Caell's attention was on Cora, growing in apprehension as events unfolded. Her scream sent shivers up and down his spine. "Cora is flying!"

He wasn't sure if that made him want to try the mushrooms himself less or more.

Although it was alarming to see Cora begin to float off the ground, Fergus was much more concerned with the look on her face. "Kann's golden beard, Cora. Not now." He lumbered toward his niece, not sure if he could console her, but hopeful that his voice might guide her through what appeared to be an all too real nightmare.

He tried to grasp her hand, but it was already out of reach. He settled for her ankle, which he gave a comforting tap (as well as he could through her boot) with his hand. "Cora! It's your Uncle Fergus. It's all right. We're all here with you. Wake up!"

23:59, Today: Secret Roll: Fergus Glowforge rolled 24 using 1d20+6.  Insight. What's the deal with Cora? Make that a 21 if medicine was the more appropriate skill or 19 if arcana was.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:59, Sun 26 Dec 2021.

Sikuaq had been waiting anxiously to see what the mushrooms might do to Arvid, Opalia and Cora.  The first two seemed unaffected, but the scream that erupted from Cora was enough to make Sikuaq jump.  She rushed to join Fergus, noting with further astonishment that Cora was now levitating above the floor, as Caell rightfully pointed out.

Since Fergus seemed to recognize something familiar in Cora's expression and behaviour (surely not the levitation?) Sikuaq directed her words to the dwarven priest.  "What has a hold of her, Fergus?  What can I do to help?"

"Nightmares. Sikuaq. She's had them before, but not as bad as this." His grip tightened on her ankle. "It's those blasted mushrooms. They're playing tricks on her." He considered her offer to help, but could only shrug his shoulders at the snow elf's  question, embarrassed that he couldn't do more. "She's in her dreams now. The best we can do is let her know we're still here."

In light of Cora's agony, it felt wrong to call her hallucinations any kind of blessing, even a mixed one. But the mushrooms had given her the ability to safely cross the boiling water, if she could be convinced to do so. Fergus's familiar voice and his reassuring hand on her foot did seem to provide some comfort along with a connection to reality. Cora would have to shake the visions on her own, but she at least had the wherewithal to make for the shrine, if she was so inclined.

Opalia, despite downing another handful of mushrooms, still seem unaffected by them. It was not difficult to imagine that her hearty goliath frame might simply require a larger dose...

The pool is roughly 200' across.

Cora, you take 7 psychic damage from the last save. You can take a turn now, either moving to cross the pool or doing something else, then you'll need to make another save.

Everyone else can take actions as well. If you choose to eat mushrooms, please include a Con save. Remember that if for some reason you roll with advantage, you can choose which roll to use, and you might not want the higher one, as Opalia is learning. Good but not great is the sweet spot, so that you get the benefits with minimal side effects.

"This seems like a dangerous way to traverse the waters, but so far its the only solution we have. I don't much relish the thought of all of us hallucinating our separate ways over the surface of a cooking pot though."

He picked another mushroom and looked at Opalia. One mushroom had sent Cora spiraling into her darkest nightmares. Three had barely given the heartier Opalia indigestion. He decided he was more like Cora than Opalia when it came to physiology and elected to split the mushroom cap in half. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad...

12:08, Today: Secret Roll: Arvid Signeson rolled 8 using 1d20+4.  Con save.

Opalia popped another mushroom into her mouth and nodded, then said through her munching, "YES.  Mmfcrunch  Good to eat!  crunchcrunch  Hope that little CORA will be OKAY though crunchmumf."  The giantess continued snacking on mushrooms while looking on hopefully as her very wise friends did what they could for Cora.  One after another she munched down on mushrooms with seemingly no effect, any one of which could send a smaller person into new planes of reality.

---

5 more mushrooms!  Why can't I roll like this any other time? LOL:

• 15:53, Today: Opalia rolled 26 using 1d20+6.  Third Con save vs. hallucinogen.

