Chapter 5: Neverlight Grove

Communities of myconids can be found throughout the Underdark. These intelligent, vaguely humanoid fungi lead lives of work and shared contemplation, providing shelter and safe passage to any who approach them peacefully.

The relative isolation of Neverlight Grove, its abundance of food and water, and the welcoming nature of its inhabitants might bring the characters here to rest, recuperate, and resupply. While in the grove, they can consult with the colony’s myconid sovereigns about possible ways back to the surface world, while enjoying a much-needed respite from the brutal and harrowing conditions of the Underdark.

However, this particular myconid haven isn’t as safe as it might appear. One of their sovereigns has fallen under the sway of Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi, who wasted no time building herself a stronghold in a colossal mushroom called Yggmorgus. There, she works on a malevolent scheme to claim all the Underdark as her domain. More and more myconids are slowly becoming unwitting thralls under her control, and characters who linger in Neverlight Grove might find themselves in great peril.

Neverlight Grove: General Features

Visitors encounter the following features throughout Neverlight Grove.

Underground Marsh. Water trickles into the large cavern from many places, forming terraces, pools, and streams. This creates an underground marsh ideal for the growth of fungi and the myconids.

Abundant Fungi. Mushrooms, molds, and fungi grow in abundance in Neverlight Grove, creating a bizarre yet beautiful tapestry of color.

Quiet Cacophony. Myconids don’t speak. They communicate telepathically by emitting their rapport spores. As a result, they live quiet lives. Strange music and singing echoes from the large cavern behind the grove, just loud enough to be noticeable.

Otherworldly Light. Luminescent lichen grows across the cavern and spreads to the larger mushrooms, bathing the grove in soft hues of yellow, blue, and violet. Dim light suffuses the entire grove and lends the grove a dreamlike quality.

Sentinel Mushrooms. To defend themselves, myconids have cultivated and guided the growth of awakened zurkhwoods to serve as a kind of palisade around the grove.

Zuggtmoy’s Spores. This malevolent disease is spread by myconids transformed by Zuggtmoy’s demonic influence (see “Myconids” in appendix C).

A transformed myconid can release the spores in a cloud that fills a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on it, and the cloud lingers for 1 minute. Any flesh-and-blood creature in the cloud when it appears, or that enters it later, must make a Constitution saving throw. The save DC is 8 + the myconid’s Constitution modifier + the myconid’s proficiency bonus. On a successful save, the creature can’t be infected by these spores for 24 hours. On a failed save, the creature is infected with a disease called the spores of Zuggtmoy and also gains a random form of indefinite madness (determined by rolling on the Madness of Zuggtmoy table in appendix D) that lasts until the creature is cured of the disease or dies. While infected in this way, the creature can’t be reinfected, and it must repeat the saving throw at the end of every 24 hours, ending the infection on a success. On a failure, the infected creature’s body is slowly taken over by fungal growth, and after three such failed saves, the creature dies and is reanimated as a spore servant if it’s a type of creature that can be (see the “Myconids” entry in the Monster Manual).

Going to Neverlight Grove

Because so few Underdark travelers have ever stumbled upon Neverlight Grove, it rarely appears on any maps. Nearly all the routes leading to it are dangerous and difficult to navigate, although many streams flow into and through the grove. If the characters enter the general area of the grove and stay close to-or travel along-these waterways, they eventually find their way here. Alternatively, three of the party’s companions can guide them to Neverlight Grove.

Stool, the characters' fellow prisoner from chapter 1, is a myconid sprout from the grove, captured by the drow before Zuggtmoy began exerting her influence over the myconids here. Although not knowledgeable about the Underdark, Stool has an innate sense of where its home lies and can guide the party toward it. Upon its return, Stool is greatly disturbed by the changes it encounters in the grove. It isn’t well acquainted with either sovereign, but finds itself drawn toward Basidia.

The former drow prisoner Sarith Kzekarit might also become the party’s guide, owing to his extensive knowledge of the Underdark. Though the party doesn’t realize it, Sarith is infected with Zuggtmoy’s spores, which now control his mind. He tries to steer the party toward Neverlight Grove, citing it as a place of safety in which the adventurers can decide their next move. In reality, he unknowingly leads the characters to become slaves of the Demon Queen of Fungi.

If the characters already visited Gracklstugh, Sarith might have gone with the infected myconids in the Whorlstone Tunnels, leaving Rumpadump with the party. A myconid sprout traveling with a troupe of infected myconids, Rumpadump has avoided infection and can also lead characters to the grove. He also expresses concern that the corrupted spores of its previous traveling companions might have also infected its home.

Random Encounters

Characters traveling to and from Neverlight Grove encounter evidence of Zuggtmoy’s growing influence in the region. Whenever the party is within four days of Neverlight Grove, use the Encounters around Neverlight Grove table instead of the random encounter tables in chapter 2 to determine what, if anything, they encounter.

Encounters around Neverlight Grove

Fungi Patch

If the characters are camped or resting, treat this encounter as “no encounter.” Otherwise, the characters stumble upon a large fungi patch growing in a damp cave or tunnel. The fungi patch is difficult terrain and consists of many common but inedible species of giant fungi. Roll a d10 and consult the Fungi Patch Discoveries table to determine what else the characters find here.

