A non-negligible portion of creatures in D&D worlds live underground. Dwarves, drow, goblins, orcs, kobolds, and monsters of all types can live their entire lives without ever seeing the sun.
So I wonder, what kinds of foods do they have? We've heard of mushrooms, and rothe (cave bison), but what else is there to eat?
Many kinds of fish and crustaceans live in underground streams; much like surface civilizations, many Underdark inhabitants can do worse than build settlements near bodies of water.
Troglobites, or animals which live perpetually underground, have extremely low metabolisms to conserve energy, and can go for months without eating. (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/09/new-troglobites/new-troglobites-text)
It wouldn't take much effort to 'farm' such creatures, and even a single piece of bait can keep a colony living for a very long time. Insects in particular are incredibly common.
Salt is found in underground deposits, and is probably as ubiquitous as a seasoning and ingredient as it is in surface world communities.
Mushrooms would be a sort of "everyman food" in Underdark settlements: widely available, fast-growing, and come in plenty of shapes, sizes, colors, and tastes. Yeast can be used as fermentation for alcoholic beverages, and even make certain kinds of sauces. Yeast can also be used as a leavening agent for bread, but it also requires dough, which is obtained via crops which cannot grow without sunlight.
Alcoholic beverages would be rather common. Beer especially so, but wine would be unheard of due to the requirement of fruits.
Fruits and vegetables would be almost unheard of except in communities very close to the surface world. In some cases, they might not even be edible to Underdark inhabitants (whose bodies might not even be adapted to handle such foods).
In regards to cooking, this would be tough: wood, one of the most common pre-Industrial burning agents, doesn't grow underground. There's coal, but the smoke generated by its fires is incredibly dangerous in an underground space with stagnant air. How would Underdark creatures cook their food, if they bother to do so at all? Natural steam vents?
What are your thoughts?
I'd imagine raiding the surface and using that as trade goods might form a substantial part of the dungeon diet. There aren't any real world comparisons though, nothing grows underground. Algae, rare fungi on guano, and not much else. Vermin, lost animals, lost vermin, beyond that it's scarce fish and the other denizens.
I'd say this is a place where fictional foods would need to be used extensively. Dwarves might be able to discern the proximity of valuable metal veins by the colour of the light from glowing moss and use them as a delicacy to celebrate the first strike, leading to many a hallucination, goblins leave specially prepared noxious drippings on the soil of the world above and harvest the rich roots when the unnatural plant grows, trolls have a saprophytic relationship with water elementals inhabiting certain damp crevices, the one nourishing the other.
Cooking: lava of course. Or certain compost heaps that reach a peculiarily high temperature in their depths.
Thanks for the link.
Any Dwarf knows that the only acceptable heat source is magma.
The magma's not a bad idea, and the lava itself would make a decent light source. I don't recall ever seeing this in fantasy before, but why not have a 'farm' underground. Artificial light could be made available either through lava flows, phosphorescence, or just plain magic.
Look at extreme life ecologies? Here's a link to several such ecologies, some completely independent from solar energy. I like the oceanic thermal vents, methane seeps, and undersea brine pools myself... Something about Drow chillaxing with an order of methane mussels and worm frittes with mayonnaise dipping sauce by the warm glow of a "fire ice" brazier works for me.
California academy exhibit of extreme life on earth (http://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/xtremelife/life_on_earth.php)
I smell a "Man vs. Food" episode coming together!
JG
OK here's some menu items for the distinguished duergar or hobgoblin eatery of your choice (very slightly Arduin inspired and also yoinking ideas from the thread so far).
The Usual (2 sp)
Giant bat jerky, seasonal veggies ('shrooms & cave moss), and a hearty mushroom ale.
Traditional duergar rock-flour cakes as dessert (Note: inadvisable for non-dwarves)
Roast Spider Shanks (2) with mushroom bisque and beer(3 sp)
Cooked over a fire of rothe dung until the ichor is sizzling.
Snails fried in truffle oil (4 sp).
Followed by a dessert of juiciest Crickets in imported surface honey.
