The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: Juan the Talking Mushroom

This post is part of the Immortal Naturalist's Guide series. The explanation for that series can be found in this post.

    Once every year on the summer solstice, a strange creature emerges from the soil of Thiefrest Island. The few locals who claim to have seen him say his name is Juan, and that he is a talking mushroom. Those who take some time to speak with Juan will find him to be quite friendly, explaining that he spends all year dormant under the soil and that the solstice is the only day of the year with the right conditions for him to rise out of the ground. Standing roughly six feet tall when grown, Juan truly seems to have no motives beyond having good conversations on the one day a year he can speak with others. To this end, Juan the Talking Mushroom will do everything in his power to attract good conversation partners and get rid of boring ones. Although before he gets to speak with anyone they need to make their way to the exact center of the island, a task made difficult by the dense forest of the island Juan lives on. 

    Juan has two magical abilities that help him in his goal. The first is that when Juan emerges, he produces a mild psychic signal that gives intelligent and well-traveled an urge to visit the exact center of the island. This compulsion gets stronger or weaker depending on how good of a conversation partner an individual be, and also based on how close they are to Juan. The second magical ability Juan has is that he is able to produce spores from his cap at will. These spores, when inhaled, have a strong hallucinatory and narcotic effect, and they are used to distract boring conversation partners and make room for the cream of the crop. Although the spores are tiny, a cloth mask can keep one safe from their effects and allow a person keep talking with Juan even after he is done. I never had to use such tactics to talk with Juan, and I actually try to visit him on the summer solstice each year to fill him in on what I have seen since we last talked.

    Although I have only brought it up once or twice, Juan seems open to the idea of allowing someone to collect his spores for recreational use, but it is unclear how long the spores would maintain potency after collection. Hallucinogens aren't really my thing, so I have chosen to leave that experiment for someone else. The mycelium that Juan emerges from every year is also of value. Juan wouldn't appreciate it since the mycelium is a part of him too, but it would be lucrative. When ingested, this mycelium increases the memorization abilities of the user. While the effect does not last for more than a few hours, it allows a person to perfectly memorize just about anything for as long as the substance stays in their system.