They walked down to the myconid village, who respond with fear and hiding. After some rapport spores, they talk and inform the myconids of their mission, demanding to know why they aid the Blackened Grove. Claiming ignorance due to isolation, another 'hard-edge' who knows the best route to the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom is pointed out to be nearby the village, living as a hermit. Once over to the Yoda-like house in the fungus filled swamp, they knock and meed the resident. She is a fit, just shy of middle-age human woman wearing a leather jacket, a single leg set of dress pants, and armed with two pairs of scimitars and daggers. She greets them as Leia of House Achilles. After some conversation, she tells them of the capital location, and asks for a friendly duel with someone. Marshal accepts, receives a very painful slap of subdual damage, then knocks her down in a full-attack on his own.
When standing, she cleans her blades of mud by wiping them on her leg, and does a quick blade sharpen by running it on the inside of her knee. The party realizes that her leg is invincible, and Tow remembers hearing rumours of a fallen house from the Blackened Grove known for their invincibility. She acknowledges that she is of said house, living in exile in the Mushroom Kingdom, and that other members of the family have different traits from her. She also offers a chance to try out an excessively rare mushroom to the party that will expire soon, figuring they could take advantage of it better. The mushroom has a small sign that says "Don't Eat Me" next to it, and when fed to Tow, he begins to speak in tongues and somehow manages to summon a fiend. This is how we introduce a one-shot player, who is playing a 7th level Fiendish Brute (aiming for a mini-glabrezu type), who must serve and protect the party for 3 days and 3 nights.
Travelling for a day with a shortcut, they reach the capital, and seek an audience with an elder. Eventually, they're allowed in, but they cannot speak to the Eldest Circle of Sovereigns unless they earn their trust. For rapidity, they offer to join in a hallucinagenic mind meld (works similar to a vision quest) to prove their non-violent intentions. And so, the crazy dreamscape begins...
Appearing in the middle of the smoking ruins of the Empire of the Sun's capital, they wander for a short time, eventually noticing that Cast has parts of his skin turning into mirrored metal. This is followed by a nearby, broken mirror and its reflection of Cast pouring out, shifting into something similar to T-1000 and altering to appear as a large, mirrored myconid declaring itself as Azasaraj the Red Saint and has declared that Cast must fall. It's a short battle before they smack it down, which causes a blank d6 to roll out of its body. Tow attempts to scan it with detect magic, which reveals ancient Celestial runes that flare like a flash bulb (that only Tow can see), which incinerates Tow into nothing, causing him to awaken.
Confused, the party looks around, only to find themselves inside that old building for the exterminator in the southern continent. The human stands from behind the counter, and asks the party if they're interested in getting rid of rats. While he asked, the glabrezu-lite player attempts to teleport back to where he was, which causes an internal spike of pain and him to vanish into nothing (and to awaken), confusing/worrying Marshal and Cast. Marshal asks the clerk if there's anything else, learning that all he has besides traps/poison for rats and racoons is an old toy; a wind-up clapping monkey with a ninja mask. Looking at it, Marshal asks the price, which is apparently a kingdom; only for suddenly the toy monkey to spit out a wad of spikes that cause his head to explode like an overripe melon (awakening him). Alone, Cast tells the clerk to run while he can, at which point he hears the scampering of feet outside the store. Looking out, there is a veritable sea of rats moving towards him, which burst through the door to both overwhelm and kill Cast, bite by bite, into the waking world.
This seems to convince the locals that they're 'worthy' to speak with the second oldest member of the myconid colony, Red Cap. They are brought before him, a giant of a myconid (12HD), wearing a helmet as an amulet, several rings large enough to fit his stub like fingers, and a bag with a chemical-filled flasks. Attempting to diplomacize, Red Cap speaks of 'state secrets' and their alliance with the Blackened Grove suits the Mushroom Kingdom in their future of conquest and expansion. The party is fazed with this decidedly un-myconid like behavior, & Tow had been maintaining a detect magic to see what kind of items he had. When he saw the helmet on the neck chain, he was amazed to find it covered with a strong aura of enchantment magic on it, which is technically artifact level in the game; this amazement is detected by Red Cap, who demands a better explanation of who they are before judgement is passed. Cast is the only who answers, using a long-winded form of his name and title, in which Red Cap declares himself as Azasaraj the Red Saint.
A fight breaks out, and they kill the elder myconid sovereign. Which prompts them being brought before the remaining Elder Circle of the capital under heavy guard. With some deliberation, good Diplomacy rolls, and having them examine Red Cap's personal chambers. Inside said chambers are many, very expensive circles of binding, banishing, and summoning. This convinces them of Red Cap's madness, so they allow the party to keep his tainted gear, and inform them that their alliance with the Blackened Grove, while still present for trade purposes, will be ended for the node connection.
During all of this, they run into Leia's eldest brother, a man known as White Eyes; an old man with milky white eyes, glad to see the heavier presence of Blackened Grove gone. Out of gratitude, he bestows upon the party his family's boon, a salve that will bestow invulnerability to a single body part. There is a little bit of deliberation, and Marshal gets it applied to his arm.
Afterwards, they return back to the Empire of the Sun, and Tow takes the time case to research the helmet; because the entire party is assuming that the helmet is the cause for Red Cap's insanity and likely possession by Azas. In his research, he discovers that the Red Saint was a figure of ancient history (~700 years) who attempted to steal power from the Minor Gods in an attempt towards forced ascension to go along with world domination. The helmet itself, with a more careful inspection, seems to be a helm of telepathy with tiny indentations on the inside portion.
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