the ultimate where red blooms/grief rice lore post
not that i think anyone is interested, but i got the brain worms. so here is all the important plot points to the delta green campaign i'm in. will update as the campaign goes along (we're nearing the finale though, so there isn't too much left to update lmao)
Where Red Blooms is a homebrew campaign set in 2010-2011 in Indonesia (made by pawseds). Melati Merah Nusantara is an ecotourism NGO. It has a 'research' branch, Anggrek Bulan Nusantara, that deals with the unnatural in secret. It was set up in the 1940s when Japan colonized Indonesia, and Kurotokage fought against The Black Ocean Society. While Bulan is trying to become more independent from Kurotokage, it's very understaffed and Kurotokage agents are sent to fill in the gaps.
Simon Intan / "AJ" (he/him)
my PC! The one out of TWO Indonesians in the INDONESIAN DELTA GREEN CAMPAIGN
washed-out musician. used to be part of a popular band called Fish & Chips, which died when an explosion at a concert killed two of their members and left another (Dani) in a coma. Spent the next 10 years obsessing over the incident and picking up shady jobs, until his investigation led him to Melati
Daisuke "Iron Lizard" Furukawa / Daniel (he/him)
Doctor of the group. Resident rich guy. Played by @daruqin
His brother attended Simon's concert, fell into a coma a few years later and died
Used to be part of Kurotokage, was sent to Melati because they're understaffed
His initials are intentional
Haruto Ueno / "Artem" (they/them)
Detective gone wrong (depression). Played by @tyo-mimt
Came into contact with some pink spores alongside their brother, Apollo, which turned their hair pink. Got banned from Japan as a result and sent to Melati
The ONLY OTHER INDONESIAN in the INDONESIAN DELTA GREEN CAMPAIGN
Got recruited super young because he came into contact with a strange unnatural rock. Is also really, really good at melee
Arisu Takanashi (she/her)
Grandpa introduced her to the unnatural, and she actually wants to do her job. Originally part of Kurotokage, sent to Melati.
A bit crazy. Just a bit. She's cegil coded
Group's resident white guy
His player hasn't shared any lore about him yet so I have to wait til the campaign is over to bug him about it
Tonelico Deianira / Nelly (she/her)
Group's resident white woman. She has high CHA but is the most loser fail woman imaginable
Used to be part of a crime family, until Reverb and a Hound of Tindalos killed off her team. She stole the Reverb and ran away from the family. Melati hired her
Decker's player's backup PC.
Used to know Decker and is looking for him. I think she's his ex?????
Her player won't share any lore so i'll have to wait til the campaign is over part 2
Artem's brother's husband. Played by @tyo-mimt
Killed his brother. Also had a one night stand with Daniel once
Johanna Mulyani (she/her) - Bulan's director.
Kiara Pertiwi (she/her) - Our quartermaster. Very young.
Operations (the lore part)
Each operation so far, plus the downtime that comes after.
OPERASI JERUMBAI (reskinned Last Things Last)
Baby's first operation! Agus Lesmono, the previous quartermaster, dies and we have to clean his apartment up. Decker eats 4-day-old rice left in the rice cooker, and gets diarrhoea. A typo names the group Grief Rice. Turns out he kept his dead zombie wife in a septic tank, and AJ runs her over with the company car. She dies! We live!
Downtime: AJ finds out that there were mysterious glowing orbs at the concert where his friends died. At Daniel's birthday party, we're introduced to Lucas, who is head over heels for Daniel. Everyone except Daniel notices.
OPERASI BOCAH (reskinned Operation DUSTBOWL)
Three agents have gone missing in Palembang investigating weird deaths. One of their bodies appears someway down the road from a mine. When we go to check it out at the police station, it revives into a vampire and almost kills half the team. (AJ and Decker distract the police from the gunshots by setting off a car alarm and arguing in front of the station.)