Let's go ahead and try another 5 shrooms:

• 15:54, Today: Opalia rolled 14 using 1d20+6.  ANOTHER Con save.

Arvid, having some experience with herbalism, understood that plants could affect different people in different ways. Even among the Northmen, a poultice of dung heather and childswort alleviated the pain of cuts and burns in some but caused others to break out in hives. It would not be surprising for a human, a goliath, and a half-orc to experience different effects. Even so, Cora was so profoundly affected that it seemed odd for Opalia and him to feel so little.

The more he thought on it, the more it made sense. The more a lot of things made sense. He felt as if the universe were on the verge of revealing its secrets to him. Or... just revealing its secrets, in general. Because there was no him, no Arvid Signeson standing apart from the world, observing it and attempting to understand it. He was in the world, and the world was in him.

Arvid felt a mystical kinship with all things. With his companions, yes, but also with Brigha and Blackhammer and Lidar Olav and even with Garduk, because they are just players in this absurd little comedy, same as him. He felt a kinship with all the denizens of the caverns great and small, and indeed when he closed his eyes he could hear the subtle clicking and squishing of insects far too tiny to see. They were all around him, climbing and swimming, eating and dying. And if they could climb the walls, then so could he, for all differences between them were but delusions of his foolish ego.

A loud, panicked screaming interrupted this thought. Something was crying out in pain, and its pain hurt Arvid's own head. At first it was hard to identify the source of the screaming, because there was pain everywhere, the whole world was in pain. But as he narrowed his focus, he realized horror that the shrieking was coming from Opalia's mouth, throat, and stomach. The mushrooms she was at the very moment masticating and swallowing were crying out in pain at the crunch of her teeth and the burn of the acid in her stomach.

Arvid, you can now move about as if affected by the Spider Climb spell. Also, you are convinced that these mushrooms are suffering when plucked and eaten but also simply when stood upon, which is especially difficult to avoid given their prolific growth.

Opalia, you are immune to fire damage and not currently experiencing any unpleasant side effects.

The anatka looked to Fergus and Caell as more of their companions ate the mushrooms and seemed to gain various traits that would allow them to cross the boiling pool, though with no small amount of side effects.

"I'm not sure I like the thought of what these mushrooms might do to us, but I have no other solution to offer," she said, looking at each of their faces.  "Do we just accept that fate and go ahead, for good or ill?"

If they had no better options to offer, Sikuaq would gather a sample of the fungi and in concert with the rest, pop them in her mouth.  Do not lose all control, she told herself over and over again.

A calmness fell over Arvid as the boundaries of his world fell away one by one and stretched towards a distant horizon. Kneeling low to the ground he peered into the spaces between the mushroom caps searching out the mat of life that thrived beneath the miniature canopy. For a time he seemed serene, beatific even, but slowly the color drained from his cheeks and his eyes grew wide.

"Do you hear them?" he asked, barely above a whisper.

"They're screaming. Mother Bear, they're screaming!" he continued, voice growing ever louder and more urgent.

Sitting up frantically he turned to his peers. "Please! Please be careful! You're crushing them!"

Opalia frowned and asked Arvid through a mouthful of hearty mushroom, "crunch  Who screams, ARV?  Are you very well?  munch-crunch"  This was a MUCH-strange time in this deep, sweltering cave, Opalia thought.  Although, now that she considered it, the cave did not seem hot anymore!  In fact, it felt rather cool and comfortable in temperature, despite the heat visibly bubbling off the water and the sweat still shining on the brows of all her companions.  The giantess swallowed her fourteenth mushroom and remarked, "OPALIA feels NOT-HOT now!  Perhaps the water is OKAY to touch?"

Feeling confident, Opalia knelt by the side of the boiling pool sprinkled with living flame, and dipped a hand into the scalding waters.  Grinning, she unwisely advised her companions, "The water does feel NICE!  It is no reason to be upset, buddy ARV."  She peered out over the harmlessly-boiling lake, searching for the nicest way to wade across.

