TreeQuest: Magitech (Riot Quest)

In this Riot Quest (inspired by No SV, You Are The Forest), each player controls one tree within a large magical Forest.
Each turn, each player gets to Vote on two things:

1. What that player's tree will be doing - Action.
2. What the player wants the overall forest to do - Focus of the Forest.

The first one will always happen, for each player, just because you voted for it - Riot Quest style. The second one is a Consensus vote, and the most popular vote(s) win(s).

Each player starts with one of three tree types: Mind Tree, Heart Tree, or Root Tree.

• Mind Trees get 1d on all actions, and +1d on Communication or Research actions.
• Heart Trees get 1d on all actions, and +1d on Defense or Survival actions.
• Root Trees get 1d on all actions, and +1d on Growth or Offense actions.

You may upgrade your Player Tree to an Elder Player Tree after voting 10 times (choosing a tree does not count as a vote for this purpose), further upgrade to an Ancient Player Tree after voting 25 times, and get a further stacking bonus for each 25 additional votes given. Upgrading allows you to potentially change type-bonuses - you'll always be allowed to "continue as you were but with more dice", but you can potentially access additional options (more generalist; more specialist; different categories with bonuses) depending on what you actually voted for.

Each die rolled will have a chance of failure and a chance of success. Unless otherwise noted, assume a die is a d6 that fails on a 1-3 and succeeds on a 4-6. Thus, generally speaking, an automatic success is worth 2d on average. Most actions can be performed across multiple turns - grow a Special Tree, for example, will just keep accumulating successes until the action fully succeeds - exceptions will be noted accordingly.

The players collectively choose one Focus of the Forest action per Magnitude of the Forest, each turn. Each such action gives you a base of one automatic-success per Magnitude of the Forest. There are, of course, ways to increase the effectiveness of Focus of the Forest actions.

You are starting out on an idyllic (you think) hillside, with a small creek below you, and a rarely-used trail on the ridge above. You are initially a Magnitude 1 Forest. It is the beginning of spring. Generally speaking, each season will last 4 turns, for a total of 16 turns per year - though I will probably fudge the numbers a bit at times (what do trees know about time anyway? ).

As a note, the summer gets Strong Sunlight (Growth +50%) and the winter gets Weak Sunlight (Growth -50%). Both summer and winter have the propensity for Drought (variable Growth penalty) - but you'll always be warned at least 1 turn early (you're trees; if there's one thing you know, it's weather). Spring and fall have some interesting potential weather events (winter also has Ice; summer also has fires), but I won't be rolling those for your first season, as a grace-period.

Bonuses are percentage multipliers to your final success count (auto-successes plus any succeeding dice). Bonuses tend to stack additively; I'll let you know if an exception arises. I may grant exceptional bonuses to researching particularly-used actions, especially Offense or Defense actions.

I'm expecting you, the players, to heavily invest in Research and Growth, with enough of the other actions to get by. However, I'm open to surprises, and there are several odd builds that would nonetheless thrive in this setting (Diplomancer, anyone? Pure 100% Tank?).

One additional note: [Tree] votes are always allowed, regardless of whether or not Voting is open. [Action] votes are usually allowed even when voting is closed; feel free to chime in and 90% of the time I'll be able to include your Action in the upcoming turn with negligible effort. [Focus] or similar Consensus votes are only generally allowed when Voting is open.

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Initial actions:

Communication:
[ ][Action] Reach Out to Minds (Psychic)
-Successes sort-of stack. You're not sure how difficult this will be. Better results if more successful. Possibility of finding "there's nothing within X miles" - but even something like that will be good to know.

[ ][Action] Connect to Local Wildlife (Psychic)
-Squirrels and/or wolves - scouts? Bears - heavy combat? Deer - trimming invasive plants? You know you've seen all these; you have only vague ideas on what to do with them.

