Object 10: "Backshrooms"

Backshrooms are a common species of fungi possessing anomalous traits and properties found all throughout the Backrooms.

Description

A Cluster of White Backshrooms growing from a tree

Gold Backshrooms

Sugar Shrooms

Ink Rain Shroom

Buff Shrooms

Gummy Shrooms

Pyro Shrooms

Shock Shrooms at night

Sea Shroom

Moon Shrooms

Silver Shroom in an unknown level

A Noise Shroom

Dread Shrooms

A Stone Shroom

Cloud Shrooms

Fungi Farms Logo

Mushrooms and fungi known as Backshrooms can be found in almost every known level in the Backrooms, the amount and species of these unique mushrooms and where they can be found vary from level to level and they are commonly used by wanderers for a myriad of purposes due to their unique properties.

Although some Backshrooms are perfectly edible and beneficial to wanderers, many species of Backshrooms are hazardous to consume as they can be poisonous or cause adverse and often anomalous effects depending on the species of Backshrooms in question, these more dangerous species can be weaponized and used to a wanderer’s advantage such as in the creation of Shroom Dust or Spore Bombs.

Much like regular mushrooms in The Frontrooms, Backshrooms are commonly found in damp places with high levels of moisture such as thick forests, jungles, caves, swamps, sewage systems, subterranean levels or even in the damp, soaked walls and ceilings of buildings with high levels of moisture. Backshrooms typically grow in large masses known as “clusters” and have a very fast rate of growth, making them quite plentiful in instances where one finds a cluster to harvest from.

Backshrooms can be separated into two categories, Edible and Volatile.

Usage

Cooking

Edible Backshrooms can be eaten raw and are a valuable food source as they are high in protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants but they can also be used for cooking and a large variety of meals can be made using them such as Backshroom Stir Fry, Cream of Backshroom Soup and Backshroom Pie. These meals also bestow unique beneficial effects to the consumer that vary depending on the dish in question, such as Backshroom Pie giving the consumer a considerable boost to their strength and durability for a short time, making Mushroom Meals a very useful tool in survival outside of deriving nourishment.

Weaponry

Volatile Backshrooms are backshrooms unfit for human consumption. Many species of Volatile Backshroom exhibit unique properties that are often highly dangerous to other entities especially if consumed or exposed to in a highly concentrated state. These unique Backshroom types can be used to craft useful and often powerful items and weaponry to improve one’s survival, these include the following.

• Shroom Dust - Volatile Backshrooms can be ground up into a fine powder known as Shroom Dust which can be thrown or blown into the faces of hostile entities and induce the effects associated with the Backshroom it was created with. Bags or satchels used to store Shroom Dust are often referred to as Spore Bags.

• Shroom Juice - By mixing Shroom Dust with Almond Water, a highly volatile slurry commonly known as Shroom Juice can be made. Shroom Juice is very strong as the effects of the associated Backshroom species used to make it are amplified by the Almond Water’s properties and it can be used to create a spray known as “Spore Spray” and a variety of other tools.

• Spore Bombs - One of the most useful and powerful of fungi-related weaponry a wanderer can craft. Spore Bombs are made by combining any kind of container (bottle, can etc.) of Shroom Juice with a pipe bomb. Spore Bombs can be used as an effective tool in killing and crippling hostile Entities and Wanderers.

• Spore Thrower - Spore Throwers are ranged weapons created by combining a water gun with a container of either Shroom Dust or Shroom Juice, using either or as ammo to fire at targets several feet away, causing great damage and inducing the effects associated with the Backshroom used.

• Spore-Enhanced Weaponry - Any weapon that wanderers may have on hand such as blades, blunt objects, armor or even firearms can be enhanced by soaking them in Shroom Juice, greatly enhancing their combat by imbuing them with the attributes associated with the Shroom Juice used, such as giving a baseball bat fiery properties or giving the bullets of a gun acidic properties.

The M.E.G. occasionally use Backshroom-based weaponry such as Spore Bombs and Spore Throwers but they are stronger and much more technologically advanced than the makeshift counterparts that wanderers can craft.

Types of Edible Backshrooms

White Backshrooms

White Backshrooms (Shroomusca parumalba) are the most common species of Backshrooms, edible or otherwise. White Backshrooms are high in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients and have a taste similar to shiitake mushrooms. White Backshrooms are observed to slightly improve the user’s mood and a decent boost in energy when consumed. White Backshrooms even possess medicinal properties, making them useful in creating strong medicines to fight off disease and other ailments.

