Toadstool Apothecary

Willowmoor's dark market of psychedelic mushrooms and anything created with them.

A Teenaged Enterprise

From the earliest days going all the way back to the refugee arena, Willowmoor's teenagers have been the forgotten children of the community. This is not intentional, nor is it anyone's fault; the adults have been busy building the village, maintaining it, and keeping an eye on the younger kids. As such, these elder Torchies have their own culture and ecosystem that many an adult know nothing about.

One such part of this ecosystem is the Toadstool Apothecary, which popped up quietly in the summer of Year 3 when two teenagers found some mushrooms in the woods surrounding Willowmoor and decided to test fate. Luckily for them, the fungi weren't lethal, but they did cause hallucinations, among other strange effects. Since the youth already had marijuana at their disposal, they decided to capitalize on their find by creating new drug concoctions for their peers. Thus, the Toadstool Apothecary was born.

In the early days, only those two teens knew where the mushrooms grew and they became unpopular as they tried to goad favors out of the others for a share of some of "the good stuff". Then, when one teen was able to see the mushrooms and draw a sketch of them, another teen realized he had seen them before in a more remote location that he was sure the other two teens didn't know about.

A small expedition of older teens - some technically adults and others still considered minors - set out on their hour-long hike to the place the one had seen the mushroom in the sketch. In fact, it was a grove that was teeming with them! The group started their own Toadstool Apothecary, which would soon put the original out of business as they were fairer with trades and more generous with products. They set up a mobile shop of sorts in the grove; it had inconsistent hours of operation that were spread to trusted sources via word of mouth.

Did the two greedy, rude teenagers learn the error of their ways? Well, speaking of...

Expanding Market

The two teens who started the original apothecary learned there were adults who would trade for their goods, too. For a time, they tried to carry on business as usual with their new market, but it turned out the adults gobbled up a larger share than they had product for.

In the end, the two returned to their peers to apologize for their behavior and ask for help getting more product. They were welcomed into the Toadstool Apothecary as the adult sales experts, a position it turns out many of the older teens coveted for the connections it helped them forge on their way into adulthood.

So, lessons were indeed learned by all.