On the Selection of Fungi Suitable for Long-Term Cultivation within the Undercity

The ability to consume meat, the physical makeup of mortals and animals, is a trait common to all sharded races. The tendency to do so varies both between races(furriken diets tend to consist more heavily of vegetables with some fish, while aslaran ones commonly lean towards a higher percentage of red meat) and among societies. Hallifax in particular has a higher occurrence of behavioral vegetarianism than much of the rest of the basin. Cannibalism, however, is almost universally rejected among shards despite a general lack of biological barriers. The consumption of shardflesh is a taboo in most communities, with exceptions for the cities of Gaudiguch(stemming, primarily, from a dislike for the concept of taboos altogether) and Magnagora, where certain races are considered a delicacy and all are consumed.

Magnagora itself can be broadly divided into three socioeconomic groupings: the overcity, the gloaming, and the Undercity. The overcity comprises those individuals that may be considered accepted in Magnagoran society: members of the Church, ur'Guard and so on, as well as the majority of the nobility and its servants and those directly involved with the rule of the Iron Council and Warlord. Among these individuals, diet is almost entirely a matter of personal preference.

The second set, those of the Gloaming, contains those living in the aboveground slums located north and west of the main city, outside the walls but legally within city limits. Food supplies are limited but, except during occasional instances of famine, nonlimiting. In particular, a thriving lower market exists, distinct from the markets of the upper city in both permanence and government approval: stalls found within the Gloaming are both untaxed and unlikely to remain active for multiple days. Violence between citizens is moderately common and typically nonlethal.

Lastly, there is the Undercity. The ruins of the old city, built during the Time of Weakness and subsequently built over, houses those who have failed, either through form or function. This includes viscanti born either into too high a concentration of Tainted energies or simply from inferior stock, and thus malformed(misshapen limbs, undeveloped sensory organs, other such issues) with no means at hand to remedy such, those who have in their weakness lost their sanity(or indeed were never in possession of such), and those initially of the lower class who have been removed due to either a failure to maintain their form, the undead body(as well as the traditional variety) requiring a significant amount of attention to maintain aesthetics, or a significant failure within house politics.

Within the Undercity, there is a highly limited quantity of what might be commonly considered food. The closest substances available are garbage available within sewage and the flesh of pests, commonly rats or dogs. Vegetables, at least the sort which have not been soaking in excrement for days, are completely unheard of. Horticulture is essentially impossible due to a lack of light, the streets of the upper city blocking even the limited amount present within and around the Blasted Lands. It is here, then, that cannibalism becomes problematic. As long as such practices are confined to the Undercity itself, there is no trouble. However, an underdweller seeking fresh meat from the upper city will encounter one of three possibilities.

First, that the targeted corpse is in fact dead. The consumption of this individual is in no way problematic besides perhaps appearing an insult to the deceased; however, it is certainly less of one than the simple presence of the deceased upon the city streets. Thus, it is of no consequence if the flesh is claimed by an underdweller; likely it would have gone to the mutts anyway.

Second, the apparent corpse may in fact be a rather stupid undead, as liches tend to appear quite fully dead while sleeping. In such a case, the individual may either die, in which case the death is deserved, or the underdweller is repulsed upon the corpse's awakening, likely dying. Neither case, then, is a concern.

Lastly, a particularly bold underdweller, or at times a pack, may seek to claim one of the still living. As this is particularly dangerous to the involved, thanks largely to the skill and prevalence of both the ur'Guard patrols employed by the city and the retinue employed by any nobleman of worth, it is an uncommon occurrence. However, the ur'Guard were trained and kept for more significant purposes than policing, and certain nobles have confessed a dislike for the need to keep security quite so visible.

Thus, inspired and assisted by the works of Librarian Windwhisper, in particular his On the Growth of Mushrooms on Assorted Substrates, I have begun efforts regarding the identification of a breed of mushroom suitable to life within the Undercity. Ideally, any result would satisfy two goals: resilience and edibility. First, it must be able to not only survive but thrive within the relatively unique environment. Excorable and other energies emitted by the Megalith, in addition to incredibly high concentrations of various sorts of particulate matter released by the Engine's factories, may limit the ability of certain base species to grow well. In addition, a good number of edible fungi rely on rotting plant matter to serve as surface and nutrition.

Within the Undercity, plant matter is limited to the occasional scrap of wood, more commonly spent as heat source or building material, and various forms of cloth-bedding, clothing, and so on. Thus, any suitable species must be able to grow on substrates such as rotten meat and dirt soaked with excrement. Meat is particularly important, as there is a habit within the Undercity for corpse piles to develop, the contents of which are simply too toxic for creatures, shards or vermin, to ingest.

