A VDay Ritual Part 1

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Mod Priority: Must-Go/Meta

Desired Timeslot: Saturday Between 12:00pm - 3:00pm (should only take an hour at most)

NPCs Required: 2+ (1 for Grave Authority NPC, 1+ for Carcino-Gens)

Content Type: Investigation / Combat [AWAY MOD]

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Summary:

The increase of Mortis Energy in the region brings Dr. Caius Vesper to Ellistown Landing to research what is going on. The doctor has located an area not too far from town along the shore of the Patomic Bay that has a new and larger concentration of Mortis Energy and potentially some clues as to what is causing this to happen. The doctor will hire some PCs to investigate with him as assistants as well as some PCs to guard the group of them from any potential dangers (try to keep the PCs to around 10ish). The PCs will be lead to the away mod space where they will find the scattered remains of a large ritual. 7 bodies that haven't sunk, a heptagon made of blood, random artifacts, and so on are littering the area. Immediately however the players will have to deal with their first threat, Carcino-Gen that are eating the corpses. The longer the Carcino-Gen have to eat the corpses the fewer clues the players can obtain. The players will need to consistently fend off occasional waves of Carcino-Gen while trying to gather the clues necessary to figure out what happened at the ritual site. Once enough clues have been gathered and the players retreat the doctor will assist the players in putting the clues together, give additional information to the players, and pay the players before departing to inform his colleges about what was discovered.

Hooks:

Dr. Caius Vesper comes to Ellistown landing looking for assistance from the PCs to investigate the greatly increased Mortis Energy in the region. The doctor will complain about a few notable issues. 1. Mortis Energy can be useful to an area, but too much of it for too long can cause unpredictable anomolies. 2. This energy will only empower residual phantoms in the area, making ones that used to be harmless become /problems/. 3. The Grave Authority is already dealing with similar situations in other parts of The Bailey and their numbers are stretched thin. 4. The concentration of Mortis Energy is far greater here than anywhere else in The Bailey given the current circumstances. 5. They are concerned about the future health of the Mortis Amaranthine if this continues.   If someone attacks the back side of a Carcino-Gen I need the doctor to state something along the lines of "ITS A CRAB! WHY WOULD YOU ATTACK THE SHELL OF A CRAB!" for comedic effect.

Related Props:

Bones, Blood, Red Spray Chalk, Fleshy Body Parts, 6 stackable rocks to make rock pile, 7 twanas, 7 Puzzles

Details:

Ritual site should be setup in a heptagon (7 sided polygon) with a "corpse" at each point. Each corpse should have a twanas mixed in to its remains as well as a single puzzle with all of its pieces. Blood or Red spray chalk should be used to mark the heptagon. At the center of the heptagon a Rock Pile should be stacked up using 6 rocks and the ground in front of it should be dug up a bit and notibly unearthed with a blade mark as though a dagger had been stabbed into the ground.   The players will be able to obtain Clue Token by investigating the ritual site based on the chart below. 1. Each corpse will have a puzzle that can reward up to 3 Clue Tokens when completed. For every 30 seconds a Carcino-Gen munches on a corpse they devour 1 Clue Token from the corpse. 2. Bidding Basic Necrokinetics will reward 2 Clue Tokens. (The Egos of the 7 individuals sacrificed were shattered and used to open the vent to the Mortis to extract its abundant energy.) 3. Bidding Salvaging on the Rock Pile will reward 1 Clue Token, physically toppling the Rock Pile will also reward 2 Clue Tokens as well as a Fracture 'Fear of Rock Piles'. (They notice that the Rock Pile was used as a central anchor point for the ritual and held a great deal of Mortis Energy) 4. Bidding Awareness on the stab mark in the ground will reward 2 Clue Tokens. (They notice that the hole was created using a dagger and that this was the source of the Mortis Energy venting out of the ground) 5. Bidding Basic Education: Spending 5 Mind and 1 Minute of Engaged and Active Roleplay investigating the blood/chalk lines will reward 2 Clue Tokens. (They will discover that the Blood is mixed with Red Milkweed) 6. Attempting to use Master Faithful Will will reward 5 Clue Tokens as well as a Fracture 'Bahlsmore is coming' (They will see a legion of ghostly soldiers in dark blues marching on Ellistown Landing at night) 7. Any other unique and "smart" bids by people to scrounge up information can potentially result in rewarding 1 Clue Token, let people be creative.

Rewards:

- With 1 Minute of Full Engagement Roleplay by an individual that has the Hunting skill, they may obtain 1 Produce: Shellfish from the corpse of a Carcino-Gen. This can only be performed once per corpse.

Each PC that went along will be paid 5 Shells.

Depending on the number of clue tokens the players manage to collect and turn in the below information will be availible. (Players can add their own generic clue tokens as well to increase the amount) 5 Clue Tokens: Players learn that the hole in the ground was the source of the ambient Mortis Energy and was a quick vent formed artifically. The vent was opened for a brief period Friday night. 10 Clue Tokens: Players learn that the sacrificed individuals included one of each lineage except for Devoted, that all of them were abberant, and they were all sacrificed alive. 20 Clue Tokens: Players learn that this is the 6th ritual in the series so far and that the 7th Ritual will be after dark in a location east of the 6th ritual site not too far outside of town. 30 Clue Tokens: Players realize they might be able to disrupt the ritual in two ways. They can assault the ritual site and attack the Flock of Elly directly as well as set up their own ritual in town mirroring the ritual that the Flock of Elly perform to cause a backlash effect on the Ritual as a whole. 35 Clue Tokens: Players learn that destroying the anchors at the 7th ritual site will cause significant impact to any Phantoms summoned from the Ritual itself. 40 Clue Tokens: Players learn the ingrediants to perform their own ritual to cause the highest backlash effect on the Ritual as a whole. (7 Anchors, 7 Lineages that are not Devoted, 20 Body of Blood from 7 Lineages that are not Devoted, 1 Cairn, and 1 Individual that can open a pathway to the Mortis Amaranthine)