Spore

The etchings in the wall here shift under a soft cerulean light, the cluster of glowing marshwisp mushrooms before it radiating different hues of blue, making the shadows dance and the carvings seem to move. Something about this feels magical, and you suspect that you are seeing much more than just artful shadow play on cleverly carved rock, with a scene that only grows more clear as the moments go on, sketched details picking out the shape of the dragons in sharp relief.

Around the troupe of dragons, their gear floats in bits that are both washing up on the shore and drifting away, carried by the currents of the flow piping from the bottom of the lake. Each of them is wearing a mask and a pair of goggles that they now take off, each one assessing the damage while they also try and gather their sodden things as best they can.

They gather together on the shore, huddling as they try to coax flame out of a small pile. As one, their heads whip around to look at the forest, and though no sound accompanies this storytelling, you can imagine the sound of the beast screeching through the trees.

The shadows grow long as the marshwisp caps dim, the scene soon dissolving into what appears to be nothing more than a haphazard sketch of several dragons on the shore of a lake.

The etchings in the wall here dance before a deep sapphire glow, the twilight colony pulsing as you turn to watch it. Shadows cycle over the stone, and magic thrums in your ears, suggesting that what you are seeing comes from more than just clever lighting tricks and carefully molded rock. As the illumination brightens, details sketch in, drawing the figures in clear relief on the wall.

The branches of the fungal trees are long as they tangle together above the dragons, who move cautiously through the forest, their eyes wide. Each one looks excited, and though there is silence you can imagine their hushed excited tones as you watch jaws move and laughing heads shake. Every few steps, one calls attention to another, pointing out this clump of bushes, that series of glowing blossoms. Everywhere, the glowing caps of the mushroom trees are visible, keeping the area well illuminated.

There's something strangely off about the forest, with its abundant flora decorating the paths and the trees having their brilliant glow, but you can't quite put your finger on it.

Slowly, the dragons meander further into the fungal trees, disappearing. As the glow dies down, the scene vanishes, resolving into a rather rough drawing of several dragons standing in a forest.

The etchings here appear to move under an amethyst hue, the duskcheer mushrooms glowing at the base of the panel. The way the shadows spin and the light reflects over the wall seems to be made of magic, and you feel that you are seeing much more than coincidental lighting spinning over reliefs carved in clever ways, with the scene gaining more clarity with every passing moment as the illumination brightens. Sketched lines become recognizable figures, standing in front of a massive cavern wall.

The dragons once again are all clad in goggles and masks, picking their way through the scenery near the base of the cavern wall, which is just as moss-covered as you remember it being during your exploring, though there still seems to be something off about the landscape...

One dragon gestures at a curtain of moss, pulling it back to reveal the dark mouth of a cave. The others glance nervously at each other, but the intrepid explorer pats the moss on the wall, which promptly blooms with color, and their companions crowd close, reaching out to touch the moss. The glow spreads, the scene diving into the mouth of the cave, revealing long tunnels that wind away in all directions from this cave they're standing in, the moss on the floor bright enough to illuminate the path, but not quite bright enough to reach the ceiling of the winding chambers.

This prompts a flurry of activity from the group of dragons, and they disperse through the area, each returning to the mouth of the cave once their task is completed. Two come bearing stalks harvested from the angular fungal trees, the wide caps atop them still glowing brightly. Another dragon, clearly wary of the shifting landscape (there's even a crude pictograph drawn - a tiny map next to another tiny map that's clearly different with a bunch of question marks and exclamation points around them) secures a couple lengths of string to some large boulders just outside the cavern mouth, giving a thumbs up as the rest of them return. One dragon in particular lingers, scraping a little bit of glowing moss off the wall and scooping it into their backpack, staring around at the tunnel before hopping after the rest of the team.

Better prepared for the darkness, they turn to face the tunnels. As one, they enter the cave, the mossy curtain falling back into place and obscuring them at the same time that the duskcheer colony dims, leaving behind a rough sketch of a lovely meadow and the crude arc of a hidden cavern's mouth.

The etchings in the wall seem to change as you approach them, the rubycap mushrooms washing everything in a deep crimson hue. You can feel magic humming in your ears, and somehow you suspect you are seeing more than just some interesting lines augmenting well-placed shadows. The light climbs higher on the ceiling, turning sketchy scratches into the shape of a cavern and a handful of explorers.

The cavern the team is standing in is huge, with several different caverns visible at different heights. It doesn't remain that way for long - as the shadows shift, so does the makeup of the cave, going from barren stone to lived-in encampment, with the troupe building first platforms, then floors between the different levels as they make themselves at home. The wall that separates them from the massive cavern at large has windows and doors carved into it, and the natural pond that takes up part of the mossy meadow before their new home is swiftly utilized to pipe water into a basement that they hollow into the cavernous stone beneath their feet.

The basement quickly becomes a sort of greenhouse, and it isn't until you see the glowing dots of tiny mushrooms in their fruiting chambers that you realize - you haven't seen any glowshrooms in the scenery carved into the wall, or any of the thick, ropy lichen that seems to be everywhere.

Slowly, the dim scene fades as the mushrooms die down in glow, leaving behind a shallow carving of a strange mansion carved into the side of a cliff.

The etchings in the wall here shift under a pale orangeish light, the cluster of noxious mushrooms planted in front of it radiating different hues that make the shadows dance and the carvings seem to move. Something about this feels magical, and you suspect that you are seeing much more than just artful shadow play on cleverly carved rock. As the citrine glow continues to brighten, the sketched lines gain more and more detail, quickly depicting a scenic landscape with small dragons moving across it.

