Sky Island Core

"Curiosity killed the cat," Fesgao remarked, his dark eyes unreadable. Aly rolled her eyes. Why did everyone say that to her? "People always forget the rest of the saying," she complained. "'And satisfaction brought it back." ― Tamora Pierce , Trickster's Choice

The question now was mostly one of whether there were more dracolisks, or just the one. I had no way of dealing with it really, unless it came into my domain (or I expanded my domain to it). I was holding that in reserve for the moment, since I wanted to know if there were more of them first, and if there were, whether they might band together against a common threat.

I still didn't have a good sense of their capabilities in this world, and I didn't really want to rely on information from the other world. That said, I was using the basic characterization of dracolisks as a starting point, at least, and that suggested they were fully sapient. They were also supposed to be chaotic evil, of course, which would tend to suggest they weren't great at working together, so that, at least, was hopeful. Assuming most of the description was generally accurate, then I had no creatures that would stand a chance against a dracolisk; at best some of my less tangible creatures might not be destroyed, but I doubted they could do much against it either. That left traps as the most likely means of destroying one; even a dracolisk could be crushed under enough stone and presumably needed to breathe to survive. The fact that I could do so without exposing myself to its breath weapon or its petrifying stare was essentially a cheat, so I could guess why the dracolisk might retreat from my domain.

At the moment, though, there was no real need to kill the dracolisk, even if May would likely approve. As such, I returned my attention to the wizard's cat, which was continuing to explore the hallway as it slowly curved to the north and east while largely maintaining a consistent elevation, roughly 40 meters below the surface (possibly more, as the base level of the sky island sloped generally upwards towards the center).

The cat had carefully traversed a bit less than 100 meters when it became possible to see the passage opening up into some larger chamber a short distance ahead. He slowed his approach, listening and sniffing carefully, seeking out hints of whatever might be in there. The good news was that there was no indication of a current dracolisk occupation, though he could tell that the dracolisk was a periodic visitor to the chamber. This might be a hunting ground for the beast, as the cat could hear some movement and could pick up some sort of animal musk. If the cat recognized it, it didn't share that knowledge, and I didn't have much of an internal database for animal smells – it didn't quite match any domestic animal I was familiar with, and that was as much as I could say.

As the cat slipped forward under its concealment, the situation became a bit clearer. A subterranean stream (not quite a river, but at least as big as the stream on the surface) flowed through a large chamber that had clearly once been a subterranean farm. It extended for at least 100 meters, and possibly farther, as the cat was only able to make out about 50 meters in each direction, and couldn't make out a wall either ahead or to the sides. Whatever source of illumination had once existed here did no longer, but there was a dim light from some bioluminescent slime mold on the walls. Still, well defined soil beds remained and had been apparently taken over or reused by a chaotic tumble of fungi, ranging from low lying slime molds through rather massive fungi standing up to about 2.5 meters in height. There was no order to be seen, and my identify tool was able to pick out at least a dozen new species of fungus before the cat had done more than step through the entrance. Essentially none of them were edible, ignoring the old joke about any mushroom being edible – once. Most were at least mildly toxic, though only one or two were truly lethal.

Quest Completed: Spot Fungal Species II; Reward: Deceiver Bolete Blueprint

Quest Reissued: Spot Fungal Species III – Find 20 new species of fungus; Reward: T3 Fungus Blueprint

Conveniently, the quest awarded me a blueprint for the most interesting mushroom on the list. The Deceiver Bolete would apparently release its spores when disturbed; those spores were both psychoactive and magical, generating rapid acting confusion in most species that inhaled them for 10 minutes to an hour or so, depending on the dosage and the size of the creature (among other factors).

I took a few moments to spawn in a few examples of those in some interesting spots – first among the bed of fungi on the far side of the chasm guarding the mana-gathering array, and secondly in the woods flanking the paddock for the skeletal warhorses.

The cat nosed farther into the chamber, still moving exquisitely slowly. There wasn't much of a defined path, but one could see places where the dracolisk had presumably pushed through, leaving crushed fungi in its wake. Those trails seemed to lead mostly down to the water's edge and seemed to track with the edges of the soil beds, though at least low growth was present in the regions between beds at this point. I wasn't sure if that's where it drank, or if there was a source of food in the stream, or both. Clearly there was some form of animal prey in the area, as fungi traditionally lack bones. I supposed that it was not utterly impossible that some form of fungi in a magical world could have a skeletal structure, but it seemed unlikely. That could possibly explain the taller fungal specimens here, but the simplest answer was that there were creatures somewhere nearby with a traditional skeletal system. The cat did note some movement in the mushroom beds, but nothing that seemed very large or otherwise noteworthy. It appeared to be its own little contained ecosystem here, and I'd guess the stream was primarily responsible for the flow of nutrients into the room.

The cat was rather displeased at the idea of creeping through a trail of mashed fungus and spores, laden with minor toxins. I was about to prompt it, when it reminded me dismissively that it had wings and could fly. I shrugged, willing to let it drop active concealment and take to the air, as long as it knew the risks.

Stolen novel; please report.

It seemed to acknowledge those risks but still preferred to keep clean, unfurling its uniformly dark grey wings silently as it scaled a low stone outcropping. I wasn't sure whether it wanted a better view of the terrain, or if it actually needed some vertical elevation to take off, but either way, it made it about 3 meters above the floor, scanned carefully for visible threats and launched itself towards the middle of the room. It spiraled outwards from above the stream, finding first the far wall, about 30 meters past the stream, and about 75 from the near wall. We'd apparently come into the room closer to the east side than the west, as the eastern wall turned out to be maybe 80 meters to the right of where we'd entered, and the western wall about 120 meters to the left. It was, in fact, nearly rectangular, though the walls weren't finished and showed no signs of having been worked with tools. At a guess, some magic had been used to create the space, and they hadn't cared to make it look truly artificial.