Hillbilly Special (5 sp)
Filet of sewer alligator (raw, pickled), with mushrooms. Selection of especially sweet mushrooms for dessert, plus hooch made from fermented tree-roots.
Fisherman's Basket (8 sp).
2 Blind Cave Fish, steamed, plus 2 raw frshwater oysters and a bowl of black cave algae soup.
Cave-fisher egg & rothe milk pudding for dessert.
Cave Lizard Ham & Lichen Omelette (1 gp)
The lizard provides the ham, the eggs and even partially digests the lichen for you!
Comes with a mushroom ale, and lizard egg meringue to finish.
Scorpion surprise (2 gp)
Steamed Cave Scorpions (3). Served with our traditional scorpion-venom wine - elves need not apply. Scorpion-shaped toffees for dessert, if you get that far.
One with the ooze (3 gp):
Boiled whole juvenile black pudding, with side order of earthworm 'fries' (crunchy-cooked).
Gello for dessert (slightly tart due to admixture of giant ant vinegar to kill the stinging cells). Blood-sweetened in your choice of red or green.
Adventurer Pie (10 gp)
Made from surface dwarf, elf or human - as available.
Served with an imported surface wine.
KFD (Kentucky Fried Drow) - (50 gold; feeds 6 medium-sized creatures) - freshly caught dark elf, salted (rock salt) and cooked over coal. 11 secret herbs and spices imported from the surface.
Side order of Earthworm fries. Followed with a small rothe-milk cheesecakes and Assassin Vine berry wine (a dark elf vintage).
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;626712OK here's some menu items for the distinguished duergar or hobgoblin eatery of your choice (very slightly Arduin inspired and also yoinking ideas from the thread so far).
Fucking awesome.
Quote from: The Butcher;626758Fucking awesome.
Agreed.
Hobgoblin Hotberry CordialThis is a potent alcoholic beverage with many reputed beneficial effects besides giving a good buzz, including rejuvenation and granting tremendous strength, some say.
It's made from the distilled and fermented glittering fruit of the leering carbuncle tree which grows near to sources of great heat underground. When the tides of the earth rise and the tree is immolated, its multifaceted silver fruit detach and rise above the lava flow, dancing on the confined thermals, swelling to double their size.
Hobgoblin brewers lean out over the molten rock and capture the elusive berries with a combination of tethered but short lived bats and stiff wire nets. It is essential to keep the brew at a red hot temperature throughout the brewing and distilling process, right up until the bottling, for if it cools down too much it transmutes alchemically into a potent interplanar beacon which draws beings from the nether hells to partake of anything in the vicinity. Whether this is a property of the fruit itself or something the hobgoblins stir in for zest is not known.
Real talk: Play some Dwarf Fortress. It's a bear to pick up (the interface is... organic), but it's a look at (one vision of) underground ecology without peer.
This thread is crazy... in a really good way!
RPGPundit
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;626712OK here's some menu items for the distinguished duergar or hobgoblin eatery of your choice (very slightly Arduin inspired and also yoinking ideas from the thread so far).
The Usual (2 sp)
Giant bat jerky, seasonal veggies ('shrooms & cave moss), and a hearty mushroom ale.
Traditional duergar rock-flour cakes as dessert (Note: inadvisable for non-dwarves)
Roast Spider Shanks (2) with mushroom bisque and beer(3 sp)
Cooked over a fire of rothe dung until the ichor is sizzling.
Snails fried in truffle oil (4 sp).
Followed by a dessert of juiciest Crickets in imported surface honey.
Hillbilly Special (5 sp)
Filet of sewer alligator (raw, pickled), with mushrooms. Selection of especially sweet mushrooms for dessert, plus hooch made from fermented tree-roots.
Fisherman's Basket (8 sp).
2 Blind Cave Fish, steamed, plus 2 raw frshwater oysters and a bowl of black cave algae soup.
Cave-fisher egg & rothe milk pudding for dessert.
Cave Lizard Ham & Lichen Omelette (1 gp)
The lizard provides the ham, the eggs and even partially digests the lichen for you!