Gold Backshrooms

Also known as Gold Shrooms. Gold Backshrooms (Shroomusca aureumus) are exceptionally rare and very valuable as a result. When consumed, Gold Backshrooms give the consumer a considerable boost in energy and strength, an indomitable sense of courage and determination and are very nourishing to boot. Gold Shrooms can be used in cooking and doing so will yield a “golden” version of a dish. Gold Shrooms are described as tasting very savory and buttery.

Sugar Shrooms

The second most rare variety of edible Backshroom. Sugar Shrooms (Shroomusca confectionus) get their name for their exceptionally sweet taste and are described as tasting like cotton candy with a slight aftertaste of mushrooms. Sugar Shrooms are known to give consumers a considerable boost in energy and focus, as well as improve their mood dramatically. Sugar Shrooms can be used to create desserts such as the very popular brand of popsicles produced by Fungi Farms known as Shroomie Pops.

Ink Rain Shrooms

Also known as Writer’s Downpour. Ink Rain Shrooms (Shroomusca dripluvious) are Backshrooms that mainly grow in theatre or cinema-based levels, such as Level 444. Ink Rain Shrooms produce an edible, viscous, soundproof ink that drips from the crater at the tip of the cap. This ink and the cap of the mushroom have a savory and fishy taste, making it a popular ingredient in faux seafood dishes such as Ink Rain Spaghetti and as an alternative to soy sauce as well. The ink is also used for its soundproofing abilities, such as lining the bottoms of one’s shoes to make the user inaudible while moving, even while running.

Buff Shrooms

Buff Shrooms (Shroomusca muscularis) are very large, red-capped Backshrooms with white spots that are described as tasting like bacon with a garlicky aftertaste, making the mushrooms a very popular alternative to meat in wanderer cuisine such as in Buff Shroom Burgers. Buff Shrooms contain a naturally occurring hormone that acts as a potent, fast acting steroid. Ingesting Buff Shrooms temporarily increases the consumer’s muscle mass to twice their original size as well as a healthy dose of testosterone, granting the user greatly increased strength and a state of incredible confidence and bravado. The effects of Buff Shrooms typically last for 1-2 hours but the duration is actually shorter when Buff Shrooms are cooked and thus, eating them raw is most efficient when utilizing their effects.

Gummy Shrooms

Gummy Shrooms (Shroomusca elastica) are edible Backshrooms that take on a colorful, translucent appearance and a soft, sticky texture, making them resemble mushroom-shaped gummy candies as a result and described as having a nondescript fruity flavor and a sweet and sour taste. Ingesting Gummy Shrooms bestows a highly elastic and bouncy quality to the user’s body and drastically increased agility, flexibility and pain tolerance, allowing the user to stretch any part of their body up to 10 meters (35 feet) in length and bounce around their environment like a living, rubber ball. The effects typically last 2-3 hours but the duration can last up to 4-5 hours when ingested as Shroom Juice. Weaponry enhanced with Gummy Shroom dust/juice gain stretchy qualities similar to rubber while retaining their usual properties, turning a knife into a bladed whip for example.

Types of Volatile Backshrooms

Pyro Shrooms

Also known as Hell Shrooms. Pyro Shrooms (Shroomusca infernalis) emit strong levels of heat and are hot to the touch as a result due to a fluid found in its stem similar to napalm. When made into dust or juice, the resulting substance becomes scorching hot and will ignite or combust any organic matter it comes in contact with, becoming engulfed in “superheat” flames that can’t be extinguished with regular water.

Death Shrooms

Also known as The Black Death. Death Shrooms (Shroomusca styx) are one of the most fatal of all volatile backshrooms. Death Shrooms are extremely toxic and secrete an inky, black ooze that acts like a flesh-eating bacteria as prolonged contact with Death Shrooms or this poison will cause fast-spreading necrosis of the flesh similar to the effects of gangrene, making it a highly effective weapon when made into dust or juice.

Shock Shrooms

Also known as Electro Shrooms. Shock Shrooms (Shroomusca fulgurous) are one of two Backshrooms capable of a process similar to photosynthesis, as they absorb sunlight and convert it into potent electrical energy that gives them their bioluminescent glow. Shroom Dust and Shroom Juice made from Shock Shrooms are so electrically charged that they are capable of fatally electrocuting entities and powering electronic devices.

