Overview
Muhhomore Reach, or just Muhhomore, is a large, swampy island located in the Vimir Sea. It is of neutral alignment and cannot be claimed by Clans nor Guilds. The temperatures are slightly colder than average, especially deeper into the island. Muhhomore is engulfed in thick, damp fog all year round with waters around it being dense enough to slow down entire ships.
Brief History
Muhhomore Reach, despite being massive, has never been of big interest to any kingdom, mostly because of its lack of resources and challenging terrain. Travelers and merchants do not visit this island much either, though at some point a very small stilt settlement called Fen-Fen formed on the edge of the island.
For a while, nobody has left nor entered Muhhomore; with most sailors being advised to stay away from it because of how irritating it is to manage through its surrounding environment.
Questline
You can accept a neutral questline at Fen-Fen by talking to the villageâs mayor, Mr. Marsher, in the back of the village. The man is surprised to see you, stating that Fen-Fen hasnât welcomed foreigners for a while and apologizes for its âlifelessâ state. Upon questioning him about the island, Mr. Marsher reveals that he lives in Fen-Fen with five other residents, though he notes how there used to be more. The food supplies have been running low for the village, while the waters surrounding the island arenât fit for fishing. Once proposed with going out into the sea to fish using the boat you spotted at the entrance to Fen-Fen, Mr. Marsher tells you that such a simple task has become impossible because of âMushroom Samâ.
Confused by the strange string of words, you suspect that Mr. Marsher was trying to joke with you, though he quickly breaks the silence and elaborates further.
According to Mr. Marsher, Mushroom Sam was a foreign alchemic that came to settle in Fen-Fen, exiled for murder of Mr. Marsherâs son months later. Since then, the man has been terrorizing the village from the outside; setting up deadly traps across the swamps, slaughtering all edible animals and sinking any ships that dared to sail out of Muhhomore Reaches waters â which is also the reason why only five residents remained alive. In turn, you offer Mr. Marsher to scout out and disarm whatever traps you can find in order to put an end to the unrestful state on Muhhomore. Your heroism does surprise Mr. Marsher and while he offers to reward you with something, he also advices you to be careful.
Revealing one trap after another, you can already feel the island being safer to traverse.. but as soon as you let that optimistic daydreaming cloud your senses, you feel a strong punch to your side: a potion flask that combusts into smoke upon impact, the overly-pleasant smell it emits knocking you out in seconds.
You eventually regain your senses, though the smell you feel now is more like rotting wood. It starts stinging the inside of your lungs in seconds, and soon enough, you try to move your limbs. Alas, an attempt to do so is rather futile. Youâve been tied up to a chair â a table infront of you, with Mushroom Sam on the other end of it. You realize the smell of rotting wood is coming from the table itself rather than the room; because the walls around you are soggy, rocky and uneven.
Sam begins talking to you, or well, interrogating you. He does it in an unusual way: sounding overly friendly, occasionally even giving himself questions in 3rd person. You refuse to give Mushroom Sam your name, the choice of which he doesnât mind, giving you a nickname âBad Luckâ instead.
Samâs primary concern is where you came from and why you were messing with his traps, on which you refuse to elaborate, worrying for what the man might do to Fen-Fen. Laughing it off, Mushroom Sam raises a crossbow over the table, shooting a small flask that pierces its way into your shoulder. After waiting for a while, Sam repeats the same questions. And this time, you physically cannot resist telling him the truth, no matter how much you try to bite your tongue or lower your voice, it seems as if words escape from your mouth on their own. You suspect that Mushroom Sam has shot you with a dose of truth serum, praying to Gods that he doesnât ask any risky questions while you are under its influence. Thankfully, it doesnât get to that point, though Mushroom Sam does tell you that you are playing on the wrong side by helping Mr. Marsher.
Sam offers you a great reward in turn for switching teams, stating that he is âthe real victimâ at hand.
Questline Split: Refuse to Cooperate (1/2)
Even under the effects of truth serum, you reject Mushroom Samâs delusional claim; backing your choice up by the fact that he slaughtered most animals on Muhhomore and laid out traps to murder people. Sam stares at you nonchalantly, loading another potion flask into his crossbow, and after aiming it at your other, unharmed shoulder, he pulls the trigger on the weapon. The bottle shatters on impact, leaving small pieces on glass wedged in your arm. The familiar, overly-sweet smell coats your mind again, knocking you out unconscious once more.
