Earlier this week, Bungie unveiled the launch trailer for Destiny's upcoming Rise of Iron expansion. While that has been taking up much of the focus for Guardians, a few have noticed some odd goings on in the Crucible (in-game multiplayer arena). This has led Polygon to believe that an alternative reality game could be in the works, which ties into the Rise of Iron in some way.  

While the details are a bit murky, a handful of Crucible players noticed an odd occurance when they killed an opponent, as coloured particles began to float around their Guardian's head and they were imbued with increased XP. One Twitch user noted the following message while doing a livestream from a user named owl_sector. "We’ve detected an unidentified foreign intrusion into your systems, Guardian. Stay calm. We will investigate."

Since then, a few more players have noticed a select number of different in-game increased XP attributes, called buffs, all of which are listed on a mysterious website named Owl Sector. The different buffs are Brilliance 3.2, Glory 2.1, Splendor 2.6, Magnificence 2.0 and Fortitude 3.1.  

It's unclear what all this means, but Bungie likely has another in-game event in the works. For those remember the story behind the Rise of Iron expansion, it involves the Iron Lords (Guardians of that age) dealing with a biomechanical plague known as SIVA. Could the floating particles then be the beginning of the plague? 

The situation should become clearer when Rise of Iron launches on 20 September next week.