Mushroom Realm Mystery

List of Acts

• Act I - Ardent Land of Plenty
  • Requirements:
    • Reach Adventure Rank 40
    • Complete Archon Quest Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame in Chapter V: Act I - Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn
• Act II - Orchard Repose
  • Requirements:
    • Reach Adventure Rank 40
    • Complete Archon Quest Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame in Chapter V: Act I - Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn
• Act III - Field Fungal Traces
  • Requirements:
    • Reach Adventure Rank 40
    • Complete Archon Quest Chapter V: Act V - Incandescent Ode of Resurrection

Summary

Act I - Ardent Land of Plenty

While walking around the Great Volcano of Tollan, the Traveler and Paimon come upon a young woman from the Collective of Plenty who introduces herself as Varesa. She offers to bring them to her tribe, which they accept. On the way, she demonstrates some of her abilities, impressing the two. As they make their way to the village, the Great Volcano of Tollan erupts, sending rocks flying in their direction. Varesa simply smashes through them before they come upon some hilichurls, who they kill. They finally arrive at the village and Varesa asks them meet them at the arena.

Act II - Orchard Repose

Making their way to the arena, Varesa offers to give them a tour of the village and her family orchard. Before they head to the orchard, they stop to talk with Iansan, who explains Varesa's training to them. While Varesa is very strong, she has never been able to get past the team stage during the Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame, since she can't bring herself to fight her own people. The Traveler reassures her before Varesa brings the two to her family orchard. She explains that the tribe grows plenty of fruit due to their location being ideal for crops, and they usually sell a fair amount to the other tribes. At the farm, Varesa calms her guarding Tatankasaurus, Vanana, down and explains how she began her eating journey. She also reveals that there is a food tournament being held soon and that her orchard is responsible for providing the fruit to be used for dessert.

As the three begin to harvest the crops, Paimon notices mushrooms growing on the property and wonders how they got there. Varesa tells the two that they appeared out of nowhere when the orchard was planted, but are surprisingly tasty and can be prepared in numerous ways. After collecting the harvest, Varesa prepares a simple meal with some of the crops, which the Traveler and Paimon find delicious.

Act III - Field Fungal Traces

Sage Supreme

The following day, the Traveler and Paimon make their way to the venue where they find Iansan and Acatl. The Traveler learns from them that when the Abyss attacked the Natlan, the Collective of Plenty had their own struggles, which Iansan surmised was the Abyss trying to prevent them from sending reinforcements to help their fellow people elsewhere. Varesa helped defend the land from the invaders, and Acatl explains about the "Guardians of Tollan" to them, stating that while the volcano brought destruction, it also brought oppourtunity which they took advantage of to grow their crops. Suddenly, Varesa leaves, and Iansan surmises that she went to get food.

They find Varesa outside a hut, who smells a delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen. Atolli runs out and gives Varesa a serving of braised meat stew to help sate her appetite, apologizing to her for his delay as prep took longer than expected. Returning to the venue once more, the competition begins as the contestants are served heaping amounts of food, surprising both the Traveler and Paimon. Paimon then notices that Varesa's serving is much larger than theirs, and Acatl explains that the Varesa Challenge was only for those who completed the normal challenge. He even tells that not even the Pyro Archon could finish the Varesa Challenge. This was started when the Speaker's Chamber found that one person had ordered food meant for a large group, and worried about fraud, investigated it. Upon seeing Varesa eat the entire portion, Mavuika let it be.

The Traveler and Paimon dig in on the food, but like the other competitors, quickly become full and are unable to finish, while Varesa easily finishes her plate, which was slightly increased. Paimon asks Varesa how she isn't bloated or feeling unwell from eating a copious amount of food, and she tells her that she had some of the mushrooms from her garden to eat in order to balance out the flavors. Atolli thanks Varesa for the mushrooms before revealing there were two colors; red and green, with the green ones to be eaten immediately, as someone from Sumeru had told them to do so. The mushrooms get the Traveler's attention, and they accompany Varesa back to the orchard. There, they ask Varesa about the mushroom, and coincidentally, they find a green mushroom nearby which she grills.

After eating the mushroom, the Traveler notices no difference in taste before a voice intrudes, claiming that they were worthy devotees. While the voice was only interested in the Traveler, because Varesa and Paimon were acquainted with them, linked them together. The voice introduces itself as the Sage-Lord of Fungi. The three quickly brush it off though, so the Sage-Lord tells them to search for clues. Paimon begins to investigate the mushrooms, and one of them turns into a fungus, shocking her, since they were normally found in Sumeru. Varesa finds the fungi cute, which it appreciates, but it then states that food is sacred before reverting.

