Warning: I made up a magic mushroom, I apologize in advance.
Phoenix brought the sticks back to the pot, where her small low fire was still going. She bolstered the fire and looked down at the beans in the bottom of the pot in the water they had been soaking in. Earlier in the day, she'd realized it was her night to cook and shoved them into one of her water skins, so when it had been time to set up, she'd simply dumped them and the other water skin into the pot, tossed in the walnut, and set up a small fire under it. They were starting to look like they might constitute a pretty tasteless soup if she left it like this.
She didn't want a tasteless soup. Sure, it would allow her and Xzar to concentrate on spells for longer, but she didn't want them thinking she was just a child that couldn't cook. After all, her 'finicky eating habits' had taught her to care about cooking.
Montaron and Kagain were playing cards with a couple of gold coins between them. Both of them seemed watchful enough. In fact, since she was getting a torch out of her bag, Montaron raised an eyebrow.
"Goin' out huntin' for more than them beans, lass?" He asked smirking.
"Yes." She said.
He handed her a lantern with a very feminine rose pattern engraved into the metal. She looked at it in repulsion, but she looked at his frown, and decided that she'd better not say a word about it. After all, he wasn't the type for rose patterns, and it was a human sized lantern. He hadn't bought it. He half smiled, as though he could read her mind and was feeling generous at the moment.
"Take the bloody mad wizard with ye, an' don't get none o' the mushrooms he babbles on 'bout."
* * *
Xzar had been happy to go with her, and in fact, had easily accepted the lantern, seemingly completely oblivious to the roses engraved it. The two of them were surrounded by a soft clinging darkness that shifted only when the lantern moved. The cool night air blew moistly through this small wooded area. He paused by a moss covered trunk.
"The moss to line the basket." Xzar said. He'd lent her a mushroom collecting basket. She'd actually never collected them wild, she'd only gone down to the gardens and collected one or two at a time, and had never needed a basket. Xzar must collect them often, or at least often enough for Montaron to know his habits concerning them.
"Yes, of course." She said, smiling slightly and walking over to the tree, collecting the moss and covering the bottom of the basket in it. It made sense, to keep them from being damaged by the pressure. Then Xzar proceeded to praise the magnificent 'fruit' of mushrooms. He didn't praise them for the rich taste they added to a meal, or their unique texture, their sometimes curative benefits, he praised them for their sheer variety of poisonousness. As they paused by different types, he told her what poisons could be extracted or created with the mushrooms in question. They stopped by a particularly well formed mushroom with scales under its cap, a ring and a sac at its base. It glowed gently, a soft blue green luminescence. "Well done! That's Fool's Magic." He said, almost as excited with the topic of dangerous mushrooms as he tended to be when they were discussing zombies. Almost. Phoenix had never thought herself to be overly interested in poisons, but with Xzar's eyes bright and vibrantly green and his tattoos under lit by the glow of both the lantern and the blue green of the mushroom, she found herself fascinated by them. She had never realized there were so many, or the sheer work that went into preparing them. And there were a range of effects, from lethal poisoning to simply making a person too sick to fight. The living body was an amazing thing, as attested to what lengths people had to take to disable it.
"What does this one do?" She asked.
His smile was particularly mischievous. "Well, you eat this mushroom, Xelda and you think you can fly- you know it, more than you know your own name! You feel as though you must do this- you find yourself the highest area that you can reach, and you throw yourself off." He said, laughing helplessly. "When you splatter, spoors shoot out of your blood, and everywhere your blood touches grows a new Fools Magic mushroom." He said. "If we could only do something like that with zombies!" He said.
"We'd be pretty hard pressed to get anyone to eat a zombie, though." She smiled.
"Head hunters!" Xzar giggled.
Phoenix laughed. "Ogres."
Their mischievous laughter echoed in the darkness around them.
Bhaal's Youngest: Chapter 58
Started by
Guest_Dadri_*
, Mar 29 2007 03:46 AM
8 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_Cel_*
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Posted 29 March 2007 - 06:28 PM
I loved the notion of her soaking beans in a water skin 
And the flying mushroom reminded me of a certain insect parasite mushroom that'll get into its host's brain and cause it to climb up a high straw/twig/whatever, and then the fungus sprouts out of the host's dead body. When it happens to ants, the other ants can recognize there is something wrong when the host behaves oddly, and will move it far away from the anthill so that it can't infect the rest of them when it's dead. (I wish I could remember the parasite's name)
Edit: Cordyceps
And the flying mushroom reminded me of a certain insect parasite mushroom that'll get into its host's brain and cause it to climb up a high straw/twig/whatever, and then the fungus sprouts out of the host's dead body. When it happens to ants, the other ants can recognize there is something wrong when the host behaves oddly, and will move it far away from the anthill so that it can't infect the rest of them when it's dead. (I wish I could remember the parasite's name)
Edit: Cordyceps
#3
Guest_Dadri_*
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Posted 29 March 2007 - 09:12 PM
I loved the notion of her soaking beans in a water skin
Well, with eight hours or so of travel, it's like soaking them overnight.
Sometimes, I think I'm overkilling with details, but then I like details. And the flying mushroom reminded me of a certain insect parasite mushroom that'll get into its host's brain and cause it to climb up a high straw/twig/whatever, and then the fungus sprouts out of the host's dead body.
I may have made it up, but it wasn't without real world precedence.
#4
Guest_Tyriel_*
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Posted 30 March 2007 - 12:28 AM
Phoenix and Xzar's relationship is somehow disturbing and sweet simultaneously. I'm guessing that Xelda must have been Xzar's little sister, based on how he interacts with Phoenix. So, they'll use the mushrooms for poisons, then, in addition to finding some that are suitable for a meal?