Second, the fungus must produce edible mushrooms of at least moderate size. This is to enable ready harvesting. While various molds have already taken up residence within the Undercity, they pose significant inherent difficulty associated with harvesting. This both causes inconvenience and tends to result in contamination. Furthermore, they are relatively difficult to locate, an aspect exaggerated by the general dimness of the environment. Of course, if the mushroom itself is naturally poisonous, then the entire purpose is quite fully failed.

Now, it is known that certain aspects-size being the most studied-of an organism may be passed on, slightly modified, to its spawn. However, traits such as limb location or placement have never been seen to alter significantly. The scorpion may develop thicker chitin or change its venom, but it will not grow a second tail. Considering this, experimentation started with varieties of mushroom with varying levels of resilience, growth speed and size, and no more than minimal toxicity. Three varieties have been selected: Queen's Gravestone, Perrinep's Tears, and Orcish Yellow. Of the two best known medicinal mushrooms, both proved summary failures. Reishi, although suited to subterranean environs, proved to be overly sensitive to both industrial pollutants and general excorable energies. Earwort was dismissed due to having roughly zero nutritional value, despite its affability towards high taint concentrations.

Queen's Gravestone is a particularly curious morel that grows symbiotically with the common gravedigger. Any who has happened upon gravedigger pits within the Blasted Lands is likely aware of the odoriferous slime coating them. What most people are not aware of is that the slime is not purely a creation of the gravediggers. Rather, common gravediggers secrete a clear mucous with a less significant scent. Queen's Gravestone grows on this in combination with scraps of prey, and in turn releases the black slime, complete with its scent. The scent attracts scavengers, wild dogs being the most common, which in turn become prey for the gravediggers. The mushroom itself is an unremarkable grey color, with the main body having a honeycombed structure. The inherent dangers of harvesting Queen's Gravestone in the wild means that it is not commonly eaten, but when it is the taste tends to match the smell: foul.

Perrinep's Tears grow wild around the fields of Acknor and the outskirts of the Waste Storage Facility, and are named for a furrikin warrior who died leading an otherwise successful raid on Acknor. They are a close relative of the White Morning and appear similar, small, white, and waxy, but may be identified by red dots adorning the cap. Particularly weak orcs will occasionally eat them, but most inhabitants of the village seem to consider mushrooms an inferior food source.

Orcish Yellow is a variety of mushroom native to the ruins of Shallach, so named for the cap: large, flat, and dull with a yellow tinge to it. While the stem is almost woody, the cap is quite palatable, especially when grilled. The elders of the local orcs harvest mature specimens for consumption in rituals, the preparation for which causes the mushrooms to be mildly to moderately hallucinogenic.

Several molds were briefly experimented with, including several with natural luminescence gathered from Angkrag and the Undervault, but in all cases the rate of growth was highly wanting and the difficulty of harvesting excessive.

Given the varying composition of the Undercity, three different growth substrates were selected for testing and breeding purposes: assorted refuse(food waste, fabric scraps, wood shards), mortal shard corpse pieces, and sewage waste mixed with soil. Whenever possible, substrate components were gathered from locations known to have minimal levels of native taint. Tolborolla Valley provided soil and Bondero Bay supplied the majority of meat, supplemented by donations from the Arthar'rt Observatory. Five containers were prepared per substrate per mushroom type, with a small amount of tainted oil charged with necromantic energies added in to all but one. The least charged contained the amount of energy needed to animate a simple skeleton, while the most received enough energy to manifest a ghast. The intention here was both to speed any mutative potential, as tainted energies are known to induce such effects, and to further simulate the intended environment. One container per substrate per mushroom was left uncharged, to serve as a control.

No selection was performed at any point during the experiment. Every generation was purely the result of the spores of the previous. Uncharged units were measured for five generations while charged ones were measured for ten. At any point that mushrooms failed to spore entirely, that particular set was ceased.

Initial results, Perrinep's Tears

Uncharged containers produced initially unpromising results. Although the mushrooms grew normally in the garbage, growth was stunted in sewage and nonexistent in meat. In addition, samples grown in sewage proved to possess an unpleasant taste.

When minimal charge was added, the average weight and growth rate both increased slightly alongside garbage but provided no significant change with sewage. Minor charge further improved both primary metrics, growing faster and healthier than previously, with the difference between substrates remaining similar.

The third charge level resulted in faster growth in the specimens which did fruit, but mushrooms were by large much less healthy. In addition, their flavor was significantly worsened, a trait not present before. Substrates again retained similar distinctions, although if sewage still produced an inferior flavor it was undetected.

The final charge level included a complete failure to sprout in sewage and a shriveled, slow to sprout mushroom in refuse. These specimens were found to induce vomiting in all test subjects capable of vomiting. Those subjects unable to vomit instead perished.

