No, there was no odor. David Fischer (http://AmericanMushrooms.com/) thinks it may be an oddball Cortinarius; he noticed incipient gills in one of...
I tried posting with some more photos, but it doesn't show up. So: No, only the portion with debris attached was in the ground, which was thick...
No. The portion covered in debris was in the litter/detritus on the forest floor, so perhaps the bottom 2 inches or so. There were some decaying...
This formation looks like it might have a white mold on its top that covers the mushroom-like protrusion. When cut, the "cap" is rusty red inside...