Surprisingly, you manage to wake up again. Mushroom Sam didnât kill you.. but as soon as you tap across your body, you realize that he stripped you off all weapons and armor. You quickly stand up, luckily not being tied to anything this time. As you look around, you spot a dock loading crane with a cage dangling on its hook, a swampy sea surrounding you, a table with numerous blue potions and Mushroom Sam with a large, heavy-looking bag a fair distance away from you.
Upon your attempt to approach him, Sam claims that you shall not worry about your belongings, as long as you âpay back for the trapsâ. You suspect that Mushroom Sam is referring to Drachma, until he points towards the cage, beginning to explain the ârules of the game, even though it wasnât intended to be played by youâ. Mushroom Sam recites the rules as following: a person is trapped inside the cage that will begin to slowly lower into the murky waters below once Sam moves the boulder tied to the craneâs rope mechanism. You are intended to throw the potions provided on the table besides you to try and afflict the hostage in the cage with waterbreathing, though only 2 out of 6 potions hold such effect.
Breaking the cage is impossible due to your lack of weapons; and if you tried to utilize magic energy, all blasts and spells would immediately shatter the countless explosive acid vials, resulting in the cage â along with the person inside them â being melted to atoms. Sam wishes you good luck, and before you are able to reason or grasp the situation properly, he sets the boulder in motion. Understanding youâre currently out of choices, you rush over to the identical-looking potions, nitpicking two out of the pile. You quickly throw them at the cage, where you finally recognize the person that is trapped inside it â Mr. Marsherâs wife, Mrs. Marsher. Itâs unclear whether or not either of the potions worked.
Mushroom Sam continues eagerly observing your panic atop the hill, not uttering a word. You ask Sam whether or not youâre limited to only two potions, to which he stays silent. Deciding to take your chances, you throw the remaining potions at the half-sunken cage, still not being able to understand if any of them worked. All of the craneâs rope is used up, leaving the cage below the surface of the sea. You rush over to Mushroom Sam, demanding him to raise the cage and return your equipment. He smirks, claiming that he will do the latter only once you alert Mr. Marsher about the âgameâ. Sam plays you like a puppet, forcing you to run back to Fen-Fen. As much as it would have been better to have fought Sam right there and then, you would be too vulnerable against him.
You reach the village completely exhausted, covered not only in your sweat but also the moist condensation that persists in the air at all times. You immediately alert Mr. Marsher, telling him that rushing back to the lone crane is urgent to save his wife. Without a second word, you start running again â with Mr. Marsher being able to outrun you to the location first. Both of you find your way back to the crane. You immediately check around for Mushroom Sam, who had vanished, though he did leave the equipment in the bag that youâve seen by him before. You get your things back and then begin to push the rock back into its original position with Mr. Marsherâs help, slowly raising the cage back up. When you do, however, nobody appears to be inside of the said cage, confusing you both. The mayor proposes you take it off the crane entirely to properly examine what couldâve happened â and after a while of inspection, you understand that the only possibility for Mrs. Marsherâs disappearance from the cage is Mushroom Samâs work.
Mr. Marsher sits down on the ground, broken by despair. Both of you have a small talk regarding Mushroom Samâs potential, with Mr. Marsher putting accent on how skilled he is with potion brewing. This reminds you of the truth serum you were injected with, so you ask Mr. Marsher to test its influence with a question about the skyâs color, to which you could successfully lie. It seems that the serum is no longer taking hold your speech.
After regaining your senses and breath, Mr. Marsher proposes to return to Fen-Fen and assemble a search squad to look for Mrs. Marsher and wherever Mushroom Sam could be hiding.
You do find Mrs. Marsher way before that happens, though. In fact, it happened as soon as you and the mayor stepped foot to the center of Fen-Fen, the exact same place where you froze in place â dread turning your muscles stiff. Not even the screams of one of the villagerâs could snap your gaze away from Mrs. Marsherâs motionless body, suspending on one of the cranes; the hook going right through the back of her skull, exiting through the place where her mouth used to be. Before anyone even tries to utter a word, countless potions shatter on the ground around you, releasing a suffocating, powdery smoke.