Sea Shrooms

Also known as Scum Shrooms or Hagfish Shrooms. Sea Shrooms (Shroomusca aquarius) are aquatic Backshrooms that are common in ocean-themed levels and levels with large bodies of water. Sea Shrooms produce a thick, sticky, blue-colored slime laced with a strong neurotoxin that causes a cold, clammy sensation, intense nausea, light-headedness and finally a paralyzed state that can last for hours. Shroom Dust and Shroom Juice made from Sea Shrooms have the same effects as the slime as well as possessing the attributes of water such as being capable of putting out fire, even the flames caused by Pyro Shrooms.

Shrink Shrooms

Shrink Shrooms (Shroomusca minimaximum) are small, pink Backshrooms that disperse glowing, pink spores that compress the molecular structure of objects that make contact with them, causing said objects to shrink in size. The amount an affected object will shrink and the duration of how long they’ll stay shrunk is in accordance to their level of exposure, a Shrink Shroom’s spores can shrink an object down to half an inch for up to four hours with maximum exposure. Shroom Dust made with Shrink Shrooms can be used to shrink hostile entities to a diminutive size to make them less dangerous and easier to kill. Alternatively, Shrink Shrooms can be used to one’s advantage such as shrinking down small enough slip through small holes or cracks to infiltrate places that would normally be difficult to enter.

Silver Shrooms

A more common species of the volatile Backshrooms, Silver Shrooms (Shroomusca argentum) are considered to be an opposite to Gold Shrooms. Ingesting these cause extreme weakness, nausea, loss of energy, a feeling of helplessness or fear, temporary insanity and momentary paralysis. Symptoms usually last about 1-2 hours, with the only exception being the paralysis, which fades over the course of 3-5 minutes. Silver Shrooms are found in dark and decidedly gloomy levels, such as Level 3. Shroom Dust and Shroom Juice made from Silver Shrooms can induce aforementioned symptoms to hostile entities and wanderers but to a much more potent degree. Many wanderers use it as a form of pepper spray to deter smaller entities and thieves. Use is not suggested against stronger entities however. WARNING: Cooking these mushrooms gives them poisonous properties, do not consume under any circumstances!

Stone Shrooms

Also known as Cave Shrooms and Rock Shrooms. Stone Shrooms (Shroomusca petrum) are small round gray mushrooms with a deceptive durability. With a hardness similar to granite, it grows mostly in Level 8, but can be found in other cave-like levels. Consuming a Stone Shroom in it's natural form is highly unadvised as doing so would be impossible. Shroom Dust made from Stone Shrooms is hard to get due to its composition. However, when Shroom Dust or Shroom Juice made from these shrooms is applied to an object, the hardness of said object increases greatly while still maintaining its natural properties. For example, if applied to clothes, they will become armor like while still retaining flexibility or if applied to a weapon it will become much sharper and more durable.

Cloud Shrooms

Also known as Storm Shrooms, Cloud Shrooms (Shroomusca nimbus) are disc-shaped Backshrooms with a fluffy, cotton-like membrane that are capable of influencing weather phenomena in unpredictable ways when a large enough colony of them disperse their spores as they can induce rain, snow, hail and even thunderstorms in Levels where said phenomenon normally wouldn’t occur. Weaponry enhanced with Cloud Shroom dust/juice are capable of harnessing and dealing damage derived from weather-based power such as lightning strikes or gale force winds but the effects are always randomized. Mycologists at Fungi Farms are currently working on possible methods that can allow wanderers to induce weather phenomena at will via Cloud Shroom-enhanced tools.

Fungi Farms

Fungi Farms is a company found and operated by the M.E.G. who’s main goal is to distribute Backshrooms and Backshroom-based products and items all throughout the Backrooms for the benefit of Wanderers, this includes growing and planting Backshrooms in easily accessible places, cultivating stronger Backshroom variants capable of thriving in any environment and distributing items made from Backshrooms such as canned backshroom soup and even pre-made Shroom Dust and Shroom Juice to wanderers.

Thanks to Fungi Farms’ cultivation and distributing efforts, Backshrooms have become much more prevalent and common in the Backrooms than they were before the company’s formation, making it easier for wanderers to survive. Backshrooms now even grow in clusters that are twice as large as they were before thanks to Fungi Farms’ crossbreeding and cultivation research.

Fungi Farms produce other items associated with Backshrooms such as a guidebook to Backshrooms and how to utilize them, a backshroom-centered cookbook, food and snacks such as the previously mentioned Shroomie Pops and even merchandise centered around Backshrooms such as clothing. Fully crafted Spore Bombs and on much rarer occasions, Spore Throwers can be found on certain levels throughout the Backrooms but Fungi Farms state that they don’t make the weaponry that uses Shroom Dust or Shroom Juice so these are most likely “drops” from other Wanderers.