The Shroom Shack
Located in the Riverside area in the Night Eyes territory lies an odd Sunberthian restaurant. Not having a formal name but locally called The Shroom Shack due to its humble beginnings, though it is not clear how long ago those beginnings were as the establishment has not looked like a shack in most Sunberthian's living memory.
It is owned and run by the oddly long lived Karan Shroom, who took on as her last name the plant she is so well known for.
For quite a few years it has been a respectable multi-roomed structure, and in rather decent repair considering its in Sunberth. The owner is said to handle its upkeep herself, along with numerous tiny hands who are constantly running in and out of the business through its numerous doors and assisting the elderly woman.
It has one area above ground for seating guests eating, a kitchen area where the cooking is done, and a few small cramped rooms where workers on occasion will bunk. The kitchen dishes out a mix of mushroom based dishes, which are the main fare served. Mushrooms are either the central item in a given dish or its only component.
Officially that is all that is known about the business, beyond that are the area of rumors...
It is assumed the basement is rather large and holds the source of the mushrooms, along with a supposed underground steam vent which keeps the basement hot and humid, along with holding an entrance into the underground tunnel networks below Sunberth.
Karan supposedly grows the mushrooms herself with the aid of numerous homeless street children who are deadly loyal to their matron. They are her eyes, ears, and hands, going about the city and gathering bits of biological refuse which are used to feed and grow the mushrooms at such an alarming rate, along with bits of information.
And Sunberth being Sunberth, there is a never ending supply of food for her favored plants, additional rumors claiming that this biological waste sometimes includes dead bodies for the right fee which are safely disposed of and used as feed to make more mushrooms... Along with her possibly preparing and selling poisons, drugs, and hallucinogenic mushrooms on the side.
Regardless of the truth of this, everyone in her establishment always keeps the utmost respect when dining there. Various factions are forbidden from fighting inside her business, and to the surprise of many they generally keep to this peace accord... Inside the business.
Of course that might be in small part to the fact that the last time several men got into a scuffle, breaking a few chairs and tables and injuring one of her child helpers, the lot of them vanished without a trace shortly after and the food served for the next few seasons was oddly plentiful... Not that Misses Shroom had anything to do with it.
NPCs
Name: Karan Shroom, AKA “Misses Shroom”, “The Shroom Lady”, “Grey Shroom”, and “That old as petch Mushroom Lady.” Race: Mixed blood (Half Human, Half Isur) DoB: 17 Spring 368 AV PoB: Sunberth Title: Owner of The Shroom Shack Skills: Agriculture 65, Construction 42, Cooking 37, Foraging 48, Gardening 32, Intelligence 52, Herbalism 28, Philtering 45, Poison 40, Wrestling 58, Leadership 38 Gnosis: Cultivation (Single Marked) History: Born in Sunberth and initially raised by her human mother, Karan was orphaned at a young age and grew up on the streets when he mother was stabbed in a home invasion.
She never knew her father, gone before she was born, and while she knows little of her mother she knows she was not from Sunberth originally nor did she get pregnant there, simply having the misfortune to give birth in the city. Perhaps she planned to tell Karan the truth of her background when she was older or to move them away, but she died long before this could happen.
Karan has since learned of the Isur and what her slightly blue tinged skin and one arm hued slightly red means, and is not overly bitter. Instead she has focused on the good of her mixed blood, such as the properties it gave her which allowed her as a child to get by where other street children wouldn't have.
While she was smaller than others her age she was also a bit stronger and sturdier, and could see better in the partial darkness of the tunnels below the city than full humans. She also along with being small seemed to age slower, not as slow as an Isur but slower certainly than a full human. She managed to survive off a mix of thieving and scrounging, and harvesting mushrooms she found growing in the tunnels.
When she was old enough she decided to build a small home above one of the entrances to the tunnels, where she had found an underground steam vent rising to the surface in a partially caved in tunnel. By herself she dug out a basement so as to properly harness the vent. She then built a staircase and a roof which served as a floor to the structure above, on top of which she built a small shack.
Befriending some of the street children she grew up with, she had them harvest waste from around town. Refuse, half degraded food thrown out, and other garbage no one wanted or could use. In exchange she let them bunk in her shack and share in her food once it was grown.
Before long she had more food than she knew what to do with, a rare problem in Sunberth, more food than she and her friends could use. She decided the best thing to do was to sell it, and began making and selling dishes from the excess food stuff.
Over time her operation grew, in a few decades she expanded and fortified the basement and her growing operation. Her child friends grew up, going on to do other things both illegal and legitimate, some even joining gangs. She in turn took in more children and gained their support which in turn meant more waste and more mushrooms. Once grown however they never forgot her, and like the children to come after them who grew up they never spoke of her secrets or lost their respect for her as they grew into adults.
She also expanded her shack, turning it into a proper building, making a proper place to cook, another for people to sit and eat instead of standing outside her shack holding the food, and a proper place for her small friends to sleep.
Using her knowledge of the tunnels below ground and her personal entrance in the basement, she would send her street children about town to gather resources or information in time. Sometime during all of this she introduced herself to the Night Eyes, rather than them introducing themselves to her. She did this by having one of her street kids drop off a note at the home of one of the higher ranking members of the group, at their actual residence rather than one of the fronts or business they worked through.
A deal was brokered in which Karan worked with, not for, the Night Eyes. She would help with information and using the tunnels, along with serving as a point of contact and front for the organization to use. What she got in return was less clear, though it was said she got the better end of the arrangement afterwards by those few who were aware of it.
Over the decades Karan continued on in this fashion, slowly expanding her business into poisons and drugs and some simple plant based medicines, and deepening and strengthening her basement and the surrounding tunnels. She is sometimes seen inside the building, working in the kitchen or serving food, but seems to spend most of her time in her basement tending her crops where no one but her and a few of her select child helpers ever go. Services
Meals- Various mushroom based meals, such as: Mushroom soup, Whole steamed mushrooms on a stick(large single mushrooms), Mystery Mushroom & Fish Chowder (are the mushroom the mystery? The fish? Nobodies knows!) -5sm/meal (common quality)
Dried Mushrooms- 1 gm/lb
*Drugs- Various mushroom based drugs, mainly hallucinogenic shrooms. *Poisons- Various mushroom based poisons *Herbs- Various mushroom based plant medicines. **Body Removal/Disposal- Body removal by small children(taken at night through tunnels), and disposal by using as mushroom compost/food.
* Moderator Permission Required for purchasing poisons, drugs, or mushroom based plant medicine, along with prior lore of such services being offered at the business. ** Body removal/disposal requires prior lore of said services, befriending Karan the owner, or membership in Night Eyes, along with Moderator Permission being required.
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