Comes with a mushroom ale, and lizard egg meringue to finish.
Scorpion surprise (2 gp)
Steamed Cave Scorpions (3). Served with our traditional scorpion-venom wine - elves need not apply. Scorpion-shaped toffees for dessert, if you get that far.
One with the ooze (3 gp):
Boiled whole juvenile black pudding, with side order of earthworm 'fries' (crunchy-cooked).
Gello for dessert (slightly tart due to admixture of giant ant vinegar to kill the stinging cells). Blood-sweetened in your choice of red or green.
Adventurer Pie (10 gp)
Made from surface dwarf, elf or human - as available.
Served with an imported surface wine.
KFD (Kentucky Fried Drow) - (50 gold; feeds 6 medium-sized creatures) - freshly caught dark elf, salted (rock salt) and cooked over coal. 11 secret herbs and spices imported from the surface.
Side order of Earthworm fries. Followed with a small rothe-milk cheesecakes and Assassin Vine berry wine (a dark elf vintage).
Love it! LOL
Thanks guys! Hope I haven't side tracked the actual ecology discussion too much...carry on...
Actually your menu was made of awesome sauce and probably has done more to ground the conversation with practical creations than anything else.
At some point one has to stop with the research and just create!
Here, let me try:
'Fire Ice' is a (real world) natural phenomena of crystalized methane. It looks like ice, but isn't cold to the touch, however it may be lit like regular methane gas (it's mentioned in my above link, by methane leaks).
Since access to the solar ecosystem is at a premium -- but magical radiation is prevalent according to some drow texts -- if there are any plants at all, they would shift to magical radiation synthesis. Let's call this... arcanosynthesis.
(If you wanna Sci Fi it, call this arcane radiation instead x-ray or gamma radiation before it's scientifically understood, and thus have gammasynthesis or something.)
Arcanosynthesis collects radiant energy and converts it into sugars. However, along with sugars it also charges them, leaving them with a tingly aftertaste. Further this charged latent energy retards bacterial growth, unlike natural oceanic vents or sulfur pools with their bacterial ecosystems. But fungi absolutely love this competition vacuum near arcane radiation. Thus plants with arcanosynthesis ferment quickly, often on the vine.
Thus arcanosynthesis fruit tends to be partially fermented, thus effervescent (carbon dioxide) or alcohol filled, and tingly.
So a common dessert is 'whiskey pear' flambé with 'glitterberry' soda drink. Whiskey pear is mixed with fire ice in a pan and lit at the table, meanwhile a glass of bioluminescent and effervescent 'glitterberry' juice is poured. Both leave a tingling aftertaste, but together it's like Pop Rocks on the tongue.
Purple Worm Tequila: This time, the worm eats you.
JG
"Beware of the Purple Worms!" - ominous warning etched deep on the walls of Rappan Athuk.
One might speculate that a considerable amount of underdark food sources would be molds and fungi, possibly with quite a few of these having seriously hallucinogenic properties. I mean, you could just decide that actual underdark races were immune to these effects through aeons of building up tolerance, but what if that wasn't the case, and basically some of the underdark races were just high all the time?
RPGPundit
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,276196,00.html
There's a fungus that evolved in Chernobyl to 'eat' radiation. Something like that could evolve in areas of the underdark with lots of radioactive minerals.
You could also speculate that something like 'darkvision' works off that too - letting characters see using radiation rather than light (Gygax I think talked a bit about UV light below ground and how 'ultravision' works off that).
Quote from: RPGPundit;627402One might speculate that a considerable amount of underdark food sources would be molds and fungi, possibly with quite a few of these having seriously hallucinogenic properties. I mean, you could just decide that actual underdark races were immune to these effects through aeons of building up tolerance, but what if that wasn't the case, and basically some of the underdark races were just high all the time?
RPGPundit
That's pretty cool.
Could explain derro being insane - in 3E I think they're part-human part-dwarf, so perhaps they lack the dwarves evolved ability to cope?