Research:
[ ][Action] Research Lens Trees
-0 of 30 successes; Lens Trees will give a permanent Growth Bonus

[ ][Action] Research Clever Trees
-0 of 30 successes; Clever Trees will give a permanent Research Bonus

[ ][Action] Research Thorns
-0 of 10 successes; unlocks a Defense action to build up a stockpile of Thorns that will damage any invaders

Survival:
[ ][Action] Store Resources Against Future Need
-0 stored; this will function as a spare HP pool against anything that gets through your Defense, and may be useful for other things

Defense:
[ ][Action] Brace Yourself
-Not a terribly effective action, but it does more-or-less work; I suggest you build a Shield Tree as soon as reasonably possible. Like most defenses, this does little to nothing if you are not attacked.

Growth:
[ ][Action] Grow the Forest
-0 of 25 successes to Magnitude 2

[ ][Action] Grow <Treename>
-Replace <Treename> with the name of a Special Tree from the Front Page. Variable cost. You can have up to 10 Special Trees per Magnitude of the Forest.

Offense:
[ ][Action] Release Annoying Pollen
-Not a terribly powerful attack, but it could annoy invaders, at least. Like most attacks, this does little to nothing if you have no nearby enemies.

Focus

Choose any one action from the above for the Forest to focus on. This are voted upon by the entire group, and is in addition to the individual actions taken by each member.

[ ][Focus] Action Name

This Action will receive a number of automatic successes equal to the Magnitude of the Forest (currently 1) and any bonuses from other sources.

Your Votes should look like the following:

[ ][Action] Action
[ ][Focus] Action

Newcomers should add one of the following:

[ ][Tree] Heart Tree
[ ][Tree] Mind Tree
[ ][Tree] Root Tree

This vote will always be open.

Last updated after Turn 29.

Forest Magnitude: 4

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Special Trees

You can have up to 10 Special Trees per Magnitude of the Forest. Currently: 29 of 40.

By all means, suggest options for new Special Tree types. (In particular, I expect several categories of eventual Growth-bonus Tree Types; I have several ideas already and would be glad to hear more.) Don't expect all those options to show up immediately, though - there are several prereqs…

Special Tree Types:

Collector Trees (currently 4)
-10 successes each
-Each one grants +1 automatic success per Focus of the Forest action used for Growth
Elder Collector Trees (currently 0)
-20 successes per Tree upgraded
-Each one grants +2 automatic successes per Focus of the Forest action used for Growth. These Automatic Successes benefit twice as much as normal from any Strong Sunlight bonus (summer, Lens Trees, etc.).

Clever Trees (currently 6)
-10 successes each
-Each one grants +1 automatic success per Focus of the Forest action used for Research
Elder Clever Trees (currently 0)
-20 successes per Tree upgraded
-Each one grants +2 automatic successes per Focus of the Forest action used for Research. Grants an additional +1 automatic success on any such action used for (Magic Research) or (Esoteric Research); grants +2 for an action that is both.
(Note that Ancient Clever Trees will be +3, +1 each to (Magic Research) or (Esoteric Research) and +2 to (Magic Elements).)

Lens Trees (currently 1 (+3 Elder))
-20 successes each (first cost 15)
-Due to the unusual requirements of integrating Lens Trees with the rest of the Forest, you may build a maximum of 1 Lens Tree (all types combined) per Magnitude of the Forest (currently 4).
-Each Lens Tree will give +17.5% bonus to all Growth successes.
Elder Lens Trees (currently 3)
-30 successes per Tree upgraded
-Each Elder Lens Tree will give +25% bonus to all Growth successes. Each Elder Lens Tree will give +10% bonus to all Survival successes.

Wise Trees (currently 4)
-20 successes each (first cost 15)
-Due to the unusual requirements of integrating Wise Trees with the rest of the Forest, you may build a maximum of 1 Wise Tree (all types combined) per Magnitude of the Forest (currently 4).
-Each Wise Tree will give +12.5% bonus to all Research successes.
Elder Wise Trees (currently 0)
-30 successes per Tree upgraded
-Each Elder Wise Tree will give +20% bonus to all Research successes. Each Elder Wise Tree will give +10% bonus to all Communication successes.

