Stalburg Mushrooms

Stalburg Region is a home to several unique native species of mushrooms.

Types of mushrooms

Green Mushrooms

Green mushroom cultivation in river.

Green Mushrooms are a type of highly-addictive psychoactive mushrooms, that grow naturally in the moist caves near Hammer Valley area. They were discovered for the first time during the construction of the Bergmann Water Tunnel No.1 between late 1940s and 1950s, and have since spread via the waterways all over the Stalburg city. By the 1990s these mushrooms, and their properties, were well documented in the Stalburg Mushrooms book. Stalburg Region is the only place in the world where the Green Mushrooms grow naturally.

Due to their psychoactive properties, they became a popular drug among local and impoverished populations of Stalburg, creating whole new black market. Upon intake, people tend to become more violent, and they experience various bright and colorful hallucinations. In some cases, consumption of those seems to allow people perceive the Other Side.

People have utilised green mushrooms for various culinary purposes, creating various dishes that incorporate the mushrooms, such as cakes, soups and pies. Some people, such as Missing Dock Hippie or Krista Annina, create green mushroom mixtures used in coffees and teas to allow travel to the Other Side. Despite strong regulations, green mushrooms found their way into commercial nicotine products, such as Winstead Cigarettes and vape liquids.

Green Mushrooms produce strong bioluminescence, which made them viable to use as a light source in Mushroom Lanterns. Green Mushrooms are also capable of performing a fermentation themselves, which is widely used to produce various kinds alcohols made with mushrooms instead of traditional yeast. Green Mushrooms also cannot withstand cold well, with winters killing off most of the mushroom farms.

Between before 1977 and 1986, S.N.W developed a bioweapon called S.M.V using a mysterious finding from the Bunker construction site. Green Mushrooms infected by S.M.V gain resistance to grow, survive, and slowly consume live animal bodies, including humans, causing a condition known in public as Fungal Disease, as part of its intended military purpose. People and animals with Fungal Disease are even more aggressive, than when using regular Green Mushrooms.

Since 2017 Fungal Disease outbreak, majority of Green Mushrooms in Stalburg became infected with S.M.V, however there are still protected sites where pure uninfected mushrooms still grow, that are supplied to companies such as Osmo Olut and Fungi Boutique.

Farming

In Obenseuer, the player can farm their own mushrooms, like any other plants, but with Moist modifier gotten in dark corners of Player's Tenement. When the player is high, they get a boost to crafting, highly decreasing fail chances of crafted recipes. Bags of mushrooms can be found from looting the Player's Tenement, and can also be bought from Svamppatrullen Mushroom Seller or Shrooms vending machines.

There are various products containing green mushrooms, such as mushroom-laced Winstead Cigarettes, glowing meat, and Shroom Water that can be used to satisfy addiction caused by the Fungal Disease.

A recipe can be acquired from Skeida Pharmacy, which involves treating mushrooms using Methanol and Charcoal to kill their viruses, allowing the player to safely benefit from their effects.

Orange Mushrooms

Cluster of orange shrooms in the coal mine.

Orange mushrooms are a rarer type often found in mines, and are speculated to make people go crazy. In INFRA, they are found only in a coal mine beneath coal-fired powerstation in West Stalburg. In Obenseuer, they are found in the mines and Caves where they can be gathered to be planted, and can also be bought at Svamppatrullen Mushroom Seller.

Orange Mushrooms have many negative effects on physical and mental health when consumed, but are highly valuable themselves.

Blue Mushrooms

Tank of blue shrooms in Kevin Herts's apartment.

The only places in INFRA where blue mushrooms can be found are around UGU in the stormdrains and in Kevin J. Herts's apartment in Turnip Hill in a tank, where Kevin notes that the blue shrooms have healing powers and can in fact cure people of S.M.V. However, he also notes that it is unknown if there are any side effects from them.

Currently, in Obenseuer, the only way that a player can acquire them is by spawning them in using console commands.

Red Mushrooms

Red shrooms among green shrooms at the site of Xeander and Eric's death.

The only place in INFRA where red mushrooms are found are in tiny amounts on the ground where Xeander Berg and Eric Kleinmann died. It is theorized that red mushrooms are a byproduct of green mushrooms that have consumed a person or animal.

The "special coffee tin" that provides the Mörkö effect at the Mulex CoPan Coffee Machine has a red lid, which suggests red mushrooms' hallucinogenic effects are very different than that of green mushrooms, and that the special coffee itself is red. Some claim that they can even summon Mörkö.

Properties

Green Mushrooms combine several traits of real mushrooms, the green bioluminescence found in Agaricales order, hallucinogenic substances found in the Psilocybe genus, and the carnivory of the Pleurotus ostreatus. Green Mushroom spores are highly toxic.

As described by experiments performed by Mushroom Co., the Green Mushrooms have trouble surviving in cold temperatures, decreasing their bioluminescence. Applying antifreeze on Green Mushrooms causes them to enlarge, but they do not gain additional immunity from the cold. A selective breeding of the most resistant mushrooms shows marginal effects of withstanding lower temperatures. It is said in the Stalburg Mushroom Book that Stalburg is the only place where the Green Mushrooms can grow.

History

The Green Mushrooms are first found while building the main Bergmann Water Tunnel connecting Hammer Valley with the city, and have been documented in the Stalburg Mushroom Book.

The origin of the virus itself seems to predate the S.N.W bunker, since the document says that "They found something" while building the bunker. It mentions everyone had left the bunker because of some kind of leak that caused immediate evacuation. All information on S.M.V was sold at some point to an unknown party.

Because Stalburg's residents were already heavily overusing the mushrooms, the virus has spread across the city, starting with Turnip Hill which was the epicenter for the resulting pandemic. The government has planned to clean the city from mushrooms and relocate every person diagnosed with S.M.V to a quarantined area in Obenseuer. Most of Stalburg has been cleaned since, causing a major overpopulation in Obenseuer on top of other problems the district suffered from.

Documents

• I just found our green mushrooms in a book!
• MUSHROOM CO. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMET DEPT.
• That Mushroom Co. fella is still doing that science thing.
• I found a green mushroom growing on my hand this morning.
• S.N.W PROJECT INVESTIGATION

Gallery

Documents

• 
  Erik's letter about green mushrooms
• 
  Mushroom Co. research project
• 
  Discovery of blue mushrooms
• 
  Xeander Berg's diary
• 
  A folder by S.N.W describing S.M.V
• 
  A Vacuette vacuum vial containing a S.M.V sample
• 
  Notes describing Xeander Berg's research on Green and Orange mushrooms