Echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond, a cacophony
of wheezing voices that wrap together like some kind of
discordant music. The remaining heads planted in the
Garde n of Welcome begin to croak and groan, joining the
horrible song.
Through the mist that shrouds the smaller cavern, you
see the parade of creatures responsible for the melody.
Their bodies are only vaguely humanoid, with clusters
of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming
chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices
stabbing into your minds, both insane and gleeful in
equal parts:
From rocky bed the toadstool rose,
From chaos dark, her love She shows.
Wish! Yearn! Laugh!
The Lady will be wed!
Crave~ Hunger! Dance!
Her joyous spores will spread!
Youth is gone, beauty rots,
Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!
joined together, heart to heart,
Becoming one 'til death do part!
Hail! Haifl Hail!The entourage is composed of twelve bridesmaids
ofZuggtmoy and six cham berlains ofZuggtmoy
(see appendix C for both), all of which are lost in their
own reverie. They are in the midst of conducting
an obscene rit ual of some sort-like a parody of a
wedding ceremony.
Zuggtmoy's thralls make their way to Yestabrod·s
garden, attacking only if the characters stand in
their way.
Any charac-ter reduced to 0 bit points in this encounter
is knocked unconscious rather than killed. If all
the characters are knocked unconscious, th e party
wakes up in a fungi-filled cave 1d6 t-4 miles away
from Neverlight Grove. with or without their NPC
companions (at your discrerion). Their drow pursuit
leve l decreases by 1, a nd each character is infested with
Zuggtmoy's spores (see the .. Neverlight Grove: General
Features" sidebar).
DEVELOPMENT
If left a lone. the thralls enact a mock wedding, with
a chamberlain and a bridesmaid standing in for
Araumycos and Zuggtmoy. Yestabrod, if a live, assumes
the role of priest to preside over the vows. If Yestabrod
is dead. three spore servants rise from the garden and
carry its corpse, moving it like a puppet to play out
th e part of priest. At this point of the ceremony, any
onlookers experience a vision.
CHAPTI:R 5 I ~E\ I:.RUCHT GRO\'E
The tableau of the mock wedding is replaced by a
vision of the tnside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and
balconies are carved into its walls, with the interior lit by
phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In
the center of the open space floats a humanoid figure,
womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and
mold. She is easily three times the height of the fungal
bridesmaids that move up and down the spiral ing stairs,
tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange,
soothing song as they we ave the substance of the giant
figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train
like a bridal gown.The vision ends when the ceremony does. after
which the creatures file solemnJy back to Yggmorgus.
Characters witnessing the wedding rehearsal and
the accompanying vision must succeed on a DC 10
Wisdom s aving throw or gain one level of madness (see
.. Madness'' in c hapter 2).
If the characters share th e ir experience with Basidia,
the sovereign leads the two circles loyal to it out of
Neverlight Grove before it is too late. Alternatively, the
characters can follow the wedding procession into
Yggmorgus and witness the further horrors waiting for
the Underdark if Zuggtmoy rises in power.XPAWARDS
In addition to the XP gained for defeating ZuggLmoy's
bridesmaids or chamberlains, each characters gains
100 XP for witnessing the wedding rehearsal.YGGMORGUS
When Zuggtmoy a r rived in the Underdark, she was
immediately drawn to Neverlight Grove and its fungal
ric hes. She cultivated Yggmorgus, a mushroom of titanic
pro portions, from the rich, rotting soil.
Conve niently secluded from the rest of the Underdark.
Yggmorgus is a perfect base of operations for the
Demon Queen of fungi. She has completely enthralled
Phylo. and th e hapless sove reign is growing a rnyconid
and spore servant army for her. Zuggtmoy has also
become aware of Araumycos, th e largest fungal life
form-and possibly the largest creature of any kind-
in the world. Araumycos is a vast fungus colony with
a single mind, which fills the caverns and tunnels of
the Underdark in an area the size of the High Forest.
Araumycos is so interwoven with the fabric of the world
that control of it would gram Zuggtmoy nearly unlimited
power in her new home.
Though Yggmorgus can't be seen clearly from the
main cavern of Neverlight Grove, the unholy lights and
sounds there can be discerned and sometimes even felt.
Characters who ask the myconids about it receive mixed
responses. Sove reign Phylo and those loyal to it enter a
state of near bliss when they speak about Yggmorgus, as
if it was a paradise. Sovereign Basidia and its followers
give wary answers. PhyJo's secrecy means that they
aren't sure what lies beyond the ravine.