Calling it âsmokeâ is an understatement, actually. Whatever this vapor could be, it coated all Fen-Fen in its color in under a minute. Each breath getting harder to take. Even if the smog covered it, the picture of dead Mrs. Marsher still persisted in your head. Why would anyone go this far? What is Mushroom Sam trying to prove? That he is âthe real victimâ? Why did he give you false hope of saving a person? The lack of oxygen forces you down on your knees, gasping for air. Your ears begin to ring. The atmosphere has become so dense you can barely make anything out. Even when you see Mushroom Sam drag Mr. Marsher besides you, at first you assume itâs a hallucination â until Sam throws you a question. He asks you in an uncomfortably calm tone whether or not Mr. Marsher ever elaborated on how Sam âkilledâ the mayorâs son, whether or not he told you that the boy was terminally ill and that Sam was only trying to stop the inevitable, later exiled for something out of human control. Mushroom Sam states that he simply desires revenge on the mayor for ruining his âfresh startâ in Fen-Fen.
With your weak breaths, you respond to Samâs questions with a curt sentence â about how he uses revenge as an excuse for his madness. Sam turns back around, ignoring your response entirely, continuing to drag the unconscious mayor deeper into the fog as you begin to pass out. You wouldâve, if someone hasnât suddenly started dragging you in the opposite direction to where Sam went. Whoever it is, they manage to get you both into a house, where breathing gets easier. As you regain your vision, you realize that your rescuer is Oliver â one of the men you saw earlier at Fen-Fen. He carries you over into a room and puts you on top of a bed, telling you to rest until the potionsâ smog clears.
After resting for a while, you lift yourself off of the bed. The atmosphere outside of the window seems to have returned to normal. You step out of the house to be met with Oliver cleaning his musket. He notes how he checked on the other villagers of Fen-Fen while you were resting, assuring you that they are temporary safe.
Oliver proposes you to tag along with him to find wherever Mushroom Sam lives and hides in order to put an end to him once and for all, hopefully rescue Mr. Marsher as well. In order to get a lead, you tell Oliver about your first encounter with Sam and that it took place in a rocky room. Taking a moment to process, he suggests that both of you search the mountainous part of Muhhomore Reach to find that room.
After a while, both of you manage to pinpoint its location down: high up in the biggest mountain. After inspecting the area, Oliver tells you that he has good news and bad news. The bad news are that the room is standalone and useless, leading to nowhere new; the good news are that being so high up gave Oliver a chance to spot Samâs boat used to sink the villageâs ships by the shoreline. Eager to find something new there, both you and Oliver descend back down.
Despite his best efforts, Mushroom Samâs base has been found, located inside a crevice by the docked ship. You and Oliver proceed deeper into the tunnel, avoiding spikes up until you reach the main room. However, thereâs no sign of Mr. Marsher or Mushroom Sam. When Oliver prepares to shatter most of the potions stored across the handmade shelves, you stop him before he is able to do so â since any of them could have unexpected effects on you both. Oliver apologizes, admitting that he tends to be trigger happy at times. As both of you investigate further, Oliver spots a drawn map of Muhhomore over a wall; with some points highlighted on it. The big, fat X is what gets your attention the most, so you decide to set out and investigate the area â aware that it is most likely a set-up.
You manage to find the location rather quickly. Unconscious Mr. Marsher is tightly tied up to a tree while Mushroom Sam stands besides him, injecting the mayor with unidentified vials. Oliver quickly interrupts the situation by shooting at Sam, missing just by a few centimeters â though hitting a dark purple vial he was holding onto, resulting in it combusting over both Mushroom Sam and Mr. Marsher. Mushroom Sam nervously and hastily steps out of the smoke that the vial produced and turns towards your direction, claiming that he was expecting you to come. He continues trying to talk, noting how him and Mr. Marsher had a great conversation â but Oliver begins full-on firing at Mushroom Sam, forcing him to fight back against you both.
Questline Boss Fight: Mushroom Sam
Mushroom Sam wields no magic nor a proper fighting style. His weapons-of-choice are various splash and burst potions (most with a direct negative effect) that are intended for area denial, as well as a modified crossbow with which Sam is able to fire smaller but more precise potion vials with pseudo-injectors. Mushroom Sam can also (and will) abuse potions that benefit him for a short period of time, such as healing, energizing, invisibility and etc but is very vulnerable during their consumption. Oliver also aids you in this fight, occasionally being able to land magma-imbued musket shots into Sam and his potions.
As the fight progresses, the closer Mushroom Sam is to reaching 20% of his total health pool (total 13500 HP), the more erratic his movement becomes. This is a direct consequence of Oliver bursting the purple vial that Mushroom Sam was holding, which just so happened to be insanity. With it quickly being able to take hold of Samâs mind at lower health, the boss fight enters the second phase.