See “area Fungi of the Underdark” in chapter 2 for more information on edible and exotic species of fungi. Entries marked with an asterisk are further described after the table.

Fungi Patch Discoveries

Drow and Quaggoth Spore Servants

These spore servants tend the fungi patch on behalf of the myconids and ignore the party unless attacked or interfered with, in which case they defend themselves.

Myconid Adults

These gentle creatures tend to the fungi patch and mind their own business, attacking only in self-defense. If the characters establish communication with the fungus folk and ask for directions to Neverlight Grove, the myconids offer to escort them to the grove and introduce them to their exalted leader, Sovereign Phylo.

Awakened Zurkhwoods

These giant animated mushrooms guard the fungi patch, attacking if they are harmed or if the characters try to harvest any of the fungi.

Shriekers

The shrieking of these fungi has a 50 percent of attracting a nearby chasme or vrock demon (your choice), which arrives 1d6+4 rounds later and fights until killed.

Zurkhwoods

There is a 50 percent chance that one of the zurkhwoods has 1d4+4 stirge nesting in its cap. The stirges are drawn to light sources.

Arriving at the Grove

While many passages lead to Neverlight Grove, most are little more than narrow fissures riven by trickles of water. Only one natural tunnel is fit for relatively easy travel by Medium creatures, formed by a drying underground stream and dimly lit by glowing lichen.

Upon entering the cavern of the grove, characters leave the horrors of the Underdark behind. They find themselves in a hidden enchanted place, strangely alien but serenely beautiful. The access tunnel opens above the grove’s main floor, providing the characters a panoramic view of a mushroom forest that covers every surface-including the ceiling-and illuminates the darkness with brilliantly colorful bioluminescent patterns.

On the other side of this exotic forest, the cavern narrows into a ravine. In a cavern beyond the ravine, a glimpse of a majestic mushroom tower can be seen, although the poor light and a rising mist makes it impossible to discern its details.

Drow Pursuit in Neverlight Grove

Though the characters don’t know it yet, a drow scout patrol arrived in Neverlight Grove ahead of them, anticipating that the escaped adventurers might seek shelter among the myconids. Unfortunately for the drow scouts, an encounter with one of Zuggtmoy’s servants led them to a grisly fate. See area 5, “The Garden of Welcome,” for more information.

While the characters remain in Neverlight Grove, their pursuit level remains unchanged, as Ilvara waits to hear from the missing patrol. The drow pursuit resumes when the party leaves the grove. See chapter 2 for more information.

Important NPCs

The adventurers might interact with the following characters and creatures in Neverlight Grove.

Roleplaying the Myconids

Myconids lead lives completely unlike the experiences of any surface dweller. The only things they have in common with humanoids are the need for sustenance, the desire to live, and the joy of socialization, although they practice each of these things in different ways than humanoids. Truly alien creatures, myconids have difficulty telling flesh-and-blood humanoids apart.

Myconids are innocent about matters of ethics and morality, their lives centered on living fully each day and worrying little about the future and nothing at all about the past. Despite the communal nature of their existence, they are individuals with their own unique interests and distinct personalities. They gravitate toward simple, shared joys, living by the wisdom and insight their melding provides. Because of their naive and sharing ways, as well as their fungal nature, they are extremely vulnerable to the corrupting influence of Zuggtmoy.

The myconids of Neverlight Grove are beginning to reel from the Lady of Decay’s influence, with many blissfully welcoming her madness, while others bravely try to resist it. Myconids affected by Zuggtmoy abandon the growth of life as the core of their being in favor of decay and death. More horrifying is that they do so with childlike innocence, revelling in the corruption of all life with a sense of wonder and joy, unable to grasp the evil they have embraced.

A Day in Neverlight Grove

The myconid way of life is simple, contemplative, and cyclical. Myconids work for eight hours farming their fungi fields, scouting for resources, and maintaining their defenses. After their labors, they spend eight hours in telepathic communion with each other in what they call “melding.” They then rest for eight hours before starting the cycle anew.

Many of the myconids in the grove are more extroverted than might be expected of their normally shy species. Characters who communicate with the myconids by way of their rapport spores note that the creatures seem to be preparing for a celebration of some sort, proclaiming “The day of joy is nigh!” and exhorting others to “Rejoice in the true union that will meld us all!” These are the myconids affected by Zuggtmoy, and their behavior is cause for concern among the unaffected, including Sovereign Basidia and its allies.

Two Sovereigns

Myconid communities normally have only a single sovereign-the largest among them, who stands alone and outside of any circle (see below). Two years ago, Sovereign Basidia arrived in the grove with its two circles, and Sovereign Phylo welcomed the new myconids gladly, grateful for Basidia’s offer to share the burdens of leading all the circles in the grove. The two sovereigns have been close friends ever since, sharing authority and responsibilities with no conflict. Each knows that an individual myconid has only so much time in the cycle of life, and that when both have passed, a single sovereign will take their place after their bodies are returned to nourish the soil.

