idolpro | Flowers of Heaven: AlcheME!

There’s a tiny light before you, like the winking of a firefly. Then two, and then more and more—but rather than going out, they continue glowing as lines connect between them, tracing the shapes of living constellations in the air around you.

Some of the constellations are people and others animals, but none of them speak. Instead, they tug gently at your arms to guide you towards an arched doorway that has opened in the thick brambles, leading to a winding path beyond.

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 hung with delicate chimes, and in some places the wooden branches shift to sparkling crystal.

It seems that the constellations are carrying some things for you: a collection of sixteen different flowers, a small lantern of blue flame, and a wreath woven from blooming acacia, gorse, and honeysuckle.

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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 constellation people 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 23:17 (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 constellation people look upon the doors with mournful chiming, 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 01:44 (UTC)

Okay, first off. Acacia and Oak. Sound off, everyone.

Gorse and Wild Rose.

Are those yours?

Yes, now what are yours?

Hollyhock and Mimulus.

Um... aconite, I think? And honeysuckle. Wow, thanks.

...okay none of us overlap so at some point we might have to start burning our own flowers.

Whew.

Secondly!

Are there any flowers on the list you want to hold off on or shall we go through all the ones that aren't our own?

Alright. So we have no overlap. Not great.

There's no way to fully predict who has which flowers, so it doesn't particularly matter which we start with outside of our own.

Who should wear the crown this round?

Wait, what's the deal with this thing, anyway?

[holding up the Flower Crown.]

Could we like... nominate something we had and then put this thing on? Is that allowed?

There's four of us and only three rounds. I'll forgo the crown the entire game--if I get any weird effects I won't be a huge problem. I'm not particularly dangerous physically to others and if I get mouthy or self harmy you guys can club me easily.

One of us can wear it per round and there's three rounds. The person wearing it will be protected that round.

It seems so. Would you like to try it out?

From the looks of it, yeah. So...even if a flower one of us has ends up getting voted to burn, whoever's wearing the crown doesn't get theirs, specifically, burned.

Edited 2020-04-30 23:39 (UTC)

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.

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Flowers of Heaven: AlcheME!

IN-CHARACTER RULES

THE FIRST OBSTACLE

DISCUSSION

DECISION

RESULTS

THE SECOND OBSTACLE

DISCUSSION

DECISION

RESULTS

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THE THIRD OBSTACLE

DISCUSSION