"Please tell me there's something down here that might help us!" Al yelled. Wikwocket was already past the bottom of the steps and out of sight in the next room.
"Mushrooms!" she called back. "Oh, and a water pump!"
A soft green glow from a sphere embedded in the stone ceiling lit the room Al found himself sprinting into. Two long raised beds of dark soil cut across the room with rather large mushrooms growing in them. Al ignored the landing for another set of steps downward across the room and ran for the far corner where Wikwocket and Gruntle stood next to a water pump with a watering can hanging from it. Bote was already running the long way around the garden beds in the same direction.
"Pump! Wet the floor!" Al called as he vaulted the first garden bed, barely clearing the mushrooms. Wikwocket grabbed the pump-handle and pulled down and was rewarded with a splash of water. Al vaulted the second garden bed, caught his foot having misjudged the height of the mushrooms, and landed flat in the water on the floor.
"Do you have a plan?" Bote asked, somewhat out of breath. The dwarf added to the efforts at the pump, drenching the floor, and Al, who sputtered and rolled over.
"Soak as much as we can, at least try to keep it from burning the place down, maybe it'll dissolve! The solution to pollution is dilution," he quoted from his limited alchemical education as he stood up. The mushrooms in the garden bed were larger than he thought.
A few were much larger. More than two feet tall, in fact, and still growing. Limbs sprouted from their sides as he watched, and pairs of smooth, shiny black lumps grew on the stalk below each mushroom cap.
If that was a face, those would be eyes...
The opening of an unmistakable mouth full of teeth like sharpened wooden stakes beneath each pair of eyes confirmed Al's pessimistic assumption. Al heard Gruntle's eager bark-laughter as five dwarf-sized violent mushrooms pulled themselves from the soil and charged recklessly at the adventurers, silhouetted against the blue-green flames of the alchemical mass that was now flowing across the floor towards them.
Al scrambled up to his feet against the wall and tried to get Purgatio out in time to defend himself. Gruntle didn't hesitate to throw himself at the attackers, perhaps happy to have a - relatively - conventional threat to attack. He'd dropped his shield into place in his hand and taken up the flail with practiced ease. He smashed down onto the cap of the nearest angry fungus, breaking off a chunk and leaving a bruised dent in its head. Undeterred, it opened wide to bite and got a mouthful of wooden shield.
Bote began a familiar prayer for the favorable attention of divinity while
so she shouldn't be able to attack with it as a bonus action, but it's
funny and doesn't really do any harm. On a critical hit, I'd impose
disadvantage for attack rolls on the one struck until the end of their
next turn due to the distraction of getting hit in the face with an
oiled-up fireproof pillow.">Wikwocket dodged away behind Gruntle to skewer one of the mushroom-creatures ganging up on Al, and hit it with a pillow.
"Get them, Sir Fluffington!"
that just sprouted together so the first few gang up on him, while the other two go for the largest target i.e. Gruntle.">Mushroom-juice spurted as Purgatio chopped deep into Wikwocket's foe, who fell in two pieces to the floor. Another lunged and sank its fungal teeth into Al's hip when Al moved to get away from a third.
"Ow! Why are they ganging up on me?"
"You're the magical sword hero!" Wikwocket explained as she maneuvered to try to stab another enemy.
"And you were standing the closest after you tripped over them," Bote suggested, breathing heavily from their exertions at the pump.
Continuing the quiet prayer, Bote watched the fighting with concern and worked the water pump to further soak the floor ahead of the slow but inexorable approach of the flaming alchemical mass. The wooden frame and mushrooms of the first raised garden bed began to smoulder as the blob oozed over it. A spiky fiery wad of the stuff stretched out and smacked into the back of the nearest mushroom-thing. The fungus shrieked angrily, the glass-shards gouging its fungal flesh as it spun to bite down on the glowing, flaming, tarry tentacle sticking to it.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A flash of bright blue-green light spread in an instant from the bitten spot throughout the whole mass. Even the surviving mushroom-things squealed at the blinding light. The one with its wood-like teeth sunk into the mass hissed, bubbled, and shriveled, then was still.
chomps into the other one, successfully hitting for 1d8+3+2=about 10HP,
leaving the mushroom-thing with 8.">Al could see nothing but blue-green spots and blackness. Uncertain what else to do, he backed away as best he could, stumbling over Wikwocket and ending up sitting on the floor in the water again. He felt a movement of air and heard fungal teeth snapping near where he'd been standing. This was drowned out by the sound of Gruntle's noisy enthusiasm as the half-smashed mushroom-thing that was biting his shield was shaken loose and smashed again. Al heard Gruntle's teeth sink into another with a sound like someone biting an apple.
Al heard a sound like a blade shoved into a melon and the soft thump of a pillow against the stumbling mushroom-thing that was after him. Al scrambled further back without bothering to stand, following the wall beside him, as the loud bubbling hiss and the feel of heat announced the flaming mass flowing over the nearer garden-bed and into the water on the floor. Wikwocket's shout of "Al! Look out! Yikes! Wikwocket, look out too!" encouraged Al back a bit further, pressed against the wall to avoid the splashing sound of Gruntle's footsteps. The SCHLORP! of a glob of the alchemical mass stretching out to strike something and the dying shriek of a mushroom thing reached Al's ears. He blinked hard until the bright spots quit hiding things from his sight.