Circles

The circles in Neverlight Grove are divided by specialized function, with each circle performing a specific role in the colony. Seven circles are present in the grove, each containing an average of twenty myconids-the Circle of Hunters, the Circle of Explorers, the Circle of Sowers, the Circle of Builders, the Circle of Growers, plus the recently formed Inner Circle and Circle of Masters. Each circle gathers around a circle mound-a pile of rocks and soil upon which mold, lichen, and mushrooms are encouraged to grow. The myconids of a circle gather around their own mound to meld and sleep.

After becoming enthralled by Zuggtmoy, Phylo decided the myconids would meld exclusively within their own circle, and only the circle leaders would meld with the other circle leaders and the sovereigns. Phylo asserted that this would make all the circles' meldings far more efficient, thereby making the tending of the grove that much easier. Most of the grove’s myconids have gone along with this new and unusual concept, swayed by Phylo’s claims that a higher level of communal harmony will be achieved.

Basidia believes that Phylo’s separation of the circles is contrary to the unity and harmony of the myconid way of life, and that this segregation isolates individuals from the experiences of others outside their circle. Basidia has likewise expressed concern about the unnaturalness of the Inner Circle and the Circle of Masters. However, Basidia’s views are either dismissed or ignored by Phylo and its allies, who zealously claim that exciting changes are coming for the grove.

A more recent development has Basidia even more disturbed when the adventurers arrive in Neverlight Grove. Yestabrod, the leader of the Circle of Masters, has not attended an Inner Circle melding for several days now, instead sending a representative (see “The Circle of Masters” in area 5). Times in Neverlight Grove are strange and worrisome indeed.

Melding

Myconids share everything through melding. Rapport spores carry a tiny bit of all myconids to the other myconids in their circle, to be absorbed and reside within them, and creating a telepathic familial bond. When the myconids of a circle gather to meld, they share their individual insights, fears, hopes, and dreams. Through the melding, all myconids join together to form the heart and soul of a colony.

Zuggtmoy’s Influence

Initially weakened by the summoning ritual that wrenched her from the Abyss, Zuggtmoy found her way to Neverlight Grove, drawn by the strength of its fungal vitality. Upon her arrival, she quickly assessed the situation, realizing the shortest path to gain control of the grove would be to sway and corrupt its original sovereign to serve her until she recovered her strength.

After being welcomed to the grove by Phylo, Zuggtmoy melded with the sovereign in secret, seducing it with the promise of a paradise for the mushroom folk if Phylo would lead them to become her followers on the Material Plane. Its mind completely lost inside the demon queen’s insidiously mad vision, Phylo became enthralled by the promise of plentiful soil and moisture, perpetual rot, and beautiful transcendent dreams to be shared in a never-ending communal melding-all offered to the grove’s folk as generous and wondrous gifts from the Lady of Decay.

Everyday melding has now become a subtle ideological war between supporters of the two myconid sovereigns. Phylo is slowly convincing the mushroom folk to follow the new path. Basidia and its dwindling supporters argue against the new way, even as they lose ground (and allies) each time the circles of the grove share consciousness.

As more and more myconids unwittingly become vessels for Zuggtmoy’s spores, Neverlight Grove becomes a more extravagantly festive place. The quiet, contemplative joy of the mushroom folk’s way of life is being inexorably replaced by decadent, enraptured euphoria-and the madness that euphoria hides.

Neverlight Grove

Population: 150 myconids and spore servants

Government: Organized circles ruled by larger specimens called circle leaders; even larger specimens called sovereigns rule the entire colony

Defense: Spore servants and awakened zurkhwoods

Commerce: None

Organizations: Seven myconid circles, Zuggtmoy’s servants

Myconids have lived in Neverlight Grove for untold generations, experiencing little or no change in their lives until recently. Now their world is being altered faster than many of the fungus folk can keep up with-as is their world view, twisted by the chaotic and corrupting influence of the Demon Queen of Fungi.

Upon her arrival in the Underdark, Zuggtmoy found Neverlight Grove and took up residence there. The myconids welcomed her, sealing their fate. Through telepathically shared dreams, corruption has taken root deep within the colony, warping the myconids' normally placid and peaceful nature into something restive and rapturous. A few realize what is happening and try to resist, but internal strife is alien to the myconids-they will not prevail without outside aid to save them.

1. Fungal Wilds

The myconids cultivate this stretch of wilderness as their first line of defense, creating a living palisade. Fungal creatures and wild Underdark beasts form a rich ecosystem here.

Pale cream and beige stalks grow thick and tall, resembling a surface world forest. Fungi grow in profusion everywhere, and it’s hard to find anything resembling a path between them. The giant caps of zurkhwood mushrooms obscure your view of the cavern’s ceiling, but luminescent fungi there give off a shimmering aura. With each step taken on the soggy ground, a rank scent of decay rises around you.

Circle of Hunters

A circle mound sits at the edge of the wilds but still inside them. It belongs to the Circle of Hunters—myconids that pursue creatures in the wilds. In spite of their name, the hunters don’t kill their prey, but merely track down creatures that have died near the grove. The hunters bring the remains of such creatures back to be reanimated by their sovereigns, until they are eventually allowed to rot and join the cavern’s detritus bed.

Loobamub. The circle leader of the hunters, this tall and lean myconid shares Basidia’s concerns about Phylo’s new way, though it is still capable of resisting Phylo’s corrupted meldings when it joins with the Inner Circle. Loobamub keeps its opinions to itself, but its wariness spreads to the other hunters when they meld, cementing their loyalty to Basidia. Loobamub redirects the spore servants and awakened zurkhwoods Phylo creates away from its circle’s territory.

