ToME WikiMy mushrooms, my mushrooms! The rain, a dark horrible rain, began so I had to return to my home. But when I came back my dogs were all mad and didn't let me near the field. Could you please bring me back all the mushrooms that have grown in my field to the west of Bree ? Please try not to harm my dogs, they are so lovely...
When you see Farmer Maggot in Bree, you can chat with him (press Y, or press ( in the roguelike keyset) to obtain the "Mushroom supplies (Danger level: 3)" quest. He will ask you to retrieve a quantity of mushrooms from his field west of Bree. The field is also easy to find; just travel straight west from Bree into the wilderness. Your main worry is the guard dogs; they are fast and dangerous, but Farmer Maggot does not want you to harm or kill them. (Like many quests, this one has its own source file, q_shroom.c.)
Once you give the correct quantity of mushrooms to Farmer Maggot (press y, or press ' in the roguelike keyset), then you will receive a true artifact, the Sling of Farmer Maggot, and a pile of Mushrooms of Cure Serious Wounds.
Caution: Be careful to avoid harming his dogs, even when they attack you, else you get nothing from Farmer Maggot.
How to handle it
The dogs are uniques, so they cannot be frightened away (Domination, Horrify). Your best bet is to teleport them away if you can. If you have good hit points or speed, set your Tactics/Explore to Coward/Running, unwield your weapon and just take their attacks for long enough to gather your crops.
Don't forget to unwield any items that produce an electric or fire aura, or the dogs might zap themselves by biting you. (Also don't use any spells that deal retaliation damage, such as Stone Skin at level 25, Fire Shield, etc.)
Alternatively, kill Smeagol/Gollum for his ring of invisibility and wear it while you collect the mushrooms. When you are invisible, the dogs will not chase you, but they might still bite you when you are adjacent.
Alternatively, sometimes with tree walking you can lose them in the trees.
Alternatively, sometimes you can lead them to some corner of the map and then teleport. You don't have to get very close to them before they notice you, and even though you're slower on them with a good lead you can be in a map corner before they get to you. Usually, you'll teleport about half way across the map (which puts you near the mushrooms) and you'll then be able to get the mushrooms before the dogs get back to you.
How to escape
But if your HP becomes low anyway, you could bring a source of teleportation and use it to escape. But since it is not an ambush, you can actually just press < and escape to the overworld map. Convenient! Rest on the overworld map, then return with > and pick up the remaining fungi.
You could consider brining some healing items. (But it will seem wasteful, as Mushrooms of Cure Serious Wounds are part of the reward for the quest.) If you are lucky enough to have a "heal 700" junkart, then you may have enough time to let it charge between activations.
Reward
Both the Sling Sling of Farmer Maggot and the Mushrooms of Cure Serious Wounds are {100% off}, so you will not be able to sell them. Some players who are disinterested in shooting, particularily mages who use attack spells, will wield the sling for its searching and infravision boost. Since Potions of Cure Critical Wounds are better, some players just drop the mushrooms in their home and leave them.
But why does Farmer Maggot do this? Why trade mushrooms for mushrooms and also give a valuable sling? One explanation is that the Mushrooms of Cure Serious Wounds are the same mushrooms that the player just gave him. But if you identify the mushrooms, you will find that you are mostly giving him Mushroom of Blindness and Mushroom of Paranoia (though perhaps a few good ones like Mushroom of Restore Strength). What is so exciting about giving away healing shrooms to obtain something that will anger any shopkeeper to whom you sell it? Maybe Farmer Maggot just enjoys seeing the player covered in dog bites, or he does have fun at home chewing on that Mushroom of Stupidity. Okay, this is ToME, and the princess quests and lost sword quests do not make sense either.
... or take over the farm
When you reenter that part of the wilderness, the mushrooms do reappear while you still have mushrooms outstanding with Farmer Maggot, though the fewer you have outstanding the fewer mushrooms will appear on the mushroom patch. So if you have readied your ring of invisibility or your "heal 700" junkart, you have a limitless supply of mushrooms available, as long as you never give a single one to that hobbit.
If you are an Archer or Ranger who wants to wield the bow or crossbow, then you do not want to wield Maggot's sling. You cannot sell the sling. However (in ToME 2.3.3 at least) you can sell the shrooms from the field. By repeatedly visiting the field and selling the shrooms, you will eventually identify most of them. The chance of finding a shroom in the dungeon is low, but at least you might know what it is.
Eventually, you will learn which shrooms are worthless. Then you can just pick and sell the good ones. (Why does the shopkeeper want to buy a Mushroom of Disease or Unhealth?) When you do not feel like buying that Potion of Restore Strength, just search in Maggot's field for a Mushroom of Restore Strength.