Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-31507215-20180103183423/@comment-33185350-20180104035627

There is also a third kind that isn’t represented in the mod, though I would love to see it:

“Treebeard lifted two great vessels and stood them on the table. They seemed to be filled with water; but he held his hands over them, and immediately they began to glow, one with a golden and the other with a rich green light; and the blending of the two lights lit the bay, as if the sun of summer was shining through a roof of young leaves.” - The Two Towers

That would be an awesome addition to the mod. Anyway this passage definitely implies that Ent-draughts are magical. Lots of things in Middle-earth are magical. The thing is that it’s for the most part very subtle. Things like ropes coming untied when you tug on them (I would never climb down that rope again) or the faint memory of a song in the noise of a stream, or just a steady feeling of ill will when climbing a mountain.

I know the ent-draughts in the mod are quite different from the way they are in the book, but I don’t think it’s really worth changing as they serve an important function in the mod. However the question here is whether the mushrooms are magical like the ent-draughts or not. I think it’s plausible that they should be treated as magical for three reasons:

1. Alignment is the core of the mod. The whole point is to choose your side. If you choose evil, you should get their advantages and be able to use their resources (before you are utterly and completely defeated by the Free Peoples and the Valar etc).

2. Unlike the powers in ent-draughts, this kind of use would actually be a lot more true to Tolkien’s world. It implies a very small degree of sentience, which is what we see in places like the Old Forest or Mount Caradhras.

3. The mushrooms are called Morgul-shrooms. Apart from that being an absurd name, Morgul does mean dark sorcery. I guess it’s safe to say they are magical.

So my vote is that they don’t poison players with positive Mordor alignment.

@Ithilion: I agree regular mushrooms should be edible. It would also be really cool to add a variety of fungi in the wilderness difficult to distinguish, some edible and some dangerous. Mirkwood could use some nasty mushrooms too.