Yeah, there'd be a lot of potential there, in underground societies that are basically constantly high.. imagine savage underdark tribes that somehow create a semi-coherent consensus among them of combining their hallucinations with reality. Not to mention if some of the psychedelic molds besides their normal qualities actually did someone magical: a society that can see and talk with all their dead, or that exists outside of usual time, experiencing past, present and future at once.
Not to mention the monsters... it really creates the question of what would a beholder or a mind flayer be like if they WEREN'T constantly high?
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;627613Yeah, there'd be a lot of potential there, in underground societies that are basically constantly high.. imagine savage underdark tribes that somehow create a semi-coherent consensus among them of combining their hallucinations with reality. Not to mention if some of the psychedelic molds besides their normal qualities actually did someone magical: a society that can see and talk with all their dead, or that exists outside of usual time, experiencing past, present and future at once.
Not to mention the monsters... it really creates the question of what would a beholder or a mind flayer be like if they WEREN'T constantly high?
That's some B4 Lost City shit right there.
Dwarf fortress features "purring maggots" that can be milked, for... purring maggot milk. (Sounds LOVELY.)
If human history has shown anything, its that sentient beings in extreme situations will find some pretty extreme ways of obtaining sustenance.
RPGPundit
Bizarre Foods: Menzoberranzan
Huh, when I was doing the list earlier I completely missed the traditional Rat-on-a-stick.
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;626712OK here's some menu items for the distinguished duergar or hobgoblin eatery of your choice (very slightly Arduin inspired and also yoinking ideas from the thread so far).
The Usual (2 sp)
Giant bat jerky, seasonal veggies ('shrooms & cave moss), and a hearty mushroom ale.
Traditional duergar rock-flour cakes as dessert (Note: inadvisable for non-dwarves)
Roast Spider Shanks (2) with mushroom bisque and beer(3 sp)
Cooked over a fire of rothe dung until the ichor is sizzling.
Snails fried in truffle oil (4 sp).
Followed by a dessert of juiciest Crickets in imported surface honey.
Hillbilly Special (5 sp)
Filet of sewer alligator (raw, pickled), with mushrooms. Selection of especially sweet mushrooms for dessert, plus hooch made from fermented tree-roots.
Fisherman's Basket (8 sp).
2 Blind Cave Fish, steamed, plus 2 raw frshwater oysters and a bowl of black cave algae soup.
Cave-fisher egg & rothe milk pudding for dessert.
Cave Lizard Ham & Lichen Omelette (1 gp)
The lizard provides the ham, the eggs and even partially digests the lichen for you!
Comes with a mushroom ale, and lizard egg meringue to finish.
Scorpion surprise (2 gp)
Steamed Cave Scorpions (3). Served with our traditional scorpion-venom wine - elves need not apply. Scorpion-shaped toffees for dessert, if you get that far.
One with the ooze (3 gp):
Boiled whole juvenile black pudding, with side order of earthworm 'fries' (crunchy-cooked).
Gello for dessert (slightly tart due to admixture of giant ant vinegar to kill the stinging cells). Blood-sweetened in your choice of red or green.
Adventurer Pie (10 gp)
Made from surface dwarf, elf or human - as available.
Served with an imported surface wine.
KFD (Kentucky Fried Drow) - (50 gold; feeds 6 medium-sized creatures) - freshly caught dark elf, salted (rock salt) and cooked over coal. 11 secret herbs and spices imported from the surface.
Side order of Earthworm fries. Followed with a small rothe-milk cheesecakes and Assassin Vine berry wine (a dark elf vintage).
+2. a great post.
Yes it was, very amusing. Orcs of Thar-ish, in its style.
RPGPundit
Orcs of Thar. Now that takes me back.
JG
Quote from: RPGPundit;628365Yes it was, very amusing. Orcs of Thar-ish, in its style.
RPGPundit
Well...I mentioned Arduin? While all the items in the menu I did were original, the writing style here was actually inspired by the writing style from Arduin - Arduin's Lost Grimoire by David Hargreave has a
completely insane menu for the evil "Dirty Dorg's" inn. Reproducing that from the Lost Grimoire for comparison. ('GS' are 'Gold Sovereigns').
