OK, you have just joined Egregore. A friend invited you in and you have joined his group of friends, called a faction. You meet several other people in the faction online. Now you are trying to figure out what to do.

Some characters have information skills that give them clues at times during the game. Your character starts with the clue, “The Ritual of Bardot can be found on a tower on top of a mountain.” When you tell other people in your faction about your clue they get excited and start trying to figure it out.

It's pointed out that there are several fire towers in the area on top of mountains. Someone checks to find out which ones are open to the public (you never have to trespass to play the game) and narrow it down to a couple of possibilities. Your friends and you decide to try to get some more information.

One of your faction members has the occult skill, which can be used to ask for more information on occult matters. A ritual should be occult so she asks for more information on The Ritual of Bardot by sending an email to the judge and is told that it is a powerful ritual that many people in the game are looking for and also that you will get a lot of ether if you find it. Ether is power in the game, being used to improve your character, so now your faction really wants to find this. She is also told that it is actually written on a paper scroll hidden somewhere in the area.

Several members of your faction volunteer to check out the fire towers near them to see if they can find The Ritual. You check out a tower near you, looking for something that looks like a scroll. You meet another Egregore player there who you have never met before. He says that he is protecting the tower and you must fight him to search it.

Now we don't actually punch each other in Egregore. Combat is done as a game revolving around what skills your character has and a fair amount of counter-thinking and bluffing, sort of like poker. You try fighting him but he is much too skilled for you and you are sent away unable to search the tower.

Meanwhile another one of your friends has been talking to other players online and she traded for a riddle that someone else found. The riddle is, “The Ritual of Bardot can be found below bars that are next to white states on a blue field.” Your faction talks it over and someone figures out that this is the American Flag. Now you know that the ritual is below a flag on a tower, so your whole faction meets up at the fire tower that you weren't allowed to search. You meet the protector again and together you beat him in combat. In the base of the flagpole you find the ritual.

But this is just the beginning. You now have a ritual that many other players want. It appears that it is used to banish a demon named Ooblioux. Now what do you do? Do you try to find everything you need for the ritual in order to defeat the demon? Would you rather trade it to another faction? Who is going to guard the scroll? Plus all this while other people in your faction have other clues to other storylines that you can all work on. Welcome to Egregore!

This is all an example. There is no Ritual of Bardot in game and there is nothing on a fire tower (yet), so don't go looking for it.

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