---

Does the hot water provide moisturizing relief for the slimy skin disease while I'm immune to fire?  That's a heck of a bath ;D

Perception or Survival (same modifier) to look for a wading path that could allow Opi to get across the water without going more than waist-deep:

• 12:31, Today: Opalia rolled 14 using 1d20+4.  Perception/Survival.

Cora smile, as a warm comforting feeling spread through her at Fergus' touch, the prison breaking around her.

Cora stepped, and stepped again. Walking free from Amez Heza. The light was bright outside, the heat of it burning where winter's air should whip.

She saw a small shack ahead, a light in the window, smoke rising from the chimney. Shades moved behind the glass, and she could smell bread, northern bread, Franco ideas on Kerit designs.

In her hands was the officer's knife of Captain Rolf, the handle flaking blood still under the filigree. In her mind, Cora remembered washing it, trying to scrub the blood clean, but the knife stubbornly refused to give up the evidence of Coraghak's crime.

Frozen for but a moment, Cora pressed forward, and outside her mind, she floated through the air towards the other side of this boiling water, her hand outstretched reaching for a door that was not there . . .

OOC: with advantage, 13 is the roll

Caell realized that the mushrooms provided those willing to eat them a chance of crossing the boiling river, while also affecting their mind. If he had to, Caell would do the same, but he might not have to. He moved up to Fergus and put his hand on his shoulder. "Come."

If the other side is within range, Caell will Dimension Door himself and Fergus there.

"The MUSHROOMS," Arvid said, his voice back to a pleading whisper once more. "They're screaming! I can hear them screaming! Don't step on them!"

Sikuaq refrained from eating any of the mushrooms until the rest were (relatively) safely underway - Cora floating above the water, Opalia wading through it, Arvid scuttling around, and Caell magicking he an Fergus across.  When she felt they were all focused enough to reach the other side she finally bent down to the ground and snatched up a couple of mushrooms for herself.

Snapping off the caps, she wrinkled her nose and then popped them in her mouth, chewing and swallowing them quickly.  Then she sat and waited, watching the others continue their progress while the fungi entered her system.


OOC:

21:59, Today: Secret Roll: Sikuaq rolled 6 using 1d20+2.  CON Save (Mushrooms).  Uh-oh...this could be interesting!

Fergus eyed the strange portal suspiciously. Try as he might to remember the growing list of good things Caell had done since the start of their journey, he couldn't shake the memory of pathetic drunkard back at Grina's. "Now he was conjuring this mysterious doorway? What kind of fool would I be to trust it goes where he thinks it will?"

On the other hand, he wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of eating enough mushrooms to make him levitate (and more than likely act like a complete idiot). And somebody needed to keep their head on straight just in case things went off the rails.

He nodded to Caell. "All right. This'd better work."

OOC: Will follow Caell through the dimension door.

The seething lake was a perfectly comfortable temperature and the flames dancing along the surface seemed to be purely ornamental, and so Opalia gladly immersed herself into the waters.  The scalding liquid was a refreshing balm to her translucent flesh that was the reason for this perilous journey.  The giantess emerged from the water with a sigh of relief, heat radiating off her powerful figure in the form of steam.

Opalia knelt by Arvid with a concerned look as she tried to understand what was wrong.  She turned an ear to the mushrooms and listened very hard, but could not hear any screaming at all.  She squeezed his shoulder, still wet but only warm after cooling off in the air, and reassured him, "I do not hear screaming, ARV.  It will be okay, buddy."  Opalia extended a hand and offered, "OPALIA is strongest and not harmed by waters.  I can carry ARV safe to other side?  Also HUGS to feel better!"

