![]() ![]() As such, the fungus can rely on never being truly eaten to extinction, and so it does not care for how much of it gets eaten by herbivores. This means large networks of inaccessible roots that are not at risk of being stripped away in the same way the surface fungal caps are. The first is the arms race between plants and herbivores, the other is the arms race between herbivores and carnivores. ![]() This creates two evolutionary arms races. For the sake of survival, the majority of these carnivores would likely technically be omnivores, but would eat plants only as an ’emergency food supply’ when prey is lean. Much like our own surface ecology there is a simple chain of plants -> herbivores -> carnivores. Indeed, the ideal settlement would be built to be completely safe from such incursions, altogether removing this as a potential food supply.īasically, everyone in the Underdark is vegetarian (or indeed Fungitarian). Such fights may yield edible meat, but unlike their hyper-reliable agriculture this would be an extremely unreliable source of nutrition. Their entire interactions with the wildlife are defensive, at times fighting for their very survival against incursions from the various creatures of the Underdark. Indeed most Underdark civilisations are not masters of their environments in the same way most surface-dwelling civilisations are. With the Underdark being as dangerous as it is, hunting is effectively out of the question. Using simple water creation spells they were able to develop and refine irrigation systems to the point where they could feasibly farm enough crops to feed a populace, with one advantage being that without the impact of seasons crops could be grown year-round allowing for very reliable harvests and very predictable food inventories. As such, all the Underdark races (with the exception of Mind Flayers) had a diet that consisted mostly of a selectively-bred fungus that fulfilled most of their dietary needs. My simple solution was that they would do the same as any other surface-dweller civilisation: find high-nutrition crops and breed them selectively. Also in my setting is an entire faction of Dwarves locked in an endless war against the Duergar. ![]() The first thing I looked at with designing a reasonable ecology for the Underdark was addressing what I felt to be the biggest issue: how does an advanced civilisation in the Underdark feed its populace? In the Underdark you have Duergar, Drow, possibly Deep Gnomes, and Mind Flayers. My party entered it at level 11, and it was a large party at that (6-8 members). Anyway, on with the content.įirstly a disclaimer, this was an Underdark designed for Tier 3 play. I’m instead going to release it here, because I feel there are useful ideas in this concept. Sadly that second post never came to fruition. This post was originally going to be followed up with another that went into further detail on how to design encounters using the possibilities this post created. A few years ago they did an ‘Underdark Month’, and this was the contribution I made to it. This is an old post of mine from r/dndbehindthescreen. ![]()
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