"Al, look out again!" Wikwocket shouted
One bright spot remained in his clearing vision, and it reached out for him. This time, his conjured protective ward deflected the reaching goo in time. The fiery wad of sticky glass hissed and bubbled in the water on the floor. Wikwocket's small, swift silhouette rushed in to bury BiteySue's point deep into the main mass of the blob, holding the pillow behind her. The blade sank in more easily than expected, and sparkling blue-green liquid sprayed out as Wikwocket pulled back. The fire sputtered and went out, leaving only the fading glow of the thing's alchemical innards spreading across the floor and the dim glow of the light-source mounted in the ceiling.
One last fungal shriek cut off with another apple-biting sound as Gruntle dealt with the last of the mushroom things. Al groaned. The apparent end of the immediate danger let him notice how much he hurt. Wild-eyed and panting eagerly, the gnoll looked for something else to fight. He brought his flail down on the slowly dissolving lump of goo and glass, only succeeding in giving himself a few small superficial cuts from the bits of glass that flew out.
Gruntle took a deep, slow breath and then let it out, slumping with relief.
"It appears to be safe to stop pumping the water now," Bote observed, "You probably want to stand up before whatever was in that thing gets into your injuries."
Al put a hand to the side of his face and winced at the sharp pain, then winced again to see the blood. His trousers were getting bloodstained from the numerous small painful holes in his hip as well.
"If you would like to have some visible scars with which to impress someone, now is a perfect opportunity," Bote said, examining Al's injuries.
"I'd rather not."
"It would be a small miracle if you healed without scars."
Al shot an accusing glance at the ceiling at Bote's little joke. "Yes, please."
A small crunching sound caught Al's attention.
"Hey, these are pretty good! They taste like mushrooms but they're crunchy!" Wikwocket announced.
"Hey! Aren't most mushrooms poisonous?"
"Doesn't seem to be hurting Gruntle any!"
Louder crunching came from Gruntle, who tore another chunk out of the dead mushroom-thing whose teeth were still clamped to his leg and bit down.
"Hopefully the ineffable plans include you being able to miraculously cure poison if necessary?" Al asked Bote. "Those things weren't normal. I think it's a fair bet that mushrooms aren't supposed to attack people."
"Looks like somebody put something on them that made them do that, take a look at this!" Wikwocket said, pulling a printed cloth bag off of the floor next to the garden-bed. She turned the front around and held it up so Al could see what it said.
"Magic Grow Fertilizer, your plants will look so great your neighbors will claim it's magic," Al read. He squinted to look at the smaller print at the bottom of the bag.
"Over-fertilization may cause excessive growth, aggression and sentience. Magic Grow is not liable for any damages caused due to improper use of this product. Why would you even use something this dangerous? Come on, we'd better get going before whoever's doing this does something worse."
"I would think you should let me treat your injuries first. Scars or no scars, you are not in good shape to face further dangers at the moment."
"Yeah, we can't have our magical sword hero dying on us! You wait here, we'll scout down to the next floor! Come on, Gruntle!" Wikwocket promised. Still chewing on a chunk of crunchy mushroom, Gruntle took a step to follow. The bit of the dead mushroom's mouth still attached to his leg got in the way, though, so he paused to rip them out before continuing.
"What about him?" Al argued. Bote gave the lightly bleeding toothmarks in Gruntles leg a perfunctory look.
"Superficial. He is rather sturdier than we are in that regard."
"See?" Wikwocket said. "We'll be fine! Catch up when you're ready!"
She and Gruntle headed down the stairs.
"Now then," Bote said, "you are certain about the scars?"
Basement 2 / Garden: This is an underground garden where the alchemist grows some of his rarer ingredients. The light in the
room is a soft greenish glow from a sphere mounted on the ceiling. Standing in one corner is a simple water pump and a watering
can. Currently, the garden beds seem to be growing mushrooms. As the players enter, there are 5 big mushrooms growing in a tight
clump on a mound of what appears to be fertilizer. By the time the players approach, the mushrooms are already waist high. The
mushrooms sprout legs and arms and open newly formed eyes and attack the players. After the fight, a bag can be found next to the
mound of fertilizer. It reads "Magic Grow Fertilizer, your plants will look so great your neighbors will claim it's magic”. In fine
print at the bottom of the bag, it says "over fertilization may cause excessive growth, aggression and sentience. Magic Grow is not
liable for any damages caused due to improper use of this product". It appears the entire bag was dumped in one spot on these five
mushrooms. A set of stairs on the far side of the room leads down to the next level.
Violent Mushrooms
Freaky Alchemical-Accident Blob
Hit Points :51 (6d10+18)
Speed: 20ft., Climb 20ft, Swim 5ft.
Str: 14 (+2) Dex: 8 (-1) Con: 16 (+3) Int: 1 (-5) Wis: 6 (-2) Cha: 1 (-5)
Challenge 4 (1100XP)