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= Shire Wizard's (Unofficial) Guide To Foraging of the Depths =


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This is unofficial. I have done this for reasons of Having A Fun. Ignore if this is not a Fun for you.

A helloo and well met to all other Sinners currently entrapped in the Aruglean Depths from the Shire Wizard Magnolia.

 

As it seems in our eternal limbo we are still subject to hunger, and I cannot find any soil that is neither rock nor choked with red clay, this notice has been made.

 

The water churns with vapours, boiling in some places, and like a just cooled cup of tea in others, with a slight sulphur tang when drunk. No-one has yet been able to catch a fish.

 

The only Creatures thus far I have found were one single two-legged thing, like a frog, stone legs dipping into a pool of molten rock, and quite cosy looking of himself. If one could even find or catch another, he's far too charming for me to bring myself to hunting.

 

There appear to be some carry-over plants from the good dirt of Knox – grasses, shrubs, vines. But in a testament to the Aruglean nature of these Depths, none are the humble crops by which we must live. Tough, and inedible. Kelp in the waters can be eaten, yes, but one cannot live on that alone.

 

And thus, we must eat whatever kind of foliage we can scrape up with our teeth.

 

My arcane wizardry knowledge hath granted me with secrets of how to do thus, without Dying Absolutely.

 

A note, that the arcane Wizardry has not granted me knowledge of any medical applications of these plants. Supplies will dwindle, and I am not sure if we will go to A Slightly Worse Hell if we die again. Best avoid!

 

Anyhow, we shall begin, as all good things do, with The Shroomage. 🍄

 

- = The Shroomage = -

 

Common Red and Common Brown Mushrooms

 

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-=Beautiful mushroom art courtesy of the Wizard Magnolia=-

 

What appear to the the same mushrooms as found in Almaris, well known and edible. Brown commons have a flat cap and an earthy taste. Red commons mimic the poisonous Fly Argaric, but with a darker stem, and taste somewhat sour. Often paired in a mushroom stew, so hope you like it.

 

Yellow Spotted Bluecap

Another mushroom which seems to be like its cousin found above. Sometimes called Gnome's Caps in the Shire Dialect.

Should not be eaten. Results are unpleasant in the digestive sense.. Can be a fun high in small amounts, but a risky one.

 

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Orange Spotted Redcap

Again, another like those in Almaris. Probably related to the Bluecap, Shire Dialect is the same for them too.

These ones are also inedible. They irritate the mouth.

 

Shroom-Trees

Tough woody stems and fuzzy, draping caps, like a tree. Might be able to be cut for wood, but also rendering them to be like chewing on wood if eaten. Too bland anyway. Found in blues and reds, as many things are here. Smaller shrub like ones have also been spotted, very cute in my wizardly opinion. 

The leaves can be brewed into a dry sour tea, sticking to the tongue, slightly slimy in texture. Perhaps the best tea I've found so far here. 

Sprout glowing fruits. Inedible, taste of lamp oil and with a texture like it too. The light of these dies once plucked, though perhaps it can be preserved? The wood of the stems can be used for fire however, and burns blue, curiously.

 

Concerningly, I found what seemed to be an old, old stump of a giant red shroom-tree. 

 

Now whatever could have cut that down?

 

Giant's Wizarding Hat

 

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Waving, curly capped behemoths of a shroom. Even tougher than Shroom-Trees, almost like biting stone. A delight to behold!

 

Jellyshrooms

Another woody stem; but of a fleshy and transparent cap of blues and golds and purples. No use for it thus, biting into the jelly would feel like a welcoming trifle, but immense bitterness thus decrees it inedible. 

 

- = Non-Shroom Floras=   -

 

Bulb Ferns

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Fleshy green sprouts found near the base of larger green shroom-trees, the ones growing to the left of the coast by the falls. Once matured, round seed pods form on the end of the stalk, full of a jelly like substance. When ripe, they burst, and scatter seeds.

Edible. They pop like grapes in your mouth, though slimier. Taste like salt and cucumber. 

 

Pipestalk

 

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Fibrous green stalks that grow twirling up, up, to the roof of the Depths. Too tough to be good eating. Not toxic, but certainly made me feel odd for a while after biting into one. May be used for weaving, or the older ones like branches.

 

Artery Grass

Thick, red, round blades of grass that grow near shroom-trees. Full of thick red liquid like blood. Tastes extremely sour,  not at all sweet. Edible, theoretically, but with heavy protests of the stomach certainly.

Could be used to make curds for cheese if we could find anything to milk down here, or to pickle something, the juice of them being certainly acid enough.

 

Vein-Vine

A similar colour to artery grass, also leaking thick red liquid when broken, but in small amounts. Once again too fibrous to eat – although the new growth might be thin enough to chew like noodles.

A good fibre for weaving perhaps?

I intend to learn if it is knittable.

 

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Tube lichen

A gray lichen found growing on red shroom-trees, taking the form of clusters of tubes, made of a dry, powdery fibre, woven in ring-like shapes. Full of small white seeds.

Mixed with boiling water (roughly ground, seeds and all) it softens to the point of edibility – a promising substitute for bland, bland porridge.

Sifting the seeds out and steaming them might have a texture like rice.

Eaten raw, feels like a mixture of oats and string.

Might be ground into a flour if dedicated.

 

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Weeping Lichen

A purple webbing found in the crevasses of the glassy, black rock which makes up much of the walls of these caverns.

It perpetually weeps a bright purple fluid, droplets gathering on the rock. A deeper purple and more liquid than the Ooze which makes up the Various Ooze Pits I have found.

This is edible, in theory, only small drips are made at a time. Gathering it would take some effort. The taste is shockingly sweet, although with an aroma not unlike that of a doctor' office – a faint harshness like medicine. 

Lick it off the rock. Do it.

 

Lungbrush

A pink heather-like-thing growing from crevasses in the rock, tinted pink like a blush, with fat leaves Full of water and thin stems that snap. Grows close to the ground, carpeting it, or occasionally to head height as a shrub (head of a halfling, that is). The leaves grow in pairs, like two pink lungs, and can be eaten.

Tastes almost of unsweetened licorice root, and chewing it takes almost as long, the leaf skins being thick, like collagen. An almost metallic aftertaste. The most meat-like thing outside of mushrooms I have found thus far.

Doesn't seem to grow much among the more vegetation dense areas, like the shroom-forests. Some patches sprout near the falls and along the old grey road near there. 

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[!] And here, the stack of salved papers stitched together of reclaimed wool ends. Full of quick sketches, messy writing, and very little way to verify if anything written within is true. Copies are left near anywhere the refugees have clustered together in the caverns.

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"T'is is vereh informa'ive" says Mimosa Applefoot, a fellow halfling stuck in Arugula's wastes.

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A young Elf of no particular renown could be spotted digging up patches of Artery Grass, not that he knew its common name, but yet finding it a desperately needed condiment for otherwise subtle tasting mushroom foods.. How fortunate!

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Rosebud reads over the guide, and looks down at the fly agaric she'd already consumed, "Poisonous ye say? Nevah did me any 'arm!"

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