Loobamub is happy to enlist the party’s aid in dealing with a few unwelcome monsters that have found their way into the fungal wilds. In particular, the circle leader asks the adventurers to kill a grick alpha and then take its carcass to Basidia for reanimation. A shambling mound is also exhausting the soil in the grove and needs to be put down for the good of the colony. These encounters can occur wherever you wish.

2. Northern Terraces

The terraces lining the northern walls are suffused with faerzress, and the myconids reserve these areas for cultivating certain fungi.

Water trickling from the walls of this vast cavern are channeled into a crude but effective terraced irrigation system. A thick, sweet smell fills the air from the thousands of fungi of all colors and sizes, many glowing with a strange, inviting light.

Circle of Builders

This circle is found in the middle terrace, but its members travel to the top and the edges of the cave to harvest the resilient fungi used in their craft.

Gasbide. The builders' circle leader is a pioneering would-be architect and a supporter of Sovereign Phylo. Already driven mad by Zuggtmoy’s spores, Gasbide dreams of bizarre, elaborate structures no myconids would ever need, inspired by visions of Abyssal palaces.

If Gasbide interacts with the characters using rapport spores, it demands descriptions of surface-world structures, bristling with an excitement seldom seen in myconids. It asks for exasperatingly minor details such as the precise dimensions of bricks or the density of lumber. Gasbide reveals through the rapport that it dreams of building a fungal tower “even greater than Yggmorgus.” It hopes to break through the Underdark to the surface world, possibly “with the aid of Araumycos.” Gasbide has no conscious knowledge of what Araumycos is, sensing only that it is part of the great celebration to come. See “Yggmorgus” (at the end of this chapter) and chapter 16, “The Fetid Wedding,” for more information.

Circle of Growers

The circle mound of the growers is on the top terrace, near the cavern wall. The growers are the colony’s farmers, ensuring the soil beneath the pools remains fertile and tending the fungi there.

Hebopbe. The leader of the growers doesn’t care much for Phylo’s new ideas. But though it misses mass meldings, Hebopbe doesn’t see Basidia’s protests as worthy of concern. Hebopbe is infected by Zuggtmoy’s spores, but isn’t yet under her control.

3. Central Basin

This depression in the cavern floor is the main part of the myconid colony. The central circle mound was only recently created, and is now a kind of “town square” where all the grove’s myconids gather for mass meldings. These have become rare, however, reserved for when Phylo wants to stoke the myconids' enthusiasm for the celebration that only those infected by Zuggtmoy know about. This leaves the uninfected confused but happy that something joyous is about to happen.

Beyond the mud and mushrooms that spread across the cavern, a large, clear pool sits in the midst of the fungal grove. A central mound seems to be the only dry spot in sight, though a small cliff rises above the cavern floor far across the clearing, with giant mushrooms visible in the distance. Bioluminescent fungi trace strange constellations along the cavern’s ceiling and walls, showing the darkness of the ravine and a mist-shrouded smaller cavern beyond.

Inner Circle

The central mound is the base of the colony’s two myconid sovereign, Phylo and Basidia. They hold court together with three myconid adult councilors named Brelup, Posbara, and Breberil. Ten awakened zurkhwood protect the mound and obey either of the sovereigns.

Sovereign Phylo. The sovereign towers above the other myconids, its multiple caps swaying with the sinuous shifting of its thick stalk as it moves. Once it spreads its rapport spores, Phylo welcomes the characters with honest enthusiasm-doubly so if they have returned Stool and Rumpadump to their home.

“You are safe, friendly softers. You arrive at a wondrous time, for Neverlight Grove is on the verge of something great, something marvelous! Celebrate, as the day of joy is nigh!

Phylo invites the characters to stay as long as they wish, inviting them to explore and enjoy the many delights of Neverlight Grove. He politely asks that they avoid the eastern plateau because the Circle of Masters is preparing “a wondrous and glorious surprise” in the Garden of Welcome. Phylo offers to give them a peek the next day if they want. If Sarith is with the characters, he suggests they accept this offer, saying that keeping on the sovereign’s good side will help the party in the long term. In truth, he is attempting to deliver the adventurers to Zuggtmoy.

Phylo goes on about how “the Great Seeder” who lives beyond the garden can answer any questions they have. The sovereign describes this entity in favorable terms, using “she” and “her” as it does so. Because myconids have no concept of gender, this unusual speech is further indication of Phylo’s madness. However, the sovereign dodges any question about who the Great Seeder actually is, saying it is important for the characters to experience her first hand.

Sovereign Basidia. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check reveals that Sovereign Basidia is uncomfortable with Phylo’s behavior. Stool and Rumpadump can easily discern that the harmony between Phylo and Basidia is off. At the earliest opportunity, Basidia volunteers to show the characters around, or finds another opportunity to rapport with them privately.