Caell and Fergus had already shot across the water in a flash of incredible magic, and Cora set off levitating over the surface to join them, reinforcing Opi's belief that these were the best friends EVER.  The giantess turned to Sikuaq, the only other little friend who had yet to cross, and offered, "May OPALIA carry you across also, wisest ANATKA?  It is no problem!"  Opalia was fully prepared to carry Arvid in her strong arms while Sikuaq rode her shoulders as she waded across the boiling lake, which was definitely a good idea with barely a remote possibility of anything going wrong!

Crossing the pool of steaming water proved easy, for Caell and Fergus. With the crown upon his head reflecting the "stars" on the mirrored ceiling that were themselves reflections of the motes of fire hissing in the water below, the elf bent reality to his whim. One moment he and the reluctant dwarf were on the near side of the pool, and the next they were on the far, looking up at the shrine to Forza that was their reason for coming.

A short stone bridge led across a narrow chasm to a flight of stairs, proportioned for dwarven feet, which itself led up to a darkened doorway. With his darkvision, Fergus could just make out a shadowy figure inside, watching them. He could not gauge the distance between them, whether the person was just inside the doorway or some hundred feet back. Indeed, they seemed to be both at once. Nor could he judge the figure's race. At times it was short and squat, like a dwarf, but just when he thought he had determined it was so, he began to doubt himself, for it also seemed to be tall and slender. The figure did not move or react to any of the party's antics, but Fergus did not doubt it was alive and watching them, and had been doing so since their arrival.

Outside the doorway, two monstrous stone heads poured lave from their mouths into chasm below. The chasm must have been deep indeed, because neither Fergus nor Caell could see where the lava gathered. The only sign it was down there at all was the red glow illuminating the chasm's stone walls.

The heads themselves called to mind Cherufe, the tentacled lava beast the party had fought beneath Guthluthic. There was no time to reflect on the implications of this, however, because back on the other side of the pool, all hell was breaking loose.

Opalia, apparently experiencing no ill effects from the copious amount of mushrooms she'd consumed, began crossing with the protesting Arvid tossed across her shoulder. She was about halfway across when the hallucinogens finally caught up with her. Her hair seemed to be coming out in clumps, falling from her head to sizzle and burn in the scalding water through which she so callously waded. What would Mother Olva think of her beautiful daughter now that she was bald as an old man?

Meanwhile, Valaku, who had been watching the others consume the mushrooms with mounting disapproval, laid a hand on Sikuaq's shoulder before she could do the same. "Are you certain...?" It was a mild objection, but for him to question the judgment of his anatka at all was a bold and rare thing. Seeing the resolve on her face, he made to withdraw his hand.

It was too late. The mushrooms needed no time to work their magic on the druidess. Indeed, whereas their side effects had been psychic and illusory for the others, the fungi affected Sikuaq in an immediate, physical, and terrible way, exploding like a fireball inside her. The polished obsidian ceiling reflected the fiery Quinichiat, so that for a moment all was so bright inside the chamber that no one could see anything.

When the light faded, Sikuaq was still there, but her fine white hair had been replaced by licking flames that seemed not to burn her pale skin. The staff she had taken from the orcish shaman was now clutched not in her gentle hands but in burning tentacles that protruded from her abdomen, tentacles very much like those possessed by Cherufe, the monster that orcish shaman had become.

As for Valaku, he was nowhere to be seen. There was no pile of ashes, no charred corpse.

The ranger's wolf whimpered and backed away from the burning druidess.

Fergus and Caell are now on the far side of the pool, roughly 200' from Sikuaq. Opalia, Cora, and Arvid are halfway across (so 100' from Sikuaq), all tripping to various degrees.

Opalia, you'll need another Acrobatics check, again with disadvantage, if you choose to keep moving. One more check will be enough to either cross the rest of the way to join Caell and Fergus or return to join Sikuaq.

Cora, likewise, please make another Wisdom save after your next action (i.e., you can cross the pool or return to the near side before making the save, in case that matters).

Something is obviously very wrong with Sikuaq, but she doesn't seem to be in immediate pain or danger. Her hair is fire, but it isn't harming her, nor are her tentacles.

