1.40

You yelp despite yourself as you feel the mulcher’s tongue grab you. For a brief, hideous moment, you feel the acid start to burn your skin even through the thick layer of broadleaf paste you coated yourself with beforehand. Then the mulcher spasms a bit as it tastes the paste and drops you back to the ground, slimy but alive.

Nal rushes over from where she’s been hiding behind a rock. “That proves it!” she gasps with excitement. “The caustic mulchers don’t eat everything; they seem to avoid living plants. Or at least”—she runs her finger through the paste on your skin, and flips it onto the ground—“something that tastes like a living plant. And since only the weaker or sicker animals tend to be grabbed by it, the mulcher does clean the land of the dead, dying, or rotting! Though it is a biomeld, it’s merged into the ecosystem!”

She hugs you, then pulls back as she remembers you’re covered in broadleaf paste and stinging mucus. “Oh, yes. We should get you washed.”

Complete the ACCOMMODATION mission, and write UNDERSTOOD THE MULCHER on the campaign tracker. Each Ranger soothes 2 fatigue.

After you clean yourself up, you get to thinking. There are several infamous mega-predators throughout the Valley. You remember in your training that some of the Elders want to see these predators eliminated to keep people and the rest of the Valley safe. Maybe it’s worth investigating them, too, in case understanding them demonstrates a way to coexist. Maybe you can even befriend them? You should talk to the Elders of the various villages to learn more.