Ritual

Copy the IC Part of your emailed Mission Brief here

• List of Player Characters
• Example Character Name - Player First Name

• Delicate Harmony receives indications from the gem in the diadem retrieved from the Pentagonal asteroid mission that it wishes to share more information with him, to show him something of its history, or maybe the history of the civilisation? Delicate Harmony agrees to receive whatever information it wants to share, and Budding Leaf comes along too into some kind of vision of the past, or the gem's memory of it.
• The party experience a strange vision of a rainbow, distant far away from them, which seems like the target they are aiming for. However, they are repeatedly thwarted in their attempts to reach it by strange beings who radiate strange sensations and cause problems in their actions:
  • An entity that looks large and spherical, and exudes a feeling of great weight, which pushes the party around
  • An entity that seems cold and static, and slows down anyone who comes near it
  • A double entity, somewhat pentagonally prismatic in shape which repeeatedly explodes, knocks everyone down and then rejoins to do it again
  • A small, sad entity which makes the party intermittently feel lost or absent
• The party defeat all of these and reach the rainbow, which fades away, leaving only a representation of the gem itself. It seems sad and frustrated that they haven't managed to understand exactly what it meant by all of this, and asks them if they have any better way to create a truer, less metaphorical communication channel which will allow them to interrogate its knowledge more cleanly.
• Exiting the vision, the party are surrounded by scientists eager to learn what they've learned - Ninth Truth, East Wind and others are all present. They have a number of helpful ideas to propose, but the best comes from a resident of the Firebrand who suggests the use of a holodeck - after all, hasn't a holodeck been used to extract memories from a ship heart relic at least once before? That rumour had certainly gone round the Firebrand…
  • There is a small delay to discuss just how extremely banned from the Firebrand's holodeck Budding Leaf is, and whether they can be disguised. Or think of another holodeck in system. Eventually it's just decided that Delicate Harmony should take the lead in any discussions with the Firebrand holodeck's management…
  • They head to the Firebrand, where luckily the holodeck sysadmins have gone for lunch, and a bored secretary waves them through so long as they sign a form promising not to do anything too stupid (with examples). They do this, and Delicate Harmony tinkers a wired connection between himself, the gem and the holodeck to aid the communication and connection between all of them.
• Inside the holodeck, they are first greeted by a training simulation which walks them through a variety of scenarios to teach them correct behaviour. Multiple of these seem to have been generated by Budding Leaf's previous adventures in this holodeck, including:
  • Whether to insert data drives picked up from hackers into this holodeck
  • How to behave if you meet a simulated person who you know died a horrible traumatic death in reality
• Then, however, they enter the 'real' simulation.
  • At first, they see two figures who do not seem to notice them: a pentapodal person talking to what is recognisably a ship heart. They are exchanging reassurances that the plan is ready to go, that the 'others' are all ready too in their locations, and confirming consent that they both want to go through with it.
  • On agreeing this, the party receive a call from a ship heart, and the scene snaps into a holodeck-approximation of a ship heart psychic encounter. The pentapodal figure is now aware of the party, and deeply surprised by their presence.
  • However, he accepts the party's assurance that they are there to help, and quickly gives them instruction on what they need to do:
    • The other being here is a representation of the ship heart, its power and its personality;
    • They need to help push the power of the ship heart into the permanent shape the ship heart has set for it, while keeping the personality back
    • The logic of this is explained as: the personality knows what's impossible, but without the personality, the power of the ship heart may be capable of doing things that appear impossible
    • After Delicate Harmony has got over absorbing this revelation, the fight begins in earnest. The 'personality' of the ship heart seems to want to join the party and their new pentapodal friend, but it has no weapons nor abilities. The 'power' of the ship heart doesn't mind being pushed around by the players, but doesn't want to let the personality go - at any opportunity, they try to call it back to it.
    • The party are able to slowly shepherd the 'power' towards a pentagonal-shaped socket in the opposite wall, which appears intended for this purpose. It is a tough fight to get there, and the pentapodal hero goes down once but is healed by Budding Leaf. Delicate Harmony asks permission to Harvest the pentapodal hero, which he is confused by but agrees to - this gives Delicate Harmony the ability to forcibly pull the 'power' away from the 'personality' and into the 'socket,' while standing in the socket himself.
    • As the power is forced into the socket, the scene fades out, leaving a vision of the pentapodal hero curled on the floor of the original room, now containing a recognisable Gate and some rockwork creatures. He appears to once again be unaware of the party, but is sobbing lightly (yet happily?) and holds a blue gem in his hand which he did not have before. When Delicate Harmony attempts to interfere with this gem, he clutches it tightly like it is the only thing he is currently focused on.
    • A blaring alarm starts to go off, indicating that someone outside the holodeck is about to pull them out. The party eventually follow their training, stop interacting with the scene and wait for extraction
• The Firebrand holodeck sysadmins have questions. As does a ship's mystic, running in with the news that Firebrand (the ship heart) felt something weird and what was that, oh and also now it's paying attention what's that it can sense in Budding Leaf's pocket?
• The party quickly extract themselves from the Holodeck and depart the Firebrand.

• Bullet points of what characters did in the aftermath of the mission

• Breakdown of consequences for characters - rewards, effects, contacts.
• Also mention any wider consequences for the world

• Consequences

• Consequences

• Consequences

Be sure to add tags for the characters