Culinary Fungest

The **Culinary Mushroom Forest** consists of various gigantic exclusively edible mushrooms and is inhabited by small also edible mushroom spirits called Mushroomites to whom the large mushrooms are sacred, which is why they defend them with their lives against pests such as the horse-sized dire snails or hungry hikers. Due to their small size, however, the mushroom spirits do not pose much of a threat to humans unless they appear in flocks, as they do near their underground truffle gardens. The most abundant species of giant mushrooms native to this forest are Boletus edulis, Cantharellus cibarius, Calocybe gambosa, Macrolepiota procera, Gomphus clavatus, Morchella esculenta, Kuehneromyces mutabilis and Flammulina velutipes. Also native to these forests are the people of the root dwarfs, who have succeeded over the millennia in domesticating the giant snails as mounts. They eke out their existence as peaceful but well-fortified fungitarians in their secret kingdom below the fungest.

   The so-called Chanterelle Hohlway runs through the Fungest as a central trade route for rare mushrooms. It is named like that because the path has carved into the surrounding terrain through centuries of use by carts and cattle, as well as stormwater runoff. Especially in autumn you can see horse-drawn carriages loaded with huge edible mushrooms rolling through the area.

The Culinary Fungest is one of the three great regions described by Jaalibali during his travels through the Fungest. This was the place where they ran aground, and they thus recorded quite a lot of it, since everything there was new for them. Over the years, explorers and traders have expanded this knowledge, and ties between the humans and the local populations of mushroomites and root dwarves have been established.

The region is the most fertile part of the entire Fungest, sporting the highest density of fungal forests in the north of Giantstep. Some areas even have near daily rains, forming the perfect conditions for mushroom growth. The biggest mushrooms can reach around a dozen meters of height, usually in symbiosis with lichens, and under their shadow, a plethora of smaller mushrooms can grow, taking advantage of the cold and humid breeze. Some use the great trunks of the lychen-mushroom hybrids as a platform to grow; others are parasites, eating some of the nutrients obtained by the forest giants; others grow in the ground, in between the lychen-mushrooms; and others prefer to expand underground, only having tiny stem and cap, but with a mycelium expanding for kilometers. This incredible diversity maintains hundreds of different species, many of which are edible. The mushroomites defend the forest both from the natural predators and from the outsider threats.

The coast of the Culinary Fungest has the most amount of human cities of any of the regions of the Fungest. Since the region can produce a staggering amount of edible mushrooms, it was perfect for the early settlers, and the humans from the cities have established many routes through the forest to reach some of the hidden caches of mushrooms. This has caused quite a lot of conflict with the mushroomites, so the human gatherers have to be very careful so as to only pick those mushrooms allowed by the mushroomites. What criteria the wardens of the fungi use to decide which ones are to be taken and which ones are to be left alone is something only the mushroomites know. The amount of shipments from the depths of the forest have caused to form many routes to the cities. The most important of all, the “Chanterelle Hohlway” Road, goes from the city of Nonokoset to the furthest depths of the Fungest, and connects dozens of small roads into it, becoming a vital part of the economy of the human cities. The runway need constant maintenance, since it will be pulled apart and swallowed by the forest if given the chance, either sank in the mud due to the frequent rains or swallowed by the fungi forest. This roadway also connects with some of the root dwarven holds, both those in the surface and those underground, working in the massive truffle mines and gardens.