the forest we came to a clearing with a small brook. Like everything else on the island the brook was different - it glowed a bright blue color and surely must have been altered in nature due to unstable magic in the area. In the brook we noticed another of our old shipmates, a man named Slog thrashed about in water, convulsing. His eyes were all white and on his back were big slashes, filled with spores. It was then that two hunched humaniod figures covered in mushrooms came shambling out releasing spores and clouds from their fungi. They attacked my dear wife and naturally I jumped into the battle to try and help. I cast a spell I had learned in old book, an old word of power used by angels of Vasilias: Shillelagh. I fended off the beasts for some time but they got the best of me and knocked me unconscious. However, having quite an able group, we were able to overcome the beasts and I was revived by my wife, who luckily for me is skilled as a cleric. It was after that we finally met someone who was alive, our dear old Captain Daniels and the six of us decided to head back towards the beach to rest until the next day, but not before finding a good amount of mushrooms, some picked by my wife who claimed she could use them for cooking and some we found on the bodies of the Mushroomed Mures.

We returned, saw the absolute mess my son had made, and laid down our weapons to talk for a while. We questioned Daniels about his experience on the island and then I began work on this book here. We then spent the night discussing our next move and went to sleep, planning to journey to the monolith the next day. When we did, the boy was still hallucinating on the mushrooms he had eaten and he started to try and tell us that the mushrooms around us weren't mushrooms at all but instead big long trees and plants and flowers. At first we didn't listen; surely the boy was just high. Even when we came upon a large red-capped mushroom that shrieked and shrunk away at being touched we didn't listen to the boy. He tried telling us it was a humanoid figure that was burrowing underground, and the red cap was its head. Well I stabbed the thing to prove the boy wrong ... and then things got weird. The mushroom released a great shriek and started to move slowly away from me. It was then I looked up and saw all these things surrounding us... so I thought it best to move forward with out risking anything.

When finally we reached the monolith, standing tall at the center of the island. To us the monolith seemed to be solid stone, but to the boy who had eaten a fungus encrusted sea urchin there was a big doorway in the front of the monolith. The Elf, the goliath, and I all started to investigate this monolith; we tried searching it for any arcane influences. We pressed the rock where the boy had seen the door but nothing worked.

At the foot of this giant tower was another old campsite. We found another letter from the man named Whitaker, once again addressed to his mother. The letter read: "Dear Mother, I don't know why I'm even addressing these to you anymore because we've been stranded here for who knows how long. This island seems to be home to a powerful magic that seems to be leaking from the stone monolith. I pity Pythia who has been eating bloody fungus (I detest mushrooms) . However, the peculair thing about the mushrooms is that they seem to have a calming effect on her. Like she is in some sort of trance. I believe they are psychoactive as well because she keeps seeing things that aren't there. We are by the monolith so she has been dying to get to and it's completely solid. Pythis said she can go in if I join her on the other side. She's gone crazy and we are going to die on a rock. Hope you're happy mother. -Whitaker"

It was then the by walked through solid stone, in to the monolith. Needless to say everyone was a bit surprised. It was after that the goliath had a rather clever idea - he withdrew from his immense bag a small silver mirror. He stood with his back to the monolith, and sure enough - there was a doorway on the monolith in the mirrors reflections. It was then that we had to make a really hard decision. Which mushrooms should we eat to try and get into that thing. We decided we'd test our luck and each of us eat a different mushroom. We each had a different one - my wife an upside down blue one, The Elf had a big red one, and the goliath had an oozing black one.

After eating the mushroom, the giant stone monolith seemed to shake, and morph... and shrink. What the stone turned into was apparently dependent on the mushrooms that you had eaten. After eating mine, I felt a calming sensation. My head felt as if it was being lifted and all colors around me became more vibrant. I felt a happiness in my gut, and a natural curiosity for this strange world. Before me, instead of a huge stone monolith, was a charming little cabin.

Once i was inside the cabin, I felt a cool gust of air arise from down the spiraling staircase. On the wall in front of us was the Crooked Eye, Mitéra's symbol. At the bottom of this staircase was a large offering room, lined with unlit torches. There were giant murals adorning the walls, stretching from the cobblestone floor to the rock ceiling. They showed the divine Goddess, Mother of Creation, as she willed her children into existence. At the end of the room was a stone door, and engraved on it was "Knowledge is given, not taken."

Upon seeing this we also noticed a large brazier in the middle of the room. T'was Mithral and I who decided to burn one of our books, and as I put the book into the brazier the door began to slide open. In this next room were walls, lined with all sorts of extravagant books. In the room were also four armored statues. Once again there was a sealed door this time with the words "Knowledge is earned, not taken." on it.

Mithral and I began looking over these books, both of us being quite fond of the pursuit of knowledge. However when I went to grab a book golden looking book that had the words "Encyclopedia of Everything" the book burned to my hand, and the four statues attacked us. Luckily we all made it out, though my boy did not fare well and at one point had to be protected by my wife who stood over him, holding out her shield in protection.

However, we were able to defeat the terrible stone guardians. It was after this I thought we had earned our right to gain the knowledge on the shelves, but alas the whole thing was a mere illusion. The book turned to ash in my hand, and the rest of the bookshelves faded away. It was then we decided to move on, for this room held nothing of use to us. So, we ventured into the dark next room, where we were in for a pleasant surprise.

### Chapter 3: Pythia the Corrupted

T'was a big room. It appeared to be an old ritual/worship room for the Goddess Mitéra, and in it we met more lost friends - this time alive luckily. However it didn't look like they'd stay that way long so while my wife fixed a man named Tucker's leg, which had been broken, the goliath - Valok and myself caught The aasimar up on everything that had happened.

Once we had won a small fight with some furniture and a giant cave crab with alcoholic blood, we investigated the room further and found a body. It was old friend, Whitaker. We took from him the last note he would ever write - a note which said "Dear Mother, Pythia is gone. I know I promised to keep her safe but I couldn't. She went completely mad in the forest and I chased her all the way into some sort of crypt. I tried my best Mother. But she just kept going. She said that she was a vessel for a greater power; a power that would know all. Then she went down deeper and I couldn't follow. I don't know where she could've gone from here. - Whitaker"

statue. The statue asked for secrets, so one by one everyone in our pathetic group gave away tehir deepest secrets. The statue was *right there* just a few more inches and we would have been able to climb down into the dark pit beneath it.... but alas, I too had to whisper to it a secret.

Once I did so, we ventured down into the darkness to witness quite a horrific sight. We were in a very old part of this island, and the further down we went the older it was. Eventually we reached a room with a huge crack on the wall, from whence a pinkish smoke poured forth, clouding the room. A demented beast of a woman sat beside it, inhaling the fumes.

She turned to us and appeared nothing more than desecrated decaying corpse. But she radiated this pink myst, and she had a fiendish grin stretched across her face. We had met Pyhtia. She had obviously been given some sort of powers by the cloud, because that day Pythia the Corrupted nearly killed me and everyone I was with.

First it didn't seem so bad, she seemed to be a weak reanimated corpse. Then she started using her abilities - She let out a ghastly shriek, worse than even a Banshee's I'd daresay. With that one shriek me and two of my other teamates went temporarily deaf, and I myself fell to the ground. One by one, all my team mates fell to this Corrupted monster.

T'was then that Gilheart saved the day, after everyone else had fallen - and my own son had run in horror. He slayed that corrupted woman, and saved us all from drowning in the rising water. However the mystery of Pythia still keeps me wondering, theorizing, and researching. I believe I have come to have a basic understanding of Mus, Rifts, How the two are related, and the effecs they have on the world.