idolpro | Flowers of Heaven: ☆ZRAEL

There’s an odd sound, like stones grinding together.

Hopping around your legs and fluttering about your shoulders are what look like a number of gargoyles, each no more than a few feet high and in the traditional gothic cathedral style—and all animate, their flesh made of living rock. They hoot, yip, and howl at you to follow, leading you towards an arched doorway that has opened in the thick brambles and leads to a winding path beyond, chirping at you to follow.

Once you cross through, a gate closes behind you, and the voices of your fellow idols fade from your ears. It seems as if you’re on your own, now.

❀ ❀ ❀

Here, the brambles that surround your path are thick with shadow so dense it seems almost velvety, and the branches curl in strangely ornate shapes.

It seems that the gargoyles are carrying some things for you: a collection of sixteen different flowers, a small lantern of blue flame, and a wreath woven from blooming clematis, aconite, and wild roses.

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Characters will discover a scroll somewhere on their person, which may be unrolled to reveal words written in ornately flourished script in an unfamiliar language. The rules resonate in their minds when they look at them, despite the apparent language barrier.

Included, too, is a list of sixteen flowers, each with an associated meaning.

Look within yourself: you are connected to two Flowers of Heaven. You will find you know what they are.

You must make your way through the Garden, out to Freedom.
However, three Obstacles block your way.

The Blue Flame Pyre can burn past these obstacles, but its fire requires at least three Flowers of Heaven as fuel. A fire given more fuel may burn past more Obstacles, but at far greater cost to your Selves.

Express your collective desire to the Blue Flame Pyre, and it will burn the flowers that are willed. However, be warned: if the three most-desired flowers are unclear, the Pyre will burn all that seem to have been chosen, no matter how many that may be.

Your souls are tied to your personal Flowers; should one of your flowers be destroyed, so too will its nature within you be broken.
To lose both your flowers is to lose your Self.

You are not without protection, though: Your chancelfolk carry with them a symbol of your group’s unity. The one who wears the wreath will find their flowers preserved—for themselves and for any in your group who share them—regardless of how the Pyre burns. But be warned: for each person, the wreath’s protection will work but once.

The energy of Freedom will be powerful enough to heal those teams with the most Flowers remaining to their collective. All others must find their own way to becoming Whole.

As you walk the path through the brambles, you come to a place where the ground becomes rough, rocky, and broken. The brambles that surround you now block your way, growing in a thick mass of branches and thorns as long as your hand; it’s so dense you can’t see through to the other side, much less progress further.

The gargoyles go into a flurry of distressed activity at the sight... and then they pass you the collection of flowers, the lantern of blue flame, and the wreath.

Make your choices.

[ A new section appears on the scroll, unfurling into view—a series of ink drawings of twelve vials, each labeled with a unit's name. All of them are currently empty. ]

Edited 2020-04-30 23:16 (UTC)

The path continues, the brilliance of the blue flame dying out with the last of the burnt flowers.

You're not sure how long you've been walking when you reach the stone doors. They have a heavy, ancient look to them, and are inset into an equally ancient-looking stone wall. At the center of the doors is what is probably a pair of massive handles... but they're densely overgrown with wickedly thorny briar roses which grow up along the stone, reaching even over the top of the wall.

The gargoyles look upon the doors mournfully, inspecting them for any way to pull away briars, but it seems beyond their ability. Once again, they offer the blue-flame lantern, the collection of flowers, and the wreath: something must be sacrificed.

The scroll unfurls further, and this time thirteen drawings appear in the new section; the last vial is labeled, but... illegibly? This time, however, the drawings are partially filled in with bright blue ink to the following degrees:

LiliS: 12.5%
sensitIV: 25%
pep!pep!: 8.33%
BAD END=DEAD END: 0%
Taisho Roman Revolution: 0%
☆ZRAEL: 7.14%
future is now: 8.33%
WILD CITY: 12.50%
Heart Soldier Senshi: 10%
AlcheME!: 12.50%
avante en garde: 16.67%
BARiTONES: 0%
░░░░░░: 50%

Edited 2020-05-01 01:43 (UTC)

[ Her fur is a little ruffled, tail flicking about restlessly, but she just opens with: ]

Okay.

So what did everyone get?

Star of Bethlehem, and Hollyhock. You?

[briefly]

Honeysuckle and Wild Rose.

Vervain and Wild Oats.

You?

Clematis and Aconite.

"Aconite" and "Alyssum," whatever that is . . .

"Aconite" and "Alyssum" . . .

[ After hearing all the answers: ]

. . . We seriously only have one overlapping?

[holds out his hand for a high five]

Looks like we might be fucked!

[ a scathing snort ]

Wouldn't want to make the game too easy for us, would she?

After journeying a while longer—it’s unclear how long, and the way time passes here is… strange—you come upon another wall. Here, the garden seems like it’s starting to wither, like it's dying back for the winter. The leaves are brown and fading, shriveling up.

The doors set into the wall were golden, once, like the trellises you passed earlier on your path, but the doors here stand grimy and unpolished, dripping with that same sort of tarry grime you might recall from the fountain.

Can flame really take care of this…? But it seems at least the creatures accompanying you think so.

The scroll unfurls further, and this time there are once more twelve drawings. As before, they're partially filled in with bright blue ink to the following degrees:

LiliS: 25%
sensitIV: 43.75%
pep!pep!: 33.33%
BAD END=DEAD END: 25%
Taisho Roman Revolution: 25%
☆ZRAEL: 41.67%
future is now: 41.67%
WILD CITY: 37.5%
Heart Soldier Senshi: 70%
AlcheME!: 25%
avante en garde: 57.14%
BARiTONES: 25%

Edited 2020-05-01 03:14 (UTC)

[ SWATS AT HIS HAND, bad Doodle!!! ]

We are not, we just need to be smart about what we burn and how we use that dumb flower crown.

Still seems less rigged than the one with the pictures.

Low bar!

What do you think? The obvious strategy is to vote for 3 flowers none of us have every round, right?

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Flowers of Heaven: ☆ZRAEL

IN-CHARACTER RULES

THE FIRST OBSTACLE

DISCUSSION

DECISION

RESULTS

THE SECOND OBSTACLE

DISCUSSION

DECISION

RESULTS

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

THE THIRD OBSTACLE

DISCUSSION

DECISION

RESULTS

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION

Re: DISCUSSION