Quote from: The Lost GrimoireA NOTE ON UNDER-CITIES
Immediately following is a "menu" from the most infamous and even legendary "Inn" in all of the undercities of Arduim "Dirty Dorg's". This place, deep beneath the sewers and tunnels under the capitol city of Talismonde, is supposed to pre-date the construction of even the first village that stood where now stands the mighty city. This may or may not be so but it surely has been there for at least a thousand or more years and is the only place in all the undercities where ones safety is actually guaranteed (or your money back!). The people of the upper streets come here to do their dealings with the denizens of the darkling ways (those too dangerous even for the normal run of the mill Thieves' and Assassins' Guilds!). The place is quite large and has several levels. There are "common rooms", hidden trysting places, secret meeting rooms and every manner of vice, perversion and criminal activity one can imagine ... but only if you have the price. Here Slavers sell their forbidden (in Arduin) wares, blacklisted Thieves and Assassins strike bargains with prospective employers, drugs and forbidden pleasures are freely indulged and even the darkest desires of the soul can be had. Yes, Dirty Dorg's is the hell hole of the multiverse, yet it too is a "nexus" in its own way - a meeting point between the saner, more lawful world above and that of the rankest, most mind-bending "alternatives" down below. Indeed, anything at all can be had here - for a price. Want a noble killed? A beauteous wench kidnapped for you? A submissive slave to cater to your every whim? The dark dreams of the dread Lotus-based drugs (or worse)? It's all yours.... for a price. In keeping with this there is presented here for your perusal just one of the "Special Menus" available at Dirty Dorg's. Read it and see just what money can buy in a world where anything and everything is for sale! And then think twice about visiting such a place!
BILL OF FARE FOR DIRTY DORG'S
Multiversal Eatery and Grog Emporium for the Discriminating Trencherman
The Quick Time Lunch - 7,450 GS - A thick 13 pound Stegasaurus steak, french fried Triffid Stingers (3 dozen) and a two quart tankard of the Best Bats' Blood (fresh).
The Trencherman's Choice - 11,950 GS - A tureen of Bloodworm and Orc-eye soup. a huge salad of Limbo weed and assorted Myrkwood greens, blues, browns and reds, with a seven pound slab of prime rib of Hippogryf. A chilled tankard of Hailstone wine tops it off.
Royal Repast - 22,000 GS - A whole roast leg of Wyvern, fluffy scrambled Roc's eggs (four) and a steaming mound of two dozen juicy troll toes fried crisp and pungent House Wine included. Glaced pixie brain pie (a slice) is the crowning desert.
Moonbeam Meal - 8,850 GS - Two dozen Warg tongues (steamed in a genuine coffin), three pounds of steamed Giant Scorpion meat (only the best pincer meat!) steeped in a bubbly sauce of fine aged Chimera's blood and Sea Kraaken's ink. House Wine included.
Weight Watcher's Feast - 32,150 GS - Iced head of Unicorn tinged with cheery garlands of Pixie fingers and piquant fire berries, all dusted with Rotweed pollen. A glass of our finest Bang Beetle wine tops it off.
Black Mountain Lunch - 13,350 GS - A basin of stewed Orc hearts (2 dozen), heaps of boiled chokeweed and a liberal serving of Ghoul gizzard gravy. A tankard of Rumble Tummy's ale accompanies it. (Iron Orc Beer substituted on request).
Sunrise Surprise - 32,350 GS - About two lbs of braised Tyrannosaurus brains in Bloodgrass and Wobra wine sauce surrounded by crisp baked black lotus bulbs (30). A glass of Hailstone wine tops off the meal.
Neptune's Revenge - 12,500 GS - Filet of Triton (3 lbs) broiled then steamed with poached Thermite's eggs (3) and Kronasaurus flipper soup (a large bowl). House wine.
