What do they eat down there? or the Secrets of Underground Gardening

[Tonguez]

I was wondering how fertile is the Underdark? If I had a village sited underground what would they be using for food?

Would a town of say 5000 be able to sustainably harvest native crops (roots, mushrooms, mould) and fauna or would they need to make excursions to the surface - maybe even have surface gardens?

 

[Zhure]

Mushrooms, other edible fungi. Fish in underground streams. Magic.

 

[LcKedovan]

I was wondering how fertile is the Underdark? If I had a village sited underground what would they be using for food?

Would a town of say 5000 be able to sustainably harvest native crops (roots, mushrooms, mould) and fauna or would they need to make excursions to the surface - maybe even have surface gardens?

One interesting way to deal with potential space issues would be growing those crops on unused roof space, or having entire chambers where floor, wall and ceiling are used. Much more bang per buck than the surface world.

-W.

 

[alsih2o]

my players never discovered it, but i had plans to reveal that darkvision was maintained by drinking a nectar made formt he urine of blind cave salamanders.

that and the 360 mold/fungi farms leaves some fun ways to explain food.

i also had my underdarkers being expert cheese makers. huge, delicious wheels of cheese made from the drippings of high calcium stalactites mixed with "destrachan juice"

 

[diaglo]

sortees to the surface. rape, pillage, and burn....

those guys aren't evil for their looks alone.

edit:i don't sh....where i eat. do you? i don't expect them too either.

 

[Nifft]

Use magic!

Magical plants that don't need light, but feed off of Elemental energies instead: True Tubors (potatoes that grow in solid stone), Lava Beets, Fire Cabbage, Deep Kelp (requires only large quantities of water), etc.


Use sci-magic!

If the energy inherent in simple hydrocarbons (crude oil) is boosted by magic, then the bacteria that live deep in the real Earth's crust would be a viable energy source for plants & burrowing animals. They'd crowd around crude bubbles like oases in the desert.


-- N

 

[Arnwyn]

Mmmmmm... fungus and fish.

How fertile the Underdark is all depends on how fertile you want it to be in your campaign world.

The "generic" Underdark is not very fertile, but enough that in certain areas it can support surprisingly large population centers. Fungus farms (or even entire forests) are there, and (like Zhure mentioned) fish from underground water sources also can feed creatures. As well, in FR, there are underdark cattle called "deep rothe" that are kept.

 

[Urbannen]

I once played in a campaign set in Cynidecea, based on the B Series OD&D module "The Lost City." It was set underground. The people supposedly farmed fungi and kept giant rats and cave locusts for food. My character had the Handle Animal (giant rat) proficiency to reflect the fact that her family raised these critters for food.

 

[Nail]

I always thought that sources of Underdark "meat" were never adequately presented. I meant...come on....do all those Drow eat just fungi?

Personally, I'm leaning toward cave insects and rats.

IIRC there's some kind of silly MMII monster that's supposed to take care of this problem? (Deepspawn??) All I remember of the monster is that it made me laugh.....

 

[LGodamus]

The new underdark book adresses this in a round about way by presenting info about all sorts of plants and animals ...also there are alot more plants than you may suspect,trees even, due to the fact that farzress, underdark radiation, takes the place of sunlight.