Day 2.5: "Mushroom" for Improvement

So there we were in the Gravekeeper's cabin, a musty mushroom ridden place that smelled of death. On the bed were the remains of the man, a pile of ashes and soot that smelled strangely of roses. According to Wraith, our Tiefling Ranger friend who watched him die, he drank a potion or poison shortly before his death. I investigated this potion or poison bottle to confirm my suspicions, it too smelled like roses. Again and again, more and more puzzle pieces are appearing on the table... and they are all connecting to make the shape of that damned skull and roses marker: The Rosa Sanguinem.
 
The Wendigo Elvish woman, the card and the tavern's archway with the emblem, the mutilated soul and body of the Half-Elf in the form of a ring and book, the scroll hidden in the library, and now this? It's all coming together piece by piece, but we need more... we have the pieces but cannot put them completely together yet. Perhaps if I discuss these findings with the local Magister he may be able to help more? But before then we must explore this cabin and the secrets beneath it. In the chest at the foot of the bed, Janott we found almost unsurprisingly an assortment of humanoid body parts. One of which I was able to identify as Elvish, but the others were too rotten and covered with an almost bouquet of mushroom growth. Then on the table Medea found two strange pieces of paper, one of which had strange symbols I couldn't read and the other was instructions on how to create and illusory guard. Putting two and two together, and the supposed Gravekeeper may have been as such.
 
Following this, we made our way into the cellar that utterly smelled of death and mushrooms. There we found a long corridor with three doors: The door on the left side of the corridor, Wraith and I discovered lead down to the catacombs beneath the city. Wraith found a strange blank book that apparently held no secret message that we could find, I took the book and said when we get out of here that I would show it to the local Magister and see if he could see anything, The door on the right, Medea found that it lead to a living area with half walls and a decent fireplace. I followed Medea, leaving Wraith at the entrance of the catacombs alone. While she was looting for food and supplies, I saw a sewer grate where the bars were bent upwards and out in a rather disturbing fashion. I lit one of my torches and dropped it down... and I could not see nor hear the bottom. I began to freak out and call for Wraith so he could have a look at it, he however ignored me. Medea came up to me though and told me she saw some children's books in the back. I began to relax as I thanked her and investigated the books, as even children's books can contain interesting tales and folklore.
 
In fact, the Imperium Academia has a whole department dedicated to such readings. The department is an esoteric one admittedly, as it is separate from early childhood education. But rather the department studies what many may call "fairy tales", supposedly fictional works that are for encouraging young children to behave in accordance to cultural and familial expectations. But the department there looks deeper than that, looking at the monsters and origins used in these "fairy tales" seeking grains of truth and connecting the data into a bestiary of sorts that has discovered many lost or forgotten aberrations and monsters. Despite their research being overlooked, no knowledge should ever be discounted.
 
But I digress, as I read the books I discovered two key pieces information: Firstly, these books were not written as cautionary tales, as they seemed to be written and colored by children playing. Secondly, the monster of this particular story were giant mushroom people. Immediately I remembered some of my botany and nature classes with Magister Morgana Albion that such creatures were often found in the company of death and supposedly were friendly sort of beings unless they felt threatened; The Myconids. I then remembered this place was covered in mushrooms, and admittedly I went into one of my more panic states and I ran to find the others.
 
Both Medea and Janott were about to open the last door , a strange mossy covered door that Janott seemed to enjoy petting. I told them to be careful of the mushrooms, they may be trouble. We found that the path ahead was blocked by rubble in a sort of ramshackle barricade of sorts. Medea thought it'd be a good idea to cast a Fire Bolt at it, setting the place on fire. I began to panic (again) and told her fires underground in enclosed spaces are a terrible idea, Janott put it out with her control flames ability and I cleared the rubble using my greenish burst of raw power... an Eldritch Blast. Beyond the barricade we encountered what appeared to be a cultist in a cloak in a repulsive shade of green. Alongside him were two enormous rats, and before we could say a word the three of them engaged us. Medea incinerated one of the rats, Janott befriended the other, and the cultist was reduced to a meaty paste by Janott's maul in a single swing. My Eldritch Blast was less than useful in this fight, in fact I was even cut by the cultist's dagger.
 
