Subjunctive KoL: AstralMushrooms

In June 2006, a new familiar was introduced, the Astral Badger. The Astral Badger, in addition to being a fairly potent combat familiar, had an additional feature: occasionally, after combat, the badger would drop an astral mushroom. The badger drops up to 5 astral mushrooms per days. Generally the first few drop pretty quickly but getting the last few takes longer. The drop rate is apparently not affected by the badger's weight (the weight only affects the combat performance), although the familiar equipment (the badger badge) does increase the drop rate.

The astral mushrooms have an effect unlike any other. Upon consuming one, you gain 5 adventures of the Half-Astral effect (unless you already have the Half-Astral effect, in which case you cannot consume the mushroom). When you attempt to adventure anywhere with the effect, you will instead end up at the following choice (which does not consume an adventure):

A Journey to the Center of Your Mind (choose one of the following options)

• Take the Bad Trip
• Take the Mediocre Trip
• Take the Great Trip

After selecting your trip, your next five Adventures will happen in An Incredibly Strange Place, on the trip that you've selected. The area details are:

Bad Trip:

• Swarm of Country Bats (20 HP, 4 XP; orange-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Trippy Floating Head "foul stench" (20 HP, 4 XP; pink-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Trippy Floating Head "not Todd" (20 HP, 4 XP; green-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Trippy Floating Head "organized religion" (20 HP, 4 XP; blue-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Zombie Baby (20 HP, 4 XP; purple-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Violet Fog (see below)

Mediocre Trip:

• Best Carpet Ever (50 HP, 10-11 XP; purple-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Feeling That You're Being Watched (50 HP, 10-11 XP; pink-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Really Interesting Wallpaper (50 HP, 10-11 XP; green-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Urge to Stare at Your Hands (50 HP, 10-11 XP; pblue-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Visible Music (50 HP, 10-11 XP; orange-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Violet Fog (see below)

Great Trip:

• Angels of Avalon (150 HP, 29 XP; blue-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Bustle in the Hedgerow (150 HP, 29 XP; green-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Elders of the Gentle Race (150 HP, 29 XP; purple-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Gathering of Angels? (150 HP, 29 XP; orange-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Higher Plane Serpents (150 HP, 29 XP; pink-frosted astral cupcake; +0 meat)
• Violet Fog (see below)

The Violet Fog is also an adventure unlike any other in the Kingdom. You will always find the Violet Fog precisely once every five adventures of Half-Astral (although if you elect to leave the fog, which you can do at any time, you can fight a fifth monster instead).

The Fog contains 22 locations. You will wander through the fog until you either escape or arrive at one of the locations with a (1) and take that choice. Each location has precisely three exits, although the number of ways to reach a location varies from 1 to 7.

The three exits at a given location are labeled "This Way", "That Way", and "The Other Way". However, which one is which varies randomly from Ascension to Ascension. When you Ascend, the paths are all re-randomized.

Here's a table listing the layout of the fog.

Location	Exit 1	Exit 2	Exit 3
start location	(01) Man on bicycle	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(03) The Walrus
(01) Man on bicycle	(04) Chessboard	(05) Dali	(14) Riverboat
(02) Pleasant-faced man	(05) Dali	(06) Waterfall	(17) Man with sunglasses
(03) The Walrus	(04) Chessboard	(06) Waterfall	(20) Machine elves
(04) Chessboard	(10) Booze Item	(11) Muscle training	(07) The Wizard
(05) Dali	(08) Food Item	(12) Mysticality training	(07) The Wizard
(06) Waterfall	(09) Herbs Item	(13) Moxie training	(07) The Wizard
(07) The Wizard	(01) Man on bicycle	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(03) The Walrus
(08) Food Item	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(03) The Walrus	(06) Waterfall
(09) Herbs Item	(01) Man on bicycle	(03) The Walrus	(04) Chessboard
(10) Booze Item	(01) Man on bicycle	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(05) Dali
(11) Muscle training	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(03) The Walrus	(06) Waterfall
(12) Mysticality training	(01) Man on bicycle	(03) The Walrus	(04) Chessboard
(13) Moxie training	(01) Man on bicycle	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(05) Dali
(14) Riverboat	(12) Mysticality training	(10) Booze Item	(15) Not a pipe
(15) Not a pipe	(01) Man on bicycle	(05) Dali	(16) Hat
(16) Hat	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(04) Chessboard	(07) The Wizard
(17) Man with sunglasses	(13) Moxie training	(08) Food Item	(18) Busby Berkeley
(18) Busby Berkeley	(02) Pleasant-faced man	(06) Waterfall	(19) Garment
(19) Garment	(01) Man on bicycle	(06) Waterfall	(07) The Wizard
(20) Machine elves	(11) Muscle training	(09) Herbs Item	(21) Woman named Puck
(21) Woman named Puck	(03) The Walrus	(04) Chessboard	(22) Weapon
(22) Weapon	(03) The Walrus	(05) Dali	(07) The Wizard

There are nine possible outcomes to the Violet Fog (plus escaping, which doesn't take an adventure):

• (08) She's So Unusual (Accept the fish): munchies pill
• (09) She's So Unusual (Accept the fish): homeopathic healing powder
• (10) She's So Unusual (Accept the fish): ice stein
• (11) The Prince of Wishful Thinking (Accept the training): +var. Mus
• (12) The Prince of Wishful Thinking (Accept the training): +var. Mys
• (13) The Prince of Wishful Thinking (Accept the training): +var. Mox
• (16) The Big Scary Place (Take the hat): Cerebral Cloche
• (19) The Big Scary Place (Take the garment): Cerebral Culottes
• (22) The Big Scary Place (Take the weapon): Cerebral Crossbow

There are a variety of other ways to help you through the fog, if the chart above isn't sufficiently convenient.

• If you use KoLmafia. the latest versions now have a Violet Fog auto-mapper which allows you to get the item you want. Very nice.
• Gemelli and The Garden of Earthly Delights have constructed a nice interactive map here. You can just use it as a map, or use the "finder" feature to help you find something.
• If you use Greasemonkey, there is a Greasemonkey mapper also available, though it appears to be down at the moment.

As for the effects of the items, the astral cupcakes are straightforward. They function much like the snowcones (with the exception of the green one):

• blue-frosted astral cupcake: 20 Cupcake of Choice effect (increased item drops from monsters)
• green-frosted astral cupcake: 20 The Cupcake of Wrath effect (+10 monster level)
• orange-frosted astral cupcake: 20 Shiny Happy Cupcake effect (+3 stats from combat)
• pink-frosted astral cupcake: 20 Your Cupcake Senses are Tingling effect (+30% meat from monsters)
• purple-frosted astral cupcake: 20 Tiny Bubbles in the Cupcake effect (regenerate 20 HP and MP per adventure)

The other three items are more complicated.

• munchies pill: increases the Adventures gained from the next food you eat. While the exact mechanism is unknown, it appears that the gain is greater the worse the food is.
• ice stein: if you have an ice-cold six-pack, the ice stein allows you to consume it all at once, gaining twice as many adventures and HP as you would if you consumed them individually (although you still get 6 Drunkenness).
• homeopathic healing powder: increases the gains from the next stat booster you use (anything from the kind you buy in the Demon Market to a wad).