Mario and Luigi

The Shaman of Shadows

Area 1: The Living Thicket

1-3: The Vibe Shroom of the Mushroom Woods

After resting, Luigi used his Warp Whistle and returned to the Living Thicket. Taking the Warp Pipe he found with the Dark Light, Luigi emerged in a thick dense forest made entirely of massive mushrooms. Luigi walked around to take in his surroundings. He was astounded at all the scales suspended in the air that shifted with a person's weight.

Greaper appeared in a flash, "Hmm, the mysterious Mushroom Woods, huh? This place has seen some hard times. If you find a druid, they may provide some insight," he said as he vanished.

Luigi hummed his tune as he began his journey through the Mushroom Woods. He quickly noticed that intense footwork was needed and his slippery shoes made this hard. The ground was full of very deep pitfalls and uneven terrain. He came to an elderly druid who was aimlessly wandering around. Luigi decided to speak with him.

"Hey there young fella, thanks for making our village safe again. In return, I'll give you some tips about this place. If you're here then you've found the Vibe Doors, no doubt. Yes, that would make things hard if you're going to get farther into the Thicket. Here, in the Mushroom Woods exist Vibe Shrooms. There are four; the Rage Shroom, Calm Shroom, Joy Shroom, and the Gloom Shroom. If you've been to Vibe Island before then you may be familiar with how these emotions work. However, here in Mage Land, these shrooms are a danger. Eating or touching one can send you into a laughing fit, uncontrollable rage, a fit of sadness, or a drowsy shamble. If you're in a dangerous situation being under these effects can give an opening for your enemy. These effects can also make it very hazardous to safely traverse dangerous areas. The effect will lift once you come into contact with another shroom or leave the area, much like allergies. The only beneficial effect these shroom's effects have is they open the corresponding Vibe Door to what emotion you're currently under. Beware though, ghosts here are also under these vibe effects. That makes them unpredictable, so be careful," he explained thoroughly.

Luigi thanked the helpful druid and decided to continue on. He quickly noticed the four emotions being expressed by haunting disembodied voices deep in the darkness of the woods. Unnerved, Luigi decided to scale the woods to get to higher ground. He jumped up to some scales and quickly walked across blocks until he made it atop a large dried mushroom. The mushroom was unstable and it cracked under Luigi's steps. Unlike many mushroom trees encountered in the past, Luigi found that these ones did not have the bouncy trait the others had. As he kept hopping from mushroom tree to mushroom tree he hit blocks and collected their goods. However, one block Luigi punched produced an item he had never encountered.

The strange object was a shiny round mirror with a patina frame and two black eyes. Curious, Luigi chased the mirror down as it bounced wildly around. As he grabbed it he felt a powerful surge of magic run through him. In a shining transformation, Luigi inspected himself to find his body was now reflective like a mirror, "Oh, yeah, go Weegie!" he cheered.

Merlessa's voice echoed in Luigi's mind, "Nice one! You got a hold of a Magic Mirror! Those fellas can give a person a magical reflective body that repels any kind of attack. It can even destroy foes simply by having you run into them! It's a really nifty item!"

"Yahoo!" Luigi cried out as he began bulldozing through the woods plowing down any resistance that tried to bring him harm. Any projectile and attack bounced off and returned to the user, destroying them. He quickly got lost in his joyous leaps and jumps until finally, the Magic Mirror's power had run its course and wore off. Only, he was in mid-jump when this occurred and he headed straight for a Red Ghost that was readying its fist. With a quick lunge, the nasty ghost sucker-punched Luigi and it sent him hurling downward towards a spike-filled pitfall. Luigi could only look on in horror as he plummeted. "No!" he screamed as something strange occurred. His descent was halted by a large shadowy hand. That hand acted like a springboard and launched Luigi back into the air where he landed safely in a small alcove. Luigi looked back and the hand gave him the 'V' sign and vanished. He blinked a few times in disbelief but felt lucky regardless.

Luigi trotted through the small cave and found another Hint Block and collected its EVP. "Great work, Luigi!" Gadd informed him over the iHaunt.

As he made his way out of the alcove a small pool of water awaited him. Deciding to go for a swim, Luigi dived right in and swam around the water-logged ghosts to find himself inside a small cave with no exit. It was filled with blocks, however, and Luigi hit all of them and even found a Hidden Block with a massive cache of treasure within. He eagerly cleaned up the treasures and left the cave the same way he came in.

Eventually, after some more ghost busting, Luigi found himself at a Vibe Door. Dry Bones appeared. "Well, it looks like you'll have to use those Vibe Shrooms to get further into the woods, huh?" he said as he vanished.

