Funno

A funno is a 3-foot rodent shaped like a big, shaggy dachshund with a rat's head, colored tan to dark brown or occasionally black, and weighing 25 to 30 pounds.

It runs from danger, or cowers and whimpers if it cannot. Only long torment, say children teasing it for minutes on end, makes a cornered funno bite, and its teeth are sharper than expected.

Wild herds stick together and share the raising of young, moving deftly through cavern tunnels and eating nearly any plant or fungus. Penned funnos grow listless, waiting for feed and, eventually, slaughter.

Its bland meat is a welcome change for cave folk otherwise living on fungi, but the hide is what matters. Supple when fresh, it can be shaped freely, and soaking the shapes in a fungal hardener pressed from a cave mushroom turns them hard and strong. Treated hide makes armor as good as chain mail, plus shields and weapons such as axes, swords and spears that hold an edge. The same extract works as a powerful glue, so standard hide panels can be joined into ladders, carts, baskets, fences, furniture, tools, bridges, platforms and whole buildings.