Hey, Everyone!
How have you been? I’m great! I can’t wait to tell y’all the more of Mary’s trial!
If you remember, she had a dream sent by her Patron, with the task to plant a special orange seed in a magical underground garden. She took Aurum with her and left Bruno sleeping in camp with a pixie who was “protecting” him. Aurum and Mary passed through a few rooms filled with traps and hostile creatures (including the living tree from last time but managed to overcome them. Now they are in an alchemical laboratory having just defeated a living tree which did a lot of damage to the poor drunken bard.
The lab was almost empty. Most of the equipment was already in the corridor where Mary's Unseen Servant had previously carried it out. Left in the room, there was the table where the life-saving fiery potion had stood, a desk, a magic circle and a cauldron.
"Don't step in the circle" Mary warned when she saw Aurum heading in that direction.
The bard, however, didn't go to the circle. He bent over the cauldron and vomited long and hard, pressing his hands on his chest wound with each new belch.
"That.. was the worst thing," he declared when he was done.
"Feeling better?" Mary said.
He gave out an undetermined grunt.
Having made sure that he’ll survive, Mary quickly turned her attention towards investigating the room. She found a few things. There were two books ("Fundamentals of Alchemy" and "Herbalist Me") which she happily put into her bag. The turquoise potion went there as well, although she didn’t know what it was for. The magical circle was nothing special, it was small and just meant to amplify magic done on top of it. Speaking of magic, the whole room--walls, floor and ceiling--everything was covered by a thin sheet of lead. Mary knew from her books that it prevented magic from passing through. The person who was working here either didn't want anything to get out, or in.
There were two openings leading out from the laboratory. One was smaller and the air behind it was stale, with the distinct smell of rotten flesh behind it. Mary wasn't too keen on going that way. She almost saw Aurum die today, she wasn't sure she wanted to see any more death.
The other opening was larger, with some breeze and a faint blue light coming through. The two adventurers approached it and found themselves looking at a large cavern, filled with greenery. There was tall grass, trees in the distance, a little stream burbling through a meadow, small insects buzzing all around, even birds, heard but not seen, somewhere in the forest. All of this was bathed in the bright light of the thousands of glowing blue crystals on the cavern’s walls and ceiling.
"We found it, Aurum! We found the garden!" Mary said as she jumped up and down at the entrance. “It’s just like in my dream! We passed all the tests and we beat all the creatures and now we’re finally here! We just have to take the seed and plant it…”
"What is that?" Aurum cut her off.
Mary followed his gesture and saw some of the greenery moving towards them. They were a dozen or so humanoids, short and plump, with mushroom caps instead of heads.
"Oh!" she said. "I've read about these. They're Myconids, Fungus Folk. They're old and rare creatures, they're supposed to be peaceful..."
"Hello, Mr. Fungi," Aurum said when the first creature came close enough.
"Mr. Fungus", the mushroom, a bit bigger than the others, corrected him. "Good day."
Mary and Aurum looked at each other.
"Erm. Good day?"
The Myconids rejoiced as if that was the code word they were waiting to hear.
"Good day. Good day. Good day" they started repeating one by one and Mary realized that they weren't just a dozen; the words were coming from many, many more mouths than that.
"You are hurt," Mr. Fungus said when the commotion died down. "Come, come, this is healing water. Good day."
He took Aurum to the stream and let the bard drink as much as he wanted.
"Did it work?" Mary asked when he came back. "Did it heal you?"
"I think so," he said. “It did feel nice.”
Both of them emptied their flasks and filled them with water from the stream.
"So, who are you and what is this place?" Mary asked when they were ready.
"Our friend brought us here" Mr. Fungus said. "He gave us words. Good day. We are sad that he is gone. A scary tree killed him."
"We're sorry." Mary said. "If that's going to be any consolation, we took care of that tree and it won't bother you again."
The Myconids murmured in approval. Good day-s were heard for a while. Then Mr. Fungus raised his voice again.
"Can you help us? Our friend's body is still out there. We want to bury him here to honor him. Good day."
"You want us to bring his body and bury it in the garden?"
The Myconids started nodding.
"Can I… um, plant something on top of him?"
"Yes. Good day."
Mary and Aurum went back to the laboratory. It seemed that they had to look at the 'death' room after all.
We’re almost at the end of this trial here :) Next time: some curious findings, a burial and the strangest and most attractive place you could imagine!
Thank you so much for reading!
Take care and be well!