Shrike's Heart (#3)

[idolpro]

The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.

It's not quite a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."

You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—

—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.

> Wake Up

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OBJECTIVES

[idolpro]

You are instinctively aware that these will help do what the woman at the beginning asked you to do.

Try and fulfill as many as possible but you only need to fulfill five.

1. Do not accept mercy.
2. Preserve something for the future.
3. Decide what's important and protect it.
4. Encourage growth.
5. See the sun rise.
6. Write a letter home.
7. Find strength amid fear.
8. Make a house a home.
9. Don't die.
10. Give Sorrowful Blade of the Softly-Falling Blade her name.

Many of these are abstract and can be fulfilled in multiple ways (apart from the last two), but consider that they should probably be fulfilled in the spirit of a way Shrike would interpret it.

Once at least one person has completed an objective in an area, the way ahead will be clear to the whole group, but you will not be able to return to previous areas.

You may also want to pick up items you find along the way; they might be useful later.