Assassin's Supper - 352,750 GS - Rare, roast Vampire's heart, bowl of StingWing soup. steamed Sea Spider's eyes (12) and filet of Black Dragon's tongue (3 lbs). A glass of Djinn Blood Wine tops off this savory meal. If Black Dragon's tongue is not available. the management reserves the right to substitute another "color- dragon's tongue in its place.
The Red Queen's Repast - 1,000 GS - Whole roast hobbit, stuffed with fluffy fairy wings and Medusa's adders. A glass of Falling Star wine is the crowning touch.
Gourmet's Gorge - 98,250 GS - Salamanders' eyes (8) in Basilisk broth with six juicy boiled Minotaurs tongues topped off with an icy Spiga's egg frappe and a glass of chilled Spectre wine. Optional candied ghouls fingers (5) for dessert.
Midnight Special - 13,350 GS - Thin sliced, quick fried Gorgon's Phallus with a heaping bowl of braised goblin gonads (36) in warm Firewasp winesauce. House wine
The Black Prince's Pride - 13,350 GS Steamed Manticore brains surrounded by boiled Lash Lizard tongue (1) and covered in a mound of sweet sawed Nixie eyes (200). A glass of Black Lotus liqueur is the crowning touch.
Sea King's Delight -33,750 GS - Delicate breast of Mermaid (a pair), baked in a bed of Kobold's gizzards (250) and baby Kraaken's tentacles (36). A glass of Ghost Grape wine and candied Amazon eyes (6) for dessert.
The Whole Thing - 210,000 GS - Whole roast Unicorn, stuffed with crispy-fried ogres' fingers, yellow mold pollen and pickled Sautig's eggs (3). Side dishes of Bone-wood's famous Stranglevine Stew (with Juicy chunks of boiled Bandersnatch). Roc's Eye Soup, and YumLum Snake appetizers. A chilled glass of SilverSlyth Liqueur and minced mung beetles for dessert top it all off. (1 day's notice required for this one!)
The Black Elf's Breakfast -15,000 GS - A tender and juicy filet of Deodanth's thigh braised in witch's blood and Spectre wine. Served with a very thinly sliced, cool, Deodanth's Heart in Aspic and with a generous portion of Deodanth eye pie. House wine of course.
The Orc Greed Feast - 24,500 GS - Two dozen plump Hobbits' toes in a simmering black stew of squeezed Elf juices. Served with a heaping pile of (7) smoking Amazon's ribs. A frosted glass of White Warg Vodka tops it all.
The Feast of Marmachand - 35,000 CS - A whole young Human (choice of gender!) roasted slowly over a low brimstone fire, basted in virgin's blood and stuffed with red lotus petals. A bubbling hot mug of mulled Virgin's Blood wine to finish. Please note: 3 weeks notice needed for this goodie!
HELL FEAST - 1,250,000 GS - The Personage of your choice caught and cooked (or not) to your specifications! Six months prior notice (and full prepayment) required. The management reserves the tight to decline any "suggested menu" as necessary!
DIRTY DORG'S DAMNATION SPECIAL - 1,500,000 GS - Any minor or lesser Demon Kind caught and prepared to your specifications. Accompanying the feast will be any four (4) side dishes you desire. chosen from any of the other items on the menus except the Hell Feast "which is a separate entry and can only be had by itself as listed previously. Note also that the Damnation Special will require a one year's prior notice and the management reserves the right to decline any "suggested" item of menu. Full prepayment of course. Enjoy....
DIRTY DORG'S PENULTIMATE SPECIAL FEAST -10,000,000 GS - As per the Damnation Special in all respects save that it is for any Major or Name demon
SPECIAL DISCLAIMER: The management of Dirty Borg's cannot guarantee the safety of anyone requesting said feasts once the "main course" actually arrives in either the Damnation Special or Penultimate Feast. All things being equal, Demon kind are a surly and unpredictable lot and not too reasonable in the best of times, less so when being used as the center piece for someone's meal.
All meals subject to availability. All prices subject to change without notice.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ANYTHING TO ANYTHING!
Hmm, that's very interesting, because its specifically also a kind of underdark-menu.
RPGPundit
Have edible clays been mentioned yet?
