# Feeding a Tree
**URL:** https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399
**Category:** Fabula Ultima
**Tags:** background
**Created:** [September 11, 2026, 4:59am UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399 "2026-09-11T04:59:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@garrett](https://forum.menagerie.team/u/garrett)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2026, 4:59am UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399/1 "2026-09-11T04:59:15Z")
We’re gonna feed a tree!
What do trees grow on? In the real world, we’d care about nitrogen and phosphorus and whatnot, and maybe there’s a degree of that in Fabula Ultima worlds, but in the aetherological sense, we need these elements: _earth_ (soil for the roots), _water_ (the lifeblood of a plant), and _air_ (the open sky and bright sun).
To escape the city, we’re bootstrapping a whole process here. What do we have to work with, both initially and long-term?
**Biomass**. The city is full of existing biomass, sadly including the occupants of the stasis chambers, but also including all the existing oceanic life that came up when the city rose from the depths, the odd monster, and so on.
**Water**. We’ve got no shortage of ocean water, but unfortunately it’s salty - or is it? Is the Contour Sea freshwater? If so, that saves us a step. Either way, maybe a magical tree doesn’t care about things like salt content.
**Ritual**. Mizzle can work further magic, using the **sacrifice** domain to try and transform one form of energy into another. Something like this might be necessary to sustain the tree in the short term no matter what, but “I gain strength from suffering” has a rock-solid pedigree in magical tradition.
**Mushrooms**. Following Surdak’s example, maybe there’s something about fungus that could cushion the taint of the miasma? This might be a long-term project, using a layer of fungus between the miasma and the tree, buffering the miasma’s intensity to make it easier to purify.
**City Infrastructure**. Here’s the neat option! The city is wired up to distribute power everywhere. What if those systems intertwined with its roots - what if the tree itself adapted to nourish itself partially on the energy that ran the city? That doesn’t help us _immediately_ (the city’s on reserve power), but what if that meant long-term that artificial power sources could nourish the tree?
What are we doing as a ritual?
Strictly speaking, we’re using the **plant** domain of Grandfather Oak to overcome a challenge, and we’ve got a rare item (the seedling) to halve the MP cost. This is either a Major (40 MP, DL 13) or Extreme (50 MP, DL 16) effect, with either a Large (x3) or Huge (x4) area. Large areas include “a small forest” or “a giant creature” and I feel like we’re in that territory.
A Large Major ritual would be 120 MP, DL 13, while a Large Extreme Ritual would be 150 MP, DL 16. Either way, having a rare item halves the MP cost, meaning Mizzle’s got the MP budget to cast it (assuming the seedling counts).
What are our chances? Unaided, Mizzle’s +2 to Magic Checks gives him a 55% chance of hitting DL 13 or 28% for DL 16 - not great. If Saraid repeats her actions and boosts WLP to d12, that goes up to 68% and 45%. If we also benefit from at least one success on a group check, that’s 89% or 75%.
At the start of session, we also have 2 FP to throw at this - one for Mizzle, and one for Saraid via My Trust In You. Two rerolls, with those odds, feel pretty solid to me! The Trimaldis would reserve their FP to reroll their bond check, as I basically need one of the two other PCs to succeed in supporting me.
How about our buddy Surdak? At this point he’s got two options open to avoid recycling:
- Plug himself into the city and act as mystic mentor for Lubeck and anyone else who feels like working here. Maybe he gets a body out of the deal, who knows?
- Become an Arcanum. Mizzle’s willing to cooperate with him on this.
Both options are _really_ contingent on him figuring out selflessness. If he hasn’t got an answer to Mizzle’s riddle by the time we reach the Druids, we may just hand him over. Really remains to be seen.
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### Author:  [@garrett](https://forum.menagerie.team/u/garrett)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2026, 7:23am UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399/2 "2026-09-11T07:23:13Z")
How about getting people to and from Far Daran? In short, airships.
- We have a miasma problem! Until it’s dealt with, ships are going to have a real problem reaching the city.
- On the other hand, this can also be an incredible defensive measure, since not just anyone can show up and cause trouble.
- Who can build an airship? I’m sure Lubeck could at least give some tips. The Trimaldis could technically execute a Project to build it, but I feel like plenty of NPCs could too.
