117. Inverted Forest

By your estimations, you should be beneath the giant cistern. At least that would explain the steady drips of water falling from above. But nothing prepares you for the twisting tree roots that crawl across the ceiling, bunching into knotty bark-covered trunks that stretch all the way down to the cavern floor. There they expand into thick mats of leaves—an inverted forest.

The whole scene is illuminated by the steady glow of bioluminescent fungi growing from the ceiling. In fact, as you kneel down to look at the leaves and see just how pale they are, you suspect this entire forest lives off the dim but constant light.

If you are on THE EXPEDITION'S PATH, continue reading:

As you weave through the tree trunks, you see a strange, angular shape in the roots above your head. You look up and shift your lambance rigs around to reveal that it’s some sort of treehouse wedged into the tangled roots.

You scramble up the trunk and, with some effort, you’re able to swing into the entrance to the treehouse. Within it, you find a terrible sight. A pitiful collection of bones lies in the corner, still wrapped in the rotten scraps of a gray, ironwool cloak. A quick inspection of the remaining belongings confirms your suspicions: this is one of the members of the expedition.

You check over the body and do not find any evidence of animal attack or injury. What you do find, however, are empty food sacks and provision pouches. You wonder if the expedition member ran out of food. You haven’t seen many possibilities for forage in the Inverted Forest, and perhaps they grew too weak to return to the surface. In any case, this is something you need to tell Silaro.

Check off the right bubble next to THE EXPEDITION'S PATH on the campaign tracker.