The Caverns of Sporendal

The tunnel opens into a cavern full of giant mushrooms that glow softly in shades of purple and green. Spores drift like snow through the damp air, and the ground breathes, literally, a slow rise and fall beneath your feet. It is warm here, and you catch yourself humming without knowing why.

The miners who descended here to dig for ore never came back, not as themselves, at least. De Moederschimmel, an age-old fungal spirit, has claimed the caverns of Sporendal, and her spores seep into anyone who breathes too long. First you hum her tune, then you speak with her voice, and at last you become one of her walking seedbeds, glassy-eyed and pliant of will.

You must press deeper into the caverns to find the missing miners, while the spores gnaw at your own thoughts. You search for fresh currents of air, break through webs of fungus, calm or evade the half-fused miners, and follow the whispering toward the heart of the colony. Every rest in the spore-laden air is a risk.

In the deepest cavern De Moederschimmel pulses, a glowing dome of flesh and light, linked to every infected creature above. Destroy her, and the survivors may come back to their senses, but the colony fights back with its whole army of humming victims. And the spores in your lungs whisper that staying is so much easier than fighting.