Psychic Beer

Mushroom beer has been a staple in dwarven halls and homes since time immemorial. With the founding of the Tortoise Conclave a growing population of "earth dwarves" found themselves in the lowlands without the comfort of their favorite beverage.

Thane McDrakon, the ruler of Kul in the Ironspike Mountains, discovered a previously unknown cavern system on the lands newly assigned to him in the Zone. He built a prison on top of them to prepare for the next stage of his plan to bring mushroom beer to the lowlands.

He sent his most loyal grag, Ragmus Randar, to the "dirt", despite protests and pleading from the poor dwarf. Ragmus successfully spawned several cultivars of mushrooms in the caverns. He used the free labor from the prison to cheaply manufacture beer that could be sold at a premium as "imports from Kul."

To the delight of the thane and grag, the mushrooms under the prison began to mutate from the extraplanar magic of the Kirinal Pit. They began to brew their own unique premium beers, that were profitable enough for them to stop making "imports."

Their most popular brew was psychic beer, made from blue hexocybin mushrooms. The new variety of fungus was unpredictably magical and sometimes poisonous. When eaten or made into tea on their own they produced spectacular surges of wild magic.

The dwarves of Farge McDrakon sought a way to profit from the mushrooms without opening themselves up to sanctions from the Zone Authority. They developed a method to denature the hexocybins. They brewed a milder beer that granted their drinker magical, but mostly harmless, powers.

Farge McDrakon became a boomtown as psychic beer became a sensation. The price of a barrel rocketed up to 1,000 bilog and the thane and the grag became rich dwarves. Then the hexocybin colony began to scream.

The story of the Myconid Mother and her savior the Oak Father is well known throughout the Zone. Long story short, the elder ent came to the slow motion rescue of the mushroom queen. She now dwells with him in the Ki-Rin Forest, across the border and out of the jurisdiction of the thane and grag.

Grag Ragmus has been unable to grow blue hexocybins without the presence of the Mother. Their reserve stock is running low and this year's barrels will be the last brewed in Thane McDrakon's Prison Brewery unless they bring the Myconid Mother back or find another source of blue mushrooms.