Myconids of the Mushroom Forest

Area: Amanitan Tunnels

Unsafe, Blighted, Possession (Bright White Circle) Monsters (Amanitan Myconids),

The first sign that one has entered the Amanitan Tunnels is the smell. They reek horribly of decay and fried radishes. As one advances the air becomes dense with a white, soot-like mold which coats everything, causing visitors to cough and hack, their mucous membranes going into high panic as their bodies try in vain to keep the toxic spores out of their lungs. Travel further and the place grows thick with ankle to knee-high mushrooms, snowy white in coloration, which send out clouds of the mold if kicked or jostled. That's where the Amanitans live, little squat things on small and ungainly legs. They have distant and placid looking expressions, their faces shadowed by their broad caps which send off little puffs of white whenever they move too quickly. There are corpses everywhere, from wild animals to intelligent beings like Rathbuni & Svirfneblin, all with masses of mushrooms bursting from their fallen bodies. The putrefying fluids make the ground into a slick mess of rot and bare rock. As myconids go the Amanitans are quite friendly, in spite of the abattoir-like appearance of their home. They are unable to individually communicate, given that they lack mouths, but the spores they give off eventually begin to penetrate the mind of the afflicted, and the voices of the members of the Bright White Circle can be heard if guests stay long enough. Amanitan's high and piping voices come in the form of intrusive thoughts. The mushrooms are chatty little conversationalists, always curious about the various goings on of the world surrounding their tunnels, surrounding outsiders to pepper them with questions. They grill their visitors for as long as they can, trying to keep them in the white clouds, keeping them breathing deeply until their liver and kidneys begin to fail, followed quickly by the rest of their organs. They'll apologize extensively for the jaundice that their guests are experiencing, even as they glom themselves upon them, dragging them down to the ground once they inevitably try to escape. The myconids of the Bright White Circle are always interested in expanding the size of their colony and they need a constant stream of corpses to continue those plans. They are terrible fighters, but there are thousands of them and if roused they pour forth in a seemingly endless stream to pummel with tiny fists, trusting in the efficacy of their spores to take their opponents down. They fight without regards to their own safety, dog-piling upon and rubbing themselves against opponents even as they are slashed and hacked to bits. Once they've killed their foes, they drag the dead back to their abode and expand it just a little bit further. The Amanitan Tunnels are a few days east of Stilty Town in Ingram's Tangle, and only a day and a half underground.

• In practical terms the spores of the Amanitan Tunnels necessitate a save against Poison or Constitution for every half-hour of exposure. Failure deals 1d4-1 Constitution damage, which does not recover until the victim is exposed to healing magic or away from the spores for at least 24 hours.

• The Amanitans generally stay out of politics and trade. They want for little beyond more fodder for their mushrooms. They are unconcerned with the Chorus, their vacuous minds give them resistance against all psychic powers.

• While fatal in large doses, Amanitan fungus can also be used as a means to create a drug which confers resistance to psychic attacks and induces a feeling of mild euphoria.

Area: Cortinarian Reaches

Unsafe, Possession (Red Heap Circle), Monsters (Myconids),

The abode of the other major Myrconid settlement of the Mushroom Forest, the Cortinarian Reaches are significantly less hazardous and inimical to life as those of their Amanitan cousins. Cortinarian Myconids of the Red Heap Circle are nearly as powerful psychically as the Chittering Chorus, but unlike the cranium rats their powers are only functional near large growths of those of their kind currently in the non-motile stage of their life cycle. While this limitation forces them into a defensive posture, the caves which make up their homes are essentially impregnable unless their adversaries manage to destroy large sections of fungus all while being unceasingly attacked by the Red Heap myconids. The myconids are made up of thick, crimson tubules bound together in tangled jumbles which extend in long and unbroken growths throughout the cave system. The caves are eerily silent, offering little more than the sound of trickling water and the occasional moan of a dying victim or the echoing foot steps from a myconid patrol. Proximity to the tunnels by most beings causes headaches, nosebleeds and blurred vision. Venturing deeper results in a sensation of being constantly under observation, eventually climaxing in the ability to hear the collective mind of the Circle. The myconids themselves could easily be mistaken for outgrowths of the tubules that they nest in, generally preferring not to move until they're forced to defend them homes. They stand nearly waist-high, but they often crouch or sag, which makes them seem smaller. They are fairly quick however, able to scamper along the ground with their many tubes acting as a mass of legs or to even wield simple equipment such as spears or picks. The mind of the Red Heap is of course focused on propagating itself further, but beyond that it's something of a plotter. Information, rumors, gossip, anything that it can use to try and swing the balance of power towards itself is interest. Places outside of its home are only notable insomuch as the effect they have upon it, otherwise they are seen as mere trivia. If invaders have enough information that interests it then they're allowed to leave. If they don't, they're simply commanded to stay, a command backed up by the mystical might of their collective mind. Affected individuals simply sit down and wait until thirst or starvation takes them. Those who repeatedly come to the Red Heap with useful knowledge are rewarded lavishly. Envoys and diplomats come back and forth from the Cortinarian Reaches in a steady drip, coming to treat with the circle or leaving on errands from the collective mind to the rest of the region. In both personal and political dealings the Red Heap Circle is conservative, risk-averse and unwilling to commit to conflict unless victory is nearly assured. The Red Heap and the Cortinarian Reaches are located a day and a half under the eastern bank of the Golden Road River, a day's west of Clotaire's Tomb. 

• The collective has no use for riches, but they have piles of coin, gems and more from lifetimes of capturing outsiders. The hoard is equivalent to thousands of GP, but unfortunately for any would-be plunderers it is kept in a cavern situated deep within Red Heap Circle's territory.

• Large climate events such as major cave-ins, Purple Worm attacks and volcanic eruptions preoccupy the Circle's collective mind. They are always trying to start new colonies, but are hampered by the fact that they inevitably began to separate from the collective consciousness.

• While the Amanitans have little to nothing to fear from the Cortinarians, the Red Heaps have done their absolute best to keep the Bright Whites from settling near them, wisely concluding that they could do little to stop them.