When alone with the characters, Basidia warns them about staying in Neverlight Grove too long. It tells them another group of “softers” (the name myconids use for fleshy creatures) arrived not too many cycles ago and accepted Phylo’s offer. They were taken to the Garden of Welcome and Basidia hasn’t seen them since, nor has Phylo made any further mention of them (see “Questions for the Sovereigns”). Basidia also tells the characters that the Circle of Masters is taking most of the carcasses the Circle of Hunters bring in, and are sending groups of myconids outside the grove without telling anybody.

If Basidia rapports with Sarith or any other nonmyconid infected with Zuggtmoy’s spores, it senses the alien nature of the demon lord’s corruption. It can’t identify Zuggtmoy’s spores, but knows only that it has not encountered them before. This is unusual, Basidia tells the party, since most myconid sovereigns recognize all spores produced by myconids throughout the Underdark.

Questions for the Sovereigns. If the characters ask the sovereigns to help them return to the surface world, both are apologetic that they know of no routes. However, Basidia notes that during its colony’s migration, the many travelers from the surface world they encountered were mostly merchants on their way to or from Blingdenstone, Gracklstugh, or Menzoberranzan.

If the adventurers ask the sovereigns about any drow in the area, Basidia tells them about a drow patrol that just recently arrived. However, Phylo immediately interrupts, telling the characters that the drow were here a few days ago, but left shortly after Phylo showed them the Garden of Welcome. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check reveals that Basidia seems puzzled by Phylo’s answer. If pressed, Basidia simply says it didn’t know the drow had already left.

Quest: Into the Garden. Basidia offers to give the party a guided tour of all the circles in areas 1 through 4, where it introduces them to the respective circle leaders, pointing out which leaders support it, and which ones support Sovereign Phylo. Basidia uses this time away from Phylo to express its fear that Phylo has contracted some sort of “diseased spore.” Basidia thinks that a clue to the spore’s nature might be found in the Garden of Welcome. Basidia asks the characters to investigate the garden, fearing to do so itself in case it also falls victim to Phylo’s disease.

As a sign of friendship, Basidia gives the characters a moldy scroll case containing a scroll of protection against fiends. Basidia promises an additional reward (see “Treasure”) if the characters investigate the Garden of Welcome on its behalf. Basidia can also brew potions out of the different molds and fungi in the grove, storing them in hollow gourd-like mushrooms. Basidia can craft a common or uncommon potion in eight hours, or a rare potion in two days.

Treasure

If the characters complete Basidia’s quest, the myconid sovereign digs up a small box buried in the earth and gives it to them. The box contains curiosities Basidia has collected from dead travelers over the years. The box is unlocked, made of fine wood inlaid with silver, and worth 25 gp by itself. It contains three amethysts (100 gp each), four small diamonds (50 gp each), and one large diamond (500 gp).

If the characters kill the grick alpha, the umber hulk, or the shambling mound in the Fungal Wilds and bring the carcasses to Basidia, the sovereign rewards each character with a potion of greater healing stored in a hollow gourd-like mushroom.

Circle of Sporers

This circle mound is devoted to sporing new myconids. Freshly spored myconids are only a few inches tall and have no awareness, but they grow quickly into myconid sprouts.

Yrberop. The circle leader is infected by Zuggtmoy’s madness. It is always swaying to music only it can hear, but those in rapport with Yrberop can hear a faint echo of its internal cacophony. Yrberop is enthusiastic about Phylo’s plan to spread the happiness brought by the Great Seeder to everyone in the Underdark and beyond. For that to happen, the colony needs many more sprouts.

If the characters confer with Basidia, Stool, or Rumpadump, these myconids tell them this push to expand the population is unusual, given the balance that the myconids have endeavored to maintain in Neverlight Grove for so long.

Yrberop loses track of any conversation after a short while and begins talking to the newly spored myconids instead. Characters who communicate with Yrberop in rapport and succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check can make out some of the words and impressions in the circle leader’s lullaby. It sings of the Great Seeder and “her” wedding to the Great Body, and how every myconid is invited, bringing joy to all in the world below and above.

chuul spore servant. Behind the myconid breeding grounds is a narrow path leading up to a plateau and the Garden of Welcome (area 5). Two chuul spore servant guard this path. They don’t allow anyone to pass without Yrberop’s permission, which the circle leader doesn’t grant, even at Basidia’s request.

4. Southern Terraces

The terraces along the southern rim of the cavern are narrower and not as fertile as the northern ones.

These terraces are quiet and calm. The only sounds here are soft, “ploopy” splashes as water drips from stalactites above onto the caps of oversized mushrooms sprouting from mushy earth.

Circle of Explorers

This circle is the smallest in Neverlight Grove, since it is merely the temporary home for restless myconids that brave the Underdark as scouts, patrols, and pathfinders.

Rasharoo. This circle leader is loyal to Basidia. Frequent trips outside the grove have allowed Rasharoo to notice the changes in Phylo and the entire colony more sharply, and it now trusts nothing and no one except Basidia. Its paranoia isn’t the product of Zuggtmoy’s corruption, however, but of the rising madness gripping the Underdark from the intrusion of the demon lords. If the characters demonstrate sympathy with Basidia or if the sovereign is with them, Rasharoo discloses it has a few escape plans ready, and has nutrient caches hidden along exit tunnels in case Basidia decides it is better to abandon the grove and return to a nomadic lifestyle.

