The Enmity of Scolrys, Part XXXIV: Fungal Warfare
As the six nations continue to war across Sapience, the Heartwood looked towards new avenues of attack.
Born of a discussion betwixt Gyrinno, Tulle, Varshatesh, and Senvet, the council employed its newfound understanding of the Greensong and the leftover ring of new fungal life to create a lurking army of nascent myconids. Nourished by flowers, tended by the loving hands of the Cycle’s wardens, and watered with the blood of entirely willing sacrifices, the patch yielded spores that Duiran set upon a secretive journey upon the currents of mountain streams. Riding upon the consciousness of these shambling fungal creatures, the council explored the depths of the Deepest City and enacted a covert mission of sabotage even as their allies warred beyond the enemy’s borders.
Met with mysterious lifeless threats, necrotic runes, and nigh impassable walls, the council put their heads together in a desperate gambit to quell the army growing within Varach Scolrys’ abode. Though they did not yet know it, the council felt the disturbance of vast shifts in magma and fire, the screech of shifting stone, and the toil of ancient magic – one and all, these foreign sensations brought discomfort and disquiet to Duiran’s fungal proxies, bringing them closer to symbiosis with the mysterious myconids they had helped bring into existence. Dangerous dungeon defences and esoteric puzzles barred their path, but they each proved ineffective at deterring the Heartwood’s relentless crawl through Qor Qogol’s depths.
After numerous scouting missions and many weeks traversing the distant darkness by way of fungal command, the council discovered an entryway into the Hlugnic necromancer’s personal workshop. There, they sensed the crucibles that the Alliance would later lay eyes upon in the final moments before Scolrys’ abrupt departure into the realms of Chaos, and recognised that their elemental energies were a source of nourishment and transformation for their loyal mushroom soldiers. Utilising the latent power of these elemental wellsprings, Durian shredded through the Chaos Lord’s final layers of protection – walls of fire, shadow, spirit, and chaos energy – and laid siege to the convergent crucible at the workshop’s heart, where they met resistance in the form of a dangerous guardian wrought from elemental power.
For a full week, the Heartwood’s myconids did relentless battle with this twisted amalgam of shadow, fire, and air. Utilising the power of earth and water, the myconids dismantled the creature’s shields and showered the creature in the relentless might of the wilds. With each fallen soldier came a renewed burst of energy from the guardian, ensuring that Duiran suffered heavy losses even as they sought to claim victory. Embracing the cycle of life and death, the council agreed that every demise was but another turn of the wheel and pressed forward with stubborn determination. Once they grasped the creature’s deeper nature, however, they swiftly saw to its end – only to find themselves beaten back and blockaded from Varach’s sanctum by the sorcerer’s own personal attention. When the dust settled and the myconids found no other way forward, Duiran returned to the world aboveground and rejoined their allies, confident that Varach’s minions would not overwhelm the coming assault.
As the three allied nations pressed forward, one group of zealous apostles planned for a more direct, theatrical confrontation…
Penned by my hand on Quensday, the 13th of Dharos, in the year 5 AC.