Shield Trees (currently 0 (+3 Elder))
-10 successes each (first cost 15)
-Building at least 1 unlocks Raise the Shield Defensive action
-Each Shield Tree grants +1 automatic success to Raise the Shield each turn, as long as at least one player (or Focus) has contributed toward that action
-Thanks to Improved Shields, each Shield Tree grants +10% bonus to all Raise the Shield successes.
Elder Shield Tree (currently 3)
-20 successes per Tree upgraded
-Each Elder Shield Tree gives 1 base auto-success to Raise the Shield, on every turn. Each Elder Shield Tree gets +0.1 additional auto-successes per Defense die in a Defense-specialized Active Player Tree (see the "Active Specialized Dice" row on the Player Tree table below).
-Thanks to Improved Shields, each Elder Shield Tree grants +20% bonus to all Raise the Shield successes.

Empty Tree (Void) (currently 1 (+1 Player-Tree upgraded))
-10 successes each (first costs 15)
-Having at least 1 enables Empty Veil, a Defense Action, currently requiring 5 successes to activate (though this will grow with Forest Magnitude), that lasts for 1 round, and gives all foes -1 to-hit against the Forest.
-Each Empty Tree gives an automatic +1 per round (if at least one Player Action or Forest Focus is on Empty Veil) toward this action (successes can be stored within a single fight or turn but not from turn to turn). Any successes that stand to be lost (end of combat OR overflow) will be applied as 0.75 Shield successes each (from making the Shield and Forest both harder to hit). (Also, if Shield is activated but Empty Veil is not, then Empty Trees will automatically add to the Shield, at the standard 0.75 successes each.)
Elder Empty Tree (Void) (currently 0 normal and 1 Player-Tree)
-20 successes per Tree upgraded
-Each Elder Empty Tree gives +0.1 additional auto-successes to Empty Veil per Defense die in a Defense-specialized Active Player Tree.
-Each Elder Empty Tree grants +10% to total successes of Empty Veil.
-Further effects: Interaction with what seems to be Void wildlife, Forest Void affinity gained a level, a small degree of anti-Scry (detection/information-Magic/divination defense), ???

Weather Tree (currently 0 (+1 Elder))
-15 successes each
-Building at least 1 unlocks the "Rain and Shine" Survival action. This action grants a 1-turn +12% bonus to all Growth Successes for that turn, and costs 4 Successes (one per Magnitude of the Forest) (these successes can be saved from turn to turn).
-Building at least 1 unlocks the "Let it Rain" Survival action. This action grants a 1-turn 12% offset against any Drought penalty for that turn, and costs 4 Successes (one per Magnitude of the Forest) (these successes generally cannot be saved from turn to turn, though excess Player successes may be directed elsewhere). This action can be taken as many times in a turn as necessary to make up for whatever Drought may be present.
-Each Weather Tree grants +1.2 automatic success at the Rain and Shine Survival action, and an additional +1.2 automatic success at the Let it Rain Survival action when applicable.
-Each Weather Tree gives you a bonus against any hostile weather, and any enemies in the vicinity a mallus against the same.
-Each Weather Tree gives a +12% bonus to all Steam Magic successes.
Elder Weather Tree (currently 1)
-30 successes each
-Each Elder Weather Tree gives +0.12 additional auto-successes to every relevant Weather Tree action per Survival die in a Survival-specialized Active Player Tree.
-Rain and Shine, if you have at least 2.5x the basic successes, gives +24% instead of +12%. If you have at least 4.5x the basic successes, it gives +36% instead. If you have at least 7x the basic successes, it gives +48% instead.
-Building at least one allows the Forest to control the Weather fast and effectively enough to be useful in Combat, though effectiveness will depend on the length of combat and the preexisting weather. (This is a great action in a thunderstorm, and a poor one on a sunny day.)
-Each provides +24% bonus to all Steam Magic successes, and doubles the basic Weather Tree bonus/mallus to hostile weather for the Forest and its enemies.
-Note that all Weather Tree and Elder Weather Tree effects are currently boosted +20% due to Competent Steam Magic.

