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[Nova Solarius]

I have been playing Dwarf Fortress for a while now, and one of my minor gripes with it is that the selection of subterranean plants seems lacking. Over a hundred surface plants exist, not counting the trees, and what does the underground get? Five edible plants, one inedible one and zero trees with edible growths. I decided to fix this by adding a couple additional plants to the caverns for a little more variety, and this is the result.

So what does it contain? Five new farmable plants and two fruit-bearing underground trees. Two of these plants and one tree are found in the first cavern layer and below, another two plants and the second tree are found in the second cavern layer and below, and the final plant is only found in the third cavern layer. As an added bonus, three of the five plants and one of the trees can also grow in dry caverns, making those slightly less useless. Four of the seven are brewable, five are edible raw and six can be cooked with.

Excerpt from the diaries of Ast "Greenfingers" Boltletter:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the current age, the traditional crops of the dwarven species are very limited in terms of variety. However, it wasn’t always so. In aeons past, our kind’s cuisine is said to have been far greater than it is now. Forgotten plants, shaped by the Elder God from the blood of a dozen worlds, are believed to still exist far below our cities. Though most yet remain hidden, the recent rediscovery of living, floral fossils in the form of long-lost crops adds credence to these legends. Three were found, four more are missing. Surely, one willing to delve deeper can find them.


Moss Tuber

The moss tuber is a staple crop, once forgotten but since rediscovered. This stealthy plant resembles the surface potato in root structure, forming large, edible growths. The rest of the plant is quite different, however, as it tends to form large blankets of moss. Between the considerable surface area of the plant and its surprisingly limited need for water, moss tubers can grow in areas too dry for its fungal counterpart.

Much like the common plump helmet, moss tubers are easily grown in all seasons. Moss tubers grow somewhat more slowly than plump helmets, though the difference is not too large. This minor drawback is offset by the slightly higher potential yield per plant. Also much like the common plump helmet is the moss tuber’s flexibility. It can be eaten raw, though the plant is tough, starchy and dry enough to make eating it an unpleasant experience. They can also be mixed into salads, fried, boiled, grilled or baked. But to a dwarf, the only measure of a plant’s worth is its spirit, and moss tubers can indeed be brewed into dwarven vodka. Fellow overseers are advised to grow moss tubers in combination with other crops like plump helmets or forge buns to provide some variety to their citizens.


Forge Bun

The forge bun is a staple crop, lost to time and found again. Forge buns resemble short-stemmed mushrooms with very large, bulbous, dough-white heads. They tend to incorporate a lot of air pockets into their structure, which not only reduces their need for water but also gives them a light, fluffy texture that one might mistake for that of bread. The main drawback here is that they tend to be quite fragile. They can be grown in all seasons save fall, and they are easy enough to grow that the only real threat to a successful harvest is a farmhand accidentally nudging one with their foot and sending the head flying to the other side of the fortress.

Forge bun heads tend to be somewhat sticky, with a slightly sweet, doughy taste. When eaten raw, their delicate nature often results in a mess. Having the dessicated remnants falling out of your beard for a week or two is common. It is therefore recommended to brush the exterior with a little oil or fat and give them a few minutes near an open flame. This causes the bun to grow firmer and more resilient, akin to a miniature version of a human bread. In fact, it’s best treated as such, sliced open and filled with more flavourful meats and cheeses. If there is one true drawback to forge buns that can’t be resolved with a comb, it’s that they can’t be brewed. Fellow overseers would do well to remember this and grow some other foods for spirit.


Ironfruit

Named, of course, for its rusty red fruit, the ironfruit tree is a recent discovery, although some claim that it was grown by dwarves in ancient times. But whether it was discovered or rediscovered, none can deny that the tree is bound to be of immense value. The tree provides two things. First is ironwood, a spring-green wood of prodigious strength. Its sheer density is nearly unmatched, with only surface glumprong exceeding it. It’s exceptionally hard, requiring a lot of labour to slowly craft with. But by far its greatest property is that ironwood, by the will of the gods, is virtually fireproof. Though the hellish heat of volcanic lava is too much for it, most common fires can’t ignite it without help.

The second, much more useful product is the ironfruit it’s named for, which it grows year-round. Appearing like berries left out in the sun, yet large as an orange and reddish like rust, ironfruit is the only known fruit that grows naturally in the subterranean vaults that we dwarves call our home. The sacks are filled with a soft, pudding-like flesh with a strongly acidic taste to it, far more intense than that of the sweeter surface fruits. It’s commonly used to prepare desserts and other fruity dishes, though it can also be used to add some acidity to overly sweet or salty foods. A jam made of ironfruit and dwarven sugar is a popular choice for flavouring forge buns. It can also be brewed into ironwine, a spirit that superstitious folk claim has fortifying properties. No evidence has been found thus far.


Mineberry

The records speak of a plant whose use has long since faded, with blue leaves ever glowing like an ingot in the forge, and a fruit hidden below a fetid mulch made of the dead. The mineberry was once said to embody the very nature of the gods. According to the tales, the glowing leaves were highly toxic, enough to kill whatever creature tried to eat it. The bulb, meanwhile, was harmless to our kind. In fact, this bulb is said to last forever, untouched by rot and vermin. Though they would be dried, and often rather dusty, mineberries harvested a hundred years before would often still be edible. And yet, not even the greatest brewers of their age could stop the mineberries from simply killing the yeast used to brew with it. If the records do not lie, the plant is found far deeper than most dwarven cities dig.


