ION Heart #1: The Remembrance Festival
ION Heart is a splendid lo-fi exploration solo TTPRG. It’s rules-light and enables meaningful mech storytelling. It’s one of my favorite worlds to exist in, in the last few months.
This is my seventh session with ION Heart, but my first post to DonnaCQuests, so let’s play some catch up!
Characters: Our mech pilot is named Batty (she’s a bat species and I’m not as creative a many might think). She found her mech companion, Fitz, in a dank cave on the fringes of the farmland planet where she grew up.
Goals: Batty grew up sheltered, born after the war tore through the Astral Union. Though she has no memories of war, she feels the impacts deeply. Her goal is to explore all the AU has to offer, and a new goal (more on that below), is to unlock Fitz’ previous pilot’s memories.
The Story Thus Far: Batty and Fitz have been to two different planets, currently they’re on Hilghard the ice planet. They’ve been run out of a crime outpost. Batty’s lost approximately a billion games of blaster darts at various watering holes across the galaxy. They’ve communed with nature and gone through a few story circuits, which leads me to…
Batty and Fitz at the Thurnwall Remembrance Festival
Batty was born after the war, so when the instructions from their current town’s Settlement Hall sent them to Thurnwall for the annual Remembrance Festival, she was uncertain of what to expect. Thurnwall was scarred by relics and wounds of war: laser burns on cobbled streets, dilapidated homes that were never recovered. Batty looked around and saw memories that weren’t exactly her own, but that pocked life in the Astral Union.
Everyone gathered around a large memorial statue, depicting a soldier at rest with his mech beside him. Something stirred in Batty, but she shook it off. A wave of concern over Fitz rose up in place of the nameless feeling. He was a sensitive mech, and with his previous memories lost to time and mystery, Batty wasn’t sure what seeing this memorial statue would bring up. She tried to keep him from getting too close, but was unsuccessful.
When Fitz approached the memorial statue, a buzzing overtook Batty. Something—maybe someone?—was porting into her thoughts. These weren’t her boring intrusive thoughts. These were the whispers of memories trying to spin up into something recognizable. Batty focused, but things fizzled out. The memories weren’t hers, and they weren’t Fitz’ either, but the pair shared them in some way. They must have been his previous pilots’ memories. Unsettled, Batty put the idea aside.
From the memorial statue to the local bar, a crowd of pilot veterans and those directly impacted by the war in the AU gathered around some drinks and shared stories. Batty tried to join a few conversations, but was shut out. She even offered to buy a round of drinks for folks with her meager supply of coins, but again, no takers. Hurt, Batty stepped outside and tried to refocus on the ghosts of memories from the festival itself.
Despite her best efforts, Batty couldn’t access or feel anything when she put a hand on Fitz’ kneecap. She was entirely disconnected from whatever was coming through earlier in the presence of the statue. The day was turning into a curious and strained disappointment. At one point, Batty thought she felt some semblance of a distant memory, but it was likely just the breeze of an ice planet crossing her cheek.
Just then, a frenzied pilot rushed out of the bar and ran directly at Batty and Fitz. With her presence of mind, Batty was able to calm the pilot down long enough for him to declare: “I remember; we remember; they remember.” He urged Batty to take a small alien-looking token, something he referred to as a “memory trinket.” Once it was out of his hands and in Batty’s he calmed down even further. Batty, ever outgoing and kind, asked if the pilot needed help getting back to his home. He shook her off—typical of this day—and left her, Fitz, and the alien trinket in the dust.