1.118
You sit cross-legged on the rocks and begin to empty your mind. As you do, you hear Nal’s voice echoing in the distance. It’s strange; you can’t make out the words she says, but you understand the meaning. She is asking if you’re prepared to join her, but at the same time, she is warning you that you should be rested and ready.
Rangers Choose:
A) Perhaps another day.
You sense feelings of reassurance and understanding. You know that Nal will be happy to wait until you are ready.
Each Ranger soothes 2 fatigue.
B) Now is the time.
In your mind's eye, you step forward into a dense mist, and after a moment you emerge … on Greenbriar Knoll. While familiar, your surroundings have a shimmering, dream-like quality to them, and as you look up, you see in place of the sky is a swirling tempest, reaching impossibly upward, though you feel no breeze nor wind.
“Fear not,” says a familiar voice as Nal steps up to the stone plinth at the center of the knoll. "You are safe here." For a disconcerting moment, you think you also see Nal sitting motionless on the stone, eyes closed, hands at her knees. Nal follows your gaze.
“Yes, in the physical world, I am sitting atop Greenbriar Knoll, but I am also here, in the land of the spirits. Thanks to the power of this place, I'm able to share in this journey with you, so that we might work together to learn what we can from the spirits of the Estians.”
Go to 1.118A
1.118A
Discard all non-spirit path cards from play. Then, set aside the current location and its tokens and replace it with Greenbriar Knoll. Set aside the path deck and discard and create a new path deck by shuffling together the Old-Growth, Grasslands, and Ravine sets.
Search the Lone Tree Station set for Spirit Speaker Nal and put her into play along the way. Do not read her entry.
Nal continues. “While you were busy exploring the arcology in the physical world, I was exploring it as well, but on an energetic level. As various places became known to you, they became easier for me to access as well. So when you discovered the heart, I was able to see it clearly in my mind's eye, and much more besides.”
She closes her eyes and touches her fingers to her forehead. “I can see pain and anguish billowing from the heart like black smoke,” she says. “It's become so accustomed to its despair and anger that it sees them as part of its very being, necessary to its survival.
“If we hope to help it, we must first learn more about it, and who better to ask than the Estians themselves? Together, we will seek them out, and learn what we can from them about the heart and its history.”
You ask how to find the spirits, and Nal gestures toward a path leading away from the knoll. “Let the Valley guide you, for I have called upon her and she has agreed to help us. Follow the Valley’s familiar paths, and they will lead you to these Estians.
"Your presence in the arcology is key. There are powers at work there that make it difficult to access remotely. To say it another way: I can't do this without you. You must gather the Estian spirits. I will be here to assist you in whatever way I can.”
Search the General set for the Wanderer Spirit, the Mycelial Conclave set for the Gardener Spirit, and the Arboretum of Memory set for the Archivist spirit (if they have not been removed) and shuffle them into the path deck.
Any of these Estian spirits that have been previously removed from their sets can instead be added to a Ranger's hand. For each spirit, one Ranger may search the unlocked reward cards, their Ranger discard, and their fatigue stack for the reward card version of the spirit and add it to their hand.
Flip CONTACT NAL over to the SPIRIT COUNCIL side, but don’t alter the mission log. If you don’t complete SPIRIT COUNCIL by the end of the current day, you will need to contact Nal once more before you can try again.
Lastly, perform a refresh phase and begin a new round of play (with each Ranger drawing a path card as normal).
Journey with Spirit Speaker Nal to find the spirits of the Estians.