"I'm not overly keen on camping near the... remains.  But if I recall correctly, it'll be dark during both and night inside so it matters little when we enter.   I'd suggest we do so now and find a camping spot deeper inside... perhaps in a building in the city if we can get that far?"

Listening to Zenna and Jerec discussing the eagle feather, Davor offers his own thoughts. "An eagle carrying a serpent eh? Sounds like an omen to me. I'll have to give it some thought." He decides to take some time to consult with the spirits about the symbolism that next time the group makes camp.

At the entrance to the underground, Davor offers his opinion on the options. "From what the mushroom folk told us, this end of the caverns is more dangerous than their territory. Experience says we can handle it though. My visions make me nervous about the city itself more than anything else. I think we ought to rest before we enter the city proper."

"I'm with Davor. I don't do underground work often, but there's less likely of us being attacked up here than down there. Either way, we sleep in shifts and keep a guard. I can do first watch."

Less likelihood.  She wasn't convinced but she had to take the advice and guidance of these heroes.  "Ok.  Let's find a place above ground.  Set watch.  Everyone get as much rest as they can.  And we'll head under as soon as we've rested."

Davor helps stake out a good place for the group to rest and then offers to take first watch.

The group sets watch and sleeps after their long days of travel.  Though they hear some things below, some sussurations, a few shifting rocks and pebbles, some dripping water and squeaking insects or bats, nothing bothers the camp all night.  By the next day, the group is ready to descend, though they notice something a little bit disturbing: the bones of the chimera are gone.  Examination of the tracks by Zenna yields nothing - the bones had been disturbed a great deal by scavengers over the past couple of weeks, but nothing from last night.  It was if the bones had been plucked from the ground and carried off by something not touching the floor.

Scouting ahead with great caution, Zenna comes back with, "The mushroom forest is still there, though the creatures we had fought have been covered over with smaller fungus, purple and bulbous-looking.  I am worried that they are shriekers and violet fungus."

Seeing the missing bones and hearing Zenna's warning, Helena asks the group, "Is it still safe to continue given what we've seen?  Do you think they made it here before us?  Could this be an ambush?  Should we change our plans and head elsewhere?"   She isn't panicking but there is certainly a high level of concern that they are walking into a trap.

Teana shrugged. "It was never going to be safe, Helena. We need what's in that vault. It just means we need to keep our eyes open."

"Let me see if the spirits will guide us." As the other put away camp, Davor will sit down, cross his legs and go into a trance.

Using Wisdom of the Ancients and asking for advice about traveling to the upside down city.

Davor consults his ancestor spirits and hears the following echo through his mind, "Drink of the flowing waters, the source of life for the city that still breathes in the ancient power, that you may walk as its citizen."

Jerec strokes his beard in thought.  "If we are not worried about the smoke and potential mess, I could call down fire upon the shriekers and hope that we get them all before they sound an unnecessary alarm.  Hopefully the spell will sear them without much else catching aflame."

Davor rouses himself from his trance and shares the advice of the spirits with the group. "I don't know that burning them away is much subtler than just letting them shriek, but as long as we're ready for anythin' that might come, it isn't a bad plan. The violet fungus is what worries me. We should definitely deal with that from a distance."

He eyes Helena. "Something may be in there waitin' for us, but we'll be ready for it."

Helena pales.... "Shriekers and Violet Fungus?   What are these things?"  At least Jerec had a plan to deal with them even if Davor's trance had provided them with little concrete to go on though she does ask, "What flowing waters are the source of life to this city?   Could it be a fountain?  Or a spring somewhere?  Might that provide us with a disguise that would hide us from these Shriekers and Fungi?"

"Mushrooms," said Teana. "Deadly mushrooms, but nothing we can't handle. The question is what's behind them."

Davor thinks back to the group's first journey through the underground. "There was a fountain in the city. I have faith that the flowing waters will be revealed when the time is right."

Urle seems very reluctant to say the following but he does.

Could not one of you that like messing with things.
Summon a creature that will set off the shreekers and we wait and see what comes?
String the trap on the creature that set it?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:11, Thu 25 June 2020.

"I can't summon, but I can blast them at a distance."

Deadly mushrooms?  She's still mulling that over as Urle suggests they sprint a trap... only for her to quietly ask Teana... "If they're deadly... then we just don't eat them?"  Is she trying to lighten the mood or is she really so far removed from adventuring that she doesn't know about 'deadly mushrooms'?

Davor nods in response to Urle's question. "I could do that. We might as well start headin' there though."

Urle as always watches and listen to Helena.
Have you seen a dandelion plant.  Helena.
Urle winces.  He really did not feel right using her first name at all.
He did however not wish make her wince by calling her My Lady like last time.

"Of course.   They are used in the creation of the dyes I've used in my weaving."

You know how if you blow on them the seeds carry in the wind?

Jerec says, "The violet fungus is poisonous, and venomous too.  It has tendrils that can reach out and strike if you get too close, all of which are toxic.  They can move, albeit slowly.  Shriekers don't move, but if light or movement is brought within a horse-length or so, they emit a most piercing shriek that can attract anything nearby.  Some monsters learn that when the shriekers call, dinner is near.  Intelligent races use them as alarms."

Urle turns to Jerec.
Slight but important error.  Shriekers can move.
He gets up and goes over to Demetria.   Checking the horse over.

Davor, momentarily forgetting how easily Helena can be overwhelmed by things, lets out a mirthless laugh. "'Toxic' sure is one way to describe rotting the flesh from your very bones. I've seen orc warriors twice my size beg for death after stumbling into a patch of violet fungus. It isn't a pleasant way to go."

He pulls his pack up onto his back and then moves to the entrance to the underground. "It won't do any good standing out here talkin' about it though. Let's go have a look."