Characters can climb the eastern corner of the top terrace to reach area 5, and Rasharoo gladly helps them if they head to the Garden of Welcome at Basidia’s request.

Developments

Among the myconids, Rasharoo and its circle are the adventurers' best hope of finding a way back to the surface. Rasharoo knows many promising paths, but since myconids have no interest in the sunlit world, it has never followed them all the way there. The circle leader helps the characters only after they complete Basidia’s quest, assigning one of its explorers to guide the characters to their destination.

5. Garden of Welcome

Phylo has converted this unused terrace for the exciting new ideas that Zuggtmoy has inspired in it-ideas that are “too incredible” for the rest of the colony to absorb at once. This so-called garden is just a sample of the horrors that Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi, intends to bring to the Underdark.

This plateau rises higher than the other terraces, screened by a natural fence of soaring zurkhwood stalks. Muffled murmuring can be heard from atop the plateau.

Circle of Masters

The newest circle in the colony, the Circle of Masters is formed exclusively by myconids touched by Zuggtmoy. These myconids share Phylo’s vision of happiness spread through Zuggtmoy’s spores, experimenting on the carcasses brought to them by the hunters-or on live prisoners they hunt in their own expeditions outside the grove. Their mound lies at the center of an obscene garden.

Yestabrod. Mutated by Zuggtmoy’s spores, the circle leader has become an abomination. No longer recognizable as a myconid, it looks like a fungal larva slithering along the ground. Mold and lichen grow in hypnotic patterns along its ringed stalk, and it puffs clouds of spores from a slit resembling a mouth. It can use this orifice to actually speak, rather than depending on rapport spores. It no longer attends melds with the other leaders, instead sending its representative.

Garden of Horror

As the characters enter the garden, they make a frightening discovery.

The low muttering grows louder as you reach the top, turning into a symphony of moans, cries, and hisses. The only light comes from a few glowing mushrooms along the edge, but even in the gloom, you can’t miss the source of the sounds. The heads of creatures of a dozen humanoid Underdark races peek from the ground, mold and fungi growing around them.

One voice calls out loudly in Undercommon-a female drow fighting to speak. “Please… for your gods of light… kill me!” She manages to stir within her living grave, raising a spider medallion half-embedded in the bloated growth that was once her hand. Half her face is rotten and pustulate, a bed for the sprouting of scores of tiny mushrooms. “The Great Seeder… trap… she’s here… the Lady of Decay… Zuggtmoy…”

The drow is Xinaya, a young acolyte of Lolth. She was leading a routine scouting patrol out of Velkynvelve before Ilvara contacted her with a sending spell. The patrol was ordered to search near the grove for the characters, anticipating that the escapees might seek shelter among the peaceful mushroom folk.

Upon her arrival, Xinaya made the mistake of accepting Phylo’s invitation to visit the Garden of Welcome, where she and her patrol quickly became victims of the myconids' madness. She begs the adventurers to end her suffering and warn her people about the presence of the Demon Queen of Fungi in the Underdark, unaware of the madness that has already erupted in Menzoberranzan and throughout the Underdark (see chapter 15). Xinaya is too far gone to be saved, and any amount of damage kills her.

After the characters speak with Xinaya, Yestabrod appears. The master of the foul garden takes delight in toying with trespassers.

The moans of the garden’s victims suddenly take on a new tone of fear as something moves across the foul ground. A disgusting larval creature rises up before you, showing only vestigial fungal growths that hint that it might once have been a myconid.

“Welcome, travelers.” The aberrant myconid’s voice gurgles and spits as it speaks both aloud and in your minds at once. “Are you here for the wedding rehearsal? Friends of the bride or her intended? No matter! Let the love of the Great Seeder embrace you as you become one with her chosen, the Great Body!”

As the garden comes alive with screams from its buried victims, Yestabrod raises two drow spore servant. At the same time, two myconid adults from the Circle of Masters emerge from the surrounding growth, all of the creatures following the circle leader as he attacks.

If Sarith Kzekarit (see chapter 1) is still with the party, he screams in agony as Yestabrod attacks. The characters can only watch as the drow’s head splits open, releasing a cloud of infecting spores and turning him into another drow spore servant that joins the fight.

If Yestabrod is slain and there are still drow spore servants active, they go limp and stop attacking, at which point the myconids from the Circle of Masters attempt to flee.

Treasure

Xinaya’s equipment is piled in a heap not far from where she was buried. Characters searching the pile find a suit of +2 studded leather armor, a +2 shortsword, and a bag of holding containing two spell scrolls (remove curse and spider climb), 40 days of rations, and 320 sp. The drow spore servants wear chain shirts and carry shortswords. All of the armor and weapons found here are of drow construction.

XP Awards

In addition to the normal creature XP for this encounter, the characters earn a special award of 1,000 XP (divided equally among all party members) for defeating Yestabrod and its minions.

Wedding Rehearsal

After the confrontation with Yestabrod, the characters can hear sound and movement from the cavern to the northeast. Read the following boxed text if the characters investigate.

Echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond, a cacophony of wheezing voices that wrap together like some kind of discordant music. The remaining heads planted in the Garden of Welcome begin to croak and groan, joining the horrible song.

