Act 1, Scene 2: The Mushroom Forest

"Enormous amanita mushrooms, many up to 10 or 15 feet high, form an odd, undulating canopy that stretches into the distance at last a mile. The smell of fungus and mushroom is heady here, making you even a little dizzy.
"There is a slight cleft in the rock, and it forms a trail that descends among the mass of giant mushrooms.
"You pick your way down the rock, and as you go there is a feeling of lightness, a feeling of letting go, a heady sense of the paradoxical: a contentment and serenity combined with lust for adventure.

"At the bottom of the rock face, you stand among the thick, white fungal stalks of giant mushrooms, some of them three times your height. At this level, the magical glow of the sky is blocked out almost completely by the mushroom caps, and there is a dark twilight.
[Upon examination, it seems that there is a vague trail, or a vague opening between the mushrooms, which can be used as a path heading further in.]
@Fairie Throught the mushroom forest

• there are these vague wisps of pink floating about
• And little bobbing lights of white and gold playing among the stalks, zooming in and out

A ways of picking through the mushroom forest trail

• Will finally lead to slightly open clearning.
• It can be heard before seen, the conversation easily picked up

Speaking a bizarre dialiect of sylvan, three AMANITA FUNGADS stand in the clearing, the strange luminosity of the fairy sky playing on their red caps. These are some things that might be overheard, in gruff voices:

• "I nessed all to ne'r vision her water in waves."
• "Ya fishwan swum all outer lakesee, none visia."
• "Badness trobble in shee-bee, friends a caught-o."
• "We na-goin atop in sunder the lekke, nown."
• "Buttrubba shin, lem nixis cannumbo livit in blakkum, danja danje der."

To the friends:

• "Dimme cummere tasavvit frummda greykshits?"
• "Farrend dovela lake see innbad slimaflora."
• "Kannee go? Werris the noblaquinna, weeno nutt. Butshee trubbles-in. Gonegetter-helpus?"
• "Amannitas we no go-cannot-go to lakeeland beyondor, butchoo..."
• "Cannee help-pus, Cannee help-pum go ginnada-lakum nixie-friend? Helpum nixie-goodfolkin friends?"
• "Gofer tulla lakum Saibanna, findus nixie-al, Hixda Nixie, findderr gotta helper."
• "Oddurside de-lakkus we hearabbad thingems, blakkenrot smudjeon da liefoutta tings.

As the heroes approach, or when they are detected, the fungads will withdraw into their mushrooms.

• There will be much curiosity, and the the urge to communicate will gradually overcome wariness. They will exit their mushrooms and approach, even surround the party.
• The dialogue above will dominate the encounter.

Fungads will attack or initiate combat only if they feel their environment is threatened, or has been disturbed.

• Otherwise, if they feel help is secured,
  they will lead the party through the forest in a way impossible to retrace
• Toward the edge of the forest, near the lake,
  
• The mushrooms will change, now towering whitestraps... Things get slightly dimmer, the environment shifts to midnight moon

• the AMANITAS will quickly disappear with a brief apology

• The WHITESTRAPS emerge from their giant mushrooms and loom overehead. Aggressive. Where you go? Who you heal? Where you been? What you value? Who you be? What you plan? Who you hurt? Why. you here?

• THeir motivation is to protect the environs, and they're worried about the Ick coming acfross the lake to this side.
• They can explain what's going on over the other side, what it looks like, from reports. THey are brief of word.
• The Towering Whitestraps
  to the edge of Lake Sobainna, then call out to Hix the Nixie with a long, drawn out call, a soft and slippery sound.

Then they will disappear back into the forest: "Thangga mush; yaggiza hairoz owya-we mush. G'dukka'frenz." "A large body of water stretches out into the darkness beyond sight. The gossamer light from the sky sheds a golden twilight on the waters, and they sparkle in a subtle brilliance. Soft waves lap gently and rhythmically on the purple sands of the shore." Then Hix will rise up out of the waters, staying at least 30' out, and explains what she needs from them, and what their reward will be. 3.1.3... Fairy Queen: Lake Sobainna 3.1.1 FQ - - Through the Pink Curtain, Into the Mushroom Forest

Amanita Fungad Narrative:

"We are four Amanita fungads. We're nervous about rumors from across the lake, that there's been some kind of intrusion, some kind of destruction.
"The Nixies told us when we went to bathe our stems yesterday. Dark tidings, our cousins killed, the evil to spread across the lake to our grove.
"We wished for help from Hix, but they have their own troubles now, no time to be of service to the Amanitas. Even the Whitestrips--the towering ones, the tall and rectangular ones, are preoccupied. I've never seen them so defensive and beliigerent before, threatening anything that comes across their path.
"We are concerned because nothing like this has even happened to us befoere. No one her can remember a time, even the immortals so the rumor goes, nor the Nixies or the Mushroom collective.
"We just don't know what to do. The pixies all vanished, so Raven--the carrier of New Things--is the only creature that can cross by wing.
"Nixies can swim, but from what I've heard they're almost dead, and fretting endlessly over each other.
"Mostly we wish to know what's happening over there on the other side, an dhow we can help. Can you get over the lake? Can you help us? We have treasure and no need for it; windfalls from over the centuries."