It's clear that this panel is depicting the passage of time. The landscape glimmers as the explorers traverse it. Though they encounter other dragons dwelling in the massive cavern, they seem barely a footnote in the story, as the wide river and wider lake separate the strangely shifting steppes from the oddly twisting forest. The cavern is expansive enough that it easily encompasses both biomes while also allowing both to remain relatively unaffected by each other. These explorers care very little for the dragons living on kites above their canals.

Instead, the greatest focus seems to be the changing landscape, and the twine they had used to keep track of each other. More than once, an explorer gets lost in the forest or the tunnels and has to find their way back by following twine down a route far different from the one they'd taken. With the twine to guide them, the troupe grew braver, journeying far and wide through the strange tunnels in the cavern's walls until one of them discovers the mouth of a cave that leads to the surface, effectively ending their accidental imprisonment underground.

With the dragon standing in the tunnel, the glow of the mushrooms begins to fade, washing the scene away and leaving behind a crude depiction of the mouth of a cave, massive trees and swinging vines visible beyond it.

The etchings in the wall here dance for a bright yellow light, the fairy's tears colony brightening as you turn to watch it. Shadows cycle over the stone, and magic thrums in your ears, suggesting that what you are seeing comes from more than just clever lighting tricks and carefully molded rock. As the dim glow increases, the sketchy shapes etched into the rock gain more and more detail, until you can easily pick out the shape of several dragons against a plain backdrop.

The discovery of an exit sparks some amount of debate, and eventually a contingent of the expedition departs, leaving behind a skeleton crew that busies itself with trying to find ways to stabilize the ever-changing cavern and the tunnels that they hope to make their home, weaving enchantments into the wall that react to passing travelers, using activated magic to keep the paths stable - at least, as long as they were being walked. Once the tunnels were stable, they began to carve chambers into the tunnels, preparing the cavern for the incoming dragons they clearly expected to join them in the future.

One dragon in particular is frequently shown in the basement of the original dwelling. There's several jars around them, containing several glowing mushrooms. They open one jar, fishing something out and putting it in another jar. They watch as the new jar begins to change color, scribbling down something in their notes furiously.

As the scene shifts, the light begins to fade, leaving behind etchings that shape the mouth of a cavern and several dragons crowding into it, with the one at the front holding a torch aloft.

The etchings here appear to move under an emerald glow, the mossy maze mushrooms glowing brilliantly at the base of the panel. The way the shadows spin and the light reflects over the wall seems to be made of magic, and you feel that you are seeing much more than coincidental lighting spinning over reliefs carved into the wall. As the green glow swarms up the wall, the shifting shadows change, drawing details into the sketchy lines until you can see the shape tunnels and rooms, drawn into the side of the cliff.

The scene is a cutaway of the cliffside, showing a flurry of activity throughout the tunnels. In one place, dragons from the forest have carved tunnels to meet the dragons from the steppes, and a group of them can be seen chatting in an expansive cavern being transformed into a library; in several others, dragons are setting up barracks in alcoves. All around the curious manor, the myriad of caves connected to the tall beehive-like chamber are filled with dragons of all sizes.

In the room beneath the manor, with mist fogging the air from the pond above, one dragon in particular remains busy at work, taking notes as they introduce one jar of growth to another, and when they emerge from their laboratory it's to show their kin what they have discovered - a passive mushroom that can survive on a dragon's shoulder, providing steady illumination against the darkness - and a tasty snack whenever needed. It also appears to enable dragons to communicate with similar colonies, for as the mushrooms spread across the colony of beings, some lights would flash in response to others, and you get the feeling they are communicating, regardless of their distance.

Emboldened, the dragons begin to push further into the cliffside, taking advantage of the reactive environment and exploring further and further away from the original home, delving deep into the earth until some of the glimmering dots you know to represent dragons are nothing more than distant specks in a shady hollow that suggests a distant tunnel, very far away.

The scene would be almost cheery - if it weren't for the dark patch of something black and thick, growing in a forgotten corner in the lab. As you watch, the void begins to suck color from its surroundings, stretching out to swallow all the light that is currently creating this scene, and when the colony at the base of the panel finally dims, it leaves behind a blank wall, the stone smooth and bare.

The way these mushrooms are huddled against the wall makes it hard to look at them for very long. As you do, however, you notice that there are dark ropes of lichen tracing over the walls of the chamber in thick stripes, pressing against the edge of the arch. You're almost positive they weren't here when you first entered the room.

There's a dull, throbbing light in the center of the carbon cap colony, and as you watch, it grows brighter, a sickly blackish color spiderwebbing over the wall, reaching for the other colonies that line the wall here. When one of the stretching tendrils of dark substance touches one of the brilliantly glowing colonies, the mushrooms immediately shrivel, color leeching out of their caps until they are just as dark as the carbon cushion colony that infected them. One by one, each cluster of fungus turns black, losing light and color until the area around you is bathed in near-darkness. The only illumination here comes from the ruby in the ceiling above you and the arch across from you - though even that seems to be growing duller.

It might be your imagination, but it appears that the ropes of lichen are getting thicker, twisting over the stone of the arch and crawling over the ceiling. The air seems somehow thick, and you're suddenly aware that it is getting difficult to breathe.



You are standing in a circular chamber with a glowing ruby inset in the ceiling above you, casting dim light around the room. Surrounding you are eight different colonies of mushrooms that were several different colors, but now are all dead and dark.

Across from you, there is a carved ARCHWAY, with a small RUNESTONE set in the wall beside it.



You should leave now.

you should LEAVE NOW.
you should LEAVE NOW.
you should LEAVE NOW.
you should LEAVE NOW.
you should LEAVE NOW.
you should LEAVE NOW.
you should LEAVE NOW.




you really should probably go.