Undead Compendium - Useful Items - Lamentation Mushroom v1

Grey Lamentation Mushrooms

Easily identified by their menacing appearance, Grey Lamentation Mushrooms were once the most potent and deadly of poisonous fungi found in this world thanks to the intense deathly energies they have absorbed. When ingested, they would surely lead to a gruesome and painful death, tormenting the poor fool with seven days and nights of hellish pain. Strangely, the changes brought by the current Demon Lord have also effected these mushrooms and now they flood those who would eat it with enough necromantic energies to force undeath upon the poison doing it's work.


 Characteristics

Sight will be the easiest method to identify Lamentation Mushrooms. The mushrooms are trivially easy to identify when fully matured where they will become a near total grey from cap to stem, losing any gills they had as they mature. Their caps develop patterns eerily similar to faces locked in the throes of deep emotion and these faces in turn leak a bloody red fluid that suffuses the air with a sweet scent as if to tempt one to eat it.
These fungi are naturally quite eerie and most animals seem discouraged to even approach it.
Lamentation Mushrooms are only found to grow in places where death flourishes. Ancient graveyards, forgotten mass graves, and sites of great battles can all be places where a single Laentation Mushroom can grow. Take heed that this fungi is considerably rare and a great delicacy and tonic for the undead, meaning there is likely something lurking nearby that would be quite displeased to find it gone.
Extreme care must be taken when harvesting these mushrooms. The red fluid they secrete dulls the mind considerably and if measures are not taken to protect oneself, they could find the mushroom in their mouths before they can store it, leading to terrible stomach cramps for monsters, immediate undeath for humans and demihumans, or a filling meal to the undead, none of these likely being the intended use for the mushroom’s harvester.
It is oft recommended that one use these mushrooms within a week of them being harvested. Too long away from the death tainted soil from which they were plucked will make them dry out into a ghostly white lump of that resembles petrified wood. These are usually carved by the Order to create Pale Stakes of Lamentation, a weapon that naturally suppresses and absorbs the profane energies that fuel necromancy. This degraation can be slowed down by keeping it within a treated container that will stop the mushroom from leaking it’s profane energies into the environment, after which, it should last well into a month.

Uses

With it’s toxicity and promise of a slow torturous death, these mushrooms were primarily used as a weapon against particularly hated enemies. There are records of it being the favored method for disposing the most cruel of criminals and tyrants the world over when a simple execution would be thought of as too lenient a punishment. Though the all encompassing pain brought by it’s consumption has been replaced with a drugged euphoria and it’s promised cessation of life is not permanent, death is a certainty.
The alluring fungal liquid the mushroom secretes is also a prized commodity for the creation of opioides. There is even talk of some particularly wealthy Greater Undead using it as a dye, the sanguine glow never fading from the treated material so long as there is at least a negligible amount of profane mana for it to absorb.
It cannot be stressed enough that this fungus will absorb a considerable amount of corruption with the profane energy that is it’s nourishment. It is not at all uncommon for the one to eat these mushrooms without proper refinement to immediately turn into a corrupted variant of whatever undead they would have become. A woeful event for anything living that happens to be nearby as the newly created undead will be ravenous upon completing their transformation.

Oddities

Any mushroom with sufficient time spent absorbing mana conducive to necromancy has the potential to become a Grey Lamentation Mushroom and this often leads to particular species being groomed for this. Sadly, the rate of absorption is incredibly slow and inefficient, sometimes taking a full decade before a single mushroom takes form. This often means only the extremely dedicated or those with no real concern for lifespan take to growing these mushrooms themselves. As any mushroom has this capability, one should take even more care if they are a species of matango or myconid or of the Plant Family of monsters such as a dryad with mushrooms or even truffles growing near or on their tree lest they mutate.
One should note that eating the mushroom to become undead is not a surefire strategy as there is no rhyme or reason to how one will change, no matter what one is told. Grey Lamentation Mushrooms will undoubtedly cause death and reanimation but are just as likely to turn one into a zombie as they are a Dullahan or Vampire.
A highly coveted item for the undead, there is a considerable deal of effort spent by Greater Undead to procure these sinister looking fungi, many of which are packed with necromantic power to revitalize those faced with a final death or push a Lesser Undead past their current form. Recipes for Lamentation Duxelles and creamy soups can be found tucked away in the grimoires of liches and the dairies of wights and conflict is sure to erupt among the living dead should the location of a mushroom leak.