Plant Dossier: Mitten Button
“A lot of people are turned off at the idea of wearing mushrooms on your hands. Psah! They’re sustainable fashion! Just don’t touch your face after wearing them.” — Rix Tran, Fey Wanderer
Type: Mushroom
Where to Find: Temperate grasslands, forests, taigas. Comfortable range: -30° - 120° F
Distinguishing Features: Tufts of beige-colored fur protruding from the gills.
Foraging Fashion
Popping out of the ground in pairs, mitten buttons are one of the more welcome sights to savvy foragers. These mushrooms grow fast and are relatively harmless to the environment and others. They are nontoxic, but don’t taste great— rather bland. Instead, mitten buttons are best known and cherished for being wearable and insulating.
The caps of these mushrooms balloon out from the ground on no visible stem. Their caps are a reddish black color, making them easy to spot on many forest floors. In only two days they grow to be the size of a human hand.
Mitten buttons are tough to harvest due to how rapidly they mature. The frame of time in which one can harvest a mitten button to utilize it most effectively is short, yet easily identifiable. When these mushrooms begin to sprout with tawny fur beneath their gills, they are at their ‘peak’ and ready to be harvested. After plucking a mitten button (preferably two) the interior of their caps can be easily scooped out, leaving an empty interior chamber filled with the soft fur. If harvested correctly, these mushrooms become mittens that can last all winter before deteriorating.
Spores from the interior of the mitten cap will cling to skin and transmit itself via touch. These spores can linger and remain on surfaces for weeks or even months.
Goblin coalitions and tundrafolk have been harvesting and using mitten buttons for this exact purpose for years. For the former, the goblins of Betiel have grown extremely adapt at fitting and using the mushrooms. The Cracklecliff Coalition is renowned throughout the north for their seasonal full-body mitten cap winter suits.
Gameplay Effects
Mitten buttons can be harvested at the right time (when fur is visible) with a DC 10 Nature check. Harvesting a button mitten without the fur visible will lead to the rapid deterioration of the fungus.
Mitten Button Mittens.
(common, wonderous item)
These dark-colored mittens are extremely well insulated and have a comforting softness to them. While wearing these mittens, you do not make Concentration checks with disadvantage in extreme cold weather.
