Next Level Shrooms - Printable Version

It took...a long time to get The Chorus from Eridanus, but they did it, by the Fates they did it. There were a lot of stops involved, as parts of the nest dislodged on rocks and hills, and at one point the dirt started tumbling out and the poor Consul had to right it again and stuff it back in, but they made it there, exhausted and beaten, but for the Chorus, it only knew excitement and wonder.

It looked through The Consul's eyes for much of it. Even though Polaris was not far away, it was still a radically different environment then the one they'd come from. They felt for everything, every shed of fungal dander (although there was little here) every sight the Consul could see, it felt the energy bright in the air...ah. It was wonderful.

But this was not their focus - they had reached the place where they knew those that transcended went. It was probably an odd sight for Emuh to see - an exhausted echoing gray pulling the handle of a damaged woven nest of sticks and leaves, not unlike a bird's nest, within which was dirt, a bit of grass and sticks, and a few orange mushroom caps.

The rat stopped at the front of the cave, and the Chorus used its voice to speak - "Is Emuh here? We are the Chorus. We wish to take your Trial."

Emuh's appearance was abrupt: a ruffle of feathers and clack of talons and suddenly he was LOOMING over the fungus, and the rat. For a brief instant one foot twitched, like he instinctively wanted to grab the Consul and eat it--and then his head tilted as he seemed to realize what it was.

"...EMUH ADMITS, HE HAS NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE," he crowed, staring at The Chorus. This thing was a mushroom. And it was talking to him. Through a rat.

Okay. He could handle that; he'd handled weirder, but... barely.

The electricity sparking off him, glowing like a dim bulb, shifted into ice that formed and melted incessantly, sliding away until his feathers were steaming and a puddle was forming around his talons.

"EMUH WILL CREATE YOU A GRAND TRIAL!" He paused. "BUT DOES THE CHORUS NEED ITS RAT? -CAN YOU HEAR ME?" he added. He had no idea if this mushroom could even... hear his words. Maybe through the rat. "THEY ARE USUALLY NOT ALLOWED, BUT." He ruffled his feathers and decided to make a concession, for the sake of common sense. "EMUH WILL BE GENEROUS! MAGNANIMOUS! AND MAKE AN EXCEPTION. UNLESS YOU DO NOT NEED IT. THEN EMUH WILL BE IMPRESSED, INSTEAD." The implication, of course, was that impressing the owl was a good thing. "IF IT IS NEEDED, PERHAPS IT SHOULD REST FIRST?" he added, appraising the Gray with a critical eye. It looked miserably tired, to his keen predatory eye.

The fungus observed the creature through the eyes of the Consul first, black feathered and huge, but they were not intimidated. Perhaps they should have been, considering how vulnerable they were, but no. They had learned confidence, and perhaps ego as well. They turned their attention to their connection with their familiar as well and truly felt its exhaustion. Ah...yes, perhaps.

But they did not need a handler. No. Once the Consul had brought them in, they would be fine on their own. They communicated this to the Consul and instructed his words. The raspy echo of the rat responded - "He needs only bring us inside and then we take your trial alone. He may rest." And, unless Emuh said anything to the contrary, the rat would pick up the handle and drag them into the cave proper before retreating outside. Where it would promptly lay on the stone floor and fall asleep almost instantly, grateful for the chance to rest.

For the Chorus, meanwhile, they held tighter to their heart and felt excitement running through their limited network. They spoke to Emuh directly now through magic, their many voices quivering with anticipation. "We are ready."

"INTERESTING. This pleases Emuh," Emuh decided. He watched, indeed fascinated, as the stationary Gembound was brought inside and simply... left there, motionless.

He wondered if he ought to create a Trial specifically for one who could not move, but that would defeat the purpose of it. No: he would ignore that, but he would not make it deliberately impossible. There were aspects to consider, facets... subtleties...

The owl turned, wings flapping, and vanished into the darkness of the room of trials. There was the sound of grinding stone as it reshaped itself around The Chorus.

For a moment, there was nothing. It was unclear if Chorus could even see, hear, or otherwise sense the world around it, without eyes or a mycelial network in this cave. And now, its familiar was outside, and out of sight.

