#violet fungus

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Which Edition of D&D had the best design/artwork of a Violet Fungus?

First Edition

Second Edition

Third Edition

Fifth Edition

Voting ended onMar 28

[tinydragondice]

I wasn’t kidding about my new Petri dice fixation. Here’s “Violet Fungus”!

[pantmonger]

With its appendages retracted the Violet Fungus can be easily mistaken for one of the many other underdark growths. Such mistakes are costly, as the poison with which it lashes its prey is deadly. Pity the farmer whose fields bloom with them after heavy rain.

[historiae-monstrorum]

Violet Fungus if the Monster Manual was written in 1557

[oldschoolfrp]

Violet fungi resemble shriekers, but each has several animated branches that can rot flesh on contact  (Jean Wells, AD&D Monster Manual, TSR, 4th printing and later from August, 1979)  The 1st printing of the Monster Manual in 1977 had numerous entries without illustrations, especially animals from our world or monsters that closely resembled others that were pictured.  Each subsequent printing through the 4th added a few more pictures, but many monsters were left without illustrations all the way through the final 15th printing in 1989.  The last to be added were Jean Wells’ violet fungus, eye of the deep, otyugh, and giant rat in the 4th printing.

[trashmobminis]

Got some fun fungus on the way!

[firelight-tales-of-exandria]

Firelight Tales of Exandria, Ch.9 - “Auntie Maim”

Thank you all for coming, so let’s tell some stories...

“Having endured assaults from the eerie trees of the Bramblewood and sharing a meal with an odd cowherd of seemingly otherworldly origin, our heroes are beckoned once again by the mysterious lady in green as they begin their final push to discover the source of the growing corruption emanating from the forest surrounding the ominous peak of Gatshadow...”

Always wanting to start the day right, Leaf prepares a healthy, nutritious breakfast of Scavenger Pancakes from what they were able to find in the surrounding glade. Unfortunately, it tends to disagree with most of the party’s stomachs.

The rest of the party is quite wary of the lady in green, with her beckoning hands and creepy nursery rhymes, but Cezika is eager to get the job over with. Song, having nearly died twice in the short span of knowing the rest of the group, voices concerns about her outlook.

Cezika: “Okay, we need to work on your standards. You did not get arrested, you did not die, you have all your limbs: it ended well.”

Shadow, doubtful of the group’s odds of success by venturing into the unknown, they argue with Song and Cezika about finding help from Westruun before moving on. Song and Cezika try to explain that trusting strangers who may have selfish motives could end badly for the safety of the group, while Shadow argues that shared goals that serve the needs of the many, regardless of individual motives, are worth trust made in good faith.

Song: “I just am not in favor of pulling in outside help, because people are terrible, universally.”

Shadow: “Because you do not trust them.”

Song: “I mean, would you?”

Shadow: “It depends. I did not trust anyone, outside of my kind, and then I met you.”

Song: “Oh...”

 Song excuses himself from the debate, disturbed by the talk of loyalty, trust, and betrayal. Shadow refuses to accept “mistrust” as a reason for not working together with strangers for a common goal.

Shadow: “It is not you! I do not understand why people do not trust! Trust can be earned. And if people do something that is not trustworthy, then you have the ones you do trust to fall back on.”

Cezika: “Some of us have been hurt by those we were supposed to trust.”

Leaf and Ladryssa point out that they may not be able to find anyone to help them, as none of them remember how they got to this glade after last night. This seems to be good enough for Shadow, after being reassured that they few will be enough and will all go home together.

Ladryssa also tries to reassure Song, who seems vaguely perturbed by the wording, but agrees to come along.

Ladryssa: “You are the last person we are leaving behind, without people to protect you.”

Song, who has had two brushes with death within the span of three days: “I...hmm...I don’t need protecting, but that’s very sweet.”

The group heads off toward the ominous, massive, dead redwood, but instead find the glade containing the redwood to be vibrant, grassy, bursting with wildflowers, and a quaint, cute cottage has been carved from the tree’s huge trunk. The lady in green invites them inside, with a saccharine-sweet voice, to sample some of her fresh-baked goodies.

Leaf happily moves to enter the house, but Cezika and Shadow hold them back. Ladryssa inspects the garden, but nothing seems odd despite her scrutiny. Baffled, the party proceeds inside.

The inside of the tree-cottage is just as cute and homey, as the lady, who calls herself “Ariel”, dishes up a bevy of sweet pies and steaming bowls of figgy pudding. The feast of mouth-watering sweets tempts the party, with the exception of Song, Leaf, and Shadow.

Ladryssa uses her power to use the sight of others to see the sweets for the reeking, toxic slop that it is. This, unfortunately doesn’t stop Cezika from tasting it, becoming poisoned. Nakiya tries to eat as well, but she somehow can’t bring herself to eat meat of any kind. Leaf manages to neutralize the poison working its way through Cezika.

