Shadowtop

These trees are the soaring giants of the forests of Faerfin. They grow as quickly as 2 feet a year if the weather is warm and damp enough, can exist in all except arctic climates, and can reach 90 feet or more in height if undisturbed. A full- grown shadowtop flares out to 20 feet or more in diameter at its base, and its trunk is textured all around with many pleatlike ridges. Shadowtops only sprout branches from the uppermost dozen feet or so of their trunks, and the trees are named for the dense clusters of feathery leaves that grow from these spreading branches at the tops of their trunks. Shadowtop leaves are irregu¬lar in shape, with many fingers, and have copper-colored under¬sides and deep green upper surfaces. In autumn, the tops change hue to match the underneath sides before the leaves drop. Shadow wood is fibrous and tough, but unsuitable for carving or structural work because it tends to split down its length under stress into a splayed mass of fibers. The fibers are valued in rope¬making, and a few at a time added to the twist adds considerably to the strength and durability of a completed coil. Shadow wood burns slowly but cleanly, generating a very hot fire with little smoke, though it typically does not ignite at all unless held in the leaping flames of an already-established fire. The wood's qualities as a fuel make it ideal for use when cooking. If a woodcutter with fewer than five wagons fells a mature shadowtop, wood is always left over that cannot be carried away in a single trip; by tradition, travelers are free to cut enough from this remainder for one night's fire. Shadow wood is much used in the making of magical staves, rods, and wands. Crown melds are never necessary when an item contains shadow wood; Merald's meld joins automatically succeed at their saving throws and other die rolls when covering a join with shadow wood. (Treat the item as if it has the benefits of a crown meld.) Because of an innate quality of shadow wood, the wood is also always considered to have been harvested in a man¬ner related to the enchantment it will receive or bathed in an appropriate substance, whatever the actual manner of its pro¬curement and preparation was.