Exegesis

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Exegesis
Game:	Destiny 2
Campaign:	The Final Shape
Player(s):	1-3
Location:	The Pale Heart, The Traveler
Enemy faction(s):	Xivu Arath's Horde The Dread
Hostile race(s):	Hive
Objective(s):	Search the Pale Heart to find Ikora Rey
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Exegesis is the third Story Mission of the Final Shape expansion.

Objectives

• Locate Ikora's ship
  • Views cleared
    • X of 3
• Empower a font of Light
• Find Ikora's Wrecked Ship
• Empower the Founts
• Untangle Founts of Light and Darkness
  • Founts flowing
    • X of 4
• Investigate the Crash
• Keep Searching for Ikora
• Use the Shield's Super Ability
• Defeat the Pillar of Silence
• Locate Ikora
• Defeat the Witness's Forces
• Join Ikora at the Campsight

Transcript

(Mission Begins)

The Crow: I came across some wreckage when I was scouting earlier. Dismissed it as another anomaly until Ghost described Ikora's ship.

Glint: No one was inside, so she's alive. We just have to find her.

Cayde-6: Yeah, and that's always easier said than done.

The Crow: I'm sending you some coordinates. You're on the lookout for something that resembles the Cradle on Io. We'll start there.

Picking up a Crystalline key, the Guardian and places it on a platform, opening the gate. Upon entering this cavern, the Guardian discovers Hive forces within kneeling to a entrance blocked by a barrier with founts of Light and Darkness on both sides.

Ghost: We're not the only ones looking for Ikora.

Cayde-6: The Hive already bothering you?

The Crow: We can handle them.

Cayde-6: Well go right ahead. I'll be here for moral support.

Upon slaying Eaters of Light and Darkness, the Guardian receives Darkness fragments.

Ghost: Concentrated Darkness.

Cayde-6: The least we can do is put it to good use.

Using the fragments of Darkness, the Guardian empowers the fount of Darkness to bring down the barrier, entering into a room that appears to be a shrine.

Darkness Zone. Respawning Restricted.

The Guardian is ambushed by hordes of Husks.

Ghost: More of the Witness's abominations. Careful, Guardian.

Ultimately the Guardian prevails and slays the Husks.

The Crow: You're coming up on the coordinates of that wreckage. Any sign of Ikora, or her Ghost?

Ghost: Nothing yet.

The Guardian destroys seeds of Darkness around the room, dismantling the branches around the windows in the process. With a clear view of the cradle with smoke coming from it, Ghost scans across the environment in search for Ikora.

Glint: There! Up ahead!

The Crow: We know Ikora abandoned her ship. Maybe she found something?

Cayde-6: Maybe so, but going it alone isn't worth the risk. I learned that the hard way.

If you are a Titan or Warlock

The Crow: Luckily, she's got the two Sharpest Hunters in the system to back her up.

Or alternatively if you are a Hunter

The Crow: Luckily, she's got the three Sharpest Hunters in the system to back her up.

Cayde-6: Ah yeah! And when do they get here?

At the middle of the room, the Aegis materializes.

Glint: That shield contains concentrated Light. You can use it to power those wells.

The Crow: Where Light rises… Darkness recedes.

Cayde-6: Sounds like you've been reading Ikora's field journals.

The Crow: I always try to learn from the best.

After gripping the shield, forces of the Witness appear around the room, blocking off the entrance with a barrier once again. Using the Aegis, the Guardian defeats Eaters of Light and Darkness and uses the fragments of Light dropped from their corpses to power the fount of Light, bringing down the barrier. They then traverse down a pit into another tavern inhabited by Hive.

Ghost: More Hive ahead. Eyes up.

The Crow: Xivu Arath's followers again. Of coarse they'd answer the Witness's call.

Cayde-6: Well, I'm glad somebody's been paying attention. Me, I see three glowing green eyes? I open fire.

Cayde-6: And then… apologize to Eris later.

As the Aegis reappears, the Guardian uses it to kill Hive and obtain Light fragments, while slaying Hive with their ordinary weapons to receive Darkness fragments, bringing down the barriers. Retrieving a crystallized key, the Guardian places it on a platform, opening the door to the outside where they fight their way through Dread units. Using a crystallized key to open another door, they enter and discover the Aegis inside. Defeating Eaters of Light and Darkness with the Aegis and their original weapons, the Guardian powers up two Light founts and two Darkness founts.

Ghost: So, using both Light and Dark energy is what brought down that barrier…

The Crow: Mara often spoke of the balance of Light and Dark. We Awoken were "made in conflict."

The Crow: Our connection to Darkness is as ingrained as our connection to Light.

The Crow: Not all Guardians are Awoken, but it does feel like we all share that conflict.

The Guardian discovers Ikora ship, buried within the ground.

Ghost: This is definitely Ikora's ship. Let's take a closer look.

Interacting with the ship, the Guardian plays a recording left behind by Ikora.

Ikora: Commander. Guardian. I hope you are both safe, and that you found Crow.

Ikora: I haven't been able to raise you on comms, so I cannot be certain.

Ikora: You know that I am not one to be moved without evidence. How did you pit it, Zavala? Scientific obstinance?

Ikora: But there is an uncanny sanctity to this place. I feel… an impulse.

Ikora: I seek to commune with the Traveler myself. I sense if I reach out, that it will reach back. If not here, where?

Ikora: Find me. I'll be at the Cradle. It's just how I remember it.

Continuing their search for Ikora, the Aegis once again appears.

Glint: Stay sharp.

Forces of the Witness led by the Pillar of Silence appear.

Glint: I'm picking up a reading very similar to something Crow and I ran into shortly after we arrived.

