You Enter the Forest Deep Part 2: The Rootways and The Canopy

This is part two of You Enter the Forest Deep. Part 1 is here.

If the Forest Deep is a dungeon then you might be inclined to think of the rootways and canopy as other layers of the dungeon, but this is wrong. They are tunnels, secret paths, better represented as dungeons of their own. In many ways, they are worse than the forest floor, but they are the fastest way to traverse past the worst parts of the Deep.

In the Deep, traversal is relatively easy as long as you stick to the path. This is not true of the rootways and the canopy. They are hostile environments not designed for life. They let you trade safety for time. You can cross 30 miles of forest in 2 days using the rootways or the canopy, but it'll be far more dangerous that sticking to the Forest floor.

The Rootways.

Where there were once roots there are now caverns. Winding tunnels who's walls are wood and earth. The tunnels are surprisingly large. The trees of the Forest Deep are immense, and they have carved a network of human-sized tunnels. The air is damp, and smells of death and wood, and the tunnels are filled with the sounds of the beating heart of the forest and the groaning of shifting oaks. Sometimes, the smaller roots of great trees will try to grab you. They are easily broken, but it is a permanent reminder of how the Forest thinks of you. 

The rootways are the domain of the fungus, a fungal wonderland in the decaying depths. The dark elves used to inhabit these tunnels, but they've been driven deeper. Now, mycelia coats the walls and spores hang heavy in the air. If the damp air doesn't mold your longs, the spores will.

Traversing the Rootways.

The rootways will take you to where you want to go. Like the Forest floor, you can traverse two piths a day, but there are fewer piths and they are further apart. You can move far in the tunnels.

There are two dangers to traversing the tunnels. One, it is pitch black. You need light. Lanterns are best. The Forest Deep isn't outraged by them as it is by torches. The second is that the air is literally toxic, so choked with fungal spores as it is. Every hour in the rootways you take 1d4 stacking damage from poison. By three hours, that's 3d4 damage. Necessary precautions (breathing masks or poison resistance) can protect you from this damage. Die to this poison and you become a breeding ground for sporelings.

The Canopy.

The canopy is surprisingly walk-able. Like walking on thin mud. Your feet sink deep, but if you keep moving you won't fall through the leaves and to your death. Pools of water have formed up here. Wide, but no deeper than than knee. It drips down to the Forest floor like rain. The wind up here is bitter and sharp and constant, a shrill song like needles on a chalkboard. You will fight it with every step. Pray that it doesn't not turn victorious. Little lives up here. It is a harsh land.

The canopy is the domain of the Owls, a grant cathedral to their macabre belief. The great boughs of the trees are often decorated with bones. They nest upon the roof of the Forest Deep, their elaborate homes made of twigs and branches and bones.

Traversing the Canopy. 

The canopy will take you where you want to go. Like the Forest floor, you can traverse two piths a day, but there are fewer piths and they are further apart. You can move far upon the tops of the trees.

There are two dangers to traversing the canopy. The first is the bitter wind. Without proper protection, it will chill you to your bone and cut you like a thousand knives. If not clothed and protected, the wind strikes you for 1 damage every minute. The second is the omnipresent threat of falling. At normal movement, it is easy to check that the ground ahead is solid enough to walk, but if you do not then moving has a 5% chance per foot to send you tumbling to the Forest floor. One can negate this by moving slowly and carefully. Or by flying.

Creating the Rootways and the Canopy.

They work the same mechanically. Any entrance to the rootways links up with every other entrance eventually. Same with the canopy and its entrances. These are piths in their respective area. There can be more, but far less than the Deep itself. I'd recomend that, other than entrances, there is one pith in the rootways in the canopy per 10 piths in the Deep. Add more if you'd like. There's no harm in it.

There's no need to roll for appearances. There is always a landmark in non-entrance piths. You could have a Forest floor faction rule a pith in the rootways or the canopy, but I would discourage that. These piths are ruled by the sporelings and the Owls respectively. Other than that, they work the same.

Locations in the Rootways.

Roll (1d8)	Location
1	The entrance to a near vertical stone cavern. It goes down to the dark world below.
2	A ruin, swallowed by roots and sunken into the earth.
3	A tunnel where the root-walls have fallen victim to rot and decay.
4	A sporeling village. A large cave, dense with spores.
5	The tunnels of an actual cave.
6	The glowing taproot of an immense redwood. It is covered in moss, the Forest Deep's secret reservoir of forbidden knowledge.
7	The remains of a village of dark elves. Like the elf villages above, hidden and easy to miss.
8	Sporeling breeding ground. So much fungus.

Locations in the Canopy.

Roll (1d8)	Location
1	An Owl village. 2d6+1 homes of the Owls built around a central worship site.
2	The nest of a roc.
3	An isle of floating stone a hundred feet above the canopy.
4	A fortress raised into the sky as the Forest Deep grew beneath it. Long ruined.
5	A forest who's roots reached into the treetops below.
6	An immense redwood, far taller than the other trees. Its pine cones can predict the future.
7	A sprawling network of spiderwebs. Sticky, but easier to walk on than the canopy.
8	An Owl cathedral, an immense complex of bones and prayer.