Finding another green mushroom nearby, they talk to it, who asks a riddle. The Traveler responds back with a bad pun, which it acknowledges as the answer and reveals that by being eaten, they can forge a connection between the eater and the Sage-Lord. Coming upon another pair of fungi, they learn that the better the fragrance is, the likely they would see the Sage-Lord's true form. But before they do that, they return to the tribe to inform the others of the new development.

The Meaning of Courage

Acatl brings Iansan and Atolli to learn about the group's discovery, and they agree that Varesa was telling the truth. Atolli grills some mushrooms on cast iron, and Varesa consumes them. The Sage-Lord returns, telling them that the heat is not a fraction of the required devotion and mocks their lack of intelligence before leaving. The group decides to find anything hot enough to meet the requirement, and Varesa asks the Traveler to come with her to the volcano to see if they could find anything useful.

On the way, Varesa reveals that the Avatars of Lava might have enough temperature and they defeat four of them when the volcano suddenly erupts. At the end of the eruption, a huge weasel emerges from the ground, dazed by the eruption. Varesa warns them that the weasel is highly aggressive and they kill it. Extracting the core from its back, Varesa believes that it would be even better than the cores. Varesa feels reluctant about making her own legacy, but the Traveler and Paimon reassure her that everything she's doing is of her own volition. They then return to the village.

Smokeless War

The others had acquired various heating devices to use for the mushrooms, who had agreed to help Varesa since the Sage-Lord had mocked her. Atolli becomes shocked upon seeing that they had acquired the armor from a Furnace Shell weasel; the mechanism provided enough heat to sear a fish on one side without overcooking the other. As they begin cooking, the fragrance becomes more intense, while Paimon notices a mist coming from the green mushrooms before realizing it isn't right. The Traveler, Varesa and Paimon are dragged into another realm, but are still able to hear their surroundings. As Paimon wonders why the three of them were affected, the Sage-Lord appears and tells them that they were worthy devotees. Paimon does not buy its claims that it helped humanity defeat monsters, so it sends a few clones at them, who are easily defeated.

The Sage-Lord brings the three deeper into the domain, revealing that it gave its followers sustenance in proportion to their contributions. The Traveler wonders how it got to Natlan from Sumeru, and it leaves out of anger, telling them to find the next clue to learn more. The Traveler and Varesa feel that the Sage-Lord is hiding something from them, and they agree to cautiously investigate the matter. They jump down a well and initiate a chase, catching up to the Sage-Lord. Varesa grabs the Sage-Lord briefly before it digs away, and the three see a memory of its past, where its powers were nearly spent due to people eating large amounts of its clones. Still managing to have enough power to control a single human, the Sage-Lord ordered the human, Chatraka, to bring it somewhere hot. They arrived at a volcano, and as Chatraka prepared to plant him, a volcanic eruption buried the two.

The Traveler has a theory about the Sage-Lord, but needs to catch them in order to prove it. They head further into the domain and find the Sage-Lord, who hides in a statue. They destroy the statue and confront the Sage-Lord, who reveals its human name of Bifrons, a fungi god. It reveals that the green mushrooms were to spread spores so it could grow in power and get revenge on Sumeru for the Archon War, but Paimon tells them the Archon War ended a long time ago, much to its shock. Instead, the war it had heard was actually one against the Abyss, though it brushes it off as a lie, and the Traveler deduces that it is too weak and needed to find a suitable host to mind control. Bifrons is upset at the accusation and threatens to unleash a Jadeplume Terrorshroom, but they ignore it and leave.

Back to reality, the tribe organizes a huge feast with the green mushrooms, with the Saurians and even Fatui joining in. Bifrons becomes angered and tells them to stop it, only to be bitten by a Tatankasaur Whelp. With the feast concluded, Varesa thanks the Traveler for helping her become a hero for the story, before Paimon wonders if they could find someone to help with Bifrons. They decide to head to the Adventurers' Guild and ask Katheryne for help, who finds Tighnari in the area. Tighnari is surprised to see the two in Natlan, but after hearing about the Sage-Lord, agrees to help them. Varesa then asks Tighnari about Bifron's clones, of which he confirms one in The Chasm named Xamaran. Since it isn't a green-cap mushroom and its connection to Bifrons was likely diminished, Tighnari asks Varesa not to eat Xamaran, and she states that she would never eat a friendly mushroom.

Characters

22 Characters appear in this Chapter:

• Acatl
• Ammuna
• Asmu
• Atolli
• Camotli
• Chatraka
• Huzziya
• Iansan
• Katheryne
• Mushrial
• Mushriu
• Mushriwaili
• Mushwatalli
• Paimon
• Sage-Lord of Fungi
• Soletl
• Teoxoletl
• Tighnari
• Traveler
• Vanana
• Varesa
• Xoctli

Total Rewards

2,225 Adventure EXP

60 Primogem

170,375 Mora

20 Hero's Wit

38 Mystic Enhance­ment Ore

5 Guide to Conflict

1 The Cornerstone of Stars and Flames

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