The entire room was filled with what I'd consider a low mushroom forest, though there were signs a roadway had once existed, judging from the tumbled stones of what may once have been a bridge in the stream directly between the entrance and a similar opening on the far wall. Another set of openings were visible on the east and west walls, and judging by relative height of the mushroom cover, a small road likely had run parallel to the stream bank on the far side.

There didn't seem to be any flying creatures in the room, as the cat had not scared up any bats or anything larger than some small insects in its flight. The stream itself seemed to vanish into the stone substrate near the west entry. I wasn't sure if it had been engineered to water this room, and potentially others below it, but it neither rejoined the surface nor exited from the cliff face near my terrain. A mystery for later, I supposed. In fact, tracking the water back to the east, the cat's ears caught the unmistakable sound of a waterfall not far beyond the east entrance, presumably bringing some water down from the surface in much the same way that I had.

The cat, now tiring a bit, looked for a place to land, and settled on what I assumed to be the most prominent of the former bridge stones, lying upright in the stream, almost columnar in shape and a solid meter and a half above the water level. It alit, rather delicately in a fluttering backwinging motion, then began to delicately groom itself while gazing out across the stream. It was that attention to the water that saved the cat when a crocodilian creature of some sort erupted from the water's edge and launched itself towards the cat.

No dracolisk, this. It wasn't even one of your classic white, cave crocodiles, or even one of those orange ones pigmented from swimming in water tainted with guano. This creature was only 2 meters long from snout to tail tip, and it looked pretty much the same as I remembered alligators or caimans in my old world, down to the protective scutes on its nearly black back.

The cat gave a startled yowl as it launched rather ungracefully off the back of the stone, flapping vigorously for height as the crocodilian snapped his jaws futilely on empty air. My identify skill labeled it as simply Charaxian Caiman. The cat, recovering its poise somewhat at a greater altitude flew east, perching on an outcropping not far above and to the right of the eastern entrance.

It had just settled down a bit and was at that stage where it was pretending that nothing had happened, when it was struck by a small, rounded projectile. Not a stone, fortunately, but some sort of puffball or spore sack that erupted into a cloud of vaguely yellowish dust.

The cat sneezed with a comical look of horror and dismay before launching itself back into the air and towards the original entryway. I got the sense that it was done with exploring for the day, and that was even before the psychoactive effects of the spores took effect.

I had, of course, identified that fungus as well, rather instinctively, and I rather assumed it was likely to be a T2 variety. Possibly I'd be able to get the blueprint from the spores on the cat, assuming I could direct it back to my actual domain. For now, all I had was a name – Yellow Hazeball Fungus.

At first, I wasn't particularly clear on the effect of the spores, but I soon noticed a yellowish haze developing in the cat's vision, slowly intensifying until anything more than 2 meters away from the cat was obscured, as though in a thick fog. It also seemed to have some minor debuffs to dexterity and concentration, and the cat rather bobbled its landing, though it at least avoided crashing into the floor or walls of the passage as it regained contact with the original entryway.

The effects made it impossible for the cat to retain concealment through its shadow magic, but it was still a cat and reasonably stealthy on its own. It was also smart enough to know that it needed to get back to some form of safety to try to sleep off the effects of the spores, so it didn't fight me as I tried to steer it back past the dracolisk's lair to the point where I'd spawned it in by the puzzle door to the hallway. Fortunately, it hadn't encountered any traps along the way, as presumably, if there had been any the dracolisk had cleared them long ago.

There were a few hairy moments as it paused short of the entry to the dracolisk's lair, torn between trying for stealth and simply making a break for it at top speed. In the end, the cat and I settled for a low belly crawl past the entrance, in order to avoid any rapid, eye-catching movements or risk making noise. The spores should cover the cat's scent, but might prompt some curiosity, if we were unlucky.

In the end, the cat simply closed its eyes to mitigate the confusing visual effects of the spores and made a steady creeping slide past the door, trusting in my spatial memory to let it know when it was safe to spring up and dash for my domain.

Whether due to our precautions, luck, or the disinterest of the dracolisk in chasing anything covered in psychoactive spores, there was no reaction from within the dracolisk's chamber other than a distant snort.

What had taken the cat a good while at a careful saunter, took very little time at all in a panicked, disoriented rush. It was less than 3 minutes before I was calling the cat to a halt as I manually sprung the puzzle door to allow it back to safety. I was equally careful to swing the door shut again as soon as it was clear. I'm sure it had left a scent trail to the door, but I doubted anything would follow it, given the tainting spores.

Once it was safe in my domain, and no longer panicking, I made a conscious effort to absorb the spores directly from its fur. I didn't dare try to remove them from its system directly, but I could prevent further harm, at least. I had pondered simply generating enough water to rinse the cat off, but I somehow doubted it was in the mood to be suddenly doused. This way was quicker and more effective, and as a side benefit, did, in fact, provide me with a blueprint.

Blueprint Acquired: Yellow Hazeball Fungus

Interestingly, as I examined the T2 fungus blueprint, I discovered that it had no mechanism for firing itself across the room. No, something in the room must have deliberately pelted the cat, presumably specifically to generate this effect. I'd have to figure out a way to explore the room using a less susceptible creature; one of the myconids seemed like the most logical choice, though they were, regrettably, rather slow moving. I doubted the dracolisk would eat them, but it might also be disinclined to let them set up in its hunting grounds. In the meantime, given the enforced downtime, I navigated the poor neglected fruit bat outside via Hakdrilda's room as she slept and set it to keep watch in the orchards of my surface domain.