We track down the orphan vampire kids responsible for the weird deaths and missing agents to a nearby mine. We get followed by Kit Tsui, a BIN agent. Everyone in the group falls in love with him and we recruit him as a Melati agent. In the mines (which have flammable gasses) we find one of the missing agents, vampirized. Artem shoots her (in the mine with the flammable gasses) and blows up themself, AJ, and Vikal. We live by the grace of God (and by the fact the op had gone on for so many sessions that our handler didn't want to take more time to have to introduce new PCs), but are forever scarred. We return a week later when everyone is healed and kill the vampire kids by setting the mines on fire.
Downtime: Director Mulyani hires Kit as a full time Bulan agent. Artem's pink spore disease got worse and spread to their nails. They've also infected Daniel and Arisu. They research the spores and find a report called OPERASI WAYANG, which details Mulyani and other older agents finding a guy named Mamesah who sacrificed a baby to a Kn'yani. They are able to save the baby, but not before Mamesah and the Kn'yani perform a ritual on her. The baby is Kiara Pertiwi.
OPERASI KETUPU (reskinned Foxed and Hounded)
Mamesah calls Decker and asks him to help set up a deal with Bulan. He wants to trade multiple unnatural artifacts for his protection. He also gives Decker a letter, a ritual that he cam perform. We are sent to check out the artifacts. Before we are able to take him in, however, he gets hunted down by a very tall thing is killed. We take the artifacts and run. As he is killed, Mamesah chants:
The black ocean swallows.
The seeds are sown.
The birth of a dragon.
Where red blooms.
(campaign name drop!! :D)
Downtime: The office has a Secret Santa Christmas party. We are introduced to Tonelico/Nelly, who is Bulan's newest employee, though it isn't until later that she joins our group. Arisu's mom calls to inform her that her grandpa died. (Arisu consoles her mom by googling 'how to console loved ones through a loss' and reading off the first results.)
A cave has mysteriously appeared in Yogyakarta and people keep going in and going missing. It attracts people to it, so Bulan has blocked access to it. We take caffeine pills to avoid the cave's unnatural effects. When we arrive, we find two people who have bribed their way into the cave. We argue with them once we get into the cave, and we promptly get swallowed by the floor.
They turn out to be Finan Syahputra and Claretta Tedyono (our handler's PC+NPC from their previous campaign and I am their number 2 fan. Claretta is being played by a guest player). Finan gets pulled into the walls by a scale monster, the Guardian. After going through the cave that is structured eerily like a digestive system, the Guardian attacks us and throws us into a capsul in the floor. We find Finan there. He says he had a rock implanted into his heart and goes a bit crazy, so Claretta feeds him a caffeine pill (via making out with him) in order to keep him sane.
(Now here's the fun part) With the rock in his heart, Finan is able to transport us out of the cave, except we land in an AU version of one of Finan's operations with M-EPIC, except roleswapped where Finan is an enemy. While the alternate reality Finan is antagonizing us, the Guardian follows us through the transporting rocks in the Finans' hearts and antagonizes us too. Alternate reality Finan kills original reality Claretta, we kill alternate reality Finan, and Vikal 'kills' the Guardian. Original reality Finan revives Claretta using his heart rock powers and goes into cardiac arrest until AJ takes the rock out of alternate reality Finan's heart to save him. Finan takes that rock and transports us back to the original reality, where the cave is gone.
Downtime: AJ finds old reports of OPERASI RAYAP, which details the incident that killed his friends. People saw a faceless monster weaving through the crowds, and many victims fell into a coma soon after (such as Daniel's brother). The case went cold once they couldn't find any leads.
Decker has a dream where he is a test subject for Kn'yani. He prepares the ritual that Mamesah gave him by sacrificing two people, and uses it to make Director Mulyani forget about him completely. He runs away, never to be seen again. Arisu returns to Japan. (Both their players got too busy with life for a bit and had to drop out. Decker's player later returns as Rachel.) Nelly joins the group as an agent.