I took the dagger as a trophy, and whilst our looting Janott conversed with her new rat friend and pet. I was gonna give the dagger to our little sleeping goblin friend so he could defend himself, but as it turns out he was armed to the teeth with a scimitar and daggers already. So we just let him sleep in Janott's shell a little longer. The rat however gave us some critical information as the next room apparently had a few more cultists, but there was a secret entrance into the room through the fireplace. So the three of us came to an agreement, Medea and I would use the tight passage and Janott would use the main entrance to flank them. The signal being one of us shouting "Kerblang" and as Medea and I snuck up on them through the secret tunnel, we overheard them talking and complaining about some sort of guard duty. Medea, redeeming herself from her kerfuffle with her Fire Bolt earlier, brilliantly lead with sacred flame and blinded the cultists as I yelled "Kerblang" to signal Janott to come and reduce them meaty goo.
 
The fight went rather quick, and none of us were hurt this time and I collected a few souls with my Obsidian Shard. Though Janott did lose her grip on her maul at one point and threw across the room and embedding it in the wall. In fact I was a bit more useful this time around, I did a bit more damage and helped a bit more this time. Honestly, the whole we've been down here I've felt a bit useless and weak. When I'm not in my element, a library or a place of learning, I'm not capable of doing much to help. Janott has her hammer and pets and Medea has her healing and armor, I just have my my brain of useless knowledge and weak magic. We investigated the chamber and found in addition to more mushrooms, two points of interests: a steel grate with strange scorch marks and large sealed door covered with green runes that even i couldn't read. The scorched grate did not interest me as much as the green door, and it was around this time that Wraith finally returned and joined us. We questioned him and he told us he was below and exploring the catacombs. He discovered there were at least 92 layers beneath us and that it ended in a collapsed dead end. He produced a cloth rubbing made with dirt, he offered it to me and I translated from strange form of Dwarvish that below the 92nd level there was the "Dark". I presumed and told them they were referring to the Underdark considering how deep this place is. Though assuming this place may have Dwarvish architecture the deeper it goes, it's hard to believe that it would have collapsed down there naturally and that it must of been damaged by someone or something.
 
After some trial and error, we figured out how to open the green door via using one of the mushrooms as a key. Beyond the door we made our final encounter of the evening: Three more cultists and their head priest. Medea again lead by blinding them, only this time she disturbingly Sprayed some sort of Poison from her mouth into the fire in the center of the room causing a huge fiery explosion and thus giving me another clue into her nature. The head priest rebutted us by launching a Fireball at the four of us in the doorway, hurting Wraith a bit while severely burning and hurting me. Wraith countered that by sending perfectly shot arrow through his eye. Then after another brief fight we looted the corpses, where I came across a "grocery list" of sorts listing a variety of desired body parts and pieces. In addition I came across a deed to a small piece of land, Medea expressed in interest in this for some reason and I will consider her request to look at it. It'd be nice to have a "hideout" to call our own when the time comes for it or we could sell it for gold.
 
Of the three cultists and the head priest, we could only officially confirm three fatalities. As one of the cultists dove into the well rather than face us, I dropped another torch down the well and I couldn't see the bottom but after about 10 or so seconds we could hear it hit the bottom. More likely than not the cultist died, but we may investigate in the morning as we all were exhausted. Janott checked out the mushrooms, and surprise surprise she made another friend: a waist height little Myconid. She fed it a bit of humanoid meat and then she searched for a pot to make some sort of soup for the rest of us. I however just ate one of the rations I looted earlier, collected what souls I could into my Obsidian Shard, and crashed on a cot and passed out. I was done for the day and tired of being next to useless in the fight, so maybe my dreams could provide a means of safety...