Questline Boss Fight: Unhinged Mushroom Sam
The Unhinged state of Mushroom Sam erases most cognitive function from his brain, leading to Sam making use of potions to their max. Abusing all positive effects he possibly can, Mushroom Sam regains his health pool at rapid rates: to the point where the HP points break through his max pool amount, even breaching the UI borders and continuing its growth further right on the screen. Attacking Mushroom Sam in this state is quite literally pointless in terms of damage and only serves as a temporary stun. Fear not, though: once he runs out of positive potions, Sam will begin to gulp down anything he can possibly find on his body, including the vials and flasks he initially used against you.
Unfortunately, Oliver will inevitably die to poison he was afflicted with via Samâs crossbow some time later into this phase, leaving you to face the maniac off all on your own.
This phase is mostly an âendurance testâ where you are supposed to take advantage of Mushroom Samâs buffs and the demented state the insanity gave him, running around and dodging attacks in order for Mushroom Sam to buff himself further. Sam will still chase you but at much greater speeds and resort to attacks that happen much more often, as well in greater amounts potion-wise. Once Sam gets to drinking negative status potions, the âimpossibleâ HP pool that he generated will begin to drain faster than it grew before, making your attacks matter once more.
Questline Split: Refuse to Cooperate: Resolve
Eventually, you will be able to completely drain all of Mushroom Samâs HP, effectively stopping him from attacking further. You approach his body on the ground, ready to finish Sam off before he is able to cheat the fight any further. You canât help but notice the effects that the insanity vial and other potions Sam abused left on his body; his skin is pale pink, eyes flickering in dim red. Sweat covers most of Mushroom Samâs face and body, making you feel how cold it is even without touching him. Through raspy and shale breaths, Sam runs his eyes around your silhouette until you both meet gazes. Mushroom Sam attempts to laugh but it sounds more like a choking cough. He weakly grabs onto your shoulder, asking if you could âfeel itâ during the fight. You remain silent, putting your wrists onto Samâs neck and suffocating him. Despite that, Mushroom Sam continues trying to laugh, tears and blood rolling down from his eyes. The last words you are able to hear Sam mutter out coherently describe an âitâ that was observing your fight the whole time, far from south. You theorize that Sam could somehow be referring to Aberration, though you donât let the thought take your priority away and finally manage to choke Mushroom Sam to death.
You check on Oliver, though his body has long gone cold. You gently close his eyelids, taking an honorable bow before stepping back. You free Mr. Marsher shortly afterwards. While he was splashed with that insanity vial as well, it seems to have only triggered light and temporary effects on his mind; being vastly different to the effects that Mushroom Sam experienced â be it the difference in their mental states, the excessive potion abuse, or even both. You drag Mr. Marsher back to Fen-Fen, where the villagers thank you for defeating Mushroom Sam and saving Mr. Marsher, though their attitude drops after hearing the news about Oliver.
The villagers advise you to leave the island for now, promising to send you a letter for whenever get Mr. Marsher to properly recover. Some time after departing Muhhomore Reach, you receive the said letter about Mr. Marsherâs recovery. Upon coming back to Fen-Fen, you are greeted with its remaining villagers again. They tell you that Mr. Marsher is eager to see you and is awaiting in his household.
Once you entered his house, Mr. Marsher will properly thank you for your vigilant efforts and putting an end to Mushroom Sam. He informs you that Oliver was given a peaceful resting spot and that Mr. Marsher expects the villagers to be able to finally sail out of the village and get supplies such as food and whatnot, maybe even expanding the village and reviving foreign visits to Muhhomore.
You are rewarded with the questlineâs XP and âExterminatorâ title of purple-reddish color. The Fen-Fen merchants will offer you discounts on their services and occasionally mail you gifts.
Questline Split: Agree to Cooperate (2/2)
Eager to know what reward is at hand as well as somewhat fearing for your life, you agree to cooperate with Mushroom Sam, the news of which he is very delighted to hear. He informs you that taking revenge on Mr. Marsher is his primary goal and your arrival to the island happened to align with Samâs preparations. He instructs you to abduct Mr. Marsherâs wife, Mrs. Marsher, alive from Fen-Fen and bring her to Mushroom Sam. Sam unties you shortly afterwards, telling you that he will be watching over your mission from distance.