Reluctantly, he retraced his steps until he found a mushroom that matched the emotion on the door. He ate the Joy Shroom and he began to giggle uncontrollably. Although these laughs were as random as the hiccups, they would come out when Luigi attempted to make some sort of attack. He would stop in his tracks and let out a deep laugh. He quickly realized these shrooms were as dangerous as he was warned and quickly and cautiously returned to the Joy Door. Upon returning to the door, Luigi placed his hand on it and he laughed hard. The door let out a bellowing laugh as it opened for him. "Oh, yeah!" Luigi cheered as he laughed.

This new area of the woods was very dark and had a lot of small stagnant ponds littered around. In addition, the giant mushrooms had dangling platforms that were bouncy and very unbalanced. Luigi continued on while trying to keep himself under control from the persistent laughter. As he jumped and leaped, and avoided the local ghosts, he eventually came to a log cabin in the woods. This log cabin had nothing but Vibe Doors for entrances. He found another Joy Door and entered.

Inside he found this massive cabin was built like a maze. Vibe Doors existed within every room. The room he was currently in was like a small laundry room. Only two doors existed; one, a Joy Door, and the other a Gloom Door. He hit a lone block but found it only contained a coin. Luigi left this room to return outside.

Some time passed as Luigi attempted to inspect the cabin but quickly got stuck as many Vibe Doors blocked his path. Without Vibe Shrooms to change his emotional state, he could not progress further. Boo appeared before him, "Heh, more Doors than Shrooms, huh? I wonder if there's something special hidden in that cabin..."

And so, Luigi decided to pass the cabin for now and venture onward. A rickety log bridge behind the cabin stretched over a fairly large pond. Luigi did his best to avoid the skeletal fish that jumped at him while he crossed. At the end of the bridge, a small cave awaited. Luigi entered and found the glowing flora to be quite magnificent. Another druid was walking around and seemed to be searching for something. Luigi decided to talk to her, "Hello!" he said with a friendly wave.

"Oh, hello, sir," she said with sorrow. "You seem to be under the effects of the Vibe Shrooms, like me. I ate a Gloom Shroom and now I can stop..., 'sob', crying. I tried to use my misfortune to enter the cabin outside, but it had so many doors, 'sob'! The person who owns that, 'sob', cabin is said to have a Clarity Shroom which can, 'sob' clear up the effects of the Vibe Shrooms, but I think they barricaded themselves inside, 'sob'. I came to this cave, because, 'sob', I heard there's a special Vibe Shroom in here that can give you a new Vibe every time you, 'sob' bite into it. It even grows back while you have it, 'sob', so it never goes to waste! The Clarity Shroom is the same way, but the person inside isn't responding, 'sob', so I can't have a bite of it! To make matters worse, 'sob', I'm too afraid to go deeper into this cave to look for the Mega Vibe Shroom!"

"Luigi will find it!" he giggled. With that, Luigi ventured into the cavern. He first came to a fork and decided to take a left. This was a wise decision, as he encountered another Joy Door. He opened it and found a small room that contained some blocks, he hit them and a Gloom Shroom appeared from one. He ate it and began to sob rivers of tears as randomly as the last shroom's effects. Ahead of him was a Gloom Door that he entered. This cavernous room was very large and contained many Brick Blocks. As Luigi took a look around he quickly realized he was not alone. However, he continued until he came to the end of the room. A Rage Door blocked his path. He quickly went around hitting Brick Blocks until he found a Rage Shroom. Luigi ate the shroom and occasionally threw flurries of punches in an angered fury, "I have FURY!" Luigi shouted.

He opened the Rage Door and found a small room with many ghosts inside. The ghosts attempted to approach him only to quickly realize he was enraged. He comically defeated all of the ghosts with his Raging Thunderhand and after he did so, he then found this room to be empty. Curious, Luigi used his Dark Light revealing a treasure chest. After removing the pesky spirit balls he opened the chest to reveal a huge mushroom with four colored layers on its cap. "Yeah, the Mega Vibe Shroom!" he said as he left the room.

As Luigi stomped angrily through the Brick Block room a massive ghost made itself known. It was a humongous Broozer. It attempted to use its big red boxing gloves to bully Luigi. Luigi, however, was just as angry as the Broozer thanks to the Rage Shroom. He used his new Raging Thunderhand to quickly overpower the bullying spirit. Once the spirit was weakened enough, the Poltergust was able to suck it up. Afterward, Luigi used the Mega Vibe Shroom to leave the cave. He noticed the druid from before was right. The Mega Vibe Shroom regenerated after being bitten.

Greaper emerged from Luigi's shadow at the cave entrance, "It seems the druid that was here returned to the cabin. Meh, either way, you got what you came here for. Now you can use that Shroom to scour hidden secrets throughout the Thicket. However, I believe it imperative to retrieve the Clarity Shroom as well," he said as he vanished.

