I know that they're gaming modules - but not having looked at any tabletop gaming books until the late 90s, I have no idea if the gaming modules from that time included scenarios that might have stuck in the OP's mind as a story.

I never actually did any tabletop gaming until around the middle of this decade. But I used to read my friends' gaming books because I could. Renraku Arcology from Shadowrun sticks out as one that had a cool backstory. Ditto the introduction to the second edition of Changeling -- I can see someone remembering either of those as short stories, especially with 30 years' elapsed time to make the memory fuzzy. So, I thought I'd throw the gaming possibility out there.

If the OP comes back and says "I meant the 80s" then I'd agree that the Drizzt books are the most likely candidates. (But if that were going to happen it probably would have before now.)

To address Miriam's post - I don't think de Lint published until the 80s. And I feel the need to plug Terri Windling as being at the forefront of the elves in cities thing, with the Borderlands series. (Still not until the 80s, plus AFAIR there were no elves eating fungus.)

Nikki, my initial thought was R.A. Salvatore's D&D/Drizzt novels, except they're not modern and weren't written until the 80's. I don't know that anyone wrote Underdark/Drow books prior to that (the Gygax stuff are gaming modules).

DeLint kind of pioneered the elves-in-modern-cities deal so you might try looking over his books, especially earlier ones which have been out of print (they're getting reissued now, but I haven't read them yet).

Stealing from Tolkien is nothing new. ;)

This is sounding an awful lot like the Underdark. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, Gary Gygax wrote Vault of the Drow and Descent into the Depths of the Earth in the 70s. (I suppose D&D isn't urban and modern, or wasn't at that time ... but I thought I'd throw that out there.)

I believe they did call it the "waybread of the elves" but I thought if I said that, you guys would jump on Tolkien...

I kinda want to find and read a Tolkieneque horror story anyway, even it wasn't in a modern setting.

Except that Tolkien didn't have a "modern" setting.

In Tolkien lampas (sp?) bread is called the bread of the elves.

I remember the fungus being called "the bread of the elves" and the protagonist looking into tea leaves to find the missing person.

Hee! That makes me think then of Mazes & Monsters (wiki), which was more horror, kind of had sword-wielding fantasy elements, and also drugs and tunnels BUT was published in 1981. (And I have no recollection of fungus.)

I don't remember the author being well known. It wasn't true sword and sorcery, more of a horror novel.
Thanks!
Wayne

My first thought was to suggest you look into the authors Mercedes Lackey or Margaret Ball, but they didn't start publishing novels until the 1990s.

Maybe you are looking for a book by Terry Brooks or Andre Norton? I haven't read them very widely, but I know they did some works with elves and they better fit your timeframe.

Mean sword wielding elves. There is a network of underground connections between buildings and cities where they lurk. There is a fungus they eat in the tunnels. The human protagonist is trying to find someone taken by the elves or lost underground. There are tea leaves and drugs involved. I read it in the 70s.
Thanks!