Followers of Amanita

Location: Wave Echo Cave


While we rested, our group chatted about the encounter with Seran, the Followers of Amanita (as best I can describe them - they seem to keep their name to themselves), the Amanita Zombies, and the destruction and death they leave in their wake.
We seem to have more questions than we have answers. But we finally had the right question to ask the goddess Arabeth.
I'm writing down all we can remember to help us figure out how to stop this rot in our world.

Excerpt from Stormy's journal.

What we know

What they believe

They may be called the Renewed.
They follow the goddess Amanita and tout Renewal, which appears to be control via a parasitic Amanita Mushroom
Cernan and I did an autopsy on one of the dead followers that didn't reak of the fungus. The mushroom sprouting on the back of his neck had spread into his brain. We figure it would take over entirely given time.
Those infected against their will, die and become an Amanita Zombie.
Both the zombies and believers can spew spores about 5 feet to infect new subjects. The followers believe it is a power from Amanita. The zombie victims aren't true undead, they're some sort of plant. Thoradin's axe Hew can take a chunk out of them easily.
The awful goddess is likely a necromancer and wants to destroy Arabeth.
Her Temples require sacrifice and gold—at least to set them up. We found the heart of murdered Mayor Udina in the temple's foundation at New Haran.
When we tried to get them to witness the power of Arabeth to turn from Amanita, they called us heretics. When Cernan prayed to Arabeth for guidance on why we couldn't convince them to turn from Amanita, she said that it may be possible but she's never seen it.

Infections

Seem to spread via spores from one of the followers or zombies. Seran spit on the pronged tool and jabbed it into a follower (so they are "renewed"?).

Followers

Voluntary, they line up to be renewed

Priests

Seran was called Amanita's son. (Cernan and Abathar were called Arabeth's children (session 13). So this is a logical assumption.)

Seran was extraplanar, a satyr

QUESTION: Does that mean a priest of Arabeth could undo the transformation?

History

100 Years Ago

Amanita's followers destroyed the Great Tree and called/forced everyone to convert/be renewed. (according to Abathar, Arabeth's first priest)

Arabeth said the great tree was her brother and Amanita used his own sword against him (the paladins?) (Session 13)

The Great Tree kept aberrations and extra planers out of our world. It can't be regrown.

Notes

But Arabeth's symbol is a tree, and she is growing rapidly. Not the Great Tree, but maybe something like it?
But Gormesh and Carrak appear to have had special dispensation?

When Stormy was 7 (18 years ago)

She heard people talking about becoming "renewed" about the time that the volcano on Kaldroy, her home island, blew up, destroying the entire island chain.

What we can make guesses for

Amanita wants to bring in extra-planers or is one, since she destroyed the Great Tree.
She wants to convert the world. (To what purpose?)

What we don't know

Beliefs:

What do they call themselves? Is it The Renewed?

What is Amanita goddess of exactly?

What exactly is "renewal"? Is the mushroom or spore placed on the back of the neck or is it inhaled and it manifests in that spot after infection?

What is their agenda?

Can we turn them from Amanita? If so, what does it take?

Can we heal them?

Possible missteps

Sending Simon, the banner bearer, back to Alador. Was he infected?

Do we need to check everyone we meet for infection?

Note to the WA Summer Camp Judges:
This article isn't meant to be judged. It's a living document for my roleplaying friends and me as we try to piece the puzzle together. I will edit it as needed.

Navigation

Deity

Amanita

Leader

Seran??

Known Followers

KEY

= Dead or likely dead
= Unknown location
= Known location

New Haran

Captain Borland
Alistair Magnut III (alchemist))
Sherry (bard and puppeteer))
The Asp(rogue assassin)
Wrin Becklam (underling for Borland))

Wave Echo Cave

Seran
doppelgangers posing as Seran
Minotaurs and Kenku (crow men)
Possibly newly infected dwarf zombies

Known Victims

Sir Clark (Amanita Zombie - destroyed)
the many Amanita zombies we've encountered and dispatched along the way