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This adventure is part of the Brukesian Duchy Hexcrawl. Find more about it here!
There is a strange place in the Misty Forest where fungal life forms grow to untold sizes. The fungi in the area grow in more complex shapes to adapt to different environments and situations. Some of those fungal expressions became sentient and then intelligent. This happened quite fast in evolutionary standards, only a couple of hundred years sufficed for myconid forms to be just as intelligent as mankind. The myconids start to suspect the origin of their awakening in Greyshroom Town.
The Town’s Origin
Greyshroom Town is the only settlement of its kind in the Brukesian Duchy. Myconids have spread all over the Misty Forests over the centuries but they lead simple lives. Even intelligent myconids tend to remain in one place and make do with what they have around them. Most of them lack the basic motivation to build something larger than them.
Nevertheless, a group of intelligent myconids decided to create a town of sorts shortly after the humans of the Brukesian Duchy settled in Greenhill. The myconids were welcome in the town because their droppings are excellent fertilizer for the farms. In exchange, the fungi learned about civilized life, language, and how humans lead their lives.
They chose to settle down in the myconid woods, a part of the forest completely dominated by fungal growth. Unknown to them at the time, the myconids owe their accelerated evolution to a powerful energy under the forest soil.
Ozgul’s Legacy
Greyshroom Town’s close distance to the Forest Core is not a coincidence. When the Dewborn arrived at the Misty Forest two thousand years ago, a powerful fungal entity followed them through the portal and threatened to destroy them altogether. Seven zealot heroes sacrificed their lives and imprisoned Ozgul in a locked magical jar (key in hex 8). Ozgul awaits dormant in its prison, but its powerful energy infuses the land around it. This energy enhances all fungal life forms in the area as time passes. Ozgul is the reason why the myconid creatures have evolved so fast in the region. The large Greyshroom in the myconid town marks the location of the magical jar, buried 50 feet below. The myconids are naturally drawn to this location, that is why they settled Greyshroom Town here.
The Grey Dream
All fungal creatures in the Misty Forests are interconnected by an underground network of fine strands known as mycelium. These nerve-like strands connect them in body and minds. Ambulatory myconids are disconnected from it while they move but often rejoin the hive-mind when they rest. Myconids can learn things through communing with what they call the grey dream.
Non-myconid creatures can join the dream by drinking an infusion of powdered mycelia. In the dream, they connect to the myconid network and can experiences a heightened state of mind.
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D8 Random Encounters |
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1 |
1 predatory myconid roams the place but the Greyshroom pacifies it |
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2 |
1d4 centaur pilgrims arrive to parley with the Greyshroom, they need to cure a centaur from fungi infection |
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3 |
1d4 Dewborn hunters with fresh game, they offer it to the myconids |
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4 |
An envoy from Brown Bog comes to speak with the Greyshroom |
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5 |
2d4 purist satyrs reject any non-fey creature within 300 feet of the town |
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6 |
1d8 pigmen come to settle down close to the Greyshroom out of devotion |
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7 |
1 sentient myconid offers travelers to enter the grey dream for 10 gp |
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8 |
Mindless myconids from far away come to town for the first time |
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D8 Random Events |
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1 |
The Greyshroom erupts spores that cause creatures to enter the grey dream |
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2 |
Lilac mist covers the town for 4 hours, the ground is not visible |
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3 |
All myconid forms in the area make yawning-like exhalation |
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4 |
A green dragon soars the sky, the echo of its roars lasts for a minute |
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5 |
All fungal forms tremble and spread red-tinted spores in the forest soil |
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6 |
It rains and all myconids move to receive the falling droplets |
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7 |
The floor vibrates and becomes warm, all myconids like this |
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8 |
A swarm of fireflies gathers at nightfall and creates a marvelous sight |
General Features
Greyshroom Town is more of a campsite since myconids do not build houses. They stay outside and welcome visitors from under oversized red-caps, or under the shade of the large Greyshroom.