Through the mist that shrouds the smaller cavern, you see the parade of creatures responsible for the melody. Their bodies are only vaguely humanoid, with clusters of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices stabbing into your minds, both insane and gleeful in equal parts:

From rocky bed the toadstool rose,

From chaos dark, her love She shows.

Wish! Yearn! Laugh!

The Lady will be wed!

Crave! Hunger! Dance!

Her joyous spores will spread!

Youth is gone, beauty rots,

Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!

Joined together, heart to heart,

Becoming one ‘til death do part!

Hail! Hail! Hail!

The entourage is composed of twelve bridesmaids of Zuggtmoy and six chamberlains of Zuggtmoy, all of which are lost in their own reverie. They are in the midst of conducting an obscene ritual of some sort-like a parody of a wedding ceremony.

Zuggtmoy’s thralls make their way to Yestabrod’s garden, attacking only if the characters stand in their way.

Any character reduced to 0 hit points in this encounter is knocked unconscious rather than killed. If all the characters are knocked unconscious, the party wakes up in a fungi-filled cave 1d6+4 miles away from Neverlight Grove, with or without their NPC companions (at your discretion). Their drow pursuit level decreases by 1, and each character is infested with Zuggtmoy’s spores (see the “Neverlight Grove: General Features” sidebar).

Development

If left alone, the thralls enact a mock wedding, with a chamberlain and a bridesmaid standing in for Araumycos and Zuggtmoy. Yestabrod, if alive, assumes the role of priest to preside over the vows. If Yestabrod is dead, three spore servants rise from the garden and carry its corpse, moving it like a puppet to play out the part of priest. At this point of the ceremony, any onlookers experience a vision.

The tableau of the mock wedding is replaced by a vision of the inside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and balconies are carved into its walls, with the interior lit by phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In the center of the open space floats a humanoid figure, womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and mold. She is easily three times the height of the fungal bridesmaids that move up and down the spiraling stairs, tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange, soothing song as they weave the substance of the giant figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train like a bridal gown.

The vision ends when the ceremony does, after which the creatures file solemnly back to Yggmorgus. Characters witnessing the wedding rehearsal and the accompanying vision must succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness (see “Madness” in chapter 2).

If the characters share their experience with Basidia, the sovereign leads the two circles loyal to it out of Neverlight Grove before it is too late. Alternatively, the characters can follow the wedding procession into Yggmorgus and witness the further horrors waiting for the Underdark if Zuggtmoy rises in power.

XP Awards

In addition to the XP gained for defeating Zuggtmoy’s bridesmaids or chamberlains, each characters gains 100 XP for witnessing the wedding rehearsal.

Yggmorgus

When Zuggtmoy arrived in the Underdark, she was immediately drawn to Neverlight Grove and its fungal riches. She cultivated Yggmorgus, a mushroom of titanic proportions, from the rich, rotting soil.

Conveniently secluded from the rest of the Underdark, Yggmorgus is a perfect base of operations for the Demon Queen of Fungi. She has completely enthralled Phylo, and the hapless sovereign is growing a myconid and spore servant army for her. Zuggtmoy has also become aware of Araumycos, the largest fungal life form—and possibly the largest creature of any kind—in the world. Araumycos is a vast fungus colony with a single mind, which fills the caverns and tunnels of the Underdark in an area the size of the High Forest. Araumycos is so interwoven with the fabric of the world that control of it would grant Zuggtmoy nearly unlimited power in her new home.

Though Yggmorgus can’t be seen clearly from the main cavern of Neverlight Grove, the unholy lights and sounds there can be discerned and sometimes even felt. Characters who ask the myconids about it receive mixed responses. Sovereign Phylo and those loyal to it enter a state of near bliss when they speak about Yggmorgus, as if it was a paradise. Sovereign Basidia and its followers give wary answers. Phylo’s secrecy means that they aren’t sure what lies beyond the ravine.

Giant Mushroom Tower

The cavern around Yggmorgus is huge, and the giant mushroom nearly fills it from floor to ceiling.

You have no clear reference to judge the towering mushroom’s size at this distance. Thousands of smaller fungi cling to the main stalk, which itself splits into several lesser stalks, each long enough with a cap big enough to be the top of a great tower. The cavern floor surrounding the stalk is covered by a carpet of fungi.

An eerie luminescence pours through slitted windows carved into the trunk, with the same cacophony of atonal music heard earlier echoing within. A stench of rot and decay wraps around you, seemingly threatening to penetrate your flesh and pervade your soul.

Yestabrod’s Garden of Welcome is a pale reflection of the true horrors surrounding Yggmorgus. A 20-foothigh crescent-shaped ledge hugs the cavern wall and gradually slopes down to the lower basin. The ledge is covered with a carpet of moss and fungi, scores of variously sized lumps, and pockmarks where pools of vile fluids suppurate and ooze, some drying out and scabbing over. The entire ledge is difficult terrain. Characters venturing this close to Yggmorgus must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness (see “Madness” in chapter 2).

Characters can discern the shapes of writhing creatures inside each lump. Most of these are humanoids, though a few of the lumps are occupied by what appear to be gricks, nothics, and giant spiders. This is the Great Garden of Rot, nourished both by the creatures subsumed within it and the faerzress pervading this cavern.

