Shroomtober: a porter and a sage

2026-10-13 par Horacio Gonzalez

Someone to carry things, someone to remember them

Shroomtober #3 and #4 side by side: the Porcini Porter, a smiling, sturdy mushroom with a broad brown cap and a big sack over his shoulder, and the Morel Sage, with a tall honeycombed cap, a mossy green beard and a crooked wooden staff

Yesterday's post ended with "I'll find out who they are when the pencil does". Well, the pencil found two more. The colony now has a porter and a sage, and with them it's starting to feel like a place where people actually live: someone has to carry the firewood, and someone has to tell the stories.

#3: Porcini Porter, the hardest silhouette so far

Three-view character sheet for Shroomtober #3, Porcini Porter: a sturdy cream-coloured mushroom person with a broad, mottled brown cap, carrying a large brown sack over his shoulder, tied with string, with a red ribbon and green leaves peeking out of the top

The strongest back in the forest, and possibly the kindest heart.

He keeps the colony supplied with everything it needs: freshly gathered berries, firewood, and the odd mysterious treasure found deep in the woods. He's not fast, but he's dependable, endlessly patient and always happy to lend a hand. Just don't ask him to hurry. Good things take time, especially when you're carrying half the forest on your back.

The porcini was the real test of my one rule, every mushroom needs its own silhouette. A porcini is a domed cap on a short, solid stem, which is more or less what the Amanita already is. Recolouring it brown wasn't going to be enough.

So the cap got wider and flatter, the stem got a lot thicker, and then the sack did the rest. It sits behind him and changes his outline from every angle: a bulge at his side from the front, and nearly half of him from the back.

The Porcini Porter paper mini, front and back on a 55 mm strip

On the 55 mm strip, the sack is what you see first. Nobody will mistake him for the Amanita.

#4: Morel Sage, the first old one

Three-view character sheet for Shroomtober #4, Morel Sage: an old mushroom person with a tall, cone-shaped, honeycombed golden cap dotted with patches of moss, a long mossy green beard, and a crooked wooden staff with a single leaf sprouting from it

Old as the forest, wise as its roots, and just a little forgetful.

Nobody remembers when he first appeared in the colony. His honeycombed cap is covered in moss, and his green beard has been growing for longer than most Shroomfolk have been alive. He wanders the forest leaning on his crooked staff, sharing ancient wisdom, forgotten stories and occasionally rather questionable advice. He knows every secret path, every hidden spring and every tale the trees have ever whispered. He just sometimes forgets which story he was telling.

After three cheerful mushrooms, he's the first one with some age on him. His cap is taller than his body, his back is a little stooped, his smile is lost somewhere in all that moss, and even his staff has started sprouting leaves. But the feet are the same big Shroomfolk feet. Some things don't change with age.

The Morel Sage paper mini, front and back on a 55 mm strip

No silhouette worries with this one: that tall honeycombed cone is the most recognisable shape in the colony so far.

Four down

Red dome, golden funnel, brown dome with a sack, honeycombed cone. Four mushrooms, four outlines, one family face.

4/13. Nine to go, and eighteen days left. 🍄

Cheers,

Horacio Gonzalez - LostInBrittany

Shroomtober is published by Korrigan Press, where the post on the Porcini Porter and the Morel Sage lives. Progress goes up on Instagram @lostinbrittany under #Shroomtober.