He gives you a grin.
"How big a trap can you make? Think you could catch something I chase into a trap?"

Frederic: "Hmm. Well I can't help with digging much. Not one for shovels myself."
He pats the empty spot where his left arm isn't, then flexes his arm that is there. You have to say, he's got a hell of an arm.

Frederic: "Hoisting though, hoisting I can do."
Leon: "I could set up stuff too. Flashes of light to guide em or earth spikes to trap em. That wouldn't mess up the meat."
Karina: "And I could, uhhhm."

Well, you're busy setting up camp right this moment, but you start describing a simple snare to begin with. She pays rapt attention to your description, to the point where you need to remind her that you're setting up tents at one point.
Once you finish the tents, you take a seat around the fire, and use some twine to illustrate the design. You notice Frederic is also tuning in while he prepares the kebabs, silently nodding along and looking over at your demonstration now and again. Leon seems to not care much.

After a snare, you explain setting up a deadfall trap. This one will definitely need a proper demonstration later, a few sticks around the campfire can't do it justice, the setup is very particular.
Though, it suddenly occurs to you that dropping a normal sized weight might not stop some of the larger beasts and monsters out there. Normal non-magical animals, sure, but out in the domains...

Frederic: "Food's ready."

You dig in. They're simply prepared, just salt on the grilled meat and vegetables, but it's been cooked well, with the meat not being overdone and the vegetables still crisp. Plus, hunger is the best seasoning and you're definitely ready to eat after the day's travel.

Frederic thinks about your question as he chews.
Frederic: "Hm. Well, let's say a normal hog or deer could be downed by a good thick log, maybe 10 inches thick and 6 feet long, or a rock about as heavy.
That Belos we fought before, that's a good example. A Belos has a tough stomach but the rest of it isn't anything special, it mostly relies on those wind blasts and ambushes. That said, it's still a beast, it's still tougher than any non-magical creature. You'd need a real solid tree trunk to actually down it, maybe twice the weight of the deer one to stun it or knock it out.

For something sturdier like, eh, maybe a Duragore, I'm not sure if a deadfall would even work. Their main hunting strategy is to smash into prey and gore them on giant tusks, so they're built tough. Though that's more Earth domain than Air domain.
Stuff in the Air is more like the Belos, fast but fragile. A solid net might be a good investment, to make sure they don't just zoom past any trap we set."

Frederic: "Heh. Domain grade 'solid' generally is from something sturdier than plant fiber.
Though, if it's domain plants, could work."

You all finish up eating, and with the sun setting you start combing the edge of the campsite for usable plants. There's... not much to work with. Thick barked trees, broad leafed bushes, and fairly short bladed grass around here. No vines or longer plants. You could go further in, but, with it getting dark and you being alone... probably not wise.
Oh well. For now you can make do with twine. You start showing some knots, and how to weave them together into a net form, but you're not sure how much it's sticking, seems like she's fading between it getting late, the day's travel, and having just filled her belly. Fred is also not tuned into this one, unlike the trap lecture from before. Guess this is a bit less feasible with one hand than setting a deadfall.

[Skip to Root Town]
[Other]

~~~

The final day of your walk is boring, as most of them have become. You try to go over the knots again with everyone awake, but it's still difficult to do without stopping, and the road's not so good that the others can walk without tripping if they try and watch your hands. Thankfully the scenery helps make up for it.
Despite being under the tree's massive canopy and thus somewhat shaded, the area is covered in lush forest, blanketing a huge area of relatively flat land and forming a sea of green as far as the eyes can see. There's also a sparse but constant rain of leaves, thankfully just enough to be scenic instead of pelting you constantly.
The road you're on is wide, cut through the forest and lined with a simple stone wall, more for marking out the road than keeping anything out. There's a good flow of traffic going the opposite direction you are, and unlike the rest of the trip so far you pass several patrols, all wearing a crest of Gratchfeland itself prominently on their chests.

The scale of the tree still boggles your mind. This close it feels impossibly large, and yet you still aren't there at the base yet. You can at least see the bulge of the roots now, and even those are the size of small mountains. Though more interestingly, you can barely make out a few small buildings on top of some of the roots, and small lines zigzagging across the roots and trunk, mostly by their coloration standing out against the dark brown of Gratch's bark. Though, they might be fairly large buildings and you're just too far away to tell.


After another couple hours, when the sun is high in the sky (though hidden behind leaves), your group turns a corner and comes face to face with a large town. Situated between two large roots of the tree, the buildings run dense and high along the cliff-like walls of the roots, while the wide wedge between them is filled with many lower buildings and streets. Almost all of them are constructed in a similar style, a lighter tan wood with what you think is a deep green paint as accents, nearly the same as the leaves of the Gratch.
Far in the back, nestled up against the tree itself you can see the tallest and grandest structure, something like a cathedral built to focus all its majesty into one single tower in the center, giving it a view over all the rest of the town.
You also finally figure out what all the lines you could see before are; hundreds upon hundreds of pathways, stairs, and even some lifts and gondolas, all providing a giant web of ways to climb the massive bulk of the oak.