Gildroot

Legends of the ancient times still sing the praise of gildroot. This long-lost plant is said to have been more precious than even elven sunberries. If the tales can be believed, many would mistake this spice for gold, a mistake caused by the metallic golden hue hidden below the brown skin of its roots. Supposedly inedible when raw due to its wood-like texture, it was instead grated over or into dishes, where its characteristic taste would enrich any experience. But its greatest value was in brewing, for it could be transmuted to precious golden ale. This spirit is said to have entranced the gods themselves, and its value alone would far surpass that of sunshine. If not for its glacial growth period, which ensured that sunshine still beat it out in raw value per year, I’m sure it would not have been forgotten. Yet whispers suggest it can still be found growing among the gold and iron in the dark vaults of the earth.


Tavernberry

Tales are told of tavernberries, the dwarves among the trees. Its precious fruit once grew all year in cities ‘round the world, and from this fruit was brewed enough spirit to drown giants. And truly, this seems to have been its only purpose. The fruit was quite inedible, both raw and after cooking. The plant produced no proper food, only an unending flood of tavernberries, and it seemed to yield no wood, being all leaf and stem.

“Yet for a dwarf in cities deep, but one thing can rouse them from sleep, and that is neither wood nor food but ten barrels of tavernblood.” - quote from an ancient dwarven poem


Miner’s Bean

Few tales are told of miner’s beans, whose very name inspires fear and revulsion. I, however, mean to tell you such a tale. Listen carefully.

Miner’s beans are a plant from ancient dwarven history. And frankly, nothing I have read has led me to believe the loss of this particular floral horror was anything but deliberate. Reportedly, miner’s beans were vile. It was edible raw, which was not recommended for the same reason that eating a raw onion filled with tiny knives and fire is rarely pleasant. It was turned into a paste that was used in very small amounts to add a lot of kick to dishes, though it was apparently very easy to add too much and ruin the dish. It was also brewable, a fact that’s only a technicality because the production of miner’s gin has been outlawed by all known civilized people and several tribes of trolls since the very dawn of time. Something about how it was sufficiently vile that the body’s natural preference for self-preservation would overpower the drinker’s conscious attempts to keep it down, which resulted in an unacceptable number of dehydration-related deaths despite “bumsweat” technically being non-toxic. Even to this day, few dwarves are brave enough to brew it and even fewer would dare drink it. But none of this matters, since ordering it brewed is outlawed on pain of execution via hammering.

Pre-answered questions and known issues:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Is there anything actually interesting in your mod?

No, not really. Four of the five plants are simple and boring. One is unusual in that it isn’t affected by vermin or rot. One of the trees has fire-safe wood.

Can you embark with the new seeds?

You can start with the plants that spawn in the first cavern layer, as well as any products derived from them. In a practical sense, that means two kinds of seed for farming, three kinds of food, two kinds of alcohol and one kind of weirdly dense wood.

Your plants are unbalanced!

That’s not a question. It’s also very much subjective. I’ve tried to make sure none of my plants are significantly more useful than vanilla counterparts. The greatest outlier is probably gildroot, which can be brewed into an alcohol that’s more valuable than sunshine. However, it also grows far slower than sunberries, so sunberries still provide more value per year. Ironwood might also be considered unbalanced, as it’s both very dense (1125, 90% of blood thorn) and fire-safe.

Why does the tavernberry tree drop tunnel tube logs? Is that a bug?

It is a bug in the sense that it’s unintended behaviour. However, it’s sort of intended unintended behaviour. Much like banana plants, tavernberries shouldn’t have wood, but a bug in vanilla DF causes trees without wood to not spawn. I made tavernberries drop tunnel tube logs so they spawn properly, but they’re not actually supposed to.

Miner’s beans can’t be brewed.

Correct. I originally had a concept-accurate spirit for it, but that was removed because I couldn’t find a way to make dwarves not brew with it by default. Miner’s gin (or bumsweat, or any of a hundred less appealing-sounding nicknames) was intended to be kind of like seawater, inducing severe vomiting that could kill a dwarf. Needless to say, I didn’t actually want the dwarves making that without an explicit order from the player. So instead I added a few lines about brewing it being illegal to the description. There is, however, a version that includes the drink. If you really want it, here you go: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15709. Don't say I didn't warn you.

What are the plants actually supposed to be?

Moss tubers are dwarf potatoes, forge buns are mushroom-based bread rolls, ironfruits are like a limp citrus, mineberries are bitter, bioluminescent radishes, gildroot is basically ginger painted metallic gold, tavernberries are small, inedible, reddish berries and miner’s beans combine the worst bits of garlic and onion.

Can I, should I feel the need to, modify this mod and upload my own version?

Sure. I don’t know why you’d want to, but you can.

Install instructions: just drop the file in raw/objects, then start a new save. If you really want to use this mod with an old save, you can copy the file to data/save/[save folder]/raw/objects. I don't think it will break anything, but I'm not providing support if you do that.

Download link: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15708

[Comito]

Honestly, I think this mod's pretty neat. Adds some decent flavor to the caves, and I like the lore you wrote for each plant.