The Adventure of the Golden Mushroom

Eile and Sunny are commissioned by an apothecary in Ulthar to collect medicinal herbs in a remote forest, but what starts out as an adventurous lark turns into a battle for their very souls. This is a short story.Having proven themselves intrepid and experienced adventurers in the Dreamlands, Eile and Sunny of Team Girl now receive regular commissions to undertake risky, sometimes dangerous, missions on behalf of others for pay. Some of their clients have become repeat customers; one is Mephitis, the Apothecary of Ulthar. Her medicines, ointments, potions, and poisons require a wide variety of natural ingredients, and she prefers to spend her time preparing the former rather than gathering the latter. With few exceptions, the ingredients can be gathered with no special preparation, so anyone can do it. Since Mephitis is friends with Team Girl's mentor Medb hErenn, she trusts them and gives them most of her business.However, some of these ingredients are only located in perilous locations, requiring the special talents of adventurers to brave the dangers and overcome them long enough to collect whatever is needed. One such location is the Dark Wood, a remnant of the ancient forest that used to cover the Dreamlands in the dim past. Its reputation is even worse than that of the Enchanted Woods, and few people who enter its precincts ever leave. Yet it contains the rarest and most powerful ingredients in all the Dreamlands.Eile and Sunny knew what they were getting into when they accepted the commission to enter the Wood and collect a dozen or so of its most important medicinal plants, but from the beginning their excursion proves to be disappointing: it turns out to be so pleasant and relaxing that they become bored.Yet very soon they would find themselves in a battle for their very souls.