Where did Montaron get that lantern, by the way? A rather convenient outlet for getting rid of it, along with being free of Xzar for a little while, I would say.
Where did Montaron get that lantern, by the way? A rather convenient outlet for getting rid of it, along with being free of Xzar for a little while, I would say.
#5
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Posted 30 March 2007 - 04:42 AM
Phoenix and Xzar's relationship is somehow disturbing and sweet simultaneously.
I rather like it, even though I know it's a bit creepy.
I'm guessing that Xelda must have been Xzar's little sister, based on how he interacts with Phoenix.
I'm glad the mystery is still entertaining.
So, they'll use the mushrooms for poisons, then, in addition to finding some that are suitable for a meal?
They really don't have the facilities to refine poisons right now. So, at the moment, it's just a lesson. And believe me, Phoenix is paying close attention as she tends to do. Where Montaron may not care where the poison comes from as long as it's in a vial when he gets it, Phoenix may want to make some later.
Where did Montaron get that lantern, by the way? A rather convenient outlet for getting rid of it, along with being free of Xzar for a little while, I would say.
Silke's room. Well, let's just say that Xzar would be disruptive to a card game between two antisocial types.
#6
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Posted 30 March 2007 - 05:48 PM
Heh. That is one evil magic mushroom. Although how did it get there? Are they in some mountains? And why is there only one? Ah, the questions, the questions...
Phoenix is simply cute when she doesn't like the lantern with the feminine rose pattern.
And when she is learning about poisons, too... I think that I would have done the same in her place: if you're stuck with an insane wizard, you may at least learn what he has to say on the one topic he knows. (Bhaal, though, must be getting desperate. )
Phoenix is simply cute when she doesn't like the lantern with the feminine rose pattern.
And when she is learning about poisons, too... I think that I would have done the same in her place: if you're stuck with an insane wizard, you may at least learn what he has to say on the one topic he knows. (Bhaal, though, must be getting desperate. )
#7
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Posted 31 March 2007 - 06:54 AM
Heh. That is one evil magic mushroom. Although how did it get there? Are they in some mountains? And why is there only one? Ah, the questions, the questions...
Good questions.
It sounds like a tiny bit of infected blood made it to this spot, not much, but enough to support one mushroom. Being that the highest area around here is a tall tree, one has to wonder how infected blood got there...but infected blood has the spoors whether it gets released into the environment from a person bursting open from a fall or being attacked by other creatures. I would stay away from any nearby rock outcroppings though, as they are probably caked with these mushrooms, and the bones of diseased gibberlings. Phoenix is simply cute when she doesn't like the lantern with the feminine rose pattern. And when she is learning about poisons, too... I think that I would have done the same in her place: if you're stuck with an insane wizard, you may at least learn what he has to say on the one topic he knows. (Bhaal, though, must be getting desperate.)
Phoenix has a soft spot in her heart for Xzar....Bhaal is sure that having a soft spot in your heart for anyone is asking them to stick a dagger there. Begging even. I would say that Bhaal is a slight bit distressed, and if I wrote this chapter from his point of view it would have been twice as long because of all the frustration.
#8
Weyoun
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Posted 31 March 2007 - 10:04 PM
Warning: I made up a magic mushroom, I apologize in advance.
Magic mushroom? What's wrong with that?
"Goin' out huntin' for more than them beans, lass?" He asked smirking.
Hm, beans...
"The moss to line the basket." Xzar said. He'd lent her a mushroom collecting basket. She'd actually never collected them wild, she'd only gone down to the gardens and collected one or two at a time, and had never needed a basket. Xzar must collect them often, or at least often enough for Montaron to know his habits concerning them.
Uh, I wouldn't eat any of those mushrooms he'd collect, if I were you.
"What does this one do?" She asked.
His smile was particularly mischievous. "Well, you eat this mushroom, Xelda and you think you can fly- you know it, more than you know your own name! You feel as though you must do this- you find yourself the highest area that you can reach, and you throw yourself off." He said, laughing helplessly. "When you splatter, spoors shoot out of your blood, and everywhere your blood touches grows a new Fools Magic mushroom." He said. "If we could only do something like that with zombies!" He said.
Death by halluciogenic... that's bad.
"Head hunters!" Xzar giggled.
Phoenix laughed. "Ogres."
Their mischievous laughter echoed in the darkness around them.
These two get along fine. This worries me.
TnT Enhanced Edition: http://www.fanfictio...rds-and-Tempers
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Sith Warrior - Master, I can sense your anger.
Darth Baras - A blind, comotose lobotomy-patient could sense my anger!
---
"The New Age? It's just the old age stuck in a microwave oven for fifteen seconds" - James Randi
---
Sith Warrior - Master, I can sense your anger.
Darth Baras - A blind, comotose lobotomy-patient could sense my anger!
---
"The New Age? It's just the old age stuck in a microwave oven for fifteen seconds" - James Randi
#9
Guest_Dadri_*
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Posted 02 April 2007 - 04:54 AM
Magic mushroom? What's wrong with that?
Well, it's not really the pleasant kind.
Hm, beans...
Well, they can be somewhat filling, but rather bland by themselves.
Uh, I wouldn't eat any of those mushrooms he'd collect, if I were you.
That's pretty much what Montaron was telling her.
Death by halluciogenic... that's bad.
A hallucinogenic effect wears off faster.
These two get along fine. This worries me.
I can understand how that might. I found it quite disturbing myself.
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