Stench of decay (causes retching and discomfort). Spores (freely floating in the air around town, cause sneezing). Greyshroom influence (predatory myconids are pacified within a mile of town).
1. Road to Greenhill
Well-traveled (varied prints and moss). Packed soil (ridden with mycelia).
- Greenhill Bound. The meandering path crosses the Misty Forest south toward the human settlement. Several myconids start this journey weekly to learn more about the Brukesians.
- Safe Road. The Greyshroom keeps savage myconids away from this path.
2. Myconid Farmers/Druids
Large caps (4-foot-tall and mindless). Strong motivation (they work all night).
- Mindless Caretakers. A group of four simpleminded fungi move around the town and night and tend to the farms and log farms. They are content with the completion of their simple task.
- Strange Prison. The body of an elf is trapped inside one of the workers.
3. The Log Farmer
Humanoid-shaped (four arms, faceless). Self-farming (young sprouts on its body). Curious (of outsider mammals).
- The Farmer. A tall sentient myconid who tends to the many cultivated logs around town. It features young fungal buds on its body and plants them on fresh logs. When mushrooms are large enough, it replants them in different parts of Greyshroom Town or the forest.
4. The Greyshroom
Enormous (30-foot-tall). Resilient (regenerates in seconds). Consciousness (the wisest myconid form).
- Ozgul’s Influence. The large Greyshroom is located 50 feet above the magic jar that imprisons Ozgul, the powerful fungal fey lord. Its energy empowers the Greyshroom and makes it the most powerful myconid in the Misty Forest, despite it being immobile.
- Spores. The Greyshroom produces golden spores that affect myconids. This is how it spreads its fungal influence.
- Otherworldly Perspective. The telepath Greyshroom shares the compulsion of its brethren to settle down and learn from humans and Dewborn. Thus, it keeps predatory myconids at bay. However, it sees the other races as food for the following generations of sentient myconids. It embraces the myconids’ role in the world of consuming decaying matter.
5. Agriculture Experiment
Humanoid-shaped (six myconid farmers). Talkative (enjoy conversing with humans). Short-tempered (impatient).
- Project Farm. A small group of myconid farmers try out the agricultural activities learned from the farmers in Greenhill. They’ve planted tomatoes and potatoes with mixed results.
- Mixed Attitude. Some of the farmers, while enthusiastic about the results, claim that agriculture may just not be for them. They see no purpose in growing vegetables they cannot eat until they rot.
6. The Immobile Screamer
Tulip-shaped (10-foot-tall). Soft and silky (fleshy-pulpy body). Large mouth (on its stump).
- Unquenchable Curiosity. The immobile screamer is blind but can speak. It is curious about many things but can only experience things indirectly or by conversing. It can experience things through other myconids from within the grey dream and the neural network.
- Alarm Shriek. The screamer is one of those fungi that can produce a loud, high-pitched sound by rubbing their interior fleshy parts. It commands all other shriekers in the area and can sense danger through them. They function as a security measure for Greyshroom Town.
7. Philosophers’ Club
The savants (complex myconids of high intelligence). Humanoid-shaped (headless but with eyes on their trunks).
- Odd Communication. The myconids in the philosopher’s club are just below the Greyshroom in intelligence, but few of them can communicate telepathically, they rest use a mix of sounds and spore communication. Most of these exchanges are not accessible to humans.
- Grey Dream Enthusiasts. The philosophers are curious about other creatures’ ways of life but the only way to truly understand them is to commune mentally with them in the grey dream. They offer travelers a drink of powdered mycelia so that they too can access the deeper understanding and awakening of the fungal neural network.
8. Merchant of Oddities
Oddly-shaped (headless, three arms, four-legged). Telepath (high-shrill mental voice). Barterer (uninterested in metals).
- Wares. The strange myconid merchant sells natural essences, perfumes, and myconid droppings, among other things. It values its merchandise dearly.
- Pricing. The merchant won’t accept coins or bills as payment, clients must barter with it until the merchant becomes interested in something. Its understanding of price and value are skewed.
