Chapter 4: Neverlight Grove

Anders nods and heads forward quietly, his scimitar naked in his hand. As you all move forward through the zurkhwoods, the low muttering grows louder, 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 humaonid 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.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.In common you hear one word that doesn't seem to be in Undercommon: Zuggtmoy.

Cemos, you guess that any real effort to free the drow would end in her very painful death. You can already see (as can you all) that her flesh itself is coming apart just as she is reaching to show you her pendant.

No one took anything specifically, but you know that the gauntlets, the necklace, and one of the pearls were magical. I'll assume you guys spent a little time during your rest figuring out what they were.
Gauntlets of Ogre Power - makes your strength 19, no effect if your strength is over 19. Requires attunement.
Periapt of Wound Closure - if you drop to 0 hit points at the start of your next turn you auto-stabilize. Also, when you regain HP through spending hit dice, you regain 2x the number of hit points. Requires attunement.
Pearl of Power - if you have the pearl on your person, you can speak its command word and regain one expended spell slot. If you are trying to regain a slot of 4th or higher, you instead gain another 3rd level slot. Once used, you cannot use it again until the next dawn. Requires attunement by a spellcaster.

You can choose to divvy up how you'd like.

Rasharoo careful disperses some of his rapport spores, granting you the ability to speak with the drow without needing Undercommon.

Please....for your gods of light...kill me! The Great Seeder... trap... she's here... the Lady of Decay... Zuggtmoy. I'm from Velkynvelve. Ilvara ....contacted me to find .....some escapees. She thought.... they may seek refuge....here. The big one.... Phylo..... tricked me..... warn the drow about......Zuggtm......


Even as she transmits her thoughts to you, the little movement she exerted to raise the amulet takes her and you see the last bit of light in her eyes fade away.

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 hear 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!

The creature in front of you is odd, looking like a giant larvae. It has clouds of spores that puff out of a slit that functions like a mouth. It makes actual noise, which you notice as being very strange as the myconid don't speak. As he speaks and writhes on the ground, two of the corpses lying on the ground rise to their feet, shaking, their eyes dull and lifeless as they shamble forward towards you. Out of the zurkhwoods behind you, two myconids the size of Stool advance towards you, their stalks quivering with anticipation.

The space you are now in is a circle about 60 feet across, with piles of fetid corpses and fungus-infected bodies lying all over the place. You are 20 feet from the big ugly, and 20 feet from the myconids coming up behind you. The zurkhwood "fence" completely encloses the area, and you are 20 feet from that as well




COMBAT! You all are up as big ugly used his surprise to raise the creatures.
Big Ugly
PCs, Stool, Georges, Eldreth
Myconids
Mushroom zombies?