Opalia waded unharmed across the scalding lake with Arvid slung over a shoulder, steam rising all around amidst dancing motes of flame.  It was a challenge to keep her footing on the sludgey, mushroom-clumped lake bed, and especially so because the silent mushroom screaming was making poor Arvid sad.  She patted the Northman on her shoulder encouragingly on the bum, "It will be OKAY, buddy!  Probably the mushrooms scream HAPPILY to cheer us on!  They know we are sorry to have eaten their friends."

The giantess noticed a few clumps of dark strands in the water, and then more.  She looked down and noticed a sheaf of familiar auburn hair settled on her breast.  HER HAIR!  She hastily ran a hand across her scalp and came away with a fistful of the wild mane that she liked so well, which she stared at in horror.  "Oh NO!  My good hair falls off?!  NOT GOOD!  Mother OLVA did like my hair, and so does OPALIA!"  The giantess huffed and sniffled as she slogged dutifully onward, feeling inordinately sad about her hair loss but also knowing this was no time to fret about it.

She glanced worriedly back at Arvid as she neared the far side where the others awaited, hoping that he would be okay and also harboring secret worry that he may not like her anymore with her yuck-skin and now no hair at all.

---

Acrobatics at disadvantage to carry Arvid on across!:

• 02:40, Today: Opalia rolled 9 using 2d20+6, dropping the highest dice only with rolls of 13,3.  Acrobatics (disadvantage).

Sikuaq glanced to her protector as he laid a concerned hand on her shoulder.  She looked up at him with eyes mixed with resolve and something else, fear maybe?  It wasn't quite the right word, but it was close enough.  "It...it is necessary," she replied, pushing away the immediate concerns for herself, for Valaku, for any of them as single individuals.  That was not the role she was fated to play.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It circled in the dark, slow and relentless, as it had from the moment the rune had transferred to this new one, the Quinichiat.  It had tested every nook and cranny, every wall and gate of its prison and knew it well.  Once or twice there had been cracks that appeared, allowing brief glimpses of light and an opportunity to escape.  Small tendrils of its essence had bled forth then, only to be lost when the walls resealed themselves.  Weakened but not deterred, it simply began circling again.  This was a long game and sooner or later the gates would open, as they always did.  Had the thing a mouth, it would have smiled in anticipation.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sikuaq chewed the mushrooms and forced herself to swallow.  She'd seen the reactions of Cora and Arvid and Opalia and wondered what form the hallucinations would take with her.  And whether she'd be able to capitalize on the benefit that would allow her to pass through or over the waters safely.  Or be stuck staring at her hands in stupefied wonder, as had befallen Arvid.  It turned out she did not have to wait long for her answer.

The mushrooms hit like a tidal wave, brushing aside inhibitions and self-restraint.  The weight of being anatka, gone.  The responsibilities to her friends, her tribe, the Quinichiat as a people, the world itself, all gone.  There was only the moment, herself laid bare before Creation with no shields and no barriers.

