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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1205496" data-attributes="member: 9410">The Fertile Underdark...The Underdark is home to many strange creatures.  What does an Umber Hulk eat?  (Anyone he can!)  Let's confine ourselves to the more mindane, however.There are any number of giant bats, rats, and spiders down there.  We know this from the Monster Manuals.  Now while rats & bats are great survivors, and rats will eat just about anything but rock, spiders are all "carnivorous".  They eat insects, and the giant ones in the MM eat larger things.  The biggest can run off with a full-grown Halfling!So what do they eat?  Giant insects, of course.  In one pre-3e monster manual, there were giant cave-crickets.  The usual giant insects in the MMs are all lethal sorts (arachnids, myriapods, giant purple worm & beetles), but all of them exist.  Giant ants, etc. feed the giant spiders.These giant insects can feed many races, including Humanoids, if they wish.  If not, envision a herd of anteater-style insectivores raised for food.  The giant insects also feed the bats, most species of which feed on them (fruit-bats would be rare, in the underdark).These feed larger things, like the rats.  The bats and rats feed still larger things, like cave fishers (and people).  The Rothe (from another pre-3e MM) feed on lichens and fungi, and feed many intelligent species, which in turn feed the Illithid.Of course, life requires water, as well.  Most underground waterways bring in some small life from the surface, and many underground streams and pools are inhabited by blind fish and crawdads, etc.  Whatever can catch'em feeds on these... and they feed on the unsuccessful hunters.  (Y'all be careful when goin' for water... and take someone withya, now, hear?)Bat & rat droppings, the drained husks left behind by spiders, Humanoid and Rothe manure, etc., etc., ad nauseum, all guarantee a steady supply of decaying organic material to insure the growth of lichens and fungi.  Plant Growth also helps, and never rule out the judicious use of a Permanacy on a Daylight spell for growing crops, even underground.In short, the Underdark is not endless halls of barren stone, but a thriving ecosystem.  Thank you all for your kind attention.  This concludes Dungeoneering 101...  Next time: Seas of the Underdark!   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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