"I got it! I hope the person who owns that cabin is home," Luigi replied as he returned to the cabin. The druid woman from before was pacing the deck outside but this time she was very calm and drowsy. She barely gave Luigi anything more than sleepy gibberish when spoken to, so Luigi decided to enter the cabin. Navigating the cabin was now a breeze thanks to Luigi's new treasure. He was able to beat the ghosts within, find loot, and finally make his way to the attic. The attic was empty, lonesome, and dark. A treasure chest lay at the back near a small circular window. Unfortunately, before Luigi could come near the chest, a Boo appeared and made it vanish. It then laughed at Luigi and ate a Joy Shroom. It then began to chase Luigi around the attic while laughing madly. "Mama Mia!" Luigi shouted in distress.

Luigi bit into his Shroom until it gave him the vibe of Rage again. He pounded the laughing Boo with flurries of lightning-charged punches until it was dizzy. Frustrated, the Boo ate a Gloom Shroom and ghostly tears dripped from its eyes and coated the floor. This also turned out to work against it as the water left behind made Luigi's Raging Thunderhand even more powerful. The Boo quickly changed over to a Rage Shroom and it began throwing a fit. It tried to pulverize Luigi with spinning dives that lit its body with blue ghostly fire. Luigi found that he had to time his attacks just right and hit the Boo back as it barreled towards him. With three good whacks, Luigi found himself victorious. The Poltergust slurped up the Boo and revealed the treasure box it hid. Inside, was a large plain white mushroom with a look of harmony. Luigi took a bite and his condition cleared up. He was once again normal. A druid came up to the attic to meet him. He seemed relieved, "I-is that awful ghost gone for good?" he asked with growing optimism.

"Mm-hmm!" Luigi nodded. "All taken care of!"

"Oh, thank the stars!" he said with relief. "It seems you found that Clarity Shroom. You can keep it, I just use magic to cure any emotional abnormalities, but that young woman outside could probably use a bite. I would have given her some but I was a tad preoccupied as you could tell."

With that, Luigi was escorted out and the elder bid him farewell. Luigi then shared some of the Clarity Shroom with the druid outside. When she came to, she was immensely grateful, "Oh, thank you, mister! I feel so much better now, here take this, it isn't much but it's the least I can do!" she said as she handed over three Wizard Coins. "I'm getting out of here, you'd best do the same!" she said as she left.

The three musty fears appeared. Greaper spoke first, "Well now, that was rather emotionally stressing, wasn't it? Either way, we got what we came here for, so let's go back to that door in the thicket shall we?"

Boo interjected, "Uh, are we just going to ignore the strange hand that saved Mr. Green here or what?"

Dry Bones rattled, "No, but what more can we learn by hanging around here?"

"Alright, alright, good point," Boo caved. "But, there may be a secret passage somewhere around here, so if you want some more time to look around then go ahead. Otherwise, blow that whistle, and let's go."

Luigi decided to look around some more just in case. He returned to the cave where the Mega Vibe Shroom was and took a different path. There seemed to be nothing here so the Poltergust used the Dark Light, and sure enough, a Calm Door appeared. He did away with the spirit orbs and entered with the use of the Mega Vibe Shroom. The small room he entered contained a Warp Pipe that led to an unknown place. He entered the pipe, "Here we go!"

*?*

Luigi appeared inside a massive empty room with a P Switch on the floor. Luigi smiled as he knew where he was, "This is a Switch Palace!" he said as he approached the P Switch.

Before he could get close enough to step on it though, Greaper appeared, "Well, lookie what you found! It seems the Rag Hag has sealed away some magical force that may be used against her, so let's do ourselves a favor and unseal it!"

Luigi nodded and stepped on the switch a wave of Gold Mouse Ghosts swarmed the floor. The Poltergust's AI went crazy as it began devouring every mouse Luigi got close to. He sucked up as many as he could to gain the copious amounts of treasure they left behind. After the treasure hunt had ended, Luigi entered the Warp Pipe and was brought to a hallway. He continued down the hallway until he entered a large square room with a massive '!' Switch at the center. With a joyful expression, Luigi leaped high and ground pounded the switch. The depressed switch released a rainbow-colored wave of magic across Mage Land.

The Three Musty Fears appeared. "I wonder what that switch kept sealed away?" Greaper asked rhetorically.

"Whatever it was, the Rag Hag is probably aware that something's not right," Boo claimed.

"Heh, yeah, whatever she's got planned is about to start crumbling!" Dry Bones added.

"Alright, that's enough, we should head back now," Greaper said calming the mood. "We are almost to the Haunted Greenhouse where this curse is originating. So if you please?" Greaper said politely. Luigi nodded and needing a little rest, he used the Warp Whistle and headed back to the village.

*End of Chapter*