But if it did have some way of sensing its surroundings, it would know that they had drastically and quickly changed from what had been, moments ago, a barren little cave. A forest of thick trees had risen up, as did dark water, forming a murky swamp that faded into dark fog in all directions. The room was a tangle of fallen logs and thick vines, half of them covered in moss where they plunged into the dark waters. A cage of black iron bars, fitted with a sturdy padlock, had appeared around the fungal cluster, on the little hill of dry land where it lay--and aside from a few Hallowed Callers flitting among the trees and emitting their eerie cries, it seemed that Chorus was alone.

The Chorus's Trial of Transcendence has begun!

All was still, for a moment. The Chorus felt naked and barren, small as it was and without its familiar to be its eyes. This was as it should be, though. It did not need to rely on another to prove its strength.

The benefits of its caps, and the reason it had insisted to the Consul that a few be preserved, was that they were like a temporary sensory organ. Sensitive to chemical signals and the mind behind it being uniquely perceptive in the absence of concrete form. It listened carefully, in the way that it listened - feeling for changes in air pressure, subtle vibrations, a difference in the electrical signals of its environment...

And as the Consul had dragged it into the cave, it had allowed many of its microscopic spores to fall from the gills of the caps. It released more now, allowing them a moment to drift and settle before it opened its awareness into them, feeling around its new surroundings.

This was what it surmised: the cave was different, larger. It was a forest, perhaps water nearby, from the increased moisture in the air. From the tiniest change in pressure and the interruption of airflow, it detected the presence of something surrounding it, not completely solid. Its spell confirmed this, as many of the spores stuck to the metal bars. Interesting... It also knew that there were birds above. It felt the vibrations of their caws, and the movement of leaves as they shuffled from tree to tree.

An idea crossed its mind, then - they did not have the vision they desired here, without the rest of their network, but the birds would do them well. They waited for the right moment, magic prepared, and then as soon as they detected and pinpointed the location of another cry of the callers, their magic shot forward towards the location, grabbing onto the Lesser and opening a link.

It was not the same as their own familiar, of course, they had no control over it. But they listened for the thoughts of the bird and, at the same time, immediately began to pull its sensory input from its thoughts. It saw the forest and the water, the dry land and, importantly, their own nest where they could see themselves peeking out from the soil within. They saw the cage and the padlock and wondered, curiously, why they would be locked up.

Emuh does realize we cannot move, yes? Etu spoke quietly to Abdicus. It did not respond, busy holding onto their spell, but it had to admit Etu was right. There must be something else here he was planning...

The moment The Chorus's mind melded with that of one of the Caller's, the world changed.

Color flooded in, but it was dim, dark, near-monochrome. This place really was a dour little swamp. Scent... faint, to the Caller's beak, but it was that rotten organic smell of the bog. The sounds were loud, calling insects and little frogs hidden among the roots and leaves.

More interesting was the light source. Or rather, sources. Two glowing white-gold points, at separate ends of the room, small but bright.

Somewhere up above, Emuh's little chuckle floated through the fog.

1/3

Hm...the few voices in the network considered the vision offered to them by the callers. There was little here, besides the cave, and they saw no reason to open the lock. They could not, after all, utilize any freedom, nor would the bars contain them if she decided to attempt to leave.

The lights were interesting and drew their attention. Abdicus took a moment in the mind of the bird to judge distance from them, location, triangulating exactly how far away it was from their actual body, and then lashed magic out in that direction to grab a hold of it, and pull it closer. Perhaps for the bird to see, perhaps for them to discover.

The object was snagged in their phantom grip, and drawn close. In the bird's eyes, or whatever other senses The Chorus might employ, the object's nature became clear: a key, Baubled a soft golden white, illuminated to be more easily located in the maze of swampland around them.

Perhaps they didn't feel the need to free themselves, but finding the key made the nature of the test fairly clear, at least.

The padlock on their cage, should the bird inspect it, held two keyholes at its front.

2/3

They almost laughed at the simplicity. But, then again, it had required quite strong magic for them to succeed in this test. A simple display of their prowess, then? An easy thing. They continued to hold the sight of the bird as they dragged the key close. It was a bit of an awkward thing as they tried to insert the key into the padlock without a close sight of where it was. They could see it through the bird's eye, but after a few failed pokes with the key, they at last inserted the key and turned, hearing a click.

Good. Now, for the other.

Turning their attention to the other one, they lashed for it as well, but too confident now in their senses, the magic was off and went...a little sideways, instead grabbing onto the branch of a tree near where the baubled key was. The magic ripped the branch right off and slammed it against the cage bars, causing a lace of fear to blare through the Chorus for a moment before they settled. Oops.