This Friday’s fungus is marasmius oreades, commonly known as fairy ring champignon or Scotch bonnet mushroom (not to be confused with the Scotch bonnet pepper). It is a basidiomycete with a mostly flat cap, often with a bump in the middle of the surface and an uplifted margin (edge of cap). It is usually pale tan or yellowish, and occasionally white. Marasmius oreades grows in ‘fairy rings’ in lawns, meadows, and other grassy areas. While marasmius oreades is best known, over sixty other discovered fungi species grow in rings. Mushrooms like agaricus campestris (field mushroom or pink bottom) and chlorophyllum molybdites (false parasol or green-spored parasol) are commonly misidentified. Mistaking poisonous mushroom species like chlorophyllum molybdites or clitocybe dealbata for the harmless marasmius oreades can cause serious and potentially fatal poisoning; please do not pick wild mushrooms unless you are an expert, and always be careful of what you touch. Marasmius oreades is considered a choice edible mushroom and is native to North America and Europe.
Title: In the Vampire’s Hall
“Fandom”: @kallende-dnd
Characters: Seren Swift, Orel Marsk, Riley Deerchaser, Silas Naïlo, Norixius Rhogar, Marasmius Oreades
Warnings: Referenced/Implied Mind Control, Depictions of Violence, Emotions
Words: 1,070
2019 is all about actually writing things, instead of just thinking “That would be cool to write!” and then never doing it.
This is based on something that happened in a recent game, but Liberties Have Been Taken. Have fun!
The pain had abated, for a little while.
The steady ache that had gripped Seren since the raid in Dwendolar had finally stilled, displaced by a simple objective: don’t let them hurt him. Don’t let anybody hurt him.
But it was creeping back in now, that pain, that ache, and everything else along with it: the bloody dagger in her hand; the matching gash in Riley’s stomach; the horrified looks on her friends’ faces as the vampire, Dhrast, held fast to the bleeding barbarian, as he lifted her chin and bore his fangs down toward her throat.
I hurt her, Seren realized, shame clawing its way up her throat. Then her eyes moved from Riley’s face to Dhrast’s, and the shame in her throat turned to venom. You made me hurt her.
In an uncanny flash of movement she was behind him, her snarl filling with shark teeth as she hooked an arm around his neck and yanked. Dhrast stumbled backwards, startled more than strong-armed into letting Riley go. Seren forced his head down and back so that her lips were against his ear.
“Nobody fucks with my head,” she spat. She ripped her dagger across his throat and shoved him, gurgling, to the ground. “And nobody fucks with my friends.”
That should have been the end of it, but Seren’s pulse pounded in her ears. She threw her foot into Dhrast’s stomach with a grunt, forcing a satisfying wheeze through his shredded windpipe. She kicked him again. And again.
“Seren.”
Seren flinched as if struck, whirling to face Orel. His eyes were as soft as they’d ever been, but she found she couldn’t meet them for long. She turned, instead, to Riley, who was absently rubbing her neck while Silas saw about the cut in her abdomen.
“Are -- are you okay?” Seren asked, clearing her throat when her voice came out thin. She dug a shaking hand into one of her coat pockets. “Here, I have some, um -- I have some potions if you --”
“Aw, thanks, Seren! But I think Silas has me covered,” Riley said, grinning. “You might be good at stabbing, but I’m good at -- uh. Getting stabbed?” She waved her hand dismissively. “What I mean is it takes a lot more than one stab to hurt me.”
Despite the tightness in Seren’s chest, Riley seemed to be telling the truth; she bore Silas’s ministrations without so much as a grimace.
“Aw, hey, it’s okay,” Riley assured her. “Seriously, it wasn’t your fault.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t you,” Orel agreed, moving to stand at Seren’s side. She angled her body away from him, but he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Hey,” he said
Seren closed her eyes briefly, then forced herself to meet his steady, golden gaze.
“It wasn’t you,” he said again.
She opened her mouth to reply, but Rhogar cut in first.
“I don’t know,” he called as he and Mara made their way toward the rest of the party from where they had been casting. “Exhibit A stabbed one of us, while Exhibit B said, out loud, that we were her friends. Now, be honest: which one of those really sounds like Seren?”
Seren’s mouth closed again, twisting into a humorless half-grin.
“Any one of us would have done the same thing if we’d been caught in his thrall,” Orel continued, sparing Rhogar a quick smile before turning back to Seren. “I’m. We’re just glad you’re yourself again. We’re glad you’re okay.”
“I’m just glad we didn’t have to beat it out of you like we had to with Silas that one time,” Mara added.
“Ugh,” Silas groaned without looking up from his healing spell. “Don’t remind me. I think my head is still dented from Orel’s staff.”
Orel smiled again, this time sheepishly.
“What if I’d killed her?” Seren asked, quietly, so that only Orel would hear.
Orel exhaled, his smile fading into something sympathetic.
“It wouldn’t have been you,” he insisted. “Dhrast --”
“It was me!” Seren blurted. “It’s not like something just took my body for a spin like with Silas, it’s -- it’s not like I was fighting it! I was -- it was me in there, I -- I wanted to --”
She bit down on her lip when she felt tears burning at her eyes, furious that she couldn’t control even that.
“All he had to do was offer me jewelry,” she quavered. “That’s all he had to do to get into my head. How do you trust me after that?”
“The same way we trusted you before,” Orel said gently. “With a grain of salt.”
For a moment, Seren could only blink at him. Then, in spite of herself, a watery laugh broke past her lips.
“That was pretty good,” she admitted, dashing a tear from one eye. “Like, salt. Like the ocean. Because I’m a mermaid.”
“Not bad, right?” Orel grinned.
“No, yeah, like. Kudos, definitely.”
Orel chuckled. His expression softened.
“We know you have weaknesses,” he said, “as much as you hate to admit to them. All of us have them. But we trust with them in mind; that’s what makes us a good team. We watch out for each other’s weaknesses, and adjust for them using our strengths. We balance.”
Seren nodded, sniffling, careful not to smudge her makeup as she wiped at her cheeks.
“Did they teach you all that wise shit at monk school?” she teased, “or do you just kind of make it up as you go?”
“A little bit of both,” Orel conceded.
“Oh my god, get a room,” Rhogar hissed, snapping Seren back to the reality that the rest of the party was, in fact, still there. Heat burst into her cheeks as she cleared her throat and began to wipe her eyes more hastily.
“Anyway!” she chirped, too loudly. “As much as I’d love to hang out and wreck Dhrast’s shit a second time, we should probably get a stake shoved up his musty ass soon so he doesn’t interrupt us while we’re robbing the place. Anybody got something I can nail this bitch to the floor with?”
Her friends debated how best to approximate a wooden stake with the equipment they had on hand, and Seren found a moment to nudge Orel’s shoulder with her own while they did. Orel, for his part, smirked and nudged her back.
