Desolate Clearing

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This is a **Forest** exploration event. It can occur once per playthrough and offers the chance to acquire  Orichalcum Bead,  Sage Powder,  Seeds and  Wood. Survivors can gain the positive trait Bones blessing temporarily, but be aware: you can also become temporarily  Bleeding.

## Inspect

*You're in a small clearing filled with dead and twisted trees. Nothing looks out of the ordinary, but there's an energy in the air that sets it apart from the rest of the forest. After a few minutes, you get it: while the clearing is natural, the disposition of the trees is... slightly more than that.*

* **Inspect closer**

*Something is amiss, but you can hardly tell what. You discern the shape of a rune on the ground. Or are your eyes showing you what you want to see?*
## Examine The Ground

Relevant Skills: **Exploration**, **Wisdom**

*There's definitely a patch of ground that looks out-of-place, with a distinct pattern. No grass grows here, and it's oddly geometric.*

* **Focus on the pattern (**Exploration**)**

Failure
*You know this patch of missing grass conveys a special meaning, but you're not familiar enough with your surroundings to interpret it.*
+ Depression
Success
*You remember where this shape comes from. It's \*INGWAZ, the mark of Ing, a very ancient god. This is the rune of male fertility, governing the concepts of seed and self-sacrifice.*
+ **Wisdom** Experience
## Dig

Relevant Skills: **Strength**

*The earth is surprisingly soft and easy to dig, even with your own bare hands. However, you soon reach a harder layer that seems to be made of some kind of stone. Its texture reminds you of bones.*
+  Fatigue

* **Keep digging**

*It takes much more efforts to keep digging, but you carry on, despite an increasing fatigue.*
* **Keep digging** (**Strength**)

Failure
???
Success
*You finally reach a solid layer with a peculiarly smooth surface, a bit like an eggshell. There's a tiny square hold at the top that reminds you of the pattern in the grass.*
+  Fatigue
+ Unlocks "Examine the tiny hole"
* **Give up**

*As soon as you stop digging, the hole starts to fill itself at an alarming rate. After a few minutes, there's no trace of your vain labour.*
+  Depression
## Search The Dead Trees

Relevant Skills: **Agility**

*You start to clean up the clearing, pushing rotten trunks and broken branches around. Suddenly, you hear a loud crack above your head.*

* **Look up**

*You stare in disbelief at a massive dead branch falling toward you. It lands on your head with a wet sound.*
+  Injury
*As a positive note, you find enough wood to bring to the camp*
+  Wood
*You keep looking around, but there's nothing else of interest, except a handful of seeds.*
+  Seeds
* **Jump aside** (**Agility**)

Failure
*You didn't jump quick enough to completely avoid the dead branch that hits your shoulder. But it could have been worse.*
+  Injury
*As a positive note, you find enough wood to bring to the camp*
+  Wood
*You keep looking around, but there's nothing else of interest, except a handful of seeds.*
+  Seeds
Success
*A heavy dead branch crashes next to where you were standing. Phew, that was close!*
*As a positive note, you find enough wood to bring to the camp*
+  Wood
*You keep looking around, but there's nothing else of interest, except a handful of seeds.*
+  Seeds
## Examine The Tiny Hole

Relevant skills: **Wisdom**

*The hole's shape is way too regular to be accidental. Maybe it is a kind of lock. On the other hand, you don't see anything that could fit in...*

* **Look closer** (**Wisdom**)

Failure
???
Success
*You have a the sudden intuition that this is not a lock, but a receptacle of some sort. This would be a perfect place to plant a seed!*
+ Unlocks "Plant a Seed"
## Plant A Seed

Relevant Skills: **Gardening**

Requires at least 1 Seed

*Just as you thought, the seed fits nicely. But nothing happens. There's probably still something else that has to be taken care of...*

* **Think** (**Gardening**)

Failure
*As you wonder what the next step is, a faint smell of burning comes from the hole. The seed has turned to ashes before your eyes.*
+  Depression
Success
*The seed obviously needs to be watered. And you know water will not be enough. This will require some sacrifice.*
* **Slit a finger open**

*You cut the tip of your finger, deep enough for a few pearls of blood to drip into the hole, onto the seed*
+  Injury
*As you wonder what the next step is, a faint smell of burning comes from the hole. The seed has turned to ashes before your eyes.*
+  Depression
* **Slit your palm open**

*You make a large cut in the palm of your hand, and a trickle of blood starts to drip down your fingers, watering the seed.*
+  Injury
*The seed suddenly germinates and starts to grow. But before it can reach your knee's height, it withers, and dies.*
+  Depression
* **Slit both your wrists open**

*Your hands are shaking when you open wide gashes in your wrists. The bloody twin streams soak the earth and the seed.*
+  Injury
+ The survivor gains the wound  Bleeding for 2 days.
*You can't tell if it's the shock of the blood loss or the result of a divine intervention, but within a few startling minutes, the seed has become a tree. You reflect, in awe, on the miracle of existence. You feel a deep connection with every living thing and their never-ending struggle against oblivion.*
-  Depression
+ The survivor gains the positive trait Bones blessing for 8 days.
*A glimmer in the trunk of the tree awakens you from your reverie. It's a small metallic sphere that feels warm to the touch.*
+  Orichalcum Bead
+  Sage Powder