Once you enter Fen-Fen again, Mr. Marsher will approach you, curious about the traps. Despite wanting to lie, the truth serum still seems to affect you to some degree, so you tell Mr. Marsher that you disarmed only the traps you could find. Afterwards, Mr. Marsher asks whether or not youâve encountered Mushroom Sam.. to which you reply with the real truth. The intentions of returning to Fen-Fen.
Mr. Marsher raises panic immediately, calling over the rest of the villagers. He hurries most of them over in a hurry, telling them to board the boat by the entrance to the village. As you try to approach them after spotting Mrs. Marsher among the group, Oliver blocks your path â stating that he will not allow for you to get any closer to his friends.
Questline Boss Fight: Oliver
Once Oliver blocks your path, the sailsboat with the remaining villagers will slowly begin to advance out of the dense waters of Fen-Fen. You are given a timer display (3:00), counting down to 00:00: the point where the boat would be considered as âdepartedâ. You have to defeat Oliver before the timer expires â but if you are unable to do so, the timer will add on extra minutes each time you lose.
Oliver utilizes magma magic against you, sometimes imbuing it into his musket. He will mostly play defensive, trying to cover behind obstacles in order to exhaust enough time for the boat to leave. He isnât a powerful mage or a warrior, so his attacks will feel quite weak and his total health is capped at 3200 HP.
After defeating Oliver before the villagersâ boat is able to fully leave the waters of Muhhomore, you yell out for Mushroom Sam to help. Not even a second later, a loud explosion erupts from up the island, followed by multiple grapeshots spiraling down onto the sailsboat with the villagers. After just two shots, it begins to sink. Mushroom Sam quickly rushes down the mountains towards you, telling you to go and get him Mr. Marsher from the wreckage. When you do approach the wreck, however, most of the villagers seem to have already died â the only thing remaining from Mr. Marsher is his hat. To not return empty-handed, you retrieve the hat back to Sam.
Mushroom Sam initially doubts that you were unable to find anyone alive, drinking a waterbreathing potion and swimming towards the wreck himself. After a few minutes, he returns with an expression much more negative than before. He snidely says that if he worked alone, things wouldâve went much smoother and that asking you to help was a mistake. Mushroom Sam follows up that despite wanting Mr. Marsher dead, this result âdoesnât satisfyâ him enough. After reminding him about the promised reward, Mushroom Sam vexedly pulls out a small flask of greenish-blue gradient, pushing it into his crossbow â which he fires at you right after. The small flask pierces into your skin, but doesnât seem to have any negative effect on your wellbeing. Mushroom Sam mocks you once more, calling you to accept your ârewardâ and scram off the island â right before walking off into the forest.
You are rewarded with a part of the questlineâs XP and one stat reset for the file you finished the questline on. Fen-Fen will remain uninhabited, which is irreversible.
Extra Information: Other Quests on Muhhomore Reach
There are a few more minor quests present on Muhhomore, specifically in Fen-Fen where you help out the villagers with their struggling lives. Before starting the main questline from Mr. Marsher, you are warned with a prompt stating that some of the quests on this island may not be available for completion later on, so taking care of them first may be a better choice for completionists.
Extra Information: Mushroom Samâs Drops and Mirage
Whether you helped Mushroom Sam or killed him, his boss fight will be available as a Mirage later on. He has a 15% chance to drop parts of his set, which provides the user with Attack Size, Range and Regeneration.
Mushroom Sam also has a 10% chance to drop his crossbow, which can be used as a âbow-typeâ weapon with infinite ammo or be loaded with potion flasks, though the firing time for the latter is at reduced speeds â each shot followed by a 5 second cooldown. When in flask mode, the ammunition (well, the flasks you put inside of it) will be âconsumedâ upon use.
Extra Information: Showcase Link
You can explore Muhhomore Reach as a showcase game, similar to what Iâve done with Attelum and Andreaâs Island, by following this link.
Credits
Credits go to Arcane Odyssey and the developers behind it, of course. Thanks to the Sea of Creation server (and its members, including but not limited to: Kierof, noah_spirit, JTN and Bluemin_Night) for generously sharing the game assets such as textures, custom face decals and certain meshes. Also bonus credits to anyone who read this far, I hope you found this interesting.
(Initially uploaded this post without proper tags such as âAOâ to see whether or not the Arcane Odyssey Discord server artbot is bugged â that feller has been ignoring anything I post for quite a long while now 
..and seems like it did that again. Iâm not sure what the issue is, because I know itâs not the volume of text or too many images; it ignored Lighthouse Island too, which is a very small post⌠Iâll just add the tags now.)