No barriers.  Panic seized her, and lost in the explosion of fiery light was Sikuaq's terrified scream.

~~~~~~~~~~~

At last!  The walls fell, the gates opened, and it was free.  It surged through the Quinichiat, heart and mind and limb, fusing with her essence.  Finally the restrictions that had kept them pent up were gone.  They were free to take the battle to Garduk and Kinak and end the conflict, once and for all.  No more piddling sensibilities to interfere.  Do what must be done, the voice reverberated.  Do not fight the war, win the war!

Though she could not see herself, Sikuaq's silvery hair had transformed into a fiery halo that wreathed her head.  The onyx constellation embedded in her forehead since the confrontation with Cherufe gleamed with a dark intensity, as though lit with an internal power.  Her clothing had darkened to grey and black, singed by the heat of her transformation and standing stark against her pale skin.  But the staff remained, clutched before her by two molten tentacles.  We are ready.

Ignoring Valaku's lupine companion, Sikuaq moved forward after the rest of them.  She stepped over the rim of the pool and into the water, each step causing the liquid around her to steam and roil with increased intensity.  Steadily, almost as though she were gliding across, she made her way to the far side of the pool, where she stepped back out onto solid ground.

Striding toward the stone bridge that spanned the chasm, she asked the others to join her. "Shall we go enlist the priest's aid?"

Fergus's gaze took in the architecture before him. The bridge and chasm, the stairs and doorway, and finally the shadowy figure within it. "I suppose that's the priest," he muttered under his breath to Caell, keeping an eye on the doorway for fear of what the mysterious figure beyond it might do if unwatched. "I'll be honest. I don't much like the idea of making a deal with the likes of him."

After a long stare at the figure, convinced there was no immediate danger, Fergus finally turned to spare a peek at the status of their companions behind them. But what he intended to be a quick glimpse over his shoulder became a full turn to the boiling pool behind him. He stood with mouth agape as some fiery tentacled monster strode across the boiling water toward them. "Kann's mighty hammer!" he cried to Caell. "Is that Sikuaq?!?!?"

As the anatka, if that's what she still was, arrived on solid ground, Fergus backpedaled while his memory raced back in time. She had used the staff previously, on the tundra. It reminded him then a little too much of Cherufe and he cursed himself for not pushing the matter at that time. Now here they were. "Sikuaq? What in the name of Kann is happening!?!?"

Sikuaq looked at Fergus with a slightly bemused expression dancing in her firelit eyes.  "We have found our way across the boiling pond and are now going to talk to the priest here, so they can help Opalia.  Unless you think we need to change our plan?"

Surely the stout dwarf hadn't forgotten that?  I don't think he even ate any of the mushrooms, she thought curiously.  Maybe she was hallucinating Fergus' question?

OOC: Wisdom save 8 and floating across to the other side heedlessly

The fire cast orange fingers across the darkness of the room. Shades with the faces of Rolf played amidst burning embers, twisted and malformed where Cora's memories recalled two children, unaware of who the greenskin was, still hopeful for a father who had himself left a boy and now was dead, deemed not worth burdening a mule where living captives still breathed.

Cora had been taken out of that hell, and Rolf had stayed, and all she had to give his widow was the knife he'd worn as symbol of his station

Fires welled up with Cora's tears, the heat burning as she turned. The shades of Rolf's family changed at once into Francan knights, riding after her atop angry bloodied steeds. And she pressed on, to get to the other side of the river, to safety . . .

Arvid had not protested when Opalia scooped him up - or at least did not protest any further than he already was, pleading on behalf of the mushrooms that they may live unmolested. If anything the journey across the roiling waters seemed to calm him as he was carried away from the carpet of toadstools. Whatever Opalia saw in her own reflection, Arvid seemed not to see at all. Indeed he continued to mutter for much of the journey and seemed largely oblivious to his surroundings.

As they neared the far shore where Caell and Fergus waited however his anxiety began to mount once more. With a deep breath he tried to steel himself for what was to come. Take no more than was needed. Cause no unnecessary suffering. This was how he had been raised. It wasn't the Northman way, per se. But it had long been Arvid's. Only now he could see it all so much more clearly. Everything was connected, all life across the tundra, and even the earth itself. And he was just a tiny, infinitesimal part of it.

"I see it now, Ulf," he whispered. "I see what you were trying to show me."

And then he saw Sikuaq.

"Anatka," he breathed. Arvid reached for her with a look of sorrow. "What has become of you? I cannot hear your heartbeat, only the crackle of flame. And I cannot hear Valaku at all..." he continued, looking about for her faithful warder.

Caell turned to look at the figure when Fergus pointed him out. His main attention was still on his friends, however. Fortunately, it seemed they were all getting across, aside from Valaku which had vanished. Caell hoped the quinichiat was alive somewhere.

He looked at the figure again, raising his hand in a what he hoped was a friendly greeting, but he didn't say anything.