Sensing Tree (currently 2)
-12 successes each
-Each one improves your senses - both of your own Forest and of the surroundings. Range and detail will both increase.
-Who knows what they will find!
-Senses: Light, Sound (includes primitive sonar), Touch (textures), Magic, Ancient Technology (can barely start to sense the power-source), Minds, Souls, Timewaves.
-Each one also gives a bonus to most Ancient Technology research, though the details depend on the Research.
Elder Sensing Tree (currently 0)
-25 successes each.
-Further improves senses. Future unlocks include: Void, Monster power-source, electromagnetic sense, radio waves and gamma rays and everything in-between, gravity sense (locate the distant sun and moon), Psionics, Wish Energy, ???.
-There will be some bonus per Active Communication Dice, and/or Active Research Dice.
-???

Defender Ent (currently 0 (+1 upgraded))
-15 successes each
-This is a centaur-like Tree, almost twenty feet tall, capable of long periods of quiet vigilance and brief bursts of extreme movement. It is one of the most durable Trees in the Forest, and is capable of wielding weapons or its own native armaments (Spikes, Ice/Fire, Pollen, its own limbs) with equal acuity.
-Each one grants +4 autosuccesses per turn to some reasonable Offense option during any combat. Each one grants a bonus to the Forest's vigilance against threats - particularly ones not easily detected. Each one grants the Forest a slight bonus against mental effects. They also grant bonuses to actions that benefit from having a large and strong worker.
Elder Defender Ent (currently 1)
-30 successes each
-Aside from improving all the base capabilities, the Elder variant gains a bunch of detachable Roots that can burrow, bind any nearby enemies, and even perform decent impersonations of snakes (poison included, if desired). It also gains a limited light-warping capability allowing it access to Lasers (Forest bonuses apply only if nearby). Finally, it gains inbuilt Beehives (the Tree was designed by Bees after all…) and contributes +10% to the max Bee attack successes per turn and effectiveness.
-Inbuilt weapons increased to: Spikes, Ice/Fire, Pollen, its own limbs, Roots, Light, Bees.
-Aside from the Bee bonuses and additional Attack capabilities, each one grants the Forest twice as much as the basic Defender Ent.

Mining Tree (currently 0 and 1 Elder; max 1 Mining Tree of any upgrade level)
-This is a Tree grown to dig magical "Linestone" rocks out of the ground, as part of an agreement with Newton Village.
Elder Mining Tree (currently 1; max 1 Mining Tree of any upgrade level)
-Upgrade costs 20 successes.
-Gives +0.1 auto-successes to Mining per Survival die in a Survival-specialized Active Player Tree.
-Grants a +10% bonus to any Digging or Earth action.
-Has significant bonuses to defending itself and moving as necessary. Expect it to qualify as one of the more combat-capable Trees in the entire Forest, should it be attacked.

Speaker Tree (currently 1; max 1)
-This is a Tree grown in Newton Village, for the purpose of better communicating with the Two-Legs.
-It does not have a mouth or eyeballs, thankfully, but it has figured out how to rapidly draw pictures or words on its very-smooth bark. It has also figured out how to make the wind rustle through its branches to sound like words, which is faster but less comprehensible to the various Two-Legs. It can successfully babysit a toddler.
-From its learning, you gain +10% on all Communication actions, and an additional +10% when interacting with Minds.

Unusual Lumber Tree (currently 1)
-This is a Special Tree grown to provide any interested parties with plenty of safely-given Unusual Lumber to buy.
-Physically, it is a single grove of Tree-shoots that share a common Root-base underground.
-Generates (1 + 10% of the Active Specialized Survival Dice) Unusual Lumber, per turn, modified only by Tall Tree bonuses. It does also give a x1.5 successes (multiplying with other modifiers) multiplier to any player Lumber-Generation.
(Note that this has several upgrades, instead of just 2.)

Player Tree General Information

Basic Player Trees:

• Mind Trees get 1d on all actions, and +1d on Communication or Research actions.
• Heart Trees get 1d on all actions, and +1d on Defense or Survival actions.
• Root Trees get 1d on all actions, and +1d on Growth or Offense actions.