The green hag, Auntie Alma, annoyed but still amused at the frantic reaction of the party, drops the facade and reveals her true form, the wretched, broken house, and the fetid bog surrounding it.

Leaf: “I do not think she actually knows how to garden.”

Ladryssa shoots her with an eldritch blast, in the middle of her “this was my evil plot” speech, which passes through the illusory form of Alma. The hag mocks her again, taunting Ladryssa to “fulfill your mother’s dark design for you.”

Now left to ponder their next move, Ladryssa ruminates on what Alma’s motivations could be. The hag mentioned that the benefits of destroying Westruun were threefold, and Ladryssa remembers that the Feywild and Material Plane are mirrors of each other, meaning that it would be the easiest way to lay waste to a city on the other side.

Alma: “As for your pet’s questions of my motivations--

Ladryssa: “Shadow is not my pet.”

Alma: “--my goals are threefold. By eliminating the city, I gain three things at once: First off, I can reclaim the land and return it to my beautiful dark forest, and I did this with the help of those same wretched specimens from their ‘city’. Do you really think I could accomplish everything I needed to-- worming my beautiful infection into their streets and their homes all on my own? I am flattered you could think so. Plus, if I ruin that detestable eyesore, on this side of the veil, well, you know that consequences carry over as well. And thirdly, if I can deny those disgusting freaks below their true quarry, then it’s a mere bonus.”

Ladryssa finds a trapdoor in the house leading beneath the tree. Before venturing below, the party splits up the remainder of the meat Shadow saved from Bodb the night prior, but it appears to have lost whatever enchantment it once possessed. Nakiya is briefly queasy from her bite, confirming that she is now a vegetarian (after claiming to be one to Bodb).

The winding staircase leads down into a large, dark chamber with numerous tunnels opening from all sides from the domed ceiling. The chamber is filled with the echoes of voices from the city and surrounding countryside, accompanied by occasional insectoid chittering.

The echo chamber leads to another tunnel, further winding downward. Eventually this tunnel empties into a long hall, containing display alcoves full of macabre treasures and oddities.

Ladryssa questions Alma about the museum and the echo chamber. Alma says that the echo chamber lets her have eyes and ears in places nobody could find, and lets her communicate with her conspirators wherever they may be. When pressed about her sisters, Alma says she is all that is needed to take take of them.

The party begins assaulting Alma with might and magic, but she stands her ground. However, Song points out that the hag isn’t being damaged at all. The bard tries to stop Nakiya in the midst of her rage, and narrowly avoids being pummeled.

Leaf, casting detect magic, discovers the illusion of Alma was protecting another illusion of a false wall. Once more the tunnel empties into a large chamber of stone bridges and platforms, lit by phosphorescent mold with more ceiling shafts dumping into a shallow pit filled with rotting corpses that feed giant violet fungi effused with a cursed brew bubbling forth from a large cauldron, carefully tended by the real Alma.

The party makes to close the distance across the bridges, as the cauldron gives the hag cover from Shadow and Ladryssa’s ranged assault. Making their way across the span, the violet fungi lash out with their rotting tendrils, feeding back into the fuming cauldron and empowering Alma.

A large eye, embedded in the wall of the cavern, opens and attempts to curse Ladryssa. Shadow shatters the eye, wracking Alma with magical feedback. Nakiya charges in towards Alma and Cezika flanks her from another bridge, both cutting their way through the fungi.

Ladryssa shocks the hag with a witch bolt, which Alma partially redirects into a lightning bolt back across the bridge. Nakiya, seemingly by accident, avoids the brunt of the lightning bolt, but Song takes it full on and collapses. Ladryssa leans into her witch bolt and fries her childhood tormentor.

In her death throes, Alma curses at Ladryssa, mocking her relationship with her patron/parent and saying that she will be avenged.

Alma: “You’re not her child. You’ll never be her child! You’re just a tool to be used and discarded, like the rest of us. You’ll find your day. If it won’t be me or my sisters, it will be...our...Granny...”

The party heals Song, claims the hag’s pustulant head and a vial of the cursed brew, sets fire to the fungal patch in the cavern, and manage to find a few baubles in her macbre museum as they make their way out of her cavern lair (as the insectoid chatter grows nearer and increasingly frantic).

As the group leaves the decaying tree-cottage behind them they breathe in a fresh breeze blowing away the stink of the bog, before making their way towards the main road leading down from Gatshadow.

[desertdruidcrafts]

Slimes, fungi, and other weirdos. For D&D paper minis!

In order, Gray Ooze, Black Pudding, Ochre Jelly, Gelatinous Cube, Gas Spore, Violet Fungus, Darkmantle, and Roper