You slowly approach the tree-house; as you come closer you can notice the window, the door, footsteps leading to it fashioned from planks and even a small garden, surrounded by pebbles, on the side.
You knock on the door and wait, anxious.
The door is opened by a... a squirrel. Large, grey, squirrel that is about half your size.
"Hello! I am Niknik. I am a trigendered amorphic squirrelkin hermit!
"Trigendered?"
"I identify as a male, a hermaphrodite and a gendershifter. You got problem with that?"
"Err, no?"
"Good! Don't you trigger me!"
The squirrelkin lets you in and treats you to a soup of roots and berries, and then you tell Niknik about your journey and your goal and problems back home.
6*
After you finish your tale, the squirrel sniffs and wipes tears with a towel.
"That's so sad! You're such a hero! I gotta help you, brave human! Spend a night at my place and in the morning I will give you tastiest and most filling of berries!" You agree, and spend the night huddled in the corner of the treehouse.
In the morning, Niknik gives you big red berries you never saw before, and instructs you how to get through forest to mountains in the fastest way.
(Supplies: +3, 11)
Using Niknik's clues, you pass through the forest and by the evening, arrive at the base of the Summit of Venoms. You camp there.
(Supplies: 10)
In the morning, you gotta decide how to proceed. Do you...
A) Climb the mountain face from here.
B) Seek gentler slopes or maybe a river to follow upwards.