Elder Player Trees (each player must vote 10 times to advance to Elder Tree)

Ancient Player Trees (each player must vote 25 times to advance to Ancient Tree; each 25 votes thereafter lets you develop your Ancient Tree further)

If you want a particular specialty as you age - vote according to your desired specialty. You don't have to vote exactly right, but it should be fairly close. The only exception to this: All trees may always become an older version of their tree-type (e.g. Heart -> Elder Heart).

Note that Elder Tree types exist that specialize in any possible combination of 2-categories - I just haven't enumerated them yet (there are 15 total possible types). One additional note: If you have been consistently doing a very narrow category of actions, point it out to me when you become eligible for Elder Tree status; I may be willing to give you a special tree type (e.g. Collector Creator Tree, 2d base, +4d on creating or upgrading Collector Trees).

Examples:

• A Mind Tree that votes exclusively for Research would be eligible for Elder Mind Tree or Research Tree, but nothing else.
• A Heart Tree that has 4 votes in Communication, 4 in Defense, 1 in Growth, and 1 in Offense would be eligible for Communication Tree, Defense Tree, Eldest Tree, Elder Heart Tree, or a new Elder type that combines Communication and Defense.
• A Root Tree that votes for nothing but Collector Tree construction and upgrading would be eligible for Growth Tree, Elder Root Tree, or a new Elder type that focuses on Collector Trees.

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Player Tree Listing

Magic Skill Tiers: dabbling, novice, competent, journeyman, expert, master, grandmaster, legendary.
A Negacion Pair (e.g. combining Fire and Ice, or Light and Darkness) is considered approximately one Tier more difficult than its corresponding components. A Negacion Trio (e.g. combining Love, Hate, and Apathy) is rare enough to be generally unranked, and an immediate sign of great skill and expertise. No confirmed Negacion Quartet exists, though such should certainly be possible, and rumors exist of certain legendary figures (e.g. Cali) having access to one.

Magics:

• Growth (Plant), expert - grants and empowers your Growth actions.
• Growth (Animal), novice - nothing yet.
  • Arthur Scrat has Growth (Animal) at Novice level. One Ant Colony has Growth (Animal) at Novice level.
• Defense, competent - grants and empowers your Raise the Shield action.
• Fire, journeyman - grants and empowers Fire attack action. +100% resistance to Fire. (Repeated practice adds -25% to side-effect damage of wielding Fire.)
  • Study of the Fire Within grants a +35% bonus to all Survival successes, and +35% to all Creature Combat and Creature Disease-Resistance successes.
  • Your Lesser Fire Salamander has this at, effectively, Expert rank.
• Ice, competent - grants +50% resistance to Fire and +50% resistance to Icy Weather.
• Water, competent - grants +5% Drought Reduction, resistance to excessive Rain or similar, and a +10% boost to Weather Manipulation.
  • Two Beavers have this at Competent.
• Light, journeyman - grants and empowers Lens Trees (Growth bonus increased by +5%), and the Focused Light attack.
• Darkness, competent - grants +50% resistance to Light-based attacks. Your Connected Creatures can now see slightly better in the dark, and enemies find it fractionally more difficult to see beneath your boughs.
• Death, novice - +10% bonus to all Offense damage; slightly increased survival chances for Trees and Connected Creatures.
  • One Bear has Death Magic at Competent.
• Movement, competent - assists Movement and allows Telekinesis.
  • Current Telekinetic range: half a mile of full power, one additional mile of half-power. Power is sufficient to send a Tree on a parabolic arc.
• Earth, novice - boost to Mining Linestone, boost to gathering Resources (+5%, doubles per skill rank over novice).
• Air, dabbling - nothing yet.
  • Several Corvids have this at Competent.
• Steam, competent - Increases base effects of Weather Trees and related actions by +20%. The Forest counts as 25% smaller for purposes of resisting hostile Weather. Permanent +5% to Survival from better understanding of Transpiration.
• Void, competent - integrated with Empty Tree (Void).
• Life, competent - grants +10% to both Growth and Survival, as well as a small bonus to Creature Survival.
  • Arthur Scrat has Life at Journeyman level. Two Moles, one Bear, three Squirrels, and one Beaver, have Life at Novice level. Betty Grimm has Life at Competent level.
• Law, dabbling - nothing yet. Almost impossible to advance without significantly better Physics and/or Legal knowledge.
• Flesh, novice - nothing yet.
• Bone, novice - nothing yet.
• Gravity, dabbling - nothing yet.
• Ending, dabbling - nothing yet.
• Sound, dabbling - nothing yet.
• Truth, competent - 2x Illusion resistance, +50% (multiplicative) to detecting spies and such; very difficult to deceive via mundane means; +5% Research.
• Lie, dabbling - nothing yet.
• Swordstreeship, dabbling - nothing yet.

