Two fungal creatures resembling otyughs rise up and
attack the characters. Created by Araumycos to perfectly
duplicate the abilities, traits, and actions of otyughs.
these creatures are plants rather than aberrations. They
attack until ~lain, whereupon each bursts into a cloud of
sweet-smelling spores as its body dissolves back into the
lar~er mass of fungi filling the cavern.
Read the following to the players when the final
creature is defeated.The creature bursts like an overfull wineskin, releasing a
clear ichor and a cloud of dusty spores. The deflating bulk
of its body sinks back beneath the shimmering fungal field
where you stand Your vision starts to swim, and you feel
dizzy and faint. Your limbs are numb and your legs no
longer support you.A successful DC 13 Intelligence (Arcana or Nature)
check confirms that the characters are in no physical
danger but are entering rapport with Araumycos.
The adventurers are paralyzer! as the myconid spores
fully take effect. Even creatures immune to sleep and
paralysis are affected as the spores seep into mind and
body. The characters collapse harmlessly to the soft
surface of Araumycos. its fun~us quickly spreading
across them as the rapport begins. When this happens,
continue with "lnro the Gray Dream."INTO THE GRAY DREAM
The rapport with Araumycos affects the adventurers like
an astral projection spell, sending their astral bodies om
into the Astral Plane where Araumycos's vast. dreaming
mind resides. Their bodies remain unconsciolLS in
suspended animation while they are projected into the
Astral Plane. Read the following aloud to the players.You are floating, weightless, adrift. A gray, silvery light
spreads around you like the dawn of a cloudy day,
illuminating a peculiar realm. All of you are floating in a
silvery haze that sh1mmers with swirls of color. Objects
drift past in the distance, but whether they are small
stones or rocks the size of mountains, you can't say for
certain. Your moment of reverie is broken by the sound
of Basidia's voice in your m1nd. "It begins."The adventurers. now psychically linked with both the
myconid sovereign and Araumycos, arc aware of the
demon quee n and her minions performing Zuggtmoy's
demonic ritual.C!IAI'TF:R 16 1 1111 llllll V.IWDING
Through your link with Basidia, you sense that
Zuggtmoy's wedding ceremony has begun. Receiving
the mycon1d's 1mpresstons, you become aware of a
huge crowd of fungal creatures and spore servants-
hundreds, perhaps thousands of them-watching as
a grotesque procession makes tis way through them.
Myconids of all sizes caper madly before a troupe of
giant ammated mushrooms, beanng a mossy litter
upon which sits the Demon Queen of Fungi in all her
terrible splendor.
Zuggtmoy is draped and veiled in molds and fruiting
mushrooms woven mto a grotesque gown. Vaguely
humanoid figures set with clusters of luminescent
lichen and tumescent fungal growths follow her like
bridesmaids, carrying a veil and train of lacy mycelia.
Stepping off the litter as her followers set it down, the
Demon Queen of Fungi rises to tower above all the
creatures around her. "My betrothed," she intones, the
meaning of her words clear within the vision. "I am here
at last."THE MIND OF ARAUMYCO S
Navigating on rhe Astral Plane is largely a matter of
thought and perception. The characters feel a psychic
-pull" in the right direction as they seek out the
consciousness of Araumycos with their own minds. A
creature Aies through the Astral Plane at a speed in
feet equal to 3 x its Intelligence score. but a feeling of
timelessness on the plane makes it difficult to judge the
length of the journey.
The characters' thoughts draw them toward a distant
floating object. It appears to be a hemisphere, until
its slow rotation reveals its true form: a giant s kull
missing its jawbone. formed out of some kind of pale
rock. As the characters draw closer, the s kull reveals
itself to be the size of a small mountain. Its surface is
covered in lichens and broad patches of mold, the color:.
resembling those of Araumycos on the Material Plane.
Through the empty eye sockets of the skull, the
adventurers can see rhat its interior is hollow and filled
with a bewildering variety of giant fungi. Tendrils and
growths extend outward. twining together to form a
mass suspended in the middle of the open space- a
brain-shaped fungus the size of a castle.
The closer the characters come to the floating
skull, the more strongly they feel a presence-the
mind of Araumyeos. to which they are linked. That
consciousness is largely unaware of them. lulled by the
insidious influence of Zuggtmoy's spores and unable to
resist the demon queen's presence.