Myces Mushrooms

Giant Cavern Mushrooms

Myces are the largest edible mushroom of Aldern and are native to the sunless caverns below the Cutting Mountains. These mushrooms grow naturally in wet humid environment of the Night Below and are often farmed by Dwarf and other underground dwelling people. Wild myces grow to an average height of 3 feet tall, with similar cap diameter. However, cultivated in the farms of dwarves, they can grow up to 7 to 8 feet tall in many cases. This is largely due to centuries of horticulture skills, as well as keeping the mushrooms well-watered but in drier air, increasing their growing cycle and size. This is often done by keeping braziers burning throughout their forests.

Natural caverns with wild myces are the oasis of the Night Below with many herbivorous creatures gathering due to the food and water supply. This also attracts the carnivorous predators for the hunt. These caverns are few and far between. Which has only grown rarer over time as they are usually taken over by dwarves or Juhl'are, with a town forming up within.

The myces mushrooms have a natural dull red coloring on their outside, with a pale white body within. The mushroom's spores are toxic, though not deadly and are highly reflective of light around them, making the myces' cap underbelly seem to glow when exposed to light.

While the spungy 'meat' if the myces can be eaten raw, it has a bland flavor, often described as eating a solid form of air. Cooking the 'meat' of the mushroom causes it to absorb the smoky flavor of fire. Spices and herbs are often added to the fires, with many saying the mushroom changes the natural flavors of these additives. Chefs from across the Night Below have created whole meals out of myces that if the eater goes only by taste alone, he would think he was eating a variety of foods rather than a single fungus made meal.