Negacion Pairs:

• Fire + Ice, competent
  • Passive Fire Resistance (divide damage by 4 before Shields).
  • Passive Ice Resistance (divide damage by 4; this includes Hail and Ice-Storms though those apply after Shields).
  • "Fuego! Pyrofuego! Burn!" and Negacions including it gain x2 damage multiplier (before target-flammability modifiers), and resist fire suppression (x4).
  • "Shaping the Fire Within" bonus increases to +25% (from +15%).
  • -10% difficulty to all future Negacion Pairs; -25% to all future Negacion Pairs involving Ice or Fire.
  • Gain +1 rank of Vapor/Steam Magic, and unlock an immediate upgrade quest for another +1.
  • Combined with the Fire Within: This can be used as an attack at 1.5x damage (against foes with Fire Within and standard magic resistance). This allows usage of Fire Within on some Ice-based creatures. This grants your Creatures Frostbite resistance.
• Light + Darkness, competent
  • Light Resistance 4 (divide damage by 4 before Shields).
  • Darkness Resistance 4 (divide damage by 4, typically before Shields; this includes enemies preventing Sunlight from reaching you).
  • 2x Laser Damage (before other multipliers).
  • Darkness Attack deals base damage against all foes and 2x damage vs anything that needs Light (e.g. Vines) and resists supernatural sight.
  • +2.5% Growth bonus per rank of Lens Tree (+2.5% for base; +5% for Elder; +7.5% for Ancient).
  • +25% Void damage.
  • -25% difficulty to all future Negaction Pairs involving Light or Darkness.
• Water + Fire, competent:
  • Passive Fire Resistance (divide damage by 4 before Shields - stacks additively with Fire+Ice for divide-by-8 total)
  • Water Resistance 4 (divide damage by 4; Ice Resistance increases to divide-by-6).
  • "Fuego! Pyrofuego! Burn!" and Negacions including it gain x2->x3 damage multiplier (before target-flammability modifiers), and resist fire suppression (x4->x8). They also gain immunity to rain and similar weather penalties (stacks with Fire/Ice to ensure no precipitation will deal penalties).
  • "Shaping the Fire Within" bonus increases to +35% (from +25%).
  • Gain +25 successes (no bonuses apply) towards learning Vapor/Steam Magic.
  • Combined with the Fire Within: Upgrades Fire Within attack to 2x damage (against foes with Fire Within and standard magic resistance). This allows usage of Fire Within on some Water-based creatures. This grants your Creatures Drowning resistance.
  • -25% difficulty to all future Negaction Pairs involving Water.

Special abilities: Telepathy and Sapience (Magic+Psionics). Mindscape?. ???

Connected Creatures/Minds: Squirrels, Deer, the Two-Legs of Newton Village, Moles, Bees, Beavers, Ants, Wolves, Corvids, Mycelium (local symbiotic fungi), Bears, one Dire Bat, one Lesser Wraith, one Lesser Fire Salamander, the Trees of Talanburg.