- Who knows? Maybe the alien UFO already comes with some kind of shuttle craft…
- This would be the way cargo - food, medicine, etc. - has to arrive. So we’re not talking about bootstrapping a huge sprawling city. But in time…
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### Author:  [@Dave](https://forum.menagerie.team/u/Dave)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2026, 7:13am UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399/3 "2026-09-12T07:13:20Z")
> [@garrett](#):
>
> Here’s the neat option! The city is wired up to distribute power everywhere. What if those systems intertwined with its roots - what if the tree itself adapted to nourish itself partially on the energy that ran the city? That doesn’t help us _immediately_ (the city’s on reserve power), but what if that meant long-term that artificial power sources could nourish the tree?
Jump-starting via the city’s reserve power systems (which seem to be distributed) is a good start.
The cool things about trees is, if you get them poking above-ground, tree + sun = power. And maybe after we get past the tree growing off the city’s power, **the tree starts being a source of power for the city**. (We’re not talking an ordinary tree here.)
(Aside, as we were talking about poking the tree and kelp to drive a hole up through the roof, I kept visually riffing on Poison Ivy doing her Poison Ivy thing.)
[https://gifdb.com/images/branded/high/poison-ivy-manipulate-plant-onvosbrsh7l7bxb6.gif(image larger than 10 MB)](https://gifdb.com/images/branded/high/poison-ivy-manipulate-plant-onvosbrsh7l7bxb6.gif)
> [@garrett](#):
>
> How about getting people to and from Far Daran? In short, airships.
Seems reasonable. The TBs would be willing to help, once other crises are cleared up.
I’m trying to think of an analogy for what we’re looking at here. Until the city is in better shape (streets not underwater, systems stable, Miasma dealt with, demons quelled), it smacks of an Antarctic base: hostile environment, scientific exploration, potentially lethal dangers, diplomatic maneuvering, becoming its own academic culture pretty quickly, etc.
The difference is that there’s a shit-tonne of practical knowledge to be grasped – extraterrestrial tech (that is, perhaps, already subtly blended into this world’s tech base), bio-manipulation – lots of possibilities there. (Is it time to pivot to more of the SF side of FabU?). That creates a bit more incentive to get things settled.
Only issues I see there are that the resources for doing this have limits. The Gallimaufry is an obvious participant here, but, ultimately (perhaps sooner than later once the egg is delivered), the turtle is gonna be wandering elsewhere. Even if the Librarians put an outpost there, the support from the home base will be increasingly problematic. Harmony’s ability to focus on this among a zillion other things is New-Republic-limited. The animalkin (of Trishenko or elsewhere) have a vested interest, as you’ve noted, Bill, but their resources and practical ability to invest or participate in such a thing feels limited (akin to inviting working-class Italian immigrants in America to participate in a big Roman-era dig in Tunisia).
Some of that equation may change once we have a chance to talk with Sigil-Owen. He may have knowledge of the city/ship, provide incentives we haven’t thought of (“Well, yes, of course, if you restore drive power to the Research Vessel, you can probably use its onboard weapon systems to deal with the Elonians …”), etc.
There are a lot of possibilities with the city of Far Daran. But there are reasons why post-apocalyptic SF settlements take place on the fringe of, not inside of, The Ruins of The Forerunners. On the other hand, we’re pretty smart in various ways – we may be able to leverage what we have to get Far Darran back to a going concern, even if it has a Venetian boat culture and demons in the basement.
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### Author:  [@garrett](https://forum.menagerie.team/u/garrett)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2026, 10:30am UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399/4 "2026-09-12T10:30:02Z")
There’s a metaphysical variation of Surdak’s plan: instead of punching a hole into the Stream of Souls generally, punch it into a specific “domain” or refuge within the Stream - places where the rules are different, like both Surdak and Lady Lampara are interested in.
In mundane terms, instead of pouring waste into the local river, we pour it into a big container. The trick is finding or crafting the container.
That could solve a lot of the immediate miasma problem, and would need cooperation from a few different parties - all things Mizzle wants.
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### Author:  [@insomn14](https://forum.menagerie.team/u/insomn14)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/feeding-a-tree/1399/5 "2026-09-13T21:49:04Z")
Oh, all this sounds fantastic. Excited to see how this works out.
On the point of “ritually plant the seedling and bootstrap its growth,” I see this as being a Major/Huge effect, one of the largest we’ve seen during the game. Major is due to the closest examples to what we’re trying to accomplish: dispel a curse and provide long-term energy. As for the size, we are effectively trying to impact Far Daran as a whole, so I don’t think Huge (fortress, a village) is out of line.
That would make this a hefty 160 MP, DL 13 ritual, but as Bill pointed out, the Seedling will reduce the MP cost down to 80 MP, just within the realm of Mizzle’s capabilities. 🙂