Before Mamesah died, he had a party planned at a hotel in Bali. AJ is to assume Mamesah's role to see what kind of unnatural business meeting he was up to. Kiara and Elbert (our quaretermaster and the IT guy) sneak along with us on the mission. Nelly brings the Reverb drug as a bargaining tool if things go south.
At the party, we meet up with four Japanese people who work with Mamesah. Things go south and they reveal:
They have been working with Mamesah for the past two decades.
They engineered ‘spores’, which are parasites. Some Melati employees (Artem, their brother, and Daniel) are infected by the parasites.
They are looking for a ‘control’ who got away. Presumably, they are also the same employee of Melati Merah Nusantara. (Later revealed to be Kiara)
Mamesah provided the materials to make the spores, and said he’d provide the control two decades ago. When they needed the control, Mamesah lost it. (see its kiara)
Mamesah has been unable to provide this. This meeting was his last chance. Since he was unable to provide, the Japanese people said that he is useless and they will hunt him down.
Suddenly, the crime family that was hunting Nelly down raids the party. Policemen at the party are able to stop them. We are able to escape using the commotion as a distraction.
Downtime: Kiara tells Nelly that she doesn't trust her. They have a heart-to-heart (read: threatening each other) in a public bathroom where Nelly almost shoots Kiara. It's very gay. Later on, they get lunch together and actually have more of a heart-to-heart. Rachel, Decker's ex(?), comes looking for him and arrives at Melati. She gets recruited into the organization.
A camp in Kalimantan says that orbs of light are going to appear, so Director Mulyani reopens OPERASI RAYAP (RARRRGHHH AJ LORE). Vikal takes an obsidian keris with him, one of the artifacts from Mamesah. At the camp, we are introduced to Maria Firmanda. Her son, one of the employees, Stefanus, looks exactly like Daniel's dead brother, but older.
At night, we go out into the forest and find one of AJ's dead friend's face (just her face) on the floor.
Turns out the camp is being run by cultists who plan to sacrifice the campers to a being called the Faceless Mother. She feeds on people's life force and is able to grant vitality to sick people (which is what happened to Stefanus. Except with the health also comes the face, body, and memories of a whole other person). Maria wants to help us but is under scrutiny by the other cultists.
At night, we fight the Faceless Mother until all but one lifeforce remains, AJ's friend, Dani. We have to kill them in order to kill the Mother, but Nelly comes up with an idea to try to save Dani. We fly back to Jakarta, stop Dani's heart temporarily in order to cut the connection with the Mother, and save Dani and the other campers. The Mother is dead. (side note the og plan was to have me KILL dani by my own hands. the only reason there was an option to save them was because our handler had conversation where they realized their handler was much nicer LMAO)
Downtime: We save Maria and Stefanus from the cult, and they get recruited as Melati employees. Daniel gains enough HUMINT to realize Lucas likes him and they get together. Artem's memory is getting worse because of the parasites. Artem's brother gets married.
Bulan gives its employees a free, week-long vacation every year as compensation for dealing with the unnatural. Director Mulyani and Kiara is there too. At the end of the vacation, a kid goes missing and his dad, Irfan, is killed. After some investigation, we find out that Irfan had relations to Mamesah and sacrificed his kid to a Kn'yani. He tried to kill a pregnant staff member in order to use her unborn baby as a sacrifice too, but she wasn't actually pregnant; she's a kuntilanak, and she killed Irfan. Nelly loses an eye in the fight but we manage to kill the kuntilanak.
We weren't able to leave because there was an unnatural storm, caused by a rock Irfan brought. (It's the other half of the rock that got Vikal into Melati.) A superstitious staff member tells us we should return the rock to the ocean, so Mulyani guides us into a domain in the ocean. We return the rock to Nyi Roro Kidul, and her domain collapses in on us. We all almost manage to escape, but Mulyani is consumed by the domain. Kiara tries to save her and explodes it, but isn't fast enough. Director Mulyani dies. :(
Downtime: Nelly and Kiara have a heart-to-heart in the hospital room. Kiara has tried to contact the Papua director to take over Mulyani's spot, but she isn't able to contact him. The parasites get worse for Daniel, so he decides to research them. With Nelly's and Vikal's previous research, he finds out that he is able to get a substance from the back of Kiara's neck that consumes the parasites. Artem talks to one of the agents from OPERASI WAYANG, who tells them that Kiara isn't human. We attend Mulyani's funeral. Artem and Daniel have doppelgängers who have tricked some of their bonds. The doppelgängers havn't done anything bad yet, though.
