Below the Root: Mostly above the root

You can pense the bunnies!

 

The healing magic and spirit boost granted by the Wise Child nearly eliminated one of my frustrations with Below the Root; I was no longer at constant risk of running out of stamina while exploring, far from the closest known bed, and could simply restore both rest and food anywhere in the field at the expense of a comparatively large spirit pool. I'd still need to check my status frequently; the meters still deplete fast and without warning, but exploring far from home suddenly became a lot more practical than it had before.

Healing magic also seems to make food fairly irrelevant. Food and rest deplete at the same rate, so it is unusual to need food and not also need rest. Sleeping restores both rest and spirit, at the cost of food, but now I could just cast a post-nap heal instead of eating a post-nap meal.

Broad Grund lay one tree over to the east, where I went to the shops and bought myself a trencher and a lamp. I then went one more tree east to Grand Grund, where I had previously collapsed in exhaustion just before reaching the top. This time, magic healing took me all the way.

 

Overgrowth blocks the hermit's hut, but the trencher cuts through.

The hermit granted me another 5 spirit points, a vision, and a new spell; Grunspeke. This magic causes branches to grow outward, though only a few pixels per cast, and it isn't permanent. Pensing granted a clue:
Seek a sky-nid and a dream

I continued exploring in a general eastward direction, and found more trees, more houses, more people dispensing clues which seemed more or less redundant at this point. Healing magic let me travel far between friendly beds; spirit regenerates with time, though not quite at the rate required to be able to explore indefinitely without rest - five spirit points restore five minutes worth of rest and food, and four spirit points regenerate in that time.

Silk Grund, just to the east of Grand Grund, had two huts with people that offered free tokens, and a third, grander house rested on a connecting branch offered yet more, though at this point I didn't really need them nor have room for more stuff.

 

Star Grund further east had a shop building where one could buy spare shubas, ropes, and bread. A man here advised me to speak to the Star, but I saw none, and couldn't find a way to ascend to the upper branches.

 

The longest accessible branch led to a temple, sealed off by a gate whose key had been lost according to another man here.

At the base of the tree, a house lay overrun with brambles, which I cut back with my trencher, and inside an object which looked like a knife could be seen in an inaccessible room.

I continued east by ground, cutting through more brambles, and reached the base of the first Temple Grunds tree. Vines hanged from the branches, and could be climbed to some bare branches, but no farther. One branch extended east - I jumped from it, glided down, and landed somewhere familiar.

 

The guarded entrance to Erdling caverns! I had wrapped around the world of Green Sky and returned to the base of Sky Grund where I started.

 

I had a lamp to spelunk with, but I figured it was best for now to continue exploring the relative safety above the root and continue mapping out Green Sky as much as possible. Tools such as my vines and magic would help me fill in missing gaps in the map - such as the top of Sky Grund.

 

After several harrowing platforming screens, during which I found an elixir that raised my stamina to 15 points (and my food/rest limits from 5 to 7 points), I reached an hut at the top of the tree, empty of all features except for a hammock.

Sky-nid indeed. I took the hermit's clue and rested here, and awakened somewhere else.

Here I found D'ol Neshom, who granted me the spirit bell, more spirit points, and the power to "kiniport" tools.

Soon after leaving this world the way I came, an obscurely placed rabbit in the Sky Grund gave me another vision.

 

The resulting spirit boost then gave me the very useful, very expensive power to "kinport" my own body.

 

I kept going east over familiar ground, filling in gaps of my map where I could, though I didn't make a ton of new discoveries even with my extensive powers. An elixir somewhere, an animal to pense here and there, but mostly a lot of empty terrain. I did find that the "knife" near Star Grund, movable with kiniport magic, was in fact a magic wand, though its use remained unknown. Lastly, gliding around the lower reaches of the Temple Grunds, I found a little alcove where the temple key had been stashed by D'ol Falla, but the game rudely told me that I needed permission to take it.

I did one last thing before preparing to brave the cavern. I allowed myself to be kidnapped by one of the evil Kindar!

Inside the prison they take you to, I found another elixir behind a wall, which I kiniported to myself, and then escaped easily with self-kiniportation to some unexplored branches above Broad Grund, where I found nothing of particular value.

Next stop - Erdling caverns.