Game 12 - Orb Experience - 14th May 2021

Tren Divall's Memories Bajor Date 1603

Mission Brief

It is 700 years ago on Bajor, the dawning of the era of space flight. The first Bajoran light ships have begun to travel within the solar system. Bajor is beginning to pull together as one world in a mission to colonise the first moon Brelda.

You are teenage friends in the capital city Bajora. You have known each other for years and are a tight group, always supporting each other and always together. Most of Bajoran society has become very peaceful and prosperous. It is a golden age for art, science and discovery. A dark stain has come to Bajora. Five teenagers have been mutilated and murdered in the past few weeks. Their bodies have been discovered disposed of like garbage in dumpsters.

Until yesterday, this was a subject of fascination amongst your friends. Yesterday, everything changed.

Your friend Dral O’Teal has always been something of an amateur sleuth, discovering who was seeing whom and who was stealing what at school. He was one of your beat friends and part of your tight knit group. Yesterday, you all received an eMessage from:

“Guys! I think I’m on to something about these murders. We can’t trust the adults. I think that some of them are in on it. There’s a hidden place I got into tonight. It’s at Kalpei Museum. I’m on my way out now. I think they’ve seen me, so I’ve hidden the key in an old creature – you’ll know it when you see it. Anyway, hopefully I’ll get away and tell you all about it tomorrow. If I don’t make it, you guys will need to take over. Remember, we can’t trust ANY adults. Someone important must be in on this to be keeping this a secret. See you soon. Prophet’s Guide You. O’Teal.”

You haven’t seen from or heard from O’Teal since. No-one seems too worries about him (he goes off on these crazy investigations all the time), but you are very concerned. You think he got in too deep this time…

A Night At The Museum

The museum was guarded at night, but there was no real expectation that anyone might attempt to steal anything. I guessed that it was an insurance thing. Joshel and the gang distracted the guards at the back doorand drew them off. We used the opportunity to gain access to the museum.

The Ghost

We crept into the museum, keeping as quiet as possible. We started trying the door handles and discovered an open room containing various statues, suits of armour and display cases. An ethereal presence floated across the room towards us and a strange noise containing some words we could not make out filled the room. We stayed away from the presence and slammed the door of the room. Something was very wrong here.

Dinosaur

Following the museum corridors we came to a large, open exhibition containing the prehistoric skeleton of a dinosaur. There was some kind of object that we could just see on top of the skeleton. It was about the right size and shape to be O'Teal's mobile device, so Zadie decided to try to climb the skeleton and retrieve the item. The skeleton was delicately hung together with wires and Zadie carefully made her way to the top. She knocked the object to the ground and carefully made her way down. The object was a child's toy and not a real mobile!

Shadow Cat

We discovered a door to a dark outside area that contained a point and a small bridge. We all saw a dark shape moving in the water. Some of us decided to get a little closer, and an amphibious Shadow Cat jumped out of the water. Although it gave us a fright, the creature was quite friendly and followed us around.

Blood

We climbed the stairs to the mezzanine level above the skeleton and found an outdoor terrace, complete with fountain. Zadie searched the fountain and discovered O'Teal bloody cap. Something bad happened here and we feared for O'Teal's safety.

Sarcophagi

We further explored the museum collection, hoping to find the creature and the key. The next exhibit contains sarcophagi with plaques.

Pendral Ramon - The Pah Wraiths

This sarcophagus contained the mummified body of Pendral Ramon, the first known high priest of the Pah Wraiths. Pendral lived around 5,000 years ago and, until the Cardassian occupation, was responsible for largest single act of genocide in Bajoran history. It is estimated by some modern scholars that over 100,000 followers of the prophets were put to brutal death by Pendral. The location of the mummy of Pendral is unknown. It is believed to have been lost at sea when his tomb was first uncovered five hundred years ago.

The Confluence

The two sarcophagus here are most unusual. DNA testing and carbon dating of the artefacts found in the tomb show that these two unknown individuals lived and died at the same time. They were people of note and achievement as is evidenced by the riches concealed with them in their tomb. There were at one tomb writings on the walls throughout the tomb. Unfortunately, some time before the excavation, tomb robbers broke into the tomb and destroyed the tomb markings. Curiously, the tomb robbers sought only to desecrate and not profit as they appeared to have left everything of value behind.

However, this is not the most remarkable and inexplicable aspect of this find. The two embalmed bodies are clearly marked and dressed as adversaries. The sarcophagus here bears the markings of the Pah Wraiths whilst the second sarcophagus bears the markings of the profits. The events of 2,000 years ago remain unexplained and is known to historians as the Confluence.

Black Oil

An adjacent room contained more display cases and a strange, black oil on the floor. As we entered the room, we again heard the strange whispers from before. The oil actually began to move towards us! We were able to jump on top of the cases, but this set of an alarm! Everyone scattered and ran! Joshel even tried hiding in a suit of armour. We thought quickly as the museum guards came running. Thinking quickly we set the Shadow Cat loose. The guards attributed the alarm to the amphibian and chased off after it. We were safe again.

The Key

We tried the final room on the upper floor and found a statue of a strange, alien-looking creature, looking like some kind of hideous, misshapen dog with tentacles on its face. I reached into the maw of the best and found a plastic key card! At last! We had found O'Teal's key. Now we had to find the door.

Finding The Door

There were a couple of door downstairs that we had not tried. The first opened into a cafeteria. An elderly man was sat in there, hunched over some documents and muttering to himself as he worked. We quietly withdrew and left him to it.

The next door took us into some living quarters. Inside was a desk that contained papers describing the sale of the museum a few weeks ago to a new (but identified) owner. We followed some stairs down and came to a steel security door with a card read on it. We used the card and the door hummed open.

Basement

For the rest of my life, I think I'll be afraid of basements. This was an old basement. A storeroom was at either side of an antechamber. One store room contains books and documents. Some of them must have been centuries old.

In the other store room, we discovered more documents and ancient ceremonial daggers, maces and other weapons. Fearing for our safety, we each selected a weapon. We also discovered further documents that seemed to point to some old and macabre ritual.

Murder Pit

To the North end of the antechamber was a final door. As we opened it, the whispers in the dark began again...

Inside, a hooded figure was enacted some bloody and long-forgotten ritual over the dead body of O'Teal. Some of the blood was splattered on a stone statue of a hateful insectoid creature. In a familiar voice, the figure said the words:

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free."

The figure threw back it's hood and cold terror swept over me as I saw the face of my father.

"Come with me, my daughter," he said, but we were afraid. The spell was broken and suddenly we were attacking, seeking to end this evil ritual and avenge the death of our friend. The next few minutes were a blur. At some point, the statue seemed to come to life and attack us. Somehow, my father was killed in the melee that ensued and the creature became inert again.

As the silence descended, we looked around the room at each other. We were, pale, exhausted and covered in blood.

I began to cry...