Also, consider the possibilities of divergent evolution. There could be "flowering" fungi that produce nectar to attract vermin for pollenization (and, by extension, strange honey and underdark bees to eat). There could be new varieties of amphibious creatures that developed at underground intertidal zones or something (so there could be a connection with oceanic ecosystems). There could even be things that hibernate a few thousand years at a time that you could find and harvest... "thousand year cicadas" or something like that.
Thinking big there, since completely different evolution could give you more or less anything you could imagine. Talking D&D underdark, you could maybe also try to imagine smaller or ancestral versions of regular D&D monsters, using these for spots in the ecology. You might have some 'parallel evolution' giving creatures that look a lot like surface creatures.
On pollination, I would hazard a guess that part of the evolution of flower shape is to match the shape of the pollinators, so a fungus that has nectar might be somewhat flower-shaped. Sticking closer to real-world, bats would probably be the most likely 'pollinator' (I believe there are real-world flowers that are bat-pollinated) and its easy to imagine some sort of vase-shaped fungus that a bat goes into for 'nectar', before flying off dusted in spores, and perhaps collapsing with new fungus growing out of it.
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;628890Thinking big there, since completely different evolution could give you more or less anything you could imagine. Talking D&D underdark, you could maybe also try to imagine smaller or ancestral versions of regular D&D monsters, using these for spots in the ecology. You might have some 'parallel evolution' giving creatures that look a lot like surface creatures.
I was specifically going for the potential weirdness. Like finding "thousand year cicadas" the size of Rhode Island and mining the carcass, using the chitinous bits for tools and shelter and such.
QuoteOn pollination, I would hazard a guess that part of the evolution of flower shape is to match the shape of the pollinators, so a fungus that has nectar might be somewhat flower-shaped. Sticking closer to real-world, bats would probably be the most likely 'pollinator' (I believe there are real-world flowers that are bat-pollinated) and its easy to imagine some sort of vase-shaped fungus that a bat goes into for 'nectar', before flying off dusted in spores, and perhaps collapsing with new fungus growing out of it.
Pollinators might not have to be flyers either. Something could put up hundreds of spore-covered filaments and let its offspring hitch a ride on passing rats. Lots of room for variation.
Quote from: beejazz;628898I was specifically going for the potential weirdness. Like finding "thousand year cicadas" the size of Rhode Island and mining the carcass, using the chitinous bits for tools and shelter and such.
Cool ideas. Something like that is already a monster in 3.0. Never thought of 'mining' one though.
(http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff507/BSJ17/devastationbeetle_zps86d4a090.jpg)
(Devastation Beetle, Epic Level Handbook)
QuotePollinators might not have to be flyers either. Something could put up hundreds of spore-covered filaments and let its offspring hitch a ride on passing rats. Lots of room for variation.
That's cool too...you could have ceiling dwelling fungi that just drop spores on PCs too, either harmless (but funny with paranoid PCs), or with nasty effects to give the baby fungi some nice compost to grow in. Sorry I'm wandering a bit from culinary stuff to general ecology..
PS is there such a thing as 'edible clay' that has actual nutritional value? Or is that a fantasy idea?
As far as I know, there are clays that are edible, but I never heard of them having any substantial nutritional value.
RPGPundit
According to the wiki article on geophagy, certain animal species can get certain nutrients out of clay (sodium and calcium are listed). I've also heard certain birds use the clay to neutralize toxins in fruits, nuts, and plants that they eat.
So the nutritional value may be a bit of a stretch, barring some special clay specific to your setting, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to see it used to aid the digestion of other things.
That brings up a whole other area; creatures that could subsist on minerals.
RPGPundit
That would cycle back to the extreme bacteria ecologies which are part of the link I offered in the beginning. Real life already provides a rich source of crazy to riff off of here.
Quote from: Opaopajr;629720That would cycle back to the extreme bacteria ecologies which are part of the link I offered in the beginning. Real life already provides a rich source of crazy to riff off of here.
Indeed it does; consider the Scottish, for example!
RPGPundit