Hex #22

 Plains, mostly comprised of grasslands interspersed with mushroom groves. These groves of mushrooms contain toadstools, porcinis, and amanitas that range from giant (120’) to small (15’). The groves vary in size and concentration of mushrooms.

The groves are part of a hex-wide underground fungal network, all one organism. The organism is not sapient in the way most other such beings are. It is cared for by a colony of myconids who watch over its central brain in a cavern. The myconids rely on their fungal network for water and nutrients. It also serves as the hub for their collective memory. They guard the central brain with their lives.

Scattered among the mushroom groves are special mushrooms that attack intruders with spore sacks. The sacks explode on contact and can cause paralysis, confusion, or sleep. If the party pays close attention to the mushrooms’ special markings or gain the trust of the myconids they can avoid the mushroom traps.

The myconids are fighting off an infestation of weevils that are slowly devouring the groves. The weevils are the size of rats and live in roving colonies on the back of what the locals call weevil-wagons. Weevil-wagons are aurochs that have been infested by special weevils that form parasitic relationships with warm-blooded creatures.

The myconid cavern is carefully hidden; the inside is warm, humid, and glows softly from indigo mushrooms that emit light spores. The brain is covered in enokitake that react violently to touch, emitting a shrill alarm and whipping furiously at anyone within melee range.

The myconids communicate through spores but understand most common languages. They are very distrusting, loyal once friended, and slow to forget a slight. They brew kombucha and grow many types of beneficial fungi.

d6 encounters:

1. a highwayman on horseback, rapier, urgently suggesting a small donation of coins or baubles

2. myconids tending to a grove, applying salve to damaged mushrooms

3. a flock of bats erupting from a mushroom grove

4. biologist from a nearby settlement studying the “precarious ecosystem”

5. a weevil-wagon tearing across the plains, weevils clinging to the back, nostrils flared and horns vibrating

6. a rogue sentinel mushroom, uprooted but somehow moving, lobbing spores aggressively