Shadow Silk

Rumour has it that humongous spiders hidden in the caves of the Underdark are spinning silk and those who are caught in their webs but manage to flee are harvesting this fiber and turn it into silk. The reality is just as fascinating but much less heroic for the harvesters: the fibers are harvested from a specific kind of mushroom in a lichen growth pattern that are then soaked in acid – and here the harvest of spiders albeit much less venomous and large ones as legends have it comes into play for the highest quality sold on the market. Then the soaked fibers are spun like yarn and woven into fabrics known for their softness and slight luminescence that remains in the fibers. The longer the soak while also the softer the acid, the more the luminescence is preserved. Cheaper fabrics soaked in strong acid over a shorter period of time usually destroy all luminescence but keep their softness, making it a sought after fabric among nobility, while the more luminous examples are reserved for the highest positions in societies at least on the surface world. Among the Underdark, albeit believed to be non-inhabitable at the moment, the remaining drow populations use this fabric as a common fabric, but on the surface it is mostly used by Reborn who prepared a cache before their death, royalty, and members of the councils on the Immortal Lands.

The fabric is a dark brown or dark green in color, interspersed with green luminous fibers if preserved. The softer the color, the more wanted it is, as a simple black is a very cheap to dye color and the natural fibers in a soft brown or even green hue are much harder to find in other materials. The most expensive kind of fabric is of a sage green colour interspersed with green luminous fibers that shimmer like a beetle exoskeleton.