Notable Structures:

• Small 1-room House Tree.
• Mysterious anti-Magic Cave.
• Dangerous Terrain V3 - hostile creatures take damage whenever they move within Forest bounds, and friendly ones find the terrain easier to navigate. Traps use low explosives for +50% damage.
• Cultivated Surroundings - +25% bonus to Growing the Forest until it reaches Magnitude 7, and a mallus to any hostile plants trying to grow in the vicinity of the Forest until the Forest reaches Magnitude 10.
• Jury-Rigged Light-based Computer - complete. +20% to all Research successes, with further bonuses to anything incredibly math-heavy (e.g. Orbital Mechanics). Grants an Overcharge Computer option, which sacrifices 4 Resources in exchange for adding +15% to the Computer's Research bonus. The Forest can use it to quickly memorize any accessible book.
• Unusual Lumber Storage (storing 32; max 50).
• Nut Storage, manned by the Squirrels. Auto-refills during easy turns, by 1/turn, to the equivalent of 4 Resources; Squirrels and potentially others can eat this instead of asking the Forest for Resources during Winter. Storing 4; max 4.
• You have found a small deposit of Lead deep underground.
• The Trees of Talanburg are part of the Forest.
• A series of four Relay Trees have been grown and moved, to Connect the Forest to the Sapient Ant Colony far to their southwest.
• Self-sustaining Trees that serve as a focus for attempts to Connect to anyone near them, Waypoint Trees, have been planted near all nearby towns (including the Wyvern Tribe).
• Void Defenses - protecting the Elder Void Tree in the Void ?Dimension?.

On Dangerous Magic:

• Time (and Eternity) are dangerous because of the side-effects: anyone learning these Magics has a decent chance of exploding, and a small-but-nontrivial chance of generating a small bit of antimatter and destroying their vicinity.
  • The Forest should be able to safely bypass this the same way the Elves of old did - by setting up a space testing facility. Options for getting to space include: learning Rocketry, getting to a high-level of Teleportation (or equivalent) and paying the (probably nontrivial) energy cost to escape the gravity well, exploring ruins and finding just the right bit of Ancient Technology, etc.
• Corruption, Malice, and the like are inherently corruptive to learn and/or wield.
  • Materson, for the record, has Competent Malice, and it gives him some serious buffs at times, but he doesn't use it except passively (resistance, senses) - because he nearly became a maddened villain trying. And that is with ensuring that he had all possible precautions first!
• If you have a very high level of (anything), and don't have a decent-level matching Negacion, then you will find that warps you in some ways. A moderate case might actually be useful - someone struggling with fear could really be helped by learning Expert Courage - but is usually annoying at best. The specific Element dictates how bad it is - Light would be annoying at times, Darkness would be a hair worse, Death would have some serious side-effects (but nothing on learning Malice), and so on.

Messing with Souls is generally a bad idea. True Resurrection is an exception. So is a surface-level Soul Sight - which the Forest, in point of fact, actually has.

You are a small but rapidly-growing Forest, in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. You sprawl across a hillside, above a small stream and below a rarely-used path. You have grown to encompass parts of both path and stream, with a colony of friendly Beavers living in a series of dams (that also protect the Forest somewhat from drought).

You have Connected to many Creatures: Squirrels, Deer, Moles, Bees, Beavers, Ants, and Wolves. You have a particularly close connection with the first Squirrel that you bonded with, one that you've practically raised and have named Arthur Scrat. Your Creatures have agreed to get along with each other - though, in some cases, that's only as long as there is enough food… which hasn't even come close to being a problem yet, thanks to the Forest's great vitality. You have also Connected to the Two-Legs of Newton Village, a Village a few miles across the small stream, inhabited by Humans and part-Elves.

The path above your Forest splits in two to your north. It has to cross a small gully (which trickles with water in certain seasons), and a smaller secondary path splits off that goes downhill along the gully and crosses the creek. There is a slight marshland just to the west of this junction, that is dry in severe summers, and feeds the gully. There is a small village - Newton Village - at the end of the smaller path, to the Northeast.

You have encountered Humans, Elves, various wild animals, and a rather large and ornery kraken-like monster that promptly died once the Forest really started trying to fight it. Also some very fast-growing, semi-parasitic, Vines; they seem to have been created and intentionally unleashed on your Forest much like the kraken-thing.

You are fairly certain that many other sorts of wild animals, many other monsters, and various natural and magical plants all exist. Your oldest Trees claim that, when they were saplings, the oldest surviving Trees of that era remembered seeing huge non-living things flying through the distant sky; Newton Village calls the transition "The Catastrophe." None of your Trees have ever encountered a dragon, nor heard any reliable tales of their existence, though the name can be found in mythology in-universe.