We are sent to clean up Mulyani's apartment. We find some lab equipment looking into the parasites, as well as notes of Mulyani trying to recall the Kn'yani from OPERASI WAYANG. Before we are able to leave, a Hound of Tindalos appears out of Nelly's eye socket. It almost kills Nelly, so Artem tries to save her. The hound turns Artem into silly string. With Vikal's keris (which does hypergeometrical damage) and Kiara's powers, they are able to 'kill' the hound. We set a fire in the apartment to cover the damages, clean up what's left of Artem, and escape back to headquarters.
Downtime: Kuro, Artem's brother's husband, tries to investigate Artem's death. He gets recruited into Melati. Daniel researches more on Kiara and finds out that her DNA has warped and changed into something resembling humans but something that has yet to actually evolve into a human - an old and ancient being. Something must have happened to her that made her DNA age back.
The Bulan offices have become empty. Agents have gone missing and Japanese agents have taken their places. When we are called into the office, Kiara is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it is Hiroto Takanashi (woah, doesn't that name seem familiar? like the last name of a certain ex-melati agent? hm???)
OPERASI DELMAN (reskinned Operation FULMINATE)
A kid, Brandon, that went missing in the 1980s is found in Palu. We are sent to investigate. The Bulan headquarters in Palu is completely empty, save for damage. We are able to find a few supplies.
Brandon is being kept at a nearby Bulan research hut. One of the employees at the hut is Maria (from OPERASI RAYAP!!!) We question Brandon; he said he had been kept by Kn'yani and was fed a weird substance. He's unaware that time has passed. Some of the employees went out to do some research. One returns, mentioning he saw a Kn'yani on the way back. Most of the team goes to get the other employees back to the hut, while Nelly and AJ stay back to watch Brandon.
The hut gets suddenly gunned down, killing two employees. Maria takes Brandon and jumps out of the second floor window to escape. One of the assailants looks exactly like Apollo, Artem's brother (this is, however, a doppleganger). Before fake-Apollo kills AJ, Brandon blows up the entire hut, killing the assailants.
Meanwhile, the other group finds the other employees shot dead. Before they are able to return back, they are confronted by four Kn'yani. One of them posesses Kuro as the group escapes; it wants Kuro to bring Brandon to it. They return to the hut to find it destroyed. AJ and Nelly are injured by the blast, and Maria is nearly dead. Kuro tries to take Brandon to the Kn'yani, but his suspicious behavior (he very obviously doesn't like kids) ticks off Rachel, who shoots him in the arm. Daniel patches everyone up. Before we leave, another van arrives and shoots at us again. The assailants this time are revealed to be Arisu (NO WAY) and Artem, as they looked when the campaign first began (NO WAY 2).
We drive off as Arisu and fake-Artem chase us. Vikal shoots Arisu, but she is unfazed. (side note, the shot did 20 DAMAGE MINUS 5 FOR ARMOR..... WHAT>>... THE FUCKK) In a desperate move, Nelly tells AJ to break to throw off the assailants. The break kills Maria and Brandon, and injures everyone. The other van crashes into a nearby rock. Nelly is able to headshot the other driver, and we escape.
We were sent on the operation to die. Anggrek Bulan Nusantara is no more...
and that's it so far! the campaign has 1 more downtime before its finale, which i'm both excited for and dreading lmao
if you read the whole thing, please know that i love you
dededos
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
titsay
stormborns
kaledo-art
