Khemia Occulta VI: Cavern of the Mycetons Report

After Alexandru and Kegho passed through the cylinder without incident. Alex lit a torch on the other side and saw a trough filled with an unctuous, rotting fluid, as well as a haphazard pile of decomposing crates along the far wall. Alex plodded quietly toward a lip in the cave and in the dim torchlight he saw pale, yellow-eyed, goblin-like creatures with long claws wallowing in the muck of the cavern below. The activity was centered on a dilapidated chair set with a golden idol of a Djeti.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party transited the cylinder door and joined Alex and Kegho at the edge. Kegho and Asbjørn then descended together, anticipating a fight, but were met instead with cautious curiosity and chittering. As they approached the goblinoids they were overwhelmed by an intensely rank fungal odor and realized these must be the “less-civilized” mushroom hybrids that Nekhtebu had created and then exiled under the tomb. Brother Theophilus hoping to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, descended behind the warriors, projecting the 'Soothing Words of Maya' upon the assembled crowd. Pacified, they then led him to the makeshift altar and throne, crowned him in filth, and anointed him their god-king...probably.

Alex, Ükhilflin, and Teleptyon had remained above; Alex was ready to fire arrows on the creatures below if things went poorly, but while the pale creatures were distracted by their new spiritual leader, the remaining party members descended the ladder and moved more deeply into the fungal caverns.

Alex ascended from the lower chamber onto a higher space on the other side where he found crude clay idols surrounding more sleeping goblinoids that he had begun to affectionately refer as "‘Shroomites". Alex briefly reflected on the small earthen votives that he made and sometimes destroyed as part of his religious practices. He hoped that Theo knew what he was doing and continued deeper into the labyrinth of natural stone caves.

Brother Theo and Asbjørn hatched a plan to liberate the golden idol that the ‘Shroomites were worshiping and use that wealth to support the Tellian economy—and the poor, but mostly the economy.

Kegho and Ükhilflin quietly stole their way up to follow Alex toward an upward hallway he had seen in the distance.

As Teleptyon topped the ladder behind Keg, he stepped on, and subsequently woke, one of the sleeping ‘Shroomites. Simultaneously, Theo and Asbjørn put their plan into action with a dizzying lack of success: fumbling the idol and alienating the, until-recently, worshipful creatures.

Squelchy battle broke out throughout the caverns as Asbjørn ferociously struck first at the apparent leader of the ‘Shroomites below, splitting it in twain lengthwise. The cold-blooded murder of their leader sent the rest of the creatures on that floor fleeing in terror. The two recovered the idol and began ascending the ladder to escape. Above, Teleptyon was raked open by the business end of a ‘Shroomite’s knife-like claws. Tele’s life flashed before his eyes as the claws rent his tender flesh, but this vision included a moment not-yet come to pass of an only lightly-poxied prostitute giggling and running her finger along the tripartite scar and giggling with a broad smile, still-containing most of her teeth. He swung in a blind rage and crushed the chitinous skull of his attacker with a resounding “schlorp” sound. Before he could get his bearings a second slashed at his abdomen, destroying his left kidney and leaving him all-around quite shook.

Alex and Ükhilflin joined the battle, quickly dispatching the first ‘Shroomite each reached. The last two attempted to flee, but Kegho seeing one running for the ladder that Theo had just surmounted assumed it was attacking and killed it. Ükhilflin did not want to be left out and killed the last of them in the room

Theo rushed to his coreligionist's aid and poured out all of the mercy that Maya and Lamos could offer.

They searched the rest of the hallways and Kegho found a sad little farm growing in the muck and filth of another cave. Alex found stairs going up with a short side-hallway ending in a wall. Asbjørn and Theo found another hallway south at the end of two long cavern passages. The party decided to search the southern passage before going up the stairs and found a lone ‘Shroomite with a buckler and obsidian dagger standing guard at the door. It seemed uninterested in fighting, but as the party closed in on it from two sides, it panicked and ran. Asbjørn gave it a solid thwack on its back-side with the flat of his blade as it ran and knocked it unconcious. Asbjørn tossed the Oameni the dagger and pocketed the Djeti silverware that had been tucked around the room.

They turned their attention to the stone door at the southern end of the passage. The party brought their various skills to bear, but Theo could find no clue in the paintings and Alex, while lifted by Kegho to be eye level with the lock, could not surmount the tumblers constructed with technology of the Third Age.

Teleptyon thought that perhaps wearing the ring he had found in the tomb's entryway could be of benefit in this situation, but when it was place on his finger, it tightened and pierced his skin. To his horror, the ring's curse caused his finger to become green and scaled, like a writhing serpent, and his fingernail grew to resemble a bifurcated venemous fang. He inserted his finger into the keyhole, just in case this was some strange Djetian key, but met with no success.