The Last Missive From a Mushroom Seller to his Sister

Player recap of the March 2024 event written by Mat K.

The Last Missive From a Mushroom Seller to his Sister

Contained below are the last words written by a Mushroom Salesman found in the Aurora Sunset, the recently discovered airship, which went down near doomed Shakar during the volcanic cataclysm around 100 years ago.

My dear sister Kesi, by now you should have read of the horrors from my letter a week ago, sad to say things did not improve since then, in fact you might say the issues have only exacerbated. Worse yet, I may be returning to the mushroom mine soon.

Earlier this morning I awoke with a start after hearing an explosion echoing out from the academic district. As they are a major buyer of our mushrooms for their potions, elixirs, and fancy gourmet luminary feasts, I was of course a bit anxious this would be a major dent in our profits for the foreseeable future. Against better judgment I rushed to the site of the explosion to obtain a firsthand account of what was going on. It appears a number of bandits or mercenaries had tried breaking into the library.

I told you about the adventurers that made a mess of things last week, so you shouldn’t be too surprised to learn they have not yet moved on and were once again making a mess of things today. Instead of allowing the proper authorities to deal with the intruders they decided to try and deal with the commotion themselves. After a lot of noise, damage, and blood they eventually dealt with some of the bandits, but lo and behold some of them got away. I spoke with a librarian after the adventurers left to ensure they were still good for their next purchase of mushrooms and to find out more information about where the adventurers were off to in such a rush.

The scholar informed me that he sent the adventuring party off to recover the seals that they, of course, left up at the previous ritual location outside of the city. Obviously, it would be dangerous if they were left there as someone else could use them to possibly reopen the rift that was closed. How the adventurers didn’t have the foresight to realize this themselves I will never know, but at least they were going to take care of that issue if only a week later than it should have been. With this information, and the relief knowing our operation was not in jeopardy, I headed back to the merchant district and set up the stall for the day.

This is when things went from bad to worse for me and sadly for our business. On their way back to town one of the adventurers sought me out. Being an expert on funguses he asked for my assistance. Interested in finding out what happened in recovering the seals, I agreed to help him, if he was willing to exchange information with me. He found this acceptable and answered my questions without repression. He informed me that they tracked the bandits and found that they were working for a cult, who to nobody's surprise, decided to steal the seals to try and reopen a rift. The cultists seem to have finished relations with the mercenaries and slew them upon their return. In the middle of him talking to me a wagon filled with large seals labored past so I assume they were able to dispatch the cultists without too much trouble. On the plus side I guess no more rifts will be opening in the near future.

Unfortunately, a second large wagon stopped in front of my stall with a sheet thrown over its contents. The blood covered adventurer explained that the contents in the wagon is the reason he wished to speak with me about fungi. He flipped off the wagon cover and what I saw inside shook me to the core. Around ten of the most pristine legendary Oceanmist Truffles that may have ever been harvested were within. Now you might not know much of these truffles, but they are rarely if ever seen and never in quantities of this sort! How these rare aquatic mushrooms were able to thrive within the desert is even more perplexing! Worse yet, they were also MASSIVE! The smallest of the truffles was over ten pounds in weight and three feet in diameter. I knew immediately the mushroom market within the city was doomed all thanks to these ‘adventurers’. I guess I spaced out for a moment as I stared at the mushroom troop, for when I came to the adventurer was tagging at my shirt sleeve and calling for me. He was asking me how much he could sell them for. Without foresight I doubled over laughing and explained he could empty out a large portion of the city's coffers with the damn mushrooms… and he just shrugged his shoulders as if that was no big deal! And with that he stated he will go and empty the city's coffers and he was quickly on his way.

So yeah… the mushroom economy is shot. Aside from having a taste that would make the gods weep they also have a shelf life measured in years not days so there will be enough mushrooms to go around here for some time to come. Even our greatest offerings will pale in comparison to these mushrooms. I already anticipate all orders being canceled soon.

This all happened over the course of the last few hours ago and it seems the adventurers are already up to their shenanigans again. We can hear explosions, the clash of steel, and screaming coming from outside the city and reverberating off the walls of its clay buildings. No matter what the disturbance is though, it cannot be worse than what those ‘Good for Nothings’ have done to our business. Sky Captain Senna seems eager to make off with the fighting so near by and I am not one to keep him when those truffles are days from proliferating throughout the city. Keep a shovel ready for me as I expect I will be moving back to you in just a few weeks. You will find my order information attached.

With love,

Your Brother, Merrick