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I was painting the basecoat onto some cork bark mesas, but to my surprise and horror the paint dried to a gloss finish.

How bad is this in reality? My first thought was to start over or find a way to strip it, but after some thought I'm not so sure. With it being a basecoat there is the hope that after washing, drybrushing and varnishing it will lose its shine? I guess another solution would be to paint over it in a matt paint, but I'm concerned about obscuring any more detail.

I would appreciate it if you could give me any advice or whether I should consider this a loss and a learning experience?

Matte sealer or a matte spray paint lightly dusted should give you enough "tooth" for the next layer.
Matte seal at end to kill any gloss an you should be good.
Crisis averted!

Just matte varnish it when you're done. There are lots of matte varnishes out there, both spray and brush-on, and varnishing your paint job is never a bad idea anyway as it makes it more durable. No stripping is needed, and I doubt stripping cork would work all that well anyway.

You can always go back and forth from gloss to matte with varnish, so it's no big deal at all.

I did that with a satin primer, matte varnish fixed it right up

Reaper Master Series Anti-Shine Matt Additive. You only need a little bit in your paint (otherwise it lightens the colour), but it kills gloss completely. I use it all the time since i like a matt finish.

Thanks for the swift replies, that reper master series stuff should prevent any future accidents

I'm going to pick myself up a bottle of that and a can of sealer and/or varnish

I'm from the UK and if anyone can reccomend me a brand that they know of that would be appreciated, but otherwise I think we can call this crisis averted

None of the materials were expensive, the whole kerboodle would only run to about £10 if i had to start over, but it's just that time investment you know?

One more question, is there a difference between "sealer" and "varnish", as this is one of those situations where a google seems to have confused matters more. Both come in a can, but sealer seems to be aimed towards protecting artwork rather than a 3d surface.

Testor's Dullcote should do the trick as a matte spray.

Afraid I can't offer much on the sealer/varnish distiction.