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Bandicoot silver

Named after the animal that loves eating them and the colour of a different mushroom, bandicoot silver is a staple for bandicoots, gripplis, and elven people.

Bandicoot silver is an subterranean mushroom. It looks like a large, soft, round, golden brown tuber, except the area closest to the ground, which is perforated with lots of tiny dots, giving that side a rough feel. Gripplis and elven people have a deep appreciation for it.
 

Cooking

When roasted, the mushroom has a mild but very pleasant earthly flavour. The roasting also enhances the characteristic moon aroma.   Bandicoot silver can also be dried, although it then loses its flavour and enticing aroma. However, it keeps very well, so both gripplis and elven people reserve some for drying whenever they harvest it.

Eating

Gripplis add roasted bandicoot silver to stews or roast it for long until it liquifies and then use it as a sauce or dip. Elven people usually roast it until just tender and eat it as is.   Dried bandicoot silver is used to supplement many meals during the dry season. It is usually cut into small pieces and added to soups.
Finding patches of bandicoot silver can be done in one of a few ways:  
  • Memory: If harvested properly, bandicoot silver regenerates and it can be harvested again within a year
  •  
  • Scent: Bandicoot silver emits a faint moon-like scent
  •  
  • Association: The easily spotted silver death mushrooms only grow on the soil where bandicoot silver is
In game read-aloud
As dusk sets in, the wafting breeze brings the scent of the moon to the canoe. A wriggling mass of hair and ears appears from an unseen burrow by the shore and starts hopping, their nose following the breeze.
 
  Bandicoot Silver & Silver Death
While everyone assumes bandicoot silver & silver death are one and the same, in reality, they are two completely different mushrooms. Silver deaths are only capable of sprouting on the hyphae of bandicoot silvers, stealing some of their vitality for themselves.   It has long puzzled some people how the surface mushroom can be so nasty and deadly and the subterranean one such a nice edible one. Others simply take it as a boon, as it makes bandicoot silver more easily found and it can provide a poison when handled correctly.


Cover image: by Mgorey

Comments

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Oct 7, 2021 15:26 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

I love the relationship with the silver death mushroom, which I'm guessing is almost like a parasite. You make it sound quite delicious and, even though we don't really know what the moon smells like, I know what you mean. :D

Emy x
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