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Before discarding the cleared flora, move the voice token to another flora. Then check off a bubble next to MYCELIAL NETWORKING on the campaign tracker.

READ THE ENTRY CORRESPONDING TO YOUR PROGRESS ON MYCELIAL NETWORKING:

A) ♦♢♢

Focusing your mind on chasing the voice doesn’t do you any good. However, as you follow it, you start to see the pattern; the voices move like a wave, crashing towards you before receding back into the network. You wait, timing your effort to when the voice is closest. Then you reach out with your mind, pinning the voice in place with a pointed query as to its identity.

The voice responds with surprise. “This is Yara Mercir. I’m a Ranger with an expedition that set out to explore the arcology. I think I’ve been down here awhile though. Too long maybe. Who are you?”

If you are on THE EXPEDITION’S PATH, continue reading:

You feel a thrill run through you. You hadn’t dared hope that you’d find one of the members of the lost expedition alive. Even if you’re unsure that Yara is technically alive, she can still talk. A talking mushroom! This means Silaro could actually get some answers directly from a member of the previous expedition! Before you report back, however, you should probably do some more investigating of your own.

Check off the middle bubble next to THE EXPEDITION’S PATH on the campaign tracker.

B) ♦♦♢

Yara’s voice has a hollow, echoing quality that resonates oddly with the background murmur of other voices, but you can still hear the confusion in her tone.

“I don’t know exactly how I got here,” she says. “I remember I had been hurt. It was bad. I hid in the fungal forest, but I had lost a lot of blood, and I just wanted to sleep. I remember that I had a very vivid dream, but I can't remember the details. I just remember there being mushrooms. Mountains of mushrooms. Then I woke up here. Wherever ‘here’ is. You’re from the Valley? Do you know where I am, and how long I’ve been here?”

Your heart sinks, even as Yara’s story confirms your suspicions. She must have died in the fungal forest, and at the moment of her death, her intellect was absorbed by the mycelial network. You've never heard of mushrooms with this kind of capabilities. They must be the result of another Estian experiment, designed to preserve their consciousness.

C) ♦♦♦

You spend long moments conversing with Yara, theorizing on what you believe happened to her. Eventually, the former Ranger’s confusion lessens, and you can hear acceptance in her voice. “Well, maybe this whole situation was a gift in disguise,” Yara says. “I may be dead, but at least something of who I was can live on, albeit as a mushroom.”

You laugh despite yourself, and then Yara’s voice takes on a thoughtful tone. “I'd like to offer you a gift for helping me. Do you see those little glowing green mushrooms over there?”

You look around and spot them. “Good!” she says. “Those mushrooms have special qualities. If you burn them as an incense, and inhale the smoke, I reckon that you'll find plants to be a lot more relatable. Farewell!”

Gain the Mycelial Incense reward card. Complete the MYCELIAL NETWORKING mission.