As if on cue, one of the lumps closest to the characters bubbles up and bursts. A dense cloud of spores and dark, reeking fluid explodes outward, even as the characters hear a piercing scream of agony and terror. Inside the pockmark left behind by the burst is one of Xinaya’s drow scouts-or at least what’s left of him. Other than a face, long white hair, and a breastplate, it is impossible to distinguish where the drow ends, and the rot and fungi consuming him begins. The drow feebly thrashes, his screams rising ever higher in pitch, until he locks eyes with one of the characters and abruptly stops screaming. A brief moment of lucidity replaces his terror, even as his eyes roll back into his head in some kind of bizarre euphoria as he goes limp and slowly sinks back down into the fungal muck. Characters witnessing this must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness.

Throughout the entire cavern, loud moans and cries of agony answer the drow’s screams in a terrifying and deafening chorus, drowning out all other sounds until eventually winding down into a low susurration of groans and burbles. The entire stalk of the giant mushroom seems to shudder, almost as if in delight.

Characters who descend to the cavern’s lower basin witness the next spectacle of unspeakable horror spawned by the Lady of Decay.

Mad Dance

Scores of deformed creatures dance around the base of the giant fungal tower. The revelers are a motley collection of humanoids and various other creatures, all sporting tumors, cankers, and putrid patches of flesh all over their bodies. They are joined by dancing fungi vaguely shaped and twisted into forms resembling humanoids. Some of these creatures are spore servants enthralled to the Demon Queen of Fungi. Others are myconids and other fungal life forms infested with Zuggtmoy’s spores.

The dancing creatures pay no attention to trespassers unless they are attacked. In that event, 1d6 drow spore servant and 1d6 hook horror spore servant stop dancing and turn on their attackers.

Voices can be heard cackling and chatting amiably about Sovereign Phylo’s success at “bringing so many new guests to attend the party!” The characters see drow dancing as if their bones were melting, duergar roaring with mock merriment and vomiting slime, and even nothics laughing madly as they leap and caper.

If the characters observe the mad dance for a few rounds, they see a form rising up out of the fungal muck. It is the drow scout whose terrible end they just witnessed, wading out to join the other revelers in their mad dance. A character who witnesses this grotesque moment must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness.

Great Palace

Yggmorgus is the home that Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi, has carved for herself inside the great mushroom. The general layout is simple enough, with the hollowed stalk of the mushroom making a towering central hall in which Zuggtmoy floats, surrounded by spiraling balconies where her growing number of bridesmaids attend her, singing as they weave her bridal gown to prepare for the fateful wedding day.

If the adventurers enter Yggmorgus, they come face to face with Zuggtmoy, attended by twelve bridesmaids of Zuggtmoy. Fortunately for them, Zuggtmoy is deep in meditation as her gown and veil are being prepared. She doesn’t move, although she can speak and use her other abilities. Her bridesmaids attempt to chase off intruders, wailing and scolding them about how it is unlucky for them to see the bride before it is time. If the characters don’t withdraw immediately, Zuggtmoy awakens and uses her Mind Control Spores ability to send them away, using her Infestation Spores only if the characters insist on engaging the demon lord here and now.

Dozens of spore servants and myconids respond to Zuggtmoy’s telepathic call if their mistress is in danger, attacking the characters heedless of their own safety. Any attack that successfully deals damage to Zuggtmoy damages her gown, driving the demon queen into a rage to attack the intruders.

Leaving Neverlight Grove

Leaving the myconid enclave is easier than finding it. Whether they politely avoid Phylo’s invitation or flee for their lives and sanity from the Demon Queen of Fungi, the adventurers can easily receive the aid of Sovereign Basidia and the circles still loyal to it. Where the characters go next is up to them-a decision dependent upon where they have been, the pursuing drow, and whatever they have acquired (food, potions, treasure from the doomed drow patrol, and so on) during their visit to the grove.

Depending on how the characters interacted with the myconids and what tasks they accomplished for their hosts, they might depart in the company of a myconid guide, or even two whole circles of myconids fleeing the grove before Zuggtmoy’s madness takes them. Sovereign Phylo doesn’t stop the characters or Sovereign Basidia from leaving, still convinced the cause it embraces is one of joy and prosperity for its people.

In all probability, the characters leave the fungal grove with dire and horrific news. They have witnessed the effect a single demon lord can have on the Material Plane-and they realize far more and worse things are coming.

Regardless of how many battles the characters might have had inside Neverlight Grove, discovering that a demon lord is on the loose on the Material Plane is a major revelation. Moreover, if they were in Sloobludop to witness the rise of Demogorgon, they now know that more than one demon lord is at large, hinting at the magnitude of the threat.

If the adventurers simply passed through the grove and enjoyed the hospitality of the doomed myconids, they leave with only suspicions about their odd behavior, which can help them later in piecing together the greater mystery in the Underdark.

If the adventurers learned nothing about the presence of Zuggtmoy or her plans, you might pass the information on to them by having a friendly myconid such as Stool or Rumpadump come to them just as they are leaving. The myconid enters rapport and shows them a vision of the Garden of Welcome and Yggmorgus, saying these images come from the minds of other myconids in the grove, and asking what these “strange dreams” mean.