Cayde-6: What, another charming gunslinger with roguish good looks?

The Crow: A Hive Ogre. But it definitely has your humility.

Using the Aegis, the Guardian destroys the shield of the Pillar of Silence. After wounding it, the Guardian forces the Ogre to retreat.

Ghost: We've got it on the run!

Ghost: Crow, how did you manage to avoid it earlier?

The Crow: Avoid it. [chuckles] Glint, how many times did you revive me, five? Six?

Glint: Twelve, but who's counting?

Cayde-6: Not bad. If you can't be efficient, be persistent.

Arriving within another cave, the Guardian confronts the Pillar of Silence once again after empowering the founts of Light and Darkness. The Guardian pierces its shield with the Aegis and force it to teleport away after damaging it once again. When it teleports away once more, the Guardian empowers the founts and summons it back, defeating the ferocious Ogre. With its defeat, the barrier blocking the entrance to the Cradle is brought down, as a path of Light creates a way forward.

Ghost: It's down, and look-Light! It's creating a path forward…

Ghost: Guardian, I'm sensing a surge of power. In both Light and Dark.

Cayde-6: Hey, when we find Ikora… if she's…

The Crow: Ikora's strong. I'm sure she's fine.

Cayde-6: Oh, that's good. Great. Um… but not really what I'm worried about.

Cayde-6: I was going to ask if you think she's still mad at me.

The Crow: For what?

Cayde-6: I made a promise, then I broke it… I died.

The Guardian arrives at the Blooming, with the bird of Light flying into the distance.

Darkness Zone. Respawning Restricted.

Forces of the Witness appear to confront the Guardian.

Glint: Get ready, Guardian. The Witness's forces are heading your way.

Despite the overwhelming enemy forces, the Guardian prevails, slaying the Dread, including a Tormentor.

Ghost: That's the last of them, let's get to Ikora!

At the top of a small mountain close to a pool of Light, they find Ikora mediating and the bird sitting on a rock.

Ghost: We've found Ikora. She's deep in meditation.

Cayde-6: If Ikora's zenned out, she might actually get some answers from the Traveler!

The pool of Light erupts as Ikora wakes from her meditation, turning around to speak with the Guardian.

Ikora: Thank you, Guardian.

Ikora: I thought that maybe here… maybe the Traveler might give me some sort of guidance, as it once did for the Speaker.

Ikora: I closed my eyes and I opened my heart and mind.

Ikora: I think I heard it… screaming.

Ghost: So did we, when we came through the portal.

Ikora: This place…

Ghost: We know.

Ikora: The Witness infecting the Traveler. Darkness combined with Light. I wish Osiris could see it. He was always ready with a hypothesis.

Ikora: But here's mine.

(Cutscene)

Roots of Darkness are seen engulfing the Traveler.

Ikora: The Witness brought Darkness into the Traveler.

Ikora: Everything you see here inside it…

The cutscene switches to the Cradle within the Pale Heart.

Ikora: Is a physical manifestation of a thought made real by the Light.

It then switches to the mountain with three large Ghost shells inside of it.

Ikora: Your thoughts. Mine. The Witness's.

The Witness's corruption around the Traveler is seen spreading across Earth.

Ikora: It plans to weaponize the Light,

Ikora :reshaping reality outside the Traveler into a perfect stillness.

Ikora: A great suffering. Never changing, never dieing.

Mithrax and Eido are seen in the Last City, their backs turned behind the corrupted Traveler

Ikora: Imagine your great triumph…

Hands are seen finalizing the Last City, and then Caiatl as she is seen fighting hordes of Hive as the Witness's corruption spreads.

Ikora: …or your most profound regret,

Ikora: immortalized as part of a universe…

Ikora: where nothing exists except by the Witness's consent.

Mara is seen hugging Crow on the ground as the corruption continues to escalate.

Ikora: It chooses what your eternity will be…

Ikora: and imprisons you safely inside it.

Ikora: This is its promised salvation.

The Traveler is seen again covered by the corruption

Ikora: This is the final shape.

The eyes of the Witness appear on the Traveler

Ikora: The Witness see's itself as the god it wishes the Traveler was.

The middle of the Traveler is completely covered in corruption, resembling the Witness's face.

Ikora: And although the Traveler resists the Witness's corruption…

The Witness's pupils take the shape of the Traveler

Ikora: …it and everything we know will eventually succumb.

The Traveler is seen entirely covered in corruption.

Ikora: I always warned Zavala, not to put all his faith in the Traveler,

Zavala is seen directly looking at the Traveler

Ikora: to save some for the rest of us.

Ikora: But maybe faith in the Traveler is exactly what we need.

A bright lines shines around Zavala.

Ikora: If Light is powerful enough to destroy the universe…

The Traveler sends out an outburst of Light, breaking free from the Witness's corruption.

Ikora: then Light is powerful enough to destroy the Witness.

(Cutscene Ends)

Ikora: Come back safe.

Ikora teleports away as the Guardian makes their way to the campsite to speak with her.

{End Mission:Exegesis}

Enemies

Hive - Xivu Arath's Horde

• Acolyte
  • Revenant Acolyte
• Knight
  • Eater of Light and Darkness

The Dread

• Attendant
  • Bound Attendant
  • Frozen Attendant
  • Fractal Attendant (Legendary)
• Weaver
  • Bound Weaver
  • Tangling Weaver
  • Gordian Weaver (Legendary)
• Grim
  • Resonating Grim
• Husk
  • Carnage Husk
  • Tormented Husk
• Subjugator
  • Bound Harbinger
• Tormentor

Bosses

• Pillar of Silence

Appearance

• Destiny 2: The Final Shape (First appearance)