The Undergrowth

The Undergrowth

450 Million years ago, plants didn’t rule the world we know – fungus did. As it tried to help plant life begin to crawl from the oceans and take root in the hard volcanic rock, Prototaxites, giant spires of fungus, as tall as 3 story buildings, towered over lifeless rock inhabited only by mold. It was a world hostile to any other life, but slowly, fungus helped other life move in from the margins. Primitive animals burrowed into its massive stalks; fungus merged with algae to help it break down the rock into soil. Slowly, over millions of years, the Mycos changed the world into a place anything else could live.

The Undergrowth is still such a world. A world ruled by fungus. A world where no other life can truly take root. A world where the Mycos rule, and their influence in our world is reflected in where their tendrils grow in the Undergrowth. Just like in the Silurian age, the Mycos are giving the Sporebound the power to crawl onto its shores, to exist at its edges. But if you get to the Prototaxite spires, towering into the sky, you’ve gone too far.

While the Undergrowth is dangerous, the Sporebound can accomplish things there that they can’t in our world. First, Germs operate at maximum power, without the need for an Anchor. Any Sporebound in the Undergrowth may use all of their Germs as though they were attached to an Anchor that has not been exhausted. Secondly, there might be cases where a location is so impregnable in the physical world that it’s preferable to brave the dangers of The Undergrowth and reappear in the location from there. Thirdly, it allows them to strike against the Blight directly.

The systemic issues caused by the Blight in our world are in service to creating Blight Source in the Undergrowth. A company who is advancing the Blight’s will in our world will also have a Blight Source representing that company in the Undergrowth. Even if the Sporebound achieve total victory in our world, Blight Sources in the Undergrowth will continue to spread and produce new Controlled that will start the cycle all over again. Unfortunately, Blight Sources are often very well protected. The Controlled under a Blight Source will nearly instantly move to defend it, as will Blighted Sporebeasts in proportion to the amount of influence it maintains in our world.

In addition to Blight Sources, the Blight is able to create Blight Structures in the Undergrowth that feed their plans in our world. These are almost always sources of control over mortals, or means to infest mundane objects with the Blight. Blight Structures are often a priority for Sporebound to destroy. Because they are often defended by Blighted Sporebeasts and because the Undergrowth is so dangerous, the Sporebound usually want to investigate as much as possible before making a plunge.

Finding things in the Undergrowth requires that you not only be in the correct location, but also at the correct Depth. Thankfully, Blight Structures and Blight Sources stretch from their location and Depth, and extend Downroot from there. The result is that Sporebound can find Blighted things so long as they are at a minimum Depth, rather than being at a precise Depth.

The Undergrowth is a reflection of our world, but in another dimension. Or maybe another state of mind. Or maybe a connection to our world that’s neither, that we’ll never understand. Nevertheless, if you had to pick a direction, traveling to The Undergrowth feels like going down. Like sinking into quicksand, or how you feel like you’re sinking down into your bed when you’re on the edge of sleep, only to jolt awake and feel yourself rise back up. Like that feeling when you trip backwards, and you feel yourself in the air on the brink of falling to the ground.That’s at least how it feels if you travel to The Undergrowth in a Stipe, a place of Mycos power where the transfer is easier. All a Sporebound needs to do is meditate at a Stipe for a few minutes and play a single card: any value will work. Returning at a Stipe is even easier: while you still need to meditate, it costs no resources.

Elsewhere, the surface tension is more rigid, though a Shroomhead can make it more malleable, less painful to cross by leading you through the change of consciousness. Heading there without one is possible, but not recommended, like trying to fly a real life helicopter after getting pretty ok at it in 2d on an arcade machine. At a place resonant with their Mycos (Natural areas or nexuses of sharing information for Myelium; places of healing or natural decay for Pennicilium; or places focused on empathy or self expression for Psilocybinia) any Sporebound my meditate for a few minutes, play one card, and take 2 Damage to cross over into the Undergrowth. If you are at Depth 1 in the Undergrowth, you may return in the same way.

In a real pinch, a Shroomhead can yank you out of The Undergrowth and back to our world. Unfortunately that feels less like falling through quicksand, and more like being shoved through a fine mesh sieve. When at all possible, you’d rather leave that for getting clumps out of flour, not you. See the Germ “Trip Through the Fairy Rings” for details.

When you think of The Undergrowth as part of another dimension, the dimensions of it add another literal one. Travel to and within The Undergrowth occurs in 4 dimensions, not 3. Besides north-south, east-west, up-down, when heading to and through The Undergrowth, there’s another direction to move: Downroot, and Capward.

Think of the dimension like a mushroom itself. At the top is the world we know, as the cap of the mushroom. Travel to The Undergrowth involves sinking through the cap, down the stem – Downroot. Returning to the surface means traveling up the stem, towards the mushroom cap – Capward.

Just after crossing the threshold Downroot, The Undergrowth is a reflection of our own world. Buildings, trees, roads still exist, though very much entwined in fungal tendrils. The light of the sun is muted, in much the same way it is just below the surface of the ocean.

In fact, traveling Downroot feels much like sinking in the ocean. The light dims as you move downward. The surface is mostly patrolled by harmless creatures, but true monsters lurk in the depths, and surge up from it. By Depth 3, the surroundings grow more alien, as familiar reflections of structures are replaced by replicas of fungus alone. When you can just make out the Prototaxite Spires, usually around Depth 6, in the distance of the depths, you’ve reached where no Sporebound can stay. Only the Hilum, the Sporebound who have lost their mortal souls, can endure the pressure.

Unless otherwise specified, Sporebound enter the Undergrowth at Depth 1. As they move Downroot, they increase their Depth. As they move Capward, they decrease their Depth. Normally, Sporebound can only leave the Undergrowth while at Depth 1. Sporebound also only moves one Depth level at a time. Depth is an in-character concept, although it is more an abstraction and gut feeling rather than a hard measurement. Characters can’t interact with things at a different Depth.

Every time a Sporebound Increases or Decreases their Depth, they take their destination Depth in damage. For instance, moving from Depth 1 to Depth 2 causes them to take 2 Damage, while moving from Depth 2 to Depth 1 causes them to take 1 Damage. Sporebound also take the Depth of their location in damage every hour. This damage may be reduced normally. This damage is an abstraction of the overall hostility of the Undergrowth. The damage comes from things like acidic sludge, toxic spores, and narratively insignificant sporebeasts that harrow anyone who enters the Undergrowth.

Stroma, areas of the Undergrowth hollowed out and made “safe” by the Hilum are the exception. These places work through arcane laws that, so long as they are followed, afford anyone in them protection from the harsh outside world. Unfortunately, Stroma are places of such power that they confuse Sporebound’s normal regeneration, and it is possible for a Sporebound to reconstitute at the last Stroma they visited instead of their Stipe, if they haven’t left the Undergrowth since.

Thankfully, while the Undergrowth is not meant for people, or even Sporebound, the Mycos have considerable control in the area. Any Sporebound who is incapacitated in the Undergrowth and is not in a Stroma or a Blight-infested area will be collected by the Mycos’ servants and deposited back at a Stipe. This only occurs to incapacitated Sporebound who are left in the Undergrowth.