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Map:

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MIvH1eBqhyv-pTKyH4Uk2DakjtsRv0Hr/view
(Brown line is path; blue line is creek; heart is the center of your Forest. Big wavy-lines is a large pond, and small wavy-lines is a tiny pond with an intermittent swamp around it. Houses are Newton village, and the neighboring grass is partly their main farmland. The Dire Bat thinks the Forest should investigate each small "?" symbol eventually. There are hills, a waterfall, and bits of grassland to the South. North is up. Each hex is about a quarter-mile across.)

Area Map:

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hzhQz_HP7Q-P32QPQ9d3l_KEGkDu7OWS/view

• You live inside a vast, relatively sparsely-settled region, in the interior of your continent.
• Andrewsburg is ~25 miles to the north and Talanburg is ~20 miles to the south. You've learned that the two are typically (and currently) allies. Andrewsburg is mostly-Human and Talanburg mostly-part-Elven.
• Melamar is a rather important city-state, with three colonies spreading steadily upstream and to the west.
• Battle Plain (fancier name: Anfauglith) is only about 15-20 miles to your east, and is generally avoided - it's almost certainly at least slightly cursed, and things do not grow well there.
• Your nearest neighbor across Battle Plain, the Woo Clan, are generally considered… wealthy and efficient, but dishonorable. They're also apt to simply confiscate things and make up some excuse about why you aren't allowed to have said item on their territory.
• The Wyvern is believed non-sapient, but nobody's 100% sure.

Continent Map:

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r1oKmUGHDAg32RvQlvuEOfNQ60QAANuH/view

• GM note: The continent is definitely further from the equator than depicted above, though the rest is mostly accurate. Also, there should be a few extra mountains around the Phaeron Factions.
• Almost all the land across the White-Ridge Mountains is part of the Shining Concord Empire. Said Empire has a mostly-decent reputation among most people who interact with it. "They're a bit prickly, but fair enough as long as you don't murder someone, or try your hand at necromancy, or something," seems to be the consensus among the non-nobility of other realms. "If you do? You die," is the other part of said reputation.
• The Phaeron Factions have an odd social order. It's encouraged to scheme against your king, your peers, various other factions, and so on. However, taking the life of more than a single direct competitor is a very good way to get everyone else to dogpile you. As such, your 'Faction' is apt to change rulers from one year to the next, and have boundaries utterly alien to its former borders from decade to decade. Death and violence, however, are quite minimal. There are typically around a dozen Factions. They cluster heavily around the Hilarion River - which is the massive river that your creek eventually feeds - but technically claim a lot of land.
  • The Lizard-folk are either one of their weirdest Factions, or a very reclusive and suspicious independent party living on land they theoretically-claim but basically-never-fight-for, depending on who you ask.
• The Verdant Fields are horsemen (and -women), and have an unusual propensity for green hair. Semi-nomadic. Very large territory, fairly small population.
• The Kiynwich Kingdom has an increasingly overburdened bureaucracy, which most people think is still slightly better than their more-than-half-mad royal family.
• Don't talk about the Archivists Cult. Fight them if necessary.
  • They have more Ancient-Tech and such than most. It's sort-of their thing. They won't actually use any of it, though, unless they're attacked. And then their attackers generally explode. And they might just explode, too.
• Larongo League is a bunch of much more closely-connected and allied city-states than your mostly-wilderness part of the continent. They've got a relatively thin federal government, and are currently growing fairly well economically. That said, they're also eyeing all neighboring land...

World Map:

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YmJ_awYJ_kD5qBMwhwafkcJgg1K4oSe-/view
Biomes draft:

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n0f1gzMOpkwJ06P5U3knrrpve_Go7Kn5/view

• These are reliable on a macro scale - unlike the Continental Map - but find a lower-scale map if desiring precise detail (as usual for ancient maps).
  • I commissioned these two. Aren't they beautiful?
  • I'll have to mark in the continent-names and major features at some point. The Zorn Crater in particular...