Initial results, Queen's Gravestone

Gravestone was the only type of mushroom to grow in all environments reliably, although its growth was stunted in the refuse bin with average weight decreasing by slightly over one-tenth. In all cases the taste as well as smell were both significantly improved compared to wild samples, likely due to the absence of gravedigger mucous.

The results of the initial charge level proved similar to the changes witnessed with Perrinep's Tears: from the beginning, weight and growth rate were both improved on meat and refuse compared to the uncharged specimens, reaching roughly the levels found in the wild. The color of the last generation of mushrooms grown on meat was noticeably darker than the normal grey of wild Gravestones.

The second charge level also produced similar changes to those witnessed in Tears: expedited growth and improved health. The changing pigmentation of the meat samples was more pronounced. Curiously, the samples grown on refuse did not undergo the mentioned increase, their metrics instead remaining similar to the first generation.

The third charge level again had similar results to those demonstrated by Perrinep's Tears, which is to say that growth was heavily inhibited. Hue again deepened, with patches of the original shade becoming visible amidst the honeycomb structure in almost all samples by the final generation. An undesirable bitterness became pronounced at this point.

With the most heavily charged gravestone containers, an oddity emerged in both sewage and meat but failed to do so in refuse. Growth of Gravestone samples was, while not nonexistent, tremendously close. While the fungus itself was visible, the mushrooms produced were small enough to require basic magnification to examine with any thoroughness. Needless to say they were unsuitable for consumption.

The oddity emerged within a second generation grown within the same containers: a second variety of fruiting body, roughly the size of the original, wild Queen's Gravestone. This variety appeared black with lighter patterns and an odd sheen to its surface, causing the pattern to appear to shift in poor lighting. In sufficiently dim or bright light, the patterns disappear from view altogether.

Beyond the curiosities of appearance, these specimens, termed Queen's Shadow. While palatable to viscanti, even almost sweet, the majority of test subjects found them to be inedible if nontoxic. More comprehensive testing proved illithoid and orclach subjects to also hold a preference for the taste of Queen's Shadow. Subjects which had been raised or had resided within the Engine for the majority of their life were more likely to prefer Queen's Shadow over samples grown within uncharged substrates.

Lastly, Queen's Shadow samples moved to lower charge substrates either grew relatively poorly, in charge level two or three, or failed to sprout fruiting bodies altogether. This is, in fact, the only instance within the performed experiments of a fungus undergoing permanent changes: in all other tests, spores produced from any given charge level could be moved to any other container and produce the results expected from that container. Naturally, as Orcish Yellow and Perrinep's Tears both failed to spore at highest charge, it is difficult to say if the spores produced in such an environment would still perform as normal.

Increasing taint energies beyond this point causes a steady decline in the performance of Queen's Shadow until it failed to sprout entirely at roughly triple the intended maximum charge level.

Initial results, Orcish Yellow

Uncharged, this mushroom failed entirely in sewage, had limited growth on refuse, and only sprouted in meat after extensive effort was spent determining that orc meat was necessary. No significant change was noted over the generations.

Following the addition of initial charge, the mushrooms grown on meat also failed entirely, although this may have been due to the substrate itself failing: orcflesh apparently reacts extremely poorly to moderate increases in taint levels. Those grown on a refuse substrate underwent the now expected change of a minor increase in weight and growth rate.

Given the acquisition of Queen's Shadow and general failure of Orcish Yellow to grow well on all but the least suited substrate(refuse being both limited and already having uses, if nonideal ones), experiments with the latter were at this point concluded.

Experimental conclusions

Beyond the obvious deductions regarding the nutrition needs of the tested species, several others may be gleamed from the varying levels of taint energy.

First, an excess of energy will cause growth failure, although what is to be termed 'excess' is specific both to the species of mushroom and its environment. This may be seen in the rapid failure of Yellow on meat, the delayed failure of Tears in sewage, and the eventual failure of Queen's Shadow altogether.

Second, while the growth rate and size of most mushrooms are affected by the substrate, appearance and taste are, in most cases, not. Note the similar appearance across substrates and aligned changes in taste at varying charge levels.

Third, small amounts of excorable energy increase growth rate without affecting the mushroom itself significantly. I propose that the change is due to an effect on the substrate itself, accelerating decomposition. The fact that mushrooms grown on sewage do not undergo such a change supports this.

With the primary experiments concluded, it was clear that Queen's Shadow was the most well-suited variety for growth in the Undercity: high suitability to the most important substrates(meat and sewage) with acceptable growth on the remaining one and improved edibility among the most prevalent shards. With this in mind, Queen's Shadow spores have been deposited at two dozen locations within the Undercity as of the middle of 393 CoE. A later report will cover the ultimate results.